What Was the Last Video Game You Played?

[Akazora 293]

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. 

Ahaha, maybe one day you’ll get the chance to mess around with an oboe or bassoon.  Because it’s a wind instrument and double reeds are fragile, precious little things, you’re going to have to find a very willing oboist or bassoonist.  I’ve never tried my hand at the bassoon or even English horn for that matter, though I can imagine they’re just as difficult if not more so than the oboe.  Oh, and just getting to the top of the section doesn’t mean a whole lot.  I didn’t have much competition as oboe players are kinda running dry in my high school and all the really amazing players were my seniors.  The people who graduated over the course of the past 3-5 years were the really incredible ones.  I think about four years ago, every single all-state oboe seat was filled by someone from my school.  I was like the oboe dynasty, it’s crazy.  I can’t hold a candle to them, for sure, haha.  If anything, I was a bit of a disappointment given that I couldn’t fill the hole that those oboists left behind, but ehhh whatever.

 

The thing is, touch screens just aren’t nearly as responsive as actual buttons, so games like Smash or even Super Mario can’t be replicated on mobile devices to the satisfaction of fans.  Pokemon can be emulated fine, but it’s still a bit wishy washy when it comes to inputs.  Personally, I’m hoping Nintendo goes with intuitive touch screen controls for their mobile games rather than try and put buttons on the screen.  After all, they were the ones who popularized the touch screen concept in the first place with the original DS and they led the interactive gaming “revolution” with the Wii not long after.  If anyone can do it, it’s them.  Ah, speaking of smart phones, I’m actually in need of one now.  I need a way to contact my parents when I’m in college and I’ve been looking around for something good.  The phone my parents bought for me and my brother is a low-end budget smart phone that looks good on the outside but is really weak and flimsy on the inside.  My brother is fine with that for now, so he’ll be using it, but I need something I’m willing to invest in.  Ideally, something that will last me all four years of college (is that reasonable?).  My parents refuse to buy me anything like an iPhone, not even an older used one, because those are just way too expensive.  I’ve been eyeing the up and coming “flagship killer” OnePlus One, which seems to be the next big thing for my friends in the know.  I’ll most likely be getting that given how powerful and relatively cheap it is, but I wanted to ask your advice just in case.  What smart phone do you have and would you recommend it?  I just want to weigh my options is all, haha.

 

Aw shucks, it would have been nice if you had the chance to let loose a bit right now, but I guess when you go to Cedar Point next year it’ll be that much sweeter.  It seems like a go-to place for people around the Cleveland area as well, so I’ll definitely be checking it out myself when I get the chance.  Hm, people say college food can be kind of bleh but I don’t mind it.  I tried food at both Case and Brandeis, and both had solid selections.  Of course, I haven’t eaten a lick of high school cafeteria food, so maybe I’m just not numb to the mundanely mass produced stuff yet, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.  Oh pooh, I take great offense at being called crazy; I’m hurt ya know.  Nah, in all seriousness, it takes quite a bit to faze me, which is why that Batman coaster looks like it has the potential to give me a bit of jolt, ahah.

 

Ahh, it’s bad how things went with the subject tests.  And I really was wishing you the best of luck that Saturday, haha.  Apart from the extra time that needs to be invested, there’s nothing inherently wrong with taking the SAT IIs again.  Now with that extra experience gained, you’ll be better off in the future.  From the looks of it, you just didn’t study enough and it’s not like the tests were anything out of your league, so you’re in a good place.  Hit the books the best you can, and just practice practice practice.  It’s tedious and annoying, but you know how it is with standardized tests, haha.  I’m sure you’ll be just fine, and it doesn’t look like you’re beating yourself up over it too much, so that’s good.  Scores come out soon, don’t they?  You never tell me exactly how you do when it comes to these things, but maybe when you get the scores back you’ll surprise yourself!

 

Mhm, the bragging essays never really rubbed me the right way either.  I’m not really comfortable selling myself that kind of light anyway.  I can’t imagine you saying anything more than modest about yourself as well, hahah.  The immigrant story is probably the most used essay, so as long as your friend can make it stand out above the rest that’s definitely an option.  There are plenty of Ivy Leaguers who used that idea, so even if it wasn’t the reason for them being accepted into a prestigious school it definitely didn't do anything to hurt them.  I really don’t know how I was able to secure an essay topic so fast and so early.  It was mainly up to luck, honestly.  The question just happened to be perfect for my stargazing hobby.  Speaking of which, why did I start stargazing I the first place…?  If I was forced to answer any of the other questions, I wouldn’t have been able to throw together anything nearly as impressive.  Anyway, it looks like you’re having some trouble.  Apart from some of the exercises in the book, feel free to brainstorm here, haha.  I can’t give you any direct answers since words from the heart have much more meaning than just borrowed phrases, but I can try and talk you through things.  At the very least, I’d love to read your essay once you write it and proofread or give some advice.  I’m really glad you decided to pick up Bauld’s book!  It was a far more engaging and helpful read than all the other petty college essay books I had ordered online.

 

Ahahah, there’s no need to get all worked up over my high school just for my sake.  I do appreciate the sentiment, but I’ve learned it’s not worth the stress and salt.  The textbooks are changing all the time, but many teachers just ignore them anyway and teach whatever the heck they want.  Might as well have just not handed out the text books, Mr. Physics Teacher…  Other times text books are crazy old and despite complaints to get newer ones (to at least get some of the typos and poorly worded parts out of the building) new ones are never ordered.  There’s a big divide amongst the staff and nothing at all jives the way it should, hah.  Bad teachers are interspersed with the good, nice ones can be found with the pricks, and it’s all up to luck how well your year will turn out.  There’s no consistency or standardization, which is a crippling part of our school system.  I was lucky enough to at least not have straight up a-holes like some of my friends did, but I got the short end of the stick when it came to just quality teachers).  It’s an even bigger problem than the nonexistent A/C.  Speaking of A/C, the good side is that you’re used to the heat.  Because we’re all acclimated here in sad old Edison, we can save on energy costs at home in the summer, hahah.  But really, that’s the only upside.  It’s not a very happy situation for someone who’s prone to sweating and just not stopping, like me.  A good healthy sweat never bothered me when exercising, but damn in public during the day while trying to take a test it’s brutal and embarrassing.  And I’m nothing special, really.  Being able to survive in my high school is one thing, but being able to thrive is another thing entirely and it’s far more impressive.  There are plenty of people who have made it big in high school.  There’s that potentially Olympic-bound swimmer I’ve mentioned before, another guy who’s apparently part of a crazy good curling team that’s been around the world to foreign competitions, and even the 2014 Jeopardy Teen Tournament Champion (You can watch the tie-breaking last few moments right here.  Jeff’s a quirky kid, but he’s going off to his dream school, Columbia, and I’m proud to have shared some classes with him and to have been pretty good friends with him as well.)  To not have been crippled by a mess of a school and to still achieve great things in high school, that’s truly praiseworthy.  I just trudged along, occasionally cynical, and did alright in the end I suppose, eheh.  It really would have been awesome to experience high school the way you are in Troy High School (That is your school, right?  I just cross referenced some dates [ex. prom, the orchestra trip] with the info on their site.) but alas something like that isn’t possible.  I appreciate your enthusiasm, it really does mean more to me than you think.  Though, there’s no need to hold back with complaints of your own.  Pushing yourself and dealing with the stress of a rigorous schedule isn’t a walk in the park, so complain and cry and punch the wall as many times as you need to make yourself feel better.  I’m willing to listen, and I don’t want you to feel bad just because you think I had it worse.  We’re all dealing with our separate problems, but they’re problems nonetheless, and they all deserve attention.

 

Ohhh, it’s interesting to see how you think, haha.  In all honestly, I’ve never really taken a chance to really admire just how amazing humans are and to appreciate how far we’ve developed, at least not to the extent that you have.  Sure, I may have those moments of “Woah, isn’t it crazy to think people made this?” but apart from that I ignore the wonders I should be paying more heed to.  Because thinking about it, all those little things really are rather incredible.  Hmm, I’ll be sure to pay these things the respect they deserve and note them more often.  There’s no need to feel dense for thinking this way at all.  You say it’s liberating, and so it is.  We’re all a little bit weird, and we’re all born with our quirks and oddities, so even if most people don’t think of things like this it doesn’t mean you’re worse off for doing so.  If anything, it makes you that much more special, that much more amazing.  I wouldn’t want you to be any other way, that’s for sure.  If the Kenzi I’ve grown to like so much is the one that contemplates the complexity of the human psyche, then so be it.  I wouldn’t like you nearly as much if you were just like everyone else.  You wrote a lot, but it’s nothing to be embarrassed about and it definitely isn’t silly.  It was worth the read, and I’m glad you took the time to type it all out.  Ehem, though I do wonder, what do you mean by “the dark”?  Just daily stresses, or…?

 

Ah, about the amiibo, there was an issue with them that took (or rather is taking) a bit of time to clear up and completely rectify.  Both my Lucina and my Splatoon 3-pack came in damaged.  Both of their cardboard backs were bent forward, tearing and wrinkling the artwork on the front and back.  My Lucina was shipped perfectly fine from Walmart, but it seemed that they just happened to have a beat up supply from the start and I just happened to receive a bad one.  On the other hand, my 3-pack was forcefully shoved into a box that was too small for it, and it was damaged that way.  As a person who’s planning on carefully cutting the plastic covering away from the cardboard to display the cards on a wall or something (after all, this is official Nintendo merchandise and the artwork is far too good to pass up), having any part damaged would ruin my plans.  You wouldn’t hang up a crinkled diploma proudly, would you?  Not to mention, my OCD didn’t want to have anything to do with a less than perfect product even though I paid full price (plus tax and shipping!) for them all.  I didn’t stay up late into the night and stress about these for weeks on end to have it ruined by bad luck and an incompetent Amazon packager.  So, first things first, I needed some money back.  After contacting customer service, within one night I was able to get a full refund for Lucina and half off for the 3-pack.  This meant the original $47.98+tax+shipping price was reduced to about $17.49, which is crazy cheap.  Four amiibo for that price?  One of which is a unicorn?  Nothing short of a steal.  I almost felt bad about it until I remembered I got damaged merchandise while others who don’t care if the box is bent to hell and back as long as the figure itself is intact got cardboard in perfect condition.  Now that I got money back, I still wanted to make an amiibo card display.  I went on amiiboSwap and I just traded my Splat 3-pack for a perfect condition Lucina.  She just arrived yesterday and is indeed in perfect condition.  It’s glorious, how not-bent it is.  Heck, even her sword is straight.  That means I won’t have to use the boiling/iced water trick!  I will soon trade my damaged Lucina for a perfect 3-pack, and this tedious exercise will be complete.  I’ll finally be able to enjoy my amiibo the way I’ve wanted since winter break, by actually opening them.  I have only Saber and Assassin to train for now, and my brother will work on Lancer and Rider.  In July I’ll get Archer and he’ll get Caster, and in September he’ll get Berserker on his own while I track down a Gilgamesh somewhere in Cleveland.  That being said, I’m also almost done unlocking everyone’s custom moves.  It’s taken many hours, and I never thought I’d have to grind in Smash.  I only have four of Link’s moves to unlock.  He’s taken the longest only because we didn’t realize we were going to get a Link amiibo until later, so the other characters were already well on their way to completion.  (Phew, sorry for going on a tangent.  Speaking of Servants…)

 

It’s great that you’ve finally caught up with UBW!  I can’t believe it’s almost over.  Today’s episode was nothing short of amazing, and it’s sad knowing next week is the final episode.  Well, time to wait for Heaven’s Feel!  The thing with Archer’s betrayal of Caster was that he didn’t do it because he wanted to win the Grail War or because he wanted to defeat Caster.  He did it because he wanted to kill Shirou, and I think that’s where the brilliance of the moment lies.  He was under a Command Spell by Rin to not harm Shirou, which prevented him from killing Shirou which was his only wish.  He explicitly stated not wanting the Grail.  Because he can’t kill Rin (after all, his past self was in love with her) and sever the contract that way, his next best option would be to temporarily join Caster’s side and have her use Rule Breaker on him.  After offing Caster and Kuzuki, he was free to do whatever he wanted without a Master or Command Seals in the way.  It was a very interesting twist on the classic trope, which was neat.  I’m glad to see that you’re appreciating F/Z more now that you’ve almost finished UBW.  After Heaven’s Feel comes out and you finish it, take the time to rewatch F/Z.  You’d have forgotten most of the things by then, especially the subtle conversations that harken back to and foreshadow events in Fate/stay night, so it’s definitely worth your time.  People say HF is even closer of a “sequel” to F/Z than UBW is, so by the time you’re done with that it will be the perfect time for another run through.  If you’re going to have a busy summer, then don’t force yourself to play/watch the VN right now.  The HF movie(s) may not come out or at least finish any time soon, and there’s no need to rush the series.  If anything, focus on the DS games first.  That being said…

 

You’ve said an awful lot for being speechless (twice; once here and another time in the PM), haha.  Oh goodness, I didn’t really expect such a strong response.  Of course, that’s not a bad thing.  I didn’t do this out of self-gratification and wasn’t looking for praise, especially of such high caliber; I’m just happy knowing that you’re happy.  I’d do this ten times over if it guaranteed your happiness.  You mean a lot to me, in ways you don’t know, and this is only just a small token of my appreciation for being such an amazing friend these past few months.  It can also be seen as a reward for getting through junior year, haha.  Gosh, if I’m this happy I can’t even begin to imagine how elated you are.  You really do flatter me.  You may praise me for being selfless but in turn I must say you’re equally as thoughtful for showing your appreciation so opening and thoroughly.  A simple “thank you” would have been just fine, but you went above and beyond my own expectations.  It’s not every day I’m thanked so gratefully; it’s making me blush, heheh.  I don’t ever post emoticons, and it isn’t really my style, but I feel the need to right now.  This is going to be extra special since it’s my first and all, so here goes: <3 right back atcha’, haha.  Anyway, have you started playing any of the DS games yet?  Keep me posted with your progress and let me know if you need help with anything!

 

The legendaries are definitely loads easier to catch in the newer games than they were in third gen.  I know for a fact that Dialga and Palkia’s catch rate is 30 (in the original games) whatever that means.  I caught Zekrom on the first turn with a single Pokeball, no damage done and no status effect inflicted and similarly Yveltal could be snagged within 3-4 Pokeballs once you’ve paralyzed it and knocked down its HP bar to the yellow or red.  I guess some random wild Pokemon have low catch rates for some reason, notably Misdreavus (Seriously, 45 for that little thing? I looked it up and that’s literally exactly the same as Yveltal, wut).  Oh, and silly me, all that Amulet Coin use went to waste.  I should have just stuck to using Lucky Egg the whole time.  I didn’t realize there was a luxury hotel you could work at in Lumiose City that paid you a truck load of money every day if you did small tasks for them.  There are three “mini games” you can play once each day, and you can play them again the next day for as many days as you want. When you first work for them, they pay 5,000 Pokedollars a job, so 15,000 total.  Not much, considering the pants at Boutique Couture are a whopping 180,000 Pokedollars.  But if you keep at it and continuously perform “perfect” jobs, they start jacking up the salary.  After all the raises are in place, you earn 50,000 a job, or an insane 150,000 dollars a day.  You can go from dead broke and in debt to max money in exactly a week of doing nothing but hotel work.  Holy crap.  Silly me for not realizing the hotel even existed until one day I sat down and told myself I would memorize the entirety of Lumiose City by roller skating around and visiting the sites.  It’s times like these I wish I had spoiled myself of some of the in-game features…  But ah well, saving it was still worth it.  Some parts were a lot better left a surprise, like Snowbelle City.  Gosh, that music is good.  Oh, and maybe it’s because I had UBW on my mind, but Team Flare’s boss’s motives and struggles strongly resemble that of Archer’s, especially as XY reaches its climax.  So anyway, I’m at Snowbelle City’s Gym’s front door and I’m ready to step in.  I took a break to get back to RNG abusing that shiny Latios for my Pearl Battle Tower team all of yesterday, but I hit a roadblock and after being kind of salty over my bad luck at being unable to complete a certain step, I’ve taken a break.  I might get back to Y, buuuut…

 

Smash for 3DS just came in the mail a few hours ago, and even though I’ve already played the Wii U version and it’s been months since the game first came out, I’m getting giddy and hyped just thinking about playing it myself.  Part of me really wants to open it right up and play it tonight, but I also kind of want to finish up Y as soon as possible, just to get it out of the way.  Hmm, I guess I’ll see what mood I’m in as I prepare to go to sleep.  My mom is unreasonable and won’t even let me reclaim my Pikachu 3DS for good until after all four years of college.  That’s why I couldn’t wait and went to such lengths to get a 2DS, ahah.  Not to mention, even though I kind of see the Wii U as “mine”, I’d be perfectly fine with letting my brother have it and just getting one for myself.  I’d probably have to get my own copy of Smash for Wii U and everything as well, which means I’ll have to save up a lot of Swagbucks.  Swagbucks is pretty useful, but you definitely can’t use it as your only source of income for fun stuff.  Even if I buy the cheapest one on the market, the Wii U + Nintendoland refurbished bundle directly from the Nintendo website for $200, at the rate I’m earning Swagbucks it would take me an entire year of buying nothing and only saving just for that.  Granted, with a part time job, I’ll save enough money significantly faster, but it still goes to show Swagbucks has limited potential.  It’s very good if your parents keep close track of the money you earn from any jobs though, so there’s that, haha.  Log in and play around with the site if you have time, haha.  Every little bit will slowly amount to something in the end.  And as for favorite Pokemon game in general, it may just have to be Pearl for sentimental reasons.  It was my first real Pokemon game, since XD: Gale of Darkness for the GameCube doesn’t really count (still amazing though) and similarly to your Platinum version I’ve clocked in hundreds of hours.  I’ve said this before, but all I really need to do it get a 100 win streak in the Battle Tower in the game, and I’ll be done.  Of course, I could get picky and try my hand at catching every iteration of Unown and showing it to that Ruin Maniac, or maybe winning every Master ranked Super Contest, which I don’t think I’ve done yet.  Objectively though, there are probably better Pokemon games out there.  Every game has something that makes it better than the rest, and it’s hard to quantify which one has more of those “somethings”.  And yes, I’m also really excited for the up and coming Sinnoh remakes, whenever they may be.  I’ll be exploding into fireworks right along with you, ahahahah.

 

Yupp, my class is full of a bunch of lazy bums.  And it’s not like we aren’t aware of that either.  We’re always agreeing that we’re one of the weakest classes our school has had in ages and that we seriously need to get our act together… but we never do, or rather never did.  Gosh, we would make terrible politicians.  If I ever show interest in becoming one, please talk me out of it.  I know I’d up of regretting it, hah.  Hrmmm, your mom also has these headaches and they’re even worse?  Geez, maybe it’s genetically linked?  I’ve never heard of chronic headaches being passed down from parent to child, but maybe that’s just the side-effect of an underlying problem.  Either way, you both should get it checked out.  Even if your mother is a doctor (good for her, by the way) it doesn’t mean she always knows what’s right.  She should definitely seek other professional and expert advice.  Since it looks like your headaches are getting worse, now would be a good time to get it looked at, given it’s summer break and all.  I won’t be able to rest easy knowing you may be going through bouts of headaches that you’re not telling me about.

 

Ohh, it’s nice to see that you like Atwood’s style.  After Oryx and Crake, let me know how it was and if you’re up for it definitely check out Handmaid’s Tale.  If you’re really into it, you can finish it in a day or two if you really just sit down and read all day long.  Let me know which of the other books you end up getting!  Also, Case’s common reading book just came in the mail, Claude M. Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi.  It came shipped and it’s a bit beat up, but still in better shape than my amiibo, pooh.  I haven’t started reading it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.  Apparently Dr. Steele will be at Case to talk at the fall convocation, whatever that is.  If I end up liking the book, then awesome!  If not, then, well…

 

Wow, I expected to post this a lot sooner.  I know I still made my “deadline”, but it’s still cutting it close considering it’s already summer break.  Ahahah, it really is great to type up these long responses again!  Unfortunately, I’ll be leaving for my Disney trip with the family this coming Thursday.  I may or may not be able to write up a response to whatever you post this Wednesday.  It really depends on how much I can get done at the hotel or in the car.  I don’t know how long it will last, but it might affect the Saturday after that, as well.  Yeah, so if I don’t manage a reply on time, I apologize in advance.  I will try my best though.  Until next time!

[Kenzi 146]

 

Ahaha, maybe one day you’ll get the chance to mess around with an oboe or bassoon.  Because it’s a wind instrument and double reeds are fragile, precious little things, you’re going to have to find a very willing oboist or bassoonist.  I’ve never tried my hand at the bassoon or even English horn for that matter, though I can imagine they’re just as difficult if not more so than the oboe.  Oh, and just getting to the top of the section doesn’t mean a whole lot.  I didn’t have much competition as oboe players are kinda running dry in my high school and all the really amazing players were my seniors.  The people who graduated over the course of the past 3-5 years were the really incredible ones.  I think about four years ago, every single all-state oboe seat was filled by someone from my school.  I was like the oboe dynasty, it’s crazy.  I can’t hold a candle to them, for sure, haha.  If anything, I was a bit of a disappointment given that I couldn’t fill the hole that those oboists left behind, but ehhh whatever.

 

The thing is, touch screens just aren’t nearly as responsive as actual buttons, so games like Smash or even Super Mario can’t be replicated on mobile devices to the satisfaction of fans.  Pokemon can be emulated fine, but it’s still a bit wishy washy when it comes to inputs.  Personally, I’m hoping Nintendo goes with intuitive touch screen controls for their mobile games rather than try and put buttons on the screen.  After all, they were the ones who popularized the touch screen concept in the first place with the original DS and they led the interactive gaming “revolution” with the Wii not long after.  If anyone can do it, it’s them.  Ah, speaking of smart phones, I’m actually in need of one now.  I need a way to contact my parents when I’m in college and I’ve been looking around for something good.  The phone my parents bought for me and my brother is a low-end budget smart phone that looks good on the outside but is really weak and flimsy on the inside.  My brother is fine with that for now, so he’ll be using it, but I need something I’m willing to invest in.  Ideally, something that will last me all four years of college (is that reasonable?).  My parents refuse to buy me anything like an iPhone, not even an older used one, because those are just way too expensive.  I’ve been eyeing the up and coming “flagship killer” OnePlus One, which seems to be the next big thing for my friends in the know.  I’ll most likely be getting that given how powerful and relatively cheap it is, but I wanted to ask your advice just in case.  What smart phone do you have and would you recommend it?  I just want to weigh my options is all, haha.

 

Aw shucks, it would have been nice if you had the chance to let loose a bit right now, but I guess when you go to Cedar Point next year it’ll be that much sweeter.  It seems like a go-to place for people around the Cleveland area as well, so I’ll definitely be checking it out myself when I get the chance.  Hm, people say college food can be kind of bleh but I don’t mind it.  I tried food at both Case and Brandeis, and both had solid selections.  Of course, I haven’t eaten a lick of high school cafeteria food, so maybe I’m just not numb to the mundanely mass produced stuff yet, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.  Oh pooh, I take great offense at being called crazy; I’m hurt ya know.  Nah, in all seriousness, it takes quite a bit to faze me, which is why that Batman coaster looks like it has the potential to give me a bit of jolt, ahah.

 

Ahh, it’s bad how things went with the subject tests.  And I really was wishing you the best of luck that Saturday, haha.  Apart from the extra time that needs to be invested, there’s nothing inherently wrong with taking the SAT IIs again.  Now with that extra experience gained, you’ll be better off in the future.  From the looks of it, you just didn’t study enough and it’s not like the tests were anything out of your league, so you’re in a good place.  Hit the books the best you can, and just practice practice practice.  It’s tedious and annoying, but you know how it is with standardized tests, haha.  I’m sure you’ll be just fine, and it doesn’t look like you’re beating yourself up over it too much, so that’s good.  Scores come out soon, don’t they?  You never tell me exactly how you do when it comes to these things, but maybe when you get the scores back you’ll surprise yourself!

 

Mhm, the bragging essays never really rubbed me the right way either.  I’m not really comfortable selling myself that kind of light anyway.  I can’t imagine you saying anything more than modest about yourself as well, hahah.  The immigrant story is probably the most used essay, so as long as your friend can make it stand out above the rest that’s definitely an option.  There are plenty of Ivy Leaguers who used that idea, so even if it wasn’t the reason for them being accepted into a prestigious school it definitely didn't do anything to hurt them.  I really don’t know how I was able to secure an essay topic so fast and so early.  It was mainly up to luck, honestly.  The question just happened to be perfect for my stargazing hobby.  Speaking of which, why did I start stargazing I the first place…?  If I was forced to answer any of the other questions, I wouldn’t have been able to throw together anything nearly as impressive.  Anyway, it looks like you’re having some trouble.  Apart from some of the exercises in the book, feel free to brainstorm here, haha.  I can’t give you any direct answers since words from the heart have much more meaning than just borrowed phrases, but I can try and talk you through things.  At the very least, I’d love to read your essay once you write it and proofread or give some advice.  I’m really glad you decided to pick up Bauld’s book!  It was a far more engaging and helpful read than all the other petty college essay books I had ordered online.

 

Ahahah, there’s no need to get all worked up over my high school just for my sake.  I do appreciate the sentiment, but I’ve learned it’s not worth the stress and salt.  The textbooks are changing all the time, but many teachers just ignore them anyway and teach whatever the heck they want.  Might as well have just not handed out the text books, Mr. Physics Teacher…  Other times text books are crazy old and despite complaints to get newer ones (to at least get some of the typos and poorly worded parts out of the building) new ones are never ordered.  There’s a big divide amongst the staff and nothing at all jives the way it should, hah.  Bad teachers are interspersed with the good, nice ones can be found with the pricks, and it’s all up to luck how well your year will turn out.  There’s no consistency or standardization, which is a crippling part of our school system.  I was lucky enough to at least not have straight up a-holes like some of my friends did, but I got the short end of the stick when it came to just quality teachers).  It’s an even bigger problem than the nonexistent A/C.  Speaking of A/C, the good side is that you’re used to the heat.  Because we’re all acclimated here in sad old Edison, we can save on energy costs at home in the summer, hahah.  But really, that’s the only upside.  It’s not a very happy situation for someone who’s prone to sweating and just not stopping, like me.  A good healthy sweat never bothered me when exercising, but damn in public during the day while trying to take a test it’s brutal and embarrassing.  And I’m nothing special, really.  Being able to survive in my high school is one thing, but being able to thrive is another thing entirely and it’s far more impressive.  There are plenty of people who have made it big in high school.  There’s that potentially Olympic-bound swimmer I’ve mentioned before, another guy who’s apparently part of a crazy good curling team that’s been around the world to foreign competitions, and even the 2014 Jeopardy Teen Tournament Champion (You can watch the tie-breaking last few moments right here.  Jeff’s a quirky kid, but he’s going off to his dream school, Columbia, and I’m proud to have shared some classes with him and to have been pretty good friends with him as well.)  To not have been crippled by a mess of a school and to still achieve great things in high school, that’s truly praiseworthy.  I just trudged along, occasionally cynical, and did alright in the end I suppose, eheh.  It really would have been awesome to experience high school the way you are in Troy High School (That is your school, right?  I just cross referenced some dates [ex. prom, the orchestra trip] with the info on their site.) but alas something like that isn’t possible.  I appreciate your enthusiasm, it really does mean more to me than you think.  Though, there’s no need to hold back with complaints of your own.  Pushing yourself and dealing with the stress of a rigorous schedule isn’t a walk in the park, so complain and cry and punch the wall as many times as you need to make yourself feel better.  I’m willing to listen, and I don’t want you to feel bad just because you think I had it worse.  We’re all dealing with our separate problems, but they’re problems nonetheless, and they all deserve attention.

 

Ohhh, it’s interesting to see how you think, haha.  In all honestly, I’ve never really taken a chance to really admire just how amazing humans are and to appreciate how far we’ve developed, at least not to the extent that you have.  Sure, I may have those moments of “Woah, isn’t it crazy to think people made this?” but apart from that I ignore the wonders I should be paying more heed to.  Because thinking about it, all those little things really are rather incredible.  Hmm, I’ll be sure to pay these things the respect they deserve and note them more often.  There’s no need to feel dense for thinking this way at all.  You say it’s liberating, and so it is.  We’re all a little bit weird, and we’re all born with our quirks and oddities, so even if most people don’t think of things like this it doesn’t mean you’re worse off for doing so.  If anything, it makes you that much more special, that much more amazing.  I wouldn’t want you to be any other way, that’s for sure.  If the Kenzi I’ve grown to like so much is the one that contemplates the complexity of the human psyche, then so be it.  I wouldn’t like you nearly as much if you were just like everyone else.  You wrote a lot, but it’s nothing to be embarrassed about and it definitely isn’t silly.  It was worth the read, and I’m glad you took the time to type it all out.  Ehem, though I do wonder, what do you mean by “the dark”?  Just daily stresses, or…?

 

Ah, about the amiibo, there was an issue with them that took (or rather is taking) a bit of time to clear up and completely rectify.  Both my Lucina and my Splatoon 3-pack came in damaged.  Both of their cardboard backs were bent forward, tearing and wrinkling the artwork on the front and back.  My Lucina was shipped perfectly fine from Walmart, but it seemed that they just happened to have a beat up supply from the start and I just happened to receive a bad one.  On the other hand, my 3-pack was forcefully shoved into a box that was too small for it, and it was damaged that way.  As a person who’s planning on carefully cutting the plastic covering away from the cardboard to display the cards on a wall or something (after all, this is official Nintendo merchandise and the artwork is far too good to pass up), having any part damaged would ruin my plans.  You wouldn’t hang up a crinkled diploma proudly, would you?  Not to mention, my OCD didn’t want to have anything to do with a less than perfect product even though I paid full price (plus tax and shipping!) for them all.  I didn’t stay up late into the night and stress about these for weeks on end to have it ruined by bad luck and an incompetent Amazon packager.  So, first things first, I needed some money back.  After contacting customer service, within one night I was able to get a full refund for Lucina and half off for the 3-pack.  This meant the original $47.98+tax+shipping price was reduced to about $17.49, which is crazy cheap.  Four amiibo for that price?  One of which is a unicorn?  Nothing short of a steal.  I almost felt bad about it until I remembered I got damaged merchandise while others who don’t care if the box is bent to hell and back as long as the figure itself is intact got cardboard in perfect condition.  Now that I got money back, I still wanted to make an amiibo card display.  I went on amiiboSwap and I just traded my Splat 3-pack for a perfect condition Lucina.  She just arrived yesterday and is indeed in perfect condition.  It’s glorious, how not-bent it is.  Heck, even her sword is straight.  That means I won’t have to use the boiling/iced water trick!  I will soon trade my damaged Lucina for a perfect 3-pack, and this tedious exercise will be complete.  I’ll finally be able to enjoy my amiibo the way I’ve wanted since winter break, by actually opening them.  I have only Saber and Assassin to train for now, and my brother will work on Lancer and Rider.  In July I’ll get Archer and he’ll get Caster, and in September he’ll get Berserker on his own while I track down a Gilgamesh somewhere in Cleveland.  That being said, I’m also almost done unlocking everyone’s custom moves.  It’s taken many hours, and I never thought I’d have to grind in Smash.  I only have four of Link’s moves to unlock.  He’s taken the longest only because we didn’t realize we were going to get a Link amiibo until later, so the other characters were already well on their way to completion.  (Phew, sorry for going on a tangent.  Speaking of Servants…)

 

It’s great that you’ve finally caught up with UBW!  I can’t believe it’s almost over.  Today’s episode was nothing short of amazing, and it’s sad knowing next week is the final episode.  Well, time to wait for Heaven’s Feel!  The thing with Archer’s betrayal of Caster was that he didn’t do it because he wanted to win the Grail War or because he wanted to defeat Caster.  He did it because he wanted to kill Shirou, and I think that’s where the brilliance of the moment lies.  He was under a Command Spell by Rin to not harm Shirou, which prevented him from killing Shirou which was his only wish.  He explicitly stated not wanting the Grail.  Because he can’t kill Rin (after all, his past self was in love with her) and sever the contract that way, his next best option would be to temporarily join Caster’s side and have her use Rule Breaker on him.  After offing Caster and Kuzuki, he was free to do whatever he wanted without a Master or Command Seals in the way.  It was a very interesting twist on the classic trope, which was neat.  I’m glad to see that you’re appreciating F/Z more now that you’ve almost finished UBW.  After Heaven’s Feel comes out and you finish it, take the time to rewatch F/Z.  You’d have forgotten most of the things by then, especially the subtle conversations that harken back to and foreshadow events in Fate/stay night, so it’s definitely worth your time.  People say HF is even closer of a “sequel” to F/Z than UBW is, so by the time you’re done with that it will be the perfect time for another run through.  If you’re going to have a busy summer, then don’t force yourself to play/watch the VN right now.  The HF movie(s) may not come out or at least finish any time soon, and there’s no need to rush the series.  If anything, focus on the DS games first.  That being said…

 

You’ve said an awful lot for being speechless (twice; once here and another time in the PM), haha.  Oh goodness, I didn’t really expect such a strong response.  Of course, that’s not a bad thing.  I didn’t do this out of self-gratification and wasn’t looking for praise, especially of such high caliber; I’m just happy knowing that you’re happy.  I’d do this ten times over if it guaranteed your happiness.  You mean a lot to me, in ways you don’t know, and this is only just a small token of my appreciation for being such an amazing friend these past few months.  It can also be seen as a reward for getting through junior year, haha.  Gosh, if I’m this happy I can’t even begin to imagine how elated you are.  You really do flatter me.  You may praise me for being selfless but in turn I must say you’re equally as thoughtful for showing your appreciation so opening and thoroughly.  A simple “thank you” would have been just fine, but you went above and beyond my own expectations.  It’s not every day I’m thanked so gratefully; it’s making me blush, heheh.  I don’t ever post emoticons, and it isn’t really my style, but I feel the need to right now.  This is going to be extra special since it’s my first and all, so here goes: <3 right back atcha’, haha.  Anyway, have you started playing any of the DS games yet?  Keep me posted with your progress and let me know if you need help with anything!

 

The legendaries are definitely loads easier to catch in the newer games than they were in third gen.  I know for a fact that Dialga and Palkia’s catch rate is 30 (in the original games) whatever that means.  I caught Zekrom on the first turn with a single Pokeball, no damage done and no status effect inflicted and similarly Yveltal could be snagged within 3-4 Pokeballs once you’ve paralyzed it and knocked down its HP bar to the yellow or red.  I guess some random wild Pokemon have low catch rates for some reason, notably Misdreavus (Seriously, 45 for that little thing? I looked it up and that’s literally exactly the same as Yveltal, wut).  Oh, and silly me, all that Amulet Coin use went to waste.  I should have just stuck to using Lucky Egg the whole time.  I didn’t realize there was a luxury hotel you could work at in Lumiose City that paid you a truck load of money every day if you did small tasks for them.  There are three “mini games” you can play once each day, and you can play them again the next day for as many days as you want. When you first work for them, they pay 5,000 Pokedollars a job, so 15,000 total.  Not much, considering the pants at Boutique Couture are a whopping 180,000 Pokedollars.  But if you keep at it and continuously perform “perfect” jobs, they start jacking up the salary.  After all the raises are in place, you earn 50,000 a job, or an insane 150,000 dollars a day.  You can go from dead broke and in debt to max money in exactly a week of doing nothing but hotel work.  Holy crap.  Silly me for not realizing the hotel even existed until one day I sat down and told myself I would memorize the entirety of Lumiose City by roller skating around and visiting the sites.  It’s times like these I wish I had spoiled myself of some of the in-game features…  But ah well, saving it was still worth it.  Some parts were a lot better left a surprise, like Snowbelle City.  Gosh, that music is good.  Oh, and maybe it’s because I had UBW on my mind, but Team Flare’s boss’s motives and struggles strongly resemble that of Archer’s, especially as XY reaches its climax.  So anyway, I’m at Snowbelle City’s Gym’s front door and I’m ready to step in.  I took a break to get back to RNG abusing that shiny Latios for my Pearl Battle Tower team all of yesterday, but I hit a roadblock and after being kind of salty over my bad luck at being unable to complete a certain step, I’ve taken a break.  I might get back to Y, buuuut…

 

Smash for 3DS just came in the mail a few hours ago, and even though I’ve already played the Wii U version and it’s been months since the game first came out, I’m getting giddy and hyped just thinking about playing it myself.  Part of me really wants to open it right up and play it tonight, but I also kind of want to finish up Y as soon as possible, just to get it out of the way.  Hmm, I guess I’ll see what mood I’m in as I prepare to go to sleep.  My mom is unreasonable and won’t even let me reclaim my Pikachu 3DS for good until after all four years of college.  That’s why I couldn’t wait and went to such lengths to get a 2DS, ahah.  Not to mention, even though I kind of see the Wii U as “mine”, I’d be perfectly fine with letting my brother have it and just getting one for myself.  I’d probably have to get my own copy of Smash for Wii U and everything as well, which means I’ll have to save up a lot of Swagbucks.  Swagbucks is pretty useful, but you definitely can’t use it as your only source of income for fun stuff.  Even if I buy the cheapest one on the market, the Wii U + Nintendoland refurbished bundle directly from the Nintendo website for $200, at the rate I’m earning Swagbucks it would take me an entire year of buying nothing and only saving just for that.  Granted, with a part time job, I’ll save enough money significantly faster, but it still goes to show Swagbucks has limited potential.  It’s very good if your parents keep close track of the money you earn from any jobs though, so there’s that, haha.  Log in and play around with the site if you have time, haha.  Every little bit will slowly amount to something in the end.  And as for favorite Pokemon game in general, it may just have to be Pearl for sentimental reasons.  It was my first real Pokemon game, since XD: Gale of Darkness for the GameCube doesn’t really count (still amazing though) and similarly to your Platinum version I’ve clocked in hundreds of hours.  I’ve said this before, but all I really need to do it get a 100 win streak in the Battle Tower in the game, and I’ll be done.  Of course, I could get picky and try my hand at catching every iteration of Unown and showing it to that Ruin Maniac, or maybe winning every Master ranked Super Contest, which I don’t think I’ve done yet.  Objectively though, there are probably better Pokemon games out there.  Every game has something that makes it better than the rest, and it’s hard to quantify which one has more of those “somethings”.  And yes, I’m also really excited for the up and coming Sinnoh remakes, whenever they may be.  I’ll be exploding into fireworks right along with you, ahahahah.

 

Yupp, my class is full of a bunch of lazy bums.  And it’s not like we aren’t aware of that either.  We’re always agreeing that we’re one of the weakest classes our school has had in ages and that we seriously need to get our act together… but we never do, or rather never did.  Gosh, we would make terrible politicians.  If I ever show interest in becoming one, please talk me out of it.  I know I’d up of regretting it, hah.  Hrmmm, your mom also has these headaches and they’re even worse?  Geez, maybe it’s genetically linked?  I’ve never heard of chronic headaches being passed down from parent to child, but maybe that’s just the side-effect of an underlying problem.  Either way, you both should get it checked out.  Even if your mother is a doctor (good for her, by the way) it doesn’t mean she always knows what’s right.  She should definitely seek other professional and expert advice.  Since it looks like your headaches are getting worse, now would be a good time to get it looked at, given it’s summer break and all.  I won’t be able to rest easy knowing you may be going through bouts of headaches that you’re not telling me about.

 

Ohh, it’s nice to see that you like Atwood’s style.  After Oryx and Crake, let me know how it was and if you’re up for it definitely check out Handmaid’s Tale.  If you’re really into it, you can finish it in a day or two if you really just sit down and read all day long.  Let me know which of the other books you end up getting!  Also, Case’s common reading book just came in the mail, Claude M. Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi.  It came shipped and it’s a bit beat up, but still in better shape than my amiibo, pooh.  I haven’t started reading it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.  Apparently Dr. Steele will be at Case to talk at the fall convocation, whatever that is.  If I end up liking the book, then awesome!  If not, then, well…

 

Wow, I expected to post this a lot sooner.  I know I still made my “deadline”, but it’s still cutting it close considering it’s already summer break.  Ahahah, it really is great to type up these long responses again!  Unfortunately, I’ll be leaving for my Disney trip with the family this coming Thursday.  I may or may not be able to write up a response to whatever you post this Wednesday.  It really depends on how much I can get done at the hotel or in the car.  I don’t know how long it will last, but it might affect the Saturday after that, as well.  Yeah, so if I don’t manage a reply on time, I apologize in advance.  I will try my best though.  Until next time!

 

I think the only band instrument I got to try (and was seriously considering) was the clarinet. It was back in fifth grade when the district forced us to choose an instrument to play for the year (and possibly continue in middle school and high school). I was already playing violin at the time, and I think that may have been the only reason why I turned down the clarinet. I don't regret my decision but part of me wishes I could've had some experience playing a band instrument, haha. I'm not sure how I'll get my hands on an oboe or a bassoon, but I'll be sure to toy around with one if I ever find the opportunity. I still find it rather impressive that you managed to make it to the top, even if it doesn't seem like much of an accomplishment to you. An oboe dynasty, huh. That's an interesting way to put it, haha.

 

I think Nintendo is going to be just fine! I don't see any reason to fret since the video game industry is practically dominated by Nintendo. They'll think of something for sure. As for the smart phones, I currently have an iPhone. It's a used phone so my parents got it for a pretty reasonable price. The prices tend to get a lot higher if you want more storage space, but if you're only planning to use it casually (text, call, check email, etc.) I think 8GB is sufficient. With that said, a used iPhone 4 with 8GB will probably cost you around $100. Personally, I don't think that's a terribly unreasonable investment for four years of college. Now, I've never used a OnePlus One so I can't persuade or dissuade you from getting one, but judging from the reviews it doesn't look too bad either. iPhones are very easy to get accustomed to, and maybe not so much for Androids. My sister claims that Androids are more powerful than iPhones, so there's that. I prefer the iPhone interface just because it's a lot easier to use (feels "neater"?). Ahh, sorry that I can't help you much. I guess it mainly depends on how you plan to use your phone for the next four years, haha.

 

You didn't think Brandeis food was bad? My sister complained about it nonstop, lol. She found herself eating out more often than not because she absolutely detested Brandeis food. I remember she lost a lot of weight when she came back home after her freshman year because she starved herself--that's how much she hated it. Maybe my sister's just a picky eater, but that fact that she had to starve herself was a huge red flag for me. When my physics teacher showed that Batman coaster teaser, the majority of the class said that they wouldn't ride it (of course, I was one of them). And I remember reading somewhere that it's guaranteed to make you puke? Ahahahaah, nope. I'm the person who'd avoid riding that at all costs. Is there a reason why it looks so appealing to you?

 

The subject tests aren't my top priorities right now, but I'm definitely going to go through a few practice tests soon. I'm not too worried about them either since I'm confident that I'll have it under wraps after summer ends (or at least I hope). I doubt that I'm going to be pleasantly surprised, and it's not like I'm going to mind retaking them October, lol. I usually don't tell anyone how I do on tests, even if I do well. Sorry if I haven't shared much with you, ehehe... I don't like bragging, but at the same time, I don't feel comfortable sharing a cruddy score either, haha. And for this reason, I usually don't ask people how they do on their tests. If anything, I'll probably ask something broad like "how did the test go?" so I don't get too prying. That way, no one I ask is cornered into having to share scores. Maybe they'll reply with something like, "it was easy!" or "didn't go so well" and they don't have to share any specifics unless they want to. But back on topic, yup, definitely did not study enough for those tests. It's cool though--second time's the charm. Hopefully I'm not being overly optimistic here, haha.

 

I'll let you read my essay once I have something I want to work with; it's the least I could do since you've been such a big help lately, haha. There's a few things I have in mind. I already wrote ~700 word essay about something I thought would work, but it's very, very rough and I'm a bit disappointed with how it came out. I could work with it, but the topic itself....I'm trying to find a way to relate it to myself as a person. It's about how I self-taught myself piano (with all the wrong fingerings) for a few songs, and that goals don't always have to be reached through conventional ways. I'll admit it's kinda cheesy and the topic also feels a bit narrow. I also don't know how I would explain certain jargon like clefs since I'm assuming that some of these readers might not be familiar with what I'm talking about. I could also write about my experience as a GFX artist on YouTube, but it might turn out into a rant and I'm not sure how I would format it, if that makes sense. I'm not sure how I would use that to project myself either. I'm still trying to brainstorm some more ideas but it's pretty hard.  

 

If this counts as anything, my physics teacher didn't pass out textbooks either. He told us to use them as a resource if we ever needed to, but I don't think any of us ever got around to it. Our textbooks are constantly being swapped out. Last year new calc textbooks came in, this year new English, chem, and precalc textbooks came in, and next year new bio textbooks are coming in. I'm absolutely clueless how our district has the funding (especially since our school building is also being renovated), but they manage somehow. Aw man, I don't think I'd ever get accustomed to the heat at your school, especially with three years worth of phys ed. I still don't know how you survived, lol. I probably would have been too distracted by the sweat trickling down my temples to divert my full attention to whatever the teacher's talking about (yeah, our school spoiled us to pieces). It's really impressive that some of your friends managed to make it so far! Columbia? Jeopardy? Geez, these are some pretty crazy talented people, haha. Ahh, I see you managed to figure out which school I go to. Is yours J.P. Stevens High School by any chance? Thank you for being so accepting and considerate about my complaints, even if some of them sound fussy. It's nice to have someone to talk to outside of school friends to help me better put things into perspective. 

 

Ahahah, you probably know more about me than most of my real life friends, to be honest. It's so easy for me to confide in you and you're surprisingly tolerant of all the rants and nonsense I spout out. I haven't told a single soul about what I just told you in fear that I'd be labeled as dense. With that said, it means a lot to me that you were so accepting when I typed up that paragraph because half of it probably didn't make any sense at all. Haha, thank you for that. Oh, and "the dark" refers to the little bouts of depression I experience on occasion (everyone has those, I'm pretty sure). I used to be in a really crummy mood quite often, and I'm trying to train myself to be happier. Every slipup I had felt magnified and it didn't help that my parents would shoot me down if it ever pertained to academics. I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else I did afterwards; the only thing I could think about is that slipup I had. I guess thinking about the little things helps me realize how fortunate I am. And even if I'm having a rough day, others out there could be having the best day of their lives; I like thinking about that. Then I tell myself, "is this screw-up really going to matter in five years?" I'm lucky to have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food to eat, and a good education. So even if I'm having the supposed "worst day of my life" others may have it a lot worse (I know it's selfish to derive feel-betters from others' misery, but I assure you I don't mean it that way). And then I think of the little things like how I am literate, mobile, and have the luxury to appreciate such things. If that doesn't help much, it still helps me feel a bit better. I don't do this to run away from my mistakes. I do this to make it easier for me to move on and focus on other tasks on hand. I do this to tell myself that it's not the end of the world. This is why I love thinking to myself. It's private, and no matter how "loud" I think about these petty matters, no one will ever have to hear or know about it. It definitely feels strange "hearing" myself in my head, but it almost feels therapeutic. Perhaps confessing about this defeats its purpose, but it sure is nice to confide in someone for once. Gosh, I never thought I'd ever tell anyone (it even feels a little embarrassing). In fact, I was re-cutting and re-pasting this portion of my response many times because of how conflicted I was about posting it. I figured no one else would bother digging through our conversations so I guess I really am going to end up posting this. I was seriously considering cutting out the majority of this paragraph because of how personal it felt, but I trust you a lot.

 

Still, I think $17.49 is incredibly cheap compared to a typical scalper's price. I can imagine how stressful it must have been to hunt down people willing to trade their Lucina or Splat 3-pack. I'm glad everything managed to work out in the end though! Hmm, how would you cut out the plastic covering from the cardboard though? The leftover remains of plastic surely would have bothered me, and I can't imagine you ripping off every inch of plastic in risk of damaging the cardboard. Unlocking custom moves must also have been a tedious process (I could tell from your OMM posts, haha). Kudos to you for being able to get through this ordeal! 

 

Personally, I thought that the beginning of the second season was a lot more disjointed and unorganized compared to the first season, and I was thinking about giving it an 8 at best after finishing it. It's most certainly not the case anymore so you needn't worry, haha. I suppose the twist on the overused TV trope was a nice touch, but the idea itself is still kinda stale. I would have preferred if Archer found an alternative (sorry this is just me being picky), but the betrayal was carried out okay. I especially loved the character development towards the second half. Lancer got more screen time and it was nice seeing Shinji getting his butt whooped (he was really getting on my nerves with that overly pretentious attitude of his). I really liked how everything went full circle by the end of the episode and how Archer was drawn to resemble Shirou a lot more (his face was so sincere it caught me by surprise). Oh, and Archer's interjection was hilarious. Good timing, good timing. Also, how did he survive for so long? Wasn't he almost out of mana during his previous encounter with Shirou? Rin was becoming increasingly tsundere as the show progressed (it was expected, but it wasn't to my taste and it ruined the atmosphere at times, to be honest). I'm just glad that the romance factor didn't play a huge role and was more like a subplot (still salty about Mirai Nikki). Shirou was beginning to exhibit a lot Eren Jaeger traits (actually, I think it was mainly his overconfidence that bothered me) and the fact that he actually saw through to them was kinda corny. But I will admit that the Shirou vs. Gilgamesh battle was awesome. Gilgamesh was so flustered it was hilariously entertaining even though he's one of my favorite characters from the show. And that's about all I wanted to say. Maybe I'll have a few more comments after the last episode airs, but I think this just about sums it up. I'm really glad that you recommended this to me and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I'll definitely look forward to HF and I'll re-watch F/Z for sure.

 

Oh gosh, you're far too kind. I'm especially honored that you used your first emoticon in one of our conversations, heh. Reading that paragraph made me very happy, haha. Your happiness brought me a ton of joy, especially because you mean so much to me. And likewise, I didn't expect such a strong and heartfelt response from that little thank-you paragraph I typed up. Once again, thank you so very much for going out of your way just so I can experience the games firsthand, and thank you for being one of my best friends these past few months<3

 

Yup! I've started on 999 and I'm really liking it so far. I got the Axe ending first time through so I'm trying to work my way through the other endings before I reach the True ending. I love the puzzles and how the game is so interactive. The characters are also a lot of fun and the storyline is very thought out (fingers crossed that the True ending will not disappoint). I can't help but anticipate a jump-scare every time a door opens though. It's so suspenseful and everything behind the door is pitch-black so what else would I expect? Or maybe I've seen too many horror Let's Plays......... Oh, and the childhood friend cliche though, ahahahaha............. I really hope it has some relevance to the plot and wasn't just thrown in for the sake of creating some romance.

 

Ehhhhh? You managed to catch Zekrom on the first turn with a Pokeball in full health without any status? It took me a Great Ball to catch Reshiram in red while paralyzed (I was very, very reluctant though and was just trying to reset for natures until I realized that I wouldn't be able to find out what nature it was until I beat Ghetsis, but the game would've already saved by then soooooo....). I think Reshiram was the only Pokemon I caught in a Great Ball in B/W so it bothers me a lot. Ahaha, Murkrow has a catch rate of 30, which is the equivalent of Dialga (quite silly, if you ask me). Pokemon never makes sense so I just learned to roll with it at this point. Geezus, I didn't know that making money in X/Y was that easy. But I remember seeing a video that showed you how to breed Pokemon a lot more efficiently. All you had to do was slip a coin under the circle pad once you're at that roundabout in Lumiose City. Then your character would go run around in an indefinite number of circles while you could leave your 3DS alone and do other things like reading a newspaper article or something. I know you care about the condition of your 3DS a lot so I wouldn't be surprised if you were against this method of breeding. I just thought it was an interesting little trick I stumbled upon, haha. Snowbelle's theme was one of my favorite tracks in XY along with Professor Sycamore's theme and the Pokeball Factory theme. Actually, never mind that, Masuda outdone himself with the 6th gen music. Gahh, I'm missing out on so much. Hmm, I'm not too sure how I feel about Team Flare. I guess their sense of fashion was interesting but their motive was kinda stale in my opinion.  

 

Man that sounds so exciting! I didn't realize how helpful swagbucks could be. I tried it out recently and it's not bad. Though 1 swagbuck = 1 cent makes it seem pretty difficult to accumulate much money. I did the "Check out this Activity and Earn 2 Swag Bucks!" and eventually reached 31SB in total. I'm not sure if this method is part of the 15% back for referrals, so let me know if it's working. I'm probably not going to be too active on there since I'm not in need of it at the moment, but I'll use it whenever I'm watching a Let's Play and feel like "multitasking". I know it looks like a safe system, but I'm not too comfortable entering in a bunch of my personal information for money gain. Call me paranoid, but I still haven't fully recovered from that trojan virus incident and the idea of having random ads pop up every few seconds or so on my PC makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. I also screwed up when entering in my birthday and age because I thought it didn't matter. But then it dawned on me that I might run into some conflict when cashing in SB with an incorrect birthday. If that's the case, I might have to create a new account entirely in order to reap the benefits. Gosh I'm an idiot, haha. I think Platinum was my favorite for the same reason why Pearl was your favorite. I never treated HGSS, B/W, or B/W2 the same way I treated Platinum. Still though, you're quite ambitious for going after that 100 streak. I was going to give up after 49 but Palmer's Cresselia was a pain and my streak stopped at 48. I was a little ticked off, but in hindsight I was lucky to have even made it that far since none of my Pokemon had good natures, IVs, or well-spread EVs (didn't EV train them at all). Haha, I tried completing every event I could for Platinum. I caught all of the Unowns (I'm quite proud of it as well) and I did the same for HeartGold. I don't know what compelled me to do so, but it sure felt gratifying for some reason. I can't remember how active I was in Super Contests, but seeing as I can't recall much I don't think I participated a lot. It probably slipped my mind, lol. I was more into sweeping the Elite 4 with my Kyogre and rebatting gym leaders and handing Pokemon I needed to "train" an Exp. Share. Oh, and GTS trading. I managed to win the Master Ball in Jubilife City if that gives you an idea of how much I used the GTS, haha. A lot of people think that 5th gen games were the best, others think that HGSS were the best. Platinum was my favorite out of pure bias simply because nothing can beat that feeling of pulling near all nighters on Saturday nights. Being propped up on a pillow in bed, playing to my hearts content, realizing it's 6AM and not giving the slightest damn. Ahh, how times have changed. 

 

To be honest, I don't think I could ever see you turning into a politician. You just don't seem like that kinda person. It's an interesting thought though, haha. Nah, I don't think being headache-prone has anything to do with genetics. My dad and sister rarely have them, if at all (I can't even recall the last time I saw them experiencing one). My mom is surprisingly lax about the issue even though I know she suffers a lot. I've asked her about it before and all she tells me is to drink lots of water. I still don't think that dehydration is the underlying problem for her. She often goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night so I know she's well-hydrated. She also keeps dismissing the idea of visiting a doctor, and I can't blame her. Seeing a doctor just because of recurring headaches seems a bit silly, and it's not like we're completely impaired just because of a few headaches. They're just little hindrances we have to deal with. Worst comes to worst, we'll take in an ibuprofen pill (though I'm starting to worry that it's becoming more and more ineffective). I mean, we've learned to cope with these headaches over the years so I guess it's not a big deal. Thank you for your concern though; it means a lot to me, haha. 

 

 

I like taking my time when reading books and Oryx and Crake is really...interesting. Very unique plot and setting and it almost feels like science fiction (it isn't though...it's hard to describe, haha). I want to finish all of my required reading before focusing on other books for now, so I'll keep Handmaid's Tale in the back of my head in the meantime. Thanks for the suggestion! The other books we're required to read are The Road by Cormac McCarthy, How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C Foster, and a book from the first list which I still haven't chosen from yet. Oh, and let me know how Whistling Vivaldi goes!

 

I'd be more than happy receiving a late reply if it means you'll be enjoying your trip to Disney a lot more. Please don't feel obligated to write a timely response! I especially wouldn't want you to force yourself into typing one up in the car if you're prone to getting carsick, or even in the hotel after an exhausting day. And with that said, I hope you have loads of fun in Disney! Let me know how it goes once you have the time!

[Akazora 293]

I think the only band instrument I got to try (and was seriously considering) was the clarinet. It was back in fifth grade when the district forced us to choose an instrument to play for the year (and possibly continue in middle school and high school). I was already playing violin at the time, and I think that may have been the only reason why I turned down the clarinet. I don't regret my decision but part of me wishes I could've had some experience playing a band instrument, haha. I'm not sure how I'll get my hands on an oboe or a bassoon, but I'll be sure to toy around with one if I ever find the opportunity. I still find it rather impressive that you managed to make it to the top, even if it doesn't seem like much of an accomplishment to you. An oboe dynasty, huh. That's an interesting way to put it, haha.

 

I think Nintendo is going to be just fine! I don't see any reason to fret since the video game industry is practically dominated by Nintendo. They'll think of something for sure. As for the smart phones, I currently have an iPhone. It's a used phone so my parents got it for a pretty reasonable price. The prices tend to get a lot higher if you want more storage space, but if you're only planning to use it casually (text, call, check email, etc.) I think 8GB is sufficient. With that said, a used iPhone 4 with 8GB will probably cost you around $100. Personally, I don't think that's a terribly unreasonable investment for four years of college. Now, I've never used a OnePlus One so I can't persuade or dissuade you from getting one, but judging from the reviews it doesn't look too bad either. iPhones are very easy to get accustomed to, and maybe not so much for Androids. My sister claims that Androids are more powerful than iPhones, so there's that. I prefer the iPhone interface just because it's a lot easier to use (feels "neater"?). Ahh, sorry that I can't help you much. I guess it mainly depends on how you plan to use your phone for the next four years, haha.

 

You didn't think Brandeis food was bad? My sister complained about it nonstop, lol. She found herself eating out more often than not because she absolutely detested Brandeis food. I remember she lost a lot of weight when she came back home after her freshman year because she starved herself--that's how much she hated it. Maybe my sister's just a picky eater, but that fact that she had to starve herself was a huge red flag for me. When my physics teacher showed that Batman coaster teaser, the majority of the class said that they wouldn't ride it (of course, I was one of them). And I remember reading somewhere that it's guaranteed to make you puke? Ahahahaah, nope. I'm the person who'd avoid riding that at all costs. Is there a reason why it looks so appealing to you?

 

The subject tests aren't my top priorities right now, but I'm definitely going to go through a few practice tests soon. I'm not too worried about them either since I'm confident that I'll have it under wraps after summer ends (or at least I hope). I doubt that I'm going to be pleasantly surprised, and it's not like I'm going to mind retaking them October, lol. I usually don't tell anyone how I do on tests, even if I do well. Sorry if I haven't shared much with you, ehehe... I don't like bragging, but at the same time, I don't feel comfortable sharing a cruddy score either, haha. And for this reason, I usually don't ask people how they do on their tests. If anything, I'll probably ask something broad like "how did the test go?" so I don't get too prying. That way, no one I ask is cornered into having to share scores. Maybe they'll reply with something like, "it was easy!" or "didn't go so well" and they don't have to share any specifics unless they want to. But back on topic, yup, definitely did not study enough for those tests. It's cool though--second time's the charm. Hopefully I'm not being overly optimistic here, haha.

 

I'll let you read my essay once I have something I want to work with; it's the least I could do since you've been such a big help lately, haha. There's a few things I have in mind. I already wrote ~700 word essay about something I thought would work, but it's very, very rough and I'm a bit disappointed with how it came out. I could work with it, but the topic itself....I'm trying to find a way to relate it to myself as a person. It's about how I self-taught myself piano (with all the wrong fingerings) for a few songs, and that goals don't always have to be reached through conventional ways. I'll admit it's kinda cheesy and the topic also feels a bit narrow. I also don't know how I would explain certain jargon like clefs since I'm assuming that some of these readers might not be familiar with what I'm talking about. I could also write about my experience as a GFX artist on YouTube, but it might turn out into a rant and I'm not sure how I would format it, if that makes sense. I'm not sure how I would use that to project myself either. I'm still trying to brainstorm some more ideas but it's pretty hard.  

 

If this counts as anything, my physics teacher didn't pass out textbooks either. He told us to use them as a resource if we ever needed to, but I don't think any of us ever got around to it. Our textbooks are constantly being swapped out. Last year new calc textbooks came in, this year new English, chem, and precalc textbooks came in, and next year new bio textbooks are coming in. I'm absolutely clueless how our district has the funding (especially since our school building is also being renovated), but they manage somehow. Aw man, I don't think I'd ever get accustomed to the heat at your school, especially with three years worth of phys ed. I still don't know how you survived, lol. I probably would have been too distracted by the sweat trickling down my temples to divert my full attention to whatever the teacher's talking about (yeah, our school spoiled us to pieces). It's really impressive that some of your friends managed to make it so far! Columbia? Jeopardy? Geez, these are some pretty crazy talented people, haha. Ahh, I see you managed to figure out which school I go to. Is yours J.P. Stevens High School by any chance? Thank you for being so accepting and considerate about my complaints, even if some of them sound fussy. It's nice to have someone to talk to outside of school friends to help me better put things into perspective. 

 

Ahahah, you probably know more about me than most of my real life friends, to be honest. It's so easy for me to confide in you and you're surprisingly tolerant of all the rants and nonsense I spout out. I haven't told a single soul about what I just told you in fear that I'd be labeled as dense. With that said, it means a lot to me that you were so accepting when I typed up that paragraph because half of it probably didn't make any sense at all. Haha, thank you for that. Oh, and "the dark" refers to the little bouts of depression I experience on occasion (everyone has those, I'm pretty sure). I used to be in a really crummy mood quite often, and I'm trying to train myself to be happier. Every slipup I had felt magnified and it didn't help that my parents would shoot me down if it ever pertained to academics. I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else I did afterwards; the only thing I could think about is that slipup I had. I guess thinking about the little things helps me realize how fortunate I am. And even if I'm having a rough day, others out there could be having the best day of their lives; I like thinking about that. Then I tell myself, "is this screw-up really going to matter in five years?" I'm lucky to have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food to eat, and a good education. So even if I'm having the supposed "worst day of my life" others may have it a lot worse (I know it's selfish to derive feel-betters from others' misery, but I assure you I don't mean it that way). And then I think of the little things like how I am literate, mobile, and have the luxury to appreciate such things. If that doesn't help much, it still helps me feel a bit better. I don't do this to run away from my mistakes. I do this to make it easier for me to move on and focus on other tasks on hand. I do this to tell myself that it's not the end of the world. This is why I love thinking to myself. It's private, and no matter how "loud" I think about these petty matters, no one will ever have to hear or know about it. It definitely feels strange "hearing" myself in my head, but it almost feels therapeutic. Perhaps confessing about this defeats its purpose, but it sure is nice to confide in someone for once. Gosh, I never thought I'd ever tell anyone (it even feels a little embarrassing). In fact, I was re-cutting and re-pasting this portion of my response many times because of how conflicted I was about posting it. I figured no one else would bother digging through our conversations so I guess I really am going to end up posting this. I was seriously considering cutting out the majority of this paragraph because of how personal it felt, but I trust you a lot.

 

Still, I think $17.49 is incredibly cheap compared to a typical scalper's price. I can imagine how stressful it must have been to hunt down people willing to trade their Lucina or Splat 3-pack. I'm glad everything managed to work out in the end though! Hmm, how would you cut out the plastic covering from the cardboard though? The leftover remains of plastic surely would have bothered me, and I can't imagine you ripping off every inch of plastic in risk of damaging the cardboard. Unlocking custom moves must also have been a tedious process (I could tell from your OMM posts, haha). Kudos to you for being able to get through this ordeal! 

 

Personally, I thought that the beginning of the second season was a lot more disjointed and unorganized compared to the first season, and I was thinking about giving it an 8 at best after finishing it. It's most certainly not the case anymore so you needn't worry, haha. I suppose the twist on the overused TV trope was a nice touch, but the idea itself is still kinda stale. I would have preferred if Archer found an alternative (sorry this is just me being picky), but the betrayal was carried out okay. I especially loved the character development towards the second half. Lancer got more screen time and it was nice seeing Shinji getting his butt whooped (he was really getting on my nerves with that overly pretentious attitude of his). I really liked how everything went full circle by the end of the episode and how Archer was drawn to resemble Shirou a lot more (his face was so sincere it caught me by surprise). Oh, and Archer's interjection was hilarious. Good timing, good timing. Also, how did he survive for so long? Wasn't he almost out of mana during his previous encounter with Shirou? Rin was becoming increasingly tsundere as the show progressed (it was expected, but it wasn't to my taste and it ruined the atmosphere at times, to be honest). I'm just glad that the romance factor didn't play a huge role and was more like a subplot (still salty about Mirai Nikki). Shirou was beginning to exhibit a lot Eren Jaeger traits (actually, I think it was mainly his overconfidence that bothered me) and the fact that he actually saw through to them was kinda corny. But I will admit that the Shirou vs. Gilgamesh battle was awesome. Gilgamesh was so flustered it was hilariously entertaining even though he's one of my favorite characters from the show. And that's about all I wanted to say. Maybe I'll have a few more comments after the last episode airs, but I think this just about sums it up. I'm really glad that you recommended this to me and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I'll definitely look forward to HF and I'll re-watch F/Z for sure.

 

Oh gosh, you're far too kind. I'm especially honored that you used your first emoticon in one of our conversations, heh. Reading that paragraph made me very happy, haha. Your happiness brought me a ton of joy, especially because you mean so much to me. And likewise, I didn't expect such a strong and heartfelt response from that little thank-you paragraph I typed up. Once again, thank you so very much for going out of your way just so I can experience the games firsthand, and thank you for being one of my best friends these past few months<3

 

Yup! I've started on 999 and I'm really liking it so far. I got the Axe ending first time through so I'm trying to work my way through the other endings before I reach the True ending. I love the puzzles and how the game is so interactive. The characters are also a lot of fun and the storyline is very thought out (fingers crossed that the True ending will not disappoint). I can't help but anticipate a jump-scare every time a door opens though. It's so suspenseful and everything behind the door is pitch-black so what else would I expect? Or maybe I've seen too many horror Let's Plays......... Oh, and the childhood friend cliche though, ahahahaha............. I really hope it has some relevance to the plot and wasn't just thrown in for the sake of creating some romance.

 

Ehhhhh? You managed to catch Zekrom on the first turn with a Pokeball in full health without any status? It took me a Great Ball to catch Reshiram in red while paralyzed (I was very, very reluctant though and was just trying to reset for natures until I realized that I wouldn't be able to find out what nature it was until I beat Ghetsis, but the game would've already saved by then soooooo....). I think Reshiram was the only Pokemon I caught in a Great Ball in B/W so it bothers me a lot. Ahaha, Murkrow has a catch rate of 30, which is the equivalent of Dialga (quite silly, if you ask me). Pokemon never makes sense so I just learned to roll with it at this point. Geezus, I didn't know that making money in X/Y was that easy. But I remember seeing a video that showed you how to breed Pokemon a lot more efficiently. All you had to do was slip a coin under the circle pad once you're at that roundabout in Lumiose City. Then your character would go run around in an indefinite number of circles while you could leave your 3DS alone and do other things like reading a newspaper article or something. I know you care about the condition of your 3DS a lot so I wouldn't be surprised if you were against this method of breeding. I just thought it was an interesting little trick I stumbled upon, haha. Snowbelle's theme was one of my favorite tracks in XY along with Professor Sycamore's theme and the Pokeball Factory theme. Actually, never mind that, Masuda outdone himself with the 6th gen music. Gahh, I'm missing out on so much. Hmm, I'm not too sure how I feel about Team Flare. I guess their sense of fashion was interesting but their motive was kinda stale in my opinion.  

 

Man that sounds so exciting! I didn't realize how helpful swagbucks could be. I tried it out recently and it's not bad. Though 1 swagbuck = 1 cent makes it seem pretty difficult to accumulate much money. I did the "Check out this Activity and Earn 2 Swag Bucks!" and eventually reached 31SB in total. I'm not sure if this method is part of the 15% back for referrals, so let me know if it's working. I'm probably not going to be too active on there since I'm not in need of it at the moment, but I'll use it whenever I'm watching a Let's Play and feel like "multitasking". I know it looks like a safe system, but I'm not too comfortable entering in a bunch of my personal information for money gain. Call me paranoid, but I still haven't fully recovered from that trojan virus incident and the idea of having random ads pop up every few seconds or so on my PC makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. I also screwed up when entering in my birthday and age because I thought it didn't matter. But then it dawned on me that I might run into some conflict when cashing in SB with an incorrect birthday. If that's the case, I might have to create a new account entirely in order to reap the benefits. Gosh I'm an idiot, haha. I think Platinum was my favorite for the same reason why Pearl was your favorite. I never treated HGSS, B/W, or B/W2 the same way I treated Platinum. Still though, you're quite ambitious for going after that 100 streak. I was going to give up after 49 but Palmer's Cresselia was a pain and my streak stopped at 48. I was a little ticked off, but in hindsight I was lucky to have even made it that far since none of my Pokemon had good natures, IVs, or well-spread EVs (didn't EV train them at all). Haha, I tried completing every event I could for Platinum. I caught all of the Unowns (I'm quite proud of it as well) and I did the same for HeartGold. I don't know what compelled me to do so, but it sure felt gratifying for some reason. I can't remember how active I was in Super Contests, but seeing as I can't recall much I don't think I participated a lot. It probably slipped my mind, lol. I was more into sweeping the Elite 4 with my Kyogre and rebatting gym leaders and handing Pokemon I needed to "train" an Exp. Share. Oh, and GTS trading. I managed to win the Master Ball in Jubilife City if that gives you an idea of how much I used the GTS, haha. A lot of people think that 5th gen games were the best, others think that HGSS were the best. Platinum was my favorite out of pure bias simply because nothing can beat that feeling of pulling near all nighters on Saturday nights. Being propped up on a pillow in bed, playing to my hearts content, realizing it's 6AM and not giving the slightest damn. Ahh, how times have changed. 

 

To be honest, I don't think I could ever see you turning into a politician. You just don't seem like that kinda person. It's an interesting thought though, haha. Nah, I don't think being headache-prone has anything to do with genetics. My dad and sister rarely have them, if at all (I can't even recall the last time I saw them experiencing one). My mom is surprisingly lax about the issue even though I know she suffers a lot. I've asked her about it before and all she tells me is to drink lots of water. I still don't think that dehydration is the underlying problem for her. She often goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night so I know she's well-hydrated. She also keeps dismissing the idea of visiting a doctor, and I can't blame her. Seeing a doctor just because of recurring headaches seems a bit silly, and it's not like we're completely impaired just because of a few headaches. They're just little hindrances we have to deal with. Worst comes to worst, we'll take in an ibuprofen pill (though I'm starting to worry that it's becoming more and more ineffective). I mean, we've learned to cope with these headaches over the years so I guess it's not a big deal. Thank you for your concern though; it means a lot to me, haha. 

 

 

I like taking my time when reading books and Oryx and Crake is really...interesting. Very unique plot and setting and it almost feels like science fiction (it isn't though...it's hard to describe, haha). I want to finish all of my required reading before focusing on other books for now, so I'll keep Handmaid's Tale in the back of my head in the meantime. Thanks for the suggestion! The other books we're required to read are The Road by Cormac McCarthy, How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C Foster, and a book from the first list which I still haven't chosen from yet. Oh, and let me know how Whistling Vivaldi goes!

 

I'd be more than happy receiving a late reply if it means you'll be enjoying your trip to Disney a lot more. Please don't feel obligated to write a timely response! I especially wouldn't want you to force yourself into typing one up in the car if you're prone to getting carsick, or even in the hotel after an exhausting day. And with that said, I hope you have loads of fun in Disney! Let me know how it goes once you have the time!

 

 

Ah, well this is looking a bit far ahead, but if we ever do meet in real life, I wouldn't mind letting you play my oboe.  You'd probably just be derping around on it for the most part though, since I don't really trust my abilities as a teacher, haha.  I'll be bringing it with me to Case, even if I don't currently plan on participating in any music programs.  My parents feel that it would be doing less good stored away at home than at college, even if all I do is crack it open to casually play something on occasion.

 

I definitely considered getting a used iPhone, since I'd be able to use whatever muscle memory I have left from my second gen iTouch days to get by.  But used phones come with their own problems, and four years of use is bound to take a toll on it.  Though I don't plan on abusing my phone by downloading a ton of stuff on it, I also don't want to limit myself and regret not investing in something more powerful if I end up needing the extra processing power.  I'm only a bit concerned about the interface of an Android phone, since I tried my hand at navigating through my friend's OnePlus One and it was a bit confusing.  There's a lot of customization you can do with Androids as opposed to the generally consistent layout of Apple phones, so I guess it would just be difficult to use someone else's personalized phone.  If I set up my OnePlus One to fit how I intuitively think, it'll be fine, haha.  And don't worry, every little bit of your advice is appreciated.

 

Geez, your sister actually starved herself like that?  So much for the freshman 15.  More like the freshman -15.  I'm not much of a picky eater at all.  I only tried one meal at Brandeis, and I can imagine how I'd lose interest in the food pretty fast, but I wouldn't say it's inherently bad or anything.  I guess the Batman ride only looks appealing because it's so different from anything else I've ridden.  I've tried all kinds of roller coasters, in Great Adventures, Dorney Park, Universal Studios, Disney World, and SeaWorld.  They're all pretty much the same when you get right down to it, so for something so unique to be made is pretty exciting.  It's in San Antonio, so in all honestly I have no idea if I'll ever get the chance to ride it, but if the opportunity ever presents itself I'd definitely give it a go.

 

It's perfectly fine if you don't want to share your scores with me and there's no need to feel like you aren't sharing enough either.  I don't expect anyone to be as naively open about personal topics as I am, and you've already confided in me more times than I could have imagined.  It's awfully flattering in fact, ahahah.  That's really good of you not to pry for grades and the like.  I disappoint myself more times than not, and I'm most definitely not one to brag because there's usually not much to brag about, so it's reassuring to know there are people like you who are considerate of other's feelings.  If anything, I should apologize for pressuring you to disclose your scores.  Ahh, sorry about that.

 

Ohhh, you've already made more progress than I ever did.  June hasn't even ended and yet you've already written a rough draft of a potential essay, haha.  Really good work, even if knocking down the word count can be one of the hardest parts of writing a college essay and 100 words is more than it seems on paper.  It's hardest with essays you have a strong emotional attachment to.  I wouldn't say your topic is necessarily cheesy or anything.  I mean sure, an Asian girl who plays piano, oh boy what else is new?  But with how you're attempting to relate it yourself and show how you learned and grew from the experience, it may end up working if enough effort is put into it.  It's only your first idea and first draft, so there's no need to get yourself down about it now.  There's plenty of time to fix this one up or write a completely new one.  You'd have to tread very carefully with that YouTube GFX topic if you decide to expand upon it though, because as you said some saltiness my leak in, ahah.  Well, I wish you luck in the coming days!  You still have plenty of time as I've said before, so don't stress out too much.  A really good topic may randomly come to you when you're just relaxing and letting your mind wander, you never know.

 

My district isn't poor, I guess, but they aren't using the funds they do have to their fullest potential.  They're building a greenhouse for the science classes of all things.  That's right, a greenhouse.  I have no idea how this will serve to better the education here.  Just seems like a gimmicky move if you ask me.  They could probably save money by integrating the greenhouse into the hallways of our school.  It's so hot the plants will be just fine.  Even just a few years ago the football field was upgraded with turf instead of just good old grass and dirt.  That wasn't too bad of a change, though the bleachers in comparison look kinda rusty now.  I just wish this money was put toward getting A/C installed.  Or fixing up a dated curriculum, which doesn't require ton of money either.  Awful handling of funds, all in all.  Some of my classmates really are phenomenal.  Almost makes me wish I had put more effort into reaching my fullest potential, but ehhh I did good enough.  Ahah, so I guessed right.  And yup, John P. Stevens High School it is.  Usually called JP Stevens or JPS or just JP, it's Edison's northern high school and the place I'm glad to leave behind, haha.  Listening to your complaints is no problem at all.  It's also a pleasure having a friend outside the confines of JP to converse with.

 

Oh gosh, I'm fairly certain you know more about me than any of my other friends as well.  Likewise, you're really easy to talk to and you don't seem at all bothered by my ramblings.  I don't know anyone else who'd respond with such thoroughness to all that I type, and I'm really blessed to have met you.  And yes, I do know what you mean by those little bouts of depression.  I don't get like that very often, but I do know just how disruptive it can be when I get really moody.  Depending on the situation, I either sleep it off or cry it off or cry until I fall asleep.  If that's not good enough, I find that exercising is a decent way of getting my stress out safely else I risk punching a hole in a wall.  Sometimes watching a quick funny video on YouTube lightens my mood.  For bigger slip-ups, I need an entire episode of anime and for life's biggest boo-boos a comedy movie generally does the trick.  I don't usually have time for that though, and the movie may end up having the opposite effect by getting me to feel even worse about my situation, in which case it's back to sleeping and/or crying.  I'm really glad you're training yourself to look up a bit more and I have to say your efforts to think to yourself and mentally raise your spirits that way are admirable.  In comparison, I'm far more of an emotional wreck that just idly waits for things to boil over, eheheh.  Oh goodness, I never expected you to open up to me like this.  I didn't realize you had come to trust me this much and I am more than just honored, believe me.  I'm having trouble putting how I feel into words.  To expose your mind like this is a very personal thing indeed, and for you to tell anyone at all is very brave of you.  Humans are social animals by nature, so though you may think talking about this defeats the purpose the fact that it feels like a weight off your chest is evident of the importance of bonds between two people.  However, for you to choose me of all the people you know, that's just... ahh, I'm speechless.  I don't have enough faith in my own ability to form coherent sentences to correctly express how much this means to me.  There was really no need to force yourself to reveal this if it made you so uncomfortable.  I feel that in order to effectively get across how much you in turn mean to me and to portray just how much I've come to trust you as well, I need to tell you a personal secret of my own, ahah.  Ohhhh, and I have this really strong urge to give you a nice big hug for some reason.  *hugs*  This can't compare to the real thing, but a virtual one will have to suffice for now.

 

I use one of those really precise and sharp knives with replaceable and retractable blades, specifically made by the company Olfa.  I just stick the blade into the plastic box as close to the cardboard as I can possibly get without damaging the artwork and ease my way around the perimeter until I come full circle and the box comes loose.  Of course, that leaves a plastic rectangular ring glued onto the cardboard, but it's transparent so it's not like it gets in the way too much.  Some guy on reddit figured out a way to detach that stubborn bit of plastic by submerging the cardboard in some chemical.  It apparently stinks a lot, but the plastic softens and peels away, leaving the cardboard intact.  As long as you let it dry out naturally, it will end up undamaged by the chemical.  I wish I had saved the link to show you, because it was really impressive.  I won't be going as far as him, but it's interesting to see that these things are possible, given you have the resources.

 

The first few episodes were kinda disjointed.  A lot of it has to do with the cut scenes.  The creators wanted to add in extra scenes but were only given a 24 minute limit, 21 if you count the opening and ending as wasted time.  The uncut versions, with louder music, better sound effects, and brighter flashy scenes will be available on the Blu-ray.  The first season's BD was already released and there weren't many extra scenes.  Just a few extra minutes in episode 0, 3, and 12.  Through ufotable's Twitter account, it was confirmed a ton is missing from the second season, especially from the first couple of episodes.  That's why it may have felt a little janky or rushed, because parts were literally missing.  The BD for the second season is coming out early October, so once that version is fansubbed I intend to rewatch all of UBW, haha.  And the television broadcast was still pretty good.  I really liked the expansion on Caster's original Master, though I probably would have liked her more if they had taken the time to explain Medea's legend.  Illya's backstory was handled pretty well, though the missing scenes crippled the flow a bit.  I also really liked all the scenes with Lancer, especially his interactions with Shirou, Rin, and Kirei.  The subtle chivalry between Saber and Assassin at the very end was nice as well.  Shirou's fights with Archer and Gilgamesh were amazingly directed and animated, which made up for some of the poorly drawn scenes during the final Caster/Kuzuki fight.  As for Shirou and Rin's romance, if you haven't already figured it out, the Magic Crest mana transfer was supposed to be a sex scene in the original VN.  In the all-ages version of the VN, it was a Magic Crest transfer, which is what ufotable adapted, though some of the more diehard fans wished that it was at least implied sex.  Magic Crests are only allowed to be passed down between blood related family members, which is why Shirou doesn't receive the Emiya Crest from Kiritsugu, so mana transfer in the form of Magic Crest implant throws a wrench in the world building and continuity.  Sex would have made more canonical sense, but admittedly I don't know how comfortable I'd be with that and I don't think you'd have liked it that much either (especially because in Mirai Nikki... ehem).  Also, Archer's stern facade existed only because he became disillusioned with his own ideals.  Deep down he was always the Shirou we've come to know, and his final moments with Rin were evident of that.  Not only did he lose his hair gel, but he also smiled a lot more and called Rin "Tohsaka".  I don't know if you noticed this, but Shirou has always called Rin formally by her last name since episode 0 and likewise Archer has only called her by her first name ever since she forgot to tell him immediately after he was summoned (until his last moments of course).  It just symbolizes his reversal back to his Shirou-like self, which is pretty neat.  To answer your question about how Archer survived for so long, there are two major theories since it is never explicitly stated why it happens, not even in the VN.  The first one is that Archer goes into spirit form just as Gilgamesh skewers him, and he's so deprived of mana that neither Saber nor Gilgamesh sense that's still "alive".  The only class that can go into spirit form at full health and avoid detection by other Servants is the Assassin class, so that part's kinda ehhh.  He conserves the last drops of mana via his Independent Action skill, specific to Archers, before popping up at the last second to save both Rin and Shirou, then goes back to the Heroic Spirit world for good.  Independent Action is apparently a broken skill that gives Cu Chulainn's Battle Continuation (allowing him to live for a few minutes after sustaining a fatal wound, which is how he killed Kirei) and Heracles's tendency to surpass his own legend (which gave him a 13th life against Gilgamesh instead of his usual 12 Labors) a run for their money.  The second and less popular theory is that Archer was killed for good by Gilgamesh at the castle and that as the Grail neared it's completion and human extermination became more and more of a threat, the World summoned Archer as a Counter Guardian to assist in preventing the Grail from releasing any more mud.  After his job as Counter Guardian was complete, he was summoned back to the Heroic Spirit world where he would continue to be summoned whenever humans are in need of assistance.  Both theories have their own merits, so you can believe whichever one you want to believe in.  Ahah, I'm really glad you enjoyed the series (or rather are enjoying the series)!

 

Hmm, the Axe end seems to be the most popular of all bad endings.  It was also the first one I got, and it was my brother's and one of my other friend's first as well.  Maybe more combinations of doors and choices lead to that end than all the others?  Only a single combination of choices leads to the True end, so it's a very specific path you're going to have to go down to find it.  I personally never anticipated a jump scare, but then again I'm not one for horror games (or even movies for that matter), so I'm not hardwired to expect one, haha.  Still, I'm glad you like it so far!

 

Huh, I must have been really lucky then.  I didn't really care about natures at that point because I was pulling an all-nighter and it was nearing four or five in the morning and I just really wanted to hit the credits before I went to school the next day, eheheh.  I was really fortunate to have caught it in one try with a Pokeball.  I just threw it for fun and didn't expect it to stay shut.  Hrm, I've actually yet to find a need to breed Pokemon in Y yet, so I don't know how difficult it is to breed in that game.  I'm generally pretty patient, so I don't think I'll ever utilize that coin trick, but I'll keep it in mind.  Ever since I started playing Smash on my 2DS (which is actually quite a lot of fun) I've been exceedingly concerned about the state of my circle pad, ahah.  The Pokeball Factory's song also took me by surprise with how good it is.  Do you plan on getting either X or Y once you get a 2/3Ds?  Also, I'm assuming you've already watched a walkthrough of XY, so I can talk in detail about Team Flare without fear of spoiling you or anything, right?

 

It’s usually 1 swag buck = 1 cent, but there’s a monthly deal where you can cash in 2200 swag bucks for $25, which saves you 300 swag bucks worth of time and effort.  The deal is only available for $25 purchases and you can only purchase it once a month (or else it’s the original 2500 = $25 thing again), but I find I can only save up less than 2200 bucks a month anyway, so it’s not like it really matters.  That makes the conversion rate a bit better, hahah.  Also, the referral rate is 10%, and most of it counted.  I got 1 swag buck for your efforts, which means 10-19 of your swag bucks counted in my favor.  Here’s a breakdown of the activities that count and the ones that don’t.  Also, it’s really nice of you to be concerned about the swag bucks I’m receiving from your pool, but honestly just do the activities for yourself and not for me, hahah.  I have plenty, and if I could I would share some with you.  As for the fake information, I think that as long as you remain consistent by filling out surveys with that identical info, you should be fine.  If you put in random stuff every time, they’ll catch on and ban your account, or so they say.  Also, there isn’t any connection to the gift cards you redeem and your online accounts (for the most part).  If you redeem a $25 Amazon gift card, you receive a code in your e-mail that can be used by any Amazon account.  The only exception is Paypal, where your redeemed "gift card" money is sent directly to the account that is tied to the e-mail you used to make a SwagBucks account.  As long as your e-mail matches, you should be fine.  However, if you want to delete this account or something and make a new one, don’t forget to use my referral link to sign back up, haha.

 

To have gone all the way to 48 is rather amazing without EV trained Pokemon.  I couldn’t even beat Palmer the first time with just a makeshift team, eheh.  And wow, all the Unown?!  Twice??!  That’s crazy, I don’t know anyone else who’s played Pokemon and loved a single game to this extent.  You’re an amazing girl, ahah.  And yeah, you might have mentioned that you won a Master Ball before.  I won’t deny it, that makes me pretty envious.  Maybe it’s the competitive side of me talking, but I matched up to 4 digits about 3 times myself.  Geez, to think I was so close three times…  Grr, it’s not like I’m salty or anything, hmph.  Hahah, nah, I’m kidding.  As long as I try as many days as I can remember, I’ll hit the jackpot eventually.  I know I’m close after all.  Mhm, nothing can beat the feeling of pulling an all-nighter like that.  I’ve tried making new memories with my 3DS games by staying up as late as I dared, but it’s not the same anymore.  I’m always worrying about how I’d be affected the rest of the next day, even though it’s summer break.  And I also feel I might be wrecking my health.  Sigh, reality can be a bummer.

 

Huh, you seem set on not seeing a doctor.  I feel that you’re a bit too nonchalant about your crippling headaches; I can’t even imagine what your mom is like.  I mean, sure, it may not be too bad all the time, but it still looks like it’s getting worse instead of better.  And the problem doesn’t exactly seem “silly” to me.  Any discomfort should be reported to a doctor you know.  But if you really think you can just weather it out, then so be it.  I can’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do after all.  Just know that I’m concerned about you and that I’ll be hoping your condition improves in the future.  And if you ever are inflicted with a headache, know that I’ll be praying for a swift recovery!

 

Ah, I haven’t heard of those books.  Your district is choosing some interesting stuff.  I won’t be able to start Whistling Vivaldi any time soon because of the Disney trip, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted when I get around to it, haha.

 

Hmm, it’s getting a bit late, but I feel like I have time to reply to your OMM post, since it’ll just be easier to transfer over that conversation here.  Xenoblade Chronicles doesn’t take that long to beat I guess, if these numbers are anything to go by.  I may have been confusing its length with that of Xenoblade Chronicles X, the Wii U spiritual successor, which took the director of the game over 300 hours to playtest.  That’s honestly pretty insane.  I actually plan on getting both XC and XCX eventually, but goodness, it’s going to be quite the monetary and timely investment.  Maybe if more than just XC 3D was released exclusively for the New 3DS I’d be more open to considering it.  I guess Houndoom might prove to be a problem if I ever ran into it, but the guy who made the team conceived of it years ago (back in 2008 before the game was RNG abused, I believe) and it’s still the most successful Diamond/Pearl Battle Tower team ever recorded at 499 victories (looks like the magic number 500 eluded him).  I’m fairly certain he took a lot into consideration, including how often certain Pokemon appeared.  There’s even this database that contains every single trainer as well as their Pokemon, hold items, EV spreads, and moves (they all have perfect IV spreads...).  So for those who are willing to literally sit there and calculate the best course of action by knowing how much is required for an OHKO and how well a Pokemon will be able to tank a hit, they can do that.  I’m not nearly that crazy and will go in blind.  A lot of people have found success with the Cresselia/Latios/Scizor team, and since I’m just aiming for 100 I have faith and won’t risk making any changes.  Also, that Subaru commercial was actually made by the team who’s making the SnK live action moves.  That commercial was a sneak-peak teaser at how they’d be handling the movies, and I’d say it’s pretty impressive.  It’s not Hollywood level, but Japanese cinema has definitely come a long way and the CG effects could have been much much worse, admittedly.  Hrmm, you may not want shinies now, but if we ever meet in real life I’d be more than willing to RNG a few for you.  You know, if you ever want to try your hand at a Battle Tower run in your Platinum version or something, haha.

 

Soooo, yeah.  You’re probably wondering why I actually sent this while I’m on vacation of all things.  Well, I managed to find time during the car trip when I wasn’t sleeping, and I think about 75% of it was typed up on my old 2nd gen iTouch (yeah, I still have that lying around).  That being said, I apologize for any typos or oddly worded sections or my usual language and prose just being a little off.  It’s rather difficult to keep my mind focused while fighting off carsickness, haha.  I don’t know if I’ll find the time to reply to next week’s response on time though.  I only managed this time because of the car trip, but since all of this week I’ll be at Disney and not traveling very far, I doubt I’ll have much time to get anything done, not even EV training.  So in advance, sorry for not sending a response on time next week!  I’ll be back in the swing of things on July 6th, which is when I believe I’ll be back home, so you have plenty of time to respond to this.  Take advantage of this chance and take your time if you need to!  Play as much of 999 as you can!  Also, I would have loved to start telling you about my trip, but it hasn’t really started yet.  Today and yesterday (or rather yesterday and the day before) was all driving, and tomorrow (err, today) we’re starting off by going to Epcot.  All I can say is that Florida weather really is unpredictable, with thunderstorms one minute and clear blue skies the next.  Also, it’s crazy hot here.  It’s going to be 90+ degrees all week which kinda sucks.  I’ll try to make the most of my time here regardless!

 

And before you criticize me for blatantly ignoring your request to delay a response until I have more time, in my defense I have to say that reading and replying to your posts makes me happier than you can imagine.  It’s really no work at all, and missing any more weeks after we had already taken a break at the end of the school year would just be too cruel.  So though I won’t be sending a reply on time next week (Ohh, happy Independence Day in advance!  Let me know if you’re doing anything special like seeing fireworks and/or barbequing!) I felt the need to at least send this one on time (or rather significantly earlier than usual, haha).  Just know that there are few things in this world that make me as happy as talking with you, ahaha.  Until next time!

[Kenzi 146]

 

Ah, well this is looking a bit far ahead, but if we ever do meet in real life, I wouldn't mind letting you play my oboe.  You'd probably just be derping around on it for the most part though, since I don't really trust my abilities as a teacher, haha.  I'll be bringing it with me to Case, even if I don't currently plan on participating in any music programs.  My parents feel that it would be doing less good stored away at home than at college, even if all I do is crack it open to casually play something on occasion.

 

I definitely considered getting a used iPhone, since I'd be able to use whatever muscle memory I have left from my second gen iTouch days to get by.  But used phones come with their own problems, and four years of use is bound to take a toll on it.  Though I don't plan on abusing my phone by downloading a ton of stuff on it, I also don't want to limit myself and regret not investing in something more powerful if I end up needing the extra processing power.  I'm only a bit concerned about the interface of an Android phone, since I tried my hand at navigating through my friend's OnePlus One and it was a bit confusing.  There's a lot of customization you can do with Androids as opposed to the generally consistent layout of Apple phones, so I guess it would just be difficult to use someone else's personalized phone.  If I set up my OnePlus One to fit how I intuitively think, it'll be fine, haha.  And don't worry, every little bit of your advice is appreciated.

 

Geez, your sister actually starved herself like that?  So much for the freshman 15.  More like the freshman -15.  I'm not much of a picky eater at all.  I only tried one meal at Brandeis, and I can imagine how I'd lose interest in the food pretty fast, but I wouldn't say it's inherently bad or anything.  I guess the Batman ride only looks appealing because it's so different from anything else I've ridden.  I've tried all kinds of roller coasters, in Great Adventures, Dorney Park, Universal Studios, Disney World, and SeaWorld.  They're all pretty much the same when you get right down to it, so for something so unique to be made is pretty exciting.  It's in San Antonio, so in all honestly I have no idea if I'll ever get the chance to ride it, but if the opportunity ever presents itself I'd definitely give it a go.

 

It's perfectly fine if you don't want to share your scores with me and there's no need to feel like you aren't sharing enough either.  I don't expect anyone to be as naively open about personal topics as I am, and you've already confided in me more times than I could have imagined.  It's awfully flattering in fact, ahahah.  That's really good of you not to pry for grades and the like.  I disappoint myself more times than not, and I'm most definitely not one to brag because there's usually not much to brag about, so it's reassuring to know there are people like you who are considerate of other's feelings.  If anything, I should apologize for pressuring you to disclose your scores.  Ahh, sorry about that.

 

Ohhh, you've already made more progress than I ever did.  June hasn't even ended and yet you've already written a rough draft of a potential essay, haha.  Really good work, even if knocking down the word count can be one of the hardest parts of writing a college essay and 100 words is more than it seems on paper.  It's hardest with essays you have a strong emotional attachment to.  I wouldn't say your topic is necessarily cheesy or anything.  I mean sure, an Asian girl who plays piano, oh boy what else is new?  But with how you're attempting to relate it yourself and show how you learned and grew from the experience, it may end up working if enough effort is put into it.  It's only your first idea and first draft, so there's no need to get yourself down about it now.  There's plenty of time to fix this one up or write a completely new one.  You'd have to tread very carefully with that YouTube GFX topic if you decide to expand upon it though, because as you said some saltiness my leak in, ahah.  Well, I wish you luck in the coming days!  You still have plenty of time as I've said before, so don't stress out too much.  A really good topic may randomly come to you when you're just relaxing and letting your mind wander, you never know.

 

My district isn't poor, I guess, but they aren't using the funds they do have to their fullest potential.  They're building a greenhouse for the science classes of all things.  That's right, a greenhouse.  I have no idea how this will serve to better the education here.  Just seems like a gimmicky move if you ask me.  They could probably save money by integrating the greenhouse into the hallways of our school.  It's so hot the plants will be just fine.  Even just a few years ago the football field was upgraded with turf instead of just good old grass and dirt.  That wasn't too bad of a change, though the bleachers in comparison look kinda rusty now.  I just wish this money was put toward getting A/C installed.  Or fixing up a dated curriculum, which doesn't require ton of money either.  Awful handling of funds, all in all.  Some of my classmates really are phenomenal.  Almost makes me wish I had put more effort into reaching my fullest potential, but ehhh I did good enough.  Ahah, so I guessed right.  And yup, John P. Stevens High School it is.  Usually called JP Stevens or JPS or just JP, it's Edison's northern high school and the place I'm glad to leave behind, haha.  Listening to your complaints is no problem at all.  It's also a pleasure having a friend outside the confines of JP to converse with.

 

Oh gosh, I'm fairly certain you know more about me than any of my other friends as well.  Likewise, you're really easy to talk to and you don't seem at all bothered by my ramblings.  I don't know anyone else who'd respond with such thoroughness to all that I type, and I'm really blessed to have met you.  And yes, I do know what you mean by those little bouts of depression.  I don't get like that very often, but I do know just how disruptive it can be when I get really moody.  Depending on the situation, I either sleep it off or cry it off or cry until I fall asleep.  If that's not good enough, I find that exercising is a decent way of getting my stress out safely else I risk punching a hole in a wall.  Sometimes watching a quick funny video on YouTube lightens my mood.  For bigger slip-ups, I need an entire episode of anime and for life's biggest boo-boos a comedy movie generally does the trick.  I don't usually have time for that though, and the movie may end up having the opposite effect by getting me to feel even worse about my situation, in which case it's back to sleeping and/or crying.  I'm really glad you're training yourself to look up a bit more and I have to say your efforts to think to yourself and mentally raise your spirits that way are admirable.  In comparison, I'm far more of an emotional wreck that just idly waits for things to boil over, eheheh.  Oh goodness, I never expected you to open up to me like this.  I didn't realize you had come to trust me this much and I am more than just honored, believe me.  I'm having trouble putting how I feel into words.  To expose your mind like this is a very personal thing indeed, and for you to tell anyone at all is very brave of you.  Humans are social animals by nature, so though you may think talking about this defeats the purpose the fact that it feels like a weight off your chest is evident of the importance of bonds between two people.  However, for you to choose me of all the people you know, that's just... ahh, I'm speechless.  I don't have enough faith in my own ability to form coherent sentences to correctly express how much this means to me.  There was really no need to force yourself to reveal this if it made you so uncomfortable.  I feel that in order to effectively get across how much you in turn mean to me and to portray just how much I've come to trust you as well, I need to tell you a personal secret of my own, ahah.  Ohhhh, and I have this really strong urge to give you a nice big hug for some reason.  *hugs*  This can't compare to the real thing, but a virtual one will have to suffice for now.

 

I use one of those really precise and sharp knives with replaceable and retractable blades, specifically made by the company Olfa.  I just stick the blade into the plastic box as close to the cardboard as I can possibly get without damaging the artwork and ease my way around the perimeter until I come full circle and the box comes loose.  Of course, that leaves a plastic rectangular ring glued onto the cardboard, but it's transparent so it's not like it gets in the way too much.  Some guy on reddit figured out a way to detach that stubborn bit of plastic by submerging the cardboard in some chemical.  It apparently stinks a lot, but the plastic softens and peels away, leaving the cardboard intact.  As long as you let it dry out naturally, it will end up undamaged by the chemical.  I wish I had saved the link to show you, because it was really impressive.  I won't be going as far as him, but it's interesting to see that these things are possible, given you have the resources.

 

The first few episodes were kinda disjointed.  A lot of it has to do with the cut scenes.  The creators wanted to add in extra scenes but were only given a 24 minute limit, 21 if you count the opening and ending as wasted time.  The uncut versions, with louder music, better sound effects, and brighter flashy scenes will be available on the Blu-ray.  The first season's BD was already released and there weren't many extra scenes.  Just a few extra minutes in episode 0, 3, and 12.  Through ufotable's Twitter account, it was confirmed a ton is missing from the second season, especially from the first couple of episodes.  That's why it may have felt a little janky or rushed, because parts were literally missing.  The BD for the second season is coming out early October, so once that version is fansubbed I intend to rewatch all of UBW, haha.  And the television broadcast was still pretty good.  I really liked the expansion on Caster's original Master, though I probably would have liked her more if they had taken the time to explain Medea's legend.  Illya's backstory was handled pretty well, though the missing scenes crippled the flow a bit.  I also really liked all the scenes with Lancer, especially his interactions with Shirou, Rin, and Kirei.  The subtle chivalry between Saber and Assassin at the very end was nice as well.  Shirou's fights with Archer and Gilgamesh were amazingly directed and animated, which made up for some of the poorly drawn scenes during the final Caster/Kuzuki fight.  As for Shirou and Rin's romance, if you haven't already figured it out, the Magic Crest mana transfer was supposed to be a sex scene in the original VN.  In the all-ages version of the VN, it was a Magic Crest transfer, which is what ufotable adapted, though some of the more diehard fans wished that it was at least implied sex.  Magic Crests are only allowed to be passed down between blood related family members, which is why Shirou doesn't receive the Emiya Crest from Kiritsugu, so mana transfer in the form of Magic Crest implant throws a wrench in the world building and continuity.  Sex would have made more canonical sense, but admittedly I don't know how comfortable I'd be with that and I don't think you'd have liked it that much either (especially because in Mirai Nikki... ehem).  Also, Archer's stern facade existed only because he became disillusioned with his own ideals.  Deep down he was always the Shirou we've come to know, and his final moments with Rin were evident of that.  Not only did he lose his hair gel, but he also smiled a lot more and called Rin "Tohsaka".  I don't know if you noticed this, but Shirou has always called Rin formally by her last name since episode 0 and likewise Archer has only called her by her first name ever since she forgot to tell him immediately after he was summoned (until his last moments of course).  It just symbolizes his reversal back to his Shirou-like self, which is pretty neat.  To answer your question about how Archer survived for so long, there are two major theories since it is never explicitly stated why it happens, not even in the VN.  The first one is that Archer goes into spirit form just as Gilgamesh skewers him, and he's so deprived of mana that neither Saber nor Gilgamesh sense that's still "alive".  The only class that can go into spirit form at full health and avoid detection by other Servants is the Assassin class, so that part's kinda ehhh.  He conserves the last drops of mana via his Independent Action skill, specific to Archers, before popping up at the last second to save both Rin and Shirou, then goes back to the Heroic Spirit world for good.  Independent Action is apparently a broken skill that gives Cu Chulainn's Battle Continuation (allowing him to live for a few minutes after sustaining a fatal wound, which is how he killed Kirei) and Heracles's tendency to surpass his own legend (which gave him a 13th life against Gilgamesh instead of his usual 12 Labors) a run for their money.  The second and less popular theory is that Archer was killed for good by Gilgamesh at the castle and that as the Grail neared it's completion and human extermination became more and more of a threat, the World summoned Archer as a Counter Guardian to assist in preventing the Grail from releasing any more mud.  After his job as Counter Guardian was complete, he was summoned back to the Heroic Spirit world where he would continue to be summoned whenever humans are in need of assistance.  Both theories have their own merits, so you can believe whichever one you want to believe in.  Ahah, I'm really glad you enjoyed the series (or rather are enjoying the series)!

 

Hmm, the Axe end seems to be the most popular of all bad endings.  It was also the first one I got, and it was my brother's and one of my other friend's first as well.  Maybe more combinations of doors and choices lead to that end than all the others?  Only a single combination of choices leads to the True end, so it's a very specific path you're going to have to go down to find it.  I personally never anticipated a jump scare, but then again I'm not one for horror games (or even movies for that matter), so I'm not hardwired to expect one, haha.  Still, I'm glad you like it so far!

 

Huh, I must have been really lucky then.  I didn't really care about natures at that point because I was pulling an all-nighter and it was nearing four or five in the morning and I just really wanted to hit the credits before I went to school the next day, eheheh.  I was really fortunate to have caught it in one try with a Pokeball.  I just threw it for fun and didn't expect it to stay shut.  Hrm, I've actually yet to find a need to breed Pokemon in Y yet, so I don't know how difficult it is to breed in that game.  I'm generally pretty patient, so I don't think I'll ever utilize that coin trick, but I'll keep it in mind.  Ever since I started playing Smash on my 2DS (which is actually quite a lot of fun) I've been exceedingly concerned about the state of my circle pad, ahah.  The Pokeball Factory's song also took me by surprise with how good it is.  Do you plan on getting either X or Y once you get a 2/3Ds?  Also, I'm assuming you've already watched a walkthrough of XY, so I can talk in detail about Team Flare without fear of spoiling you or anything, right?

 

It’s usually 1 swag buck = 1 cent, but there’s a monthly deal where you can cash in 2200 swag bucks for $25, which saves you 300 swag bucks worth of time and effort.  The deal is only available for $25 purchases and you can only purchase it once a month (or else it’s the original 2500 = $25 thing again), but I find I can only save up less than 2200 bucks a month anyway, so it’s not like it really matters.  That makes the conversion rate a bit better, hahah.  Also, the referral rate is 10%, and most of it counted.  I got 1 swag buck for your efforts, which means 10-19 of your swag bucks counted in my favor.  Here’s a breakdown of the activities that count and the ones that don’t.  Also, it’s really nice of you to be concerned about the swag bucks I’m receiving from your pool, but honestly just do the activities for yourself and not for me, hahah.  I have plenty, and if I could I would share some with you.  As for the fake information, I think that as long as you remain consistent by filling out surveys with that identical info, you should be fine.  If you put in random stuff every time, they’ll catch on and ban your account, or so they say.  Also, there isn’t any connection to the gift cards you redeem and your online accounts (for the most part).  If you redeem a $25 Amazon gift card, you receive a code in your e-mail that can be used by any Amazon account.  The only exception is Paypal, where your redeemed "gift card" money is sent directly to the account that is tied to the e-mail you used to make a SwagBucks account.  As long as your e-mail matches, you should be fine.  However, if you want to delete this account or something and make a new one, don’t forget to use my referral link to sign back up, haha.

 

To have gone all the way to 48 is rather amazing without EV trained Pokemon.  I couldn’t even beat Palmer the first time with just a makeshift team, eheh.  And wow, all the Unown?!  Twice??!  That’s crazy, I don’t know anyone else who’s played Pokemon and loved a single game to this extent.  You’re an amazing girl, ahah.  And yeah, you might have mentioned that you won a Master Ball before.  I won’t deny it, that makes me pretty envious.  Maybe it’s the competitive side of me talking, but I matched up to 4 digits about 3 times myself.  Geez, to think I was so close three times…  Grr, it’s not like I’m salty or anything, hmph.  Hahah, nah, I’m kidding.  As long as I try as many days as I can remember, I’ll hit the jackpot eventually.  I know I’m close after all.  Mhm, nothing can beat the feeling of pulling an all-nighter like that.  I’ve tried making new memories with my 3DS games by staying up as late as I dared, but it’s not the same anymore.  I’m always worrying about how I’d be affected the rest of the next day, even though it’s summer break.  And I also feel I might be wrecking my health.  Sigh, reality can be a bummer.

 

Huh, you seem set on not seeing a doctor.  I feel that you’re a bit too nonchalant about your crippling headaches; I can’t even imagine what your mom is like.  I mean, sure, it may not be too bad all the time, but it still looks like it’s getting worse instead of better.  And the problem doesn’t exactly seem “silly” to me.  Any discomfort should be reported to a doctor you know.  But if you really think you can just weather it out, then so be it.  I can’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do after all.  Just know that I’m concerned about you and that I’ll be hoping your condition improves in the future.  And if you ever are inflicted with a headache, know that I’ll be praying for a swift recovery!

 

Ah, I haven’t heard of those books.  Your district is choosing some interesting stuff.  I won’t be able to start Whistling Vivaldi any time soon because of the Disney trip, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted when I get around to it, haha.

 

Hmm, it’s getting a bit late, but I feel like I have time to reply to your OMM post, since it’ll just be easier to transfer over that conversation here.  Xenoblade Chronicles doesn’t take that long to beat I guess, if these numbers are anything to go by.  I may have been confusing its length with that of Xenoblade Chronicles X, the Wii U spiritual successor, which took the director of the game over 300 hours to playtest.  That’s honestly pretty insane.  I actually plan on getting both XC and XCX eventually, but goodness, it’s going to be quite the monetary and timely investment.  Maybe if more than just XC 3D was released exclusively for the New 3DS I’d be more open to considering it.  I guess Houndoom might prove to be a problem if I ever ran into it, but the guy who made the team conceived of it years ago (back in 2008 before the game was RNG abused, I believe) and it’s still the most successful Diamond/Pearl Battle Tower team ever recorded at 499 victories (looks like the magic number 500 eluded him).  I’m fairly certain he took a lot into consideration, including how often certain Pokemon appeared.  There’s even this database that contains every single trainer as well as their Pokemon, hold items, EV spreads, and moves (they all have perfect IV spreads...).  So for those who are willing to literally sit there and calculate the best course of action by knowing how much is required for an OHKO and how well a Pokemon will be able to tank a hit, they can do that.  I’m not nearly that crazy and will go in blind.  A lot of people have found success with the Cresselia/Latios/Scizor team, and since I’m just aiming for 100 I have faith and won’t risk making any changes.  Also, that Subaru commercial was actually made by the team who’s making the SnK live action moves.  That commercial was a sneak-peak teaser at how they’d be handling the movies, and I’d say it’s pretty impressive.  It’s not Hollywood level, but Japanese cinema has definitely come a long way and the CG effects could have been much much worse, admittedly.  Hrmm, you may not want shinies now, but if we ever meet in real life I’d be more than willing to RNG a few for you.  You know, if you ever want to try your hand at a Battle Tower run in your Platinum version or something, haha.

 

Soooo, yeah.  You’re probably wondering why I actually sent this while I’m on vacation of all things.  Well, I managed to find time during the car trip when I wasn’t sleeping, and I think about 75% of it was typed up on my old 2nd gen iTouch (yeah, I still have that lying around).  That being said, I apologize for any typos or oddly worded sections or my usual language and prose just being a little off.  It’s rather difficult to keep my mind focused while fighting off carsickness, haha.  I don’t know if I’ll find the time to reply to next week’s response on time though.  I only managed this time because of the car trip, but since all of this week I’ll be at Disney and not traveling very far, I doubt I’ll have much time to get anything done, not even EV training.  So in advance, sorry for not sending a response on time next week!  I’ll be back in the swing of things on July 6th, which is when I believe I’ll be back home, so you have plenty of time to respond to this.  Take advantage of this chance and take your time if you need to!  Play as much of 999 as you can!  Also, I would have loved to start telling you about my trip, but it hasn’t really started yet.  Today and yesterday (or rather yesterday and the day before) was all driving, and tomorrow (err, today) we’re starting off by going to Epcot.  All I can say is that Florida weather really is unpredictable, with thunderstorms one minute and clear blue skies the next.  Also, it’s crazy hot here.  It’s going to be 90+ degrees all week which kinda sucks.  I’ll try to make the most of my time here regardless!

 

And before you criticize me for blatantly ignoring your request to delay a response until I have more time, in my defense I have to say that reading and replying to your posts makes me happier than you can imagine.  It’s really no work at all, and missing any more weeks after we had already taken a break at the end of the school year would just be too cruel.  So though I won’t be sending a reply on time next week (Ohh, happy Independence Day in advance!  Let me know if you’re doing anything special like seeing fireworks and/or barbequing!) I felt the need to at least send this one on time (or rather significantly earlier than usual, haha).  Just know that there are few things in this world that make me as happy as talking with you, ahaha.  Until next time!

 

Getting to meet you in real life would be unreal, haha. Don't want to get too ahead of myself though, eheh... It's nice to hear that you'll be bringing your oboe with you, even if you're only planning to play it on occasion. I'm still debating on whether or not to bring my violin when I head off to college, but chances are I probably will. Even though I don't think I'll be playing it too actively, you're probably right seeing as it won't be better off collecting dust at home. Oh, and I scheduled a campus visit to Case on August 7th! 

 

I think you'll be fine with a used iPhone 5s though. My used iPhone 4's home button is constantly unresponsive and laggy (pretty confident it's going to give in soon), but I'm sure that problem was fixed after the iPhone 5s. And remember when I said my sister was the only person in our family who doesn't have an iPhone and said that she preferred her Android? Well, I just discovered that she got herself an iPhone 6+. Since you're familiar with your iTouch, if I were you I'd probably stick to an iPhone for consistency purposes. Then again, I've always wanted to get an Android because it's more powerful, but I'm just so used to the iPhone layout I don't think I'll ever find myself adapting to an Android. Even if it takes some getting used to, it is your phone in the end. You should be fine getting a OnePlus One then. I might even find myself switching to an Android after my phone dies out if I ever feel ambitious enough, haha.

 

My sister is an especially picky eater so I wasn't too surprised. But to think she starved herself because she disliked the food that much... Although I'm not a picky eater myself, it still kinda scares me. Ahh, but even if the Batman rollercoaster looks unique, it still looks like a torture machine to me. Its turns are steeper than 90 degrees. And geezus, even if you're perfectly fine with that, there's bound to people who're peer pressured into riding this, and the next thing you know there's puke and should-have-been-digested food flying everywhere behind them. Not my ideal kind of ride, to be honest, lol.

 

Well, I got my scores back, and I'm not terribly impressed. I'm certainly surprised, but not the "pleasantly surprised" kind of surprised. I scored higher on Bio M even though I spent far more time cramming Math II material. Perhaps I was horribly misled thinking that Math II would be easier (I still think it is), or maybe I just got lucky with my guessing on Bio M. I even felt that I scored worse on Bio M after I left the testing facility. Gee, I guess that just goes to show where studying will get me. Nah, I'm joking. I'm still going to study for the October tests.

 

While it's true that an Asian girl playing the piano is nothing out of the ordinary, I figured that playing these songs with virtually no experience would provide some merit (unless you count half a year of lessons in second grade). I only took interest during early high school, so the most I could remember from those lessons was where the keys were located. It took me a month to learn how to play Greenwich in the Sky from self-teaching but I couldn't recognize a single bass clef note on the sheet music so I had to label them all by hand, ahaah... But yeah, I see what you mean. I'm not awfully attached to the idea either and I scrapped it not too long ago. My experience on YouTube is probably going to be my last resort if I can't think of a topic in the near future. I really want to write about something quirky. Something like "my obsession with OSTs is like a cocaine addiction" (maybe not that extreme, lol). To be honest, I don't think I'm making much progress. A lot of the topics I'm coming up with seem really bland and I'm always finding myself back at square one. I could write about how my initials always turn into a topic of discussion once someone says them out loud (it's been following me since elementary school), but how would I relate it to myself as a person? Geezus, this is really stress-inducing. 

 

Damn, your district is building a greenhouse? I don't see how this is going to help the curriculum, but I guess it's kinda nice. Also, a bit of your saltiness leaked out (gotta admit I chuckled at the "It's so hot the plants will be just fine" comment, haha). Don't the teachers at your school care about the lack of A/C though? Possibly enough to push the district to install some for once? Ahh, part of me also wishes I could have put more effort these past few years. Nothing I did really stands out much: orchestra, tennis, volunteering, clubs (officer for one of them), NHS, a few awards, nothing out of the ordinary. I could've had a leadership position as captain of JV tennis, but I opted out for varsity instead. A few of my friends are a lot more proactive. One of them placed in Siemens Nationals, and another one was a 2014 Quora Top Writer; it's insane. Really wish I did more with my past three years (I wanted to join the robotics team pretty badly), but I'm still grateful that I was active in orchestra and tennis throughout high school. Hmm, so not only did we manage to deduce each other's city locations, but we also know each other's school locations now. It's only a matter of time until we figure out each other's addresses.

 

Ahaha, I read somewhere that tears have the ability to carry certain toxins and hormones out of your body, so crying is almost like a de-stresser. I don't do it as often anymore, but I used to silent-cry myself to sleep whenever I felt down. I wouldn't be sobbing (in risk of waking up anyone) but I would just let my tears flow down my face to help myself de-stress. I think it's amazing how our bodies have these abilities; it almost seems mechanical. I normally don't use exercise as a means to de-stress. My main source of exercise comes from tennis and I've found that stress affects my playing negatively, which, in turn, causes me to be even more flustered, eheh. I also love listening to upbeat music because it helps to lift my spirits a lot. I try to avoid depressing music as much as possible for this reason. But it really is awesome to think about the things we usually take for granted. Like how the contraptions we use in our everyday lives were made to make our lives better. Doorknobs, clocks, sinks, etc. It's this primitive way of thinking that allows me to feel grateful for everything I have when I'm down in the dumps. And I don't think you're an emotional wreck at all. Nothing you've said has made me think that. I've done almost everything you've done to de-stress. If you consider yourself an emotional wreck, then I'm not any better. Although I haven't even known you for a year, I've grown to trust you a lot--far more than I should for being a random stranger online. But this continual exchange in replies has made you more than just another person I've met on the internet; you're so much more to me. And I know that I don't need to force myself to open up my mind, but something was telling me to do so. If I didn't need to post all of that, what was compelling me to type it up in the first place? That was the conflict I was having with myself before I posted that previous response of mine. If I was going to confess about this to anyone, I figured it'd be to you, haha. *hugs* And there's no need to tell a personal secret of your own. I'm just really happy I was able to confide in someone for once. Not only that, but you were surprisingly accepting as well. That, in itself, is more than enough for me.

 

Whoaaaaaa, you can remove the plastic without damaging the cardboard by submerging it in some chemical? That's awesome! Do you remember if this was some everyday chemical or if it's one that's mainly found in laboratories? I kinda want to try it out myself, haha.......

 

Oh man, I completely forgot to mention Illya. Her character really grew on me during the second season and I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see as much of her as I would've liked. Ahh, I see. If parts of the plot were actually missing, then the VN should fill me in just fine. Speaking of the VN, I definitely feel like I missed out on some Easter eggs for being an AO watcher--especially after watching the epilogue (I checked your MAL just in case you didn't have time to finish it, but seeing that you did I'm just going to ramble on now, haha). I'm also quite disappointed that I didn't recognize Waver until someone pointed it out. I re-watched the scene and it made much more sense afterwards (yay Kiritsugu reference). Seeing Saber's grave was good closure, and I'm a lot more satisfied with Shirou and Rin's current relationship with each other. As much as I dislike certain cliches, I was a bit disappointed when they just held hands instead of having the typical kiss to end things off, haha. And that last bit with Archer was also nice. Hmm, there's a lot more I want to say but I really don't have much to add. VN watchers are probably gushing over all the Easter eggs laid out in front of them while everything just flies over my head. Ah well, it was still a nice ending overall and I guess I'll be re-watching this too after finishing the VN, lol. And yeah, I was anticipating the Magic Crest mana transfer to be a sex scene judging by how things were going at the time (tsundere Rin made it seem terribly obvious). I was a bit surprised when it just turned out to be a harmless little "PG" scene between the two. Hmm, I always thought Shirou called Rin "Tohsaka" out of respect, which I guess makes sense since Archer only called her by "Rin" until the very end. It's still a really neat detail. As for how Archer survived, yeaahhh, I'm not a big fan of the latter theory. It screams deus ex machina. The former theory is also in the same boat, but to a slightly lesser extent. His survival was needed for closure though, so I'm perfectly fine with whichever happened since both theories don't seem too far-fetched. Also, any idea when HF is coming out? I couldn't find any leads.

 

Do you remember which doors you went through to get the Axe ending? I went through 5, 7, and 1. I finally got the knife and sub ending, and wow this game is depressing, haha. The switch puzzle behind Door 2 mainly felt like trial and error to me and I had to write down a bunch of notes to keep track of the changing squares after a while because I couldn't keep up (the puzzle itself also didn't make much sense to me). It's probably my least favorite puzzle so far since it felt kinda luck-based at first. I also found it strange that Lotus volunteered to sit on that chair in the Torture Room since she seemed pretty stubborn about interacting with anything in the Confinement Room. I guess it was needed for plot progression since Junpei couldn't be the one sitting in that chair (Seven was apparently too "big"). Oh, and the continual references to the hexadecimal system are interesting. Also, I'm not too into horror either. But Ao Oni was a lot of fun to watch (the jump scares would make me crap my pants if I actually played it for myself). Corpse Party was kinda like a VN and the storyline wasn't half bad. And of course, Slenderman and Five Nights at Freddy's because I wanted to know what the hype was about, haha. Thanks to those games, I'm now hardwired to anticipate jump scares. Every time a door opens in 999, I'm expecting some Oni-like creature to pop out with a chainsaw or something. Geezus.

 

Whoa, you were pulling all-nighters for games during school nights?? As much as I love playing games, I could never do that to myself because of how drained I would feel once school starts. I would never be willing to pull an all-nighter during a school night unless it was for an assignment. Man, you're a lot more ambitious than I originally thought, haha. I'm not sure whether or not I want to get X/Y once I get a 2/3DS. I'd rather save the money for games like 4th gen remakes, smash, and other potential games I haven't spoiled for myself yet, ehehe... And yup, feel free to talk about any aspect of X/Y in detail, lol.

 

I can't think of anything that I'll need swagbucks for other than some extra spending money. The whole 1 swagbuck = 1 cent seems a bit inefficient since a part-time job paying >$7 an hour gets you money loads faster. It's nice to get some cash just from watching ads and taking surveys, but I'm probably not going to take advantage of this too often unless I really find myself in a pinch. I'll keep my old account for now and maybe I'll find myself looking for an Amazon gift card in the future, haha. Thanks for the info!

 

Since my goal was only to reach 49, I made my team specifically to counter Palmer's. It was the result of watching dozens of battle videos on my DS, but I guess it didn't work out too well. I just loved the idea of keeping a box full of Unown for some reason. Plus my middle school self had too much free time. It wasn't as hard to do in HeartGold since there was some mechanic that made finding the yet-to-be-captured Unown easier. Thank you though, haha. Yeah, I just can't bring myself to pull all-nighters for games anymore. It just doesn't feel the same. Stressing about my state of mind for the following day doesn't help either. I couldn't care less about my health when I was pulling all-nighters with my Platinum game in middle school, you know, back when nothing I did really mattered that much. I couldn't agree with you more; facing reality kinda sucks at times, haha.

 

The main reason why I'm set on not seeing a doctor is because I have a good idea of what the underlying problem is: I'm not drinking enough water when I'm playing tennis. I'm pretty sure my water bottle can hold up to 24 fl oz but it's hard for me to force myself to drink all of that in a couple of sittings (mainly during the winter). And by the time I feel my head throbbing, I know it's usually too late to stop the oncoming headache. My mom has it a lot worse. Her headaches come in more often than mine even when she's not exercising, and she probably drinks more water than I do. I've tried talking to her about it on many occasions, but she keeps dismissing me and telling me that she's fine. For me, I don't think these headaches mean anything other than not drinking enough water. For my mom, I really don't know how she's getting them. But if my mom says that she's fine, there's no reason why I should be concerned about myself seeing a doctor. Thank you for the sentiment though, haha.

 

What the....... it takes over 200 hours just to play XC for leisure? Dear lord, that's... a lot longer than I thought it would take. I suppose watching Chuggaaconroy's Let's Play of it is always an option (he was one of my favorite Let's Players back in the day). Dang, this guy managed to hit 499 victories with that team? Five bucks says that the 500th trainer had a Houndoom. jkjkjkjk. Well, if that's the case, best of luck to you! Be sure to keep me updated on your streak because I'm quite interested in how it goes as well! As much as I'd love to take you up on your offer, I don't think I'll be opening my Platinum game any time soon. I'm kinda treating it as a time capsule at this point and would rather leave it untouched. I'm also not ambitious enough to go for the 100, haha. Thank you for the offer though! Ahaha, the guys who made the Subaru commercial were the same people who're making the live action movies? I didn't realize that the commercial was supposed to be a teaser since Japanese commercials have notoriety for being... strange, lol. I still can't see how SnK managed to garner so much attention though. It was far from a bad anime, but it wasn't anything terribly outstanding either (I laughed at the black humor though). I guess the giant rampaging humanoids was an interesting concept, and maybe the art also stood out, but it still strikes me as odd how popular SnK has gotten.

 

Ehhhh? You managed to type up most of this on your iTouch? And you did this while fighting off carsickness? Geezus, that's insane. As much as I appreciate your efforts in typing a timely response (heck, you even posted early) it really wasn't necessary. In fact, I'm a little annoyed that you ignored my request and even went above and beyond when doing so :c Ahaha, you're too much, and you never cease to surprise me. But in this case, that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Still, it would feel wrong not to thank you for your efforts, so thank you, b-b-b-baka. I'm not planning on doing anything special for Independence Day other than seeing some fireworks. Hopefully the weather is working in your favor for the rest of your trip! Be sure to drink lots of water in those 90+ degree conditions and I hope all goes well for you!

[Metantei Kiddo 147]

Paint the Town Red

Game Jam produced game. Actually fun

[Akazora 293]

Getting to meet you in real life would be unreal, haha. Don't want to get too ahead of myself though, eheh... It's nice to hear that you'll be bringing your oboe with you, even if you're only planning to play it on occasion. I'm still debating on whether or not to bring my violin when I head off to college, but chances are I probably will. Even though I don't think I'll be playing it too actively, you're probably right seeing as it won't be better off collecting dust at home. Oh, and I scheduled a campus visit to Case on August 7th! 

 

I think you'll be fine with a used iPhone 5s though. My used iPhone 4's home button is constantly unresponsive and laggy (pretty confident it's going to give in soon), but I'm sure that problem was fixed after the iPhone 5s. And remember when I said my sister was the only person in our family who doesn't have an iPhone and said that she preferred her Android? Well, I just discovered that she got herself an iPhone 6+. Since you're familiar with your iTouch, if I were you I'd probably stick to an iPhone for consistency purposes. Then again, I've always wanted to get an Android because it's more powerful, but I'm just so used to the iPhone layout I don't think I'll ever find myself adapting to an Android. Even if it takes some getting used to, it is your phone in the end. You should be fine getting a OnePlus One then. I might even find myself switching to an Android after my phone dies out if I ever feel ambitious enough, haha.

 

My sister is an especially picky eater so I wasn't too surprised. But to think she starved herself because she disliked the food that much... Although I'm not a picky eater myself, it still kinda scares me. Ahh, but even if the Batman rollercoaster looks unique, it still looks like a torture machine to me. Its turns are steeper than 90 degrees. And geezus, even if you're perfectly fine with that, there's bound to people who're peer pressured into riding this, and the next thing you know there's puke and should-have-been-digested food flying everywhere behind them. Not my ideal kind of ride, to be honest, lol.

 

Well, I got my scores back, and I'm not terribly impressed. I'm certainly surprised, but not the "pleasantly surprised" kind of surprised. I scored higher on Bio M even though I spent far more time cramming Math II material. Perhaps I was horribly misled thinking that Math II would be easier (I still think it is), or maybe I just got lucky with my guessing on Bio M. I even felt that I scored worse on Bio M after I left the testing facility. Gee, I guess that just goes to show where studying will get me. Nah, I'm joking. I'm still going to study for the October tests.

 

While it's true that an Asian girl playing the piano is nothing out of the ordinary, I figured that playing these songs with virtually no experience would provide some merit (unless you count half a year of lessons in second grade). I only took interest during early high school, so the most I could remember from those lessons was where the keys were located. It took me a month to learn how to play Greenwich in the Sky from self-teaching but I couldn't recognize a single bass clef note on the sheet music so I had to label them all by hand, ahaah... But yeah, I see what you mean. I'm not awfully attached to the idea either and I scrapped it not too long ago. My experience on YouTube is probably going to be my last resort if I can't think of a topic in the near future. I really want to write about something quirky. Something like "my obsession with OSTs is like a cocaine addiction" (maybe not that extreme, lol). To be honest, I don't think I'm making much progress. A lot of the topics I'm coming up with seem really bland and I'm always finding myself back at square one. I could write about how my initials always turn into a topic of discussion once someone says them out loud (it's been following me since elementary school), but how would I relate it to myself as a person? Geezus, this is really stress-inducing. 

 

Damn, your district is building a greenhouse? I don't see how this is going to help the curriculum, but I guess it's kinda nice. Also, a bit of your saltiness leaked out (gotta admit I chuckled at the "It's so hot the plants will be just fine" comment, haha). Don't the teachers at your school care about the lack of A/C though? Possibly enough to push the district to install some for once? Ahh, part of me also wishes I could have put more effort these past few years. Nothing I did really stands out much: orchestra, tennis, volunteering, clubs (officer for one of them), NHS, a few awards, nothing out of the ordinary. I could've had a leadership position as captain of JV tennis, but I opted out for varsity instead. A few of my friends are a lot more proactive. One of them placed in Siemens Nationals, and another one was a 2014 Quora Top Writer; it's insane. Really wish I did more with my past three years (I wanted to join the robotics team pretty badly), but I'm still grateful that I was active in orchestra and tennis throughout high school. Hmm, so not only did we manage to deduce each other's city locations, but we also know each other's school locations now. It's only a matter of time until we figure out each other's addresses.

 

Ahaha, I read somewhere that tears have the ability to carry certain toxins and hormones out of your body, so crying is almost like a de-stresser. I don't do it as often anymore, but I used to silent-cry myself to sleep whenever I felt down. I wouldn't be sobbing (in risk of waking up anyone) but I would just let my tears flow down my face to help myself de-stress. I think it's amazing how our bodies have these abilities; it almost seems mechanical. I normally don't use exercise as a means to de-stress. My main source of exercise comes from tennis and I've found that stress affects my playing negatively, which, in turn, causes me to be even more flustered, eheh. I also love listening to upbeat music because it helps to lift my spirits a lot. I try to avoid depressing music as much as possible for this reason. But it really is awesome to think about the things we usually take for granted. Like how the contraptions we use in our everyday lives were made to make our lives better. Doorknobs, clocks, sinks, etc. It's this primitive way of thinking that allows me to feel grateful for everything I have when I'm down in the dumps. And I don't think you're an emotional wreck at all. Nothing you've said has made me think that. I've done almost everything you've done to de-stress. If you consider yourself an emotional wreck, then I'm not any better. Although I haven't even known you for a year, I've grown to trust you a lot--far more than I should for being a random stranger online. But this continual exchange in replies has made you more than just another person I've met on the internet; you're so much more to me. And I know that I don't need to force myself to open up my mind, but something was telling me to do so. If I didn't need to post all of that, what was compelling me to type it up in the first place? That was the conflict I was having with myself before I posted that previous response of mine. If I was going to confess about this to anyone, I figured it'd be to you, haha. *hugs* And there's no need to tell a personal secret of your own. I'm just really happy I was able to confide in someone for once. Not only that, but you were surprisingly accepting as well. That, in itself, is more than enough for me.

 

Whoaaaaaa, you can remove the plastic without damaging the cardboard by submerging it in some chemical? That's awesome! Do you remember if this was some everyday chemical or if it's one that's mainly found in laboratories? I kinda want to try it out myself, haha.......

 

Oh man, I completely forgot to mention Illya. Her character really grew on me during the second season and I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see as much of her as I would've liked. Ahh, I see. If parts of the plot were actually missing, then the VN should fill me in just fine. Speaking of the VN, I definitely feel like I missed out on some Easter eggs for being an AO watcher--especially after watching the epilogue (I checked your MAL just in case you didn't have time to finish it, but seeing that you did I'm just going to ramble on now, haha). I'm also quite disappointed that I didn't recognize Waver until someone pointed it out. I re-watched the scene and it made much more sense afterwards (yay Kiritsugu reference). Seeing Saber's grave was good closure, and I'm a lot more satisfied with Shirou and Rin's current relationship with each other. As much as I dislike certain cliches, I was a bit disappointed when they just held hands instead of having the typical kiss to end things off, haha. And that last bit with Archer was also nice. Hmm, there's a lot more I want to say but I really don't have much to add. VN watchers are probably gushing over all the Easter eggs laid out in front of them while everything just flies over my head. Ah well, it was still a nice ending overall and I guess I'll be re-watching this too after finishing the VN, lol. And yeah, I was anticipating the Magic Crest mana transfer to be a sex scene judging by how things were going at the time (tsundere Rin made it seem terribly obvious). I was a bit surprised when it just turned out to be a harmless little "PG" scene between the two. Hmm, I always thought Shirou called Rin "Tohsaka" out of respect, which I guess makes sense since Archer only called her by "Rin" until the very end. It's still a really neat detail. As for how Archer survived, yeaahhh, I'm not a big fan of the latter theory. It screams deus ex machina. The former theory is also in the same boat, but to a slightly lesser extent. His survival was needed for closure though, so I'm perfectly fine with whichever happened since both theories don't seem too far-fetched. Also, any idea when HF is coming out? I couldn't find any leads.

 

Do you remember which doors you went through to get the Axe ending? I went through 5, 7, and 1. I finally got the knife and sub ending, and wow this game is depressing, haha. The switch puzzle behind Door 2 mainly felt like trial and error to me and I had to write down a bunch of notes to keep track of the changing squares after a while because I couldn't keep up (the puzzle itself also didn't make much sense to me). It's probably my least favorite puzzle so far since it felt kinda luck-based at first. I also found it strange that Lotus volunteered to sit on that chair in the Torture Room since she seemed pretty stubborn about interacting with anything in the Confinement Room. I guess it was needed for plot progression since Junpei couldn't be the one sitting in that chair (Seven was apparently too "big"). Oh, and the continual references to the hexadecimal system are interesting. Also, I'm not too into horror either. But Ao Oni was a lot of fun to watch (the jump scares would make me crap my pants if I actually played it for myself). Corpse Party was kinda like a VN and the storyline wasn't half bad. And of course, Slenderman and Five Nights at Freddy's because I wanted to know what the hype was about, haha. Thanks to those games, I'm now hardwired to anticipate jump scares. Every time a door opens in 999, I'm expecting some Oni-like creature to pop out with a chainsaw or something. Geezus.

 

Whoa, you were pulling all-nighters for games during school nights?? As much as I love playing games, I could never do that to myself because of how drained I would feel once school starts. I would never be willing to pull an all-nighter during a school night unless it was for an assignment. Man, you're a lot more ambitious than I originally thought, haha. I'm not sure whether or not I want to get X/Y once I get a 2/3DS. I'd rather save the money for games like 4th gen remakes, smash, and other potential games I haven't spoiled for myself yet, ehehe... And yup, feel free to talk about any aspect of X/Y in detail, lol.

 

I can't think of anything that I'll need swagbucks for other than some extra spending money. The whole 1 swagbuck = 1 cent seems a bit inefficient since a part-time job paying >$7 an hour gets you money loads faster. It's nice to get some cash just from watching ads and taking surveys, but I'm probably not going to take advantage of this too often unless I really find myself in a pinch. I'll keep my old account for now and maybe I'll find myself looking for an Amazon gift card in the future, haha. Thanks for the info!

 

Since my goal was only to reach 49, I made my team specifically to counter Palmer's. It was the result of watching dozens of battle videos on my DS, but I guess it didn't work out too well. I just loved the idea of keeping a box full of Unown for some reason. Plus my middle school self had too much free time. It wasn't as hard to do in HeartGold since there was some mechanic that made finding the yet-to-be-captured Unown easier. Thank you though, haha. Yeah, I just can't bring myself to pull all-nighters for games anymore. It just doesn't feel the same. Stressing about my state of mind for the following day doesn't help either. I couldn't care less about my health when I was pulling all-nighters with my Platinum game in middle school, you know, back when nothing I did really mattered that much. I couldn't agree with you more; facing reality kinda sucks at times, haha.

 

The main reason why I'm set on not seeing a doctor is because I have a good idea of what the underlying problem is: I'm not drinking enough water when I'm playing tennis. I'm pretty sure my water bottle can hold up to 24 fl oz but it's hard for me to force myself to drink all of that in a couple of sittings (mainly during the winter). And by the time I feel my head throbbing, I know it's usually too late to stop the oncoming headache. My mom has it a lot worse. Her headaches come in more often than mine even when she's not exercising, and she probably drinks more water than I do. I've tried talking to her about it on many occasions, but she keeps dismissing me and telling me that she's fine. For me, I don't think these headaches mean anything other than not drinking enough water. For my mom, I really don't know how she's getting them. But if my mom says that she's fine, there's no reason why I should be concerned about myself seeing a doctor. Thank you for the sentiment though, haha.

 

What the....... it takes over 200 hours just to play XC for leisure? Dear lord, that's... a lot longer than I thought it would take. I suppose watching Chuggaaconroy's Let's Play of it is always an option (he was one of my favorite Let's Players back in the day). Dang, this guy managed to hit 499 victories with that team? Five bucks says that the 500th trainer had a Houndoom. jkjkjkjk. Well, if that's the case, best of luck to you! Be sure to keep me updated on your streak because I'm quite interested in how it goes as well! As much as I'd love to take you up on your offer, I don't think I'll be opening my Platinum game any time soon. I'm kinda treating it as a time capsule at this point and would rather leave it untouched. I'm also not ambitious enough to go for the 100, haha. Thank you for the offer though! Ahaha, the guys who made the Subaru commercial were the same people who're making the live action movies? I didn't realize that the commercial was supposed to be a teaser since Japanese commercials have notoriety for being... strange, lol. I still can't see how SnK managed to garner so much attention though. It was far from a bad anime, but it wasn't anything terribly outstanding either (I laughed at the black humor though). I guess the giant rampaging humanoids was an interesting concept, and maybe the art also stood out, but it still strikes me as odd how popular SnK has gotten.

 

Ehhhh? You managed to type up most of this on your iTouch? And you did this while fighting off carsickness? Geezus, that's insane. As much as I appreciate your efforts in typing a timely response (heck, you even posted early) it really wasn't necessary. In fact, I'm a little annoyed that you ignored my request and even went above and beyond when doing so :c Ahaha, you're too much, and you never cease to surprise me. But in this case, that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Still, it would feel wrong not to thank you for your efforts, so thank you, b-b-b-baka. I'm not planning on doing anything special for Independence Day other than seeing some fireworks. Hopefully the weather is working in your favor for the rest of your trip! Be sure to drink lots of water in those 90+ degree conditions and I hope all goes well for you!

Ahhhhhhhh, it’s so good to be back, both at home and on DCW!  I have a lot to type (more than I’ve ever had to type before, so brace yourself for a long read), so pardon any inconveniences this might cause you.  The first part of this reply will be responding to what you typed before, and the second part will be all about my Orlando trip (and then some).  Grab a snack and get comfy, because this is going to take a while…......

 

Ohhh, August 7th, huh?  Orientation for the new students starts August 16th, so it looks like I’ll be missing you by a little over a week, ahah.  When you go be sure to try the food and get a feel for the campus!  I hope you end up liking it, because if you do and you end up attending then maybe the unreal can become real, eheheh…  But as you said, I don’t want to get ahead of myself.  Which other colleges are you going to be visiting over the course of summer break?

 

Hm, you’re almost scaring me out of getting a OnePlus One.  It seems iPhones are still the most popular phone around, from what I’ve seen people using during my Orlando trip.  Still, I’m feeling ambitious enough to tackle an Android.  It may take me a while to get used to, but I feel it’ll be worth the invested time.  After all, now that I’m going to college I want to start fresh and an Android seems like a pretty good way to do that.  Thanks for your advice!  Let me know which phone you’ll be getting once your iPhone 4 kicks the bucket.  Ah, and speaking of fresh starts, I actually finally got around to making a Facebook account this Independence Day.  Since I’ll be losing my phone chastity in a short while, I figured I might as well try this new-fangled site and see just how useful it can be, hahah.  I’m not going to use it to friend anybody from my high school years (I know, it may seem like that defeats the purpose) but I’ll be using it to expand my connections in the future to help me get internships and stay on top of the going-ons around Case.  I, uhhh, I’m not doing this right, am I?

 

Those are fair points.  I’m curious though, what kind of roller coasters are you fine with then?  Would Kingda Ka be something you’d ride?

 

Aww, it’s too bad your scores aren’t good enough to be proud of.  I know it was really unlikely, but I was hoping maybe you’d somehow manage an 800 on at least one of them so you’d be able to just focus on studying one for October.  Well, you still have some time, so be sure to start studying as soon as possible!  Start studying right now in fact.  Like, literally, stop reading this and pick up a prep book.  (I know you’re not going to listen and you’re going to finish reading this monster of a response before you at least consider studying, but it was worth a try, haha.)  Over the course of the next few months I’ll do my best to motivate you!  And feel free to ask me any questions if you need to, though admittedly SATs are practically ancient history for me now.  I can’t even remember what I ate for breakfast this morning (that’s a lie; it was scrambled eggs).

 

Your experience with teaching yourself how to play piano pieces like that is actually pretty cool.  It’s commendable how you were so determined to play a piece that you wrote out the bass clef notes.  And I’ve forgotten how to read bass clef myself, haha.  I had lessons briefly a long while back, but I can’t remember for how long.  Looks like you’ve decided to scrap the idea anyway, ahah.  I’m thinking maybe you should write about something you’re really passionate about.  That bit of advice probably sounds cheesy and doesn’t mean much, but the piano idea, while pretty good, doesn’t sound like something you’d enjoy writing about.  The happier you are writing about something, I guess the more driven you’d be to want to make it work?  Because I love stargazing so much, I knew I just had to work it out, even though it started out rough and didn’t really seem like Common App essay material.  And I suppose that’s how good essays are made, haha.  Your initials, huh?  I wonder what they are…  EZ?  JZ?  MT?  PU?  I can’t really think of too many letter combinations that make something interesting when said out loud, though there’s probably one really obvious one I’m forgetting, eheh.  Ahh, and don’t stress about it!  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about it and just procrastinate the time away until October, but maybe you should partake in a stress-reliever to clear your head.  Like a book, or movie, or a day out with friends or family.  It is the summer after all, and it would be a crying shame if you were stressed every waking moment.  I really wish I could provide more than just words of support.  Hrmm, maybe write about a quirk about your personality?  Like how you like to strike up small talk with strangers while waiting in line?  Actually, ehh, I don’t know how that would address any of the essay prompts.  Ahhhh, you’re right, this can be stress inducing…  I’ll do my best to think this out with you, hahaha.

 

Whoops, didn’t mean to sound too salty.  I’m trying my best not to get my jimmies rustled every time I think of JP Stevens, especially since I’ve finally graduated from there, but I can’t help myself sometimes, hah.  The teachers do seem to find the lack of A/C annoying to say the least, but I don’t think any of them bother to complain.  And even if they do, the real bigwigs of the school don’t see it as an extremely urgent issue.  The major rooms of academic operation are A/C-ed, like the main office, the nurse’s office, the guidance counselor offices, the library, and the few new classrooms that were built a couple years back.  It’s not like the school is 100% charcoal stove, but the students and most teachers usually don’t get to experience the blessing that is A/C on a daily school basis.  Not to mention, the A/C that does exist is very light, so you’re never cool or cold, just comfortable and not sweating.  Huh, I seem to have forgotten where I was going with this.  I was addressing something you brought up, but I feel like I’m starting to go off on a tangent about the lack of A/C in my school again.  Eheheh, sorry…  Anyway, I don’t think you did too little in high school or anything.  You may not have done anything too stand-out like some people may have, but you’ve done more than I ever did in high school, that’s for sure.  I barely touched anything in the volunteering spectrum, and I only gave honor societies the brief light of day before finding I was too lazy to maintain my positions and just gave up.  Oh, and I actually joined my school’s robotics team for my sophomore year before losing all motivation and dropping that as well (you’d be surprised by how many things I started but never pulled through with).  You may not have felt you’ve done anything special or noteworthy, but there are probably plenty of people who look up to you and can only wish they had accomplished what you did in high school, me included.  You have a lot to be proud of, no doubt.

 

I don’t think I’ve ever truly sobbed before (okay fine, maybe as a baby) since I’m a silent crier as well.  If I’m lucky, I can time my crying during my showers, so I don’t make a mess of either my homework on my desk or my pillow and bed sheets.  I haven’t cried much recently either, since senior year is relatively stress-free in comparison to previous ones.  It is rather amazing how our bodies have this mechanic of crying.  On the surface, it may just seem like a means of self-expression, something we as animals do to show others of our species that we’re hurting on the inside and need compassion and comfort that only another human can provide.  But the fact that toxins and hormones are released makes it clear that even just crying alone in a darkened room helps.  I guess that’s why I feel so much better after really just letting my tears flow, even if there isn’t anyone there to see them, ahah.  Ohh, the only form of exercise I do is jogging or just repetitive sets of muscle exercises, so unless I trip or pull a muscle and get myself down about that, I find that it’s generally beneficial.  But I can imagine that with skill based things like that, I’d be avoiding them if I’m having a bad day as well.  Playing my oboe and flubbing up or playing Smash and just continually losing would wreck my mood even more, for sure.  The next time I’m having a rotten day, I’ll try thinking about what you do: the primitive stuff like running water and mirrors and sewage pipes.  I’ve never heard about doing this to make oneself better before, and you’re the only person I know who does this, but it seems to work.  Haha, I wonder if such a unique and specialized trick as yours will even work on someone else like me.  Gosh, I know I’ve said I can be too honest and revealing about myself online, but even I’ve never come to trust and know someone on the Internet as much as I have you.  It’s really unbelievable how much someone I’ve never met before can mean so much to me, especially considering how we’ve only know each other for less than a year.  In this short period of time, you’ve come to mean more to me than people I’ve known and seen every day for the past four or more years.  Just being accepting of who you are doesn’t seem like nearly enough, but if you say so…  I’m still unspeakably flattered that you’d confide in me, so if my conscience ever compels me to just let my secrets go and confess something to someone, you’ll definitely be that someone!

 

Dug through the amiibo subreddit and somehow managed to find the post again.  Here it is.  And here’s a tutorial followup.  But to answer your question, it appears he used acetone, which is common enough to find.  Gosh, looking back at the results, the cards look absolutely amazing without any plastic on them.  Ahahah, it almost makes me want to do it myself, but I’m going to have to practice with something else first.  Wouldn’t want to ruin my Lucina box that I went through such lengths of obtain.

 

UBW is Illya’s least involved route, so it’s understandable her character may have felt shafted.  She even plays a bigger role in Fate, and a very active role in HF.  Ohh yeah, and the last two episodes were pure VN reader fanservice, haha.  There were apparently a ton of OSTs from the original VN that were remixed and Fate/hollow ataraxia (the “sequel” to F/sn) characters, like Luvia Edelfelt made random appearances   (This goes without saying, but don’t Google anything related to F/ha because it will spoil the rest of F/sn, naturally.)  Haha, it was kinda hard to recognize Waver.  Nasu has a bad habit of drastically changing the height, voice, eyes, and hair (pretty much everything) of people who age.  And I’m curious, you say that you dislike certain clichés and you’re glad the romance between Shirou and Rin was just a subplot, so why are you disappointed that they didn’t kiss in the end?  I guess without the sex scene their relationship may feel just a bit too platonic and not intimate enough, but I didn’t mind too much.  Speaking of which, I wonder why they completely censored out the sex scene, not evening making it an implied one?  I don’t think it has to do with potential age of consent discrepancies with other countries when localizing the anime (Rin and Shirou are both 17, by the way) since Mirai Nikki was brought to America without any issues and Yuno and Yuki engaged in consensual sex… and they were 14 years old………  Anyway, I saw your post in the Anime You Watched Recently thread, so I’d like to address the UBW portions of that first.  The problem with the UBW anime was that it tried to cater to too many people, notably 3 groups: 1) those that have read the VN and expect a 1:1 adaptation, 2) those that have seen F/Z and expect a direct sequel, and 3) those who expect it to be a good first anime to get into the Fate series.  Unfortunately, in an attempt to please everyone, it pleased no one.  Some parts catered too much to the VN readers, and F/Z-only watchers end up confused.  Some parts were changed to cater to F/Z watchers, angering VN purists and leaving those new to Fate in the dark.  I’ll have to admit it, now that the hype is over and I’ve taken a step back to look at the series as the whole more objectively, UBW was a bit disappointing.  It’s far from bad and still an amazing example of a good anime, but there are undeniable flaws that prevent it from being what it was all hyped up to be.  A lot of these flaws can be tied to the fact that it was a bad adaptation and not so much that UBW itself is inherently bad.  Whoever was involved with the storyboard of the anime really messed up by leaving out certain details that lead to plot holes.  As for why some Masters seem stronger than Servants, it’s mainly a gimmick.  No one in the Fate universe is capable of killing a Servant in a fair one-on-one fight.  Kuzuki only defeated Rider because he was boosted by Caster’s magic and because she was taken by surprise.  She just charged in expecting to skewer the man, not expecting him to twist her head 360 degrees around.  Luckily for Saber, she was able to heal fast enough after Kuzuki broke her spine (Servants only die if at least one of their vital organs (heart and brain) is destroyed) because Rin and Shirou especially kept Kuzuki occupied.  Shinji was incapable of providing that support for Rider.  As for why Shirou survived long enough against Lancer to accidentally summon Saber, Lancer wasn’t taking the fight seriously.  You wouldn’t either in that situation, and Lancer himself doesn’t really have a stomach for sticking innocent people all the time, at the order of a Master he’s not really on great terms with.  In the second season, Rin only managed to lay a blow on Caster because she, once again, took her by surprise.  Caster’s very similar to Gilgamesh in the sense that she’s not a warrior.  In life she was literally a princess who had absolutely no fighting experience.  She just has a large store of mana that allows her to fling magic balls at people, with her only “weapon” being Rule Breaker.  And Rule Breaker is practically a butter knife in actual combat.  Since she’s not a fighter, she didn’t have the reaction time and instincts that King Arthur, Heracles, Cu Chulainn, Sasaki Kojiro, and heck even Shirou would have in that situation.  And it’s not like she was defeated by Rin or anything, since Archer finished her off.  As strong as a mana boosted Rin is, she wasn’t able to deal a finishing blow like Kuzuki did with Rider.  If “her” Servant hadn’t stepped in, Rin and Shirou would have honestly lost that battle.  As for why Shirou defeated Gilgamesh, it was explained decently well in the anime itself.  It mainly has to do with the fact that his world of swords can nullify Gil’s Noble Phantasms, and can even fire at a rate equal to that of Gate of Babylon.  Also, Gil was (and always is) overconfident about his skills.  He treated Shirou as lower than dirt and even stated that he didn’t have the right to gaze upon his greatest treasure, Ea.  That’s also why he subtly hesitated before pulled out Ea, since even in dire straits his pride gets in the way of going all out.  However something that wasn’t made very clear was that when Shirou uses his fake Noble Phantasms, he temporarily gains the skills of the Heroic Spirits that those fakes would have belonged to.  That’s why he was jumping and leaping and dodging like a madman in the second to last episode.  It wasn’t just done to look cool, haha.  Furthermore, there are many instances where Servants brutally outclass Masters.  Kirei was just barely able to escape Caster’s golems at the end of the first season, and Illya, the strongest mage in the fifth war, was unable to do anything to assist Berserker in the fight against Gilgamesh, even getting in the way on occasion.  Shirou says himself that he’s only good against Gilgamesh, and it took him the entire series to get to that point.  And he needed the aid of Rin’s mana to boot.  Shinji can’t do any form of magic, and Caster’s former Master didn’t look like the Servant slaying type either.  Even in the fourth war, none of the Masters were suited to kill Servants.  Ryuunosuke and Waver?  Definitely not.  Tokiomi and Kayneth were as strong as Illya was in F/sn, and neither of them seem like the combative type, especially not the prime and proper Tohsaka head.  Kariya is too busy bleeding and coughing up worms to even stand up straight, and Kiritsugu’s Origin Bullets are only effective against mages (because they have Magic Circuits) and not Servants.  All in all, Servants are still your strongest asset in the Grail War, even if there may be some flub ups and bad match ups here and there.  I know I typed a lot and it may seem like I’m defending poor writing, which I’m not.  I’m defending the source material more than anything, while criticizing the poor adaptation of something that had potential to be great.  I’ve even revoked the 9 I gave to the second season of UBW and changed my favorite list to include the first season again (though it’s only a place holder hopefully for either one of the Kara no Kyoukai movies or HF).  Ahh, and speaking of HF, we don’t have any release date for it.  In fact, don’t expect it any time soon, since the producer just announced at Anime Expo in LA a couple of days ago (so envious of SoCal, by the way) that work hadn’t even started on the movie(s) yet!  I know, it’s taking them a while to work past the quickly animated Sakura talking to an off-screen Shirou teaser that was made over a year ago…  It’s understandable though, since no other studio would have been able to handle the time and money that went into the UBW anime.  And ufotable has God Eater lined up for this summer as well at the Tales of 20th Anniversary anime in 2016, so they have their hands full.  I hope they don’t push HF back too far, because I am looking forward to it.  We don’t even know how many movies it’s going to be.  One of the guys working on the movie, Kondou Hikaru, just announced that ideally he wanted it to be a single 6 hour long movie, but realized that would be impossible for the production company, movie theaters, DVD companies, and watchers in general, so he scrapped that idea immediately, haha.  It’s good that he at least understands it can’t be a single hour and a half long movie.  Hopefully we get either two 2.5 hour movies or three 2 hour movies.  Anyway, that’s all the info I have for you about Fate, haha.  Geez, what a beastly paragraph.  Probably should have split it somewhere in the middle…

 

Oh my gosh, I think I did the exact same thing to reach the Axe End, haha.  I don’t remember why I chose the doors I did, but it’s interesting you did the same.  As fun as the puzzles can sometimes be, there are definitely ones that stumped me for stupid reasons.  Whether it was because I was interpreting the instructions wrong or just read something wrong or even if the puzzle itself wasn’t very clear, I’ve gotten myself stuck more times than I’d like to admit, haha.  I haven’t heard from you in a while, so how’s your progress?  Oh oh oh, and great news.  At Anime Expo (no seriously, Cali gets everything) Aksys Games announced that Zero Escape would be getting its third game to cap off the trilogy!!  Ahhh I’m so excited!  It’s going to be for the 3DS and PS Vita and will be released in the summer of 2016, titled “Zero Time Dilema”.  Due to its low popularity in Japan and financial difficulties, the game was put on hold indefinitely.  Fans who were craving more after Virtue’s Last Reward made “Operation Bluebird” to show their support of the series and Zero Escape 3 specially, and now we’re finally getting it!  The director/writer said that without fan support there never would have been the two games after 999.  I’ve done a pretty good job of not spoiling myself, so of course don’t look anything up related to Operation Bluebird or ZTD in case you ruin 999 and/or VLR for yourself.  If you’re liking 999 as much as I did, then you’re probably really happy to hear the news!  Ah, yeah, I’ve heard of those games.  Geez, I can’t believe how big Ao Oni became.  It’s crazy to think they made a novel and live action movie after an RPG Maker game (not saying RPG Maker games are bad, since one of my favorite games, To the Moon, was made with RPG Maker).

 

Hmm, I guess it’s true that Let’s Plays can save you money since you aren’t really tempted to play through XY yourself anymore.  Some people say they’re terrible games, but I just think their expectations were too high.  It delivered exactly what I expected, plus some (Super Training and Pokemon Amie are addictively fun; you need to try them out if they carry it over to next gen games).  And I guess I just felt that Lysandre and Archer are similar in that they started off wanting to change the world for the better (saving lives, making the world beautiful) but grew bitter once they realized the impossibility of the tasks.  Archer grew to feel that humans themselves were the root of most of mankind’s problems, and similarly Lysandre started to believe that humans were all inherently evil and stupid.  They both felt that humans were beyond saving, and while Archer takes out his frustration by trying to kill Shirou, Lysandre decides it would be best to destroy the world and start fresh.  Shirou insists that even though he acknowledges it’s impossible to save everyone and that it would be hypocritical to still try, he insists on becoming a hero of justice anyway.  Likewise, the player and his/her friends attempt to reason with Lysandre, insisting that if people worked together a better more beautiful world would be possible.  Both Archer and Lysandre dismiss the rebuttals as naïve, though Archer eventually changes his mind while Lysandre goes down still believing that humans are beyond salvation.  Ehhhh, maybe it’s because I was playing Y at the same time I watched UBW, but there are definitely a lot of parallels between the two, ehehh.

 

Admittedly, I’ll probably stop using Swagbucks myself.  I’ll try to find a part time job in college, and it just wouldn’t be worth the time and effort at that point to continue using this site.  I can’t deny how useful and helpful it was for getting a 2DS and Smash 3DS and a Marth amiibo though, haha.

 

Ahh, well if you’re fairly confident about the cause of your headaches, then I guess I shouldn’t worry too much.  Still though, try your best to make yourself drink more water!  I don’t know about you, but I’m always drinking water.  Whether it’s the summer time or the winter time and whether I’m jogging or just sitting at my desk watching anime studying, I almost always have either bottle or cupped water on hand.  Eheh, maybe it’s because my mouth and throat get dry really easily.  Even if your mouth is always moist and you’re not feeling particularly thirsty, just think how bad your headaches can get and forced yourself to take a gulp or two every once in a while.  Maybe pace yourself by drinking a certain number of fluid ounces every 30 minutes?  I know I drink a quarter of a pint of water for every ten minutes I jog, and then while I’m cooling down I down a full pint in one sitting since I’m no longer concerned about the extra water weight I’d be gaining, hahah.  Do whatever it takes to drink more, because it’s definitely not good for your body to be screaming for water all the time.

 

Welp, can’t really argue with you there about Xenoblade Chronicles.  Even I would probably resort to a Let’s Play if I really wanted to experience the game but just didn’t have the time and money to spare.  I’ll definitely keep you posted, but for now there’s not much to say.  I actually didn’t get the chance to even touch my Pearl version during the trip to Orlando, so I still have yet to even EV train, bleh.  My original goal was to get a black trainer card before I went off to college, as a symbolic way of leaving my childhood behind in Edison.  But with how behind schedule I am regarding all my hobbies (a lot of goals and aspirations have accumulated over the past four years, even with all the time I slacked off in school), I don’t think that’s going to be possible.  I’m admittedly a bit biased toward SnK just because I’m proud to have discovered it before it became mainstream (I’m not a hipster though, since I still really like it), but I was mainly impressed by the directing.  The music was great and the animation at its high points are stellar and the atmosphere and world was unique and unforgettable (characters were blehh though), but what glued it all together was the directing by Tetsurou Araki.  I’m a fan of the way he directs though he hasn’t done a large number of works, as he’s just really good at building the hype and tension.  Not to mention, SnK just makes for some outstanding AMVs, heh.

 

Eheheheheh, well I can’t blame you for being a bit annoyed.  If I were in your position and you did what I did, I’d probably be upset as well, ahah.  Fireworks are really awesome, though I feel as though I’ve become numb to good ones since I watched a ton of firework shows the past few days (I’ll get into that shortly).  Let me know how they were!  I know there may not be much to say about them, but still.

 

Alright, so as promised, from this point on I guess I’ll be writing about my Orlando trip.  I haven’t even typed this part up yet and I already know it’s going to be really long.  Phew, as if what I’ve already typed up wasn’t enough, I know.  Sorry in advance, haha.  Take a stretcher here, if you’ve been sitting too long and your legs are falling asleep and/or your snacks have run out.

 

**EDIT EDIT EDIT**

The impossible just happened.  I broke the forum.  I tried posting my full response in one go, and it gave me an error message saying "post_too_long"......................................

I-I-Th-This is just...  What have I done?????

Okay, I'll just double post instead.  I hope that's still alright... I hope the mods don't mind......

Probably should have just made this a PM...

[Akazora 293]

Ahhhhhhhh, it’s so good to be back, both at home and on DCW!  I have a lot to type (more than I’ve ever had to type before, so brace yourself for a long read), so pardon any inconveniences this might cause you.  The first part of this reply will be responding to what you typed before, and the second part will be all about my Orlando trip (and then some).  Grab a snack and get comfy, because this is going to take a while…......

 

Ohhh, August 7th, huh?  Orientation for the new students starts August 16th, so it looks like I’ll be missing you by a little over a week, ahah.  When you go be sure to try the food and get a feel for the campus!  I hope you end up liking it, because if you do and you end up attending then maybe the unreal can become real, eheheh…  But as you said, I don’t want to get ahead of myself.  Which other colleges are you going to be visiting over the course of summer break?

 

Hm, you’re almost scaring me out of getting a OnePlus One.  It seems iPhones are still the most popular phone around, from what I’ve seen people using during my Orlando trip.  Still, I’m feeling ambitious enough to tackle an Android.  It may take me a while to get used to, but I feel it’ll be worth the invested time.  After all, now that I’m going to college I want to start fresh and an Android seems like a pretty good way to do that.  Thanks for your advice!  Let me know which phone you’ll be getting once your iPhone 4 kicks the bucket.  Ah, and speaking of fresh starts, I actually finally got around to making a Facebook account this Independence Day.  Since I’ll be losing my phone chastity in a short while, I figured I might as well try this new-fangled site and see just how useful it can be, hahah.  I’m not going to use it to friend anybody from my high school years (I know, it may seem like that defeats the purpose) but I’ll be using it to expand my connections in the future to help me get internships and stay on top of the going-ons around Case.  I, uhhh, I’m not doing this right, am I?

 

Those are fair points.  I’m curious though, what kind of roller coasters are you fine with then?  Would Kingda Ka be something you’d ride?

 

Aww, it’s too bad your scores aren’t good enough to be proud of.  I know it was really unlikely, but I was hoping maybe you’d somehow manage an 800 on at least one of them so you’d be able to just focus on studying one for October.  Well, you still have some time, so be sure to start studying as soon as possible!  Start studying right now in fact.  Like, literally, stop reading this and pick up a prep book.  (I know you’re not going to listen and you’re going to finish reading this monster of a response before you at least consider studying, but it was worth a try, haha.)  Over the course of the next few months I’ll do my best to motivate you!  And feel free to ask me any questions if you need to, though admittedly SATs are practically ancient history for me now.  I can’t even remember what I ate for breakfast this morning (that’s a lie; it was scrambled eggs).

 

Your experience with teaching yourself how to play piano pieces like that is actually pretty cool.  It’s commendable how you were so determined to play a piece that you wrote out the bass clef notes.  And I’ve forgotten how to read bass clef myself, haha.  I had lessons briefly a long while back, but I can’t remember for how long.  Looks like you’ve decided to scrap the idea anyway, ahah.  I’m thinking maybe you should write about something you’re really passionate about.  That bit of advice probably sounds cheesy and doesn’t mean much, but the piano idea, while pretty good, doesn’t sound like something you’d enjoy writing about.  The happier you are writing about something, I guess the more driven you’d be to want to make it work?  Because I love stargazing so much, I knew I just had to work it out, even though it started out rough and didn’t really seem like Common App essay material.  And I suppose that’s how good essays are made, haha.  Your initials, huh?  I wonder what they are…  EZ?  JZ?  MT?  PU?  I can’t really think of too many letter combinations that make something interesting when said out loud, though there’s probably one really obvious one I’m forgetting, eheh.  Ahh, and don’t stress about it!  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about it and just procrastinate the time away until October, but maybe you should partake in a stress-reliever to clear your head.  Like a book, or movie, or a day out with friends or family.  It is the summer after all, and it would be a crying shame if you were stressed every waking moment.  I really wish I could provide more than just words of support.  Hrmm, maybe write about a quirk about your personality?  Like how you like to strike up small talk with strangers while waiting in line?  Actually, ehh, I don’t know how that would address any of the essay prompts.  Ahhhh, you’re right, this can be stress inducing…  I’ll do my best to think this out with you, hahaha.

 

Whoops, didn’t mean to sound too salty.  I’m trying my best not to get my jimmies rustled every time I think of JP Stevens, especially since I’ve finally graduated from there, but I can’t help myself sometimes, hah.  The teachers do seem to find the lack of A/C annoying to say the least, but I don’t think any of them bother to complain.  And even if they do, the real bigwigs of the school don’t see it as an extremely urgent issue.  The major rooms of academic operation are A/C-ed, like the main office, the nurse’s office, the guidance counselor offices, the library, and the few new classrooms that were built a couple years back.  It’s not like the school is 100% charcoal stove, but the students and most teachers usually don’t get to experience the blessing that is A/C on a daily school basis.  Not to mention, the A/C that does exist is very light, so you’re never cool or cold, just comfortable and not sweating.  Huh, I seem to have forgotten where I was going with this.  I was addressing something you brought up, but I feel like I’m starting to go off on a tangent about the lack of A/C in my school again.  Eheheh, sorry…  Anyway, I don’t think you did too little in high school or anything.  You may not have done anything too stand-out like some people may have, but you’ve done more than I ever did in high school, that’s for sure.  I barely touched anything in the volunteering spectrum, and I only gave honor societies the brief light of day before finding I was too lazy to maintain my positions and just gave up.  Oh, and I actually joined my school’s robotics team for my sophomore year before losing all motivation and dropping that as well (you’d be surprised by how many things I started but never pulled through with).  You may not have felt you’ve done anything special or noteworthy, but there are probably plenty of people who look up to you and can only wish they had accomplished what you did in high school, me included.  You have a lot to be proud of, no doubt.

 

I don’t think I’ve ever truly sobbed before (okay fine, maybe as a baby) since I’m a silent crier as well.  If I’m lucky, I can time my crying during my showers, so I don’t make a mess of either my homework on my desk or my pillow and bed sheets.  I haven’t cried much recently either, since senior year is relatively stress-free in comparison to previous ones.  It is rather amazing how our bodies have this mechanic of crying.  On the surface, it may just seem like a means of self-expression, something we as animals do to show others of our species that we’re hurting on the inside and need compassion and comfort that only another human can provide.  But the fact that toxins and hormones are released makes it clear that even just crying alone in a darkened room helps.  I guess that’s why I feel so much better after really just letting my tears flow, even if there isn’t anyone there to see them, ahah.  Ohh, the only form of exercise I do is jogging or just repetitive sets of muscle exercises, so unless I trip or pull a muscle and get myself down about that, I find that it’s generally beneficial.  But I can imagine that with skill based things like that, I’d be avoiding them if I’m having a bad day as well.  Playing my oboe and flubbing up or playing Smash and just continually losing would wreck my mood even more, for sure.  The next time I’m having a rotten day, I’ll try thinking about what you do: the primitive stuff like running water and mirrors and sewage pipes.  I’ve never heard about doing this to make oneself better before, and you’re the only person I know who does this, but it seems to work.  Haha, I wonder if such a unique and specialized trick as yours will even work on someone else like me.  Gosh, I know I’ve said I can be too honest and revealing about myself online, but even I’ve never come to trust and know someone on the Internet as much as I have you.  It’s really unbelievable how much someone I’ve never met before can mean so much to me, especially considering how we’ve only know each other for less than a year.  In this short period of time, you’ve come to mean more to me than people I’ve known and seen every day for the past four or more years.  Just being accepting of who you are doesn’t seem like nearly enough, but if you say so…  I’m still unspeakably flattered that you’d confide in me, so if my conscience ever compels me to just let my secrets go and confess something to someone, you’ll definitely be that someone!

 

Dug through the amiibo subreddit and somehow managed to find the post again.  Here it is.  And here’s a tutorial followup.  But to answer your question, it appears he used acetone, which is common enough to find.  Gosh, looking back at the results, the cards look absolutely amazing without any plastic on them.  Ahahah, it almost makes me want to do it myself, but I’m going to have to practice with something else first.  Wouldn’t want to ruin my Lucina box that I went through such lengths of obtain.

 

UBW is Illya’s least involved route, so it’s understandable her character may have felt shafted.  She even plays a bigger role in Fate, and a very active role in HF.  Ohh yeah, and the last two episodes were pure VN reader fanservice, haha.  There were apparently a ton of OSTs from the original VN that were remixed and Fate/hollow ataraxia (the “sequel” to F/sn) characters, like Luvia Edelfelt made random appearances   (This goes without saying, but don’t Google anything related to F/ha because it will spoil the rest of F/sn, naturally.)  Haha, it was kinda hard to recognize Waver.  Nasu has a bad habit of drastically changing the height, voice, eyes, and hair (pretty much everything) of people who age.  And I’m curious, you say that you dislike certain clichés and you’re glad the romance between Shirou and Rin was just a subplot, so why are you disappointed that they didn’t kiss in the end?  I guess without the sex scene their relationship may feel just a bit too platonic and not intimate enough, but I didn’t mind too much.  Speaking of which, I wonder why they completely censored out the sex scene, not evening making it an implied one?  I don’t think it has to do with potential age of consent discrepancies with other countries when localizing the anime (Rin and Shirou are both 17, by the way) since Mirai Nikki was brought to America without any issues and Yuno and Yuki engaged in consensual sex… and they were 14 years old………  Anyway, I saw your post in the Anime You Watched Recently thread, so I’d like to address the UBW portions of that first.  The problem with the UBW anime was that it tried to cater to too many people, notably 3 groups: 1) those that have read the VN and expect a 1:1 adaptation, 2) those that have seen F/Z and expect a direct sequel, and 3) those who expect it to be a good first anime to get into the Fate series.  Unfortunately, in an attempt to please everyone, it pleased no one.  Some parts catered too much to the VN readers, and F/Z-only watchers end up confused.  Some parts were changed to cater to F/Z watchers, angering VN purists and leaving those new to Fate in the dark.  I’ll have to admit it, now that the hype is over and I’ve taken a step back to look at the series as the whole more objectively, UBW was a bit disappointing.  It’s far from bad and still an amazing example of a good anime, but there are undeniable flaws that prevent it from being what it was all hyped up to be.  A lot of these flaws can be tied to the fact that it was a bad adaptation and not so much that UBW itself is inherently bad.  Whoever was involved with the storyboard of the anime really messed up by leaving out certain details that lead to plot holes.  As for why some Masters seem stronger than Servants, it’s mainly a gimmick.  No one in the Fate universe is capable of killing a Servant in a fair one-on-one fight.  Kuzuki only defeated Rider because he was boosted by Caster’s magic and because she was taken by surprise.  She just charged in expecting to skewer the man, not expecting him to twist her head 360 degrees around.  Luckily for Saber, she was able to heal fast enough after Kuzuki broke her spine (Servants only die if at least one of their vital organs (heart and brain) is destroyed) because Rin and Shirou especially kept Kuzuki occupied.  Shinji was incapable of providing that support for Rider.  As for why Shirou survived long enough against Lancer to accidentally summon Saber, Lancer wasn’t taking the fight seriously.  You wouldn’t either in that situation, and Lancer himself doesn’t really have a stomach for sticking innocent people all the time, at the order of a Master he’s not really on great terms with.  In the second season, Rin only managed to lay a blow on Caster because she, once again, took her by surprise.  Caster’s very similar to Gilgamesh in the sense that she’s not a warrior.  In life she was literally a princess who had absolutely no fighting experience.  She just has a large store of mana that allows her to fling magic balls at people, with her only “weapon” being Rule Breaker.  And Rule Breaker is practically a butter knife in actual combat.  Since she’s not a fighter, she didn’t have the reaction time and instincts that King Arthur, Heracles, Cu Chulainn, Sasaki Kojiro, and heck even Shirou would have in that situation.  And it’s not like she was defeated by Rin or anything, since Archer finished her off.  As strong as a mana boosted Rin is, she wasn’t able to deal a finishing blow like Kuzuki did with Rider.  If “her” Servant hadn’t stepped in, Rin and Shirou would have honestly lost that battle.  As for why Shirou defeated Gilgamesh, it was explained decently well in the anime itself.  It mainly has to do with the fact that his world of swords can nullify Gil’s Noble Phantasms, and can even fire at a rate equal to that of Gate of Babylon.  Also, Gil was (and always is) overconfident about his skills.  He treated Shirou as lower than dirt and even stated that he didn’t have the right to gaze upon his greatest treasure, Ea.  That’s also why he subtly hesitated before pulled out Ea, since even in dire straits his pride gets in the way of going all out.  However something that wasn’t made very clear was that when Shirou uses his fake Noble Phantasms, he temporarily gains the skills of the Heroic Spirits that those fakes would have belonged to.  That’s why he was jumping and leaping and dodging like a madman in the second to last episode.  It wasn’t just done to look cool, haha.  Furthermore, there are many instances where Servants brutally outclass Masters.  Kirei was just barely able to escape Caster’s golems at the end of the first season, and Illya, the strongest mage in the fifth war, was unable to do anything to assist Berserker in the fight against Gilgamesh, even getting in the way on occasion.  Shirou says himself that he’s only good against Gilgamesh, and it took him the entire series to get to that point.  And he needed the aid of Rin’s mana to boot.  Shinji can’t do any form of magic, and Caster’s former Master didn’t look like the Servant slaying type either.  Even in the fourth war, none of the Masters were suited to kill Servants.  Ryuunosuke and Waver?  Definitely not.  Tokiomi and Kayneth were as strong as Illya was in F/sn, and neither of them seem like the combative type, especially not the prime and proper Tohsaka head.  Kariya is too busy bleeding and coughing up worms to even stand up straight, and Kiritsugu’s Origin Bullets are only effective against mages (because they have Magic Circuits) and not Servants.  All in all, Servants are still your strongest asset in the Grail War, even if there may be some flub ups and bad match ups here and there.  I know I typed a lot and it may seem like I’m defending poor writing, which I’m not.  I’m defending the source material more than anything, while criticizing the poor adaptation of something that had potential to be great.  I’ve even revoked the 9 I gave to the second season of UBW and changed my favorite list to include the first season again (though it’s only a place holder hopefully for either one of the Kara no Kyoukai movies or HF).  Ahh, and speaking of HF, we don’t have any release date for it.  In fact, don’t expect it any time soon, since the producer just announced at Anime Expo in LA a couple of days ago (so envious of SoCal, by the way) that work hadn’t even started on the movie(s) yet!  I know, it’s taking them a while to work past the quickly animated Sakura talking to an off-screen Shirou teaser that was made over a year ago…  It’s understandable though, since no other studio would have been able to handle the time and money that went into the UBW anime.  And ufotable has God Eater lined up for this summer as well at the Tales of 20th Anniversary anime in 2016, so they have their hands full.  I hope they don’t push HF back too far, because I am looking forward to it.  We don’t even know how many movies it’s going to be.  One of the guys working on the movie, Kondou Hikaru, just announced that ideally he wanted it to be a single 6 hour long movie, but realized that would be impossible for the production company, movie theaters, DVD companies, and watchers in general, so he scrapped that idea immediately, haha.  It’s good that he at least understands it can’t be a single hour and a half long movie.  Hopefully we get either two 2.5 hour movies or three 2 hour movies.  Anyway, that’s all the info I have for you about Fate, haha.  Geez, what a beastly paragraph.  Probably should have split it somewhere in the middle…

 

Oh my gosh, I think I did the exact same thing to reach the Axe End, haha.  I don’t remember why I chose the doors I did, but it’s interesting you did the same.  As fun as the puzzles can sometimes be, there are definitely ones that stumped me for stupid reasons.  Whether it was because I was interpreting the instructions wrong or just read something wrong or even if the puzzle itself wasn’t very clear, I’ve gotten myself stuck more times than I’d like to admit, haha.  I haven’t heard from you in a while, so how’s your progress?  Oh oh oh, and great news.  At Anime Expo (no seriously, Cali gets everything) Aksys Games announced that Zero Escape would be getting its third game to cap off the trilogy!!  Ahhh I’m so excited!  It’s going to be for the 3DS and PS Vita and will be released in the summer of 2016, titled “Zero Time Dilema”.  Due to its low popularity in Japan and financial difficulties, the game was put on hold indefinitely.  Fans who were craving more after Virtue’s Last Reward made “Operation Bluebird” to show their support of the series and Zero Escape 3 specially, and now we’re finally getting it!  The director/writer said that without fan support there never would have been the two games after 999.  I’ve done a pretty good job of not spoiling myself, so of course don’t look anything up related to Operation Bluebird or ZTD in case you ruin 999 and/or VLR for yourself.  If you’re liking 999 as much as I did, then you’re probably really happy to hear the news!  Ah, yeah, I’ve heard of those games.  Geez, I can’t believe how big Ao Oni became.  It’s crazy to think they made a novel and live action movie after an RPG Maker game (not saying RPG Maker games are bad, since one of my favorite games, To the Moon, was made with RPG Maker).

 

Hmm, I guess it’s true that Let’s Plays can save you money since you aren’t really tempted to play through XY yourself anymore.  Some people say they’re terrible games, but I just think their expectations were too high.  It delivered exactly what I expected, plus some (Super Training and Pokemon Amie are addictively fun; you need to try them out if they carry it over to next gen games).  And I guess I just felt that Lysandre and Archer are similar in that they started off wanting to change the world for the better (saving lives, making the world beautiful) but grew bitter once they realized the impossibility of the tasks.  Archer grew to feel that humans themselves were the root of most of mankind’s problems, and similarly Lysandre started to believe that humans were all inherently evil and stupid.  They both felt that humans were beyond saving, and while Archer takes out his frustration by trying to kill Shirou, Lysandre decides it would be best to destroy the world and start fresh.  Shirou insists that even though he acknowledges it’s impossible to save everyone and that it would be hypocritical to still try, he insists on becoming a hero of justice anyway.  Likewise, the player and his/her friends attempt to reason with Lysandre, insisting that if people worked together a better more beautiful world would be possible.  Both Archer and Lysandre dismiss the rebuttals as naïve, though Archer eventually changes his mind while Lysandre goes down still believing that humans are beyond salvation.  Ehhhh, maybe it’s because I was playing Y at the same time I watched UBW, but there are definitely a lot of parallels between the two, ehehh.

 

Admittedly, I’ll probably stop using Swagbucks myself.  I’ll try to find a part time job in college, and it just wouldn’t be worth the time and effort at that point to continue using this site.  I can’t deny how useful and helpful it was for getting a 2DS and Smash 3DS and a Marth amiibo though, haha.

 

Ahh, well if you’re fairly confident about the cause of your headaches, then I guess I shouldn’t worry too much.  Still though, try your best to make yourself drink more water!  I don’t know about you, but I’m always drinking water.  Whether it’s the summer time or the winter time and whether I’m jogging or just sitting at my desk watching anime studying, I almost always have either bottle or cupped water on hand.  Eheh, maybe it’s because my mouth and throat get dry really easily.  Even if your mouth is always moist and you’re not feeling particularly thirsty, just think how bad your headaches can get and forced yourself to take a gulp or two every once in a while.  Maybe pace yourself by drinking a certain number of fluid ounces every 30 minutes?  I know I drink a quarter of a pint of water for every ten minutes I jog, and then while I’m cooling down I down a full pint in one sitting since I’m no longer concerned about the extra water weight I’d be gaining, hahah.  Do whatever it takes to drink more, because it’s definitely not good for your body to be screaming for water all the time.

 

Welp, can’t really argue with you there about Xenoblade Chronicles.  Even I would probably resort to a Let’s Play if I really wanted to experience the game but just didn’t have the time and money to spare.  I’ll definitely keep you posted, but for now there’s not much to say.  I actually didn’t get the chance to even touch my Pearl version during the trip to Orlando, so I still have yet to even EV train, bleh.  My original goal was to get a black trainer card before I went off to college, as a symbolic way of leaving my childhood behind in Edison.  But with how behind schedule I am regarding all my hobbies (a lot of goals and aspirations have accumulated over the past four years, even with all the time I slacked off in school), I don’t think that’s going to be possible.  I’m admittedly a bit biased toward SnK just because I’m proud to have discovered it before it became mainstream (I’m not a hipster though, since I still really like it), but I was mainly impressed by the directing.  The music was great and the animation at its high points are stellar and the atmosphere and world was unique and unforgettable (characters were blehh though), but what glued it all together was the directing by Tetsurou Araki.  I’m a fan of the way he directs though he hasn’t done a large number of works, as he’s just really good at building the hype and tension.  Not to mention, SnK just makes for some outstanding AMVs, heh.

 

Eheheheheh, well I can’t blame you for being a bit annoyed.  If I were in your position and you did what I did, I’d probably be upset as well, ahah.  Fireworks are really awesome, though I feel as though I’ve become numb to good ones since I watched a ton of firework shows the past few days (I’ll get into that shortly).  Let me know how they were!  I know there may not be much to say about them, but still.

 

Alright, so as promised, from this point on I guess I’ll be writing about my Orlando trip.  I haven’t even typed this part up yet and I already know it’s going to be really long.  Phew, as if what I’ve already typed up wasn’t enough, I know.  Sorry in advance, haha.  Take a stretcher here, if you’ve been sitting too long and your legs are falling asleep and/or your snacks have run out.

 

**EDIT EDIT EDIT**

The impossible just happened.  I broke the forum.  I tried posting my full response in one go, and it gave me an error message saying "post_too_long"......................................

I-I-Th-This is just...  What have I done?????

Okay, I'll just double post instead.  I hope that's still alright... I hope the mods don't mind...

^continued...

There’s not much to talk about regarding the two day car trip down to Florida on June 24th and 25th.  Apart from sleeping and replying to your previous response on my iTouch, nothing really happened.  The hotel we stayed at, I believe it was in North Carolina, was pretty average.  Anyway, skipping on up ahead to Florida, when we first arrived we got lost trying to find my sister.  She had flown to Florida from LA a few days prior because she had work to do, and once her work finished she was to join us in going to Disney.  Once we finally located her and picked her up, we drove straight to the hotel to drop off the insane amount of luggage we had brought from home.  The hotel suite was pretty nice.  There were three rooms: one for the kitchen and the couch and television and coffee table, one for the two beds as well as the second television, and of course the bathroom.  It was a steal, only $70 a day.  Granted, it was a low end suite in that it was old and its age was showing.  It was clean for the most part, but the shower was some weird outdated contraption that took a while to get used to and the ceiling was some gross color and texture, haha.  Given we were trying to save money it was good enough.  After dropping off our stuff and getting used to the room we would be living in for the next few days, we headed off to Uno’s for dinner before returning and calling it a night.  Or rather, everyone except me called it a night since I was still finishing writing up that reply to you and after I finished that I sent it, took a shower, and went to sleep excited for the next day.

 

The first park we’d be visiting was Epcot.  I had really high expectations after it took me completely by surprise when I came here for the band trip last year, and I was especially looking forward to visiting the Japan section of the World Showcase again.  But before I get to that, I need to address a very important issue that I only briefly mentioned: it was hot in Florida.  Not just your regular, “oh it’s kind of stuffy today isn’t it?” hot, but scorching, unbearable, unrelentingly hot.  It was 90+ degrees every day, and while alone that’s not too bad, we spent the entire day outside walking around carrying heavy bags in areas filled with other hot and sweating people.  Add in the humidity, and it felt more like 100+ degrees.  This was bad bad bad bad news for me.  I thought JP Stevens was brutal, but this was a whole new level of hot that’s rivaled only by the record temperatures in China during the summer of ’13.  For the first time since China, I was forced to wear shorts in public for an occasion that didn’t involve exercise.  And yet I was still melting every day I spent in Florida.  I had never been to Florida in the summer, only the winter and spring when it isn’t so bad, so this took me by surprise.  I knew it could get hot around there, but not that hot.  The fact that I had applied Rho Aias layers of sunscreen to protect myself from the brutal sun didn’t help, because it just made me feel ickier when I started literally sweating all over the pavement.  Ughhh, since I sweat more than most people, others were hot but not all of them looked gross because of it.  I just can’t imagine how some people can feel really hot and just not break a sweat (I saw quite a few people like that around Disney).  For me, sweat goes with heat like lightening goes with thunder.  Sigh, those lucky people who don’t look like walking wax figures when its hot better appreciate what they have.  Anyway, I don’t mean to start off this salty, but the heat nearly killed the trip for me and I needed to get most of my anger out so that only a minimal number of rants against the weather would be found after this point.  Oh, at least the A/C in Florida is amazing.  It’s everywhere, even in the restrooms!  It’s always on full blast and maintains temperatures in the low 70s, which is a godly waste of energy in hindsight since I can’t think of a single building in Jersey with temperatures that consistently low, but I’m not complaining because the salt was real during the trips and insanely low temperatures in buildings prevented me from being in a sour mood the whole time.

 

Anyway, on a more positive note, Epcot was pretty fun.  Maybe not as great as I remembered it being, only because my expectations were low last year while this time they were high.  Let’s see, Spaceship Earth was a simple animatronic ride that explored the development of communication from the Stone Age to the Computer Age.  It’s a bit of an older ride, located in the globe that defines Epcot’s image, but there was this one area of the ride that brought you into a darkened room full of small lights and well placed mirrors to make it look you were traveling through a field of stars, which was really pretty.  We also went on Mission: SPACE which was a space launch simulation.  The G-forces on that ride were really intense, I won’t lie.  Again, an older ride, but worth the short wait.  Test Track was a ride kind of like a roller coaster, but it was more like driving in a really fast car.  You “design” your own sports car and tested to see how it held up in bad weather and the like.  Kind of fun, and more thrilling than most rides in Disney World for sure.  My sister, brother, and I decided to single ride this one since the line was a bit long.  Didn’t make any small talk with the people I sat next to though, since it was a father-daughter pair and that would have just been weird…  Still in the Future World section of Epcot, the whole family checked out Turtle Talk with Crush, which was an adorable real-time attraction with Crush from Finding Nemo.  It was a CGI video, but it was controllable like a video game and there was a guy in a room elsewhere imitating Crush’s voice and engaging in a Q&A with the kids.  Honestly, the synchronization with the image and the voice was amazing and on par with a prerecording.  Technology has come pretty far, haha.  We also checked out Soarin’, which is just a flying simulator that sends you over the many scenes of California.  Why Cali and not Florida?  According to me sister, Soarin’ took so much money to film that they only had enough money to create one for Disneyland and that they just used the same video sequence for Disney World’s, instead of filming in Florida.  Hmm, the more you know, I guess.  The family also checked out Living with the Land, which was a tour of the greenhouse they have at Epcot.  Also, The Circle of Life was a quick Lion King animation about conservation, nothing too special.  That’s it for Future World.  On to the World Showcase!

 

(Oh, and if you’re wondering how I seem to remember everything in such great detail, it’s because I’ve kept maps of all the parks and I’m using it a reference to jog my memory.  I may still miss an attraction or restaurant, but I’ll pretty much get most of it.  Also, everything in the above paragraph is out of order.  I’m just using the map’s order to make things easier and to ensure I miss as little as possible.)

 

We made sure to go around the Showcase at least once and backtracked when we needed to.  I recommended that we walk around the lake clockwise (you should do the same if you ever visit Disney World), starting with Mexico.  There’s a temple replica there that you can walk in, where you’ll find a mini museum as well as, more impressively, an “outdoor” night market.  They recreated a nighttime scene in the actual building, with small shops covering all the walls and lights in the ceiling to act as stars.  It was dark and cool and honestly really beautiful.  There was an open air fine dining restaurant there to fully immerse yourself in the scenery, and I wish I we had taken the time to eat, because the vibes were great.  Ahaha, I’m always up for relaxing stuff like that.  In the market area, there was a small boat tour called Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros, which was nice.  Next we have Norway, which… didn’t really have much.  I had already mentioned they closed the ride Maelstrom and were planning to build a Frozen attraction.  The Frozen attraction wasn’t finished yet, and apart from two restaurants and a few stores, there wasn’t much else.  Bit of a letdown, but whatever.  From there we ventured into China.  There was a very convincing looking temple with a mini museum, as well as a few restaurants and shops.  There was also a Reflections of China video that covered the culture of China, but understandable my entire family felt like it wouldn’t be worth the time, so we didn't watch it.  We moved on to Outpost, which was Disney’s way of simultaneously covering both most of Africa and Australia.  No restaurants, just stands to buy trinkets.  Feels a bit rude, but maybe they’ll expand in the future?  After that was Germany, which was much like Norway: nothing much to see.  Italy was like Germany, except there were color guard style flag tossers managing to perform in the blazing heat, which was admirable.  My sister got a picture in with them.  We hit the midway point of the Showcase at that point with America.  We grabbed a bite to eat there (ironically enough, given there are so many cultures around us and we go for American food…), but it was justified by the crab cake cheeseburgers.  My family shared a turkey leg, which was amazing.  Disney’s turkey legs are really special.  Not only are they beat-someone-to-a-pulp huge, but they taste really great.  I generally dislike turkey, but their turkey legs don’t even taste like turkey.  I have no idea how they make it.  Must be Soylent Green…  Do you like turkey?  Even if you don’t, you should definitely try a leg next time you visit.  After eating we checked out the American Adventure, an animatronic documentary about the US of A.  I can see why you dislike American history.  If your summer class was as white washed as that documentary, I’d hate it too.  It was almost unbearable and infuriating with how one sided it was, and halfway through I literally fell asleep.  Not even joking.  I don’t even know why, I didn't think I was that tired...  After good ol’ ‘Murica, we traveled to the land of the rising otakus, where my prayers were answered.  The anime/game shop was still bringing in a ton of people, and it was chockfull of some pretty neat stuff.  After I had experienced my first anime convention, their selection did seem a bit underwhelming in comparison as it only had mainstream stuff on shelves, mostly shounen with a smattering of shoujo, but it was still neat.  It was better than AnimeNext in that there were authentic Japanese women (no men, 'cause Japan??) working the cash registers.  In fact, the best thing about the World Showcase is that they only hire corresponding foreign workers.  They’re generally foreign college kids studying either in an American university full or part time and are looking for a way to earn some income during the summer.  I know this because my sister is really good at making small talk with people.  Like, really really good.  She’s struck up conversations with at least five or so random people during the trip, of all ages and races and genders, for seemingly no reason.  Gosh, why is she so good at being social?  Why am I so bad…?  I should strive to be more like you and her.  Anyway, back on topic.  So buried amongst all the shounen stuff, I found a single Fate related product, which was a wall scroll of Fate/Zero Saber.  It’s not the best looking poster, but it was like finding a unicorn in Walmart (impossible by the way, they have terrible in-store amiibo stock) so I grabbed it and purchased it without second thought.  I’ll bring it to college where I can proudly display my lucky find, haha.  So as to not dawdle on Japan too long, let’s move on to Morocco, the furthest thing from an African country that still counts as Africa.  Just restaurants and shops, but we grabbed some slushies here to reward ourselves for not passing out yet.  After that was France, where we watched Impressions de France, which was a simple video on French culture.  My sister is in love with France, so this was her favorite part.  We move on to the UK, which surprisingly didn’t have any attractions.  It was fun poking around shops and admiring the Noble Phantasms swords on display at least.  Finally we end with Canada of all countries.  We watched another mini-documentary on their culture, but didn’t stay long.

 

And that wraps up nearly all of Epcot!  Once again, I didn’t list everything in order and there was a lot of backtracking, but that covers everything my family visited at least.  At the end of the day, there were fireworks and lights synchronized to music in a show titled IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, which was pretty neat.  After leaving the park, we got back to the hotel and I watched the final episode of UBW as well as a few other anime I was behind on, haha.

 

So if I’m not mistaken, the next day was June 28th and this day was reserved for Animal Kingdom.  The park was set to close at 6 pm, so it was going to be a short day.  It was another steamy hot day made worse by the fact that there were few attractions indoors, unlike Epcot’s Future World.  To start things off, we checked out It’s Tough to be a Bug! Which was a “4-D” Bug’s Life short film.  Man, when they said this attraction might scare children, they weren’t lying.  Bunch of things jumping out of the ceiling and the screen and tickling your rear end getting all up in your privacy.  Sheesh, I just wanted to sit down and cool off, not be jump scared from behind by a contraption in the seat.  In the Africa section of the park, the family watched Festival of the Lion King, which was a Broadway-like show with animatronic parade floats, dancers, singing, and acrobatics.  It was a ton of fun, and I was reminded of just how good Lion King’s soundtrack was, my gosh.  We also checked out the Kilimanjaro Safari, which was alright.  It was so damn hot, most of the animals were hiding in the shade or something, because we didn’t see much.  The tour guide yelled at a lady for using her selfie stick, which I thought was pretty funny.  It wasn’t until later than I learned Disney as a whole had banned the use of selfie sticks in all their parks.  My sister was actually at the committee meeting when they made the decision (geez, didn’t realize how much inside information she had), and she said the sticks were banned mainly out of concern for those who might take it on rides when no one was there supervising, potentially injuring themselves or someone else.  Apart from the Safari, we thought it would be a good idea to walk along the Pagani Forest Exploration Trail, which was just like an outdoor zoo.  Nothing much to say, except that it was hot, eheheh.  Oh, we saw naked mole rats crawling over themselves and digging holes in underground tunnels, which was creepily cute.  We also took the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, which was a train-accessible only part of the park (think Anville Town in the Unova region) but my whole family was just too lazy and tired to get off so we just stayed on the train and made a useless round trip.  I guess it was a way to sit down and do nothing while convincing ourselves that stuff was getting done.

 

In the Asia section of the park, we walked through the Maharajah Jungle Trek, which was just an Asian version of the Pagani Trail.  There were significantly less people here than the African counterpart, for some reason.  Not much to say, since once again most of the animals were hiding away in the shade.  My sister, my brother, and I went on the Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain roller coaster, which was pretty fun.  I had gone on the ride five times in a row during last year’s band trip, using the single rider line.  This time we used the single rider line as well, and I was paired with this girl who was no more than ten, so to avoid looking like a pedophile I didn’t talk to her.  She impressively didn’t scream, so I guess like me she’s not perturbed by coasters.  That’s all there was to Asia, so we moved on over to DinoLand USA (Animal Planet really is a weird hodgepodge of stuff), where we rode Primeval Whirl, a Wild Mouse styled mini coaster.  It wasn’t very good, but the line was nonexistent so we took a quick spin on it.  After that the whole family went on DINOSAUR, a coaster-like indoor ride loosely based on some parts of the movie of the same name.  It was pretty good despite its age, and luckily the line wasn’t very long.  And with that we saw all of Animal Kingdom that we needed to see!  It’s the smallest park in Disney World, so it’s fine that it closed at 6 pm.  My sister, always in the know, said that Disney was planning on expanding Animal Kingdom since it’s the only park without a night show (Epcot has IllumiNations, Hollywood Studios has Fantasmic, and Magic Kingdom has Wishes Nighttime Spectacular as well as Celebrate the Magic) by making an Avatar (the James Cameron one) themed area creatively titled Avatar Land.  They were in the process of building it I think, and it’s rather early in development, so I didn’t really see much.  We left the park and I believe we ate out at Red Lobster before heading back to the hotel.  I may have watched some anime before calling it a night, and at this point we were all exhausted.  Couldn’t believe that there were still two more parks to visit.  My feet were crying at this point, because the amount of walking paired with the backpacks and heat had really taken a toll.

 

The next day, which was Monday the 28th, it was time for Hollywood Studios.  I was wondering where all the Frozen hype was, and I finally found it here.  This place has become Frozen: The Theme Park since last year.  Everything, even the map I have next to me, is pushing Frozen.  There’s this Frozen Summer Fun thing they have going on, which is just a bunch of small events and mini-shows centered around the movie.  At first I thought they were trying to be ironic, since Frozen is the last thing you’d use to describe Florida summers.  Even ice cream melts before someone hands it to you (can confirm, happened at Magic Kingdom).  But after watching one of the Frozen related shows I learned that Olaf actually likes summer.  Ahh, makes sense now.  But doesn’t do anything to relieve the salt.  Anyway, first thing on the list is The Great Movie Ride.  This was just a family friendly animatronic ride celebrating American cinema over the years.  If I was more into older films, I might have appreciated this attraction more, but it was still pretty neat.  Not worth the standard line, but at least we had a FastPass for it.  We also watched For the First Time in Forever: A “Frozen” Sing-Along Celebration.  In reality, it was just a quick spoilery summary of the movie with all the lyrical songs placed where they needed to be placed.  I don’t think I need to watch the movie anymore since the show did a pretty good job of hitting what appeared to be all the important points.  I have to admit, the show was good.  I can’t speak for the movie itself, but the show was new (obviously) and the gags were fresh, relevant, and pretty funny.  After seeing so many old attractions, watching a show that used modern jokes was a nice breath of fresh air.  We also watched Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, which would have been much better if it were indoors and not out in the open.  Apart from coming in late and getting bad seats, the show wasn’t much changed from the last time I saw it.  Next was Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, which was also an outdoor event that would have been good if I hadn’t watched it so many times and remembered most of what happens.  At one point, we stopped for lunch at Studio Catering Co., which had really good sandwiches.  My family then decided to see Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream, which was one part museum on part mini-documentary on Walt Disney as a person.  It was pretty cool to see how he rose to fame, that’s for sure.  My siblings and I went on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, an indoor coaster featuring the band Aerosmith.  The ride had actually broken down at one point, and when everyone left the line and cleared out we used that opportunity to wait at the entrance for them to fix it back up again, which allowed for a slightly shorter wait.  It was a two-person per row coaster, so my sister and brother shared a row and some random girl about my age single-rode with me.  However, due to odd and complicated circumstances I didn’t make any small talk with her either.  Let me know if you want to hear the full story, because I don’t mind talking about it; I’m just leaving it out because this week’s response is getting longer than I anticipated.  The last ride of the day was on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which is an interesting indoor freefall ride, that sends you up and down a random number of times and at random heights, I believe.  It was quite fun, actually.  If you were wondering, there was a mini rain storm that delayed some shows and got in the way of getting to everything we wanted to see, which is why it may seem like we didn’t do much in Hollywood Studios even though we were there until it got dark.  To cap off the day, we watched Fantasmic, which is a pyrotechnic and water projection musical show.  It was really impressive and the venue was huge.  It was like one of those major league sports games with how many people watched.  They even have the show twice a night, to give everyone a fair chance to see it.  I liked it better than IllumiNations.  On the way back to the parking lot, we stayed long enough to catch the Frozen Fireworks Spectacular explode over the park.  We weren’t close enough to hear the music, but the fireworks were nice.  Smiley faces and hearts and cute stuff like that.  Back at the hotel, I may have watched anime before going to sleep.  The thing is, some time during the trip my earbuds broke.  More specifically my left one.  It just gave out and now no sound comes out of it.  This prevented me from enjoying anime and music to its fullest, so I just stopped watching anime after a while and waiting to get back home, as much as that pained me.  I fell behind schedule because of it, but I’m managing now.

 

And here we are at Magic Kingdom, the biggest and most recognizable park at Disney World!  The entrance to Magic Kingdom leads right to Main Street, USA, which was modeled after Disney’s hometown when he was but a wee lad.  It’s a really magical place and one of my favorite areas of this park.  Has a nice rustic feel, but it’s also very carnival-ly at night when the lights are on.  There aren’t any attractions here, or none of note, though we did grab some ice cream at Plaza Ice Cream Parlor (Hosted by Edy’s) at the end of the day after the fireworks (This was the ice cream that melted.  Yes, it happened at night, and no, temperatures weren’t in the 80 degree range yet.  Don't underestimate how hot it can be, even at midnight.) which was good.  Starting in order with Adventureland, we… didn’t actually do much.  We wanted to go on Pirates of the Caribbean, but the ride was closed.  We did try some of Disney’s specialty Frozen Dole Whip, which is a chilly pineapple snack.  It was pretty good, and I don’t even like pineapple that much.  You can only get it at Disney parks, so if you visit be sure to try some.  In Frontierland, we went on the classic Splash Mountain after the fireworks, so the line was shorter but it was still hot enough to make us not mind getting wet.  Apart from that, there wasn’t much to see since the line for the small coaster wasn’t worth the wait.  Down the list, we have Liberty Square, which has even less to do than Frontierland.  The only thing of note was Haunted Mansion, which is an older attraction but still has a lot of style.  It’s not like those amusement park haunted houses that jump scare you, but more of just a simple ride through an interesting building with special effects.  I especially liked the gift shop, because they were selling Jasmine Becket-Griffith’s art, and I really like her style.  Call me crazy, but there’s something just a little attractive about those big bug eyes.  Fantasyland had more attractions than the rest.  We first went on “it’s a small world” which was a charming little boat tour that just looped “It’s a Small World” over and over in different languages.  Good way to cool off, that’s for sure.  Next was Peter Pan’s Flight, which was another old but classic ride.  Good for relaxing, and after so many days straight of walking around Disney that’s all my family and I really wanted at this point.  After that was Mickey’s Philharmagic, a 3D movie that features Donald more than Mickey.  It was a fun musical mini-film through the Disney classics, but the orchestra instruments were jumping around and being thrown and elastically bent in classic Disney fashion, which made me flinch over and over again after so many years in band.  The sound of brass instruments clanging was so realistic, I’d hate to think…...  Anyway, the final ride I went on with my brother and sister at Fantasyland was the newly built Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.  It opened after I had visited Disney last year, so I hadn’t ever been on this ride before.  It’s a first of its kind roller coaster that’s called a rocking coaster, one whose carts individually sway side to side, conforming to the twists and turns of the track.  It’s hard to explain in words, but if you ever ride it you’ll feel the difference from a regular coaster.  It’s also a very smooth ride, though it’s not particularly fast or thrilling.  It is a “family” coaster, after all.  My sister, being the insider she is, said that she saw some of the prototypes and plans for the coaster as they were making it, and that the reason it’s a bit of an underwhelming coaster is because most of the money and research was put into making the animatronics.  There was a single moment during the ride when the coaster slows down and enters a cavern with the seven dwarfs digging for gems.  The dwarfs looked really good.  Though they were animatronics, their faces contorted smoothly and realistically, like they were smiling and looking around in an actual movie.  There was nothing blocky or mechanical about their movements at all.  Definitely the best animatronics I have ever laid eyes on.  That in itself is worth the wait to ride the coaster.  Speaking of the wait, we rode the ride late at night, after the fireworks and just a few minutes before the park closed at midnight, so the line wasn’t as long as it was during the day.  However, the queue area was the best queue I have ever experienced.  To keep guests entertained, there were mini-games placed at intervals along the line.  The first was a massive touch screen “mobile” game that about 20 people could play at once, where you have to drag jewels of certain sizes and shapes into corresponding mine carts, to complete a trio.  It wasn’t very intuitive at first, but once you figure it out it can be pretty addicting (even if there is no ending to it).  Next, there’s a place where you can place your hand under a jewel and light and a musical note comes out of it.  While not a game, you could theoretically play music once you figure out the corresponding notes and jewel placement.  It’s pretty magical stuff.  After that, there was an area where seven spin-able barrels are situated in a circle.  If you spin one, lights shine all pretty and jewel like on the ceiling and one of the dwarfs is projected up there as well.  However, there’s a secret that involves spinning all barrels at once.  Because the barrels are spread far apart, this requires seven separate people to accomplish.  If the seven people somehow organize spinning the barrels at the same time, Snow White will be projected briefly in the center of the lights and dwarfs.  It’s actually kind of frustrating to watch seven kids huddle around one barrel each, spin it briefly and then lose interest, not knowing what they need to do specifically, hahah.  It’s never explicitly stated you need to spin them all at the same time, so when they get to six at a time and the seventh guy has turned away out of boredom, it’s like aww nooo you were so close!  Ah well, it’s a cute little activity anyway.  Ehhh, I’ve talked about the Mine Train ride more than I should have.  It was new and really impressive, so I felt like I needed to give it the attention it deserves, hah.

 

Moving on to Tomorrowland, my siblings and I rode Space Mountain, an indoor coaster that was actually really good.  I went on it twice last year, but I’m still not bored of it.  I personally liked it better than Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster in Hollywood Studios, as it was nice and dark and they used lights to emulate stars and it felt like you were going to hit a bunch of the supports and beams.  The line queue also had mini games for the first half, but once you reached the never ending crisscross of death right at the end when you think you’re getting close, you’re just standing there bored with nothing to do for a solid 30-40 minutes.  The whole family checked out Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress, which was a nice little animatronic documentary that had you sitting in a rotating theater.  It was old, but still kind of neat.  We also rode Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, which was a simple shooting galley styled laser ride.  Pretty neat, but the scoring system is so arbitrary and the sensors aren’t very sensitive.  Next we have Monsters, Inc, Laugh Floor, which is similar to Turtle Talk with Crush expect more for the whole family than just kids and bit more intricate with their jokes.  Last attraction is Stitch’s Great Escape, which is similar to It’s Tough to be a Bug! in that it has the chance of giving children nightmares.  Bleh, I never was for the whole seats that wriggle underneath and behind you gag.  We had a meal at Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant and I think my mom went out and bought two more turkey legs at a nearby stand.  Geez, even now I’m trying my best to work out and lose all the weight I gained during the trip.  Now that I’m done talking about the attractions, all that’s left is the fireworks show.  First, they started with Celebrate the Magic which was a really awesome music and projection and onto the Castle show.  It wasn’t just a simple video projection, as they took the time to use the intricate contours and spires and towers of the castle to make really creative images.  Wishes Nighttime Spectacular is, of course, the famed fireworks show with both music and Castle projections to assist in the immersion.  I know I raved about it before, but for some reason I wasn’t as impressed this year as I was last year.  Was it because my expectations were much higher this year than last?  Whatever the reason, I wasn’t completely overwhelmed by chills as the magic swept around me, but that doesn’t mean the show was bad.  Maybe it was the heat that took me out of the experience.  It’s still some of the best fireworks you’ll ever have the chance of seeing, and I saw that you really liked the Disney-esque magic of Little Witch Academia.  If you liked that, then you’re going to love this, haha.

 

Finally, we’re done with Disney!  But wait, there’s more!  I’ve only typed about two days of driving and four days in Orlando, so I’m missing something.  The thing is, I was surprised to learn that we had planned to go to both Universal and SeaWorld after our romp in Disney.  Ju-just kill me now, so that my feet may rest in peace…  Regardless of the seemingly impossible task that would be trudging through even more theme parks in the unrelenting heat, I was still kind of excited.  The last time I was at the two parks was when I was a freshman, for another band trip.  I was curious to see how things have changed, and I was hyped about visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter again.  Sigh, has the length of this post daunted you yet?  It was daunting to write up, that’s for sure, haha.  So as to not drag this on for any longer than it needs to be, I’ll get right into it.  (Maybe get up and stretch again?  Stock back up on snacks?)

 

Before we went out to Universal, my family decided to take a day’s rest.  Thank goodness, my knees were so cramped from keeping them straight all the time.  We all woke up nice and late, and played a quick round of The Resistance, which is a board game my brother brought along with him that feels more like a card game.  I won’t go into the details of how it works to save time and space, but this video gives a pretty good breakdown.  It’s a fun game, for sure.  We ate a nice and tardy lunch before heading out to Downtown Disney.  It is what it sounds like; a downtown-like area with a bunch of shops and restaurants and bars and stands, Disney related or not, lined up down a long walkway hugging a lake.  There’s some pretty cool stuff there, but we went there mainly for the AMC Theater.  We had planned on watching Jurassic World, which we did, but then we decided on a spur of the moment to movie hop over to Pixar’s Inside Out.  I already went over how I felt about the movies in another thread, but I feel I need to reiterate this for you especially: I highly recommend you watch Inside Out.  It’s summer, and while you might be busy with other stuff (like reading this response……) it will be worth the small time and monetary investment to see at least this film.  Go out with your friends, see it with your family, or just walk over to your nearest theater and watch it alone if you have to.  It’s a must see, and it’s come out at a perfect time where you’re not especially worried about school.  Anyway, after watching the movies, we planned on walking through Downtown Disney a bit more before a massive storm dumped rain and lightning all over Orlando and we had to jump in the car and leave because it was impossible to find any good restaurants in the downpour.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat at a fast food restaurant, can’t remember which, before heading back to the hotel to call it a night early.  We needed all the rest we could get for the next few days.

 

Universal Studios has two parks: Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure.  We bought the combined ticket that allowed us to freely travel between the two (they’re within walking distance from each other, and the Hogwart’s Express provides a quick and easy mode of transport between the two if that’s what you’re looking for) and the plan was to see everything there was to see in a single day.  My sister was only really interested in Harry Potter World, so she didn’t even really mind if we didn’t get around to every single attraction at Universal.

 

First things first, we got to the park really early so that we could run to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and get on the rides before the wait got too long.  We figured Diagon Alley would be the more crowded of the two since it’s newer, so we fast-walked through a very empty Universal Studios before coming upon what appeared to be a London area way at the back of the park.  We had trouble finding the entrance, so we asked a worker who told us to go into a nondescript red building.  After turning a corner, bam there it was, Diagon Alley in all its wizarding glory, hidden in plain sight.  Ohhh, those sneaky little devils.  The entire area was covered brilliantly by the London buildings out at the entrance.  You would never have guessed there was Diagon Alley in the back if you didn’t know what you were looking for.  We first ran over to Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, which was the single main attraction there.  It was jam-packed with people but the line was still only 10-15 minutes long so at least there wasn’t a massive wait.  We tried entering but were told by two cast members that loose items weren’t allowed on this ride and that we had to put everything away.  We went to the locker room, went through a process, and place our bags in there.  We came back, and they said my sister’s mini-purse wasn’t allowed either.  We went back to the lockers, dropped it off, and were finally allowed it.  If you think Universal is stingy as hell when it comes to allowing items on rides, you’re right.  They’re really anal about it, to the point where the entire experience becomes kind of unenjoyable.  It only gets worse form here, but that’s for later in this post…  The queue was pretty neat, as you wait in the building of Gringotts and there’s a lot of Harry Potter-esque architecture thrown in.  We weren’t in line for long, so I don’t remember the details, but the atmosphere was top notch.  The ride itself was pretty neat.  It’s a simulator, one that requires 3D glasses, and references a lot of characters and plot points from the fifth(?) book.  I probably would have enjoyed it more if I knew what everyone was yelling about during the ride, but it was cool anyway.  The 3D effects felt a bit lacking though, and it probably would have been better as a glasses-less simulator, but whatever.  The rest of Diagon Alley was fantastic.  There was of course that dragon on the roof that breathed fire at intervals, though it’s kind of hard to time a photo just right.  You have to be paying attention to the background music and the rumbling noises to know when it’s about to start, because it lasts a second or two which isn’t enough time to pull out a camera and snap a shot.  Ollivanders sold wands, and if you watch the wand-choosing-a-wizard mini-show you might be chosen to participate to get a wand that way, though you still have to pay full price for it.  The main shop though has massive shelves of wand replicas of nearly every single wizard and witch in every book, important or not.  They also have random wands not associated with any book/movie character too, if you’d rather have something a little more personal.  There are two different kinds of wands, a standard wand that costs about $37 and an Interactive Wand that costs $45.  The Interactive Wands can be used at certain locations around Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. There are little golden compasses on the ground, with spell instructions on them.  If you point an Interactive Wand at the display and wave it according to the instructions, the sensor at the tip will set off a contraption and something will happen.  Sometimes water pours out of an umbrella or a book starts flipping open wildly or a knight’s suit of armor collapses to the ground.  There are a bunch of cool ones, and if you think it’s worth the extra eight dollars you might as well buy an Interactive one.  Regular wands, while not able to perform any tricks, actually feel heavier as there’s more of the wood intact due to there not being a sensor contraption on the inside.  I had a really strong urge to get a regular wand, as much as a rip off as it would have been, but I managed to control myself, hahah.  It’s really hard not to want a wand after visiting Ollivanders and seeing their selection.  If I had gotten one, it would have been one of the minor characters, like Neville Longbottom’s, Luna Lovegood’s, or  Nymphadora Tonks’s (okay no seriously, who’s that…??).  If you’re curious to see their selection, you can actually buy them on their website, though it seems as though they jacked up the prices (naturally) and they don’t sell the Interactive Wands (obviously).  Nothing beats holding one in your hand and really getting a feel for one that you might actually like though, haha.  Anyway, enough about wands.  We ate at the Leaky Cauldron which had a lot of nice London food.  As for the shops, there were lot and they were really cool.  Unfortunately, Universal does a weak job with their maps, as looking through it they didn’t label any of the shops in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade.  This sucks, because my memory is failing me and I know I’m going to miss something.  There was a Weasley prank shop, which just sold a bunch of silly things there that actually existed in the book and movies, like love potions (which don’t work… right?) and every flavor jellybeans (which, apparently, are legit).  There were candy shops that sold wizardly sweets and confections.  There was a clothing/fashion shop that sold the cloaks and scarves and ties that you see everyone wearing in the movies, as well as a sports apparel shop where you can buy quidditch gear, jerseys, brooms (of poor quality though), and display golden snitches.  Of course, both of these shops had merchandise in abundance for fans of any of the four Hogwarts houses.  There were also grab-bag shops that just sold regular theme park merchandise, like t-shirts, caps, mugs, shot glasses, post cards, fridge magnets, the like.  And how could I forget the butterbeer!  It’s caramel-ly and of course feels unhealthy, not like you mind while drinking it.  You can get it in cold, hot, ice cream, or float form, which is neat.  The amount of detail put into everything was just really fantastic, like how they had those wanted poster gifs like in the movies randomly placed in alleyways and how Moaning Myrtle is in the Hogsmeade restrooms (not physically, but she teases you on the loudspeakers while you’re doing your business).  I just know there’s more I’m missing, but that’s all I recall for now, haha.  On to Hogsmeade!

 

To get there, the fastest way is to use the Hogwarts express.  You need to exit the red building to get back into the London area (which actually has the triple layered Knight Bus and the talking shrunken head) and head over to King’s Cross Station, where the line queue is set up to look, well, like King’s Cross Station.  You eventually pass though the brick wall to Platform 9¾ where you’ll find the train itself.  You wait in line a bit like it’s a coaster ride before you get onto the train and into one of those little cabins, just like in the movies.  As the train begins to move, the window (which isn’t actually a window at all but a television screen made to look like one) shows images of the London and Harry Potter world, with people riding on broomsticks and Dementors flying through the skies causing havoc, because that’s just apparently what they do.  After the ride is done, we get off and now we’re in Hogsmeade.  You can tell this was built first, since there’s less immersion here than in Diagon Alley.  That could just be due to the fact that they try to trick you with fake snow on the roofs of buildings that in reality shouldn’t have lasted a minute, but whatever.  There’s more open walking space here and there are just less shops in general, but it’s still pretty neat.  We ate at Three Broomsticks, which once again had magical London food.  Still tasty though.  What Hogsmeade lacked in shops and immersion they made up for in attractions.  First up is Dragon Challenge, which will always be Dueling Dragons to me since that’s what it was called years ago before this area became Harry Potter World and was still Merlinwood (RIP in peace King Arthur attractions).  This is where Universal really ticked me off.  Not only did we have to put our bags away, but we also had to remove all metallic devices from our bodies, including cell phones and coins.  Oh, but who’s going to know?  Well, they apparently do, because they have metal detectors.  Literally, airport styled metal detectors in lines for things like roller coasters.  Seriously, what the flying fruitcake?  What are they so afraid of, bomb threats?  People dropping things from their pockets and breaking them or hitting someone, and then suing Universal?  I have half a mind to go back with a pocket full of plastic bingo chips and fling them everywhere while I’m on a coaster, just to piss them off (not really, but it’s an idea…).  Six Flags doesn’t do this and their parks are 90% roller coaster.  It’s a waste of time and ruins the experience and immersion of the theme park.  It’s suddenly like a chore to go on a ride, and we paid top dollar to have fun.  There’s nothing fun about Airport Simulator: Universal Studios Edition, that’s for sure.  It’s so obvious Universal only cares about money and not about fun, because they’re more expensive than Disney and SeaWorld, even though Disney is at least three times more entertaining than Universal.  Universal just has Harry Potter World, and they’re milking that thing until people stop coming (which is never).  They jacked the prices so high up after making Hogsmeade, and it’s only going higher now with Diagon Alley.  They’re greedy little bastards, and I’m honestly kind of upset Nintendo has partnered with them.  Universal isn’t a company I’m particularly proud to support, as far as theme parks go.  And the guy who built and design the perfection that is Harry Potter World?  According to my sister, he was hired by Disney.  Sigh………  Anyway, I’m sorry for the salt.  It’ll go well with your popcorn or chips if that’s what you’re snacking on, but in all seriousness I needed to get that out of my system.  So, we were talking about Dragon Challenge Dueling Dragons?  The ride itself was pretty good. Not the best coaster out there, but given the line is always really short, even at the busiest time of the day, (the newer, more legit Potter attractions are the ones with massive wait times) it was nice.  When it was still Dueling Dragons, the gimmick was that both Fire and Ice (now known as Chinese Fireball and Hungarian Horntail) would run at exactly the same time, so as you were riding one you would get really close with the other at times.  Now, they just alternate between the two, which I feel is just kind of silly.  I rode both this time around, and I don’t know which one is better.  I want to say Fire, but it’s not much of a difference.  The tracks are really different, but in terms of enjoyment they’re about the same.  Apart from that, there was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which is another simulator but one that is much better than the Gringotts one.  This one didn’t require 3D glasses, but is faster paced and overall more exciting than the other one, not to mention it wasn’t really plot based so you didn’t have to have a grasp on the story to enjoy it.  The queue was once again, super stylish and atmospheric with talking portraits and dimly lit corridors.  The line was a bit long, and part of it was outside in the greenhouse garden (the one with those talking plants) which was a bit brutal, but all in all it was probably my favorite attraction at Universal.  

 

That covers all the important stuff about Hogsmeade, so before I ramble on any longer I might as well wrap this up quickly.  I’ll quickly hit up all the other rides I went on elsewhere in the park, even though they aren’t nearly as good as Harry Potter World.  The Incredible Hulk Coaster was pretty good, especially the acceleration in the beginning, but a weather delay that I won’t get into to avoid over-salting your snacks kind of ruined the experience.  Doctor Doom’s Fearfall was great because it surprise-launched you up into the sky at a high speed, but the multiple falls themselves weren’t too impressive.  Those were the only things in Marvel Super Hero Island worth mentioning.  Nothing in Toon Lagoon seemed interesting, nor did anything in Jurassic Park.  It looks like they’re building a massive new attraction to celebrate Jurassic World though, so it’s something to keep an eye out for.  The Lost Continent was really small and didn’t have any good rides either, and Seuss Landing was what you’d expect from a Dr. Seuss themed area.  Over in Universal Studios, Production Central’s Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit was fun, but the line wasn’t really worth the wait.  You can choose a song to listen to while riding the coaster, and it player over speakers in your seat, but it was hard to hear and they only give you a few sections to go through their selection and choose a song.  There was also TRANSFORMERS: The Ride-3D, a new attraction.  While it was a fast paced and exciting simulator, the 3D glasses got in the way and it would have been better 2D since the flying shrapnel and metallic sparks were hard to follow with the eyes and the poor 3D effects only got in the way.  Over in the New York section, my family checked out TWISTER… Ride It Out, an in-person tornado simulator that was actually pretty violent.  There was also Revenge of the Mummy, an indoor coaster that I loved years ago but now feel is kind of stale.  There’s nothing of note in the San Francisco section, though the World Expo area had MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack, a Buzz Lightyear styled ride as well as The Simpsons Ride, another fast-paced coaster simulator with Simpsons humor thrown in.  The only thing in Woody Woodpecker’s Kidzone that seemed interesting was E.T. Adventure, though the ride is now so old that not a single other ride in either Disney or Universal has animatronics that look as bad as E.T.'s.  Interestingly enough, nothing in the Hollywood area seemed too appealing either.  At the end of the day, there was Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular, a fireworks, water projections, light, and pyrotechnics show that took place on the Universal Studio lagoon.  It celebrated 100 years of moving making, and it wasn’t too bad.  There was definitely a noticeable lack of magic when compared to Disney shows, but it was good enough for Universal.  After that the pack closed, so we headed back to the hotel to get some rest for SeaWorld.

 

SeaWorld is the smallest and cheapest of all the parks, cheap mainly because of the hot water (ahahah) that they’ve gotten themselves in with the movie Blackfish and all that.  I personally didn’t have anything against SeaWorld going in, since I hadn’t seen the movie or heard of any of the controversy surrounding it.  In the Sea of Shallows area, there’s the coaster called Manta, which is a really good “flying” coaster.  The seats places you in a prone position before sending you off, kind of like the Superman coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure except a lot better.  The inversions, which, because of the angle of your body, give you weird reverse feeling G-forces are the best part.  We went on this ride at night when the wait was only 10 minutes, which was awesome.  Apart from that, we checked out Turtle Trek, which was part outdoor museum part video game part movie documentary, focusing around turtles, naturally.  Neat stuff, especially the video game.  You guide a sea turtle and help it find food while avoiding trash bags and nets, ahah.  We also saw Blue Horizons, a dolphin, bird, and acrobatics show, which wasn’t too shabby.  Before the event started, there were a bunch of recordings of kids on the loudspeakers giving their testimonial on how much they loved dolphins and SeaWorld, clearly in an attempt by the company to save as much face as they could in a time when the company is crumbling to pieces due to a single movie.  Funny thing is, one of the little girls in the recording proudly announced she was from Edison, New Jersey, which was a bit of a shocker, haha.  In the Sea of Legends section, we tried going on Journey to Atlantis, a simple drop-splash ride since it was hot and we wanted to cool off, but right when we got to the end of the line the weather started getting bad and the ride was closed.  Welp, there goes an hour for nothing.  We were luckily able to ride the Kraken coaster before then, so that’s something.  Not nearly as good of a coaster as Manta, but the line is always short.  The new area, Sea of Ice, only has one main attraction and that’s Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin.  We kinda went on that “ride”.  The first half is an actual simulation ride while the second half is a zoo like area where you can see real penguins.  However, when we got there, the ride was broken so we were forced to bypass it and just see the penguins.  A bit of a bummer, but the penguin room was literally at freezing temperature since people and penguins were only separated by a short plexiglass wall and a small body of water.  It felt wonderful after the 90-100 degree weather outside.  In Sea of Delight, we watched Clyde & Seamore’s Sea Lion High, a sea lion and otter show with a guest appearance by a walrus.  It was tacky, but good for the kiddies.  In this area we ate at Seafire Inn Café and as well as Voyagers Smokehouse BBQ.  Pretty decent food, and not as overpriced when compared to Universal or Disney which was nice.  We didn’t really explore much of Sea of Mystery or Sea of Fun, but that was fine since those areas are somewhat undeveloped.  They are however making a third coaster in the form of Mako, which will be the tallest, faster, and longest coaster in Orlando after its completion.  I know, not very impressive given it's only breaking records in one city, but hey, they gotta use anything they can to bring in the cash.  We watched One Ocean, the killer whale show, at Shamu Stadium which was okay as well as Shamu’s Celebration: Light Up the Night, the big finale show.  The latter was… odd to say the least.  They had a DJ play dance music to hype up the crowd before the show started.  Literally, club music, blasted on extra loud.  Yeahhh, I know, weird stuff.  They had cameras pointing randomly into the stands and projected the feed onto the large central screen, and the people were expected to dance on camera.  Glad I was never put on the spot light, since I don’t dance and I would have been humiliated, eheheh.  Then they had a "dancing through the decades" thing, which was pretty much the same thing except you were expected to follow the dance moves on the screen like it was Just Dance.  Bleh, really off-putting.  The show finally starts, and instead of turning off the dance music the damned DJ is still up there talking into the mic trying too hard to get the crowd hyped while the whales just flip and do tricks and stuff like that.  Ughh, my head was starting to hurt because of the music and I can’t even imagine how the orcas felt.  I just feel that a life like that would be such suffering, you know?  I don’t like club music, so maybe I’m just biased, but that’s just all kinds of cruel.  The lights and fireworks were nice, but the music was so distracting I couldn’t bring myself to like the experience.  Sigh, I see why people are adamantly against SeaWorld.  I don’t think an amazing coaster like Manta is worth the price, since everything else is just unsettling.  Maybe if they just realized dance music and animals don’t go well together, it wouldn’t be so bad.

 

So that’s it for SeaWorld, and my trip is coming to an end.  The next day was a rest day.  We stayed at home and played The Resistance some more before going out back to Downtown Disney to explore what we didn’t get a chance to see the other day.  Since it was mainly shops and restaurants, there’s not much to say (which is good, because I fear you might be sick and tired of hearing me talking about my vacation after God knows how many minutes you’ve sat there reading this).  We didn’t buy anything, just window shopped.  However, I must say, the café styled Earl of Sandwich is amazing.  They only have a few locations, so I’m not sure if you’ve even heard of it (though there’s a branch in Detroit Metro Airport).  Think Panera Bread except much much much better.  Their sandwiches are divine, especially their bread, and their soups are great as well.  Anyway, that’s it for Downtown Disney.  We went back to the hotel and just lounged around for a couple of hours.  My sister was set to leave early next morning, like four in the morning early, so my brother and I said goodbye to her that night (there’s no way I’d be waking up that early).

 

The next morning, after my parents got back from dropping my sister off at the airport, we headed back to Jersey.  Once again, it would be a two day trip.  Like last time, not too much happened.  There was a massive hurricane-like storm that hit us before we left Florida though.  I’ve never seen so much rain or wind or lighting or thunder before in my life.  The rain was horizontal, smacking the windshield so hard it was difficult to see anything.  You could see a lightning strike literally once every 20 seconds and once lightning struck so close to our car that there was no perceptible sound delay when thunder rumbled our car’s frame.  It was a bit frightening, but also kind of awesome.  I didn’t type up any part of this response during the car ride, in fear of you getting upset at me again, so there’s that.  Instead I just slept a lot and fiddled around with old GBA games for fun and nostalgia, even unlocking all the characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2004 which I had failed to do before.  During the car trip, I remember thinking to myself that I seriously needed a haircut.  I really do, but since I’ve come back I’ve lost all motivation to get one.  Speaking of which (tangent incoming) I saw your post from a while ago that your usually mid-torso length hair was cut recently to just below your shoulders.  I actually didn’t really expect your hair to have been that long, for whatever reason, not that that’s a bad thing, haha.  Maybe it’s because, with no idea of how you actually look I’ve just been using your profile picture as reference?  First you used Mai, and while her hair is long I never saw you as the bookish/glasses type.  Then you switched over to Mio, and her hair was short.  You said before that of all the Nichijou characters you could relate most to Yuko, so on occasion I pictured you as her, but once again she had short hair.  And for the longest while you’ve used Dark Pit as your avatar, so… I’ve imagine you as a genderbent Dark Pit.  Th-That’s not weird, is it?  Ohh, speaking of profile pictures (tangent out of control, brace for impact), I’m been meaning to get a new one as well as a new signature.  You seem quite attached to your Nichijou gifs and even spruced them up with some Churchill and Ping Pong and links.  I can’t think of anything good to change my profile pic or sig to.  Any suggestions?  Ah, whoops, that was really off topic.  Eheheh…

 

Nothing else of note happened during the two days, so here finally ends my trip!  You made it!  (Hopefully, at least.  It’s fine if you accidentally nodded off; I might have if I were you, too.)  Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite end this post.  There are a few things I need to address before I wrap this up.  First of all, I was digging through some of your posts you made while I was gone to see if there was anything of interest.  I hope I don’t come off as being a bit of a stalker or anything, eheheh.  I saw that in this post you mentioned that you can’t sleep or eat anymore.  Ehhhhh??  What’s up with that?  That’s just an exaggeration of how stressful college apps are… right??  Also, here you were looking for college essay topics, right?  Hrrmm, can’t help you too much there.  Maybe you can write about the difficulty of taking napkins out of those cafeteria dispensers?  Seriously, what’s up with that?  Joking, of course that wouldn’t work.  Huhh, if anything comes to me I’ll be sure to let you know.  Finally, in the anime thread, you listed some of the anime you watched recently.  I know, I should probably just make this a separate post on that thread, but this is a record breaking post right here and I’m on a roll and want to see just how long this can get, fufufufufu.  I’ve considered watched Ping Pong for the longest time, urghh.  You keep on reminding me of just how much I want to watch and just how little time I actually have this summer to get it all done.  What is it now, Panty and Stocking, Tatami Galaxy, Ping Pong, plus everything else the Internet is making me want to watch?  Oh goodness me…  Furthermore, I didn’t know you watched Gigguk!  I used to love his videos until he started making them really sporadically.  I mean, I still like his videos, but I’ve just run out of things of his to watch.  Bleh, it’s all because he found himself a 3D girlfriend, the traitor.  Ahahah, nah, it’s cool.  His year in reviews are still top notch stuff, especially when I can relate to a show he’s seen.  If you liked the whole SAO gaming lyrics thing, then you’re going to love this video that was posted on /r/anime a couple days ago.  As for your MAL layout, maybe it’s just because your laptop’s dimensions are different than mine, but the background of the person looking out over the nighttime cityscape doesn’t take up the whole screen and is leaving an unsightly white bar at the bottom.  And as funny as that Nichijou gif is, it’s a bit warped and doesn’t jive with the rest of your style too much, but then again, you are “just doing this for fun” so maybe it was intentional, ahah.

 

That’s pretty much it for this response!  I did a lot of talking this time, and that’s a bit selfish of me, so I’ll ask this: how were you when I was away?  Did anything interesting happen?  Did you start the summer program at UMich?  Even if you just had regular, average days, I'd like to hear all about it, hahah.  Also, how much longer than usual was this post?  Over three times longer than usual??  Gosh, I’m terribly sorry about that.  I know you insist that rambling aren't any bother to you, but you have to admit... this is pretty crazy...  I don’t expect you to respond to every single thing I’ve written up, so don’t feel pressured to.  I also don’t expect you to match me in length word for word when you reply, and I won’t feel offended even if all you do is post the same length as you usually do.  Don’t feel bad about posting late either, if you have to.  Again, I’m awfully sorry for any inconveniences this post may cause!

[Kenzi 146]

(had to remove quotes in order for post to fit)

Well damn, I just got an email saying that Case is holding an information session just a few minutes from where I live. I was surprised that it wasn't in Detroit since that's where most of these kinds of sessions are held, not that I'm complaining or anything. I just think that it's funny that of all cities they decided on Troy--it almost seems too convenient. I guess I'll try my best to attend that as well, haha. Maybe I'll take another look at UChicago if I have the time since I already visited it the summer before sophomore year. My parents seem to be fond of the Boston schools (mainly because my sister is going to reside there these next couple years), but I don't think I'm going to visit any more this summer. I'm not going to visit any colleges around here other than UMich either since that's the only college that I'm truly interested in within Michigan.

 

Good luck with an Android! Let me know how it goes once you get one! In all honesty, I only used Facebook for joining private groups for certain classes (homework help, updates, complaining, etc.), keeping in contact with old friends, and chatting. Hehehe, you finally joined the dark side. While it's true that friending a bunch of random classmates probably won't accomplish much, you should still keep in contact with a few of your best friends! After all, if they're your best friends, you wouldn't want to leave them entirely, haha. 

 

Because I haven't ridden a rollercoaster in such a long time, I really don't have an idea of what I'd be able to tolerate. The Kingda Ka looks like fun, but also a little intimidating, lol.

 

Haha, I'm not too bummed about my scores. I really appreciate your concern, so thanks for the motivation, heh. Writing my essay (or at least cranking out a rough draft), ACT, and finishing my summer reading is still top priority for me. I haven't taken any practice tests yet because I still need to finish going through all of the material, plus ACT, bleh. I'm working my way through them though, slowly but surely, rest assured!

 

I know there's a crap ton of things I can write about, but I just can't think of any that clicks with me. It's pretty frustrating since I've been thinking about this nonstop. And while a stress-reliever sounds nice, I can't relax knowing that there's still unfinished business to do. As stupid as this sounds, I can't find anything I'm "passionate" about (barring stuff like orchestra and tennis since those seem like overused topics). The worst part is, it's probably some everyday experience I take for granted and haven't realized it yet. Hopefully something will come to mind during that two week summer program I'm attending soon. Maybe the change in environment will help me think of a topic, haha. And about my initials, ahahaha, I'm actually rather surprised that you got it with only four guesses! It's one of those, but you'll also be able to eliminate one based on Chinese surnames alone.

 

Gah, I still can't get over how uncomfortable you guys must've been coming out of phys ed without any A/C. The aftermath of body heat permeating throughout the hallways and classrooms must have felt suffocating for both the students and faculty, especially considering how stuffy the atmosphere of the building was to begin with. Well, at least you'll be able to leave all of that behind you now, so that's nice! Ahaha, thank you for your kind words, but most of the things I managed to accomplish really isn't deserving of praise. A lot of what I'm doing during school isn't out of my free will. Let's be real here: barely anyone would volunteer if it weren't for colleges (I would've loved to volunteer as a camp counselor otherwise). It's nice to give back to the community once in a while, but not when it feels like a chore. Same with a few of the clubs I joined. Although some of the stuff I did looks nice on paper, I did most of them with an ulterior motive in mind. It makes me feel ashamed that I'm not devoting my time to a club out of free will. It's kinda messed up if you think about it. People are tearing each other apart running for president of clubs for the sake of college applications. Do their speeches really represent how they feel about running for this position? "Volunteering to clean up spilled crayons at a local elementary school was quite the humbling experience for me. I believe this makes me a qualified candidate for president." Yeah, right. Meh, I'm just rambling on at this point. I also dropped out of quite a few clubs because I lost interest. I've volunteered to help out teachers on many occasions and I learned a lot about what happens behind the scenes. It truly has helped me empathize more. Volunteering as a NHS tutor has also done the same. I guess that's something good that came out of the experience. I really admire people who do these kinds of activities out of pure interest and nothing more. Funny enough, it seems that most of my effort was wasted. I wish I knew earlier to purse my true passions and interests more. 

 

Ahaha, I'm rarely able to time my cries. It usually happens in bed when I have the sudden realization that everything's falling apart or something along those lines. It's easy for me to get over it since I'm usually overdramatizing in those situations, but it still helps to let loose on occasion. From an evolutionary perspective, crying is just a distress call. It's awesome how it has turned into a stress-reliever as well. Ohh, you also do muscle exercises? Like weights and curl ups? That's pretty neat! Ahaha, it's crazy, isn't it. I haven't even known you for a year (heck, I don't even know you in real life), and you've made me happier and know more about me than many of the people I see everyday. Never in a million years would I have thought this to happen.

 

Hmm, getting 100% acetone seems kinda difficult since it's usually diluted with water. I'll have to take a look around next time I visit CVS. Thanks a bunches for the info!

 

Yeah, I was reading some of the episode discussions and I felt kinda left out as an AO watcher, ahahaha. I guess I felt that Shirou and Rin's relationship was too platonic. It's obvious that they developed feelings for each other, but the fact that the only romantic gesture they had was hand holding is kinda underwhelming. Now, I'm not asking for a full-on, overly dramatic shoujo-esque embrace (I actually dislike shoujo quite a bit), but the hand holding really threw me off. I also can't see any reason why they censored the sex scene. An implied sex scene wouldn't have done any harm since Mirai Nikki managed to pull it off with 14 year olds somehow (except that the scene was way too forced and such an obvious form of fanservice--what awful writing and execution). I wouldn't have minded much in Shirou and Rin's case, to be honest. F/Z overall felt a lot more streamlined than F/SN. The only things I didn't like about F/Z was the anticlimactic ending (so much wasted potential), lack of focus on certain characters (understandable though), and sudden relevance of stuff like Dead Apostles (but loved the backstory). The packing of textbooks worth of information within the first few episodes gave it a pretty slow start as well, but I didn't mind that too much. And admittedly, I couldn't keep track of the types of servants until a few episodes in because of how rushed the delivery of the information was (didn't have enough time to sink in). But at the same time, an intro any longer wouldn't have done F/Z much better. F/SN, on the other hand, had a strong introduction, but fell apart in the second season. Lack of focus on certain characters was also a problem, but again, understandable (it's like Sakura and Fujimura never existed after the second season). Oh, and the corny Shirou scenes made me cringe (like when he was telling Lancer not to get "chummy" with Rin). Oh my gosh, it was so misplaced and completely ruined the serious atmosphere; same with tsundere Rin. I don't know what they were trying to attempt there, but it was laughable (if it was an attempt at character development, I wasn't impressed). The disjointedness of the second season was a big turn off for me, more so than the anticlimactic ending of F/Z. However, with wide range of fans they had to cater to, it was an okay effort, I suppose. Still wasn't as strong as it could've been though. If I were to have watched F/SN before F/Z, I would've been pretty disappointed. The prior knowledge from F/Z provided a huge boost of enjoyment for me, and if it weren't for F/Z, I would've rated it a lot lower, so there's that. But as I've stated before, I'll take the time to re-evaluate them both eventually. While I understand Rin and Kuzuki's fight with servants (thanks for the explanations!), Shirou just seems like the kind of character that should've been killed off ages ago (compared to characters like Rin and Kuzuki, he had little to no fighting skill until the mana transfer). If you ignore that he's the main protagonist, the bottom line is he should've been dead by now. He was constantly putting himself in situations that he shouldn't have survived in, and the fact that he's still alive is absurd. You know, scenes like where he rashly charged towards Gilgamesh to "avenge" Illya while fully aware that he didn't have a servant. In this case, Shinji conveniently interrupts just in time to stop Gilgamesh from killing him. wow. Yeah, I get that he needed to survive for plot progression, but it was just carried out so poorly. Luckiest man alive, I guess? The final battle with Gilgamesh was solid though. His pride was his downfall and I loved it. But the thing with Waver and Ryuunosuke is that they never acted as hastily as Shirou. Waver was actually more cowardly (still more realistic than Shirou though). Ryuunosuke was the oddball and never really had any ambition to participate in the war, and even then I still don't see him acting as recklessly as Shirou. As for HF, I also hope that it'll be split into multiple movies so that the information is more spread out, haha. So I tried looking for some playthroughs of the VN and I found a few, but geezus, they're reaaaallly long (each video is at least a few hours). The text moves nauseatingly slow, even at x2 video speed (it's really discouraging me from watching them). I'm not sure whether or not to play it for myself since I heard that it's mostly reading anyways. Plus, I don't feel comfortable downloading an intended hentai VN on my PC.  

 

I finished the game, and I....

It was really good. It was really really good. The plot twist got me bad and when I reached the True Ending, I thought the game broke the fourth wall after it started referring to me. And then I realized that it was Akane's viewpoint all along, and everything she saw was through Junpei, and the 9th door was actually a q, and the Nevada desert twist, and the branching world lines, and the upside-down sudoku puzzle, and Akane's fever, and Alice in the desert??????? and and and it was all so brilliant and I haven't felt this much satisfaction from a game in such a long time. I'm still in utter shock. The puzzles were also loads of fun to play but the ones I had the most trouble with were the "switch puzzle" (behind Door 2) and the 3x3 = ALL puzzle (behind Door 9). I already told you about the switch puzzle, and I had an idea of what I wanted to do for the 3x3 = ALL puzzle (isolate D, B, 4, 5, then click on D and but getting to that point felt a bit luck-based (it still made more sense to me than the switch puzzle though). After I finished the game, I tried looking up ways other people approached these puzzles and I couldn't find much. If I had to go through those two puzzles again, I probably wouldn't be able to solve them much faster, to be honest. I was also intrigued by the continual references to the base-#/hexadecimal system (it was a fun aspect, haha). Geezus, this game is absofreakinlutely brilliant and unbelievably underrated. I still can't get over the plot twist or even the game in general (and the world lines gave me Steins;Gate vibes, hehe). The only thing I don't get is how Cap was murdered whenever Ace didn't go through Door 1. But still. so. much. mind. blow. asldfjhldkfmnvvmldf. The entire game is just a humongous paradox and it's incredible. Thank you so much for letting me experience this!! Gah :'D AND a third game is coming out?? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

 

Ao Oni was tons of fun to watch even though the jump scares could've given me a heart attack (have you ever played/watched a Let's Play of it before?). I'm also quite surprised at how popular it has gotten especially since the premise is so simple. I watched clips of the movie and it isn't nearly as scary as it could've been. The special effects weren't that great and the game itself was loads freakier.

 

The games these days aren't nearly as challenging anymore (op exp. share, easy gyms and elite 4 members, pushover champion, etc.), but they're still far from bad. The introduction of the Fairy type was nice, and I'm kinda happy they nerfed crits and the Steel type. I also had pretty high expectations for the game, and the only thing I was disappointed about was how unmemorable the rivals, gyms, and elite 4/champion were. I guess Team Flare was also a bit underwhelming. The music was stellar and the graphics blew me away. I don't see much else to complain about, lol. Hmm, in that sense, I guess Lysandre and Gilgamesh are also alike. Both hated the human race and wanted to destroy the world in order to start fresh. Except that no one really bothered to reason with Gilgamesh. I've never considered the similarities between Lysandre and Archer (or even Lysandre and Gilgamesh for that matter). Archer never struck me as the antagonist of the series, and thinking about their parallels feels farfetched at first. But yeah, the two are eerily similar, haha. 

 

I've forced myself to drink water when I didn't want to on occasion, but it usually leads to some form of gagging because of how tasteless it is. I also usually don't drink juice or soda for its source of water. I'm not a health freak or anything (I have pretty bad eating habits), but 24g of sugar from one cup of apple juice is a lot. For me, the only time water tastes good is after a meal or some exercise, but even then I still don't drink as much as I should. I'll try my best to down some more water from now on because I'm pretty tired of these headaches. Thank you for your concern!

 

You still have a month to go before heading off to college, so who knows, haha. Best of luck to you hunting down that black trainer card, and let me know how it goes if you still plan on aiming for it! Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the SnK characters. Eren is a generic shonen lead with aspirations bigger than Gilgamesh's ego. Mikasa is portrayed as an overpowered prodigy, and it's no fun watching her kill titans knowing that everything she does is executed flawlessly; the situation just doesn't feel threatening enough (the fight scenes are still badass though). Same with Levi (is he even human?). Armin is cool (he grew a bit). And all the other characters are usually left in the dust. Hange is my favorite character but she doesn't get enough screen time. The anime also dragged on way more than it should have when chasing after Annie. Plus, the sense of terror that's created in the first few episodes is treated like a joke as the series progressed. How am I supposed to take this seriously (good use of dark humor though). The titans no longer feel as serious of a threat as the anime makes them out to be because they seem about as frail as a Mario goomba towards the end. The first few episodes were fantastic (10/10), but everything after that was pretty lackluster. I won't deny that SnK has killer AMVs though, heh. But did you know that SnK's opening also goes well with everything?

 

--

 

Damn, I don't remember Florida ever being that hot. Perhaps the crowdedness accentuated the heat? You know, that feeling when everyone comes out of phys ed all sweaty, and everyone's body heat makes the environment seem twice as hot as it should be. I'm pretty sure I visited Disney World during the wintertime (thank goodness) so I don't remember having suffered as much as you did. And you guys were carrying heavy bags? Water and cameras? Geezus. 

 

Oh my gosh, I remember riding on Soarin'! It was one of my favorite rides (which I guess isn't saying much since I didn't get to ride on too many of them, ehehe...).

 

Ohhhhh, I also remember traveling to the Showcase! I don't think we got to visit each place, but I remember that we spent a lot of time in China for some reason. I vaguely remember eating a turkey leg. I don't like turkey either (I'm a ham person, ahaha), but I think the whole family shared one leg. And congrats on the find! Is it okay if I asked you what the F/Z poster looked like?

 

Ahaha, I remember reading an article that selfie sticks were banned for safety purposes not too long ago. I thought that was pretty funny, lol. If I were in your situation, I also probably would've chosen to stay on the train. What did you end up doing on there though? Or did you literally mean nothing, haha. I know this might sound weird, but I might've talked to that little girl you sat next to on that Legend of the Forbidden Mountain rollercoaster. I love talking to little kids because it's so easy to hold a conversation with them. They'll talk about anything, and it's fun going off on tangents with them. Ask them their favorite color, and the next thing you know, you guys are talking about their sticker collections, haha. Whaaa... they're creating Avatar Land? I liked the movie a lot so hopefully it won't disappoint! 

 

Overall, would you say that the Frozen theme park was worth the visit? I thought it was a fun little movie, and I'm considering whether or not to go the next time I visit Disney World. Ahhh! I remember both the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show! I especially loved watching the latter, and the car driving backwards completely blew my mind until they revealed the trick, haha. And the whole guy-catching-on-fire gimmick was also amused me a lot. How many times did you watch the show for it to be unentertaining? I don't think I'd ever get tired of watching live action stuff, lol. I also remember watching the mini-documentary of Walt Disney! I don't remember the content too well though. Gah, this was all so long ago. I'm surprised I even remember watching it. Odd and complicated circumstances? Aw, you can't just leave it at that and expect the comment not to pique my interest. I'd love to hear about what happened on the rollercoaster! I'm quite curious, haha. Ohh, I remember seeing the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror whenever we drove up to Disney World, but I guess none of us wanted to ride it at the time, haha. Ehh?? You got to see smiley faces and heart shaped fireworks? I'm envious :c Ahaha, one of my earbuds is also broken. But it normally doesn't hinder the experience for me (maybe I've gotten too used to it).

 

Hmm, I've never tried Frozen Dole Whip before, but I've heard of it. I don't like pineapples that much either, but I love the flavoring. I'll be sure to try it out when I have the chance! Ah, I don't think we've gone down Splash Mountain. We were thinking about it, but our parents decided that it'd better if we didn't get wet, lol. Wait, you don't mean to tell me...they might've used real instruments to create those sound effects? ;c Ahaha, thanks to you, I now have a laundry list of rides I want to go on now. I guess the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is going to be at the top of my list, haha.

 

Geez, Space Mountain sounds all too familiar, but I don't remember riding it. This is really bugging me. Okay, so I looked up a clip of the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular, and the projections ohmygod. akldjsklfadklfhkdsghklhsfkl

 

Whoa, I think I saw my friends playing The Resistance during a grad party I attended a month ago. It was an interesting game, for sure. I've heard a lot of good things about Inside Out. I'm not sure if I'll be able to watch it any time soon since I'll be heading off to the UMich summer program on Sunday. I'll try my best though!

 

Damn, why is Universal Studios so strict about loose items? Like geez, if I read your descriptions out of context, I really would've ended up thinking that it was at an airport. But anyways... interactive wands?? Man, if I was still in middle school, I probably would've pestered my parents to no end to get one of those. The extra money would've been worth the experience, in my opinion, haha. Love potions? Like stuff you can actually consume, or just a trinket kind of thing? Oh, and I bought a pack of the every flavor beans at the Sweet Factory once! I gave it to my friend who's a huge Harry Potter fanatic, so I never got to try it for myself (almost don't want to, actually, lol). Butterbeer and Moaning Myrtle too? Ahaha, they really do have everything! 

 

I think it's really neat that they simulated the train ride! And the fact that they included dementors sounds awesome! Gosh, they really went all out with Harry Potter World. The airport-like security measures does sound like a huge turnoff (I'd also be pretty salty about if I were you), but hopefully it didn't hinder your experience too much!

 

Whoa, one of the kids there announced that she was from Edison? Wow, it's a small world, isnt it! Okayokayokay, sorry, I know, wrong park, but I had to, ahahahaha....... Yeah, I'm not too big of a fan of club music either, and the fact that these animals probably have to deal with it on a regular basis also feels a bit off putting.

 

Geezus, that rain was horizontal? Thank goodness you managed to make it back safely, haha. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been driving in those conditions. And you managed to see lightning up close? That's awesome! Although thunderstorms aren't uncommon around here, I rarely get to see lightning. My hair was at its longest when I typed that post (still shorter than Mai's though). A few of my friends were shocked when they saw my haircut, haha. But I guess my new-ish haircut is kinda growing on me. I'd say that my hair is a mix between Yuuko and Mai's at the moment. I'm a bit surprised that you remembered what my first profile picture was since I don't think we began talking until I switched to Mio, lol (the farthest I can think back to for yours was Sherlock from Ace Attorney). Because no one knows what anyone looks like on the internet, I sometimes use people's avatars as a reference to what they look like as well, haha. I guess that means you would be a genderbent Lucina then, heh. Actually, I really don't have any idea what you look like either. You mentioned something about long wavy hair, but it's hard for me to picture that since most Asian guys around here have undercuts or layers (I'm quite curious!). I've been meaning to switch my profile picture for a while now. I was thinking about someone from Korra, then maybe Gilgamesh, or Santa from 999 (favorite character from the game), or possibly Akko from LWA. Then I watched Ping Pong and now I don't know what to change my propic to, lol. Oh, and the Churchill quote I added to my signature was inspired by my English teacher. He had that quote pasted next to the classroom door, so it was the first thing I saw every time I left the classroom. It didn't mean anything to me at first and I thought he pasted it as a joke to mock us (he actually has a fantastic sense of humor), but the quote began to feel more inspiring with every passing day. The links I added were pasted there because my signature felt a bit empty, haha. I'm also somewhat surprised that you caught that little bit of Ping Pong on the bottom right corner of my signature since most people don't bother to look there. It was one of my favorite quotes/scenes from the anime, heh. I also wanted to add a Ping Pong gif or two, but I decided that it'd probably take up too much room (as you guessed already, I'm pretty attached to the Nichijou gifs and didn't want to remove them). As for what you should change your propic to, maybe from a recent anime you watched? A game? A movie? Inanimate object? Ahahaha, jkjkjk. Choose whatever you think fits! I can't choose for you since only you know what would fit best, haha. For your signature, maybe you could also add your links. Maybe paste a few of your favorite gifs and quotes? Completely up to you, lol. My signature is just a silly hodgepodge of a few things that kinda mean something to me.

 

Ehehe... my OMM posts... well, you hit the nail on the head, haha. When I wrote that first OMM post, I could only eat half as much as I used to for a few weeks because of how stressed I felt. Ultimately ended up becoming hypoglycemic during the middle of a typical two-hour tennis practice, and I didn't have the guts to tell the coach and ask for a break. I had to plow through the rest of it while feeling light-headed, fuzzy-eyed, exhausted, and dizzy. It went to the point when I would purposely untie my shoes while the coach wasn't looking just so I could have an excuse to crouch down for a few moments. I'm quite surprised I didn't have a headache that day since my head was throbbing intensely every time I bent over to pick up a tennis ball. I forced myself to fix my eating habits so I wouldn't have to experience that again--it was absolutely dreadful. I'm also not sleeping as well as I used to for the same reason. During the school year, I would be out cold the moment I jumped into bed regardless of how stressed I was (probably because of sleep deprivation). Now I feel like I'm tossing and turning for at least an hour before I can sleep. At least it could mean that I'm a lot more well-rested than I was during the school year, haha. And yup, I was fishing for essay topics with that second OMM post you mentioned. As much as I would love to complain about the napkin dispensers, the admissions officers probably wouldn't be amused, lol. And of the three anime you mentioned, I would suggest Ping Pong above all. If you're not a fan of sports anime, I'll tell you right now--it's not really a sports anime. The ping pong is just a medium the anime uses to convey its message, and the storyline is beautifully written (so it's not anything spontaneous like Nichijou, lol). The art (even though it seems rustic at first glace) was brilliantly used to craft metaphors (kinda like Tatami Galaxy). That's what I think made it stand out the most. The realism used is also a breath of fresh air from the usual polished art of anime, so maybe watch an episode or two when you want something new! I'm curious though, since it is a fairly recent anime (2014), what made you turn away from Ping Pong when it first aired? Oh, and I'm not an active watcher of Gigguk, haha. I've only watched him for his reviews, and since I had a bit of free time this summer, I figured I would dig through a few more of his videos. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. OMFG, the Otaku Lyrics 101 video. Thank the lord my parents didn't walk in while I was watching it. I was trying to stifle my laughter and I felt like I was going to burst. And geezus, now the lyrics of all these anime have been ruined (RIP Death Note, I'll never be able to watch it now). Definitely made my day, heh. Hmm, the MAL layout was fine on my laptop. Our laptop dimensions are probably different then, so I tried fixing my layout and adjusting the background color (previously the "white bar") so that the image would feather out better. Also, was anything out of the ordinary towards the left and right edges of your screen? The original coding also made it so the image would repeat horizontally. I didn't change that aspect of the code thinking that the image I used would be big enough. Let me know how it looks! The Nichijou gif wasn't meant to fit in, lol. I didn't want my layout to be too serious so I just added that in for the lulz, haha. 

 

Ahh, sorry I wasn't able to post this on time. I was attending some random summer program I signed up for last minute these past few days, so I didn't have as much time to type this up. Oh it's not a bother at all! Although I wasn't able to respond to every paragraph, it most certainly was an interesting read! It was written in great detail and I loved reading about your experience there! It seemed that you had a pretty good time overall (despite the oven temperatures), and I was also able to flashback a few times to when I last visited Disney World--quite refreshing, if you ask me. Though I'll admit, I was really taken aback by how much you typed up, haha. Ah, not much happened while you were away. I went to a grad party on Saturday if that counts as anything, lol. Watched some anime, read a few David Sedaris pieces at the bookstore, nothing unusual. The program at UMich starts this Sunday. I'll be staying at Ann Arbor from July 19 to July 31. Let the good times roll!

[Akazora 293]

(had to remove quotes in order for post to fit)

Well damn, I just got an email saying that Case is holding an information session just a few minutes from where I live. I was surprised that it wasn't in Detroit since that's where most of these kinds of sessions are held, not that I'm complaining or anything. I just think that it's funny that of all cities they decided on Troy--it almost seems too convenient. I guess I'll try my best to attend that as well, haha. Maybe I'll take another look at UChicago if I have the time since I already visited it the summer before sophomore year. My parents seem to be fond of the Boston schools (mainly because my sister is going to reside there these next couple years), but I don't think I'm going to visit any more this summer. I'm not going to visit any colleges around here other than UMich either since that's the only college that I'm truly interested in within Michigan.

 

Good luck with an Android! Let me know how it goes once you get one! In all honesty, I only used Facebook for joining private groups for certain classes (homework help, updates, complaining, etc.), keeping in contact with old friends, and chatting. Hehehe, you finally joined the dark side. While it's true that friending a bunch of random classmates probably won't accomplish much, you should still keep in contact with a few of your best friends! After all, if they're your best friends, you wouldn't want to leave them entirely, haha. 

 

Because I haven't ridden a rollercoaster in such a long time, I really don't have an idea of what I'd be able to tolerate. The Kingda Ka looks like fun, but also a little intimidating, lol.

 

Haha, I'm not too bummed about my scores. I really appreciate your concern, so thanks for the motivation, heh. Writing my essay (or at least cranking out a rough draft), ACT, and finishing my summer reading is still top priority for me. I haven't taken any practice tests yet because I still need to finish going through all of the material, plus ACT, bleh. I'm working my way through them though, slowly but surely, rest assured!

 

I know there's a crap ton of things I can write about, but I just can't think of any that clicks with me. It's pretty frustrating since I've been thinking about this nonstop. And while a stress-reliever sounds nice, I can't relax knowing that there's still unfinished business to do. As stupid as this sounds, I can't find anything I'm "passionate" about (barring stuff like orchestra and tennis since those seem like overused topics). The worst part is, it's probably some everyday experience I take for granted and haven't realized it yet. Hopefully something will come to mind during that two week summer program I'm attending soon. Maybe the change in environment will help me think of a topic, haha. And about my initials, ahahaha, I'm actually rather surprised that you got it with only four guesses! It's one of those, but you'll also be able to eliminate one based on Chinese surnames alone.

 

Gah, I still can't get over how uncomfortable you guys must've been coming out of phys ed without any A/C. The aftermath of body heat permeating throughout the hallways and classrooms must have felt suffocating for both the students and faculty, especially considering how stuffy the atmosphere of the building was to begin with. Well, at least you'll be able to leave all of that behind you now, so that's nice! Ahaha, thank you for your kind words, but most of the things I managed to accomplish really isn't deserving of praise. A lot of what I'm doing during school isn't out of my free will. Let's be real here: barely anyone would volunteer if it weren't for colleges (I would've loved to volunteer as a camp counselor otherwise). It's nice to give back to the community once in a while, but not when it feels like a chore. Same with a few of the clubs I joined. Although some of the stuff I did looks nice on paper, I did most of them with an ulterior motive in mind. It makes me feel ashamed that I'm not devoting my time to a club out of free will. It's kinda messed up if you think about it. People are tearing each other apart running for president of clubs for the sake of college applications. Do their speeches really represent how they feel about running for this position? "Volunteering to clean up spilled crayons at a local elementary school was quite the humbling experience for me. I believe this makes me a qualified candidate for president." Yeah, right. Meh, I'm just rambling on at this point. I also dropped out of quite a few clubs because I lost interest. I've volunteered to help out teachers on many occasions and I learned a lot about what happens behind the scenes. It truly has helped me empathize more. Volunteering as a NHS tutor has also done the same. I guess that's something good that came out of the experience. I really admire people who do these kinds of activities out of pure interest and nothing more. Funny enough, it seems that most of my effort was wasted. I wish I knew earlier to purse my true passions and interests more. 

 

Ahaha, I'm rarely able to time my cries. It usually happens in bed when I have the sudden realization that everything's falling apart or something along those lines. It's easy for me to get over it since I'm usually overdramatizing in those situations, but it still helps to let loose on occasion. From an evolutionary perspective, crying is just a distress call. It's awesome how it has turned into a stress-reliever as well. Ohh, you also do muscle exercises? Like weights and curl ups? That's pretty neat! Ahaha, it's crazy, isn't it. I haven't even known you for a year (heck, I don't even know you in real life), and you've made me happier and know more about me than many of the people I see everyday. Never in a million years would I have thought this to happen.

 

Hmm, getting 100% acetone seems kinda difficult since it's usually diluted with water. I'll have to take a look around next time I visit CVS. Thanks a bunches for the info!

 

Yeah, I was reading some of the episode discussions and I felt kinda left out as an AO watcher, ahahaha. I guess I felt that Shirou and Rin's relationship was too platonic. It's obvious that they developed feelings for each other, but the fact that the only romantic gesture they had was hand holding is kinda underwhelming. Now, I'm not asking for a full-on, overly dramatic shoujo-esque embrace (I actually dislike shoujo quite a bit), but the hand holding really threw me off. I also can't see any reason why they censored the sex scene. An implied sex scene wouldn't have done any harm since Mirai Nikki managed to pull it off with 14 year olds somehow (except that the scene was way too forced and such an obvious form of fanservice--what awful writing and execution). I wouldn't have minded much in Shirou and Rin's case, to be honest. F/Z overall felt a lot more streamlined than F/SN. The only things I didn't like about F/Z was the anticlimactic ending (so much wasted potential), lack of focus on certain characters (understandable though), and sudden relevance of stuff like Dead Apostles (but loved the backstory). The packing of textbooks worth of information within the first few episodes gave it a pretty slow start as well, but I didn't mind that too much. And admittedly, I couldn't keep track of the types of servants until a few episodes in because of how rushed the delivery of the information was (didn't have enough time to sink in). But at the same time, an intro any longer wouldn't have done F/Z much better. F/SN, on the other hand, had a strong introduction, but fell apart in the second season. Lack of focus on certain characters was also a problem, but again, understandable (it's like Sakura and Fujimura never existed after the second season). Oh, and the corny Shirou scenes made me cringe (like when he was telling Lancer not to get "chummy" with Rin). Oh my gosh, it was so misplaced and completely ruined the serious atmosphere; same with tsundere Rin. I don't know what they were trying to attempt there, but it was laughable (if it was an attempt at character development, I wasn't impressed). The disjointedness of the second season was a big turn off for me, more so than the anticlimactic ending of F/Z. However, with wide range of fans they had to cater to, it was an okay effort, I suppose. Still wasn't as strong as it could've been though. If I were to have watched F/SN before F/Z, I would've been pretty disappointed. The prior knowledge from F/Z provided a huge boost of enjoyment for me, and if it weren't for F/Z, I would've rated it a lot lower, so there's that. But as I've stated before, I'll take the time to re-evaluate them both eventually. While I understand Rin and Kuzuki's fight with servants (thanks for the explanations!), Shirou just seems like the kind of character that should've been killed off ages ago (compared to characters like Rin and Kuzuki, he had little to no fighting skill until the mana transfer). If you ignore that he's the main protagonist, the bottom line is he should've been dead by now. He was constantly putting himself in situations that he shouldn't have survived in, and the fact that he's still alive is absurd. You know, scenes like where he rashly charged towards Gilgamesh to "avenge" Illya while fully aware that he didn't have a servant. In this case, Shinji conveniently interrupts just in time to stop Gilgamesh from killing him. wow. Yeah, I get that he needed to survive for plot progression, but it was just carried out so poorly. Luckiest man alive, I guess? The final battle with Gilgamesh was solid though. His pride was his downfall and I loved it. But the thing with Waver and Ryuunosuke is that they never acted as hastily as Shirou. Waver was actually more cowardly (still more realistic than Shirou though). Ryuunosuke was the oddball and never really had any ambition to participate in the war, and even then I still don't see him acting as recklessly as Shirou. As for HF, I also hope that it'll be split into multiple movies so that the information is more spread out, haha. So I tried looking for some playthroughs of the VN and I found a few, but geezus, they're reaaaallly long (each video is at least a few hours). The text moves nauseatingly slow, even at x2 video speed (it's really discouraging me from watching them). I'm not sure whether or not to play it for myself since I heard that it's mostly reading anyways. Plus, I don't feel comfortable downloading an intended hentai VN on my PC.  

 

I finished the game, and I....

It was really good. It was really really good. The plot twist got me bad and when I reached the True Ending, I thought the game broke the fourth wall after it started referring to me. And then I realized that it was Akane's viewpoint all along, and everything she saw was through Junpei, and the 9th door was actually a q, and the Nevada desert twist, and the branching world lines, and the upside-down sudoku puzzle, and Akane's fever, and Alice in the desert??????? and and and it was all so brilliant and I haven't felt this much satisfaction from a game in such a long time. I'm still in utter shock. The puzzles were also loads of fun to play but the ones I had the most trouble with were the "switch puzzle" (behind Door 2) and the 3x3 = ALL puzzle (behind Door 9). I already told you about the switch puzzle, and I had an idea of what I wanted to do for the 3x3 = ALL puzzle (isolate D, B, 4, 5, then click on D and but getting to that point felt a bit luck-based (it still made more sense to me than the switch puzzle though). After I finished the game, I tried looking up ways other people approached these puzzles and I couldn't find much. If I had to go through those two puzzles again, I probably wouldn't be able to solve them much faster, to be honest. I was also intrigued by the continual references to the base-#/hexadecimal system (it was a fun aspect, haha). Geezus, this game is absofreakinlutely brilliant and unbelievably underrated. I still can't get over the plot twist or even the game in general (and the world lines gave me Steins;Gate vibes, hehe). The only thing I don't get is how Cap was murdered whenever Ace didn't go through Door 1. But still. so. much. mind. blow. asldfjhldkfmnvvmldf. The entire game is just a humongous paradox and it's incredible. Thank you so much for letting me experience this!! Gah :'D AND a third game is coming out?? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

 

Ao Oni was tons of fun to watch even though the jump scares could've given me a heart attack (have you ever played/watched a Let's Play of it before?). I'm also quite surprised at how popular it has gotten especially since the premise is so simple. I watched clips of the movie and it isn't nearly as scary as it could've been. The special effects weren't that great and the game itself was loads freakier.

 

The games these days aren't nearly as challenging anymore (op exp. share, easy gyms and elite 4 members, pushover champion, etc.), but they're still far from bad. The introduction of the Fairy type was nice, and I'm kinda happy they nerfed crits and the Steel type. I also had pretty high expectations for the game, and the only thing I was disappointed about was how unmemorable the rivals, gyms, and elite 4/champion were. I guess Team Flare was also a bit underwhelming. The music was stellar and the graphics blew me away. I don't see much else to complain about, lol. Hmm, in that sense, I guess Lysandre and Gilgamesh are also alike. Both hated the human race and wanted to destroy the world in order to start fresh. Except that no one really bothered to reason with Gilgamesh. I've never considered the similarities between Lysandre and Archer (or even Lysandre and Gilgamesh for that matter). Archer never struck me as the antagonist of the series, and thinking about their parallels feels farfetched at first. But yeah, the two are eerily similar, haha. 

 

I've forced myself to drink water when I didn't want to on occasion, but it usually leads to some form of gagging because of how tasteless it is. I also usually don't drink juice or soda for its source of water. I'm not a health freak or anything (I have pretty bad eating habits), but 24g of sugar from one cup of apple juice is a lot. For me, the only time water tastes good is after a meal or some exercise, but even then I still don't drink as much as I should. I'll try my best to down some more water from now on because I'm pretty tired of these headaches. Thank you for your concern!

 

You still have a month to go before heading off to college, so who knows, haha. Best of luck to you hunting down that black trainer card, and let me know how it goes if you still plan on aiming for it! Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the SnK characters. Eren is a generic shonen lead with aspirations bigger than Gilgamesh's ego. Mikasa is portrayed as an overpowered prodigy, and it's no fun watching her kill titans knowing that everything she does is executed flawlessly; the situation just doesn't feel threatening enough (the fight scenes are still badass though). Same with Levi (is he even human?). Armin is cool (he grew a bit). And all the other characters are usually left in the dust. Hange is my favorite character but she doesn't get enough screen time. The anime also dragged on way more than it should have when chasing after Annie. Plus, the sense of terror that's created in the first few episodes is treated like a joke as the series progressed. How am I supposed to take this seriously (good use of dark humor though). The titans no longer feel as serious of a threat as the anime makes them out to be because they seem about as frail as a Mario goomba towards the end. The first few episodes were fantastic (10/10), but everything after that was pretty lackluster. I won't deny that SnK has killer AMVs though, heh. But did you know that SnK's opening also goes well with everything?

 

--

 

Damn, I don't remember Florida ever being that hot. Perhaps the crowdedness accentuated the heat? You know, that feeling when everyone comes out of phys ed all sweaty, and everyone's body heat makes the environment seem twice as hot as it should be. I'm pretty sure I visited Disney World during the wintertime (thank goodness) so I don't remember having suffered as much as you did. And you guys were carrying heavy bags? Water and cameras? Geezus. 

 

Oh my gosh, I remember riding on Soarin'! It was one of my favorite rides (which I guess isn't saying much since I didn't get to ride on too many of them, ehehe...).

 

Ohhhhh, I also remember traveling to the Showcase! I don't think we got to visit each place, but I remember that we spent a lot of time in China for some reason. I vaguely remember eating a turkey leg. I don't like turkey either (I'm a ham person, ahaha), but I think the whole family shared one leg. And congrats on the find! Is it okay if I asked you what the F/Z poster looked like?

 

Ahaha, I remember reading an article that selfie sticks were banned for safety purposes not too long ago. I thought that was pretty funny, lol. If I were in your situation, I also probably would've chosen to stay on the train. What did you end up doing on there though? Or did you literally mean nothing, haha. I know this might sound weird, but I might've talked to that little girl you sat next to on that Legend of the Forbidden Mountain rollercoaster. I love talking to little kids because it's so easy to hold a conversation with them. They'll talk about anything, and it's fun going off on tangents with them. Ask them their favorite color, and the next thing you know, you guys are talking about their sticker collections, haha. Whaaa... they're creating Avatar Land? I liked the movie a lot so hopefully it won't disappoint! 

 

Overall, would you say that the Frozen theme park was worth the visit? I thought it was a fun little movie, and I'm considering whether or not to go the next time I visit Disney World. Ahhh! I remember both the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show! I especially loved watching the latter, and the car driving backwards completely blew my mind until they revealed the trick, haha. And the whole guy-catching-on-fire gimmick was also amused me a lot. How many times did you watch the show for it to be unentertaining? I don't think I'd ever get tired of watching live action stuff, lol. I also remember watching the mini-documentary of Walt Disney! I don't remember the content too well though. Gah, this was all so long ago. I'm surprised I even remember watching it. Odd and complicated circumstances? Aw, you can't just leave it at that and expect the comment not to pique my interest. I'd love to hear about what happened on the rollercoaster! I'm quite curious, haha. Ohh, I remember seeing the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror whenever we drove up to Disney World, but I guess none of us wanted to ride it at the time, haha. Ehh?? You got to see smiley faces and heart shaped fireworks? I'm envious :c Ahaha, one of my earbuds is also broken. But it normally doesn't hinder the experience for me (maybe I've gotten too used to it).

 

Hmm, I've never tried Frozen Dole Whip before, but I've heard of it. I don't like pineapples that much either, but I love the flavoring. I'll be sure to try it out when I have the chance! Ah, I don't think we've gone down Splash Mountain. We were thinking about it, but our parents decided that it'd better if we didn't get wet, lol. Wait, you don't mean to tell me...they might've used real instruments to create those sound effects? ;c Ahaha, thanks to you, I now have a laundry list of rides I want to go on now. I guess the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is going to be at the top of my list, haha.

 

Geez, Space Mountain sounds all too familiar, but I don't remember riding it. This is really bugging me. Okay, so I looked up a clip of the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular, and the projections ohmygod. akldjsklfadklfhkdsghklhsfkl

 

Whoa, I think I saw my friends playing The Resistance during a grad party I attended a month ago. It was an interesting game, for sure. I've heard a lot of good things about Inside Out. I'm not sure if I'll be able to watch it any time soon since I'll be heading off to the UMich summer program on Sunday. I'll try my best though!

 

Damn, why is Universal Studios so strict about loose items? Like geez, if I read your descriptions out of context, I really would've ended up thinking that it was at an airport. But anyways... interactive wands?? Man, if I was still in middle school, I probably would've pestered my parents to no end to get one of those. The extra money would've been worth the experience, in my opinion, haha. Love potions? Like stuff you can actually consume, or just a trinket kind of thing? Oh, and I bought a pack of the every flavor beans at the Sweet Factory once! I gave it to my friend who's a huge Harry Potter fanatic, so I never got to try it for myself (almost don't want to, actually, lol). Butterbeer and Moaning Myrtle too? Ahaha, they really do have everything! 

 

I think it's really neat that they simulated the train ride! And the fact that they included dementors sounds awesome! Gosh, they really went all out with Harry Potter World. The airport-like security measures does sound like a huge turnoff (I'd also be pretty salty about if I were you), but hopefully it didn't hinder your experience too much!

 

Whoa, one of the kids there announced that she was from Edison? Wow, it's a small world, isnt it! Okayokayokay, sorry, I know, wrong park, but I had to, ahahahaha....... Yeah, I'm not too big of a fan of club music either, and the fact that these animals probably have to deal with it on a regular basis also feels a bit off putting.

 

Geezus, that rain was horizontal? Thank goodness you managed to make it back safely, haha. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been driving in those conditions. And you managed to see lightning up close? That's awesome! Although thunderstorms aren't uncommon around here, I rarely get to see lightning. My hair was at its longest when I typed that post (still shorter than Mai's though). A few of my friends were shocked when they saw my haircut, haha. But I guess my new-ish haircut is kinda growing on me. I'd say that my hair is a mix between Yuuko and Mai's at the moment. I'm a bit surprised that you remembered what my first profile picture was since I don't think we began talking until I switched to Mio, lol (the farthest I can think back to for yours was Sherlock from Ace Attorney). Because no one knows what anyone looks like on the internet, I sometimes use people's avatars as a reference to what they look like as well, haha. I guess that means you would be a genderbent Lucina then, heh. Actually, I really don't have any idea what you look like either. You mentioned something about long wavy hair, but it's hard for me to picture that since most Asian guys around here have undercuts or layers (I'm quite curious!). I've been meaning to switch my profile picture for a while now. I was thinking about someone from Korra, then maybe Gilgamesh, or Santa from 999 (favorite character from the game), or possibly Akko from LWA. Then I watched Ping Pong and now I don't know what to change my propic to, lol. Oh, and the Churchill quote I added to my signature was inspired by my English teacher. He had that quote pasted next to the classroom door, so it was the first thing I saw every time I left the classroom. It didn't mean anything to me at first and I thought he pasted it as a joke to mock us (he actually has a fantastic sense of humor), but the quote began to feel more inspiring with every passing day. The links I added were pasted there because my signature felt a bit empty, haha. I'm also somewhat surprised that you caught that little bit of Ping Pong on the bottom right corner of my signature since most people don't bother to look there. It was one of my favorite quotes/scenes from the anime, heh. I also wanted to add a Ping Pong gif or two, but I decided that it'd probably take up too much room (as you guessed already, I'm pretty attached to the Nichijou gifs and didn't want to remove them). As for what you should change your propic to, maybe from a recent anime you watched? A game? A movie? Inanimate object? Ahahaha, jkjkjk. Choose whatever you think fits! I can't choose for you since only you know what would fit best, haha. For your signature, maybe you could also add your links. Maybe paste a few of your favorite gifs and quotes? Completely up to you, lol. My signature is just a silly hodgepodge of a few things that kinda mean something to me.

 

Ehehe... my OMM posts... well, you hit the nail on the head, haha. When I wrote that first OMM post, I could only eat half as much as I used to for a few weeks because of how stressed I felt. Ultimately ended up becoming hypoglycemic during the middle of a typical two-hour tennis practice, and I didn't have the guts to tell the coach and ask for a break. I had to plow through the rest of it while feeling light-headed, fuzzy-eyed, exhausted, and dizzy. It went to the point when I would purposely untie my shoes while the coach wasn't looking just so I could have an excuse to crouch down for a few moments. I'm quite surprised I didn't have a headache that day since my head was throbbing intensely every time I bent over to pick up a tennis ball. I forced myself to fix my eating habits so I wouldn't have to experience that again--it was absolutely dreadful. I'm also not sleeping as well as I used to for the same reason. During the school year, I would be out cold the moment I jumped into bed regardless of how stressed I was (probably because of sleep deprivation). Now I feel like I'm tossing and turning for at least an hour before I can sleep. At least it could mean that I'm a lot more well-rested than I was during the school year, haha. And yup, I was fishing for essay topics with that second OMM post you mentioned. As much as I would love to complain about the napkin dispensers, the admissions officers probably wouldn't be amused, lol. And of the three anime you mentioned, I would suggest Ping Pong above all. If you're not a fan of sports anime, I'll tell you right now--it's not really a sports anime. The ping pong is just a medium the anime uses to convey its message, and the storyline is beautifully written (so it's not anything spontaneous like Nichijou, lol). The art (even though it seems rustic at first glace) was brilliantly used to craft metaphors (kinda like Tatami Galaxy). That's what I think made it stand out the most. The realism used is also a breath of fresh air from the usual polished art of anime, so maybe watch an episode or two when you want something new! I'm curious though, since it is a fairly recent anime (2014), what made you turn away from Ping Pong when it first aired? Oh, and I'm not an active watcher of Gigguk, haha. I've only watched him for his reviews, and since I had a bit of free time this summer, I figured I would dig through a few more of his videos. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. OMFG, the Otaku Lyrics 101 video. Thank the lord my parents didn't walk in while I was watching it. I was trying to stifle my laughter and I felt like I was going to burst. And geezus, now the lyrics of all these anime have been ruined (RIP Death Note, I'll never be able to watch it now). Definitely made my day, heh. Hmm, the MAL layout was fine on my laptop. Our laptop dimensions are probably different then, so I tried fixing my layout and adjusting the background color (previously the "white bar") so that the image would feather out better. Also, was anything out of the ordinary towards the left and right edges of your screen? The original coding also made it so the image would repeat horizontally. I didn't change that aspect of the code thinking that the image I used would be big enough. Let me know how it looks! The Nichijou gif wasn't meant to fit in, lol. I didn't want my layout to be too serious so I just added that in for the lulz, haha. 

 

Ahh, sorry I wasn't able to post this on time. I was attending some random summer program I signed up for last minute these past few days, so I didn't have as much time to type this up. Oh it's not a bother at all! Although I wasn't able to respond to every paragraph, it most certainly was an interesting read! It was written in great detail and I loved reading about your experience there! It seemed that you had a pretty good time overall (despite the oven temperatures), and I was also able to flashback a few times to when I last visited Disney World--quite refreshing, if you ask me. Though I'll admit, I was really taken aback by how much you typed up, haha. Ah, not much happened while you were away. I went to a grad party on Saturday if that counts as anything, lol. Watched some anime, read a few David Sedaris pieces at the bookstore, nothing unusual. The program at UMich starts this Sunday. I'll be staying at Ann Arbor from July 19 to July 31. Let the good times roll!

(Ohh, almost forgot I could just not post the quoted parts.  Might have been able to avoid double posting if I did that.  Might have…)

 

That is pretty lucky to have an information session so close by!  I’ve never attended a college info session that wasn’t on campus, so I’m not too sure how informative those are, but it might be worth checking out.  Of course, it could also be a bit of a waste of time if the info session that you’ll be seeing in August is identical to the one you’ll see in Troy.  Hmm, I guess in Michigan there aren’t many viable options that would be worth checking.  The good thing about living on the east coast is that there are a lot of really good schools located in roughly the same area.  Maybe you could fly over to New York City and visit the schools there, as well as rent a car up north to see the ones in the Boston area?  Ehh, that does sound like a hassle though and it’s not like you have a ton of time this summer.

 

My OnePlus One just arrived in the mail a couple of days ago, though I won’t be opening it and using it until my phone case arrives.  Sigh, as much as it pains me to join Facebook, I am consoled by the fact that I got one at 18, so I can convince myself I didn’t just get one to waste the time away like all my friends did back in middle and high school, heheh.  Same with the whole phone thing.  It just seems like a silly way to distance myself from the rest of Generation Z though.  I may add some of my friends, but I’m afraid friends of those friends will start adding me, too.  I just want to start fresh and avoid any old clutter.  And I still keep in touch with my really close classmates through e-mail, if there’s anything pressing we need to talk about.  I’ll see how into it I get in college, and if I feel it’s worth it I’ll friend some of my high school friends.

 

I’m glad you’re staying positive about your SAT IIs and everything else that’s going on!  Hrm, though the essay topic is still giving you some trouble it seems.  And you’re one of those people that can’t relax if there’s work to be done, nagging at the back of your mind, huh?  Gosh, I’m the exact opposite; I’m really unproductive because of it, too.  Maybe I can turn things around in college, eheh.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to think of any good topics myself.  And I wouldn’t say it’s stupid having trouble thinking of something you’re passionate about.  My stargazing thing was pure luck, and all my other interests are all geeky and probably off-putting, so I’d be having as much trouble as you right now.  Hopefully the UMich summer program does you some good.

 

And as for your name, I’m going out on a limb guessing right now, but does it happen to be Jessica Zhou?  As for how I came about that answer, I realized your initials were JZ when I dug around your art posts.  One of your DeviantArt accounts is jzcool123, right?  Well, it’s pretty self-explanatory, but that’s what tipped me off.  Regardless of whether or not that’s what you made your account name, JZ was the most likely combination anyway.  PU obviously doesn’t work (brings me back to elementary school, so I couldn’t resist) and not many girl names start with E (okay, fine, there's Emily and Elizabeth, I suppose).  I personally don’t know many Chinese folk with T’s as their last name initials (three off the top of my head), though I suppose MT was the second most likely guess.  I just didn’t see how “MT = empty” would be much of a conversation starter either.  However, JZ works really well.  Popular girl names like Julia, Jennifer, and Jessica (as well as their alternate versions like Julie, Jenny, and Jessie) aren’t uncommonly paired with popular Chinese surnames like Zhou or Zhang.  Since that didn’t narrow down your name a whole lot, I did some research on your school and found this newspaper article thing online.  On page 7 (page 6 of the pdf), there’s a list of a bunch of names.  Under the “Symphonic Orchestra/Troy High” category, the only name that fits the “JZ” bill is “Jessica Zhou”.  Heck, that’s the only name that works for all four letter combinations.  So that’s pretty much how I came to that conclusion, haha.  Not the neatest or most straightforward line of thinking, but it gets the job done.

 

I guess I would be lying to myself if I told myself most people did extra-curricular’s because they wanted to.  I wouldn’t suggest you go so far as to get yourself down about having ulterior motives though.  It’s more a fault of the education system if anything; it’s not like you’re a bad person for only volunteering because it looks good on your college apps.  While it’s good to admire and look up to those that do things because they’re legitimately interested and passionate about the subject matter, there’s no point in looking down on anyone who’s not.  Goodness, and why do you feel that it was wasted effort?

 

Eheheh, I’ll admit it, I cried when I learned of Iwata’s passing.  It was a pretty bad bout, too.  By the time it dawned on me just what had happened, I was still on my laptop and the stories and art tributes were just starting to pour in.  I cried all over my computer and my clothes, and goodness me, I was a mess.  Then I managed to calm down enough to take a shower, but made the mistake of letting my mind wander and started crying all over again.  Stopped for a time, but once I was in bed and started tossing and turning because I couldn’t sleep, I started once more.  By the next morning I was fine though.  Sigh, geez, it’s a bit embarrassing to admit since it’s probably unseemly for a guy to get emotional over stuff like this.  I thought I was desensitized by all the things I’ve seen on television and in movies and books and anime and video games, so this came as a bit of a shock to myself, ahah.  This is the first time I’ve cried over someone before, and it’s a bit scary to think how I’d react to the loss of someone I know personally.  Well, there’s no point worrying about that now; I’ll deal with those emotions once the time comes.  I tried following your advice by thinking of the simple things in life, but it was difficult since I was getting upset for someone else’s sake and not my own.  And yeah, I do muscle exercises like that, but it’s not very impressive.  All of my efforts are canceled balanced out by my poor eating habits, soo, hahah…

 

Mhm, no problem; I’m glad I could help!  Though I would like to know why you’re interested in this.  Is there plastic you’re also looking to remove from something specific or is it just scientific curiosity?

 

They could have just been appealing to a wider audience I guess?  With one of those 18+ ratings, or whatever it is in Japan, there would be a smaller market to purchase the Blu-rays when they come out and I guess when it comes down to it that’s their main source of income.  To limit it all to just handholding (and I guess that one moment when Rin was laying her head on Shirou’s lap) is a bit much, for the sake of making it all-age friendly.  Fate/Zero is one of those anime most appreciated the second time through.  Though the info-dump in the first few episodes may have felt difficult to digest initially, upon rewatching it you’ll find that none of the dialogue is wasted.  There is just enough background info of the Holy Grail and the Servants and the participants for it to make sense, with the perfect amount of foreshadowing and references to Fate/stay night.  There is no more or less than is needed, and overall it’s a job well done by ufotable and the director and the screenwriter.  A lot of the scenes in UBW did seem out of place, especially some moments between Shirou and Rin.  You could try and chalk it up to the fact that it’s an adaptation of an aged source material from a time when things like this were better accepted, but still…  Even for a tsundere, Rin isn’t a very good example of one executed well.  And nothing lighthearted was charming or funny either, but eh whatever.  As for why Shirou seems to get lucky breaks all the time and not die, VN readers tend to use the excuse that in the VN, there are a ton of instances when the wrong choice is made by Shirou and that he and/or those close to him pay the price for it in bad ends.  The good ends are the only instances amongst many others where he just so happens to make the right choice.  Every time.  Some of the things he’s survived through still seem a bit farfetched, but I guess I’m willing to accept that answer.  I’m just trying to find solace in the fact that UBW was never meant to be the finale.  Right after that route, you were expected to jump into HF, where Nasu pulls out all the stops and brings the story to its true climax.  Here’s hoping it can live up to the hype, haha.  And yeah, the VN is really daunting, even in playthrough form.  Though experiencing the original source material of something you enjoy is recommended, in F/sn’s case it may not be the best course of action.  Especially with how busy you’ll be in the coming months and years.  Even though I was in the whole “I’ll play the VN later” boat as well, I don’t know if I have the time or patience to get through it.  And downloading it on my computer sounds like a hassle, too.  It’s really low priority on my list of things to do, so I guess we’re just going to have to see.  Most people agree the Fate route is the weakest, and if the HF movies are good enough then there may not be much need to experience the VN.

 

Woah, I didn’t expect you to like 999 that much, haha.  I’ve always thought it was an amazing game, and I’m stoked for VLR and the third installment as well, but for whatever reason I wasn’t expecting such a strong response from you.  Ahhh, I’m really glad you liked it!  I agree, it’s criminally underrated and underplayed.  At the very least those who play it end up really liking it, so that’s worth something.  The 9=q makes even more sense in Japanese, since Zero said that part over the loudspeakers and “nine” is pronounced “kyuu”, which obviously is the same way you’d pronounce “q”.  I thought it was also fantastic how digital roots were used in tandem with the doors.  The way the plot was so intricately reliant on a perfectly set up ship layout and order of the doors was phenomenal.  How certain people were only able to enter certain doors with specific people and how the game weaved a narrative around that blew my mind.  It was wonderfully symbolic to end a 9-based game with a standard 9x9 Sudoku puzzle as well.  The way they tied science-fiction elements into a story otherwise rooted in logic and referencing the real life Rupert Sheldrake and his concept of morphogenetic fields was really neat.  The OST is rather fantastic as well, especially the few melodic pieces like Morphogenetic Sorrow and 9 Years.  And oh my gosh, that puzzle behind door 9 gave me so much trouble, too!  I thought I was the only one, but I just straight up didn’t get what I was supposed to do for the longest time, eheheh.  As for the Cap plot hole, the main theory is that Clover killed him when no one was looking.  I can’t remember the circumstances of the game and that moment specifically, but that’s what it seems most people agree happened.  I think there are a few iffy instances where certain circumstances seem a bit farfetched or outrageous and too paradoxical to be plausible, but that’s what makes it so fun to analyze and talk about, ahah.  It’s still so well-crafted overall, that a flew slipups in logic here or there are forgivable.  Once again, I’m so happy you liked it!  I guess VLR and the third game are high or your 3DS wish list now.  And as flattered as I am by your thanks, I’m just the messenger so I don’t deserve quite as much praise as you’re giving me, hahahah.  Do you plan on jumping right into Ace Attorney or will you take a break this summer and maybe start it up after college apps?

 

I don’t have any idea what Ao Oni is about; I’ve just seen it mentioned on occasion so no I’ve never watched a play through of it.  I can imagine in movie form it’s not very good.  Japanese cinema struggles with CGI and even the to-be-released SnK films are getting some heat from the west because some people are dissatisfied with how the titans look.

 

If you turn off Exp. Share the game becomes a bit harder.  Enough to be somewhat challenging and require grinding every once in a while, but that was mainly because of my silly alternating Amulet Coin and Lucky Egg setup.  If you start working at the hotel as early as possible and check back every day, you’re going to buy out all the clothes faster than you’d think and the rest of the money just goes to hording Potions, I guess.  The Lucky Egg can then be the only hold item you use, and at that point the game becomes really easy again.  I can’t even imagine how much easier it would have been if I kept Exp. Share on the whole time, geez.  It’s not a terrible choice of a game to Nuzlocke run, though.  Speaking of which, I haven’t touched Y in a long time.  I’m just at the foot of Victory Road, and with how daunting those always seems to be at first (especially ones that I’m clueless about like Kalos’s) I’ve lost all motivation to continue.  I will eventually, but Sm4sh 3DS is so easy to pick up and just play………  Likewise, I’m standing in front of Kyogre in my umpteenth Sapphire run, and I’m just too lazy to RNG for a shiny, eheheh.

 

Gagging on water??  Either you’re not good at swallowing or you’re allergic to water (neither of which is a good thing as they’re kinda essential to living).  Do you usually drink tap or bottled water?  If it’s tap is it school fountain tap or home fridge dispenser tap?  If it’s bottled what brand is it?  Not all water is created equal of course, as the concentration of dissolved minerals and other invisible stuff in some water can give it a funky flavor.  Maybe you’re sensitive to tap water, like my mom is.  She only drinks bottled water, and drinks tap only if it’s used to make tea, or something.  I’m always so thirsty, so I drink all kinds of water just fine, eheh.  I do have my limits though, as in Magic Kingdom their filter must not have been working correctly the day we went because their water tasted like that nasty stuff they use for the Splash Mountain ride and wasn’t consumable (would have made for some interesting scientific testing though).  Maybe you could try coconut, mineral, or hint water as an alternative?  Can’t personally vouch for anything, but they’re worth a shot if you’re really repelled by the thought of water 7.8/10 too much water ufufufufufufu joking joking. 

 

I’m definitely going to still go for that black trainer card, but I’ll be working toward that goal slowly and surely during my time at college.  There’s definitely not enough time right now.  My parents made me sign up for these random online summer courses in accounting and QuickBooks (the Excel of accountants) and it’s taking up quite a bit of time from a summer break that I’ve been anticipating for a while not that I’m salty or anything why would I be.

 

The characters may be flat and the plot may be a bit too simplistic, but there are still plenty of chapters yet to be released and mysteries yet to be solved.  Maybe I’m just being a bit too optimistic, but I’m hoping by the time everything wraps up it manages to provide a satisfying conclusion.  Ah gosh, I remember the SnK opening used to be parodied all the time.  Goodness, I don’t even know why.  I liked the second opening far more than the first one, but I guess others didn’t because it just wasn’t as catchy or something like that?  The Internet will never cease to be the Internet…

 

The water probably weighed us down the most.  We brought in one bottle per person each day we were at the parks, though they were finished almost immediately.  That was the case for me at least.  Oh gosh, once I start drinking I can’t stop and before I know it the bottle’s empty and I’m still thirsty (out of context that sounds terrible).  My mom also always brought a ton of snacks to eat.  And by snacks I mean fruit, like oranges.  And of course, we always had to have umbrellas and rain ponchos handy in case Mother Nature decided hit us with a big one.  All that paired with the random stuff my parent put in their bags, and it ended up being quite the hassle, ehehe.

 

Soarin’ is always a long line, though we used a Fast Pass so it wasn’t so bad.  Even if you ended up waiting, there was an interactive game during the line queue you can play for a bit.  Nothing as fancy as the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train line or even Space Mountain’s line, but it’s something.  I’m not sure if it was already installed when you visited with your family.

 

The turkey legs I forgot to mention don’t actually seem to be a Disney exclusive thing.  They’re more like a Florida theme park exclusive thing, since I saw them sold at Universal and SeaWorld as well.  Hrm, weird.  And of course, there’s no need to be reserved about asking for stuff like that, haha.  On YouTube, I managed to find a quick “unboxing” of the very same scroll I got.  You can watch it here.  As you can see, it’s not the best looking scroll.  Just a quick Google search and I’ve already found posters I’d much rather have instead, but beggars can’t be choosers.  My parents would never have let me buy a scroll if we weren’t at Dinsey and if I had instead asked them back at Edison to order one online.  The art for this poster is weird, too.  It’s neither ufotable’s standard art style nor Takashi Takeuchi’s work.  But it’s definitely official and it has “ufotable” printed near the bottom in small font, sooo…  I’m guessing this was a very early promo poster back when they first announced ufotable would be making a Fate/Zero adaptation, and they hadn’t yet settled on artists yet.

 

We didn’t literally do nothing… we sat down and rested which counts as something……  But yeah, it was just a round trip to a small monkey themed area and back to the main park.  There was nothing to actually do on the train, haha.  Oh gosh, I don’t know if I’m any good with little kids.  I’m afraid I’d just come off as creepy and scare them away.  I never interact with anyone much younger than me on a daily basis, so I just don’t know how to act around them, I guess.  It sounds just like you to talk to little kids though, haha.

 

It was less a Frozen theme park as it was just the fact that Hollywood Studios was Frozen-ed up from head to toe.  Frozen-esque decorations on the lamps, Frozen posters and signs, Frozen fireworks and singalongs, that kind of stuff.  It’s nothing permanent and can be removed and replaced with other stuff on short notice (not that that’s what Disney will do), but the theme does permeate nearly the entire park.  I don’t know if it’s worth checking out, but Fantasmic is pretty cool so if you’re going to Hollywood Studios for anything, do it for that.  This was the third time I’ve seen the show, and I guess it’s just boring because it’s the same old stuff.  They didn’t change up the tricks so you know what to expect, and once you know what to expect it’s just less exciting and seems “slower” for lack of a better word.  I dunno, but it’s kind of how like action scenes in movies seem fast at first because your eyes don’t know where to look, but once you have an idea of how things play out your mind anticipates them upon rewatch and your eyes follow the action better.  The Tower of Terror is a neat ride, you should check it out!  It’s a classic, too.  The fireworks weren’t really that exciting because there was no music to go with it (or rather we couldn’t hear the music from the parking lot) but I guess the smiley faces and hearts were nice.  Were your Independence Day fireworks this year really that boring?

 

It wasn’t really anything that happened on the rollercoaster as it was something that happened while in line.  So we were already waiting in front of the tracks waiting for the coaster to come rolling along and load us in, and I was leaning against the railing looking toward the front of the coaster, toward the direction of my siblings since they were in the very first row.  I could see the girl out of the corner of my eye, and I believe I may have considered talking to her, but before I could, she just takes out her phone and snaps a “secret” picture of me.  Just straight up holds her phone away from her body like she was preparing for a selfie, angled it so it was facing my direction, and *snap*.  Left the flash and shutter sound on and everything.  I of course wasn’t looking directly at the phone, that would be weird, but I’m positive she caught me in her picture and that she did it on purpose (was in a similar situation at graduation when some of my friends tried taking a secret picture of me because I didn’t have a Facebook and I refused a selfie with them…).  At this point, I didn’t know how to react.  I obviously couldn’t acknowledge the fact that she took a picture of me; if she didn’t realize her flash and shutter sound were on she’d be even more embarrassed at being found out than she probably already was.  Since I’m not “in the know” of what people my age take pictures of, I wasn’t too sure why she wanted a picture of me.  You’d think it would be rude to sneak a picture of a stranger like that.  It wasn’t because she found me attractive, and I’m not just saying that because ten times out of ten I believe a stranger looks at me because they think I’m derpy.  Though the line queue was inside and I wasn’t sweating, I rode the coaster at the end of the day so I’m sure my face was still somewhat flushed from a days’ worth of walking outside and my hair was definitely mussed around by the wind.  I didn’t feel very presentable, and I don’t think I looked it either.  So then I started getting paranoid thinking there was something wrong with me.  After all, there are a ton of pictures online of random people with weird getups or doing silly things or looking funky (it’s the Internet after all).  Was there ketchup on my face?  Was there a spider crawling up my shirt??  Was there a bird making a nest of my hair???  If I tried making small talk with her now, would she interpret that as my noticing she took a picture?  What if she thought I looked derpy and if I talked to her she’d just run off to her friends and gossip about the stupid looking Asian kid on the ride who tried to start up a conversation?  What if she was actually Russian and couldn’t speak a lick of English?  While I was worrying about what had just transpired, we boarded the coaster, set off, and returned before I knew it.  We didn’t say a word to each other or even make eye contact.  I can barely remember what she looked like apart from the fact that she had blonde hair.  We went our separate ways, and that’s that.  Goodness, what a mess.  In retrospect, she was probably just surprised to see an Asian with wavy and semi-curly hair……  Bleh, was that an entertaining enough story to satiate your curiosity?  Ahahah, now that I think about i,t I don’t think I talked to a single stranger the entire trip…  I’m sorry Kenzi, I feel like in a way I may have let you down…

 

Waaahhh, you didn’t go on any of the classics!  Geez, Splash Mountain is a staple of Disney.  I mean, sure it wasn’t the best ride and the line queue was more outdoors than indoors, but it’s worth your time just because it’s so popular.  And getting wet isn’t always too bad of a thing, especially on hot days.  You’ll most likely completely dry off by the end of the day.  And yup, the Mine Train is a must see because it’s so new!  Actually, if classics and new rides should all be on your checklist, might as well go on every ride because that covers the whole scope of things, heheh.

 

I figured you wouldn’t have time, but keep the movie in mind!  Even if it stops airing in theaters and you have to torrent it (do you torrent movies or is that also something you’re scared of doing?) it’s still worth a watch.

 

Ahh yeah, the urge was strong but I somehow suppressed it.  My sister and brother didn’t seem too interested in buying a stick, regardless of how cool they were, so I reluctantly passed on the opportunity as well.  I wonder what wand you’d end up getting?  The love potion was just candy, haha.  The jar you can keep as a trinket I guess, but since it wasn’t see-through I couldn’t tell what the candy looked like specifically.  Pretty sure it takes more than just candy to win a person’s heart though, ahahaha.

 

Your new haircut is “growing” on you?  (icwahtudidthar arharharharhar)  I remember noticing you when you first joined, but I don’t know why.  Maybe it was the Mai picture that stood out because I recognized it from Nichijou and was constantly reminded it was something I needed to watch?  That paired with your signature gifs that never change, and I guess you ended up being someone hard not to notice?  I don’t know what I’m saying, hahah.  And I can barely remember what my most recent profile pictures were, ahah.  Also, wouldn’t a genderbent Lucina just be Marth??  And as for what I look like, you’re “quite curious” about this, too?  Gosh, first the roller coaster and now this, haha.  While you’re the only person on the Internet I’d trust with a picture of me, I still can’t get over how I look in photos.  I know we’ve been through this whole photogenic debate before, but ehhh I’ve always been pretty self-conscious, so…  If we ever meet in person though, you’ll see what I look like!  Not to mention I’m also curious to see exactly what you look like myself, eheheh.  For now, to quell your curiosity, I guess the best I do is provide examples.  Some of my friends have told me my hair is kind of like Gilbert Nightray’s from Pandora Hearts, or Tyki Mikk’s from D. Gray-man.  It’s closer in “waviness” to Tyki's, but it’s closer in length to Gilbert’s.  Even then, my hair isn’t nearly as long as Gilbert’s, since anime hair, especially in guys, can be rather misleading.  It’s already becoming a nuisance to deal with, sigh.  When I take a shower and it temporarily "straightens" out under the heavy water, they become bangs that go way down to my eyes.  I really need to get my hair cut soon.  Ahh, so Gilgamesh and Santa, hrmmm??  I see, I see, so you’re into guys with their hair flared up most of the time, ohhhohohoho!  Aww, your English teacher sounds nice.  My English teachers all sucked.  Nah, just joking, I somehow managed to avoid bad English teachers all four years of high school, which is something I’m proud of, hah.  I only saw that Ping Pong thing because I was trying to rep and quote you, eheh.  I didn’t even notice the extra space below your links initially.  And you say that you can’t choose a profile picture for me even though I asked you because I can’t think of anything myself gahh!  Ah, there’s no helping it I guess.  I’ll think of something eventually.  Nothing particularly exciting is happening in the world of anime, so it probably won’t be related to that.  Splatoon perhaps?  Finally started playing it and I’m loving every second of it, though when I go off to college and leave my Wii U behind my interest in it will most definitely tank.  Hrm, wouldn’t be a bad placeholder for now a least.  If that’s what I decide to change it to, I’ll get around to it when I have the time.  I’ll match it with my signature as well.  Might throw in some links or a quote if it looks good.

 

Uwahhh, you were that stressed?!?  And I told you so firmly not to let it negatively affect you like that!  Kenzi, geez (don’t make me use your real name with you, young lady)!  At least now you’re eating better, though you say you’re “forcing” yourself just to so as to not get hypoglycemic symptoms again, which is kind of questionable, but alright.  And for someone who’s so open to talking to strangers, you didn’t have the guts to tell your coach you weren’t feeling well??  Sigh, there you go again, making me worry, ahah.  Ohh, though I haven’t been sleeping well myself either, eheh.  I used to fall asleep immediately, but lately I’ve been tossing and turning all over my bed.  Sometimes I try to play Smash for 3DS to get myself tired, but then I underestimate my own abilities and play until daybreak.  Then I know I’ve really messed up and fall asleep only to wake up super late.  Ughh, I need to fix my sleep schedule.  Hopefully you can do the same.  Try going to sleep and waking up nice and early, if you have energy to spare!  It came out a year ago, but I didn’t pick up Ping Pong for the same reason most people initially skipped it.  No one had heard of the manga, so it didn’t have any street cred and the animation was weird.  Last time someone tried odd art/animation, it turned into Aku no Hana.  I haven’t watched that rotoscoped anime myself so I can’t really judge, but it received a lot of criticism back when it first came out.  It’s nice to see Ping Pong was eventually accepted as rather superb by most when it finally finished at least.  Oh, and because I was under the false impression that it would just be a normal sports anime (since no one was there to tell me otherwise), it was a pass on my list.  It was a missed opportunity for sure, but such is the life of someone like me, sigh.  I’ll definitely watch it eventually, but probably not for a while.  I’ve had a lot of things on my mind for far longer, and the older an anime gets the less relevant it becomes and the harder it gets to watch, eheh.  I need to save those that are really falling behind, even if they have less potential than the ones that you recommend.  And speaking of recommendations, I never got to play Super Beat Boy or Cave Story yet!  Aggh, damnnit, I keep on putting that off, too!  I’m really sorry about that, but I swear I’ll get to them!  I feel terrible about it, since you already got through 999 and you have less time than I do.  Hmm, it would be nice if Gigguk posted more videos, but sometimes I remember to check his Twitter and he posts some funny stuff there occasionally, so it’s fine in the end.  Ah, the background of your MAL is a lot better now, though the picture starts to repeat on the right side.  Only a little bit though.  Goodness, what are your laptop dimensions anyway?  They’re completely different from mine it seems.  I chose a minimalist Saber style for my list, so it looks good on any device.  Still though, just a bit more tweaking and yours should look great!  

 

There’s no need to apologize for not getting a reply out on time.  You sent it the next day and early in the morning at that, so it’s really no big deal.  I can totally relate with signing up for something last minute, and I know how much of a hassle it can be.  How did that go?  Aww, and I was really hoping you’d write in more detail than just a few sentences!  Heh, I’ll take what you gave me and be happy with that.  Woah, a grad party so late into the summer?  It’s already past the Fourth of July.  Either someone really procrastinated or someone was just looking for an excuse to have a final get together with friends, haha.  Hope you had a good time to relax and not be all stressed about your Common App essay like you’ve been lately.  Ohh, David Sedaris, huh?  If you want me to be honest, I have no idea who he is and have never read any of his books.  (Speaking of books, I have less than two weeks to get around to Whistling Vivaldi…)  Woah, the UMich summer program starts tomorrow!  Hopefully I haven’t sent this out too late and you’re still awake to read this.  I know how busy college summer programs can get, so if you don’t have time to respond this week or next week I’ll totally understand.  I haven’t been able to get into convenient contact with some of my friends who are also making the transition into senior year because they’re busy with similar programs.  As much as it’s a place for learning, don’t forget to meet new people, have some fun, and de-stress!  I’d love to hear all about it when you have time, but once again don’t feel obliged to reply until after you’ve settled back home!

 

A-and you didn't have to rep both of my posts, b-b-b-baka!

[Metantei Kiddo 147]

The Very Organized Thief

(I'm proud of myself that I became a Professional Thief )

[Kenzi 146]

 

(Ohh, almost forgot I could just not post the quoted parts.  Might have been able to avoid double posting if I did that.  Might have…)

 

That is pretty lucky to have an information session so close by!  I’ve never attended a college info session that wasn’t on campus, so I’m not too sure how informative those are, but it might be worth checking out.  Of course, it could also be a bit of a waste of time if the info session that you’ll be seeing in August is identical to the one you’ll see in Troy.  Hmm, I guess in Michigan there aren’t many viable options that would be worth checking.  The good thing about living on the east coast is that there are a lot of really good schools located in roughly the same area.  Maybe you could fly over to New York City and visit the schools there, as well as rent a car up north to see the ones in the Boston area?  Ehh, that does sound like a hassle though and it’s not like you have a ton of time this summer.

 

My OnePlus One just arrived in the mail a couple of days ago, though I won’t be opening it and using it until my phone case arrives.  Sigh, as much as it pains me to join Facebook, I am consoled by the fact that I got one at 18, so I can convince myself I didn’t just get one to waste the time away like all my friends did back in middle and high school, heheh.  Same with the whole phone thing.  It just seems like a silly way to distance myself from the rest of Generation Z though.  I may add some of my friends, but I’m afraid friends of those friends will start adding me, too.  I just want to start fresh and avoid any old clutter.  And I still keep in touch with my really close classmates through e-mail, if there’s anything pressing we need to talk about.  I’ll see how into it I get in college, and if I feel it’s worth it I’ll friend some of my high school friends.

 

I’m glad you’re staying positive about your SAT IIs and everything else that’s going on!  Hrm, though the essay topic is still giving you some trouble it seems.  And you’re one of those people that can’t relax if there’s work to be done, nagging at the back of your mind, huh?  Gosh, I’m the exact opposite; I’m really unproductive because of it, too.  Maybe I can turn things around in college, eheh.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to think of any good topics myself.  And I wouldn’t say it’s stupid having trouble thinking of something you’re passionate about.  My stargazing thing was pure luck, and all my other interests are all geeky and probably off-putting, so I’d be having as much trouble as you right now.  Hopefully the UMich summer program does you some good.

 

And as for your name, I’m going out on a limb guessing right now, but does it happen to be Jessica Zhou?  As for how I came about that answer, I realized your initials were JZ when I dug around your art posts.  One of your DeviantArt accounts is jzcool123, right?  Well, it’s pretty self-explanatory, but that’s what tipped me off.  Regardless of whether or not that’s what you made your account name, JZ was the most likely combination anyway.  PU obviously doesn’t work (brings me back to elementary school, so I couldn’t resist) and not many girl names start with E (okay, fine, there's Emily and Elizabeth, I suppose).  I personally don’t know many Chinese folk with T’s as their last name initials (three off the top of my head), though I suppose MT was the second most likely guess.  I just didn’t see how “MT = empty” would be much of a conversation starter either.  However, JZ works really well.  Popular girl names like Julia, Jennifer, and Jessica (as well as their alternate versions like Julie, Jenny, and Jessie) aren’t uncommonly paired with popular Chinese surnames like Zhou or Zhang.  Since that didn’t narrow down your name a whole lot, I did some research on your school and found this newspaper article thing online.  On page 7 (page 6 of the pdf), there’s a list of a bunch of names.  Under the “Symphonic Orchestra/Troy High” category, the only name that fits the “JZ” bill is “Jessica Zhou”.  Heck, that’s the only name that works for all four letter combinations.  So that’s pretty much how I came to that conclusion, haha.  Not the neatest or most straightforward line of thinking, but it gets the job done.

 

I guess I would be lying to myself if I told myself most people did extra-curricular’s because they wanted to.  I wouldn’t suggest you go so far as to get yourself down about having ulterior motives though.  It’s more a fault of the education system if anything; it’s not like you’re a bad person for only volunteering because it looks good on your college apps.  While it’s good to admire and look up to those that do things because they’re legitimately interested and passionate about the subject matter, there’s no point in looking down on anyone who’s not.  Goodness, and why do you feel that it was wasted effort?

 

Eheheh, I’ll admit it, I cried when I learned of Iwata’s passing.  It was a pretty bad bout, too.  By the time it dawned on me just what had happened, I was still on my laptop and the stories and art tributes were just starting to pour in.  I cried all over my computer and my clothes, and goodness me, I was a mess.  Then I managed to calm down enough to take a shower, but made the mistake of letting my mind wander and started crying all over again.  Stopped for a time, but once I was in bed and started tossing and turning because I couldn’t sleep, I started once more.  By the next morning I was fine though.  Sigh, geez, it’s a bit embarrassing to admit since it’s probably unseemly for a guy to get emotional over stuff like this.  I thought I was desensitized by all the things I’ve seen on television and in movies and books and anime and video games, so this came as a bit of a shock to myself, ahah.  This is the first time I’ve cried over someone before, and it’s a bit scary to think how I’d react to the loss of someone I know personally.  Well, there’s no point worrying about that now; I’ll deal with those emotions once the time comes.  I tried following your advice by thinking of the simple things in life, but it was difficult since I was getting upset for someone else’s sake and not my own.  And yeah, I do muscle exercises like that, but it’s not very impressive.  All of my efforts are canceled balanced out by my poor eating habits, soo, hahah…

 

Mhm, no problem; I’m glad I could help!  Though I would like to know why you’re interested in this.  Is there plastic you’re also looking to remove from something specific or is it just scientific curiosity?

 

They could have just been appealing to a wider audience I guess?  With one of those 18+ ratings, or whatever it is in Japan, there would be a smaller market to purchase the Blu-rays when they come out and I guess when it comes down to it that’s their main source of income.  To limit it all to just handholding (and I guess that one moment when Rin was laying her head on Shirou’s lap) is a bit much, for the sake of making it all-age friendly.  Fate/Zero is one of those anime most appreciated the second time through.  Though the info-dump in the first few episodes may have felt difficult to digest initially, upon rewatching it you’ll find that none of the dialogue is wasted.  There is just enough background info of the Holy Grail and the Servants and the participants for it to make sense, with the perfect amount of foreshadowing and references to Fate/stay night.  There is no more or less than is needed, and overall it’s a job well done by ufotable and the director and the screenwriter.  A lot of the scenes in UBW did seem out of place, especially some moments between Shirou and Rin.  You could try and chalk it up to the fact that it’s an adaptation of an aged source material from a time when things like this were better accepted, but still…  Even for a tsundere, Rin isn’t a very good example of one executed well.  And nothing lighthearted was charming or funny either, but eh whatever.  As for why Shirou seems to get lucky breaks all the time and not die, VN readers tend to use the excuse that in the VN, there are a ton of instances when the wrong choice is made by Shirou and that he and/or those close to him pay the price for it in bad ends.  The good ends are the only instances amongst many others where he just so happens to make the right choice.  Every time.  Some of the things he’s survived through still seem a bit farfetched, but I guess I’m willing to accept that answer.  I’m just trying to find solace in the fact that UBW was never meant to be the finale.  Right after that route, you were expected to jump into HF, where Nasu pulls out all the stops and brings the story to its true climax.  Here’s hoping it can live up to the hype, haha.  And yeah, the VN is really daunting, even in playthrough form.  Though experiencing the original source material of something you enjoy is recommended, in F/sn’s case it may not be the best course of action.  Especially with how busy you’ll be in the coming months and years.  Even though I was in the whole “I’ll play the VN later” boat as well, I don’t know if I have the time or patience to get through it.  And downloading it on my computer sounds like a hassle, too.  It’s really low priority on my list of things to do, so I guess we’re just going to have to see.  Most people agree the Fate route is the weakest, and if the HF movies are good enough then there may not be much need to experience the VN.

 

Woah, I didn’t expect you to like 999 that much, haha.  I’ve always thought it was an amazing game, and I’m stoked for VLR and the third installment as well, but for whatever reason I wasn’t expecting such a strong response from you.  Ahhh, I’m really glad you liked it!  I agree, it’s criminally underrated and underplayed.  At the very least those who play it end up really liking it, so that’s worth something.  The 9=q makes even more sense in Japanese, since Zero said that part over the loudspeakers and “nine” is pronounced “kyuu”, which obviously is the same way you’d pronounce “q”.  I thought it was also fantastic how digital roots were used in tandem with the doors.  The way the plot was so intricately reliant on a perfectly set up ship layout and order of the doors was phenomenal.  How certain people were only able to enter certain doors with specific people and how the game weaved a narrative around that blew my mind.  It was wonderfully symbolic to end a 9-based game with a standard 9x9 Sudoku puzzle as well.  The way they tied science-fiction elements into a story otherwise rooted in logic and referencing the real life Rupert Sheldrake and his concept of morphogenetic fields was really neat.  The OST is rather fantastic as well, especially the few melodic pieces like Morphogenetic Sorrow and 9 Years.  And oh my gosh, that puzzle behind door 9 gave me so much trouble, too!  I thought I was the only one, but I just straight up didn’t get what I was supposed to do for the longest time, eheheh.  As for the Cap plot hole, the main theory is that Clover killed him when no one was looking.  I can’t remember the circumstances of the game and that moment specifically, but that’s what it seems most people agree happened.  I think there are a few iffy instances where certain circumstances seem a bit farfetched or outrageous and too paradoxical to be plausible, but that’s what makes it so fun to analyze and talk about, ahah.  It’s still so well-crafted overall, that a flew slipups in logic here or there are forgivable.  Once again, I’m so happy you liked it!  I guess VLR and the third game are high or your 3DS wish list now.  And as flattered as I am by your thanks, I’m just the messenger so I don’t deserve quite as much praise as you’re giving me, hahahah.  Do you plan on jumping right into Ace Attorney or will you take a break this summer and maybe start it up after college apps?

 

I don’t have any idea what Ao Oni is about; I’ve just seen it mentioned on occasion so no I’ve never watched a play through of it.  I can imagine in movie form it’s not very good.  Japanese cinema struggles with CGI and even the to-be-released SnK films are getting some heat from the west because some people are dissatisfied with how the titans look.

 

If you turn off Exp. Share the game becomes a bit harder.  Enough to be somewhat challenging and require grinding every once in a while, but that was mainly because of my silly alternating Amulet Coin and Lucky Egg setup.  If you start working at the hotel as early as possible and check back every day, you’re going to buy out all the clothes faster than you’d think and the rest of the money just goes to hording Potions, I guess.  The Lucky Egg can then be the only hold item you use, and at that point the game becomes really easy again.  I can’t even imagine how much easier it would have been if I kept Exp. Share on the whole time, geez.  It’s not a terrible choice of a game to Nuzlocke run, though.  Speaking of which, I haven’t touched Y in a long time.  I’m just at the foot of Victory Road, and with how daunting those always seems to be at first (especially ones that I’m clueless about like Kalos’s) I’ve lost all motivation to continue.  I will eventually, but Sm4sh 3DS is so easy to pick up and just play………  Likewise, I’m standing in front of Kyogre in my umpteenth Sapphire run, and I’m just too lazy to RNG for a shiny, eheheh.

 

Gagging on water??  Either you’re not good at swallowing or you’re allergic to water (neither of which is a good thing as they’re kinda essential to living).  Do you usually drink tap or bottled water?  If it’s tap is it school fountain tap or home fridge dispenser tap?  If it’s bottled what brand is it?  Not all water is created equal of course, as the concentration of dissolved minerals and other invisible stuff in some water can give it a funky flavor.  Maybe you’re sensitive to tap water, like my mom is.  She only drinks bottled water, and drinks tap only if it’s used to make tea, or something.  I’m always so thirsty, so I drink all kinds of water just fine, eheh.  I do have my limits though, as in Magic Kingdom their filter must not have been working correctly the day we went because their water tasted like that nasty stuff they use for the Splash Mountain ride and wasn’t consumable (would have made for some interesting scientific testing though).  Maybe you could try coconut, mineral, or hint water as an alternative?  Can’t personally vouch for anything, but they’re worth a shot if you’re really repelled by the thought of water 7.8/10 too much water ufufufufufufu joking joking. 

 

I’m definitely going to still go for that black trainer card, but I’ll be working toward that goal slowly and surely during my time at college.  There’s definitely not enough time right now.  My parents made me sign up for these random online summer courses in accounting and QuickBooks (the Excel of accountants) and it’s taking up quite a bit of time from a summer break that I’ve been anticipating for a while not that I’m salty or anything why would I be.

 

The characters may be flat and the plot may be a bit too simplistic, but there are still plenty of chapters yet to be released and mysteries yet to be solved.  Maybe I’m just being a bit too optimistic, but I’m hoping by the time everything wraps up it manages to provide a satisfying conclusion.  Ah gosh, I remember the SnK opening used to be parodied all the time.  Goodness, I don’t even know why.  I liked the second opening far more than the first one, but I guess others didn’t because it just wasn’t as catchy or something like that?  The Internet will never cease to be the Internet…

 

The water probably weighed us down the most.  We brought in one bottle per person each day we were at the parks, though they were finished almost immediately.  That was the case for me at least.  Oh gosh, once I start drinking I can’t stop and before I know it the bottle’s empty and I’m still thirsty (out of context that sounds terrible).  My mom also always brought a ton of snacks to eat.  And by snacks I mean fruit, like oranges.  And of course, we always had to have umbrellas and rain ponchos handy in case Mother Nature decided hit us with a big one.  All that paired with the random stuff my parent put in their bags, and it ended up being quite the hassle, ehehe.

 

Soarin’ is always a long line, though we used a Fast Pass so it wasn’t so bad.  Even if you ended up waiting, there was an interactive game during the line queue you can play for a bit.  Nothing as fancy as the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train line or even Space Mountain’s line, but it’s something.  I’m not sure if it was already installed when you visited with your family.

 

The turkey legs I forgot to mention don’t actually seem to be a Disney exclusive thing.  They’re more like a Florida theme park exclusive thing, since I saw them sold at Universal and SeaWorld as well.  Hrm, weird.  And of course, there’s no need to be reserved about asking for stuff like that, haha.  On YouTube, I managed to find a quick “unboxing” of the very same scroll I got.  You can watch it here.  As you can see, it’s not the best looking scroll.  Just a quick Google search and I’ve already found posters I’d much rather have instead, but beggars can’t be choosers.  My parents would never have let me buy a scroll if we weren’t at Dinsey and if I had instead asked them back at Edison to order one online.  The art for this poster is weird, too.  It’s neither ufotable’s standard art style nor Takashi Takeuchi’s work.  But it’s definitely official and it has “ufotable” printed near the bottom in small font, sooo…  I’m guessing this was a very early promo poster back when they first announced ufotable would be making a Fate/Zero adaptation, and they hadn’t yet settled on artists yet.

 

We didn’t literally do nothing… we sat down and rested which counts as something……  But yeah, it was just a round trip to a small monkey themed area and back to the main park.  There was nothing to actually do on the train, haha.  Oh gosh, I don’t know if I’m any good with little kids.  I’m afraid I’d just come off as creepy and scare them away.  I never interact with anyone much younger than me on a daily basis, so I just don’t know how to act around them, I guess.  It sounds just like you to talk to little kids though, haha.

 

It was less a Frozen theme park as it was just the fact that Hollywood Studios was Frozen-ed up from head to toe.  Frozen-esque decorations on the lamps, Frozen posters and signs, Frozen fireworks and singalongs, that kind of stuff.  It’s nothing permanent and can be removed and replaced with other stuff on short notice (not that that’s what Disney will do), but the theme does permeate nearly the entire park.  I don’t know if it’s worth checking out, but Fantasmic is pretty cool so if you’re going to Hollywood Studios for anything, do it for that.  This was the third time I’ve seen the show, and I guess it’s just boring because it’s the same old stuff.  They didn’t change up the tricks so you know what to expect, and once you know what to expect it’s just less exciting and seems “slower” for lack of a better word.  I dunno, but it’s kind of how like action scenes in movies seem fast at first because your eyes don’t know where to look, but once you have an idea of how things play out your mind anticipates them upon rewatch and your eyes follow the action better.  The Tower of Terror is a neat ride, you should check it out!  It’s a classic, too.  The fireworks weren’t really that exciting because there was no music to go with it (or rather we couldn’t hear the music from the parking lot) but I guess the smiley faces and hearts were nice.  Were your Independence Day fireworks this year really that boring?

 

It wasn’t really anything that happened on the rollercoaster as it was something that happened while in line.  So we were already waiting in front of the tracks waiting for the coaster to come rolling along and load us in, and I was leaning against the railing looking toward the front of the coaster, toward the direction of my siblings since they were in the very first row.  I could see the girl out of the corner of my eye, and I believe I may have considered talking to her, but before I could, she just takes out her phone and snaps a “secret” picture of me.  Just straight up holds her phone away from her body like she was preparing for a selfie, angled it so it was facing my direction, and *snap*.  Left the flash and shutter sound on and everything.  I of course wasn’t looking directly at the phone, that would be weird, but I’m positive she caught me in her picture and that she did it on purpose (was in a similar situation at graduation when some of my friends tried taking a secret picture of me because I didn’t have a Facebook and I refused a selfie with them…).  At this point, I didn’t know how to react.  I obviously couldn’t acknowledge the fact that she took a picture of me; if she didn’t realize her flash and shutter sound were on she’d be even more embarrassed at being found out than she probably already was.  Since I’m not “in the know” of what people my age take pictures of, I wasn’t too sure why she wanted a picture of me.  You’d think it would be rude to sneak a picture of a stranger like that.  It wasn’t because she found me attractive, and I’m not just saying that because ten times out of ten I believe a stranger looks at me because they think I’m derpy.  Though the line queue was inside and I wasn’t sweating, I rode the coaster at the end of the day so I’m sure my face was still somewhat flushed from a days’ worth of walking outside and my hair was definitely mussed around by the wind.  I didn’t feel very presentable, and I don’t think I looked it either.  So then I started getting paranoid thinking there was something wrong with me.  After all, there are a ton of pictures online of random people with weird getups or doing silly things or looking funky (it’s the Internet after all).  Was there ketchup on my face?  Was there a spider crawling up my shirt??  Was there a bird making a nest of my hair???  If I tried making small talk with her now, would she interpret that as my noticing she took a picture?  What if she thought I looked derpy and if I talked to her she’d just run off to her friends and gossip about the stupid looking Asian kid on the ride who tried to start up a conversation?  What if she was actually Russian and couldn’t speak a lick of English?  While I was worrying about what had just transpired, we boarded the coaster, set off, and returned before I knew it.  We didn’t say a word to each other or even make eye contact.  I can barely remember what she looked like apart from the fact that she had blonde hair.  We went our separate ways, and that’s that.  Goodness, what a mess.  In retrospect, she was probably just surprised to see an Asian with wavy and semi-curly hair……  Bleh, was that an entertaining enough story to satiate your curiosity?  Ahahah, now that I think about i,t I don’t think I talked to a single stranger the entire trip…  I’m sorry Kenzi, I feel like in a way I may have let you down…

 

Waaahhh, you didn’t go on any of the classics!  Geez, Splash Mountain is a staple of Disney.  I mean, sure it wasn’t the best ride and the line queue was more outdoors than indoors, but it’s worth your time just because it’s so popular.  And getting wet isn’t always too bad of a thing, especially on hot days.  You’ll most likely completely dry off by the end of the day.  And yup, the Mine Train is a must see because it’s so new!  Actually, if classics and new rides should all be on your checklist, might as well go on every ride because that covers the whole scope of things, heheh.

 

I figured you wouldn’t have time, but keep the movie in mind!  Even if it stops airing in theaters and you have to torrent it (do you torrent movies or is that also something you’re scared of doing?) it’s still worth a watch.

 

Ahh yeah, the urge was strong but I somehow suppressed it.  My sister and brother didn’t seem too interested in buying a stick, regardless of how cool they were, so I reluctantly passed on the opportunity as well.  I wonder what wand you’d end up getting?  The love potion was just candy, haha.  The jar you can keep as a trinket I guess, but since it wasn’t see-through I couldn’t tell what the candy looked like specifically.  Pretty sure it takes more than just candy to win a person’s heart though, ahahaha.

 

Your new haircut is “growing” on you?  (icwahtudidthar arharharharhar)  I remember noticing you when you first joined, but I don’t know why.  Maybe it was the Mai picture that stood out because I recognized it from Nichijou and was constantly reminded it was something I needed to watch?  That paired with your signature gifs that never change, and I guess you ended up being someone hard not to notice?  I don’t know what I’m saying, hahah.  And I can barely remember what my most recent profile pictures were, ahah.  Also, wouldn’t a genderbent Lucina just be Marth??  And as for what I look like, you’re “quite curious” about this, too?  Gosh, first the roller coaster and now this, haha.  While you’re the only person on the Internet I’d trust with a picture of me, I still can’t get over how I look in photos.  I know we’ve been through this whole photogenic debate before, but ehhh I’ve always been pretty self-conscious, so…  If we ever meet in person though, you’ll see what I look like!  Not to mention I’m also curious to see exactly what you look like myself, eheheh.  For now, to quell your curiosity, I guess the best I do is provide examples.  Some of my friends have told me my hair is kind of like Gilbert Nightray’s from Pandora Hearts, or Tyki Mikk’s from D. Gray-man.  It’s closer in “waviness” to Tyki's, but it’s closer in length to Gilbert’s.  Even then, my hair isn’t nearly as long as Gilbert’s, since anime hair, especially in guys, can be rather misleading.  It’s already becoming a nuisance to deal with, sigh.  When I take a shower and it temporarily "straightens" out under the heavy water, they become bangs that go way down to my eyes.  I really need to get my hair cut soon.  Ahh, so Gilgamesh and Santa, hrmmm??  I see, I see, so you’re into guys with their hair flared up most of the time, ohhhohohoho!  Aww, your English teacher sounds nice.  My English teachers all sucked.  Nah, just joking, I somehow managed to avoid bad English teachers all four years of high school, which is something I’m proud of, hah.  I only saw that Ping Pong thing because I was trying to rep and quote you, eheh.  I didn’t even notice the extra space below your links initially.  And you say that you can’t choose a profile picture for me even though I asked you because I can’t think of anything myself gahh!  Ah, there’s no helping it I guess.  I’ll think of something eventually.  Nothing particularly exciting is happening in the world of anime, so it probably won’t be related to that.  Splatoon perhaps?  Finally started playing it and I’m loving every second of it, though when I go off to college and leave my Wii U behind my interest in it will most definitely tank.  Hrm, wouldn’t be a bad placeholder for now a least.  If that’s what I decide to change it to, I’ll get around to it when I have the time.  I’ll match it with my signature as well.  Might throw in some links or a quote if it looks good.

 

Uwahhh, you were that stressed?!?  And I told you so firmly not to let it negatively affect you like that!  Kenzi, geez (don’t make me use your real name with you, young lady)!  At least now you’re eating better, though you say you’re “forcing” yourself just to so as to not get hypoglycemic symptoms again, which is kind of questionable, but alright.  And for someone who’s so open to talking to strangers, you didn’t have the guts to tell your coach you weren’t feeling well??  Sigh, there you go again, making me worry, ahah.  Ohh, though I haven’t been sleeping well myself either, eheh.  I used to fall asleep immediately, but lately I’ve been tossing and turning all over my bed.  Sometimes I try to play Smash for 3DS to get myself tired, but then I underestimate my own abilities and play until daybreak.  Then I know I’ve really messed up and fall asleep only to wake up super late.  Ughh, I need to fix my sleep schedule.  Hopefully you can do the same.  Try going to sleep and waking up nice and early, if you have energy to spare!  It came out a year ago, but I didn’t pick up Ping Pong for the same reason most people initially skipped it.  No one had heard of the manga, so it didn’t have any street cred and the animation was weird.  Last time someone tried odd art/animation, it turned into Aku no Hana.  I haven’t watched that rotoscoped anime myself so I can’t really judge, but it received a lot of criticism back when it first came out.  It’s nice to see Ping Pong was eventually accepted as rather superb by most when it finally finished at least.  Oh, and because I was under the false impression that it would just be a normal sports anime (since no one was there to tell me otherwise), it was a pass on my list.  It was a missed opportunity for sure, but such is the life of someone like me, sigh.  I’ll definitely watch it eventually, but probably not for a while.  I’ve had a lot of things on my mind for far longer, and the older an anime gets the less relevant it becomes and the harder it gets to watch, eheh.  I need to save those that are really falling behind, even if they have less potential than the ones that you recommend.  And speaking of recommendations, I never got to play Super Beat Boy or Cave Story yet!  Aggh, damnnit, I keep on putting that off, too!  I’m really sorry about that, but I swear I’ll get to them!  I feel terrible about it, since you already got through 999 and you have less time than I do.  Hmm, it would be nice if Gigguk posted more videos, but sometimes I remember to check his Twitter and he posts some funny stuff there occasionally, so it’s fine in the end.  Ah, the background of your MAL is a lot better now, though the picture starts to repeat on the right side.  Only a little bit though.  Goodness, what are your laptop dimensions anyway?  They’re completely different from mine it seems.  I chose a minimalist Saber style for my list, so it looks good on any device.  Still though, just a bit more tweaking and yours should look great!  

 

There’s no need to apologize for not getting a reply out on time.  You sent it the next day and early in the morning at that, so it’s really no big deal.  I can totally relate with signing up for something last minute, and I know how much of a hassle it can be.  How did that go?  Aww, and I was really hoping you’d write in more detail than just a few sentences!  Heh, I’ll take what you gave me and be happy with that.  Woah, a grad party so late into the summer?  It’s already past the Fourth of July.  Either someone really procrastinated or someone was just looking for an excuse to have a final get together with friends, haha.  Hope you had a good time to relax and not be all stressed about your Common App essay like you’ve been lately.  Ohh, David Sedaris, huh?  If you want me to be honest, I have no idea who he is and have never read any of his books.  (Speaking of books, I have less than two weeks to get around to Whistling Vivaldi…)  Woah, the UMich summer program starts tomorrow!  Hopefully I haven’t sent this out too late and you’re still awake to read this.  I know how busy college summer programs can get, so if you don’t have time to respond this week or next week I’ll totally understand.  I haven’t been able to get into convenient contact with some of my friends who are also making the transition into senior year because they’re busy with similar programs.  As much as it’s a place for learning, don’t forget to meet new people, have some fun, and de-stress!  I’d love to hear all about it when you have time, but once again don’t feel obliged to reply until after you’ve settled back home!

 

A-and you didn't have to rep both of my posts, b-b-b-baka!

 

Even if the info session is just a repeat (and for all I know, it might not be), I figured that I would go just because it's conveniently located in Troy. Yeaahh, I think I'm done visiting colleges at this point since I need to prepare for the upcoming school year (wtf, it's almost August already, help). I also rescheduled my visit to Case to August 6th for convenience purposes, but it probably won't make much of a difference.

 

Ohh, how is your OnePlus One working for you so far? I was peer pressured into getting a Facebook (I hope that wasn't the case for you, ehehe..), but I don't regret my decision. Despite the stigma it receives, I found the site to be convenient and helpful. I didn't play any of the games on there (don't do it, lol) and I average 10 to 20 minutes a day on the site since I rarely post anything, so it's not a huge timewaster for me. Nah, you don't need to worry about friends of friends adding you. If/when they do, you don't have to accept their friend requests if you don't want to, haha.

 

Since I didn't bring my tennis racquets to UMich, I just stared intently at the courts watching a bunch of others play (like everyday, argh). It was then when I decided to lie down on the grass, stare at the clouds, and try to generate some essay topics since it was a really nice day. It didn't work. It even made me a bit depressed. I was there doing nothing for a good one hour before I decided to get up and leave. I think my main problem is relating ideas to the prompts and trying to find the meat of a story. I could write about how I'm a night owl or something, but it has nothing to do with any of the prompts. I can't seem to find an interesting life story or experience to write about. Gosh, your stargazing essay was brilliant and so profound. I'll be lucky writing something even half as good.

 

Geezus, I really wasn't expecting that response from you, lol. Once again, you never cease to amaze me, ahahaha... That is indeed my name. But what made you assume that my DeviantART account username would tip you off? Actually, why did you think my art posts had the answer? Or was this blind digging, haha. You got lucky there, heh. Oh dear, my old username is pretty embarrassing (it was made for the sake of neopets back in elementary school. I don't know why I still use it for so many sites. My friends constantly tease me about it, ehehe...). As for your name, I'm pretty sure I have it figured out. I messaged you my answer since I figured you wouldn't want me to publicly post the answer to your puzzle, not that anyone bothers to dig through our responses anyway, lol. 

 

The thought of helping or lifting someone's burden is a nice feeling, but I guess I just feel kinda bad since I'm not volunteering because I truly want to. It seemed like a wasted effort because I was jumping from place to place. I would've been better off volunteering at a local hospital or shadowing an engineer if I really wanted to show colleges what I was into. Instead, I just volunteered to help out teachers and tutor students. While the experience wasn't all for naught, I definitely should've done something I enjoyed more. I recently got a volunteering opportunity as a casual graphics artist for the local nature center, so I guess that's a nice way to continue this little hobby of mine.

 

I was pretty devastated about Iwata's passing as well. My DeviantART feed exploded with tributes to him and a few of my YouTube subscriptions also addressed it. I was trying to hold back a few tears because my parents were home, but it wasn't anything serious since I tried to push back the thought in order to keep my sanity intact. When I got into bed, it finally dawned on me that the man responsible for the much of my childhood is gone. I had a nice solid silent cry in bed after that. God bless you, Iwata. But enough of that, I don't want to remind myself about this during the middle of a summer program I'm supposed to be enjoying myself in, haha. I'm glad that you tried thinking of the simple things, but I guess it's true that it can be a bit difficult to do for someone else's sake. 

 

It's just out of scientific curiosity, heh. Interestingly enough, we've been using acetone to clean/rinse our used materials in the orgo class/lab everyday. And yeah, it reeks. Thank goodness we have fume hoods, lol.

 

Ehh, it still doesn't make sense though. Servants were speared, limbs were severed, bloodshed was commonplace (all of which are far from all-age friendly), but as soon as they are forced to adapt any intimate scenes, everything becomes G-rated? Just handholding? It almost feels insulting, lol. It's not a big deal though, I suppose. It just felt a bit underwhelming after seeing how far Shirou and Rin's relationship has gone, haha. Without prior knowledge of any sort, it was pretty difficult for me to have a grasp of what was going on during the first few episodes of F/Z. The info dump was a bit too much for me, but I suppose it got the job done for the most part. Hmm, I guess Shirou's lucky breaks can be forgiven since F/SN is based off of a VN. Much of it still seems farfetched though. Yeahh, I don't really see myself watching or playing the VN any time soon just because of how long it is. Maybe I'll check it out if HF doesn't deliver.

 

And if you multiply 14383421 with 9, you get 129450789?? And the digital root of the North American release date is 9?? (may or may not have been a coincidence since this isn't the case for the JP release date). It's unbelievable how thought out this game is (I really love the recurring 9 theme). But the story is what I loved about the game so much. There were no significant loose ends, but the little ones can be easily forgiven. My favorite OSTs from the game are Septenary Game (holy crap even the OST names have a 9 theme), Recollection, and 9 Years. Morphogenetic Sorrow is just too depressing for my taste, ahahaha. Never mind that. Quite a few of the OSTs are really depressing (Recollection and 9 Years included), but they're all fantastic. I still can't get over the fact that the whole purpose of the game was just to help Akane solve a sudoku puzzle, lol. Well, even if you are just the messenger, I'm really grateful that you introduced this game to me and even went through the trouble of sending me the files. I didn't even know that this game existed until you told me about it, so once again, thank you, haha. I haven't gotten into Ace Attorney yet, but I probably will after the stresses of senior year begin to die down (winter break maybe? Oof, that's really far away, gah). 

 

I'm not sure why the developers decided to tweak the Exp. Share (heck, even catching a Pokemon grants exp). Well, at least it's possible to turn it off, lol. But even then, Nuzlockes wouldn't be that big of a challenge since the gym leaders and elite 4 members are pushovers. Yeahh, going through Victory Road is the most frustrating part of the games (HeartGold was a struggle). Also, I read your OMM post, and is Splatoon really that good? Between gen 4 remakes, smash, the next two ZE games, etc. (and the fact that I might not be able to afford all of them + a 3DS or 2DS) I really don't want to get another console, ahahaha......

 

I usually drink filtered tap water from home. I don't mind drinking from the public water fountains though. Oh, lol this reminds me of the time I tried to convince my parents that I was allergic to the sun because I would sneeze every time I looked at it (don't worry, this was back in first grade, haha). It's not necessarily the flavor of the water that bothers me. It's a lot better than European water, that's for sure (I didn't know it was possible for water to be even more stale than it already is). I've also encountered instances when the public water tasted like blood. That, and the time I was in Europe were the only times when I would avoid drinking water altogether. Nah, I'm not the one to consume flavored water. Much of it is just artificial flavoring and carcinogens, which isn't exactly a better alternative. I'm not repelled by the thought of water, I promise, lol. and wow, I just realized that I missed a perfect opportunity to crack the IGN water joke, ahahaha.... I'll try to get it next time, heh).

 

Oof, you're forced to take online summer classes? How is it going so far?

 

Yeah, SnK can go in any direction at this point. I'm just hoping that the plot won't deviate too much because it seems to be following the path of Naruto from what I've seen so far. I'm still salty that they haven't revealed anything about the basement yet. I like the first opening more than the second opening simply because it feels more fitting. It matches the atmosphere of the show better since the second opening sounds a bit too optimistic (the first twelve seconds also sounds strangely patriotic, lol). You liked the second opening far more than the first one? Hmm, what was so bad about the first one then?

 

Did each one of you guys have to carry a bag? If that was the case, I would've brought as much water as I could carry. I probably wouldn't have brought any fruit though, since they can get easily bruised from the water bottles ricocheting off of each other with every step you take. The fruit would bake in that kind of weather as well. The umbrellas and rain ponchos might've been a good call though, haha (how often did it rain?). And what kind of random stuff did you guys bring?  

 

I don't remember waiting in a queue area for any of the rides I rode in Disney World. It was mainly waiting in line, lol.  

 

Ohh, the scroll isn't bad. You're right about the art being a bit off, but I like the way it's designed (Saber in different outfits). It bothers me that the text is placed plainly in the middle since you won't be able to flip the poster interchangeably. Still looks like a great addition to your dorm though!

 

I don't blame you for not wanting to talk to the little girl, haha. I understand how it can be a bit out of your comfort zone talking to someone too young or old. I probably wouldn't find myself striking up a conversation with some random adult who's sitting next to me. And I can imagine that a little girl or boy could feel uncomfortable no matter who approaches them if they've been given the "stranger danger" lecture. Ahaha, it sounds just like me to talk to little kids? I mean, it's just that I enjoy talking and getting to know people, but I'll take that as a compliment, heh.  

 

I don't know when I'll get the chance to visit Disney World again so I don't want to get too ahead of myself, ahaha (your suggestions are definitely going on my bucket list though). Ehh, funny story... I didn't get to see Independence Day fireworks. We drove to a nearby city to see some (about 20 minutes away) since Troy wasn't hosting any. A few of the roads were blocked off for some reason so we had to take quite a few detours. My dad was fed up. Even though he knew we were close to the site (we could see and hear some of the fireworks), my dad drove back home. Logic, right. He does this all the time so I'm not surprised, sigh. Once he's made up his mind he's as stubborn as a mule.

 

Hmm, well if the girl was a foreigner, maybe she was fascinated that she encountered an Asian? Ahaha, I'm not quite sure what to say here. She might've been using snapchat. Maybe you were wearing an interesting shirt? Nah, you didn't "let me down", lol. Don't force yourself to make small talk if you don't want to! I've had instances when I just wanted to be alone and take in the scenery, haha.

 

I went to Disney World in the winter so the temperature stayed in the 70s and 80s. I wouldn't consider that "hot" seeing as you were experiencing 90+ degree conditions. My parents are a bit overprotective. If I went on Splash Mountain, they'd worry about me catching a cold afterwards. Then I'd get into a huge argument while trying to convince them that you can't catch a cold from getting wet. I'm pretty sure I didn't bring extra clothes with me at the time, so changing clothes wasn't an option. Gah, I have so many things I want to do in Disney World now.

 

I deleted uTorrent from my PC after the trojan virus incident. Photoshop CS6 was the only thing I torrented (which, surprisingly, wasn't the cause of the virus). I'm probably not going download the program again just to torrent a movie, but I might find a site to watch it on if I have to. 

 

I'd have to look at the wands myself if I had to get one, haha. Gosh, I haven't read the books in such a long time I'm not sure which wand I'd want.

 

All I got from those examples you gave me is that you must have some pretty nice hair, ahahahah.... If you do plan on getting a haircut though, I suggest you do so before heading off to Case. Gotta have a fresh start, ya know, haha. Is it weird that I'm even more curious to know what you look like now? You didn't do a very good job of quelling my curiosity, heh. As for what I look like, I actually don't know. My mom once jokingly told me that my dad probably hates me because I look Japanese. I've also had friends who've told me that I look Korean. Another friend and even my sister once told me that I could pass off as a Vietnamese (ehh?? They had to have been joking). I guess it can be hard to differentiate between Asians so I don't blame them (I still don't understand the logistics that determine what ethnicity someone looks like). I don't look like anyone in my family (except maybe my grandfather, or so I'm told). My hair is closer to Yuuko's than it is to Mai's at the moment, and I also have a side parting. Okokok, the fact that Gilgamesh and Santa both have their hair flared up is completely coincidental, hrmph. I liked that Gilgamesh referred to everyone below him (which is...almost everyone) as mongrels--it's pretty funny. He's an arrogant jerk, but something about his character was oddly intriguing. I didn't pay much heed to Santa until I reached the Safe and True endings. I loved seeing his character blossom, reading his backstory, and just his involvement with the game in general. I guess having Lancer as another one of my favorites doesn't exactly help my case either (maybe I use the term "favorite" too lightly, ahaha...). Nah, who am I kidding. Their hair's fabulous. jkjkjk, I promise that hair isn't the deciding factor of whether I like a character or not, lol. Nope, my English teacher is the very opposite of "nice". He's incredibly sardonic, his humor is quite crude, and he's one of the bluntest people I know, which is why his class was an absolute pleasure to be in. The only English teacher I didn't like was the one I had for the first semester of freshman year (she was "nice", but annoyingly biased). Ohh, I like your new propic and signature. How did you decide on them? 

 

Well, I've dealt with hypoglycemia on several occasions so the experience was nothing new. It was just a bit gruesome since this experience was held over a much longer period of time. But yeah, there's no way I could find the courage to tell my coach. I would look pretty stupid asking him for a break just because I didn't eat enough lunch, lol. There's no need to be concerned, honest, haha. My sleep schedule is wrecked; sleep late, wake up late. I'm trying to make the most of it before school starts. Then it'll be back to sleep late, wake up early. I'm not a morning person (or at least not anymore) so even when my body naturally wakes up early on some days, I force myself back to sleep believing that I haven't slept enough (it's messed up, I know). It's nice to hear that you're going to give Ping Pong a chance once you get the opportunity! Be sure to let me know how you felt when you finish it! No worries, if I were you, I probably would've passed it as well (I can't blame you, haha). The controls for Super Meat Boy are best on actual controllers as opposed to the PC. It's a very rage-inducing game so it's fine if you skip it (no, really, just watch a playthrough instead, lol). I mainly watched a Let's Play of it because it gets extremely difficult towards the later levels. Check it out yourself if you don't believe me. There's not much plot to the game either, and it's notoriously known for the difficult gameplay. It has about as much plot as the Super Mario Bros series, but the black humor in the cutscenes is worth watching. And if you're well-versed in the realm of gaming, you'll also notice that many of the cutscenes are simply parodies of other games, haha. Depending on which path you take, Cave Story may only take a few days to beat (the only way you can take the other path is to restart the game). So take your time, play it whenever you want to, and don't worry about it! There's a lot more plot to this one, so I think you'll enjoy it more. My laptop is 1366 by 768 pixels (14-inch display). I always thought that it was a pretty standard size for a laptop, lol. I don't have time to fix the backdrop at the moment, but maybe I can toy around with it after I get back, haha. 

 

Even though the program I signed up for last minute was directed towards high schoolers, it was just... too basic. I already learned most of the stuff they tried to teach us in my sophomore year so it was relatively boring (blood typing and gram staining kinda stuff). They also tried to simulate urinalysis at one point. I could tell the urine was fake since it didn't have an ammonia odor to it. It also smelled unusually sweet, so the glucose test I did didn't provide any "shocking" results. Yeah, I know I wasn't supposed to smell the chemical, but it was more like a whiff rather than straight up sticking my nose into the container. Finding out that it was fake ruined the fun (I was only suspicious because they supplied us with an excessive amount of this "urine"). Aside from the free stuff they gave me, the only good thing I got out of the program is that I have an official document stating that I'm certified in CPR (I guess I can be a lifeguard now?). I also found it hard to want to talk to some of the students there. A lot of them seemed like obnoxious underachievers who were there because their parents forced them. The UMich program is a lot more enjoyable (complete understatement). The orgo stuff is hard, I'm not gonna lie (I'd be completely lost without remnants of prior knowledge from AP Chem). The professor is fantastic though! The students here are a lot easier to talk to than the ones from the previous program, and I made a few friends from Arizona who I hang out with regularly now. My roommate is an international student from China, which is kinda cool. It's hard for me to strike a conversation with her though, since English isn't her native tongue. Ahaha, I love it here! The campus is huge and the food isn't half-bad. There's A/C in the dorms and the building bathroom is top-notch (the showers are all separated by walls and doors, awesome!). There's also a really neat farmers market nearby and there are restaurants everywhere! There are people from California, D.C., Tennessee, Massachusetts, Japan, China, Brazil (and loads more), and I even had some small talk with a few people from Colombia! I met two people from Troy as well, haha.

 

(separated paragraph)

Oh, and funny enough, you know how chemicals like hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide are really corrosive? The professor and her TA allowed us to work with stuff like this without any given warning. They treated us as if we had enough common sense not to consume them or touch them with bare skin. Awesome! It was such a nice change of pace compared to the previous summer program that didn't let us work with anything authentic other than the mannequins and bacteria (yeah, I guess it'd be kinda weird if they supplied us with stuff like real urine and blood). The classes run from 9am to 12pm, and then from 1:30pm to 4:30pm (with a lunch break in between). There are loads of activities to do after class like scavenger hunts, strolling around town (like a visit to the farmers market), movies (on campus, so I wasn't able to watch Inside Out), etc. I watched The Uninvited (2009), which is a psychological horror movie, after a few friends pressured me into watching it on Friday night. It actually wasn't too bad. Only a few jump scares got to me, but the overall movie...geezus you should've seen my reaction. The movie was so messed up, but it was actually surprisingly thought out. I still don't know how I feel about it. Hmm, maybe I should dive into the horror genre a bit more. But I'd probably only be able to watch the movies if I'm with others, ehehe... The movie would've been a lot scarier if I wasn't sitting in a room full of people. Oh, and I went to a minor league baseball game yesterday. It was... rather boring. I'm sure it would've been a lot more entertaining if it was a major league game. Honestly, I thought that the breaks between the innings were more fun to watch than the actual game itself, which I think says a lot. Well, I only went for the experience so at least I can check that off my bucket list now. I only found out about David Sedaris through my English teacher (we read a few of his pieces in the class). He's a great humorist and my English teacher is awfully fond of him. Good luck with Whistling Vivaldi! Let me know how it went once you've read it!

 

Argh, sorry for replying so late. I didn't have much time to sit behind my laptop until the weekend hit. I hope your summer is going well so far!

[Maltavite 61]

Clear Sky

[Akazora 293]

Even if the info session is just a repeat (and for all I know, it might not be), I figured that I would go just because it's conveniently located in Troy. Yeaahh, I think I'm done visiting colleges at this point since I need to prepare for the upcoming school year (wtf, it's almost August already, help). I also rescheduled my visit to Case to August 6th for convenience purposes, but it probably won't make much of a difference.

 

Ohh, how is your OnePlus One working for you so far? I was peer pressured into getting a Facebook (I hope that wasn't the case for you, ehehe..), but I don't regret my decision. Despite the stigma it receives, I found the site to be convenient and helpful. I didn't play any of the games on there (don't do it, lol) and I average 10 to 20 minutes a day on the site since I rarely post anything, so it's not a huge timewaster for me. Nah, you don't need to worry about friends of friends adding you. If/when they do, you don't have to accept their friend requests if you don't want to, haha.

 

Since I didn't bring my tennis racquets to UMich, I just stared intently at the courts watching a bunch of others play (like everyday, argh). It was then when I decided to lie down on the grass, stare at the clouds, and try to generate some essay topics since it was a really nice day. It didn't work. It even made me a bit depressed. I was there doing nothing for a good one hour before I decided to get up and leave. I think my main problem is relating ideas to the prompts and trying to find the meat of a story. I could write about how I'm a night owl or something, but it has nothing to do with any of the prompts. I can't seem to find an interesting life story or experience to write about. Gosh, your stargazing essay was brilliant and so profound. I'll be lucky writing something even half as good.

 

Geezus, I really wasn't expecting that response from you, lol. Once again, you never cease to amaze me, ahahaha... That is indeed my name. But what made you assume that my DeviantART account username would tip you off? Actually, why did you think my art posts had the answer? Or was this blind digging, haha. You got lucky there, heh. Oh dear, my old username is pretty embarrassing (it was made for the sake of neopets back in elementary school. I don't know why I still use it for so many sites. My friends constantly tease me about it, ehehe...). As for your name, I'm pretty sure I have it figured out. I messaged you my answer since I figured you wouldn't want me to publicly post the answer to your puzzle, not that anyone bothers to dig through our responses anyway, lol. 

 

The thought of helping or lifting someone's burden is a nice feeling, but I guess I just feel kinda bad since I'm not volunteering because I truly want to. It seemed like a wasted effort because I was jumping from place to place. I would've been better off volunteering at a local hospital or shadowing an engineer if I really wanted to show colleges what I was into. Instead, I just volunteered to help out teachers and tutor students. While the experience wasn't all for naught, I definitely should've done something I enjoyed more. I recently got a volunteering opportunity as a casual graphics artist for the local nature center, so I guess that's a nice way to continue this little hobby of mine.

 

I was pretty devastated about Iwata's passing as well. My DeviantART feed exploded with tributes to him and a few of my YouTube subscriptions also addressed it. I was trying to hold back a few tears because my parents were home, but it wasn't anything serious since I tried to push back the thought in order to keep my sanity intact. When I got into bed, it finally dawned on me that the man responsible for the much of my childhood is gone. I had a nice solid silent cry in bed after that. God bless you, Iwata. But enough of that, I don't want to remind myself about this during the middle of a summer program I'm supposed to be enjoying myself in, haha. I'm glad that you tried thinking of the simple things, but I guess it's true that it can be a bit difficult to do for someone else's sake. 

 

It's just out of scientific curiosity, heh. Interestingly enough, we've been using acetone to clean/rinse our used materials in the orgo class/lab everyday. And yeah, it reeks. Thank goodness we have fume hoods, lol.

 

Ehh, it still doesn't make sense though. Servants were speared, limbs were severed, bloodshed was commonplace (all of which are far from all-age friendly), but as soon as they are forced to adapt any intimate scenes, everything becomes G-rated? Just handholding? It almost feels insulting, lol. It's not a big deal though, I suppose. It just felt a bit underwhelming after seeing how far Shirou and Rin's relationship has gone, haha. Without prior knowledge of any sort, it was pretty difficult for me to have a grasp of what was going on during the first few episodes of F/Z. The info dump was a bit too much for me, but I suppose it got the job done for the most part. Hmm, I guess Shirou's lucky breaks can be forgiven since F/SN is based off of a VN. Much of it still seems farfetched though. Yeahh, I don't really see myself watching or playing the VN any time soon just because of how long it is. Maybe I'll check it out if HF doesn't deliver.

 

And if you multiply 14383421 with 9, you get 129450789?? And the digital root of the North American release date is 9?? (may or may not have been a coincidence since this isn't the case for the JP release date). It's unbelievable how thought out this game is (I really love the recurring 9 theme). But the story is what I loved about the game so much. There were no significant loose ends, but the little ones can be easily forgiven. My favorite OSTs from the game are Septenary Game (holy crap even the OST names have a 9 theme), Recollection, and 9 Years. Morphogenetic Sorrow is just too depressing for my taste, ahahaha. Never mind that. Quite a few of the OSTs are really depressing (Recollection and 9 Years included), but they're all fantastic. I still can't get over the fact that the whole purpose of the game was just to help Akane solve a sudoku puzzle, lol. Well, even if you are just the messenger, I'm really grateful that you introduced this game to me and even went through the trouble of sending me the files. I didn't even know that this game existed until you told me about it, so once again, thank you, haha. I haven't gotten into Ace Attorney yet, but I probably will after the stresses of senior year begin to die down (winter break maybe? Oof, that's really far away, gah). 

 

I'm not sure why the developers decided to tweak the Exp. Share (heck, even catching a Pokemon grants exp). Well, at least it's possible to turn it off, lol. But even then, Nuzlockes wouldn't be that big of a challenge since the gym leaders and elite 4 members are pushovers. Yeahh, going through Victory Road is the most frustrating part of the games (HeartGold was a struggle). Also, I read your OMM post, and is Splatoon really that good? Between gen 4 remakes, smash, the next two ZE games, etc. (and the fact that I might not be able to afford all of them + a 3DS or 2DS) I really don't want to get another console, ahahaha......

 

I usually drink filtered tap water from home. I don't mind drinking from the public water fountains though. Oh, lol this reminds me of the time I tried to convince my parents that I was allergic to the sun because I would sneeze every time I looked at it (don't worry, this was back in first grade, haha). It's not necessarily the flavor of the water that bothers me. It's a lot better than European water, that's for sure (I didn't know it was possible for water to be even more stale than it already is). I've also encountered instances when the public water tasted like blood. That, and the time I was in Europe were the only times when I would avoid drinking water altogether. Nah, I'm not the one to consume flavored water. Much of it is just artificial flavoring and carcinogens, which isn't exactly a better alternative. I'm not repelled by the thought of water, I promise, lol. and wow, I just realized that I missed a perfect opportunity to crack the IGN water joke, ahahaha.... I'll try to get it next time, heh).

 

Oof, you're forced to take online summer classes? How is it going so far?

 

Yeah, SnK can go in any direction at this point. I'm just hoping that the plot won't deviate too much because it seems to be following the path of Naruto from what I've seen so far. I'm still salty that they haven't revealed anything about the basement yet. I like the first opening more than the second opening simply because it feels more fitting. It matches the atmosphere of the show better since the second opening sounds a bit too optimistic (the first twelve seconds also sounds strangely patriotic, lol). You liked the second opening far more than the first one? Hmm, what was so bad about the first one then?

 

Did each one of you guys have to carry a bag? If that was the case, I would've brought as much water as I could carry. I probably wouldn't have brought any fruit though, since they can get easily bruised from the water bottles ricocheting off of each other with every step you take. The fruit would bake in that kind of weather as well. The umbrellas and rain ponchos might've been a good call though, haha (how often did it rain?). And what kind of random stuff did you guys bring?  

 

I don't remember waiting in a queue area for any of the rides I rode in Disney World. It was mainly waiting in line, lol.  

 

Ohh, the scroll isn't bad. You're right about the art being a bit off, but I like the way it's designed (Saber in different outfits). It bothers me that the text is placed plainly in the middle since you won't be able to flip the poster interchangeably. Still looks like a great addition to your dorm though!

 

I don't blame you for not wanting to talk to the little girl, haha. I understand how it can be a bit out of your comfort zone talking to someone too young or old. I probably wouldn't find myself striking up a conversation with some random adult who's sitting next to me. And I can imagine that a little girl or boy could feel uncomfortable no matter who approaches them if they've been given the "stranger danger" lecture. Ahaha, it sounds just like me to talk to little kids? I mean, it's just that I enjoy talking and getting to know people, but I'll take that as a compliment, heh.  

 

I don't know when I'll get the chance to visit Disney World again so I don't want to get too ahead of myself, ahaha (your suggestions are definitely going on my bucket list though). Ehh, funny story... I didn't get to see Independence Day fireworks. We drove to a nearby city to see some (about 20 minutes away) since Troy wasn't hosting any. A few of the roads were blocked off for some reason so we had to take quite a few detours. My dad was fed up. Even though he knew we were close to the site (we could see and hear some of the fireworks), my dad drove back home. Logic, right. He does this all the time so I'm not surprised, sigh. Once he's made up his mind he's as stubborn as a mule.

 

Hmm, well if the girl was a foreigner, maybe she was fascinated that she encountered an Asian? Ahaha, I'm not quite sure what to say here. She might've been using snapchat. Maybe you were wearing an interesting shirt? Nah, you didn't "let me down", lol. Don't force yourself to make small talk if you don't want to! I've had instances when I just wanted to be alone and take in the scenery, haha.

 

I went to Disney World in the winter so the temperature stayed in the 70s and 80s. I wouldn't consider that "hot" seeing as you were experiencing 90+ degree conditions. My parents are a bit overprotective. If I went on Splash Mountain, they'd worry about me catching a cold afterwards. Then I'd get into a huge argument while trying to convince them that you can't catch a cold from getting wet. I'm pretty sure I didn't bring extra clothes with me at the time, so changing clothes wasn't an option. Gah, I have so many things I want to do in Disney World now.

 

I deleted uTorrent from my PC after the trojan virus incident. Photoshop CS6 was the only thing I torrented (which, surprisingly, wasn't the cause of the virus). I'm probably not going download the program again just to torrent a movie, but I might find a site to watch it on if I have to. 

 

I'd have to look at the wands myself if I had to get one, haha. Gosh, I haven't read the books in such a long time I'm not sure which wand I'd want.

 

All I got from those examples you gave me is that you must have some pretty nice hair, ahahahah.... If you do plan on getting a haircut though, I suggest you do so before heading off to Case. Gotta have a fresh start, ya know, haha. Is it weird that I'm even more curious to know what you look like now? You didn't do a very good job of quelling my curiosity, heh. As for what I look like, I actually don't know. My mom once jokingly told me that my dad probably hates me because I look Japanese. I've also had friends who've told me that I look Korean. Another friend and even my sister once told me that I could pass off as a Vietnamese (ehh?? They had to have been joking). I guess it can be hard to differentiate between Asians so I don't blame them (I still don't understand the logistics that determine what ethnicity someone looks like). I don't look like anyone in my family (except maybe my grandfather, or so I'm told). My hair is closer to Yuuko's than it is to Mai's at the moment, and I also have a side parting. Okokok, the fact that Gilgamesh and Santa both have their hair flared up is completely coincidental, hrmph. I liked that Gilgamesh referred to everyone below him (which is...almost everyone) as mongrels--it's pretty funny. He's an arrogant jerk, but something about his character was oddly intriguing. I didn't pay much heed to Santa until I reached the Safe and True endings. I loved seeing his character blossom, reading his backstory, and just his involvement with the game in general. I guess having Lancer as another one of my favorites doesn't exactly help my case either (maybe I use the term "favorite" too lightly, ahaha...). Nah, who am I kidding. Their hair's fabulous. jkjkjk, I promise that hair isn't the deciding factor of whether I like a character or not, lol. Nope, my English teacher is the very opposite of "nice". He's incredibly sardonic, his humor is quite crude, and he's one of the bluntest people I know, which is why his class was an absolute pleasure to be in. The only English teacher I didn't like was the one I had for the first semester of freshman year (she was "nice", but annoyingly biased). Ohh, I like your new propic and signature. How did you decide on them? 

 

Well, I've dealt with hypoglycemia on several occasions so the experience was nothing new. It was just a bit gruesome since this experience was held over a much longer period of time. But yeah, there's no way I could find the courage to tell my coach. I would look pretty stupid asking him for a break just because I didn't eat enough lunch, lol. There's no need to be concerned, honest, haha. My sleep schedule is wrecked; sleep late, wake up late. I'm trying to make the most of it before school starts. Then it'll be back to sleep late, wake up early. I'm not a morning person (or at least not anymore) so even when my body naturally wakes up early on some days, I force myself back to sleep believing that I haven't slept enough (it's messed up, I know). It's nice to hear that you're going to give Ping Pong a chance once you get the opportunity! Be sure to let me know how you felt when you finish it! No worries, if I were you, I probably would've passed it as well (I can't blame you, haha). The controls for Super Meat Boy are best on actual controllers as opposed to the PC. It's a very rage-inducing game so it's fine if you skip it (no, really, just watch a playthrough instead, lol). I mainly watched a Let's Play of it because it gets extremely difficult towards the later levels. Check it out yourself if you don't believe me. There's not much plot to the game either, and it's notoriously known for the difficult gameplay. It has about as much plot as the Super Mario Bros series, but the black humor in the cutscenes is worth watching. And if you're well-versed in the realm of gaming, you'll also notice that many of the cutscenes are simply parodies of other games, haha. Depending on which path you take, Cave Story may only take a few days to beat (the only way you can take the other path is to restart the game). So take your time, play it whenever you want to, and don't worry about it! There's a lot more plot to this one, so I think you'll enjoy it more. My laptop is 1366 by 768 pixels (14-inch display). I always thought that it was a pretty standard size for a laptop, lol. I don't have time to fix the backdrop at the moment, but maybe I can toy around with it after I get back, haha. 

 

Even though the program I signed up for last minute was directed towards high schoolers, it was just... too basic. I already learned most of the stuff they tried to teach us in my sophomore year so it was relatively boring (blood typing and gram staining kinda stuff). They also tried to simulate urinalysis at one point. I could tell the urine was fake since it didn't have an ammonia odor to it. It also smelled unusually sweet, so the glucose test I did didn't provide any "shocking" results. Yeah, I know I wasn't supposed to smell the chemical, but it was more like a whiff rather than straight up sticking my nose into the container. Finding out that it was fake ruined the fun (I was only suspicious because they supplied us with an excessive amount of this "urine"). Aside from the free stuff they gave me, the only good thing I got out of the program is that I have an official document stating that I'm certified in CPR (I guess I can be a lifeguard now?). I also found it hard to want to talk to some of the students there. A lot of them seemed like obnoxious underachievers who were there because their parents forced them. The UMich program is a lot more enjoyable (complete understatement). The orgo stuff is hard, I'm not gonna lie (I'd be completely lost without remnants of prior knowledge from AP Chem). The professor is fantastic though! The students here are a lot easier to talk to than the ones from the previous program, and I made a few friends from Arizona who I hang out with regularly now. My roommate is an international student from China, which is kinda cool. It's hard for me to strike a conversation with her though, since English isn't her native tongue. Ahaha, I love it here! The campus is huge and the food isn't half-bad. There's A/C in the dorms and the building bathroom is top-notch (the showers are all separated by walls and doors, awesome!). There's also a really neat farmers market nearby and there are restaurants everywhere! There are people from California, D.C., Tennessee, Massachusetts, Japan, China, Brazil (and loads more), and I even had some small talk with a few people from Colombia! I met two people from Troy as well, haha.

 

(separated paragraph)

Oh, and funny enough, you know how chemicals like hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide are really corrosive? The professor and her TA allowed us to work with stuff like this without any given warning. They treated us as if we had enough common sense not to consume them or touch them with bare skin. Awesome! It was such a nice change of pace compared to the previous summer program that didn't let us work with anything authentic other than the mannequins and bacteria (yeah, I guess it'd be kinda weird if they supplied us with stuff like real urine and blood). The classes run from 9am to 12pm, and then from 1:30pm to 4:30pm (with a lunch break in between). There are loads of activities to do after class like scavenger hunts, strolling around town (like a visit to the farmers market), movies (on campus, so I wasn't able to watch Inside Out), etc. I watched The Uninvited (2009), which is a psychological horror movie, after a few friends pressured me into watching it on Friday night. It actually wasn't too bad. Only a few jump scares got to me, but the overall movie...geezus you should've seen my reaction. The movie was so messed up, but it was actually surprisingly thought out. I still don't know how I feel about it. Hmm, maybe I should dive into the horror genre a bit more. But I'd probably only be able to watch the movies if I'm with others, ehehe... The movie would've been a lot scarier if I wasn't sitting in a room full of people. Oh, and I went to a minor league baseball game yesterday. It was... rather boring. I'm sure it would've been a lot more entertaining if it was a major league game. Honestly, I thought that the breaks between the innings were more fun to watch than the actual game itself, which I think says a lot. Well, I only went for the experience so at least I can check that off my bucket list now. I only found out about David Sedaris through my English teacher (we read a few of his pieces in the class). He's a great humorist and my English teacher is awfully fond of him. Good luck with Whistling Vivaldi! Let me know how it went once you've read it!

 

Argh, sorry for replying so late. I didn't have much time to sit behind my laptop until the weekend hit. I hope your summer is going well so far!

Ah, so about my OnePlus One… I actually really like it!  My mom was worried about it being a Chinese based company (because she’s positive all the Chinese are out there to steal your money with fake products and reviews), but this phone is some really high quality stuff.  It came in stylish, premium packaging with a nice texture, and though there were no instruction manuals at all, you can pretty much figure out how to set up the phone by tinkering around with it.  I got a simple navy blue TPU case for it, which gives it a comfortable, soft grip as well as a dash of personality while still looking professional.  I haven’t done much with it except customize it to look nice.  The default theme is already really good, but to make it more personal I started off by downloading one of the free themes off of the theme shop.  From there, I changed the background to a Kino no Tabi wallpaper (same anime that my profile picture and signature are from).  I hid some apps I knew I wasn’t going to use very often and placed the apps I knew I was going to be clicking on a lot on the home page.  I changed the clock to also display the weather, and put a calendar widget on the second page to easily keep track of upcoming events.  I also checked out the settings, and gosh there are a lot of thigs you can change.  I didn’t want to change too much in fear of accidentally making the phone less convenient, but I altered the screen and brightness and notification light properties.  I activated a 5x5 swipe pattern lock as well.  After that, I changed my ringtone to UBW’s second opening, Brave Shine, and made my notification sound Navi’s “Hey, listen!” from Ocarina of Time.  I think I customized a bit more, but that’s all I can remember.  I’m satisfied with how my phone works for now, though I use it for nothing other than checking e-mail when I’m not by my computer, heh.  Haven’t even downloaded a Facebook app yet.  I’ll continually update it with tweaks if it begins to inconvenience me in any way.  

 

When your iPhone finally gives in and fails on you, I highly recommend getting this phone.  The Android OS might seem scary and hard to use at first, especially if you attempt to play around with one of your friend’s phones, but that’s only because they’ve changed it to best fit their style.  It’s very easy to set up if you start with the bare basics, as there are some mini tutorials on the phone itself that help out a bit with getting everything started.  Trust me, it might seem complicated, but it’s nothing compared to even the easiest of AP classes.  You’ve pretty much survived all of high school, so you can handle an Android, hahah.  You can individually change everything from the font size, type, and color to the app icon size and shape to the swipe transitions to the tapping sound effects to the boot-up animation if you’d rather not download a pre-made theme.  You can change the original 4x4 app grid from anything to 2x2 to 7x7 to 2x7, and apps don’t automatically slide to the top when you place them on a page.  You can make any page the home page, so instead of being forced to always swipe to the left to go right and navigate that way, you can put your home page to the far right and always swipe right to go left, or even put it in the middle and swipe either left or right to flip through your pages.  Putting stuff on your Android is multiple times easier than putting stuff on your iPhone.  Since there is no pesky iTunes you’re forced to install on your computer, all you do is plug your phone into your PC like a USB and drag and drop whatever you want into the corresponding folder.  You want a new wallpaper?  Drag and drop it into the “Wallpaper” folder.  Ringtone?  There’s a folder for that.  Music?  Yup, just drop in there.  It’s straight forward, easy, non-restrictive, and hassle-free.  None of that updating and syncing stuff involved with Apple devices.  The screen is so bright and vibrant and crisp, it makes my big ol’ laptop screen pale in comparison.  It’s 5.5 inches diagonally across, so maybe a bit on the big size, but even if you have small hands it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.  Soo, yeah, after all that rambling the main thing you need to take away from this paragraph is to get a OnePlus One, or at least an Android.  But preferably a OnePlus One given how cheap it is, hahah.

 

If by peer pressured you mean forced by my sister and parents, then I’m sad to say that I was indeed bound, gagged, and forced to make a Facebook at gunpoint.  I wasn’t going to get one, but my parents and sister insisted without an account I would graduate from college a connectionless, friendless, lonely hobo with no means of networking.  They’ll make me get a LinkedIn soon, I can tell.  My mom was especially afraid of my fellow Case students thinking I was a psychopath if I approached them without a Facebook, eheheh.  Anyway, trust me, I won’t be playing any games on Facebook… because I can’t figure out how to.  Seriously, this probably sounds really stupid, but I can’t figure out how Facebook works.  The interface makes absolutely no sense, I don’t know where the home page is, and I’m having trouble navigating through all this stuff asking me to fill out information.  Stuff keeps on popping out at me, some from complete strangers and others from friends… I think?  I just don’t know what to do with this site.  This is beyond Android levels of difficulty.  This is more like algebra 2, to be honest.  Granted, I’ve spent less time on Facebook in total than you spend on it in one day.  I only changed my privacy settings to make myself as invisible as possible before getting a headache trying to figure the rest of it out and calling it a day.  Since then I’ve just been blindly accepting friend requests because I’m a pushover and I feel bad about hurting other people’s feelings, but that’s it.  I literally log in for less than five seconds to accept friend requests and then log out in fear of messing something else up.  I must be a sad excuse for an 18 year old, ahahah.  I can totally sympathize with the old people trying out Facebook, though.  It really doesn’t make any sense unless you grow up with it.

 

Ahhhh geez, lying on the grass sounds so nice!  Maybe it’s because I’ve locked myself up at home recently, but the thought of just lying out on a grassy field beneath a lone, shady tree with the deep blue sky and a smattering of clouds framing a brilliant sun ahead, birds and cicadas singing in the distance, as a breeze tickles the top of the blades as well as your skin, is just so… so… so refreshing!  Like the summers from when you were a child, the ones that seemed to span forever, the ones with ice cream trucks and yellow dandelions.  Eheheh, for some reason, my mind is in a really nostalgic, idealistic mood today.  Maybe it wasn’t quite that perfect at UMich, but it still sounds like something I’d have loved to do.  But anyway, back on topic, maybe you could ask one of the people playing tennis to borrow a racket?  Heh, I guess that might be kind of weird, but hey you could potentially make a new friend that way!  It’s really a shame you weren’t able to generate any essays topics with all that time spent thinking on it, and in such a nice location, too.  Hrmm, I really wish I could help you think of topics, but nothing is coming to me quite as strongly as my stargazing one.  Grrr, curse the 76% Members and 44% constituents who wanted the “content place” prompt removed!  The first topic is the one most open to interpretation, so you’d probably have the most luck with that.  It’s pretty much: if there’s something interesting you want to write about, write about it.  The failure prompt is pretty straight forward, though the challenge a belief question is kind of weird.  Probably the most difficult to write about on the entire list, because beliefs can be so controversial and it would be best not to accidentally step on people’s toes.  The brand spanking new “problem solving” prompt is interesting.  Seems challenging as well, similar to the belief question, though.  If it’s a problem you want to solve, I can imagine it turning controversial and rant-like as well.  The accomplishment thing seems nice at first, but the whole “transition to adulthood” part is ruining it.  Pretty much limits it to sweet sixteens and driving a car and getting a part time job, unless you’re (un)lucky enough to write a sob story implementing five of the following eight things: cancer, poverty, taking care of younger siblings, divorce, gambling, drinking, slums, breadwinner of the family.  You know, the whole being-mature-at-a-young-age-before-the-rest-of-your-peers spiel.  The first two topics are the ones you should probably focus on.  The failure topic could be given a humorous spin to spice it up, just as long as learning from that failure doesn’t come off as petty and forced by the end because of the initial humor.  The first topic can be used for virtually anything.  You could write about organizing socks in drawers by color, before tying it to race and coming to the conclusion that people are not socks, or something manipulatively “deep” like that, hahah.  I really wish I could help you out more, especially since August is practically upon us.

 

Ehh, well, it was honestly just blind digging.  There was nothing else to go off of, though I remembered you mentioned having embarrassing DeviantART names so I went scouring for those.  Ahah, got pretty lucky, though finding that article online was the true pot of gold.  I really can’t believe you figured out my name though.  J-just how???  I’m still in shock.  Gosh, you’re impressing me with each and every passing message, this is crazy.  And I didn’t realize the band had updated their website.  Before they just had the most recent region/all-state members, not the ones from every year.  At the very least, I thought my last name was safe, bleh.  Oh well, if there’s anyone out there who I’d be comfortable with knowing this much about me, it would be you anyway.  It’ll take me a while to get used to your real name though.  I’m just so used to seeing you as Kenzi, so I hope you don’t mind nicknames, ahah.

 

A nature center, huh?  You’re already doing far more volunteering than I ever did.  And it will definitely be a great way of showing off to colleges some of your graphics skill!

 

Ohhh, perfect opportunity!  You could just sneak some acetone out of the lab, ufufufufufufufu…

 

Psht, depressing songs are good songs, too!  Embrace your inner sadness and listen to Morphogenetic Sorrow on repeat!  Aha, that was the song that caught my attention first because when it was paired with the sudoku puzzle I got way more feels than I was expecting from this game and knew I had to track it down.  Ah, Recollection is also really good; I almost forgot that song existed since it’s been a while since I’ve played the game.  Take your time with Ace Attorney.  It’s a good series and there’s no need to rush it.  I got almost all the games done during the summer break between junior and senior year.  I started and completed the first game during the end of junior year (yeah, I know, what was I thinking??) and somehow finished the rest just before school started back up in September.  If you start during winter break, and slowly make your way through it all, you’ll definitely finish it before you begin college.

 

Splatoon is a fantastic game, but it isn’t worth a whole home console just for it.  If you’re going to invest in a Wii U, you might as well get at least three to five games for a decent library.  Since that’s quite pricey, I would say just focus on getting a 2/3DS first.  Handhelds are a lot more convenient for the on-the-go lifestyle of a college kid anyway.  Even if it means waiting until after college before you have time and money for a Wii U, the next gen NX might already be out by then anyway, and at that point you can either get a Wii U for cheap or just buy the NX given it’s backward compatible with Wii U games and experience Splatoon then.  All the 3DS games will keep you occupied for a long time, trust me.  Even I’m struggling to find the time to accomplish what I need to accomplish, and I’m probably having the most stress-less summer of my life since early middle school.  I’m just over-playing Splatoon now since I know I won’t have access to it when I’m in college, hahah.

 

Well it’s a relief to hear you’re not allergic to water at least, hah.  And whhhhaaaaaaa you visited Europe before??  How is this the first I’ve heard of this?  (Actually, if you did mention this before, I apologize for having terrible memory; it’s the old-geezer in me rearing his wizened head.)  Where did you visit and how was it?

 

My online summer classes aren’t difficult, they’re just boring.  I took an introductory accounting class in high school, so I kind of already know some things about QuickBooks, and the new stuff I’m learning is relatively easy.  The whole overlapping of knowledge parts really feel like overkill, and I don’t really think it’s necessary to get such a head start on accounting, but whatever.  Can’t really complain since it’s the only form of “productive” work I’m getting done this summer.

 

Ahah, there wasn’t anything I really disliked about the first opening.  I just felt that the second opening was animated and directed better.  The first opening had that weird disjointed choreographed jumping scene as well as that out of place slow-mo backflip.  As perfect as those moments are for parodies, they were a bit weird.  The full version of the second opening also references the first opening, which is really neat despite not being something you can tell from the TV sized version.  I do have to admit though, the first opening captures the atmosphere of what SnK is about better than the second.    

 

Surprisingly, the fruit managed to stay intact through all the walking we did.  Maybe it was because my mom cushioned them with the ponchos, haha.  We pretty much had one bag per person.  My mom and sister carried their purses, and I’m counting those as bags.  I can’t remember what other stuff we stored in those bags, but gosh whatever they where they weighed us down a lot.  Maybe the bags themselves were just really hefty?  It didn’t rain as much I we had planned.  Though an ocean fell on us while we were heading back up Florida after the festivities, during our visit the weather cooperated.  Or maybe, depending on how you look at it, didn’t cooperate.  Because it didn’t rain often, there was little opportunity for the heat to dissipate.  The little rain that we did get just moistened up the air and evaporated really quickly.  It also made carrying around the ponchos and umbrellas relatively pointless, but eh whatever.  Better safe than sorry after all!

 

Yeah, the poster is slowly starting to grow on me.  I would have preferred something with Kiritsugu or Rider on it, but Saber’s alright.  Easily identifiable at least.  I hope my roommate is cool with letting me hang it up!  Hm, I hope I can find space on a wall for it…

 

Mhm, you seeming like the person who would talk to a kid was meant to be a compliment, haha.  It’s good that you’re so friendly to people and willing to meet others.  As someone in my position, I’m awfully grateful for it.

 

Awww whaaaat no fireworks??  That’s a bummer, especially since it seems all the public things in Michigan are top notch, in comparison to the sad excuse that are Edison fireworks, at least.  Hm, you’ll probably see better fireworks later in your life anyway, so I guess you’re not missing out on too much.  I’ve been spoiled, since I expect synchronized music with my show, otherwise it’s unacceptable, eheh.  It all began with a summer fireworks event I saw at Longwood Gardens, I think, three summers ago?  Those gardens are gorgeous, especially at Christmas time despite that I didn’t visiting in the winter, and it’s located in Pennsylvania not too far from where I live.

 

Man, if she was stalking all the Asians she could find, she’d really have her work cut out for her.  All kinds of them at Disney, as you can imagine.  And I believe I was wearing JPS apparel that day.  I know I despise the school, but I have a relative shortage of t-shirts, sooo…  And gosh, what is Snapchat anyway?  I hear about it all the time, and I think I know how it works, but I don’t really get at the same time.  Because of my ignorance, I can’t say whether or not that’s what she was using.

 

Ahh goodness me, your parents really are protective of you.  It might seem silly during times like this, but they do mean well by it.  It’s all done with the best of intentions, and it’s tons better than having negligent parents, for sure.  Haha, one day you’ll probably thank your parents for looking out to this extent.  But yeah, that aside, there’s a lot at Disney you should check out!

 

uTorrent itself is perfectly safe; it’s the files that you download that give you trouble sometimes.  But if you do your research, I’m sure you’ll be able to find safe torrents.  Haven’t run into any viruses downloading anime or movies or music.  Hah, of course, I don’t think any reassurance of mine is going to get you to change your mind about torrenting (so maybe I’ll have to somehow get that movie to you directly, ufufufu).

 

Jeez, you’re quite the flatterer, eheheh.  You’re giving far too much credit to someone who you’ve yet to even see.  I don’t want your expectations to be too high, since you’ll just be set up for disappointment if we meet.  And given how curious we both are and our circumstances, the chances of us meeting someday aren’t too shabby, haha.  I’ll definitely get a haircut before I leave for Case.  Pretty soon too, maybe one to two weeks before I go?  And whaaaa you’re even more curious now?  Heh, you’re so difficult to please, hmph.  Nah, I’m just kidding, if I were in your position I’d probably be rather intrigued as well.  But honestly, my hair isn’t all that exciting.  It’s frizzy and gets really messy in even slight breezes.  It’s nothing like the perfection that is Benedict Cumberbatch’s hair from Sherlock, heh.  And also, upon further consideration, my hair is less like Tyki Mikk’s and more like Oreki Houtarou’s from Hyouka.  With enough comb work and luck, I can get my hair under relative control.  Ahah, once someone I was only vaguely acquainted with thought I was Korean.  She didn’t know my last name, so I guess it’s understandable.  Was it my hair that confused her?  I don’t think I have a Korean complexion, though I’m no master on the subject either.  You said you relate most to Yuuko and she’s one of your favorite characters from Nichijou, so I’m wondering why you didn’t ever make her your profile picture?  You even used Mio as a profpic and you don’t seem to like her as much as either Yuuko or Mai, nor can I see you relating to her that much.  Hmm, and I don’t know, given how curious you are about my hair I’m beginning to think you have some sort of subliminal attraction to guys with unique dos, haha.  Naw, it’s fine, even I have to admit they all have really nice locks.  If only my hair could cooperate like this when I want it to…  Oof, I’ve had teachers like that before.  Sometimes I was actually on the receiving end of their bias, so it’s not like my grades were bad, but I still didn’t like them.  I don’t think they realized it though, because they were still nice to me despite how much I didn’t care for their classes, eheh.  Well, my profile picture and signature were obviously both part of the same image originally, one of Kino (the person) and Hermes (the motorcycle) from the anime Kino no Tabi.  It’s a really good series, one I watched a while back.  It’s episodic and slow, but the atmosphere is great and there’s a decent bit to analyze and read into.  Mushishi is apparently a very similar anime, so I’ll be checking that out when I find the time.  Don’t really know why I made this specific wallpaper into a profpic and sig though.  Maybe I was in that sort of mood.  It turned out nicely though; very minimalistic and easy on the eyes, I think.  I anticipate your updated L’Oreal advertisement profpic as well!

 

My sleep schedule is really no better than yours.  I’ve been staying up and waking up late as well, even though I try my best not to.  But you know, after a nice shower and you’re just lying in bed and you’re kicking your sheets around because it’s too damn hot, sometimes a little bit of Smash 3DS sounds kinda nice…  I swear, I tell myself just one or two battles every time.  But before I know it, eheheheheh……  I’m going to have to fix this up before I leave for college, because this is not a good mindset to have for my first semester, or any semester at that.  You could see not having access to all these great games as a blessing, if your self-control is even half as bad as mine, bleh.  I can imagine Super Meat Boy feels better on an actual console.  Generally all side-scrollers do, since gripping your controller as you jump and dodge through 2-D environments is half the fun, haha.  I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed Donkey Kong Country quite as much if it wasn’t on the Gameboy Advance.  Still though, it’s been ages since I’ve really played a side-scroller, and I definitely wouldn’t mind getting back into the swing of things, so actually playing Super Meat Boy for myself would be ideal.  We’ll see though.  I’ll probably just play Cave Story first, then.  Also, I figured Super Meat Boy parodied other games the moment I saw the title, just because it’s such a blatant reference to Super Mario Bros.  Hmm, do you know if Cave Story for the 3DS would be better or worse than the PC version?  I only know that a 3DS version exists but haven’t done any research past that in fear of spoiling myself, so I’m going to consult you directly for this.  Oh, I almost forgot, my laptop is a bit on the bigger size when it comes to its screen.  Its resolution is 1920x1080 pixels and has a 17.3 inch diagonal.  Hm, that was probably why your background didn’t fit quite as nicely on my display as it did yours.

 

Ughh, that last second summer program doesn’t look like it paid off at all, gosh.  I feel for you, haha.  I never participated in any summer programs myself, except for this one bio mini-class thing back between freshman and sophomore year, but that was just an oversimplified version of regular level bio, so it wasn’t very exciting.  It was quite the confidence booster though, since I got good grades and the professor liked me a lot.  He was a really old-timey type of geezer, one who told “back in my day” stories and thinks today’s kids are spoiled brats.  I think because I didn’t talk much and didn’t have a cellphone, he took a clear liking to me over all the others.  Ehhhh, looking back on it, it was kind of creepy, but whatever.

 

Ahh, on the other hand it sounds like you’re having a ton of fun at UMich!  You need AP Chem knowledge for orgo, hm?  It’s really impressive you’re able to handle it.  You definitely don’t sound stressed at least, so the pressure hasn’t gotten to you and that’s good!  I’m terrible at chem, and physics at that, so just thinking about sitting in a classroom learning and working in a lab is getting me all queasy inside.  I’m so happy to hear you’ve made friends!  Of course, it’s not like I doubted you would or anything, but it’s good to make connections early.  You know, for networking in the future (I sound like my mom…).  You have a good professor and tons of restaurants and top notch bathrooms and the heck even A/C to boot??  No, seriously, what’s up with public Michigan facilities and establishments?  This isn’t like Florida where public restrooms need to maintain a temperature of 70 degrees to prevent people from passing out because it’s so hot; this is way up in Michigan.  The average high for Ann Arbor in July is 83 degrees!?  Whhhhhhaaaaaaaaa it’s been like 90+ for the past week in Edison.  Heck, I’m typing up this part late at night, like after 10 pm, and I just checked the weather on my phone and it’s 89 degrees this very minute.  Checked again at midnight, and it’s still 86.  What the blazes?  Why do Michigan schools get A/C???  Rutgers doesn’t even get A/C, and the more I think about it most colleges don’t have A/C in their dorms unless they’re located down south.  Either the rest of America sucks, or Michigan is the unsung hero state where life’s good and dreams really do come true.  I swear, if taxes aren’t sky high where you live, I’m gonna smack a politician (or two).  Ahhhhh……hahaha, got a bit carried away there, sorry.  The topic of A/C just tends to trigger me, so apologies for my rambling.  Anyway, with how much you love UMich, I’m starting to get worried.  I fear that Case won’t be nearly as impressive in comparison, eheheheh…  Oh, and do I know that chemicals like hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide are really corrosive?  Uhm… yeah, oh sure, totally, definitely knew that, mhm… yupp… (I said with a posed look) (I’m sorry, don’t underestimate how bad I am at science classes…).  It’s still cool that they believed you were mature enough for those chemicals though.  Probably night and day difference compared to that other weird human anatomy w/ swimming(?) class you took prior.  Ohh, those hours aren’t too bad.  Not terribly early, and with plenty of time after classes to do whatever.  How’s the workload?  Like, any homework or tests?  And I’m guessing since you didn’t mention it, no one brought in Smash 4 and raided the movie room to have 8-player free-for-alls with everyone, huh?  That’s a crying shame, ahaha.  I’ve never heard of The Uninvited, though of course I’m not really into horror movies or western cinema at all, really.  Haven’t seen a true horror movie in ages, so I have no idea how I’d react.  It’s interesting imaging how you had reacted to The Uninvited though.  I’m just picturing you as Yuuko, screaming in classic Nichijou fashion.  Ufufufu, it’s rather amusing to envision.  I saw a semi-pro baseball game back in elementary school once.  Don’t remember any of it, apart from the fact that it was hot and boring, ahah.  Even if you know what’s going on, I can imagine it being about as exciting as watching middle schoolers duking it out in Smash tournies.  Oh, crud, Whistling Vivaldi!  That’s due in, exactly 24 hours!  Eheh, I’ll try reading it all today, and if I fail I’ll just lie and mark it off my online summer checklist anyway.  I don’t see how you can look at me and still think I have my life under control.  Gosh, I’m a mess, especially this summer.  And unlike you, I never took a precollege program, so I’m less prepared for campus life right now than you are.  As much as I’d like to say I’m excited to go to college, I’m also unbelievably nervous as well…   

 

So, I decided to return the favor and post this early in commemoration of your birthday!  I’m assuming you already saw the PM I sent you as well.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy your final day at UMich!  Be sure to tell me all about the rest of your ventures if anything new happens.  Also, there’s no need to apologize at all.  As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t even expecting a reply this week, so if anything your response was early.  Quite the selfless thing to do around your birthday.  That being said, here’s one final “happy birthday” for good luck! 

[Kenzi 146]

 

Ah, so about my OnePlus One… I actually really like it!  My mom was worried about it being a Chinese based company (because she’s positive all the Chinese are out there to steal your money with fake products and reviews), but this phone is some really high quality stuff.  It came in stylish, premium packaging with a nice texture, and though there were no instruction manuals at all, you can pretty much figure out how to set up the phone by tinkering around with it.  I got a simple navy blue TPU case for it, which gives it a comfortable, soft grip as well as a dash of personality while still looking professional.  I haven’t done much with it except customize it to look nice.  The default theme is already really good, but to make it more personal I started off by downloading one of the free themes off of the theme shop.  From there, I changed the background to a Kino no Tabi wallpaper (same anime that my profile picture and signature are from).  I hid some apps I knew I wasn’t going to use very often and placed the apps I knew I was going to be clicking on a lot on the home page.  I changed the clock to also display the weather, and put a calendar widget on the second page to easily keep track of upcoming events.  I also checked out the settings, and gosh there are a lot of thigs you can change.  I didn’t want to change too much in fear of accidentally making the phone less convenient, but I altered the screen and brightness and notification light properties.  I activated a 5x5 swipe pattern lock as well.  After that, I changed my ringtone to UBW’s second opening, Brave Shine, and made my notification sound Navi’s “Hey, listen!” from Ocarina of Time.  I think I customized a bit more, but that’s all I can remember.  I’m satisfied with how my phone works for now, though I use it for nothing other than checking e-mail when I’m not by my computer, heh.  Haven’t even downloaded a Facebook app yet.  I’ll continually update it with tweaks if it begins to inconvenience me in any way.  

 

When your iPhone finally gives in and fails on you, I highly recommend getting this phone.  The Android OS might seem scary and hard to use at first, especially if you attempt to play around with one of your friend’s phones, but that’s only because they’ve changed it to best fit their style.  It’s very easy to set up if you start with the bare basics, as there are some mini tutorials on the phone itself that help out a bit with getting everything started.  Trust me, it might seem complicated, but it’s nothing compared to even the easiest of AP classes.  You’ve pretty much survived all of high school, so you can handle an Android, hahah.  You can individually change everything from the font size, type, and color to the app icon size and shape to the swipe transitions to the tapping sound effects to the boot-up animation if you’d rather not download a pre-made theme.  You can change the original 4x4 app grid from anything to 2x2 to 7x7 to 2x7, and apps don’t automatically slide to the top when you place them on a page.  You can make any page the home page, so instead of being forced to always swipe to the left to go right and navigate that way, you can put your home page to the far right and always swipe right to go left, or even put it in the middle and swipe either left or right to flip through your pages.  Putting stuff on your Android is multiple times easier than putting stuff on your iPhone.  Since there is no pesky iTunes you’re forced to install on your computer, all you do is plug your phone into your PC like a USB and drag and drop whatever you want into the corresponding folder.  You want a new wallpaper?  Drag and drop it into the “Wallpaper” folder.  Ringtone?  There’s a folder for that.  Music?  Yup, just drop in there.  It’s straight forward, easy, non-restrictive, and hassle-free.  None of that updating and syncing stuff involved with Apple devices.  The screen is so bright and vibrant and crisp, it makes my big ol’ laptop screen pale in comparison.  It’s 5.5 inches diagonally across, so maybe a bit on the big size, but even if you have small hands it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.  Soo, yeah, after all that rambling the main thing you need to take away from this paragraph is to get a OnePlus One, or at least an Android.  But preferably a OnePlus One given how cheap it is, hahah.

 

If by peer pressured you mean forced by my sister and parents, then I’m sad to say that I was indeed bound, gagged, and forced to make a Facebook at gunpoint.  I wasn’t going to get one, but my parents and sister insisted without an account I would graduate from college a connectionless, friendless, lonely hobo with no means of networking.  They’ll make me get a LinkedIn soon, I can tell.  My mom was especially afraid of my fellow Case students thinking I was a psychopath if I approached them without a Facebook, eheheh.  Anyway, trust me, I won’t be playing any games on Facebook… because I can’t figure out how to.  Seriously, this probably sounds really stupid, but I can’t figure out how Facebook works.  The interface makes absolutely no sense, I don’t know where the home page is, and I’m having trouble navigating through all this stuff asking me to fill out information.  Stuff keeps on popping out at me, some from complete strangers and others from friends… I think?  I just don’t know what to do with this site.  This is beyond Android levels of difficulty.  This is more like algebra 2, to be honest.  Granted, I’ve spent less time on Facebook in total than you spend on it in one day.  I only changed my privacy settings to make myself as invisible as possible before getting a headache trying to figure the rest of it out and calling it a day.  Since then I’ve just been blindly accepting friend requests because I’m a pushover and I feel bad about hurting other people’s feelings, but that’s it.  I literally log in for less than five seconds to accept friend requests and then log out in fear of messing something else up.  I must be a sad excuse for an 18 year old, ahahah.  I can totally sympathize with the old people trying out Facebook, though.  It really doesn’t make any sense unless you grow up with it.

 

Ahhhh geez, lying on the grass sounds so nice!  Maybe it’s because I’ve locked myself up at home recently, but the thought of just lying out on a grassy field beneath a lone, shady tree with the deep blue sky and a smattering of clouds framing a brilliant sun ahead, birds and cicadas singing in the distance, as a breeze tickles the top of the blades as well as your skin, is just so… so… so refreshing!  Like the summers from when you were a child, the ones that seemed to span forever, the ones with ice cream trucks and yellow dandelions.  Eheheh, for some reason, my mind is in a really nostalgic, idealistic mood today.  Maybe it wasn’t quite that perfect at UMich, but it still sounds like something I’d have loved to do.  But anyway, back on topic, maybe you could ask one of the people playing tennis to borrow a racket?  Heh, I guess that might be kind of weird, but hey you could potentially make a new friend that way!  It’s really a shame you weren’t able to generate any essays topics with all that time spent thinking on it, and in such a nice location, too.  Hrmm, I really wish I could help you think of topics, but nothing is coming to me quite as strongly as my stargazing one.  Grrr, curse the 76% Members and 44% constituents who wanted the “content place” prompt removed!  The first topic is the one most open to interpretation, so you’d probably have the most luck with that.  It’s pretty much: if there’s something interesting you want to write about, write about it.  The failure prompt is pretty straight forward, though the challenge a belief question is kind of weird.  Probably the most difficult to write about on the entire list, because beliefs can be so controversial and it would be best not to accidentally step on people’s toes.  The brand spanking new “problem solving” prompt is interesting.  Seems challenging as well, similar to the belief question, though.  If it’s a problem you want to solve, I can imagine it turning controversial and rant-like as well.  The accomplishment thing seems nice at first, but the whole “transition to adulthood” part is ruining it.  Pretty much limits it to sweet sixteens and driving a car and getting a part time job, unless you’re (un)lucky enough to write a sob story implementing five of the following eight things: cancer, poverty, taking care of younger siblings, divorce, gambling, drinking, slums, breadwinner of the family.  You know, the whole being-mature-at-a-young-age-before-the-rest-of-your-peers spiel.  The first two topics are the ones you should probably focus on.  The failure topic could be given a humorous spin to spice it up, just as long as learning from that failure doesn’t come off as petty and forced by the end because of the initial humor.  The first topic can be used for virtually anything.  You could write about organizing socks in drawers by color, before tying it to race and coming to the conclusion that people are not socks, or something manipulatively “deep” like that, hahah.  I really wish I could help you out more, especially since August is practically upon us.

 

Ehh, well, it was honestly just blind digging.  There was nothing else to go off of, though I remembered you mentioned having embarrassing DeviantART names so I went scouring for those.  Ahah, got pretty lucky, though finding that article online was the true pot of gold.  I really can’t believe you figured out my name though.  J-just how???  I’m still in shock.  Gosh, you’re impressing me with each and every passing message, this is crazy.  And I didn’t realize the band had updated their website.  Before they just had the most recent region/all-state members, not the ones from every year.  At the very least, I thought my last name was safe, bleh.  Oh well, if there’s anyone out there who I’d be comfortable with knowing this much about me, it would be you anyway.  It’ll take me a while to get used to your real name though.  I’m just so used to seeing you as Kenzi, so I hope you don’t mind nicknames, ahah.

 

A nature center, huh?  You’re already doing far more volunteering than I ever did.  And it will definitely be a great way of showing off to colleges some of your graphics skill!

 

Ohhh, perfect opportunity!  You could just sneak some acetone out of the lab, ufufufufufufufu…

 

Psht, depressing songs are good songs, too!  Embrace your inner sadness and listen to Morphogenetic Sorrow on repeat!  Aha, that was the song that caught my attention first because when it was paired with the sudoku puzzle I got way more feels than I was expecting from this game and knew I had to track it down.  Ah, Recollection is also really good; I almost forgot that song existed since it’s been a while since I’ve played the game.  Take your time with Ace Attorney.  It’s a good series and there’s no need to rush it.  I got almost all the games done during the summer break between junior and senior year.  I started and completed the first game during the end of junior year (yeah, I know, what was I thinking??) and somehow finished the rest just before school started back up in September.  If you start during winter break, and slowly make your way through it all, you’ll definitely finish it before you begin college.

 

Splatoon is a fantastic game, but it isn’t worth a whole home console just for it.  If you’re going to invest in a Wii U, you might as well get at least three to five games for a decent library.  Since that’s quite pricey, I would say just focus on getting a 2/3DS first.  Handhelds are a lot more convenient for the on-the-go lifestyle of a college kid anyway.  Even if it means waiting until after college before you have time and money for a Wii U, the next gen NX might already be out by then anyway, and at that point you can either get a Wii U for cheap or just buy the NX given it’s backward compatible with Wii U games and experience Splatoon then.  All the 3DS games will keep you occupied for a long time, trust me.  Even I’m struggling to find the time to accomplish what I need to accomplish, and I’m probably having the most stress-less summer of my life since early middle school.  I’m just over-playing Splatoon now since I know I won’t have access to it when I’m in college, hahah.

 

Well it’s a relief to hear you’re not allergic to water at least, hah.  And whhhhaaaaaaa you visited Europe before??  How is this the first I’ve heard of this?  (Actually, if you did mention this before, I apologize for having terrible memory; it’s the old-geezer in me rearing his wizened head.)  Where did you visit and how was it?

 

My online summer classes aren’t difficult, they’re just boring.  I took an introductory accounting class in high school, so I kind of already know some things about QuickBooks, and the new stuff I’m learning is relatively easy.  The whole overlapping of knowledge parts really feel like overkill, and I don’t really think it’s necessary to get such a head start on accounting, but whatever.  Can’t really complain since it’s the only form of “productive” work I’m getting done this summer.

 

Ahah, there wasn’t anything I really disliked about the first opening.  I just felt that the second opening was animated and directed better.  The first opening had that weird disjointed choreographed jumping scene as well as that out of place slow-mo backflip.  As perfect as those moments are for parodies, they were a bit weird.  The full version of the second opening also references the first opening, which is really neat despite not being something you can tell from the TV sized version.  I do have to admit though, the first opening captures the atmosphere of what SnK is about better than the second.    

 

Surprisingly, the fruit managed to stay intact through all the walking we did.  Maybe it was because my mom cushioned them with the ponchos, haha.  We pretty much had one bag per person.  My mom and sister carried their purses, and I’m counting those as bags.  I can’t remember what other stuff we stored in those bags, but gosh whatever they where they weighed us down a lot.  Maybe the bags themselves were just really hefty?  It didn’t rain as much I we had planned.  Though an ocean fell on us while we were heading back up Florida after the festivities, during our visit the weather cooperated.  Or maybe, depending on how you look at it, didn’t cooperate.  Because it didn’t rain often, there was little opportunity for the heat to dissipate.  The little rain that we did get just moistened up the air and evaporated really quickly.  It also made carrying around the ponchos and umbrellas relatively pointless, but eh whatever.  Better safe than sorry after all!

 

Yeah, the poster is slowly starting to grow on me.  I would have preferred something with Kiritsugu or Rider on it, but Saber’s alright.  Easily identifiable at least.  I hope my roommate is cool with letting me hang it up!  Hm, I hope I can find space on a wall for it…

 

Mhm, you seeming like the person who would talk to a kid was meant to be a compliment, haha.  It’s good that you’re so friendly to people and willing to meet others.  As someone in my position, I’m awfully grateful for it.

 

Awww whaaaat no fireworks??  That’s a bummer, especially since it seems all the public things in Michigan are top notch, in comparison to the sad excuse that are Edison fireworks, at least.  Hm, you’ll probably see better fireworks later in your life anyway, so I guess you’re not missing out on too much.  I’ve been spoiled, since I expect synchronized music with my show, otherwise it’s unacceptable, eheh.  It all began with a summer fireworks event I saw at Longwood Gardens, I think, three summers ago?  Those gardens are gorgeous, especially at Christmas time despite that I didn’t visiting in the winter, and it’s located in Pennsylvania not too far from where I live.

 

Man, if she was stalking all the Asians she could find, she’d really have her work cut out for her.  All kinds of them at Disney, as you can imagine.  And I believe I was wearing JPS apparel that day.  I know I despise the school, but I have a relative shortage of t-shirts, sooo…  And gosh, what is Snapchat anyway?  I hear about it all the time, and I think I know how it works, but I don’t really get at the same time.  Because of my ignorance, I can’t say whether or not that’s what she was using.

 

Ahh goodness me, your parents really are protective of you.  It might seem silly during times like this, but they do mean well by it.  It’s all done with the best of intentions, and it’s tons better than having negligent parents, for sure.  Haha, one day you’ll probably thank your parents for looking out to this extent.  But yeah, that aside, there’s a lot at Disney you should check out!

 

uTorrent itself is perfectly safe; it’s the files that you download that give you trouble sometimes.  But if you do your research, I’m sure you’ll be able to find safe torrents.  Haven’t run into any viruses downloading anime or movies or music.  Hah, of course, I don’t think any reassurance of mine is going to get you to change your mind about torrenting (so maybe I’ll have to somehow get that movie to you directly, ufufufu).

 

Jeez, you’re quite the flatterer, eheheh.  You’re giving far too much credit to someone who you’ve yet to even see.  I don’t want your expectations to be too high, since you’ll just be set up for disappointment if we meet.  And given how curious we both are and our circumstances, the chances of us meeting someday aren’t too shabby, haha.  I’ll definitely get a haircut before I leave for Case.  Pretty soon too, maybe one to two weeks before I go?  And whaaaa you’re even more curious now?  Heh, you’re so difficult to please, hmph.  Nah, I’m just kidding, if I were in your position I’d probably be rather intrigued as well.  But honestly, my hair isn’t all that exciting.  It’s frizzy and gets really messy in even slight breezes.  It’s nothing like the perfection that is Benedict Cumberbatch’s hair from Sherlock, heh.  And also, upon further consideration, my hair is less like Tyki Mikk’s and more like Oreki Houtarou’s from Hyouka.  With enough comb work and luck, I can get my hair under relative control.  Ahah, once someone I was only vaguely acquainted with thought I was Korean.  She didn’t know my last name, so I guess it’s understandable.  Was it my hair that confused her?  I don’t think I have a Korean complexion, though I’m no master on the subject either.  You said you relate most to Yuuko and she’s one of your favorite characters from Nichijou, so I’m wondering why you didn’t ever make her your profile picture?  You even used Mio as a profpic and you don’t seem to like her as much as either Yuuko or Mai, nor can I see you relating to her that much.  Hmm, and I don’t know, given how curious you are about my hair I’m beginning to think you have some sort of subliminal attraction to guys with unique dos, haha.  Naw, it’s fine, even I have to admit they all have really nice locks.  If only my hair could cooperate like this when I want it to…  Oof, I’ve had teachers like that before.  Sometimes I was actually on the receiving end of their bias, so it’s not like my grades were bad, but I still didn’t like them.  I don’t think they realized it though, because they were still nice to me despite how much I didn’t care for their classes, eheh.  Well, my profile picture and signature were obviously both part of the same image originally, one of Kino (the person) and Hermes (the motorcycle) from the anime Kino no Tabi.  It’s a really good series, one I watched a while back.  It’s episodic and slow, but the atmosphere is great and there’s a decent bit to analyze and read into.  Mushishi is apparently a very similar anime, so I’ll be checking that out when I find the time.  Don’t really know why I made this specific wallpaper into a profpic and sig though.  Maybe I was in that sort of mood.  It turned out nicely though; very minimalistic and easy on the eyes, I think.  I anticipate your updated L’Oreal advertisement profpic as well!

 

My sleep schedule is really no better than yours.  I’ve been staying up and waking up late as well, even though I try my best not to.  But you know, after a nice shower and you’re just lying in bed and you’re kicking your sheets around because it’s too damn hot, sometimes a little bit of Smash 3DS sounds kinda nice…  I swear, I tell myself just one or two battles every time.  But before I know it, eheheheheh……  I’m going to have to fix this up before I leave for college, because this is not a good mindset to have for my first semester, or any semester at that.  You could see not having access to all these great games as a blessing, if your self-control is even half as bad as mine, bleh.  I can imagine Super Meat Boy feels better on an actual console.  Generally all side-scrollers do, since gripping your controller as you jump and dodge through 2-D environments is half the fun, haha.  I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed Donkey Kong Country quite as much if it wasn’t on the Gameboy Advance.  Still though, it’s been ages since I’ve really played a side-scroller, and I definitely wouldn’t mind getting back into the swing of things, so actually playing Super Meat Boy for myself would be ideal.  We’ll see though.  I’ll probably just play Cave Story first, then.  Also, I figured Super Meat Boy parodied other games the moment I saw the title, just because it’s such a blatant reference to Super Mario Bros.  Hmm, do you know if Cave Story for the 3DS would be better or worse than the PC version?  I only know that a 3DS version exists but haven’t done any research past that in fear of spoiling myself, so I’m going to consult you directly for this.  Oh, I almost forgot, my laptop is a bit on the bigger size when it comes to its screen.  Its resolution is 1920x1080 pixels and has a 17.3 inch diagonal.  Hm, that was probably why your background didn’t fit quite as nicely on my display as it did yours.

 

Ughh, that last second summer program doesn’t look like it paid off at all, gosh.  I feel for you, haha.  I never participated in any summer programs myself, except for this one bio mini-class thing back between freshman and sophomore year, but that was just an oversimplified version of regular level bio, so it wasn’t very exciting.  It was quite the confidence booster though, since I got good grades and the professor liked me a lot.  He was a really old-timey type of geezer, one who told “back in my day” stories and thinks today’s kids are spoiled brats.  I think because I didn’t talk much and didn’t have a cellphone, he took a clear liking to me over all the others.  Ehhhh, looking back on it, it was kind of creepy, but whatever.

 

Ahh, on the other hand it sounds like you’re having a ton of fun at UMich!  You need AP Chem knowledge for orgo, hm?  It’s really impressive you’re able to handle it.  You definitely don’t sound stressed at least, so the pressure hasn’t gotten to you and that’s good!  I’m terrible at chem, and physics at that, so just thinking about sitting in a classroom learning and working in a lab is getting me all queasy inside.  I’m so happy to hear you’ve made friends!  Of course, it’s not like I doubted you would or anything, but it’s good to make connections early.  You know, for networking in the future (I sound like my mom…).  You have a good professor and tons of restaurants and top notch bathrooms and the heck even A/C to boot??  No, seriously, what’s up with public Michigan facilities and establishments?  This isn’t like Florida where public restrooms need to maintain a temperature of 70 degrees to prevent people from passing out because it’s so hot; this is way up in Michigan.  The average high for Ann Arbor in July is 83 degrees!?  Whhhhhhaaaaaaaaa it’s been like 90+ for the past week in Edison.  Heck, I’m typing up this part late at night, like after 10 pm, and I just checked the weather on my phone and it’s 89 degrees this very minute.  Checked again at midnight, and it’s still 86.  What the blazes?  Why do Michigan schools get A/C???  Rutgers doesn’t even get A/C, and the more I think about it most colleges don’t have A/C in their dorms unless they’re located down south.  Either the rest of America sucks, or Michigan is the unsung hero state where life’s good and dreams really do come true.  I swear, if taxes aren’t sky high where you live, I’m gonna smack a politician (or two).  Ahhhhh……hahaha, got a bit carried away there, sorry.  The topic of A/C just tends to trigger me, so apologies for my rambling.  Anyway, with how much you love UMich, I’m starting to get worried.  I fear that Case won’t be nearly as impressive in comparison, eheheheh…  Oh, and do I know that chemicals like hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide are really corrosive?  Uhm… yeah, oh sure, totally, definitely knew that, mhm… yupp… (I said with a posed look) (I’m sorry, don’t underestimate how bad I am at science classes…).  It’s still cool that they believed you were mature enough for those chemicals though.  Probably night and day difference compared to that other weird human anatomy w/ swimming(?) class you took prior.  Ohh, those hours aren’t too bad.  Not terribly early, and with plenty of time after classes to do whatever.  How’s the workload?  Like, any homework or tests?  And I’m guessing since you didn’t mention it, no one brought in Smash 4 and raided the movie room to have 8-player free-for-alls with everyone, huh?  That’s a crying shame, ahaha.  I’ve never heard of The Uninvited, though of course I’m not really into horror movies or western cinema at all, really.  Haven’t seen a true horror movie in ages, so I have no idea how I’d react.  It’s interesting imaging how you had reacted to The Uninvited though.  I’m just picturing you as Yuuko, screaming in classic Nichijou fashion.  Ufufufu, it’s rather amusing to envision.  I saw a semi-pro baseball game back in elementary school once.  Don’t remember any of it, apart from the fact that it was hot and boring, ahah.  Even if you know what’s going on, I can imagine it being about as exciting as watching middle schoolers duking it out in Smash tournies.  Oh, crud, Whistling Vivaldi!  That’s due in, exactly 24 hours!  Eheh, I’ll try reading it all today, and if I fail I’ll just lie and mark it off my online summer checklist anyway.  I don’t see how you can look at me and still think I have my life under control.  Gosh, I’m a mess, especially this summer.  And unlike you, I never took a precollege program, so I’m less prepared for campus life right now than you are.  As much as I’d like to say I’m excited to go to college, I’m also unbelievably nervous as well…   

 

So, I decided to return the favor and post this early in commemoration of your birthday!  I’m assuming you already saw the PM I sent you as well.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy your final day at UMich!  Be sure to tell me all about the rest of your ventures if anything new happens.  Also, there’s no need to apologize at all.  As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t even expecting a reply this week, so if anything your response was early.  Quite the selfless thing to do around your birthday.  That being said, here’s one final “happy birthday” for good luck! 

 

I'm glad that you've taken a liking to your new phone! Even reading about how customizable it is makes me want to get one myself, haha. I've been told to get a Samsung on many occasions, so I'll have to look into a OnePlus One some more if I ever decide to get an android (which I probably will after my iPhone dies out). Geezus, maybe even the OnePlus 2. Although the apple interface is pretty standard and easy to navigate, it really does feel bland after a while.

 

Ahaha, you wouldn't be connectionless or friendless without a Facebook. I mean, with your phone you could always store people's contact information if that's what it boils down to. But nonetheless, I'm glad that you joined the dark side got a Facebook! When I first got one I was also pretty confused. Everyone said that the interface was really easy to navigate, but I didn't think so at the time. Don't worry though; it's really easy to get used to. The Facebook logo on the top left corner of the site (located on the blue bar stretching across the top) will direct you to the home page. There, you will see a bunch of status updates, activity, photos, etc. of people you're friends with (it's also known as the news feed). The right side of the page will harbor a list of friends who are online/mobile/offline (I usually call it the chat bar). Simply click on a name to chat with someone. The gear symbol on the bottom right corner of the site (below the chat bar) allows you to change your online/offline status. So if you want to be "invisible"/offline or only want to be visible to certain friends, you can adjust that there by clicking on "Turn off chat" or "Advanced Settings...". The left side of the site will show a list of groups you've joined or have been invited to, along with various other things. If you want to follow a page such as Donald Trump or the official Nintendo page or something, just "like" the page (which can be done by visiting the page and pressing the "Like" button) and you'll see their updates on your news feed. I think that covers the gist of it, but let me know if you have any concerns! I'm definitely not as active on it as I used to be. I usually go "invisible" to prevent people from chatting with me out of boredom (and so I don't have to feel obligated to reply immediately if they decide to start a chat anyway).  

 

Nope, what you described was exactly what happened at UMich (minus the tree). There was also the sound of tennis balls popping off racquets while I was lying down on the grass, which also felt relaxing for some reason, haha. Geezus, how do you have such nice prose? Most of the people there seemed like they were in the middle of a game, and it would've felt awkward for me to interrupt a them in order to ask for a tennis racquet. Plus, I wouldn't have anyone to play with, and a two versus one situation doesn't seem ideal, lol. I did, however, get to play with a friend on Thursday after she lent me a racquet, heh. The only downside was that I ended up with a slight headache that also lasted through Friday since I didn't drink any water. I brought a water bottle with me but I ended up giving it to her since she forgot to bring one for herself. Gosh, it's already August and I still don't have an essay topic. I'm probably going to stick to the first prompt since I don't have any interesting failures to talk about. The thing with the beliefs prompt is that the essay doesn't necessarily have to address such controversial topics though. Maybe something like laziness actually leads to innovation (cars, blenders, self-watering planters, even the wheel). Or maybe how breaking social norms helps with development of character (which I guess could also fall under the growing up prompt). If I decide to use the problem solving prompt I'll finally have an excuse to rant about those pesky cafeteria napkin dispensers, heh. Perhaps I could write about how the seemingly trivial decisions we make in our everyday lives can become life changers. How each of these decisions and opportunities embody a cascade of events waiting to happen--infinite potential. If I wasn't on the internet on that day, I never would've found inspiration to become an amateur graphics artist. If I never discovered this book, I never would've became friends with this person. If I never had that random epiphany to catch up on DC, which ultimately led me to making a DCW account, I never would've... met you, eheheh.................. whoops, trailing off too much, again.

 

Ahaha, right back atcha'. I'm still trying to get used to your real name since I've known you as Akazora for so long, heh. I really lucked out after discovering that band website. If you want me to be honest, I'm still shocked that you managed to deduce my city location and full name. It was all so sudden and you really caught me off guard both times. Especially my city location, which really came out of nowhere, lol. My heart also skipped a beat when you figured out my full name. None of the hints I gave you were deliberate, so seeing my city location as well as my full name in those paragraphs was quite a shock, haha. They stood out like neon signs in the paragraphs you typed up, and I just can't help but feel amazed by how perceptive and observant you are.

 

As much as I would've loved to sneak acetone out of the lab, the professor probably wouldn't have let me, ahaha... I decided to test its effects though. I sprayed a few droplets on the corner a worksheet and left it alone for only a couple of minutes since acetone dries out pretty quickly. The worksheet I sprayed it on showed no signs of the damage or wrinkling that water would've caused. The ink, however, was distorted into the shape that was sprayed on the paper (which resembled a triangular fan). Aside from the ink, the physical condition of the paper didn't change after it dried out. Pretty neat stuff, haha. 

 

I'm sure you know why I try to avoid depressing songs, heh. I tried listening to Morphogenic Sorrow on repeat a few times but I began having this sinking feeling. And so decided to switch to something more upbeat, ahah... Morphogenetic Sorrow hit me like a truck when I was trying to solve the sudoku puzzle. The music almost felt like it was quivering for some reason, or maybe that's just me? Geezus, it really made everything feel melancholic. Recollection also hit me hard. The sub ending was definitely one of the more depressing endings--especially since it was paired with Recollection. Even though winter break is half a year away, I'm still pretty excited to start on Ace Attorney. I've heard so many good things about the game and I have no doubt that it won't disappoint.

 

It's official. I'm getting the blue refurbished 3DS XL???? Uhh...what????? And it was cheaper than the 2DS???????????????????????? Geezus, I thought I'd never be able to lay my eyes on my own 2DS until after I finished senior year, much less a 3DS XL. And I have you to thank again! I'm still struggling to wrap my mind around this. This can't be happening, ahahahaha...................... I didn't even think that my parents would agree to this, but the fact that you sent this to me right after my birthday is just perfect timing. Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. This is insane. There's little to no chance I'm going to be able to get a Wii U unless I use money out of my own pocket now (:c sorry Splatoon). Ahh, My senior summer is going to be bliss (provided that I can get my hands on a game or two, haha).

 

Nope, I think this is the first time I mentioned it on here, lol. And even if I did, I don't remember talking about it anywhere; I have pretty bad memory myself. I visited Europe the summer after 6th grade with my family and a few of my sister's friends. It was a cruise around Spain, Italy, and France. We visited places like Barcelona, Rome, Pompeii, Florence, and I can't seem to remember the city we visited in France... A ton of walking, cigarettes everywhere, and it was sweltering outside since we visited in the summer. Still boatloads of fun though, haha. It was really nice seeing the various architecture and people there. Oh, and it was times like this when I would much rather immerse myself with the historical structures instead of standing in front of them awkwardly for pictures (I think I might've mentioned this before...). Aside from the stale water, that was my only complaint about the trip. The nighttime scenery and atmosphere of Barcelona is really dynamic, the Colosseum is absolutely ginormous (the inside is also breathtaking), the plaster people in Pompeii were strangely intriguing (especially their poses, some of which were really bizarre), the architecture of Florence is utterly stunning (it's insane how much detail they put into the churches), but I can't seem to remember much about my visit to France for some reason. All I remember was that it had this archaic vibe to it. Have you ever vacationed to Europe or other interesting sites before? 

 

Do the online classes count towards credit or are these just to help you get ahead? Yeahh, I know that feel. Online classes can be a real pain sometimes since they interfere with time you could be using to catch up on games or anime, and heck, even vacation in general.

 

Hmm, the only complaint I had about the first opening was that random flock of titans raining from the sky (seriously, what was that about, lol). Okay, and maybe the slow-mo backflip wasn't necessary. But other than that, I thought it was great, haha. The color schemes that were used to animate the first opening were also quite fitting. The dark, dismal atmosphere was captured perfectly with those various hues of red, orange, and with the discord of colors in the flashes. The second opening was such a huge contrast to the first opening--especially with how "bright" it felt (not only in the animation, but also the song).  

 

Hmm, I guess getting a bit of rain might've helped with the heat you guys were experiencing. Even though it didn't rain much, I suppose it was better than getting poured on, haha.

 

Yeah, no fireworks, lol. It's fine though, since I'm pretty sure I didn't miss out on much. I'm still anticipating the day when I'll be able to see fireworks like the one that was displayed in LWA. Or anything Disney-esque, I suppose, heh. So I googled Longwood Gardens and holy geezus. That garden is...oh my gosh wow. It's freaking gorgeous. Everything is so elegant and polished! I can only imagine being there on a cool Sunday morning. The sound and feeling of gentle, misty fountain water, and the fragrance of air fresher than I can fathom. Or maybe in December when everything is decorated for the holidays. Imagine how festive and vibrant everything would be! Ahh..........

 

I dunno, maybe the picture quality wasn't as good when she was walking, haha. So maybe she only decided to sneak in a picture after finding the opportunity to sit down? I have a crapton of apparel from clubs, events, trips, tennis, etc. and I wear most of them actively in the summer, lol. My sister has also gotten a lot of free t-shirts from college so I'm sure you'll be fine! I've been told to get a snapchat on many occasions but I never got around to making an account even though I have the app on my phone. I can kind of see the appeal, but ehh..... If the girl looked like she was typing or doodling on her phone immediately after taking the picture, I'm willing to bet that she was using snapchat, haha. 

 

Wait, do your parents not care if you become soaking wet out in the open? My parents' overprotective-ness can become a bit overbearing at times. Like how they force me to bring a jacket with me in 70* conditions because apparently not wearing enough can lead to a cold. By their logic, even getting wet can lead to a cold. Or sometimes I'd be forced to wear a visor before I head off to tennis or else I'm gonna get skin cancer. I know they mean well (it's sometimes kinda funny), but it does get a bit annoying after a while. And as you said, it's better than having neglectful parents, after all, haha.

 

I'm aware that the program is safe, but I was told to remove it from my PC after it became infected. The virus actually came from some emulator I tried to download a while ago. I haven't used uTorrent for anything other than torrenting Photoshop CS6 from piratebay so it didn't hurt to delete the program. Better safe than sorry, haha.

 

Well, I mean, to be fair, the only point of comparison you gave me was a couple of anime guys' hair that your hair resembled so my expectations are sky high now. loljk, I'm just pulling your leg, heh. I typically don't care about how people look most of the time, haha. Also, I can't differentiate between Asians until I know their last names, ehehe... There was this one Asian guy in my orgo class who looked like a halfie, and so on the way to class everyone started having a small argument on what he looked like. Turns out he's 100 percent Chinese. And then there was this guy who I thought was Chinese but turned out to be Korean? I even mistook a friend from school as Japanese when she's actually Chinese. I'm terrible at differentiating between ethnicities if you couldn't tell already. Ahaha, I already used two many Nichijou propics (pun intended?) so I decided not to use Yuuko. I only used those particular pictures of Mai and Mio since I thought they looked nice, haha. Ehh?? Subliminal attraction to guys with unique dos?? Uhh....*cough*.... w-w-what are you talking about I already told you that it's completely coincidental, ehehehe.......... Nah, I actually preferred Gilgamesh's hair down when I first saw it, if that counts as any rebuttal. I only started taking a liking to his flared up hair recently, lol. Ohh, would you recommend Kino no Tabi? I'll have to add that to my list of Plan to Watch if that's the case, heh. 

 

I'm probably going to be bingeing the crap outta my 3DS after senior year ends, so I won't fixing my sleep schedule any time soon, ehehehe...... I knew that Super Meat Boy parodied Super Mario Bros (I can't even abbreviate them without possibly mixing up the two), but I didn't realize that it parodied other games until I saw one of the cutscenes. The game also makes fun of Peta, lol. Definitely go for the PC version for Cave Story. The only things different (as far as I can tell) about the 3DS version are the graphics (which aren't that great if you look at the trailer) and music (which is just remastered versions of the original OST). Plus, you can get the PC version for free, haha. The 3DS version doesn't capture the visuals as well as the PC version did. In fact, the 3D graphics are awful. But seeing that you're going to head off to college soon, don't sweat it! Play it during Thanksgiving or winter break if you feel the need to! So I tried making the backdrop a bit bigger, but I wasn't able to catch any difference when I uploaded the images (had before and after tabs opened for comparison). Eh, well, I'm probably done fiddling around with it at this point, lol. Also, your laptop must be huge o:

 

That other summer program I attended was just to help expose me to various healthcare professions, but I expected a lot more from the program. Ehh, whatever. At least I learned that there's no way in hell I'm becoming a nurse now. Ohh, you participated in a bio class between freshman and sophomore year under a professor? What inspired you to take the class? 

 

Oh geez, you're giving me way too much credit here, ehehe... When I said that the class was hard, I wasn't kidding, lol. The only reason why I wasn't complaining about it is because the professor didn't assign us any mandatory work to do, haha. It was difficult for me to digest all of the information presented in the three hour lectures and I even found myself dozing off at times. The professor was really understanding though, since we're only high schoolers after all. Not to mention, we were given four months worth of college lectures packed into two weeks. In other words, if I was presented with a cumulative orgo exam right now, I'd probably get a failing grade, no joke. Whaaa?? You don't like working in labs?? I absolutely love doing hands-on activities and being able to observe stuff happening in real life since I'm a tactile and visual learner, haha. Admittedly, chemistry is not one of my strong suits. Yeah, I get stuff like the octet rule and electronegativity trends, but when I have to get into even more abstract concepts at the atomic level, it's all a mumble-jumble mess to me. Sure, I can just force it down, but the more I just sit around thinking about it, the less sense it makes (this was also a problem for me for certain concepts in calc). Honestly, I think it's astonishing how chemists even figured out these kinds of things over the years. As much as I love science and the idea of chemistry, it just doesn't resonate with me (chem pun intended).

 

With that aside, I still had a fantastic two weeks, haha. The professor took us to an on-campus museum in order to give us a break (the dinosaur exhibit was really neat), and we got to visit the labs that grad students work in. Oh, and we even got to see the university's glassblower! He gave each one of us a hollow glass sphere that can bounce on any hard and smooth surface because apparently certain kinds of glass can bounce without shattering (I think he said that it contained silica, not too sure though). So he slammed one of them on the ground and it struck the ceiling without a single scratch. Awesome! He also gave me the glass vase he made during our visit after I won a coin toss, but I ended up giving it to another girl since she seemed like she wanted it more than I did. I have pictures of both the glass sphere/bouncy ball and vase if you want to see them though, haha.

 

As for the dorms, there are actually tons of residential halls around campus. Apparently, the one I was living in is a lot more lavish than the ones that college freshmen typically move into (source is my sister, who visited her friend that went to UMich). Like geez, there was even a game room on the first floor that had a ping pong table, foosball, a pool table, couches, and a TV you could use to plug in multiplayer games like smash. Even though there was a thermostat in every dorm, my roommate and I rarely used it. We just opened a window to let fresh air flow in since it was kinda stuffy inside. The A/C was too strong even on the lowest setting (or at least in the nighttime), and the open window satisfied us enough. The street noises even made me feel like I was back in NYC. It was almost comforting hearing the occasional siren and car whizzing by while I slept (it's unbearably quiet in Troy). Despite the low 80s average the sun was scorching in the afternoons (especially during the walks back from class), though I shouldn't be complaining since you guys were experiencing 90+ conditions, ehehe... The mornings and late afternoons, however, were at perfect temperatures. And I know I already said this but there are eating establishments every.where. Bubble tea, gelato, froyo, cupcake making store, you name it. A bit overpriced, but well worth it.

 

Unfortunately, no one brought in any consoles or games with them. I guess that's fine since it would've distracted me loads if anyone did, haha. Also, is there a particular reason why you don't like horror or western cinema? I've never heard of The Uninvited until I was forced to watch it. I wasn't ever into horror movies either, and I was even reluctant to watch it, but The Uninvited might've opened a new door for me. Of course, I probably won't watch any horror movies unless I'm around someone since I'd probably be scared to death if I was alone, ehehe... And naw, I wasn't screaming in Nichijou fashion or anything, lol. It was more like a impulsive back-straightening, hair-raising, eye-widening kind of scare, haha. The Uninvited seems a lot more tame compared to movies like Paranormal Activity and The Human Centipede (both of which I haven't watched yet, but have seen the trailers and synopses). 

 

asfkjhasdfhjdkaklsdfasd I still can't get over what you did for my birthday. I haven't had that big of a burst of happiness for such a long time. Actually, you've made me so happy for just being there for me on so many occasions. I mean, you update me on anime, sent me games and emulator knowing that I'd be too afraid to do it myself, sent me such a thoughtful birthday gift, told me about the 3DS XL. I'm speechless that I have an amazing friend like you. Gosh, even thinking about it makes me feel unbelievably chipper. You put in so much thought towards the gift and everything, and arghhhh :'') I just wanted to thank you again for making my birthday so wonderful. And thank you for being such an amazing friend *hugs*. Alsooo, I was driving back from Ann Arbor that day (with parent supervision, of course) and narrowly avoided getting into a car crash while I was on the highway. I can't help but feel that the "good luck" sentiment you sent me played a role in that, as silly and exaggerated as that might sound, ahahaha......... so thank you for (umm... saving my life, I think?) that as well, heh.

 

edit: added more to last paragraph

 

--

 

Okay, so about my visit to Case... let me put it this way: If I get accepted, I'm going. It was also great weather when I visited; mid 70s, and nice and sunny with wispy cirrus clouds. The campus environment is fantastic (got a picture of the 7th generation of Newton's apple tree, yay), the research opportunities are plentiful (hell yeah), the community (from what I've been told) is helpful and friendly rather than competitive (which is huge plus for me), many places are within walking distance but the campus is big enough to allow for exploring, the architecture is modern and to my liking, the class sizes are perfect, the distance from home is perfect, and probably loads more (plus, you'll be there, heh). I loved the idea of residential colleges that you choose based on interest rather than common majors. And the interior of the Weatherhead School of Management is just like you described; not a single right angle (which is absolutely insane). Hell, even my parents seemed to be pleased by what the school had to offer, and were even more impressed with it than they were with UMich. But what really caught my eye was the single door admissions policy. As much as I love UMich, it requires you to apply to a specific college rather than the college as a whole. I know I want to enter into something in the science field, but I'm still undecided at the moment, ehehe... I've really wanted to try my hand at computer science and maybe expose myself to physics a bit more, and Case is the kind of university that honors that kind of choice. In addition to everything the school has to offer, they're extremely flexible when you want to switch majors, and that was the selling point for me. My college search is pretty much done. Fingers crossed!

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention the interview. Yes, I got myself an on-campus interview with a college admissions counselor at Case, haha. We talked about the classes I took, extracurriculars, hobbies/what I do for fun, how would describe myself, some challenging classes, least favorite subject, favorite subject, what I liked about the school, how I would describe my high school, etc. It was super low-key and I think we really hit it off. We even trailed off at one point to talk about Inside Out, lol. She also noted that there are certain spots in Cleveland that are ideal for stargazing, and that light pollution isn't as big of a problem as you may think (I figured you would want to know, heh). Overall, the interview was definitely a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I even forgot to mention a few things I wanted to talk to her about. The only downside was when she went to my parents to see if they had any questions. My parents just rambled on, bombarding her with questions about numbers (average GPA, average ACT, acceptance rate, etc.) and oh my gosh. I just sat there awkwardly while feeling a little embarrassed since numbers were the only part of the school that my parents seemed to have questions about. Nothing about campus life. Nothing about the environment. Nothing else about the school. Nothing. Just questions that could be answered with a single google search away. I hope the admissions counselor didn't mind too much, sigh. I'm also planning to send a handwritten thank-you note along with a flyer I made for the local nature center in order to show her what I've been doing with my graphics designing hobby. Hopefully it'll go well!

 

As for Cleveland itself, I have pretty mixed feelings about it. It was like Pittsburgh, Chicago, and NYC Queens combined. I wasn't terribly impressed by the city outside of the campus. It actually came as a shock to me since the campus seemed a lot more polished compared to the city. It's fine though, since I prefer urban life over suburban anyway, haha.

Edited August 8, 2015 by Kenzi

[Akazora 293]

I'm glad that you've taken a liking to your new phone! Even reading about how customizable it is makes me want to get one myself, haha. I've been told to get a Samsung on many occasions, so I'll have to look into a OnePlus One some more if I ever decide to get an android (which I probably will after my iPhone dies out). Geezus, maybe even the OnePlus 2. Although the apple interface is pretty standard and easy to navigate, it really does feel bland after a while.

 

Ahaha, you wouldn't be connectionless or friendless without a Facebook. I mean, with your phone you could always store people's contact information if that's what it boils down to. But nonetheless, I'm glad that you joined the dark side got a Facebook! When I first got one I was also pretty confused. Everyone said that the interface was really easy to navigate, but I didn't think so at the time. Don't worry though; it's really easy to get used to. The Facebook logo on the top left corner of the site (located on the blue bar stretching across the top) will direct you to the home page. There, you will see a bunch of status updates, activity, photos, etc. of people you're friends with (it's also known as the news feed). The right side of the page will harbor a list of friends who are online/mobile/offline (I usually call it the chat bar). Simply click on a name to chat with someone. The gear symbol on the bottom right corner of the site (below the chat bar) allows you to change your online/offline status. So if you want to be "invisible"/offline or only want to be visible to certain friends, you can adjust that there by clicking on "Turn off chat" or "Advanced Settings...". The left side of the site will show a list of groups you've joined or have been invited to, along with various other things. If you want to follow a page such as Donald Trump or the official Nintendo page or something, just "like" the page (which can be done by visiting the page and pressing the "Like" button) and you'll see their updates on your news feed. I think that covers the gist of it, but let me know if you have any concerns! I'm definitely not as active on it as I used to be. I usually go "invisible" to prevent people from chatting with me out of boredom (and so I don't have to feel obligated to reply immediately if they decide to start a chat anyway).  

 

Nope, what you described was exactly what happened at UMich (minus the tree). There was also the sound of tennis balls popping off racquets while I was lying down on the grass, which also felt relaxing for some reason, haha. Geezus, how do you have such nice prose? Most of the people there seemed like they were in the middle of a game, and it would've felt awkward for me to interrupt a them in order to ask for a tennis racquet. Plus, I wouldn't have anyone to play with, and a two versus one situation doesn't seem ideal, lol. I did, however, get to play with a friend on Thursday after she lent me a racquet, heh. The only downside was that I ended up with a slight headache that also lasted through Friday since I didn't drink any water. I brought a water bottle with me but I ended up giving it to her since she forgot to bring one for herself. Gosh, it's already August and I still don't have an essay topic. I'm probably going to stick to the first prompt since I don't have any interesting failures to talk about. The thing with the beliefs prompt is that the essay doesn't necessarily have to address such controversial topics though. Maybe something like laziness actually leads to innovation (cars, blenders, self-watering planters, even the wheel). Or maybe how breaking social norms helps with development of character (which I guess could also fall under the growing up prompt). If I decide to use the problem solving prompt I'll finally have an excuse to rant about those pesky cafeteria napkin dispensers, heh. Perhaps I could write about how the seemingly trivial decisions we make in our everyday lives can become life changers. How each of these decisions and opportunities embody a cascade of events waiting to happen--infinite potential. If I wasn't on the internet on that day, I never would've found inspiration to become an amateur graphics artist. If I never discovered this book, I never would've became friends with this person. If I never had that random epiphany to catch up on DC, which ultimately led me to making a DCW account, I never would've... met you, eheheh.................. whoops, trailing off too much, again.

 

Ahaha, right back atcha'. I'm still trying to get used to your real name since I've known you as Akazora for so long, heh. I really lucked out after discovering that band website. If you want me to be honest, I'm still shocked that you managed to deduce my city location and full name. It was all so sudden and you really caught me off guard both times. Especially my city location, which really came out of nowhere, lol. My heart also skipped a beat when you figured out my full name. None of the hints I gave you were deliberate, so seeing my city location as well as my full name in those paragraphs was quite a shock, haha. They stood out like neon signs in the paragraphs you typed up, and I just can't help but feel amazed by how perceptive and observant you are.

 

As much as I would've loved to sneak acetone out of the lab, the professor probably wouldn't have let me, ahaha... I decided to test its effects though. I sprayed a few droplets on the corner a worksheet and left it alone for only a couple of minutes since acetone dries out pretty quickly. The worksheet I sprayed it on showed no signs of the damage or wrinkling that water would've caused. The ink, however, was distorted into the shape that was sprayed on the paper (which resembled a triangular fan). Aside from the ink, the physical condition of the paper didn't change after it dried out. Pretty neat stuff, haha. 

 

I'm sure you know why I try to avoid depressing songs, heh. I tried listening to Morphogenic Sorrow on repeat a few times but I began having this sinking feeling. And so decided to switch to something more upbeat, ahah... Morphogenetic Sorrow hit me like a truck when I was trying to solve the sudoku puzzle. The music almost felt like it was quivering for some reason, or maybe that's just me? Geezus, it really made everything feel melancholic. Recollection also hit me hard. The sub ending was definitely one of the more depressing endings--especially since it was paired with Recollection. Even though winter break is half a year away, I'm still pretty excited to start on Ace Attorney. I've heard so many good things about the game and I have no doubt that it won't disappoint.

 

It's official. I'm getting the blue refurbished 3DS XL???? Uhh...what????? And it was cheaper than the 2DS???????????????????????? Geezus, I thought I'd never be able to lay my eyes on my own 2DS until after I finished senior year, much less a 3DS XL. And I have you to thank again! I'm still struggling to wrap my mind around this. This can't be happening, ahahahaha...................... I didn't even think that my parents would agree to this, but the fact that you sent this to me right after my birthday is just perfect timing. Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. This is insane. There's little to no chance I'm going to be able to get a Wii U unless I use money out of my own pocket now (:c sorry Splatoon). Ahh, My senior summer is going to be bliss (provided that I can get my hands on a game or two, haha).

 

Nope, I think this is the first time I mentioned it on here, lol. And even if I did, I don't remember talking about it anywhere; I have pretty bad memory myself. I visited Europe the summer after 6th grade with my family and a few of my sister's friends. It was a cruise around Spain, Italy, and France. We visited places like Barcelona, Rome, Pompeii, Florence, and I can't seem to remember the city we visited in France... A ton of walking, cigarettes everywhere, and it was sweltering outside since we visited in the summer. Still boatloads of fun though, haha. It was really nice seeing the various architecture and people there. Oh, and it was times like this when I would much rather immerse myself with the historical structures instead of standing in front of them awkwardly for pictures (I think I might've mentioned this before...). Aside from the stale water, that was my only complaint about the trip. The nighttime scenery and atmosphere of Barcelona is really dynamic, the Colosseum is absolutely ginormous (the inside is also breathtaking), the plaster people in Pompeii were strangely intriguing (especially their poses, some of which were really bizarre), the architecture of Florence is utterly stunning (it's insane how much detail they put into the churches), but I can't seem to remember much about my visit to France for some reason. All I remember was that it had this archaic vibe to it. Have you ever vacationed to Europe or other interesting sites before? 

 

Do the online classes count towards credit or are these just to help you get ahead? Yeahh, I know that feel. Online classes can be a real pain sometimes since they interfere with time you could be using to catch up on games or anime, and heck, even vacation in general.

 

Hmm, the only complaint I had about the first opening was that random flock of titans raining from the sky (seriously, what was that about, lol). Okay, and maybe the slow-mo backflip wasn't necessary. But other than that, I thought it was great, haha. The color schemes that were used to animate the first opening were also quite fitting. The dark, dismal atmosphere was captured perfectly with those various hues of red, orange, and with the discord of colors in the flashes. The second opening was such a huge contrast to the first opening--especially with how "bright" it felt (not only in the animation, but also the song).  

 

Hmm, I guess getting a bit of rain might've helped with the heat you guys were experiencing. Even though it didn't rain much, I suppose it was better than getting poured on, haha.

 

Yeah, no fireworks, lol. It's fine though, since I'm pretty sure I didn't miss out on much. I'm still anticipating the day when I'll be able to see fireworks like the one that was displayed in LWA. Or anything Disney-esque, I suppose, heh. So I googled Longwood Gardens and holy geezus. That garden is...oh my gosh wow. It's freaking gorgeous. Everything is so elegant and polished! I can only imagine being there on a cool Sunday morning. The sound and feeling of gentle, misty fountain water, and the fragrance of air fresher than I can fathom. Or maybe in December when everything is decorated for the holidays. Imagine how festive and vibrant everything would be! Ahh..........

 

I dunno, maybe the picture quality wasn't as good when she was walking, haha. So maybe she only decided to sneak in a picture after finding the opportunity to sit down? I have a crapton of apparel from clubs, events, trips, tennis, etc. and I wear most of them actively in the summer, lol. My sister has also gotten a lot of free t-shirts from college so I'm sure you'll be fine! I've been told to get a snapchat on many occasions but I never got around to making an account even though I have the app on my phone. I can kind of see the appeal, but ehh..... If the girl looked like she was typing or doodling on her phone immediately after taking the picture, I'm willing to bet that she was using snapchat, haha. 

 

Wait, do your parents not care if you become soaking wet out in the open? My parents' overprotective-ness can become a bit overbearing at times. Like how they force me to bring a jacket with me in 70* conditions because apparently not wearing enough can lead to a cold. By their logic, even getting wet can lead to a cold. Or sometimes I'd be forced to wear a visor before I head off to tennis or else I'm gonna get skin cancer. I know they mean well (it's sometimes kinda funny), but it does get a bit annoying after a while. And as you said, it's better than having neglectful parents, after all, haha.

 

I'm aware that the program is safe, but I was told to remove it from my PC after it became infected. The virus actually came from some emulator I tried to download a while ago. I haven't used uTorrent for anything other than torrenting Photoshop CS6 from piratebay so it didn't hurt to delete the program. Better safe than sorry, haha.

 

Well, I mean, to be fair, the only point of comparison you gave me was a couple of anime guys' hair that your hair resembled so my expectations are sky high now. loljk, I'm just pulling your leg, heh. I typically don't care about how people look most of the time, haha. Also, I can't differentiate between Asians until I know their last names, ehehe... There was this one Asian guy in my orgo class who looked like a halfie, and so on the way to class everyone started having a small argument on what he looked like. Turns out he's 100 percent Chinese. And then there was this guy who I thought was Chinese but turned out to be Korean? I even mistook a friend from school as Japanese when she's actually Chinese. I'm terrible at differentiating between ethnicities if you couldn't tell already. Ahaha, I already used two many Nichijou propics (pun intended?) so I decided not to use Yuuko. I only used those particular pictures of Mai and Mio since I thought they looked nice, haha. Ehh?? Subliminal attraction to guys with unique dos?? Uhh....*cough*.... w-w-what are you talking about I already told you that it's completely coincidental, ehehehe.......... Nah, I actually preferred Gilgamesh's hair down when I first saw it, if that counts as any rebuttal. I only started taking a liking to his flared up hair recently, lol. Ohh, would you recommend Kino no Tabi? I'll have to add that to my list of Plan to Watch if that's the case, heh. 

 

I'm probably going to be bingeing the crap outta my 3DS after senior year ends, so I won't fixing my sleep schedule any time soon, ehehehe...... I knew that Super Meat Boy parodied Super Mario Bros (I can't even abbreviate them without possibly mixing up the two), but I didn't realize that it parodied other games until I saw one of the cutscenes. The game also makes fun of Peta, lol. Definitely go for the PC version for Cave Story. The only things different (as far as I can tell) about the 3DS version are the graphics (which aren't that great if you look at the trailer) and music (which is just remastered versions of the original OST). Plus, you can get the PC version for free, haha. The 3DS version doesn't capture the visuals as well as the PC version did. In fact, the 3D graphics are awful. But seeing that you're going to head off to college soon, don't sweat it! Play it during Thanksgiving or winter break if you feel the need to! So I tried making the backdrop a bit bigger, but I wasn't able to catch any difference when I uploaded the images (had before and after tabs opened for comparison). Eh, well, I'm probably done fiddling around with it at this point, lol. Also, your laptop must be huge o:

 

That other summer program I attended was just to help expose me to various healthcare professions, but I expected a lot more from the program. Ehh, whatever. At least I learned that there's no way in hell I'm becoming a nurse now. Ohh, you participated in a bio class between freshman and sophomore year under a professor? What inspired you to take the class? 

 

Oh geez, you're giving me way too much credit here, ehehe... When I said that the class was hard, I wasn't kidding, lol. The only reason why I wasn't complaining about it is because the professor didn't assign us any mandatory work to do, haha. It was difficult for me to digest all of the information presented in the three hour lectures and I even found myself dozing off at times. The professor was really understanding though, since we're only high schoolers after all. Not to mention, we were given four months worth of college lectures packed into two weeks. In other words, if I was presented with a cumulative orgo exam right now, I'd probably get a failing grade, no joke. Whaaa?? You don't like working in labs?? I absolutely love doing hands-on activities and being able to observe stuff happening in real life since I'm a tactile and visual learner, haha. Admittedly, chemistry is not one of my strong suits. Yeah, I get stuff like the octet rule and electronegativity trends, but when I have to get into even more abstract concepts at the atomic level, it's all a mumble-jumble mess to me. Sure, I can just force it down, but the more I just sit around thinking about it, the less sense it makes (this was also a problem for me for certain concepts in calc). Honestly, I think it's astonishing how chemists even figured out these kinds of things over the years. As much as I love science and the idea of chemistry, it just doesn't resonate with me (chem pun intended).

 

With that aside, I still had a fantastic two weeks, haha. The professor took us to an on-campus museum in order to give us a break (the dinosaur exhibit was really neat), and we got to visit the labs that grad students work in. Oh, and we even got to see the university's glassblower! He gave each one of us a hollow glass sphere that can bounce on any hard and smooth surface because apparently certain kinds of glass can bounce without shattering (I think he said that it contained silica, not too sure though). So he slammed one of them on the ground and it struck the ceiling without a single scratch. Awesome! He also gave me the glass vase he made during our visit after I won a coin toss, but I ended up giving it to another girl since she seemed like she wanted it more than I did. I have pictures of both the glass sphere/bouncy ball and vase if you want to see them though, haha.

 

As for the dorms, there are actually tons of residential halls around campus. Apparently, the one I was living in is a lot more lavish than the ones that college freshmen typically move into (source is my sister, who visited her friend that went to UMich). Like geez, there was even a game room on the first floor that had a ping pong table, foosball, a pool table, couches, and a TV you could use to plug in multiplayer games like smash. Even though there was a thermostat in every dorm, my roommate and I rarely used it. We just opened a window to let fresh air flow in since it was kinda stuffy inside. The A/C was too strong even on the lowest setting (or at least in the nighttime), and the open window satisfied us enough. The street noises even made me feel like I was back in NYC. It was almost comforting hearing the occasional siren and car whizzing by while I slept (it's unbearably quiet in Troy). Despite the low 80s average the sun was scorching in the afternoons (especially during the walks back from class), though I shouldn't be complaining since you guys were experiencing 90+ conditions, ehehe... The mornings and late afternoons, however, were at perfect temperatures. And I know I already said this but there are eating establishments every.where. Bubble tea, gelato, froyo, cupcake making store, you name it. A bit overpriced, but well worth it.

 

Unfortunately, no one brought in any consoles or games with them. I guess that's fine since it would've distracted me loads if anyone did, haha. Also, is there a particular reason why you don't like horror or western cinema? I've never heard of The Uninvited until I was forced to watch it. I wasn't ever into horror movies either, and I was even reluctant to watch it, but The Uninvited might've opened a new door for me. Of course, I probably won't watch any horror movies unless I'm around someone since I'd probably be scared to death if I was alone, ehehe... And naw, I wasn't screaming in Nichijou fashion or anything, lol. It was more like a impulsive back-straightening, hair-raising, eye-widening kind of scare, haha. The Uninvited seems a lot more tame compared to movies like Paranormal Activity and The Human Centipede (both of which I haven't watched yet, but have seen the trailers and synopses). 

 

asfkjhasdfhjdkaklsdfasd I still can't get over what you did for my birthday. I haven't had that big of a burst of happiness for such a long time. Actually, you've made me so happy for just being there for me on so many occasions. I mean, you update me on anime, sent me games and emulator knowing that I'd be too afraid to do it myself, sent me such a thoughtful birthday gift, told me about the 3DS XL. I'm speechless that I have an amazing friend like you. Gosh, even thinking about it makes me feel unbelievably chipper. You put in so much thought towards the gift and everything, and arghhhh :'') I just wanted to thank you again for making my birthday so wonderful. And thank you for being such an amazing friend *hugs*. Alsooo, I was driving back from Ann Arbor that day (with parent supervision, of course) and narrowly avoided getting into a car crash while I was on the highway. I can't help but feel that the "good luck" sentiment you sent me played a role in that, as silly and exaggerated as that might sound, ahahaha......... so thank you for (umm... saving my life, I think?) that as well, heh.

 

edit: added more to last paragraph

 

--

 

Okay, so about my visit to Case... let me put it this way: If I get accepted, I'm going. It was also great weather when I visited; mid 70s, and nice and sunny with wispy cirrus clouds. The campus environment is fantastic (got a picture of the 7th generation of Newton's apple tree, yay), the research opportunities are plentiful (hell yeah), the community (from what I've been told) is helpful and friendly rather than competitive (which is huge plus for me), many places are within walking distance but the campus is big enough to allow for exploring, the architecture is modern and to my liking, the class sizes are perfect, the distance from home is perfect, and probably loads more (plus, you'll be there, heh). I loved the idea of residential colleges that you choose based on interest rather than common majors. And the interior of the Weatherhead School of Management is just like you described; not a single right angle (which is absolutely insane). Hell, even my parents seemed to be pleased by what the school had to offer, and were even more impressed with it than they were with UMich. But what really caught my eye was the single door admissions policy. As much as I love UMich, it requires you to apply to a specific college rather than the college as a whole. I know I want to enter into something in the science field, but I'm still undecided at the moment, ehehe... I've really wanted to try my hand at computer science and maybe expose myself to physics a bit more, and Case is the kind of university that honors that kind of choice. In addition to everything the school has to offer, they're extremely flexible when you want to switch majors, and that was the selling point for me. My college search is pretty much done. Fingers crossed!

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention the interview. Yes, I got myself an on-campus interview with a college admissions counselor at Case, haha. We talked about the classes I took, extracurriculars, hobbies/what I do for fun, how would describe myself, some challenging classes, least favorite subject, favorite subject, what I liked about the school, how I would describe my high school, etc. It was super low-key and I think we really hit it off. We even trailed off at one point to talk about Inside Out, lol. She also noted that there are certain spots in Cleveland that are ideal for stargazing, and that light pollution isn't as big of a problem as you may think (I figured you would want to know, heh). Overall, the interview was definitely a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I even forgot to mention a few things I wanted to talk to her about. The only downside was when she went to my parents to see if they had any questions. My parents just rambled on, bombarding her with questions about numbers (average GPA, average ACT, acceptance rate, etc.) and oh my gosh. I just sat there awkwardly while feeling a little embarrassed since numbers were the only part of the school that my parents seemed to have questions about. Nothing about campus life. Nothing about the environment. Nothing else about the school. Nothing. Just questions that could be answered with a single google search away. I hope the admissions counselor didn't mind too much, sigh. I'm also planning to send a handwritten thank-you note along with a flyer I made for the local nature center in order to show her what I've been doing with my graphics designing hobby. Hopefully it'll go well!

 

As for Cleveland itself, I have pretty mixed feelings about it. It was like Pittsburgh, Chicago, and NYC Queens combined. I wasn't terribly impressed by the city outside of the campus. It actually came as a shock to me since the campus seemed a lot more polished compared to the city. It's fine though, since I prefer urban life over suburban anyway, haha.

Mhm, I definitely highly recommend a OnePlus, especially because it’s so cheap when compared to Samsung phones.  I remember the OnePlus 2’s details were revealed not too long ago and the people who even knew what OnePlus was were hyping it up.  I just checked out the little preview trailer on their website, and by gosh does it look fresh, haha.  If your iPhone holds up by the time the OnePlus 2 comes out next year, definitely check it out.

 

Ah, it’s a bit of a relief to know that I’m not the only one who’s ever had trouble with Facebook’s interface, haha.  Well, your quick rundown definitely helped to simplify the format of this site at least.  Huh, I guess that once you sort of know what you’re looking at it’s not too bad.  But it’ll still take a while to get used to, haha.  Main problem I still have is that the news feeds keeps on getting cluttered with stuff that I don’t want.  I’ve only liked some Case related pages for now, but their updates are all getting buried by the random stuff my “friends” are posting.  There’s probably a way to filter out what gets put up on the news feed in the settings somewhere, so I’m going to have to dig that up.  I’m never on Facebook long enough for anyone to chat me up, but I’ll keep the whole “invisible” setting in mind.  Haha, thanks for the tips, it definitely helps!  There wasn’t any need for you to do that, but I appreciate it!

 

Heheh, sometimes when my mind is wandering especially well, the words just sort of come out.  Wow though, that must have been a really relaxing time.  Even if you felt like you didn’t get anything done, it sounds heavenly.  I’m glad you found the chance to play a little bit of tennis at least, even if it was only for one day.  But seriously though, you gave yourself a headache by letting your friend have your water?  Pls, Shirou, you can’t save others if you don’t save yourself! Geez, what am I going to do with you?  Ahah, still though, I can’t deny how nice you are for doing that.  Hopefully your headache wasn’t so bad that it ruined your birthday.  It’s already August??  I’m going off to college in a week??  I suppose time really is running out, huh?  Focusing on the first prompt would probably be the best course of action at this point.  Hm, the whole “laziness leads to innovation” topic would make for a good essay, but a difficult college essay, just because it could be hard to tie yourself in to that idea.  O-Oh my, it would be rather interesting if you tried to string together a 600 word essay about meeting me through DCW, hahah.  It would probably confuse the college admission officers though.  *ehem* not that it’s something I would be against seeing eheheheheh……… yeah we’ve strayed off topic quite a bit.

 

I could say the same to you.  Even if you lucked out by finding my full name on my band’s website, the fact that you figured out the puzzle was just… just so crazy!  Gosh, I was only able to make the puzzle because I had the game in my hands while I fiddled around with a keyboard.  I can’t even being to imagine how much research it took to work it all backwards, haha.  You can give me all the credit you want for finding out your location by putting together small pieces of information, but you’re just as amazing for figuring out all you have about me.

 

Hrm, it’s too bad you couldn’t sneak away some acetone, but since you don’t have any amiibo boxes and were only looking to test it out, it appears you got that chance, haha.  The way it doesn’t damage paper at all is fascinating; I hope I get the chance to see it in action someday.

 

Oh my, when I said to listen to Morphogenetic Sorrow on repeat, you didn’t have to take me seriously, eheh.  No need to force yourself to listen to depressing songs if you don’t want to, hah.  Yeah, Morphogenetic Sorrow does have that echo-y, hollow sound to it, which I thought was really neat.  Probably part of the reason why I like it so much.  There’s a ton of emotion in it.

 

Ahhhhh, I’m still so happy for you!!  A 3DS XL is tons better than a 2DS, so I’m really happy you’re going to experience all the amazing 3DS games out there in the highest quality.  Gosh, you can thank me all you want, but you should also be grateful to Nintendo for having this week-long sale right on your birthday!  If that isn’t lucky, I don’t know what is.  What game(s) are you going to get first?  You have a ton of things I know you want to get, so you’re ultimately going to have quite the extensive library when all is said and done, haha.  Don’t worry about Splatoon.  As great of a console as the Wii U is, it’s best experienced on a nice, big HD television, so it’ll just get in your way during college.  There’s really no need to get a home console until you settle down in one place for more than a year, heh.  Hrm, on a different note, I’m still going to have to sell my 2DS.  I’m eternally grateful that my 2DS is the limited quantity Crystal Blue version.  Not only is it rarer than the Crystal Red (I don’t really know why) it’s also discontinued so you can pretty much only get it on Amazon or Ebay at this point, and for inflated prices.  As stock continues to dwindle, the value of even used ones will start to increase and hopefully I’ll be able to sell it and break even, heh.  Bleh, though this wasn’t the New 3DS I was looking for, it’s still a fantastic upgrade from the axe head that is the 2DS, ahahah.  In fact, my 3DS just came in the mail yesterday!  Gosh, it feels so different in my hands compared to a 2DS.  It’s not just the size, it’s also the shape and the layout, positioning, and response of the buttons.  Still though, after I transferred over my data and played a bit of Smash to give it a test run, I actually did better than I usually do against CPUs.  Either I was having a lucky day or the changed button layout is doing something good to the way I play, haha.  The Smash 3DS XL also has a nice, shiny finish to it, as opposed to my Pikachu 3DS XL which actually had a matte finish.  Not sure which I prefer, they’re both pretty nice!  I wonder what texture your Blue/Black 3DS XL will be?  I can’t wait till you get it!  Also, my 3DS came in a special refurbished box.  I actually like the refurbished box better.  It’s hard to envision unless you have a new box and a refurbished box to directly compare, but the refurbished box is easier to open and has the charger, instruction booklet, and console placed more neatly and more comfortable than in a brand new box.  Eh, it’s hard to explain, but if you watch an unboxing of a brand new 3DS XL as opposed to a refurbished one, you’ll notice the difference.  Ahh, sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself.  I don’t even know if you’ll be allowed to open and set up your 3DS the moment you get it or if you’re going to have to wait until June. 

 

Ohhh, you kinda mentioned it before.  I don’t think you said you went to Europe, but somewhere along the way our conversation shifted to cruises and you mentioned how you actually went on a cruise with some of your friends before.  And then I said I’ve never been on a cruise with anyone other than my immediate family, hah.  Hrm, “boatloads” of fun you say? icwutudidthar  I’ve actually never been to Europe before.  Neither have my parents, though my sister and brother have for two different reasons.  It looks like you hit up some pretty major cultural areas!  I’m a bit surprised you remembered as much as you did given how long ago that was.  I haven’t visited many interesting places, or at least nothing like Europe.  The two times I was ever on a cruise had me trekking up to Canada (Halifax, Nova Scotia) for the first trip and down to Key West the second.  Speaking of the east coast, I’ve traversed that area more times than I can remember, mostly for going up to visit my sister in Dartmouth years ago, down to visit Florida every once in a while, or all over the place for colleges this past year.  To cap off my North American adventures, there was just the time we took a flight/road-trip to National Parks that I mentioned in detail before.  As for more exotic places I’ve traveled to, there’s really only China, haha.  So yeahh, unless you consider any of those places to be particularly historical or interesting (which they generally aren’t, not in the European sense) then the answer to your question would have to be no, unfortunately.

 

Nope, no credit for these courses.  They’re more for personal improvement and advancement.  You only have to pass a final exam by the end of the course to get a flimsy digital certificate, but it’s easy because you can literally use the full lessons while taking the test.  Honestly, you can just not do any of the lessons or weekly non-mandatory activities and just CTRL+F your way through the exam, but even with the certificate you obviously wouldn’t have learned anything.  Because that would make me feel really guilty, I’ll be taking this class seriously.  It’s easy stuff, but I know I’ll be using it in college if I go into accounting so it definitely doesn’t hurt to practice.  Okay, maybe it does, I’ve lost a ton of anime and video game time, bleh…

 

Longwood Gardens was definitely really fantastic.  It’s been a while so I can’t remember just how good the fireworks were, but they were the first fireworks synchronized with music that I could remember (the memories of the ones at Disney from when I was a wee lad are too faded to judge) so they were really impressive.  Their fireworks show is always different, and we happened to watch one that used Swan Lake.  It’s rather far from where you live, but it’s something to think about if you ever happen to visit or travel to that area.

 

Yeah, I’m sure there’ll be a ton of apparel I’ll accumulate from Case.  Hopefully I’ll actually be proud to wear my school’s colors and logo, unlike with JP, ahah.  Huh, I actually still don’t really see the point of getting Snapchat, only because I’m not really one to take pictures of anything.  There’s nothing I do on most day’s that worth snapping a picture of and sending to someone, eheh.  I mean, can’t you just text someone a picture if you really needed to?  And the doodling aspect just seems a bit gimmicky.  I dunno, I’ve only ever seen people use it to derp around during Fresh class (which nobody took seriously because our teacher was too nice), so maybe there’s actually a legitimate and productive reason for Snapchat that I’m not seeing.  I can’t remember if she did anything after taking the picture, so I really don’t know if Snapchat was what she was using.  Heh, whatever, no point in thinking about that now, haha.

 

Nope, they don’t really care that much.  They say something along the lines of “well, if you get really wet don’t complain about being uncomfortable and icky later” but they don’t prevent me or my siblings from going on water rides.  Haha, though they worry about the sun a lot though.  During the trip to Orlando we all put on a crazy amount of sunblock and all wore these silly looking hats.  I’m betting we looked ridiculous, eheheh.  Good thing is, it paid off and none of us got sunburned.  Maybe a tad tanner than we were coming in, but it wasn’t like we completely darkened up and got weird tan lines or anything which was nice.  Ahahah, it is kinda funny thinking about your parents doting over you like that.  After all, you’re their little girl and you mean a lot to them.  You never know, maybe you’ll grow up to be an over-protective mother if you have children, haha.

 

Hm, if you don’t have a use for torrenting anything then yeah, that’s understandable.  I torrent relatively often, so keeping the program around is quite handy when I want to download a song but for whatever reason I can only find the album for torrent and not direct download.  Or when my sister comes over for Christmas, she’s many times in the mood for a good movie, and to take advantage of the pretty impressively sized televisions in our house, torrenting flims in high quality is usually the way to go.  Speaking of movies, I’m glad you got the chance to watch Inside Out for your birthday!  It looks like you enjoyed it a lot!  Bleh, you ended up watching Jurassic World though, haha.  I know I didn’t have completely scathing words for it, but it doesn’t look like you enjoyed it at all…  Maybe I should have been a bit harsher with it and you would have watched something else, sorry, heh.

 

Yeah I know, one of the reasons why you’re so amazing is that you don’t judged based on looks.  I know some girls who are wildly obsessed with how guys look: face, body, the whole package.  They even judge their enjoyment of a movie or anime (when applicable) based on how attractive the male characters are...  Ehhhhhh……??  Don’t worry, I’m just as bad at differentiating between oriental ethnicities myself.  Sometimes I can see small similarities between Korean people or Japanese people, but honestly without side-by-side comparisons and deep analysis of gene pools or something, it’s still pretty hard to make an assertion and be confident about it.  Mhm, Kino no Tabi is a short, episodic anime so it’s something that will probably fit into your schedule pretty well.  There really is no overarching plot, unless you want to count “Kino and a talking motorcycle, Hermes, travel together” as the plot.  Each episode can work almost entirely by itself.  Each “arc” averages out at about one episode, some of the shorter ones span half an episode and the longer ones last only two.  There’s no over-sexualization (or sexualization at all for that matter) of anyone and there is no crude, edgy blood, gore, and violence just for the sake of being dark (so don’t worry, nothing like Mirai Nikki).  It’s a simple, older anime that’s easy on the eyes and the mind and has that soft charm of an aged series.  Hmm, if you’re looking for college essay inspiration then maybe this series will give you something to work with?  You can just watch an episode here or there if you’re in the mood for it, since it doesn’t require you to speed run it (and is actually better enjoyed at a casual, leisurely pace).  So yes, I’d recommend it, haha.

 

Alright, PC version of Super Meat Boy it is then!  I was just thinking about potentially getting the 3DS version because it would actually support the creators as opposed to just getting it for free somewhere online.  And granted, 3DS games’ graphics don’t always look too hot on YouTube videos and tend to look better in person on an actual 3DS, though I’ll take your word for it and get the PC version anyway.  Ohhh, yes, your list looks a lot better now!  Haha, yeah I guess you wouldn’t be able to tell on your laptop, but there’s a clear difference on mine.  I remember thinking my laptop was ridiculously big when I first got it, and thought anime would just naturally get multiple times better because of the upgrade, but after about a week or two I adjusted to the size and it feels normal now, ahaha.  Hrm, speaking of laptops, have you upgraded to Windows 10 yet?  Converted a few days ago and I have to say I actually like it a lot.  It’s like a perfect mix between Windows 7 and Windows 8 which is neat.

 

Heh, I wasn’t really inspired to take the class or anything, my parents kind of made me take it.  It was just a supplementary course to get my feet wet, but it’s not like I was prepared for AP Bio long afterwards or anything.  Mainly just standard lectures plus some tests here and there as well as a lab activity every day.  Nothing too intense, just classic bio stuff like microscope work and dissections.  All in all, I don’t regret taking the course but it wasn’t like the “best summer ever” either, ahahah.

 

Hmm, if there was no mandatory work then that would probably make the class a bit more bearable, haha.  You probably dozed off because your sleeping habits are so messed up, heh.  Joking, joking, I know how you feel.  I’ve fallen asleep on video games many times, and if that’s possible then even the most engaging lecture in the world has a chance of putting me to sleep.  And alright, maybe I was just exaggerating when I said that I didn’t like labs.  Labs can definitely be pretty fun, but lab reports are the pits.  I guess because I just quickly associate labs with lab reports is why I’m a bit hesitant to say labs are fun.  But if just done for the pure advancement of knowledge and exploration and not for a letter grade, then I suppose they’re enjoyable enough, ahaha.

 

Man, your professor does indeed sound awesome.  Taking you out to museums like that and exploring the area and even getting you free stuff??  Gosh, what a person.  And I think I heard about that kind of glass that doesn’t shatter somewhere before.  Can’t remember if it was in a documentary or movie or fun online trivia fact or what though.  I’d probably still be too scared to throw it too hard at the ground in case science just decides to up and leave for a bathroom break at that moment and the whole thing just shatters, eheh.  Aww look at you Kenzi, aren’t you the nicest.  That was really sweet of you to give away that vase that you won, haha.  I’m not on the receiving end of that kindness, but I feel compelled to thank you for being such a good person.

 

Oh, ahah, I guess it would be common sense for the precollege program to show you the best that their school has to offer, even if dorms of such high quality aren’t available for freshman.  I remember peeking into a senior dorm at Brandeis that was super fancy when I visited a year ago.  Still though, A/C is rather impressive for an area that doesn’t even get too hot during the summers, given that students aren’t even on campus during that time, haha.  And as you said, the lowest setting was still too cold, so not really sure why they even bothered.  I guess just having the option is a luxury worth implementing.  Ohh, for some reason I keep on forgetting that opening the window for air circulation is sometimes a good idea, eheh.  I never open the windows in my house.  Just not really something I’ve made the habit of doing.  Hopefully Ohio isn’t too hot, but if it does get a bit stuffy then I’ll just crack open a window.  Hmm, should probably remember to bring a fan with me as well.

 

Nah, I don’t really have anything against horror, and definitely nothing against western cinema.  I just don’t have much time for my interests in general, and with all my attention focused on anime and video games, my knowledge of western cinema is shafted.  It’s very rare for a non-anime film to catch my attention nowadays, which is a bit of a shame since I’m pretty sure I’ve missed out on some really good gems.  Geez, my knowledge of western movies is nil honestly.  I know very few actors by face, I don’t really know any directors or musicians by name, I don’t know anything about the companies behind films like Warner Bros for example, and I’ve barely watched a sliver of any classics.  However, when it comes to anime, I can recognize a ton of seiyuus by sound alone, I can detect many directors’ unique styles without having to check if they’re behind an anime, I know popular and not-so-popular musicians’ and artists’ names by heart, and I’m well versed on the quality of animation the big production studios tend to produce.  I’m such a filthy weeb, somebody kill me quick before I procreate.  Anyway, in all seriousness, I realize I still haven’t addressed why I dislike horror.  And I guess it just boils down to preferring other genres over it.  I don’t really dislike horror, but jump scares and suspense like that just doesn’t seem as fun as things like adventure, action, mystery, and sometimes humor and romance when done right.  These are all just generalizations of course, since I’ve watched a lot of bad adventure, action, and mystery films and I’m sure there are some horror movies out there that I’d enjoy.

 

Ooh, you’re driving now!  Cool!  (I know I’m taking this a bit out of order, bear with me for a while.)  I actually started working toward getting a license myself.  Well, it’s more like my mom forced me (again), saying a man who can’t drive isn’t really a man at all (that’s not what she actually said, but you get the gist).  The plan is to have me get all the practice and paperwork done in New Jersey, and once I’m done with everything just have my license transferred over to the state that I’ll actually be residing in, whether that be Ohio or somewhere else.  I haven’t really done much so far though.  I retook the written test a couple of weeks ago, since the one I passed over two years ago isn’t valid anymore.  Bit of a pain, since I went to the DMV on a really busy day and literally wasted over five hours of my day there, geezus.  Aaaand that’s all I’ve done, ahah.  Haven’t even gotten in the front seat of a car yet, though I’ve watched my parents drive long enough and have the basic controls committed to memory to be able to get from point A to point B relatively easily... theoretically.  I’d probably crash into a couple of things if I actually tried to wing it, but nothing worse than a couple of fender benders, eheheheh…  During the winter and summer (and maybe spring) breaks when I’m back in Edison, I’ll do all the practicing with my parents and driving test and whatnot.  Can’t really remember what the steps toward getting a license were again and don’t know how much it differs from Michigan’s rules (I know, I just took the written the test, if anyone knows this off the top of their head it should be me, bleh), but it doesn’t look like much work and doesn’t seem like it’ll take too much time.  My sister actually did something similar.  She acted earlier than I did though, so she didn’t have to retake the written test, but got all the boring stuff done in Jersey like I’ll be doing.  Soo yeah, ramble over.  I remember you saying once that you didn’t think you’d find the time to learn how to drive soon, but without even telling me it looks like you picked it up!  Good for you!  How has it been?

 

Awww, I’m just happy that you’re happy, and I’m relieved that my gift card didn’t come off as too distant or anything, haha.  *hugs*  Though geez, I didn’t at all expect to bring you to tears or anything like that.  And, ehem, who said I'd even consider trying to tear you off if you hugged me, hrm?  Ahah, I’m equally thankful for your thank you response as well!  I actually stayed up a bit late that night, can’t even remember doing what (must have been that pesky online course) and was actually still awake when I got the e-mail notification.  You can imagine how surprised I was.  It was already three in the morning, but then again I guess it would only be natural for you to be up late on the night of your birthday.  I was just tossing and turning in bed having trouble falling asleep when my phone’s notification alarm went off, eheh.  Don’t worry, you didn’t prevent me from getting sleep.  If anything, after seeing how happy I was able to make you, I was able to rest easier myself.  Gosh, though I do apologize for giving you so much trouble in writing up a reply!  As for your near death experience, I’m really glad you’re safe!  Ahaha, and while it would be rude of me to reject your thanks, I-I didn’t really think you to be the dramatic, and… for lack of a better word… romantic type.  Ehem, well uh, not that I mind or anything, eheheheh………  And yeah, while there might not be a legitimate scientific explanation for it, perhaps my wishes reached you in some way, through some morphogenetic field kinda of thing, heheh…………  Oh gosh, Kirsch is/was kinda back and I wonder what she’d think of us now, hahah.  I’d actually be pretty embarrassed if someone else decides to read all this, especially given the nature of some of our discussion recently…

 

There was really no need for you to get back to me about Case last night, as I would have been perfectly content to have received it in next week’s response, but I do appreciate and thank your efforts!  Ahhhhh I’m really happy you like Case!  Oh gosh, and you’re saying that if you’re accepted you’ll go?!?  Oooohhhhh I feel so excited, haha!  We’re another step closer toward meeting each other in real life, eheh.  I was afraid maybe you wouldn’t like it or something and that you wouldn’t even apply, and I just… I don’t know, I’m just so happy you like it.  For some reason it feels like a weight off of my shoulders, or something…  Ahah, what am I saying, I’m just rambling at this point.  Um, anyway, first of all I’m glad that the weather was good!  I visited on a cold, dreary, late winter day and it was overcast and kinda mucky, so my mom took it as a sign from a higher being that I shouldn’t attend the school (if you couldn’t already tell, my mother and I aren’t exactly on the same wavelength when it comes to a lot of things, hahah).  You liked Case for a lot of the same reasons that I did.  The research opportunities, the size, the overall atmosphere and vibe, the flexibility and quality of the programs, the first year residential houses, (don't forget the fact that they give out very generous scholarships), etc.  Well, as for the distance from there to my house, I don’t enjoy the proximity benefit as you do, but that’s only a small issue and it’s not like I can’t manage.  And since my parents pretty much expect me to partake in that dual masters/bachelors accounting program, I can’t exactly take advantage of their flexibility when it comes to choosing a major (or else risk being disowned and left to pay for tuition all by myself), eheh.  I’m glad you’ve pretty much settled on a school to make your goal!  Looks like you won’t be applying to 16 schools like I did (it was a wild experience, but for some reason it wasn’t entirely unenjoyable and was like playing a video game on Insane/Lunatic mode, because I felt so accomplished after getting so much work done during winter break, as weird as that might sound).  Good thing is, you can apply to Case through either Early Decision or Early Action (which method are you going to use?) so you can submit your application nice and early by November 1st and get a response (with all your financial aid and scholarship info to boot) on December 15th.  That way, if you can get in, you’ll be able to enjoy your winter break to the fullest!

 

You’re already showing far more demonstrated interest than I did, haha.  I’m glad you got an on-campus interview!  Gosh, so many things going on and you never bring them up, heheh.  Low key interviews like that are always really cool.  And looks like you managed to get your interviewer off topic for a little bit as well, in the same way I got off topic with mine talking about LoZ, hah.  I wonder if that kind of thing is a common occurrence?  Ohh, there are actually places in Cleveland where you can stargaze??  Whaaaa this is the first I’ve heard of that!  Haha, I’m assuming you asked her about that, and whether it was for me or for your own knowledge, thank you!  Hmm, if you attend Case, we could probably go stargazing together sometime, eheheh……  Your parents are just like mine, oh geez.  They only care about return on investment and graduation rate and all that.  As important as those things are, you could pretty much find those stats online as you say.  I really doubt your parents single (double?) handedly managed to ruin your interview, so don’t worry about it!  And yes, sending a word of thanks to your interviewer is always a good idea, especially if it’s personal and handwritten and even contains a bit of your accomplishments.  I’m sure she’ll appreciate it and will definitely be able to put in a good word for you.

 

Probably the biggest con of Case that not even I can ignore is the city of Cleveland.  It’s just generally not the safest city and you’re really going to have to be extra cautious when you step off campus.  I’m sure some areas of Cleveland are nicer than others (as with pretty much every city), but Case’s immediate surroundings aren’t the nicest.  Ohh, speaking of Cleveland, did you know that the first Republican 2016 presidential debate actually took place in Cleveland, the very day you were there on August 6th?  Not sure how late you stayed, but to think you were so close to an event like that is pretty neat, haha.  I don’t identify with any particular party and consider myself politically centered, but I watched the debate anyway just for fun.  Regardless of the topic at hand, organized arguments debates are pretty enjoyable to watch.  The governor of my state, a real estate magnate, and a neurosurgeon all on the same stage vying for the Republican nomination?  What a sight to see, hah.

 

Anyway, there’s exactly a week until I leave for Case, and that being said I’ve been quite busy recently getting myself organized for the move.  Because of that, some parts of this response may have felt either rushed or distracted, and I’m sorry for that.  (I almost didn't even get this posted on time!)  I would have written even more than I already have, but there’s only so much time in a day.  Along the same train of thought, I probably won’t be able to send a timely response next week.  I’ll be on the road the whole day and won’t have much time prior to get a satisfactory response typed up.  And since I’ll be attending orientation events for the entire week after that, it may take a while for me to settle back down into a regular schedule.  Sigh, I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t really know when I’ll next have time to send a long response like this.  Since next week isn’t looking very likely, hopefully the week after that?  Heh, not sure.  College is going to be such a new experience, and I’m just hoping I’m one of the people that gets used to it pretty fast.  I can put on a façade and say that I’m not nervous about going to college at all, but that would just be massive lie.  I’m nervous and scared and worried and all kinds of feelings right now.  My stress level is rising with each passing day, goodness.  So yeah, I’d like to thank you for being there for me through all this change.  Even if you do nothing different, even if you just reply like you always do, that’ll be enough for me.  I’m really grateful for it and just wanted to let you know that, haha. 

[Kid the Phantom Thief 252]

Counter Strike: Global Offensive

 

tl;dr

 

CS:GO

[Kenzi 146]

 

Mhm, I definitely highly recommend a OnePlus, especially because it’s so cheap when compared to Samsung phones.  I remember the OnePlus 2’s details were revealed not too long ago and the people who even knew what OnePlus was were hyping it up.  I just checked out the little preview trailer on their website, and by gosh does it look fresh, haha.  If your iPhone holds up by the time the OnePlus 2 comes out next year, definitely check it out.

 

Ah, it’s a bit of a relief to know that I’m not the only one who’s ever had trouble with Facebook’s interface, haha.  Well, your quick rundown definitely helped to simplify the format of this site at least.  Huh, I guess that once you sort of know what you’re looking at it’s not too bad.  But it’ll still take a while to get used to, haha.  Main problem I still have is that the news feeds keeps on getting cluttered with stuff that I don’t want.  I’ve only liked some Case related pages for now, but their updates are all getting buried by the random stuff my “friends” are posting.  There’s probably a way to filter out what gets put up on the news feed in the settings somewhere, so I’m going to have to dig that up.  I’m never on Facebook long enough for anyone to chat me up, but I’ll keep the whole “invisible” setting in mind.  Haha, thanks for the tips, it definitely helps!  There wasn’t any need for you to do that, but I appreciate it!

 

Heheh, sometimes when my mind is wandering especially well, the words just sort of come out.  Wow though, that must have been a really relaxing time.  Even if you felt like you didn’t get anything done, it sounds heavenly.  I’m glad you found the chance to play a little bit of tennis at least, even if it was only for one day.  But seriously though, you gave yourself a headache by letting your friend have your water?  Pls, Shirou, you can’t save others if you don’t save yourself! Geez, what am I going to do with you?  Ahah, still though, I can’t deny how nice you are for doing that.  Hopefully your headache wasn’t so bad that it ruined your birthday.  It’s already August??  I’m going off to college in a week??  I suppose time really is running out, huh?  Focusing on the first prompt would probably be the best course of action at this point.  Hm, the whole “laziness leads to innovation” topic would make for a good essay, but a difficult college essay, just because it could be hard to tie yourself in to that idea.  O-Oh my, it would be rather interesting if you tried to string together a 600 word essay about meeting me through DCW, hahah.  It would probably confuse the college admission officers though.  *ehem* not that it’s something I would be against seeing eheheheheh……… yeah we’ve strayed off topic quite a bit.

 

I could say the same to you.  Even if you lucked out by finding my full name on my band’s website, the fact that you figured out the puzzle was just… just so crazy!  Gosh, I was only able to make the puzzle because I had the game in my hands while I fiddled around with a keyboard.  I can’t even being to imagine how much research it took to work it all backwards, haha.  You can give me all the credit you want for finding out your location by putting together small pieces of information, but you’re just as amazing for figuring out all you have about me.

 

Hrm, it’s too bad you couldn’t sneak away some acetone, but since you don’t have any amiibo boxes and were only looking to test it out, it appears you got that chance, haha.  The way it doesn’t damage paper at all is fascinating; I hope I get the chance to see it in action someday.

 

Oh my, when I said to listen to Morphogenetic Sorrow on repeat, you didn’t have to take me seriously, eheh.  No need to force yourself to listen to depressing songs if you don’t want to, hah.  Yeah, Morphogenetic Sorrow does have that echo-y, hollow sound to it, which I thought was really neat.  Probably part of the reason why I like it so much.  There’s a ton of emotion in it.

 

Ahhhhh, I’m still so happy for you!!  A 3DS XL is tons better than a 2DS, so I’m really happy you’re going to experience all the amazing 3DS games out there in the highest quality.  Gosh, you can thank me all you want, but you should also be grateful to Nintendo for having this week-long sale right on your birthday!  If that isn’t lucky, I don’t know what is.  What game(s) are you going to get first?  You have a ton of things I know you want to get, so you’re ultimately going to have quite the extensive library when all is said and done, haha.  Don’t worry about Splatoon.  As great of a console as the Wii U is, it’s best experienced on a nice, big HD television, so it’ll just get in your way during college.  There’s really no need to get a home console until you settle down in one place for more than a year, heh.  Hrm, on a different note, I’m still going to have to sell my 2DS.  I’m eternally grateful that my 2DS is the limited quantity Crystal Blue version.  Not only is it rarer than the Crystal Red (I don’t really know why) it’s also discontinued so you can pretty much only get it on Amazon or Ebay at this point, and for inflated prices.  As stock continues to dwindle, the value of even used ones will start to increase and hopefully I’ll be able to sell it and break even, heh.  Bleh, though this wasn’t the New 3DS I was looking for, it’s still a fantastic upgrade from the axe head that is the 2DS, ahahah.  In fact, my 3DS just came in the mail yesterday!  Gosh, it feels so different in my hands compared to a 2DS.  It’s not just the size, it’s also the shape and the layout, positioning, and response of the buttons.  Still though, after I transferred over my data and played a bit of Smash to give it a test run, I actually did better than I usually do against CPUs.  Either I was having a lucky day or the changed button layout is doing something good to the way I play, haha.  The Smash 3DS XL also has a nice, shiny finish to it, as opposed to my Pikachu 3DS XL which actually had a matte finish.  Not sure which I prefer, they’re both pretty nice!  I wonder what texture your Blue/Black 3DS XL will be?  I can’t wait till you get it!  Also, my 3DS came in a special refurbished box.  I actually like the refurbished box better.  It’s hard to envision unless you have a new box and a refurbished box to directly compare, but the refurbished box is easier to open and has the charger, instruction booklet, and console placed more neatly and more comfortable than in a brand new box.  Eh, it’s hard to explain, but if you watch an unboxing of a brand new 3DS XL as opposed to a refurbished one, you’ll notice the difference.  Ahh, sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself.  I don’t even know if you’ll be allowed to open and set up your 3DS the moment you get it or if you’re going to have to wait until June. 

 

Ohhh, you kinda mentioned it before.  I don’t think you said you went to Europe, but somewhere along the way our conversation shifted to cruises and you mentioned how you actually went on a cruise with some of your friends before.  And then I said I’ve never been on a cruise with anyone other than my immediate family, hah.  Hrm, “boatloads” of fun you say? icwutudidthar  I’ve actually never been to Europe before.  Neither have my parents, though my sister and brother have for two different reasons.  It looks like you hit up some pretty major cultural areas!  I’m a bit surprised you remembered as much as you did given how long ago that was.  I haven’t visited many interesting places, or at least nothing like Europe.  The two times I was ever on a cruise had me trekking up to Canada (Halifax, Nova Scotia) for the first trip and down to Key West the second.  Speaking of the east coast, I’ve traversed that area more times than I can remember, mostly for going up to visit my sister in Dartmouth years ago, down to visit Florida every once in a while, or all over the place for colleges this past year.  To cap off my North American adventures, there was just the time we took a flight/road-trip to National Parks that I mentioned in detail before.  As for more exotic places I’ve traveled to, there’s really only China, haha.  So yeahh, unless you consider any of those places to be particularly historical or interesting (which they generally aren’t, not in the European sense) then the answer to your question would have to be no, unfortunately.

 

Nope, no credit for these courses.  They’re more for personal improvement and advancement.  You only have to pass a final exam by the end of the course to get a flimsy digital certificate, but it’s easy because you can literally use the full lessons while taking the test.  Honestly, you can just not do any of the lessons or weekly non-mandatory activities and just CTRL+F your way through the exam, but even with the certificate you obviously wouldn’t have learned anything.  Because that would make me feel really guilty, I’ll be taking this class seriously.  It’s easy stuff, but I know I’ll be using it in college if I go into accounting so it definitely doesn’t hurt to practice.  Okay, maybe it does, I’ve lost a ton of anime and video game time, bleh…

 

Longwood Gardens was definitely really fantastic.  It’s been a while so I can’t remember just how good the fireworks were, but they were the first fireworks synchronized with music that I could remember (the memories of the ones at Disney from when I was a wee lad are too faded to judge) so they were really impressive.  Their fireworks show is always different, and we happened to watch one that used Swan Lake.  It’s rather far from where you live, but it’s something to think about if you ever happen to visit or travel to that area.

 

Yeah, I’m sure there’ll be a ton of apparel I’ll accumulate from Case.  Hopefully I’ll actually be proud to wear my school’s colors and logo, unlike with JP, ahah.  Huh, I actually still don’t really see the point of getting Snapchat, only because I’m not really one to take pictures of anything.  There’s nothing I do on most day’s that worth snapping a picture of and sending to someone, eheh.  I mean, can’t you just text someone a picture if you really needed to?  And the doodling aspect just seems a bit gimmicky.  I dunno, I’ve only ever seen people use it to derp around during Fresh class (which nobody took seriously because our teacher was too nice), so maybe there’s actually a legitimate and productive reason for Snapchat that I’m not seeing.  I can’t remember if she did anything after taking the picture, so I really don’t know if Snapchat was what she was using.  Heh, whatever, no point in thinking about that now, haha.

 

Nope, they don’t really care that much.  They say something along the lines of “well, if you get really wet don’t complain about being uncomfortable and icky later” but they don’t prevent me or my siblings from going on water rides.  Haha, though they worry about the sun a lot though.  During the trip to Orlando we all put on a crazy amount of sunblock and all wore these silly looking hats.  I’m betting we looked ridiculous, eheheh.  Good thing is, it paid off and none of us got sunburned.  Maybe a tad tanner than we were coming in, but it wasn’t like we completely darkened up and got weird tan lines or anything which was nice.  Ahahah, it is kinda funny thinking about your parents doting over you like that.  After all, you’re their little girl and you mean a lot to them.  You never know, maybe you’ll grow up to be an over-protective mother if you have children, haha.

 

Hm, if you don’t have a use for torrenting anything then yeah, that’s understandable.  I torrent relatively often, so keeping the program around is quite handy when I want to download a song but for whatever reason I can only find the album for torrent and not direct download.  Or when my sister comes over for Christmas, she’s many times in the mood for a good movie, and to take advantage of the pretty impressively sized televisions in our house, torrenting flims in high quality is usually the way to go.  Speaking of movies, I’m glad you got the chance to watch Inside Out for your birthday!  It looks like you enjoyed it a lot!  Bleh, you ended up watching Jurassic World though, haha.  I know I didn’t have completely scathing words for it, but it doesn’t look like you enjoyed it at all…  Maybe I should have been a bit harsher with it and you would have watched something else, sorry, heh.

 

Yeah I know, one of the reasons why you’re so amazing is that you don’t judged based on looks.  I know some girls who are wildly obsessed with how guys look: face, body, the whole package.  They even judge their enjoyment of a movie or anime (when applicable) based on how attractive the male characters are...  Ehhhhhh……??  Don’t worry, I’m just as bad at differentiating between oriental ethnicities myself.  Sometimes I can see small similarities between Korean people or Japanese people, but honestly without side-by-side comparisons and deep analysis of gene pools or something, it’s still pretty hard to make an assertion and be confident about it.  Mhm, Kino no Tabi is a short, episodic anime so it’s something that will probably fit into your schedule pretty well.  There really is no overarching plot, unless you want to count “Kino and a talking motorcycle, Hermes, travel together” as the plot.  Each episode can work almost entirely by itself.  Each “arc” averages out at about one episode, some of the shorter ones span half an episode and the longer ones last only two.  There’s no over-sexualization (or sexualization at all for that matter) of anyone and there is no crude, edgy blood, gore, and violence just for the sake of being dark (so don’t worry, nothing like Mirai Nikki).  It’s a simple, older anime that’s easy on the eyes and the mind and has that soft charm of an aged series.  Hmm, if you’re looking for college essay inspiration then maybe this series will give you something to work with?  You can just watch an episode here or there if you’re in the mood for it, since it doesn’t require you to speed run it (and is actually better enjoyed at a casual, leisurely pace).  So yes, I’d recommend it, haha.

 

Alright, PC version of Super Meat Boy it is then!  I was just thinking about potentially getting the 3DS version because it would actually support the creators as opposed to just getting it for free somewhere online.  And granted, 3DS games’ graphics don’t always look too hot on YouTube videos and tend to look better in person on an actual 3DS, though I’ll take your word for it and get the PC version anyway.  Ohhh, yes, your list looks a lot better now!  Haha, yeah I guess you wouldn’t be able to tell on your laptop, but there’s a clear difference on mine.  I remember thinking my laptop was ridiculously big when I first got it, and thought anime would just naturally get multiple times better because of the upgrade, but after about a week or two I adjusted to the size and it feels normal now, ahaha.  Hrm, speaking of laptops, have you upgraded to Windows 10 yet?  Converted a few days ago and I have to say I actually like it a lot.  It’s like a perfect mix between Windows 7 and Windows 8 which is neat.

 

Heh, I wasn’t really inspired to take the class or anything, my parents kind of made me take it.  It was just a supplementary course to get my feet wet, but it’s not like I was prepared for AP Bio long afterwards or anything.  Mainly just standard lectures plus some tests here and there as well as a lab activity every day.  Nothing too intense, just classic bio stuff like microscope work and dissections.  All in all, I don’t regret taking the course but it wasn’t like the “best summer ever” either, ahahah.

 

Hmm, if there was no mandatory work then that would probably make the class a bit more bearable, haha.  You probably dozed off because your sleeping habits are so messed up, heh.  Joking, joking, I know how you feel.  I’ve fallen asleep on video games many times, and if that’s possible then even the most engaging lecture in the world has a chance of putting me to sleep.  And alright, maybe I was just exaggerating when I said that I didn’t like labs.  Labs can definitely be pretty fun, but lab reports are the pits.  I guess because I just quickly associate labs with lab reports is why I’m a bit hesitant to say labs are fun.  But if just done for the pure advancement of knowledge and exploration and not for a letter grade, then I suppose they’re enjoyable enough, ahaha.

 

Man, your professor does indeed sound awesome.  Taking you out to museums like that and exploring the area and even getting you free stuff??  Gosh, what a person.  And I think I heard about that kind of glass that doesn’t shatter somewhere before.  Can’t remember if it was in a documentary or movie or fun online trivia fact or what though.  I’d probably still be too scared to throw it too hard at the ground in case science just decides to up and leave for a bathroom break at that moment and the whole thing just shatters, eheh.  Aww look at you Kenzi, aren’t you the nicest.  That was really sweet of you to give away that vase that you won, haha.  I’m not on the receiving end of that kindness, but I feel compelled to thank you for being such a good person.

 

Oh, ahah, I guess it would be common sense for the precollege program to show you the best that their school has to offer, even if dorms of such high quality aren’t available for freshman.  I remember peeking into a senior dorm at Brandeis that was super fancy when I visited a year ago.  Still though, A/C is rather impressive for an area that doesn’t even get too hot during the summers, given that students aren’t even on campus during that time, haha.  And as you said, the lowest setting was still too cold, so not really sure why they even bothered.  I guess just having the option is a luxury worth implementing.  Ohh, for some reason I keep on forgetting that opening the window for air circulation is sometimes a good idea, eheh.  I never open the windows in my house.  Just not really something I’ve made the habit of doing.  Hopefully Ohio isn’t too hot, but if it does get a bit stuffy then I’ll just crack open a window.  Hmm, should probably remember to bring a fan with me as well.

 

Nah, I don’t really have anything against horror, and definitely nothing against western cinema.  I just don’t have much time for my interests in general, and with all my attention focused on anime and video games, my knowledge of western cinema is shafted.  It’s very rare for a non-anime film to catch my attention nowadays, which is a bit of a shame since I’m pretty sure I’ve missed out on some really good gems.  Geez, my knowledge of western movies is nil honestly.  I know very few actors by face, I don’t really know any directors or musicians by name, I don’t know anything about the companies behind films like Warner Bros for example, and I’ve barely watched a sliver of any classics.  However, when it comes to anime, I can recognize a ton of seiyuus by sound alone, I can detect many directors’ unique styles without having to check if they’re behind an anime, I know popular and not-so-popular musicians’ and artists’ names by heart, and I’m well versed on the quality of animation the big production studios tend to produce.  I’m such a filthy weeb, somebody kill me quick before I procreate.  Anyway, in all seriousness, I realize I still haven’t addressed why I dislike horror.  And I guess it just boils down to preferring other genres over it.  I don’t really dislike horror, but jump scares and suspense like that just doesn’t seem as fun as things like adventure, action, mystery, and sometimes humor and romance when done right.  These are all just generalizations of course, since I’ve watched a lot of bad adventure, action, and mystery films and I’m sure there are some horror movies out there that I’d enjoy.

 

Ooh, you’re driving now!  Cool!  (I know I’m taking this a bit out of order, bear with me for a while.)  I actually started working toward getting a license myself.  Well, it’s more like my mom forced me (again), saying a man who can’t drive isn’t really a man at all (that’s not what she actually said, but you get the gist).  The plan is to have me get all the practice and paperwork done in New Jersey, and once I’m done with everything just have my license transferred over to the state that I’ll actually be residing in, whether that be Ohio or somewhere else.  I haven’t really done much so far though.  I retook the written test a couple of weeks ago, since the one I passed over two years ago isn’t valid anymore.  Bit of a pain, since I went to the DMV on a really busy day and literally wasted over five hours of my day there, geezus.  Aaaand that’s all I’ve done, ahah.  Haven’t even gotten in the front seat of a car yet, though I’ve watched my parents drive long enough and have the basic controls committed to memory to be able to get from point A to point B relatively easily... theoretically.  I’d probably crash into a couple of things if I actually tried to wing it, but nothing worse than a couple of fender benders, eheheheh…  During the winter and summer (and maybe spring) breaks when I’m back in Edison, I’ll do all the practicing with my parents and driving test and whatnot.  Can’t really remember what the steps toward getting a license were again and don’t know how much it differs from Michigan’s rules (I know, I just took the written the test, if anyone knows this off the top of their head it should be me, bleh), but it doesn’t look like much work and doesn’t seem like it’ll take too much time.  My sister actually did something similar.  She acted earlier than I did though, so she didn’t have to retake the written test, but got all the boring stuff done in Jersey like I’ll be doing.  Soo yeah, ramble over.  I remember you saying once that you didn’t think you’d find the time to learn how to drive soon, but without even telling me it looks like you picked it up!  Good for you!  How has it been?

 

Awww, I’m just happy that you’re happy, and I’m relieved that my gift card didn’t come off as too distant or anything, haha.  *hugs*  Though geez, I didn’t at all expect to bring you to tears or anything like that.  And, ehem, who said I'd even consider trying to tear you off if you hugged me, hrm?  Ahah, I’m equally thankful for your thank you response as well!  I actually stayed up a bit late that night, can’t even remember doing what (must have been that pesky online course) and was actually still awake when I got the e-mail notification.  You can imagine how surprised I was.  It was already three in the morning, but then again I guess it would only be natural for you to be up late on the night of your birthday.  I was just tossing and turning in bed having trouble falling asleep when my phone’s notification alarm went off, eheh.  Don’t worry, you didn’t prevent me from getting sleep.  If anything, after seeing how happy I was able to make you, I was able to rest easier myself.  Gosh, though I do apologize for giving you so much trouble in writing up a reply!  As for your near death experience, I’m really glad you’re safe!  Ahaha, and while it would be rude of me to reject your thanks, I-I didn’t really think you to be the dramatic, and… for lack of a better word… romantic type.  Ehem, well uh, not that I mind or anything, eheheheh………  And yeah, while there might not be a legitimate scientific explanation for it, perhaps my wishes reached you in some way, through some morphogenetic field kinda of thing, heheh…………  Oh gosh, Kirsch is/was kinda back and I wonder what she’d think of us now, hahah.  I’d actually be pretty embarrassed if someone else decides to read all this, especially given the nature of some of our discussion recently…

 

There was really no need for you to get back to me about Case last night, as I would have been perfectly content to have received it in next week’s response, but I do appreciate and thank your efforts!  Ahhhhh I’m really happy you like Case!  Oh gosh, and you’re saying that if you’re accepted you’ll go?!?  Oooohhhhh I feel so excited, haha!  We’re another step closer toward meeting each other in real life, eheh.  I was afraid maybe you wouldn’t like it or something and that you wouldn’t even apply, and I just… I don’t know, I’m just so happy you like it.  For some reason it feels like a weight off of my shoulders, or something…  Ahah, what am I saying, I’m just rambling at this point.  Um, anyway, first of all I’m glad that the weather was good!  I visited on a cold, dreary, late winter day and it was overcast and kinda mucky, so my mom took it as a sign from a higher being that I shouldn’t attend the school (if you couldn’t already tell, my mother and I aren’t exactly on the same wavelength when it comes to a lot of things, hahah).  You liked Case for a lot of the same reasons that I did.  The research opportunities, the size, the overall atmosphere and vibe, the flexibility and quality of the programs, the first year residential houses, (don't forget the fact that they give out very generous scholarships), etc.  Well, as for the distance from there to my house, I don’t enjoy the proximity benefit as you do, but that’s only a small issue and it’s not like I can’t manage.  And since my parents pretty much expect me to partake in that dual masters/bachelors accounting program, I can’t exactly take advantage of their flexibility when it comes to choosing a major (or else risk being disowned and left to pay for tuition all by myself), eheh.  I’m glad you’ve pretty much settled on a school to make your goal!  Looks like you won’t be applying to 16 schools like I did (it was a wild experience, but for some reason it wasn’t entirely unenjoyable and was like playing a video game on Insane/Lunatic mode, because I felt so accomplished after getting so much work done during winter break, as weird as that might sound).  Good thing is, you can apply to Case through either Early Decision or Early Action (which method are you going to use?) so you can submit your application nice and early by November 1st and get a response (with all your financial aid and scholarship info to boot) on December 15th.  That way, if you can get in, you’ll be able to enjoy your winter break to the fullest!

 

You’re already showing far more demonstrated interest than I did, haha.  I’m glad you got an on-campus interview!  Gosh, so many things going on and you never bring them up, heheh.  Low key interviews like that are always really cool.  And looks like you managed to get your interviewer off topic for a little bit as well, in the same way I got off topic with mine talking about LoZ, hah.  I wonder if that kind of thing is a common occurrence?  Ohh, there are actually places in Cleveland where you can stargaze??  Whaaaa this is the first I’ve heard of that!  Haha, I’m assuming you asked her about that, and whether it was for me or for your own knowledge, thank you!  Hmm, if you attend Case, we could probably go stargazing together sometime, eheheh……  Your parents are just like mine, oh geez.  They only care about return on investment and graduation rate and all that.  As important as those things are, you could pretty much find those stats online as you say.  I really doubt your parents single (double?) handedly managed to ruin your interview, so don’t worry about it!  And yes, sending a word of thanks to your interviewer is always a good idea, especially if it’s personal and handwritten and even contains a bit of your accomplishments.  I’m sure she’ll appreciate it and will definitely be able to put in a good word for you.

 

Probably the biggest con of Case that not even I can ignore is the city of Cleveland.  It’s just generally not the safest city and you’re really going to have to be extra cautious when you step off campus.  I’m sure some areas of Cleveland are nicer than others (as with pretty much every city), but Case’s immediate surroundings aren’t the nicest.  Ohh, speaking of Cleveland, did you know that the first Republican 2016 presidential debate actually took place in Cleveland, the very day you were there on August 6th?  Not sure how late you stayed, but to think you were so close to an event like that is pretty neat, haha.  I don’t identify with any particular party and consider myself politically centered, but I watched the debate anyway just for fun.  Regardless of the topic at hand, organized arguments debates are pretty enjoyable to watch.  The governor of my state, a real estate magnate, and a neurosurgeon all on the same stage vying for the Republican nomination?  What a sight to see, hah.

 

Anyway, there’s exactly a week until I leave for Case, and that being said I’ve been quite busy recently getting myself organized for the move.  Because of that, some parts of this response may have felt either rushed or distracted, and I’m sorry for that.  (I almost didn't even get this posted on time!)  I would have written even more than I already have, but there’s only so much time in a day.  Along the same train of thought, I probably won’t be able to send a timely response next week.  I’ll be on the road the whole day and won’t have much time prior to get a satisfactory response typed up.  And since I’ll be attending orientation events for the entire week after that, it may take a while for me to settle back down into a regular schedule.  Sigh, I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t really know when I’ll next have time to send a long response like this.  Since next week isn’t looking very likely, hopefully the week after that?  Heh, not sure.  College is going to be such a new experience, and I’m just hoping I’m one of the people that gets used to it pretty fast.  I can put on a façade and say that I’m not nervous about going to college at all, but that would just be massive lie.  I’m nervous and scared and worried and all kinds of feelings right now.  My stress level is rising with each passing day, goodness.  So yeah, I’d like to thank you for being there for me through all this change.  Even if you do nothing different, even if you just reply like you always do, that’ll be enough for me.  I’m really grateful for it and just wanted to let you know that, haha. 

 

asdkklsfjhkdfjhdkfjsdfjkg ohmygosh the OnePlus 2 is gorgeous. And the price, oomph. I almost want to break my iPhone on the cement just to have the excuse to get a OnePlus 2. Kidding, my parents would murder me if I did that. It looks like I'm only able to get one through invite though, hmm..... well anyways, I know which phone I'm getting once my iPhone runs out of steam, heh.

 

On the top right corner of each Facebook post, there's a faint downward pointing arrow. If you click on it, there's the option to "unfollow" that person without "unfriending" him/her. If you click on that option, you won't see his/her posts on your newsfeed anymore. Also, if you only want to see updates from pages you've "Liked", there's a link titled with "Pages Feed" on the left sidebar somewhere (or use CTRL+F if you're feeling lazy). And no problem!

 

When I gave my friend my water bottle, I expected her to fountain it or something, but she ended up drinking it straight through her mouth. Normally, I wouldn't have minded too much, but she was sick the day before. I figured it would be best just to let her have the rest of it. Gomenasai, Tohsaka. The headache wasn't anything serious. Even though it didn't completely dissipate until Friday afternoon, it was most certainly bearable. No need to worry. Yeahh, I'm just as surprised as you are. I can't believe it's already mid August. Just a few months ago I was raving about how great this summer would be, sigh. I think I have a topic I want to write about now. It's very, very rough though. So rough that even I don't know where it's going at the moment. I have my first paragraph written out so far and I think it's okay. I really hope I don't end up eating my words because I'm desperate right now, ahahaha... Thanks for taking the time to help me brainstorm! 

 

I should really give Google a lot more credit. The quotation option was what helped me narrow down which game it was. Afterwards, the wikia page helped me figure out which aspect of the game you were referring to. And finally, the YouTube playthrough. I'm grateful that YouTube implemented the timeline feature since it really helped me skim through the videos. Nope, I still can't get over how you managed to figure out my city location from the insignificant comments I made. I still can't believe it. I only figured out your name through your puzzle and the band website. You actually pieced together seemingly unrelated information in order to figure out where I live. You're not giving yourself enough credit; what you did is incredible, seriously, haha. I'm still baffled.

 

I wanted to take your word for it in case I really was missing out on the greatness of Morphogenetic Sorrow, haha. It's an emotional piece for sure, but it's just too depressing for my taste, ehehe......... I mean, I have a playlist of a few really nice emotional pieces I've come across, but I rarely listen to them since they can kinda affect my mood a bit.

 

Geezus Nintendo, thank you for being awesome! But I still need to thank you for informing me about this! Argh, there are a crap load of games I want to get. Smash is on the top of my list though. I probably won't be allowed more than two games (I'll be lucky if my parents even let me get two games). Smash seems to have a high replay value, so I might end up getting that first. This decision is subject to change, but this is where I stand at the moment. The package just arrived today and dklgdskghkdjghsklhjklj fsdklgjdfklghs fdkjghjssdfkjghlskhjfd AHHHHHH!!<3 I was able to take the 3DS out of the box and hold it. It was magical. I'm absolutely ecstatic. It has a shiny finish, and a few minor scratches on the front and on the circle pad. It's not a big deal though since they're just small little details that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. I'm still so excited! The packaging was also pretty nice and easy to open, like you said. It felt like Christmas when I was opening it! My parents didn't seem to mind since I can't really use it anyway, lol. Still, I gave it to them to let them hold onto it in order to keep my promise. Even though Nintendo held the sale, you were the one who told me about it. Honestly, what would I do without you, haha.

 

One of my most vivid memories from that trip was when a vendor offered my sister a sample while we were in Italy. She was 17 at the time and didn't realize that the sample was wine. She was above the legal drinking age there, but it was still funny seeing her reaction after she drank it and realized what it was. I didn't know it was wine either, but it's not like the vendor would've offered it to a 12 year old, lol. Ohh, Canada? I rarely get the chance to go to Canada, except when we have to cut through the border to drive up to Brandeis... the last time I remember actually staying there was during my sister's piano competition in Toronto, which was a looonggg time ago. I haven't gone any farther into the country than that. How was Nova Scotia? Key West was definitely a lot of fun. I still have the butterfly sticker from the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory stuck on the door of my old room, haha. I've gone on three cruises total. Caribbean, Europe, and Mexico. The trip to Mexico wasn't as great as the previous two but it was still fun. Ahhh, I still can't believe you've never gone to California before. Geezus man, get your head outta the gutter! Nah, kidding. It's like Florida but not as humid. Which parts of China have you visited?

 

lol, that's exactly how I felt about the online chem class I took.... except that I still didn't take it as seriously as I should've. I'm probably not going to take another online course again just because of how easy it is to lose motivation. Nah, it's just me being salty about how much summer I lost that year but seriously, how can you lose 4-6 hours of summer each day and not be salty. I'm glad to see that you're taking it relatively well though! 

 

Ahhh, so many things I want to do, but so little time! I guess Longwood Gardens is going on my bucket list then, haha.

 

Funny enough, Case's mascot is the same mascot as UMich's rival school's, Michigan State. I've always been a UMich supporter, so you can see my reluctance to become a Michigan State Spartan. Ohh, the irony. Snapchat is almost like a way to post statuses. Everyone who follows you can see what you post. So if you want the world to know that you're at some states competition, you can "snap" a picture of yourself with the caption "#states turn uppp" or something like that. Or if you just want a friend to be jealous of some cake you're eating, you can "snap" a picture of that and send that to him/her. Snapchat is a little more public than a text, and I guess people find it fun that they can add captions and doodle on the pictures they take, lol. Alsoo, what's Fresh class? I've never heard of it before, haha.

 

Ahaha, my parents are exactly the same! Every time we vacation over the summer everyone's forced to lather on insane amounts of sunscreen. And we have to wear hats too, lol. My parents are really big on sunscreen, but I think it's the same for most Asian parents. Despite this, I still got pretty tan this summer. I have a prominent fade tan on my upper arms from all the t-shirts I've worn. I also have a pretty bad skirt tan from tennis season, and don't get me started on my watch tan, dear lord. The underside of my arm is also really pale. It got pretty bad during the school year when my friends and even a few of my teachers commented on how tan I've gotten. Nah, I don't think I'll be too over-protective if I ever decide to have children. Parents these days freak out over every little scrape and cut, and blame schools for every injury their little angels receive. Not every paper cut needs neosporin and band-aids, haha.

 

When I download songs, it's mainly through the youtube-to-mp3 converter. I can grab any YouTube video and convert it to an audio file using that website, which is pretty handy, haha. Being able to torrent high quality movies sounds nice, but I still feel safer just hunting down a website with video players, ahaha........... Inside Out was definitely a pleasure to watch and I'm really glad that you recommended it to me! The humor was on point and perfectly placed. I absolutely loved it! Nah, my mom was the one who wanted to watch Jurassic World, lol. She didn't understand Inside Out at all and thought it was silly. She did, however, enjoy Jurassic World a lot more for some reason. Pshh, adults.

 

How can you judge your enjoyment solely based on how attractive the characters are...? jk, everything and everyone in Lucky Star were disgustingly moe. I'm being 100 percent honest when I say that one of the main reasons why I dropped it was because the character designs irritated my eyes. It actually hurt to watch it. I'm not even kidding. I know Ping Pong might look "ugly", but I found it really artistic and creative. And I know the F/Z that ufotable adapted also looked loads better than studio deen's. The "pretty" art definitely added to my enjoyment. I'll never be able to watch studio deen's adaptation after seeing ufotable's, to be honest. Then again, Steins;Gate doesn't have the best art but it's still a good anime? Wow, I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. I'm contradicting myself all over the place. Studio deen's art isn't even that bad. Yeahh, I don't think I managed to get my point across. I'm kinda just rambling on now. Ehem, sorry about that. Ohh, and I think I'll add Kino no Tabi to my list of Plan to Watch. It looks interesting, haha.

 

Waaaiittt, you mean PC version of Cave Story, right? Just wanted to make sure we're on the same page, haha. Actually, I think Cave Story was intended to be a free download, lol. If you wanted to pay for it, you'd have to get Cave Story+ or the 3D version. But anyways, the 3D version has gotten generally positive reviews, but the original was just to my preference. I'm probably being too harsh since the change in graphics wasn't to my liking. Plus, I've never played it in person on an actual 3DS. If you want to see the differences between the different versions, you can refer to this chart. If anything, I think it would be better to play the original first, then experience the 3D if you wanted to give it a shot, haha. Whaa, you can adjust your laptop size? Might I ask what brand your laptop is? Nope, I still have my classic Windows 7. Windows 10 looks incredibly sleek, but I think I'll wait a bit before I upgrade. It's still relatively new so I want to see what others have to say before I convert.

 

Ohh, that sounds kinda fun. I've never done a full-on dissection before. The last time I did one was in third grade when we dissected owl pellets, lol. I wouldn't exactly call it a dissection though. I'm planning to take an anatomy class this coming school year, which we'll dissect cats (and sharks?) in. A few of my friends in the UMich program got to do a cat dissection in their class. Still don't regret taking the orgo class though, heh. Since you said this course was just to get your feet wet, does your school not offer a freshman bio class?

 

My sleep schedule is messed up though, lol. During the program, I still found myself sleeping at 2am at times knowing that I had to make sure I woke up before 8am. 6-8 hours of sleep is far from bad. Definitely better than the 4 hours I was averaging on most school nights. My head hurts even thinking about it. Honestly, what was I doing to myself, ugh. But even with the 6-8 hours of sleep, I found myself dozing off. I can't be saved. This never happened in middle school even in the most boring history class (sorry man, ahaha...). In fact, I never dozed off until sophomore year hit. And ever since then, I found myself nodding off with even sufficient amount of sleep. Like geez, I used to love documentaries, but I can't sit through one without dozing off anymore. Oh yeah, lab reports can suck. Can't argue with you there. It's like when you get to watch a movie in class but the teacher forces you to take notes. Kinda takes the fun out of it.

 

Yuup, I've thrown my glass ball on the ground for fun, but I'm too afraid to slam it. Apparently, if it lands too hard on the little nub on its side, it'll shatter, soooo....................................... Oh nonono, it was nothing, lol. I didn't have any use for the glass vase. If I took it home, it would just sit on my desk collecting dust. Thank you though, haha.

 

Nah, I think we were forced into those dorms because they were close to the science facilities, haha. Not that I'm complaining or anything.......... Actually, Michigan has been kind to us with the summer weather this year. Not too many thunderstorms, mainly sunny days, and usually in the 70s-80s. I think last year was mainly in the 80s-90s, but hey, I'm not complaining. Opening the windows sometimes helps with the stuffiness. Sometimes the house is cooler than outside, sometimes it's warmer. Sometimes opening the window makes it worse, lol. Ohio shouldn't be too bad. If I end up going to Case, I probably wouldn't notice any difference. I did ask the admissions counselor this question though, "if you could change one thing about Case, what would it be?" and she replied with the weather. I think she was mainly referring to the winter though, since lake effect snow can be a problem. Or maybe not, since you seem to have an affinity for snow, haha. 

 

Ahaha, you're not alone. I'm not exactly attuned with western cinema either. I just watch whatever looks interesting most of the time (if I find the opportunity). I've heard names of actors thrown around here and there, but I never bothered to figure out their faces. Except for maybe actors like Leo Dicaprio or Jennifer Lawrence or something. Hell, I've read all the Harry Potter books but haven't seen most of the movies. Read the Hunger Games but watched Catching Fire only because it was playing on a bus ride. In fact, most of the movies I've watched were either watched during class or during a trip. I only discovered 21 Jump Street after a few friends forced me to watch it during our HOSA states trip. I only discovered The Interview during one of my friends' birthday parties. I only watched The Lorax during some downtime in AP Bio. You get the gist. And quite frankly, it's kinda embarrassing since I rarely go the movie theater nowadays. Maybe a couple of times a year at most. It's definitely something I'm looking to change once I head off to college. I'm not much better when it comes to anime, to be honest. I guess I found myself connecting Yuki's seiyuu to child Eren's seiyuu after realizing that they both sounded eerily similar. Once again, I just watch whatever looks interesting, haha. I've watched many of Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki's films if that counts as anything. Yeah, I know. I pretty much live under a rock. The adrenaline rush from horror movies is what makes them appealing. It's kind of.....exciting. This is coming from a person who rarely indulges in movies so I don't know how much merit that statement holds.

 

You actually didn't miss anything. I still don't have my license, lol. I could've sworn that I mentioned something about my permit during one of my previous responses (I got it during sophomore year, so it wasn't anything too recent). I can't seem to find it though, so maybe I never really did tell you about it. Apologies for my crappy memory, ahaha..... Ohh, you're working your way towards a license too? I guess we're both in the same boat then, haha. I only have my permit, but I really want my license asap. It's gotten to the point where asking for rides, whether it's from my parents or a friend, feels too troubling. I also want to be able to drive myself to school because I could use the extra sleep. Driving myself from point A to point B isn't difficult, but it's the parking I'm struggling with. Actually, I just can't back in. Parallel parking is okay and heading in usually isn't a problem, but I can't back in even if my life depended on it. I don't know why. I was breezing through it last summer, but geez, I don't know why I'm having so much trouble with it now. I must've gotten stupider because even my dad was dumbfounded. He ended up scolding me and ranting to my mom for wasting his time. I don't blame him though; I was pretty frustrated myself. I've been practicing my highway driving (as you could tell from my trip back from Ann Arbor), and my parents also forced me behind the wheel on our way back from Case. Now, if I could just learn how to back in, that would be splendid. Be careful if you decide to practice during winter break! Driving in the snow can be a real pain and it's always scary driving on black ice, especially if it's going to be your first experience. 

 

To be perfectly honest, I rarely cry over things I see online. Woman stabbed 12 times? Nah. Child hero who sacrificed his life for his dog? Nope. Sure, I'll feel something (whether it's a tinge of sadness or faith in humanity restored), but it's nothing I'd cry over. Iwata's passing was an exception since he had a profound effect on my life, and even then, it wasn't until I was in bed before I realized that. Heck, I've never cried over any show or movie (jk, Steins;Gate movie got to me, but only a little). So when I saw your message, I was relatively surprised at myself trying to blink away some tears. I've never really "happy cried" before. I wasn't sobbing or anything, but the two tears that I had to manually wipe away were enough for me to consider it a cry. Congrats, you're the first person to ever make me happy cry, haha. Ahh, and it's a relief knowing that you wouldn't pull me away if I gave you the biggest hug I could muster, because I would need some way to redistribute my happiness after reading such a message. Since there was no one to hug that night, I just ended up squeezing my pillow. Well, I don't really consider myself the romantic type, and I didn't expect my message to come off that way either. Sorry if it seemed out of character, ehehe..........  but I felt like your sentiment was worth acknowledging. Hmm, morphogenetic field? I'm willing to accept that explanation, heh. If you just took a step back to look at how ridiculously extensive our responses have become, I think you and I would both agree that no one sane would bother digging through these, lol. But if someone did, I'm willing to bet that they'd never let us live it down, especially considering the kind of content we've been sending to each other lately. Actually, I'm still surprised that none of the mods seem to care that we completely overtook this thread.

 

Ahaha, I appreciate your enthusiasm! Even though the tuition is on the lower end compared to schools like Tufts and Carnegie Mellon, it's still going to put a hole in my parents' wallets. I want to make sure I can get some form of scholarship if I do get accepted, so I'm going to aim for Early Action. My parents might be on the fence about this since UMich is loads cheaper, but I think I made a fair point after they saw how pleased I was with Case (I could tell that they were also pretty happy about what they saw). I'm prepared to argue for it if I have to, haha. Of course, this is all under the assumption that I do end up getting accepted to Case (currently praying to the gods right now). 

 

Gosh, I really hope the interview went as well as I thought it did. Oh, and the Inside Out conversation came about after she asked me some things I've done in my free time. Inside Out was the first thing that came to mind and we just trailed off for a few minutes after that, lol. I briefly mentioned stargazing, but also noted that I couldn't do it in Troy because of light pollution. As it turns out, she also actively stargazes! And then she told me how Cleveland has some great stargazing spots, much to my surprise. If I end up getting accepted into Case, I'll take you up on your offer; I'd love to go stargazing with you sometime, haha. I just mailed the message a couple of days ago. I even bought some stationery and a pastel purple envelope. It's not the most formal thing in the world, but I figured she would like it. And interestingly enough, she actually sent me a thank-you email on Monday, which I thought was kinda nice.

 

Yeahh, Cleveland isn't exactly ideal, but I guess it's fine as long as you're not roaming around by yourself. We didn't stay long enough to watch the debate. My parents wanted to leave as early as possible since they had to go to work the next day. We left right before five, so we just missed it. I'm not really into politics and I don't think my parents are either, but it would've been neat to watch the presidential debate, haha. It almost makes me regret missing out on such an opportunity. It's really a shame since we could've drove there right after the interview, gah.

 

I hope you have loads of fun at Case! Let me know how it goes after you've settled down, and don't sweat it! Good luck

[Uchiha Shadow 44]

COD: MW3.

[Akazora 293]

asdkklsfjhkdfjhdkfjsdfjkg ohmygosh the OnePlus 2 is gorgeous. And the price, oomph. I almost want to break my iPhone on the cement just to have the excuse to get a OnePlus 2. Kidding, my parents would murder me if I did that. It looks like I'm only able to get one through invite though, hmm..... well anyways, I know which phone I'm getting once my iPhone runs out of steam, heh.

 

On the top right corner of each Facebook post, there's a faint downward pointing arrow. If you click on it, there's the option to "unfollow" that person without "unfriending" him/her. If you click on that option, you won't see his/her posts on your newsfeed anymore. Also, if you only want to see updates from pages you've "Liked", there's a link titled with "Pages Feed" on the left sidebar somewhere (or use CTRL+F if you're feeling lazy). And no problem!

 

When I gave my friend my water bottle, I expected her to fountain it or something, but she ended up drinking it straight through her mouth. Normally, I wouldn't have minded too much, but she was sick the day before. I figured it would be best just to let her have the rest of it. Gomenasai, Tohsaka. The headache wasn't anything serious. Even though it didn't completely dissipate until Friday afternoon, it was most certainly bearable. No need to worry. Yeahh, I'm just as surprised as you are. I can't believe it's already mid August. Just a few months ago I was raving about how great this summer would be, sigh. I think I have a topic I want to write about now. It's very, very rough though. So rough that even I don't know where it's going at the moment. I have my first paragraph written out so far and I think it's okay. I really hope I don't end up eating my words because I'm desperate right now, ahahaha... Thanks for taking the time to help me brainstorm! 

 

I should really give Google a lot more credit. The quotation option was what helped me narrow down which game it was. Afterwards, the wikia page helped me figure out which aspect of the game you were referring to. And finally, the YouTube playthrough. I'm grateful that YouTube implemented the timeline feature since it really helped me skim through the videos. Nope, I still can't get over how you managed to figure out my city location from the insignificant comments I made. I still can't believe it. I only figured out your name through your puzzle and the band website. You actually pieced together seemingly unrelated information in order to figure out where I live. You're not giving yourself enough credit; what you did is incredible, seriously, haha. I'm still baffled.

 

I wanted to take your word for it in case I really was missing out on the greatness of Morphogenetic Sorrow, haha. It's an emotional piece for sure, but it's just too depressing for my taste, ehehe......... I mean, I have a playlist of a few really nice emotional pieces I've come across, but I rarely listen to them since they can kinda affect my mood a bit.

 

Geezus Nintendo, thank you for being awesome! But I still need to thank you for informing me about this! Argh, there are a crap load of games I want to get. Smash is on the top of my list though. I probably won't be allowed more than two games (I'll be lucky if my parents even let me get two games). Smash seems to have a high replay value, so I might end up getting that first. This decision is subject to change, but this is where I stand at the moment. The package just arrived today and dklgdskghkdjghsklhjklj fsdklgjdfklghs fdkjghjssdfkjghlskhjfd AHHHHHH!!<3 I was able to take the 3DS out of the box and hold it. It was magical. I'm absolutely ecstatic. It has a shiny finish, and a few minor scratches on the front and on the circle pad. It's not a big deal though since they're just small little details that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. I'm still so excited! The packaging was also pretty nice and easy to open, like you said. It felt like Christmas when I was opening it! My parents didn't seem to mind since I can't really use it anyway, lol. Still, I gave it to them to let them hold onto it in order to keep my promise. Even though Nintendo held the sale, you were the one who told me about it. Honestly, what would I do without you, haha.

 

One of my most vivid memories from that trip was when a vendor offered my sister a sample while we were in Italy. She was 17 at the time and didn't realize that the sample was wine. She was above the legal drinking age there, but it was still funny seeing her reaction after she drank it and realized what it was. I didn't know it was wine either, but it's not like the vendor would've offered it to a 12 year old, lol. Ohh, Canada? I rarely get the chance to go to Canada, except when we have to cut through the border to drive up to Brandeis... the last time I remember actually staying there was during my sister's piano competition in Toronto, which was a looonggg time ago. I haven't gone any farther into the country than that. How was Nova Scotia? Key West was definitely a lot of fun. I still have the butterfly sticker from the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory stuck on the door of my old room, haha. I've gone on three cruises total. Caribbean, Europe, and Mexico. The trip to Mexico wasn't as great as the previous two but it was still fun. Ahhh, I still can't believe you've never gone to California before. Geezus man, get your head outta the gutter! Nah, kidding. It's like Florida but not as humid. Which parts of China have you visited?

 

lol, that's exactly how I felt about the online chem class I took.... except that I still didn't take it as seriously as I should've. I'm probably not going to take another online course again just because of how easy it is to lose motivation. Nah, it's just me being salty about how much summer I lost that year but seriously, how can you lose 4-6 hours of summer each day and not be salty. I'm glad to see that you're taking it relatively well though! 

 

Ahhh, so many things I want to do, but so little time! I guess Longwood Gardens is going on my bucket list then, haha.

 

Funny enough, Case's mascot is the same mascot as UMich's rival school's, Michigan State. I've always been a UMich supporter, so you can see my reluctance to become a Michigan State Spartan. Ohh, the irony. Snapchat is almost like a way to post statuses. Everyone who follows you can see what you post. So if you want the world to know that you're at some states competition, you can "snap" a picture of yourself with the caption "#states turn uppp" or something like that. Or if you just want a friend to be jealous of some cake you're eating, you can "snap" a picture of that and send that to him/her. Snapchat is a little more public than a text, and I guess people find it fun that they can add captions and doodle on the pictures they take, lol. Alsoo, what's Fresh class? I've never heard of it before, haha.

 

Ahaha, my parents are exactly the same! Every time we vacation over the summer everyone's forced to lather on insane amounts of sunscreen. And we have to wear hats too, lol. My parents are really big on sunscreen, but I think it's the same for most Asian parents. Despite this, I still got pretty tan this summer. I have a prominent fade tan on my upper arms from all the t-shirts I've worn. I also have a pretty bad skirt tan from tennis season, and don't get me started on my watch tan, dear lord. The underside of my arm is also really pale. It got pretty bad during the school year when my friends and even a few of my teachers commented on how tan I've gotten. Nah, I don't think I'll be too over-protective if I ever decide to have children. Parents these days freak out over every little scrape and cut, and blame schools for every injury their little angels receive. Not every paper cut needs neosporin and band-aids, haha.

 

When I download songs, it's mainly through the youtube-to-mp3 converter. I can grab any YouTube video and convert it to an audio file using that website, which is pretty handy, haha. Being able to torrent high quality movies sounds nice, but I still feel safer just hunting down a website with video players, ahaha........... Inside Out was definitely a pleasure to watch and I'm really glad that you recommended it to me! The humor was on point and perfectly placed. I absolutely loved it! Nah, my mom was the one who wanted to watch Jurassic World, lol. She didn't understand Inside Out at all and thought it was silly. She did, however, enjoy Jurassic World a lot more for some reason. Pshh, adults.

 

How can you judge your enjoyment solely based on how attractive the characters are...? jk, everything and everyone in Lucky Star were disgustingly moe. I'm being 100 percent honest when I say that one of the main reasons why I dropped it was because the character designs irritated my eyes. It actually hurt to watch it. I'm not even kidding. I know Ping Pong might look "ugly", but I found it really artistic and creative. And I know the F/Z that ufotable adapted also looked loads better than studio deen's. The "pretty" art definitely added to my enjoyment. I'll never be able to watch studio deen's adaptation after seeing ufotable's, to be honest. Then again, Steins;Gate doesn't have the best art but it's still a good anime? Wow, I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. I'm contradicting myself all over the place. Studio deen's art isn't even that bad. Yeahh, I don't think I managed to get my point across. I'm kinda just rambling on now. Ehem, sorry about that. Ohh, and I think I'll add Kino no Tabi to my list of Plan to Watch. It looks interesting, haha.

 

Waaaiittt, you mean PC version of Cave Story, right? Just wanted to make sure we're on the same page, haha. Actually, I think Cave Story was intended to be a free download, lol. If you wanted to pay for it, you'd have to get Cave Story+ or the 3D version. But anyways, the 3D version has gotten generally positive reviews, but the original was just to my preference. I'm probably being too harsh since the change in graphics wasn't to my liking. Plus, I've never played it in person on an actual 3DS. If you want to see the differences between the different versions, you can refer to this chart. If anything, I think it would be better to play the original first, then experience the 3D if you wanted to give it a shot, haha. Whaa, you can adjust your laptop size? Might I ask what brand your laptop is? Nope, I still have my classic Windows 7. Windows 10 looks incredibly sleek, but I think I'll wait a bit before I upgrade. It's still relatively new so I want to see what others have to say before I convert.

 

Ohh, that sounds kinda fun. I've never done a full-on dissection before. The last time I did one was in third grade when we dissected owl pellets, lol. I wouldn't exactly call it a dissection though. I'm planning to take an anatomy class this coming school year, which we'll dissect cats (and sharks?) in. A few of my friends in the UMich program got to do a cat dissection in their class. Still don't regret taking the orgo class though, heh. Since you said this course was just to get your feet wet, does your school not offer a freshman bio class?

 

My sleep schedule is messed up though, lol. During the program, I still found myself sleeping at 2am at times knowing that I had to make sure I woke up before 8am. 6-8 hours of sleep is far from bad. Definitely better than the 4 hours I was averaging on most school nights. My head hurts even thinking about it. Honestly, what was I doing to myself, ugh. But even with the 6-8 hours of sleep, I found myself dozing off. I can't be saved. This never happened in middle school even in the most boring history class (sorry man, ahaha...). In fact, I never dozed off until sophomore year hit. And ever since then, I found myself nodding off with even sufficient amount of sleep. Like geez, I used to love documentaries, but I can't sit through one without dozing off anymore. Oh yeah, lab reports can suck. Can't argue with you there. It's like when you get to watch a movie in class but the teacher forces you to take notes. Kinda takes the fun out of it.

 

Yuup, I've thrown my glass ball on the ground for fun, but I'm too afraid to slam it. Apparently, if it lands too hard on the little nub on its side, it'll shatter, soooo....................................... Oh nonono, it was nothing, lol. I didn't have any use for the glass vase. If I took it home, it would just sit on my desk collecting dust. Thank you though, haha.

 

Nah, I think we were forced into those dorms because they were close to the science facilities, haha. Not that I'm complaining or anything.......... Actually, Michigan has been kind to us with the summer weather this year. Not too many thunderstorms, mainly sunny days, and usually in the 70s-80s. I think last year was mainly in the 80s-90s, but hey, I'm not complaining. Opening the windows sometimes helps with the stuffiness. Sometimes the house is cooler than outside, sometimes it's warmer. Sometimes opening the window makes it worse, lol. Ohio shouldn't be too bad. If I end up going to Case, I probably wouldn't notice any difference. I did ask the admissions counselor this question though, "if you could change one thing about Case, what would it be?" and she replied with the weather. I think she was mainly referring to the winter though, since lake effect snow can be a problem. Or maybe not, since you seem to have an affinity for snow, haha. 

 

Ahaha, you're not alone. I'm not exactly attuned with western cinema either. I just watch whatever looks interesting most of the time (if I find the opportunity). I've heard names of actors thrown around here and there, but I never bothered to figure out their faces. Except for maybe actors like Leo Dicaprio or Jennifer Lawrence or something. Hell, I've read all the Harry Potter books but haven't seen most of the movies. Read the Hunger Games but watched Catching Fire only because it was playing on a bus ride. In fact, most of the movies I've watched were either watched during class or during a trip. I only discovered 21 Jump Street after a few friends forced me to watch it during our HOSA states trip. I only discovered The Interview during one of my friends' birthday parties. I only watched The Lorax during some downtime in AP Bio. You get the gist. And quite frankly, it's kinda embarrassing since I rarely go the movie theater nowadays. Maybe a couple of times a year at most. It's definitely something I'm looking to change once I head off to college. I'm not much better when it comes to anime, to be honest. I guess I found myself connecting Yuki's seiyuu to child Eren's seiyuu after realizing that they both sounded eerily similar. Once again, I just watch whatever looks interesting, haha. I've watched many of Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki's films if that counts as anything. Yeah, I know. I pretty much live under a rock. The adrenaline rush from horror movies is what makes them appealing. It's kind of.....exciting. This is coming from a person who rarely indulges in movies so I don't know how much merit that statement holds.

 

You actually didn't miss anything. I still don't have my license, lol. I could've sworn that I mentioned something about my permit during one of my previous responses (I got it during sophomore year, so it wasn't anything too recent). I can't seem to find it though, so maybe I never really did tell you about it. Apologies for my crappy memory, ahaha..... Ohh, you're working your way towards a license too? I guess we're both in the same boat then, haha. I only have my permit, but I really want my license asap. It's gotten to the point where asking for rides, whether it's from my parents or a friend, feels too troubling. I also want to be able to drive myself to school because I could use the extra sleep. Driving myself from point A to point B isn't difficult, but it's the parking I'm struggling with. Actually, I just can't back in. Parallel parking is okay and heading in usually isn't a problem, but I can't back in even if my life depended on it. I don't know why. I was breezing through it last summer, but geez, I don't know why I'm having so much trouble with it now. I must've gotten stupider because even my dad was dumbfounded. He ended up scolding me and ranting to my mom for wasting his time. I don't blame him though; I was pretty frustrated myself. I've been practicing my highway driving (as you could tell from my trip back from Ann Arbor), and my parents also forced me behind the wheel on our way back from Case. Now, if I could just learn how to back in, that would be splendid. Be careful if you decide to practice during winter break! Driving in the snow can be a real pain and it's always scary driving on black ice, especially if it's going to be your first experience. 

 

To be perfectly honest, I rarely cry over things I see online. Woman stabbed 12 times? Nah. Child hero who sacrificed his life for his dog? Nope. Sure, I'll feel something (whether it's a tinge of sadness or faith in humanity restored), but it's nothing I'd cry over. Iwata's passing was an exception since he had a profound effect on my life, and even then, it wasn't until I was in bed before I realized that. Heck, I've never cried over any show or movie (jk, Steins;Gate movie got to me, but only a little). So when I saw your message, I was relatively surprised at myself trying to blink away some tears. I've never really "happy cried" before. I wasn't sobbing or anything, but the two tears that I had to manually wipe away were enough for me to consider it a cry. Congrats, you're the first person to ever make me happy cry, haha. Ahh, and it's a relief knowing that you wouldn't pull me away if I gave you the biggest hug I could muster, because I would need some way to redistribute my happiness after reading such a message. Since there was no one to hug that night, I just ended up squeezing my pillow. Well, I don't really consider myself the romantic type, and I didn't expect my message to come off that way either. Sorry if it seemed out of character, ehehe..........  but I felt like your sentiment was worth acknowledging. Hmm, morphogenetic field? I'm willing to accept that explanation, heh. If you just took a step back to look at how ridiculously extensive our responses have become, I think you and I would both agree that no one sane would bother digging through these, lol. But if someone did, I'm willing to bet that they'd never let us live it down, especially considering the kind of content we've been sending to each other lately. Actually, I'm still surprised that none of the mods seem to care that we completely overtook this thread.

 

Ahaha, I appreciate your enthusiasm! Even though the tuition is on the lower end compared to schools like Tufts and Carnegie Mellon, it's still going to put a hole in my parents' wallets. I want to make sure I can get some form of scholarship if I do get accepted, so I'm going to aim for Early Action. My parents might be on the fence about this since UMich is loads cheaper, but I think I made a fair point after they saw how pleased I was with Case (I could tell that they were also pretty happy about what they saw). I'm prepared to argue for it if I have to, haha. Of course, this is all under the assumption that I do end up getting accepted to Case (currently praying to the gods right now). 

 

Gosh, I really hope the interview went as well as I thought it did. Oh, and the Inside Out conversation came about after she asked me some things I've done in my free time. Inside Out was the first thing that came to mind and we just trailed off for a few minutes after that, lol. I briefly mentioned stargazing, but also noted that I couldn't do it in Troy because of light pollution. As it turns out, she also actively stargazes! And then she told me how Cleveland has some great stargazing spots, much to my surprise. If I end up getting accepted into Case, I'll take you up on your offer; I'd love to go stargazing with you sometime, haha. I just mailed the message a couple of days ago. I even bought some stationery and a pastel purple envelope. It's not the most formal thing in the world, but I figured she would like it. And interestingly enough, she actually sent me a thank-you email on Monday, which I thought was kinda nice.

 

Yeahh, Cleveland isn't exactly ideal, but I guess it's fine as long as you're not roaming around by yourself. We didn't stay long enough to watch the debate. My parents wanted to leave as early as possible since they had to go to work the next day. We left right before five, so we just missed it. I'm not really into politics and I don't think my parents are either, but it would've been neat to watch the presidential debate, haha. It almost makes me regret missing out on such an opportunity. It's really a shame since we could've drove there right after the interview, gah.

 

I hope you have loads of fun at Case! Let me know how it goes after you've settled down, and don't sweat it! Good luck

Oh, an invite huh?  I’m not sure how those work very well, but from what I can gather the OnePlus One was really hard to find when it first came out.  I wasn’t sure why at first, but I guess it may have also been invite only.  But of course, the OnePlus One was eventually put on their official website, available to purchase for anyone.  I wouldn’t worry about the availability of the OnePlus 2 just yet, but if you manage to get your hand your hand on an invite somehow, all the more power to you!  

 

Ahh I almost didn’t even see that arrow!  Haha, you sure do know your way around Facebook.  And yup, also found the Pages Feed link.  You’d think things like these would be a little more obvious, just because it seems like something a lot of people would be want given how quickly things on Facebook can be updated if you don’t check it very often.  Thanks again for the help!

 

If that was the situation, then I guess it’s forgivable, heh.  Well, I am glad that you were proactive enough to avoid potentially getting sick and it’s good to hear your headache wasn’t that bad (you better not be lying just to make me feel better).  Ohh you have a new topic!  I guess it must really be in its infancy as you say, if you can’t even drop a hint as to what it’s about.  Well, once you figure out where it’s going or once you get a first draft typed up, be sure to share it!  I’m always up for a good peer-editing and proofreading!  Though I don’t feel like I helped with the brainstorming very much, you’re welcome!

 

Hmm?  What quotation option on Google, and how did it help you narrow down the game?  Also, I just realized how risky going on the wikia and skimming through playthroughs was as you could have spoiled yourself!  I mean, sure, OoT isn’t a very plot driven game and it’s more about the puzzle solving and world exploration, but there were still a few moments that were kinda “plot” related that I was especially impressed by.  Oh my gosh, you refuse to back down on your claims.  I feel like parts of our conversations have just evolved into compliment contests, with neither of us willing to be outdone by the other’s flattering words.  Sigh, as much as I hate to admit it, I think you won this round, bleh.  Don’t worry, I think I’d be able to out-compliment you when it comes to birthday gifts any day!

 

Yup, Smash is something I’d recommending getting first, just because it has longevity.  The earlier you get a game like that, the better.  Not to mention, we’d be able to exchange friend codes and verse each other, heheheh.  Apart from just that though, you can milk its value as much as you want. Most people just unlock all the characters and stages, purchase the DLC (oh yeah, you have to take that into consideration when you plan financially), and call it a day, but it’s also possible to go full completionist.  If you really find yourself with a lot of time on your hands, you could complete all the Challenges, collect every trophy, unlock every character’s custom moves, beat all the single player modes (Classic, All-Star) on the hardest difficulty with every character, etc.  You can easily clock 100+ hours in the game if you aren’t careful try hard enough.  As for the second game you may also get right off the bat, there are a lot to choose from. Even if you won’t be getting XY or ORAS, you can buy either a Fire Emblem, Legend of Zelda, Zero Escape, or Ace Attorney game.  There’s nothing I’d personally recommend getting first, since hopefully you eventually get all of them, but just use common sense when choosing which installment in a series to get (Awakening before Fates, OoT before Majora’s Mask, Virtue’s Last Reward before ZE3 (god forbid you do it the other way around), and every Ace Attorney DS game before Dual Destinies).  Ahh, your 3DS has a shiny finish just like mine, so we match!  Yeah, mine also had a few minor scratches on the circlepad (easy to mark up with long nails, even if you’re careful) and a little bit of weathering elsewhere, but nothing that you can’t readily ignore.  Once again, I’m so happy you’re happy!  You sound so elated, it’s like it’s leaking through the computer and affecting me even, haha.

 

They’re pretty lenient over in Italy if they just hand out wine samples willy-nilly to anyone who just looks about 17, haha.  Welp, I guess technically your sister didn’t break any laws so she’s still in the green!  For whatever reason my parents are obsessed with going to Canada for vacation.  Probably the most visited travel hotspot for us, though admittedly the umbrella of Canada covers quite the extensive area.  I’ve been to Toronto a few times, Quebec I believe twice as well, and Montreal once.  Of course there’s Nova Scotia, and I’ve been up to Niagara Falls a total of five different times, never crossing the border but being close enough for it to almost count.  Ohh, you have to cut up through there to get to Brandeis?  That’s pretty neat, guess it would make the trip a bit faster.  I can barely remember the cruise to Nova Scotia, let alone the city of Halifax itself.  All I can recall is that it was a dreary and overcast day; that’s pretty much it, heh.  I was only in elementary school, so you’ll have to forgive me for that.  I remember the cruise to Key West really well (not Key West itself though… I know, that kinda defeats the purpose of going anywhere exotic at all…).  I don’t think I visited the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory though.  Gomen, I’ll get around to experiencing the paradise that is SoCal when I want to visit my sister.  Though, the more I think about it, I won’t be able to find much time until after I graduate, and before then my mom says that my sister plans on quitting her job at Disney and moving back to the east coast for a better occupation after getting her MBA at UCLA.  Which means… when am I going to go to California??  Ah well, can’t be helped, I’ll get around to it one day, eheh.  As for the places I’ve visited in China, there are a few.  The big cities like Beijing and Shanghai I’ve visited multiple times of course.  Apart from those, I’ve been to Shandong and Anhui Provinces (more specifically Jinan, Chengwu, and Weihai in Shandong; Wuhe and Bungbu in Anhui).  Chengwu, Shandong is where my mother was born, and Wuhe, Anhui is where my father was born.  There’s not much to say about what I did there though.  The common stuff, like eat massive dinners with extended family members and visit the local attractions, heh.

 

Ohohohoho, naw, not anymore.  I was taking my online courses somewhat seriously before, but now that I’m in college I can’t find the time or motivation for it.  I’ll just BS my way through the final exam to get the certificate, sigh…  It really wasn’t a good idea signing up for this thing.

 

Haha, that is kinda ironic.  Case’s sports are kinda meh, and you don’t actually really see their mascot on many things, so you might even forget they’re the Spartans.  In fact, I believe I accepted their offer to attend before I got around to Googling their mascot, eheheheh…  Yeah, I don’t know how either.  Hmm, still seems like just a weirdly gimmicky form of social media that somehow caught fire, but I guess there are some people who would find some use for it.  Oh my goodness, did I say “Fresh”??  I meant “French”, heh.  You see?  I wasn’t lying when I mentioned that I was kinda distracted and worrying about college stuff while I typed up my previous response.  Even with a proofreading check, I derped a lot of my words, bleh.  Sorry about that!

 

I thought I always tanned really easily, but you might have me beat.  I didn’t get too much darker over the summer, I don’t think at least.  I never got so tan that people felt the need to comment on it, except for after band camp during the summer between eighth grade and freshman year.  Though I do have permanently pale skin on my upper arms and underside of my arms, too, hahah.  I don’t know how some people can maintain such a consistent skin tone; it honestly amazes me.  Hmm, for some reason, I also forgot that skirts could give you tans.  I mean, obviously they do, but I guess because I clearly don’t wear skirts it’s just not something I think about, in the same way someone who never wears watches or bracelets would very rarely think about the weird tan lines they leave.

 

Ah, yeah, that used to be how I got music a while back.  But then I found that it wasn’t always possible to find songs on YouTube due to copyright claims and that the songs that were uploaded and then converted were always varying levels of downgraded quality.  I figured it would just be best to get the songs from the direct source, where the YouTube uploaders find them, and that’s through torrents or direct downloads that require hoop-jumping.  It can be a tedious and occasionally unsafe process, but I’ve gotten used to it.  If you’re more comfortable just converting, that’s cool too!  It’s good to have that “err on the side of caution” mindset.  A lot of silly teens/young adults our age royally screw up because they’re such risk takers.  Ohh, I wouldn’t give adults such a hard time.  You’re going to be an adult in a year (and I’m already one, oh my gosh………).  Maybe your mom just likes action movies to animated, “kid-oriented” ones?

 

When I meant attractiveness, I meant like, the “hotness” of the characters, and not so much the art style, but… well yeah, you bring up a good point, too!  Though… you don’t seem too sure about exactly what your claim is, hahah.  I know what you mean though, sometimes you like an anime because of its art style and other times you like an anime despite its art style.

 

Geeeezz, sorry again, just another brain-fart when I was rushed and distracted.  Yes, I meant Cave Story and not Super Meat Boy.  Ohh, the chart you linked me to is quite helpful!  As much as I wouldn’t mind paying up some money, even for just the eShop version of the game, I guess I’ll just get the free PC one.  Ahhh, it seems you’ve misunderstood or misread what I wrote.  I meant that I mentally adjusted to the new, larger screen after some time, which was an upgrade from my smaller laptop, not that the screen itself is adjustable, eheheheh……  Regardless though, my laptop is an HP.  I’m not really into tech stuff, so I’m not very sure if it’s a good brand and/or what the leaders in the industry are, but it gets the job done.  I’m guessing your laptop is beginning to show its age if it’s still running Windows 7, but what brand is yours?

 

I’m rather surprised you still haven’t done a full dissection before.  Though, it’s not like you’d be able to do one in JP either, since they don’t offer classes that involve dissections, let alone ones of cats and sharks!  The one I did in the summer course was the stereotypical frog dissection, the reason being that apparently frog anatomy is very similar to human anatomy in terms of relative size and placement of organs.  I dunno, it wasn’t very exciting, and just smelled a lot, ahah.  That was rather perceptive of you, though there actually is a freshman bio class.  The thing is… I didn’t take it.  Not because I didn’t want to, but because my eighth grade science teacher didn’t recommend me.  This is a bit embarrassing to admit, but it was most likely because I actually didn’t do too well in his class.  I did a nearly flawless job on the final roller coaster project at the end of the year (literally a 149/150) but that didn’t change his mind.  I was placed in “environmental science” in my freshman year which was pretty much just a harder version of middle school “science” and not really an actual subject, though it comes closest to bio.  From there, I had to take bio my sophomore year, chem my junior year, and AP Physics as well as AP Bio my senior year, which is exactly a year behind the majority of my peers and prevents me from even considering AP Physics 2 as a class (though I wasn’t planning on taking it anyway).  Though it was my fault I wasn’t placed in bio during freshman year, it was still hard not to be upset at my eighth grade teacher and salty over the whole situation in general.  I was in the minority group, stuck between the low non-honors classes and the most advanced honors bio class, ostracized from the social group I was a part of in every other subject.  I had to continuously explain and clarify that no, I wasn’t taking bio freshman year.  I was always met with puzzled looks and “but you look smart”s and “ohh”s followed by awkward silences.  Even in senior year, I still found myself explaining to people that when I complained about my physics class it wasn’t physics 2 I was talking about.  It was an awkward and embarrassing predicament that loomed over me like a dark cloud every moment of my high school life.  Was this silly reason the start of my strong dislike for science?  Yeah, probably.  Did I feel personally redeemed after getting an 800 on the Bio SAT II and a 4 on the AP Bio exam?  No, because I got disastrous chem and physics grades and got a 3 on my AP Physics 1 exam, which obviously doesn’t count for credit in Case.  Sooo yeah, that’s the story.  … I’m sorry, for rambling, you probably didn’t want to hear this and definitely didn’t expect me to be triggered by that simple question.  I honestly don’t even know what compelled me to type this up.  Though it’s public knowledge what classes I took to my fellow classmates, I’ve never told anyone how this made me feel, and that feeling is honestly a lot of upset-ness despite it being my fault.  I know, I don’t have the right to complain, I just had to have done better in middle school.  Sigh, I don’t know where I’m going with this, so…  Anyway, once again I’m sorry for bothering you with this.  Just… ignore this if it’s too much of a hassle to respond to this part of my post specifically; I won’t mind, honest.  Just needed a place to vent, I guess. 

 

Hmm, during this past week of orientation, I’ve gone to sleep between one and two in the morning, which I think is a fairly decent time given that some people stay up even later playing cards and that I wake up between anywhere from 7 to 11 in the morning depending on the next day's schedule.  But I haven’t dozed off during any boring speeches yet either, sooo yeah, your sleep schedule is still kinda off.  I don’t know how you can fix dozing off randomly though.  Just sufficient sleep doesn’t seem to fix the issue.  Perhaps your mattress isn’t comfortable for your body and you’re therefore not getting quality sleep regardless of quantity?  Some people need softer or firmer mattresses than usual, so maybe you can look into that.  I don’t know, I’m no master on sleep (far from it, as you may be able to tell, eheh).

 

I was planning on saving my Case first impressions ramble for later, but I have to bring this up now because it’s related to what you said.  Well, none of the freshman dorms have A/C… under normal conditions.  You’re allowed to have A/C units installed in your room if you cough up a few hundred dollars to the university.  Once those units are set up, they’re there permanently.  So sometimes, if you’re lucky, you may inherit a room from a previous, rather generous student who couldn’t stand the heat.  Aaaaaaaaand I’m one of those lucky people!  I have A/C in my room!  I almost can’t even believe it.  Very few people are in this situation.  I’m so happy, since I wouldn’t be able to sleep without it.  I feel like this is God’s way of saying He still loves me, even after putting me through the hell that was JP Stevens.  I’m so grateful, this is a lifesaver, oh my gosh.  However, it’s not all that great though.  Either the A/C unit is a lot worse than the ones UMich provided, or it’s just really damn hot here, because even with the thing on at full blast it’s barely enough to keep this little room at a comfy temperature.  I still sweat a bit trying to fall asleep, eheh.  But of course, that may just be my problem, hahaha.  Anyway, yeah, she was most likely talking about the weather.  I’ve chatted with some local Ohioans and they say that when it’s January and overcast and everything looks dead and it’s not snowing, it can be pretty depressing (uh oh, don’t you have this problem at Michigan as well?).  They say sunlight is good for you psychologically, which is why Alaska has such a high suicide rate, I think, though I’d take a dreary winter’s day over a sunny summer’s day almost any day.  Probably because the stress and mental trauma that comes with sweating profusely cancels out those psychological benefits…

 

Ahhh, more things we have in common!  Yeah, I only recognize the bigwig actors and actresses.  I’ve also read Harry Potter but just randomly watched only a handful of the movies.  I haven’t read or watched the Hunger Games though.  I didn’t watch any of those three, but I knew about 21 Jump Street, The Interview, and The Lorax though random YouTube trailers that I stumbled upon by chance and/or are on the front page.  Oh my, you’re embarrassed?  I average less than one theater visit per year, since some years I just never go out to the movies and every other year I only go out once.  I’m reeeaallly out of the loop, bleh.  And to add insult to injury, I’ve watched so many anime but have only seen a single Ghibli film, Grave of the Fireflies.  Literally, that’s it.  I think there’s a movie theater near Case, but I don’t know if I’ll bring myself to go there very often.  Maybe on the rare occasion I’m interested in a movie and am not patient enough to torrent it after the Blu-ray is released, like Star Wars VII or something.

 

Yes, I do believe you mentioned you had a permit in a previous response.  Though I think the bigger issue is that you can’t seem to find it.  Be sure to track that down soon, heh.  I actually decided to look up license requirements for Michigan out of curiosity and compare them to the ones for New Jersey.  What I found was actually pretty intriguing.  I guess the first thing that shocked me is how early you guys start working toward a license.  You technically can get a permit when you’re as young as 14 years and 9 months old??  That’s crazy, you have to be at least 16 in New Jersey.  Likewise, you can get an unrestricted license at 17 in Michigan instead of at 18 in Jersey.  Also, from the looks of it, the road to a license is significantly more difficult in Michigan than in Jersey.  You have to take two written tests instead of one over the course of the whole process (Of course, this also means the material you have to memorize for each test is less in comparison to the all-encompassing single test I had to take, so I guess it balances out.  Actually, since I had to pass the written test twice because I let my permit expire, I personally had the worst of both worlds…… damn).  Furthermore, you can’t advance from permit to restricted license to full license in Michigan without reaching hour requirements, while in New Jersey you’re only restricted by time.  As in, for you to get your intermediate license, you have to have held your permit for at least 6 months and prove you’ve completed 50 hours of driving, 10 of which occurred at night.  For me, to get my probationary license (NJ’s equivalent to MI’s intermediate license), I need to have held my examination/student’s permit (in my case, examination) for at least 6 months and… that’s it.  That’s literally it.  No required number of hours spent driving or anything.  Though, from the looks of it, there aren’t any hour requirements for you to complete when you go from your intermediate license to your full driver’s license, which is the same in Jersey where we only have time as a restriction going from probationary to unrestricted license.  Still though, I can see how NJ produces some really bad drivers.  In my case, I could theoretically cheat the system like this:  Since I have an examination and not a student’s permit, I don’t have to take an otherwise required 6 hour driver’s course.  That means I can theoretically practice studying the day before six months is up and take the driver’s test the next day.  The cramming is just enough to barely pass the test.  Then I hold only my probationary license for an entire year and don’t drive at all.  Finally, I get a full, unrestricted license once a year passes.  In summation, I legally obtained a legit driver’s license usable anywhere in the country, and I drove for literally only two days of my life, and that was a year ago.  Hory shet, what a broken system.  And that won’t be the only thing broken thing if I try driving on, like, an icy highway or something with a license obtained in that manner.  Well, regardless of theory, I’m fairly certain I’m not nearly that talented or lucky to pull off a ridiculous stunt like that.  But I do know that I won’t be practicing driving much, since I can only do it during breaks.  My sister followed a similar path as mine, except she started with a student’s permit, and she practically had to relearn how to drive before moving to California since she had no use for a license in New York City and hadn’t driven in years.  Blehhh, thinking along those lines, even when I get a full license by the time I’m twenty, if I have to relearn how to drive after college, then I won’t actually be able to get myself around town on my own until I’m 22.  Oh my gosh, I will have failed at life, being able to not rely on asking someone else for a ride a whopping four to five years after my peers is fairly embarrassing………  Well, looking on the bright side, I don’t ever have a use for driving.  I don’t go to the mall or the movies or anything and there’s nowhere I really ever find myself needing or wanting to be apart from home/in my dorm.  And in high school, if I had driven myself to school, I wouldn’t have gotten any more sleep than usual since my dad always sent me to school barely on time anyway, sooo…  Wait, I feel like you might have mentioned this a long time ago and I’m sorry for forgetting, but how do you get to school in the morning?  I’m guessing by bus if driving yourself to school allows you to wake up later?  And oh my gosh, don’t say that!  Of course you didn’t get stupider from last summer just because you can’t back in any more.  Stuff like that happens all the time, especially if you step away from something for a while trying to return to it.  Instruments, Smash Bros, driving, anything that requires technical finesse of some kind.  It’s probably even harder now, because the first time you backed in a year ago it was your first time and you knew that messing up would be natural.  Now that you’re expected to perform, messing up gets you more flustered than usual and therefore prevents you from clearly assessing the situation and fixing the problem.  It’s not helping that your dad got angry at you.  I know this advice might be coming too late just because it’s been so long since you typed up your response, but calm down, take deep breaths, and I’m sure you’ll be fine!  Hope your driving goes well!  Along the same train of thought, though I won’t start practicing myself until at least winter break (finals end on December 16th and classes start back up January 11th) I do appreciate your concern and I will definitely be careful! The snow is really not that bad in New Jersey, so I’m sure more days than not the roads will be clear of ice, let alone black ice.

 

Y-you’ve never cried during a show or movie (save for the Steins;Gate movie, kinda)?  O-o-oh my… [recalls all the anime, manga, and movies that brought me to tears]  You might just be made of stronger stuff than me, eheheheheh………  While I do feel like I’ve also been desensitized to sensationalism, there are a fair amount of things out there that can really take a toll on my emotions, ahah.  Not as much as it can some people, but I’m no unwavering statue either.  Ahhh, and it’s awfully flattering to know I’m the first person to make you happy cry.  From a quick Google search, there are some guys actively attempting to make their significant other cry tears of joy.  It wasn’t even my intention, I just said how I felt, and… well… hahah.  Ummm, and oh geez, you ended up squeezing your pillow to redistribute your happiness?  Oh gosh, if we meet in real life, we both owe each other lots of hugs.  There have already been so many times I’ve just wanted to give you a big hug as well, heh.  Oh no no no, you don’t have to apologize for sounding out of character!  I, uhh, actually didn’t mind, at all…  Hahaha, and yeah, if what we’ve been doing is ever exposed it would end up being quite the situation.  Whenever I see someone posting in the thread that’s not one of us, my heart skips a beat because I fear that the cat is finally out of the bag, hah.  Yeah, I’m not too sure why the mods aren’t giving us a hard time about this either.  Wh-what if they’ve been reading our exchange this whole time and think it’s funny so they’re letting it slide???  [insert conspiracy Keanu meme here]

 

Cool, Early Action is what I did as well!  Though you’re aiming for Case Western now, which other backup schools are you going to be applying to?  And I’m sure if I managed to convince my stubborn mom to let me attend a private institution hundreds of miles away from home as opposed to a public one just twenty minutes away, you’ll be able to persuade your parents as well.  And yes, you’ve worked hard these past three-plus years to be dealt a good hand, and once you finish your college essays the final piece of the puzzle will be in place.  Then you just need to spin the wheel and hope for the best!  I’ll pray for you as well, haha.

 

With stationary like that and an e-mail in reply, I’m sure the interview went splendidly!  Ah, so that’s how Inside Out and stargazing worked their way into the conversation.  Ohh, and she stargazes, too?  I’m definitely going to have to look up some of those stargazing spots she might be talking about and check them out.  Actually, there's a psychics and astrology club at Case, which I'll be checking out.  They don't meet very often, so I should be able to work it into my schedule.

 

Well, speaking of Case, I guess I’ll give you a rundown of how orientation went!  Officially, orientation isn’t over, since there are still events planned for today and tomorrow, but all the big events happened on Monday through Wednesday.  Things really slowed down Thursday and Friday, and today as well as tomorrow there’s almost nothing to do expect wait for classes to start on Monday.  I’ll try not to ramble too much (in case you have PTSD from reading about my Orlando trip or something…) but I also want to make up for the lack of a response last week, so I’ll still be writing a fair amount!

 

I left New Jersey Saturday morning and arrived at a bordering town to sleep in a hotel later that evening.  It was about an eight hour drive, and nothing really happened. I believe I slept most of the time, ahah.  Actually, to back track for a bit, sneaking out my Smash 3DS XL as well as my old DS was more difficult than I thought.  My parents were all over the suitcases and boxes, organizing, rearranging, and putting things into them.  I was afraid they’d stumble upon my games if I put them in a box early, so I waited and waited and finally, right before we got in the car to leave, I found the very brief chance to stuff everything into one of two backpacks (yeahh, I don’t know either).  After that, I made sure to guard that backpack like a hawk and so if someone needed something from in there for whatever reason, I was the one to fetch it.  It made the trip to Case safely and my parents didn’t suspect a thing, heheheheh.  Though, I’ll admit I’ve been too busy to even play any of my video games, ironically enough.  Orientation was crazy busy, believe it or not.  Ahh, and to backtrack even more, I bought multiple new shoes!  You might recall me mentioning that I only ever wear one pair of sneakers for an entire year before it falls apart and I buy a new one.  Well, I decided to change that.  My go-to shoes are these pair of sneakers that aren’t even really sneakers.  Like, they’re made out of this soft material, but they aren’t loafers and the have laces and stuff but they aren’t sneakers.  They’re just… shoes I guess.  This is what I’ll be wearing on most days, whenever I need to walk and go about my day.  Apart from that, I have a pair of heavy-duty shoes.  They aren’t boots, but they’re brown and will be good for hiking or walking in slight mud, so perhaps really rainy days.  I also got my first pair of boots, which I’ll use for snowy and icy winter days.  Finally I bought two (only brought one to college though) true sneakers, ones that are thin and flexible and everything, which I’ll use for jogging and any other form of exercise that would be hindered by my black not-really-sneakers shoes.  As you can see, my footwear collection has really grown, ahahah.  It’ll take some getting used to, but I hope they serve me well!  And apart from clothes and just simple living appliances, I didn’t buy anything else of note for college, so I’ll move on to actual stuff about Case…

 

You already know I got surprise A/C in my dorm room, which was great, so I won’t talk about that.  As for the rest of the room, it’s pretty standard.  Beds you can bunk or keep closer to the ground, a desk with a little shelf on top for books, a three-layer cabinet, and a closet with storage space up top as well as a mini-cabinet inside.  You can open the windows to let the air in (though I never need to, ufufufufufu).  I found room on the wall to hang up my Saber scroll, hah.  And I kept my bed not bunked.  It’s high enough to allow for storage space underneath (suitcases, boxes, water bottles) of course, but it’s fairly easy to get on.  My roommate is also a nice guy.  He’s actually considered an international student, despite being from Georgia.  As I mentioned before, he’s Korean.  Unfortunately his English isn’t that good, especially not when compared to some international students I’ve met.  Like, seriously, some of them have impeccable pronunciation and are comfortable and familiar with American slang and colloquialism, it’s insane.  He likes anime and is a fan of the Fate series.  He spends quite a bit of time on his phone (I think there’s a game on there he really likes to play) and on his computer, but then again, I spend a lot of time on my computer too, soooo…  While he’s not much of a conversationalist just given the language barrier, he’s friendly enough.  Goes to sleep at a decent hour, isn’t obnoxious about anything, and just happily keeps to himself.  We’ll get along well enough, that’s for sure.  As for the rest of my floormates, they’re pretty cool too, I guess.  I don’t talk to them very often though.  Some floors are super open about things, so they keep their doors open and unlocked for people to walk in and out, and some of my floormates do the same.  I keep my door closed whether I’m out or in it, since I’m many times watching anime and don’t want to be disturbed.  Not to mention, nice as everyone is, there’s still the possibility of theft.  Funnily enough though, the only other person from my high school to also attend Case this year actually ended up on the same floor as me, completely by chance, hah.  Overall though, my floor is a bit too… party-oriented, for lack of a better term.  Though some floors are co-ed (I believe the third floor of every building), the fourth and second floors are always single-gendered.  I’m on the fourth floor of Taplin, and so my floor consists of all guys.  The really social “jocks” on my floor love to bring people upstairs, usually girls, and chat and play cards all night long.  Like, seriously, usually up until two or three in the morning before my residential assistant (RA) kicks the strangers out.  Some of these girls come from other buildings and not just floors below, so they actually have to walk back to their dorms in the dark.  They can be super rowdy too, and even with music playing modestly loud in my room I can hear their shenanigans through the walls, from across the floor.  I’m really not for this at all, and I do hope they settle down once classes actually start.  I may sound pretty critical of them, but they’re still nice people.  Even the womanizers that really run the floors and stay up late “partying” were nice enough to let me in on a game of Melee when I walked by an open door and saw that one of them had a television and system set up in his room.  Don’t worry though, I’ve talked to a lot of people this past week and it seems like my floor is an outlier.  They’re definitely the rowdiest floor in my building, probably the rowdiest floor in all of the Juniper residential college, and one of the rowdiest in the entire northern residential village.  If you’re having concerns about potentially getting a bothersome floor, you most likely won’t, ahah.

 

So, orientation consisted of a lot of things and I don’t want to give you all the details, not just because it’ll take too long, but also because I’d like for you to experience a lot of these firsthand if you come to Case.  To get one thing out of the way, there are events for parents and other family members to attend for the first two days (Monday and Tuesday) and they occasionally coincide with the events freshman have.  One of the first things you do is meet up with your Orientation Leader (OL) and group.  An OL is pretty much an upper classman who will be your guide for the first few days and leader for activities around campus.  Together with a group of just about under 20 freshman, consisting of fellow members of the same residential college (in my case Juniper, as I mentioned before), you will be led from event to event during the entire day.  There are all kinds of things, ranging from info sessions, tours of important facilities, group discussions and ice-breakers, mini-games, job and club fairs, the whole nine yards.  The days are fun but long, spanning from 8 am to up to 11 pm, with minimal breaks in between.  This is only the case for Tuesday and Wednesday though.  After that, there are less required events for you to attend and less meetings with your OL.  Orientation is really nice, since they gently and gradually ease you into the college life.  First, you’re still with your parents, as well as an OL and a strict schedule.  Then eventually your parents leave, the first step of being independent.  After that, the schedule becomes loose, and there are less and less required events to attend and more optional programs.  Then you finally stop meeting with your OL, and you’re moving around on and off campus without a supervisor, familiarizing yourself with the lay of the land without being led around.  And once classes start on Monday, you’ll be fully prepared!  It’s actually quite a good strategy to get freshman acclimated to a new environment.

 

Hmm, and I guess as for friends, I’ve kinda made a few.  During orientation, there’s a really big focus on just putting yourself out there and meeting new people.  It’s encouraged to just walk up to a stranger and make small talk, whenever and where ever.  I’ve kinda done this, usually when I’m at the dining hall and need to find a seat.  It’s common to just approach a table and ask if you can sit there, and if you’re lucky enough you hit it off with the people there.  If you’re unlucky, then, well… you can just finish eating and leave after exchanging a few polite words, no harm done.  I don’t think I’ve really, truly clicked with anyone, at least not in the same way I did with you (we’re so similar, it’s scary) but I’ve met agreeable people at the very least.  The hardest thing I guess is finding people interested in business, let alone accounting.  Everyone here is studying engineering or medicine or something, so I know I will most likely not be seeing much of them around campus since I won’t be sharing classes with them.  Once classes start up on Monday though, I’ll probably make more established and enduring friends, rather than just a hodgepodge of acquaintances, ahah.

 

Ohh, and the weather has been okay.  Monday through Wednesday, the days we just so happened to be walking around the most, was blazing hot.  Especially Tuesday, which peaked at the low 90s at one point.  However, Thursday and today are pretty good, at least temperature-wise.  Friday was the best though.  It was a gorgeous day, never went above 76 degrees, no clouds in the sky, and there was a constant breeze to boot.  Just beautiful, ahah.  It may have drizzled a little on Tuesday, but that just made things humid instead of cooler.  I'm still looking forward to the winter, or at least autumn weather, eheheh.  I hope I don't end up eating my words.

 

Well, apart from that’s there’s not much to say.  I could ramble on and on about the small details, but I feel like that would end up being a hassle to read and respond to, so I’ll just leave it at this.  If you do want more specifics, then just let me know I guess.  I don’t want this to be so focused on me either.  It’s been over two weeks since I’ve really heard from you, so how have you been?  It’s already late August, so I’m guessing you’ll be starting up senior year very soon!  Have you done your summer reading yet?  Speaking of summer reading, I actually only just finished Whistling Vivaldi the night before the first day of orientation.  Stayed up late doing it, too.  Sigh… the epitome of procrastination.  Well, I could have done worse; many others I’ve talked to admitted they either didn’t read it or stopped after the first three chapters.  It was an alright book I guess.  Kind of like Freakonomics or The Tipping Point.  Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying the last days of your summer break!  Hopefully you’ve had luck with the Common App essay as well as driving!  Ohh, and don’t forget to do some back-to-school shopping if you need to.  It wouldn’t be a bad idea to maybe stock up on some new outfits to start the school year fresh either.  Hope to hear from you soon!

[Kenzi 146]

 

Oh, an invite huh?  I’m not sure how those work very well, but from what I can gather the OnePlus One was really hard to find when it first came out.  I wasn’t sure why at first, but I guess it may have also been invite only.  But of course, the OnePlus One was eventually put on their official website, available to purchase for anyone.  I wouldn’t worry about the availability of the OnePlus 2 just yet, but if you manage to get your hand your hand on an invite somehow, all the more power to you!  

 

Ahh I almost didn’t even see that arrow!  Haha, you sure do know your way around Facebook.  And yup, also found the Pages Feed link.  You’d think things like these would be a little more obvious, just because it seems like something a lot of people would be want given how quickly things on Facebook can be updated if you don’t check it very often.  Thanks again for the help!

 

If that was the situation, then I guess it’s forgivable, heh.  Well, I am glad that you were proactive enough to avoid potentially getting sick and it’s good to hear your headache wasn’t that bad (you better not be lying just to make me feel better).  Ohh you have a new topic!  I guess it must really be in its infancy as you say, if you can’t even drop a hint as to what it’s about.  Well, once you figure out where it’s going or once you get a first draft typed up, be sure to share it!  I’m always up for a good peer-editing and proofreading!  Though I don’t feel like I helped with the brainstorming very much, you’re welcome!

 

Hmm?  What quotation option on Google, and how did it help you narrow down the game?  Also, I just realized how risky going on the wikia and skimming through playthroughs was as you could have spoiled yourself!  I mean, sure, OoT isn’t a very plot driven game and it’s more about the puzzle solving and world exploration, but there were still a few moments that were kinda “plot” related that I was especially impressed by.  Oh my gosh, you refuse to back down on your claims.  I feel like parts of our conversations have just evolved into compliment contests, with neither of us willing to be outdone by the other’s flattering words.  Sigh, as much as I hate to admit it, I think you won this round, bleh.  Don’t worry, I think I’d be able to out-compliment you when it comes to birthday gifts any day!

 

Yup, Smash is something I’d recommending getting first, just because it has longevity.  The earlier you get a game like that, the better.  Not to mention, we’d be able to exchange friend codes and verse each other, heheheh.  Apart from just that though, you can milk its value as much as you want. Most people just unlock all the characters and stages, purchase the DLC (oh yeah, you have to take that into consideration when you plan financially), and call it a day, but it’s also possible to go full completionist.  If you really find yourself with a lot of time on your hands, you could complete all the Challenges, collect every trophy, unlock every character’s custom moves, beat all the single player modes (Classic, All-Star) on the hardest difficulty with every character, etc.  You can easily clock 100+ hours in the game if you aren’t careful try hard enough.  As for the second game you may also get right off the bat, there are a lot to choose from. Even if you won’t be getting XY or ORAS, you can buy either a Fire Emblem, Legend of Zelda, Zero Escape, or Ace Attorney game.  There’s nothing I’d personally recommend getting first, since hopefully you eventually get all of them, but just use common sense when choosing which installment in a series to get (Awakening before Fates, OoT before Majora’s Mask, Virtue’s Last Reward before ZE3 (god forbid you do it the other way around), and every Ace Attorney DS game before Dual Destinies).  Ahh, your 3DS has a shiny finish just like mine, so we match!  Yeah, mine also had a few minor scratches on the circlepad (easy to mark up with long nails, even if you’re careful) and a little bit of weathering elsewhere, but nothing that you can’t readily ignore.  Once again, I’m so happy you’re happy!  You sound so elated, it’s like it’s leaking through the computer and affecting me even, haha.

 

They’re pretty lenient over in Italy if they just hand out wine samples willy-nilly to anyone who just looks about 17, haha.  Welp, I guess technically your sister didn’t break any laws so she’s still in the green!  For whatever reason my parents are obsessed with going to Canada for vacation.  Probably the most visited travel hotspot for us, though admittedly the umbrella of Canada covers quite the extensive area.  I’ve been to Toronto a few times, Quebec I believe twice as well, and Montreal once.  Of course there’s Nova Scotia, and I’ve been up to Niagara Falls a total of five different times, never crossing the border but being close enough for it to almost count.  Ohh, you have to cut up through there to get to Brandeis?  That’s pretty neat, guess it would make the trip a bit faster.  I can barely remember the cruise to Nova Scotia, let alone the city of Halifax itself.  All I can recall is that it was a dreary and overcast day; that’s pretty much it, heh.  I was only in elementary school, so you’ll have to forgive me for that.  I remember the cruise to Key West really well (not Key West itself though… I know, that kinda defeats the purpose of going anywhere exotic at all…).  I don’t think I visited the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory though.  Gomen, I’ll get around to experiencing the paradise that is SoCal when I want to visit my sister.  Though, the more I think about it, I won’t be able to find much time until after I graduate, and before then my mom says that my sister plans on quitting her job at Disney and moving back to the east coast for a better occupation after getting her MBA at UCLA.  Which means… when am I going to go to California??  Ah well, can’t be helped, I’ll get around to it one day, eheh.  As for the places I’ve visited in China, there are a few.  The big cities like Beijing and Shanghai I’ve visited multiple times of course.  Apart from those, I’ve been to Shandong and Anhui Provinces (more specifically Jinan, Chengwu, and Weihai in Shandong; Wuhe and Bungbu in Anhui).  Chengwu, Shandong is where my mother was born, and Wuhe, Anhui is where my father was born.  There’s not much to say about what I did there though.  The common stuff, like eat massive dinners with extended family members and visit the local attractions, heh.

 

Ohohohoho, naw, not anymore.  I was taking my online courses somewhat seriously before, but now that I’m in college I can’t find the time or motivation for it.  I’ll just BS my way through the final exam to get the certificate, sigh…  It really wasn’t a good idea signing up for this thing.

 

Haha, that is kinda ironic.  Case’s sports are kinda meh, and you don’t actually really see their mascot on many things, so you might even forget they’re the Spartans.  In fact, I believe I accepted their offer to attend before I got around to Googling their mascot, eheheheh…  Yeah, I don’t know how either.  Hmm, still seems like just a weirdly gimmicky form of social media that somehow caught fire, but I guess there are some people who would find some use for it.  Oh my goodness, did I say “Fresh”??  I meant “French”, heh.  You see?  I wasn’t lying when I mentioned that I was kinda distracted and worrying about college stuff while I typed up my previous response.  Even with a proofreading check, I derped a lot of my words, bleh.  Sorry about that!

 

I thought I always tanned really easily, but you might have me beat.  I didn’t get too much darker over the summer, I don’t think at least.  I never got so tan that people felt the need to comment on it, except for after band camp during the summer between eighth grade and freshman year.  Though I do have permanently pale skin on my upper arms and underside of my arms, too, hahah.  I don’t know how some people can maintain such a consistent skin tone; it honestly amazes me.  Hmm, for some reason, I also forgot that skirts could give you tans.  I mean, obviously they do, but I guess because I clearly don’t wear skirts it’s just not something I think about, in the same way someone who never wears watches or bracelets would very rarely think about the weird tan lines they leave.

 

Ah, yeah, that used to be how I got music a while back.  But then I found that it wasn’t always possible to find songs on YouTube due to copyright claims and that the songs that were uploaded and then converted were always varying levels of downgraded quality.  I figured it would just be best to get the songs from the direct source, where the YouTube uploaders find them, and that’s through torrents or direct downloads that require hoop-jumping.  It can be a tedious and occasionally unsafe process, but I’ve gotten used to it.  If you’re more comfortable just converting, that’s cool too!  It’s good to have that “err on the side of caution” mindset.  A lot of silly teens/young adults our age royally screw up because they’re such risk takers.  Ohh, I wouldn’t give adults such a hard time.  You’re going to be an adult in a year (and I’m already one, oh my gosh………).  Maybe your mom just likes action movies to animated, “kid-oriented” ones?

 

When I meant attractiveness, I meant like, the “hotness” of the characters, and not so much the art style, but… well yeah, you bring up a good point, too!  Though… you don’t seem too sure about exactly what your claim is, hahah.  I know what you mean though, sometimes you like an anime because of its art style and other times you like an anime despite its art style.

 

Geeeezz, sorry again, just another brain-fart when I was rushed and distracted.  Yes, I meant Cave Story and not Super Meat Boy.  Ohh, the chart you linked me to is quite helpful!  As much as I wouldn’t mind paying up some money, even for just the eShop version of the game, I guess I’ll just get the free PC one.  Ahhh, it seems you’ve misunderstood or misread what I wrote.  I meant that I mentally adjusted to the new, larger screen after some time, which was an upgrade from my smaller laptop, not that the screen itself is adjustable, eheheheh……  Regardless though, my laptop is an HP.  I’m not really into tech stuff, so I’m not very sure if it’s a good brand and/or what the leaders in the industry are, but it gets the job done.  I’m guessing your laptop is beginning to show its age if it’s still running Windows 7, but what brand is yours?

 

I’m rather surprised you still haven’t done a full dissection before.  Though, it’s not like you’d be able to do one in JP either, since they don’t offer classes that involve dissections, let alone ones of cats and sharks!  The one I did in the summer course was the stereotypical frog dissection, the reason being that apparently frog anatomy is very similar to human anatomy in terms of relative size and placement of organs.  I dunno, it wasn’t very exciting, and just smelled a lot, ahah.  That was rather perceptive of you, though there actually is a freshman bio class.  The thing is… I didn’t take it.  Not because I didn’t want to, but because my eighth grade science teacher didn’t recommend me.  This is a bit embarrassing to admit, but it was most likely because I actually didn’t do too well in his class.  I did a nearly flawless job on the final roller coaster project at the end of the year (literally a 149/150) but that didn’t change his mind.  I was placed in “environmental science” in my freshman year which was pretty much just a harder version of middle school “science” and not really an actual subject, though it comes closest to bio.  From there, I had to take bio my sophomore year, chem my junior year, and AP Physics as well as AP Bio my senior year, which is exactly a year behind the majority of my peers and prevents me from even considering AP Physics 2 as a class (though I wasn’t planning on taking it anyway).  Though it was my fault I wasn’t placed in bio during freshman year, it was still hard not to be upset at my eighth grade teacher and salty over the whole situation in general.  I was in the minority group, stuck between the low non-honors classes and the most advanced honors bio class, ostracized from the social group I was a part of in every other subject.  I had to continuously explain and clarify that no, I wasn’t taking bio freshman year.  I was always met with puzzled looks and “but you look smart”s and “ohh”s followed by awkward silences.  Even in senior year, I still found myself explaining to people that when I complained about my physics class it wasn’t physics 2 I was talking about.  It was an awkward and embarrassing predicament that loomed over me like a dark cloud every moment of my high school life.  Was this silly reason the start of my strong dislike for science?  Yeah, probably.  Did I feel personally redeemed after getting an 800 on the Bio SAT II and a 4 on the AP Bio exam?  No, because I got disastrous chem and physics grades and got a 3 on my AP Physics 1 exam, which obviously doesn’t count for credit in Case.  Sooo yeah, that’s the story.  … I’m sorry, for rambling, you probably didn’t want to hear this and definitely didn’t expect me to be triggered by that simple question.  I honestly don’t even know what compelled me to type this up.  Though it’s public knowledge what classes I took to my fellow classmates, I’ve never told anyone how this made me feel, and that feeling is honestly a lot of upset-ness despite it being my fault.  I know, I don’t have the right to complain, I just had to have done better in middle school.  Sigh, I don’t know where I’m going with this, so…  Anyway, once again I’m sorry for bothering you with this.  Just… ignore this if it’s too much of a hassle to respond to this part of my post specifically; I won’t mind, honest.  Just needed a place to vent, I guess. 

 

Hmm, during this past week of orientation, I’ve gone to sleep between one and two in the morning, which I think is a fairly decent time given that some people stay up even later playing cards and that I wake up between anywhere from 7 to 11 in the morning depending on the next day's schedule.  But I haven’t dozed off during any boring speeches yet either, sooo yeah, your sleep schedule is still kinda off.  I don’t know how you can fix dozing off randomly though.  Just sufficient sleep doesn’t seem to fix the issue.  Perhaps your mattress isn’t comfortable for your body and you’re therefore not getting quality sleep regardless of quantity?  Some people need softer or firmer mattresses than usual, so maybe you can look into that.  I don’t know, I’m no master on sleep (far from it, as you may be able to tell, eheh).

 

I was planning on saving my Case first impressions ramble for later, but I have to bring this up now because it’s related to what you said.  Well, none of the freshman dorms have A/C… under normal conditions.  You’re allowed to have A/C units installed in your room if you cough up a few hundred dollars to the university.  Once those units are set up, they’re there permanently.  So sometimes, if you’re lucky, you may inherit a room from a previous, rather generous student who couldn’t stand the heat.  Aaaaaaaaand I’m one of those lucky people!  I have A/C in my room!  I almost can’t even believe it.  Very few people are in this situation.  I’m so happy, since I wouldn’t be able to sleep without it.  I feel like this is God’s way of saying He still loves me, even after putting me through the hell that was JP Stevens.  I’m so grateful, this is a lifesaver, oh my gosh.  However, it’s not all that great though.  Either the A/C unit is a lot worse than the ones UMich provided, or it’s just really damn hot here, because even with the thing on at full blast it’s barely enough to keep this little room at a comfy temperature.  I still sweat a bit trying to fall asleep, eheh.  But of course, that may just be my problem, hahaha.  Anyway, yeah, she was most likely talking about the weather.  I’ve chatted with some local Ohioans and they say that when it’s January and overcast and everything looks dead and it’s not snowing, it can be pretty depressing (uh oh, don’t you have this problem at Michigan as well?).  They say sunlight is good for you psychologically, which is why Alaska has such a high suicide rate, I think, though I’d take a dreary winter’s day over a sunny summer’s day almost any day.  Probably because the stress and mental trauma that comes with sweating profusely cancels out those psychological benefits…

 

Ahhh, more things we have in common!  Yeah, I only recognize the bigwig actors and actresses.  I’ve also read Harry Potter but just randomly watched only a handful of the movies.  I haven’t read or watched the Hunger Games though.  I didn’t watch any of those three, but I knew about 21 Jump Street, The Interview, and The Lorax though random YouTube trailers that I stumbled upon by chance and/or are on the front page.  Oh my, you’re embarrassed?  I average less than one theater visit per year, since some years I just never go out to the movies and every other year I only go out once.  I’m reeeaallly out of the loop, bleh.  And to add insult to injury, I’ve watched so many anime but have only seen a single Ghibli film, Grave of the Fireflies.  Literally, that’s it.  I think there’s a movie theater near Case, but I don’t know if I’ll bring myself to go there very often.  Maybe on the rare occasion I’m interested in a movie and am not patient enough to torrent it after the Blu-ray is released, like Star Wars VII or something.

 

Yes, I do believe you mentioned you had a permit in a previous response.  Though I think the bigger issue is that you can’t seem to find it.  Be sure to track that down soon, heh.  I actually decided to look up license requirements for Michigan out of curiosity and compare them to the ones for New Jersey.  What I found was actually pretty intriguing.  I guess the first thing that shocked me is how early you guys start working toward a license.  You technically can get a permit when you’re as young as 14 years and 9 months old??  That’s crazy, you have to be at least 16 in New Jersey.  Likewise, you can get an unrestricted license at 17 in Michigan instead of at 18 in Jersey.  Also, from the looks of it, the road to a license is significantly more difficult in Michigan than in Jersey.  You have to take two written tests instead of one over the course of the whole process (Of course, this also means the material you have to memorize for each test is less in comparison to the all-encompassing single test I had to take, so I guess it balances out.  Actually, since I had to pass the written test twice because I let my permit expire, I personally had the worst of both worlds…… damn).  Furthermore, you can’t advance from permit to restricted license to full license in Michigan without reaching hour requirements, while in New Jersey you’re only restricted by time.  As in, for you to get your intermediate license, you have to have held your permit for at least 6 months and prove you’ve completed 50 hours of driving, 10 of which occurred at night.  For me, to get my probationary license (NJ’s equivalent to MI’s intermediate license), I need to have held my examination/student’s permit (in my case, examination) for at least 6 months and… that’s it.  That’s literally it.  No required number of hours spent driving or anything.  Though, from the looks of it, there aren’t any hour requirements for you to complete when you go from your intermediate license to your full driver’s license, which is the same in Jersey where we only have time as a restriction going from probationary to unrestricted license.  Still though, I can see how NJ produces some really bad drivers.  In my case, I could theoretically cheat the system like this:  Since I have an examination and not a student’s permit, I don’t have to take an otherwise required 6 hour driver’s course.  That means I can theoretically practice studying the day before six months is up and take the driver’s test the next day.  The cramming is just enough to barely pass the test.  Then I hold only my probationary license for an entire year and don’t drive at all.  Finally, I get a full, unrestricted license once a year passes.  In summation, I legally obtained a legit driver’s license usable anywhere in the country, and I drove for literally only two days of my life, and that was a year ago.  Hory shet, what a broken system.  And that won’t be the only thing broken thing if I try driving on, like, an icy highway or something with a license obtained in that manner.  Well, regardless of theory, I’m fairly certain I’m not nearly that talented or lucky to pull off a ridiculous stunt like that.  But I do know that I won’t be practicing driving much, since I can only do it during breaks.  My sister followed a similar path as mine, except she started with a student’s permit, and she practically had to relearn how to drive before moving to California since she had no use for a license in New York City and hadn’t driven in years.  Blehhh, thinking along those lines, even when I get a full license by the time I’m twenty, if I have to relearn how to drive after college, then I won’t actually be able to get myself around town on my own until I’m 22.  Oh my gosh, I will have failed at life, being able to not rely on asking someone else for a ride a whopping four to five years after my peers is fairly embarrassing………  Well, looking on the bright side, I don’t ever have a use for driving.  I don’t go to the mall or the movies or anything and there’s nowhere I really ever find myself needing or wanting to be apart from home/in my dorm.  And in high school, if I had driven myself to school, I wouldn’t have gotten any more sleep than usual since my dad always sent me to school barely on time anyway, sooo…  Wait, I feel like you might have mentioned this a long time ago and I’m sorry for forgetting, but how do you get to school in the morning?  I’m guessing by bus if driving yourself to school allows you to wake up later?  And oh my gosh, don’t say that!  Of course you didn’t get stupider from last summer just because you can’t back in any more.  Stuff like that happens all the time, especially if you step away from something for a while trying to return to it.  Instruments, Smash Bros, driving, anything that requires technical finesse of some kind.  It’s probably even harder now, because the first time you backed in a year ago it was your first time and you knew that messing up would be natural.  Now that you’re expected to perform, messing up gets you more flustered than usual and therefore prevents you from clearly assessing the situation and fixing the problem.  It’s not helping that your dad got angry at you.  I know this advice might be coming too late just because it’s been so long since you typed up your response, but calm down, take deep breaths, and I’m sure you’ll be fine!  Hope your driving goes well!  Along the same train of thought, though I won’t start practicing myself until at least winter break (finals end on December 16th and classes start back up January 11th) I do appreciate your concern and I will definitely be careful! The snow is really not that bad in New Jersey, so I’m sure more days than not the roads will be clear of ice, let alone black ice.

 

Y-you’ve never cried during a show or movie (save for the Steins;Gate movie, kinda)?  O-o-oh my… [recalls all the anime, manga, and movies that brought me to tears]  You might just be made of stronger stuff than me, eheheheheh………  While I do feel like I’ve also been desensitized to sensationalism, there are a fair amount of things out there that can really take a toll on my emotions, ahah.  Not as much as it can some people, but I’m no unwavering statue either.  Ahhh, and it’s awfully flattering to know I’m the first person to make you happy cry.  From a quick Google search, there are some guys actively attempting to make their significant other cry tears of joy.  It wasn’t even my intention, I just said how I felt, and… well… hahah.  Ummm, and oh geez, you ended up squeezing your pillow to redistribute your happiness?  Oh gosh, if we meet in real life, we both owe each other lots of hugs.  There have already been so many times I’ve just wanted to give you a big hug as well, heh.  Oh no no no, you don’t have to apologize for sounding out of character!  I, uhh, actually didn’t mind, at all…  Hahaha, and yeah, if what we’ve been doing is ever exposed it would end up being quite the situation.  Whenever I see someone posting in the thread that’s not one of us, my heart skips a beat because I fear that the cat is finally out of the bag, hah.  Yeah, I’m not too sure why the mods aren’t giving us a hard time about this either.  Wh-what if they’ve been reading our exchange this whole time and think it’s funny so they’re letting it slide???  [insert conspiracy Keanu meme here]

 

Cool, Early Action is what I did as well!  Though you’re aiming for Case Western now, which other backup schools are you going to be applying to?  And I’m sure if I managed to convince my stubborn mom to let me attend a private institution hundreds of miles away from home as opposed to a public one just twenty minutes away, you’ll be able to persuade your parents as well.  And yes, you’ve worked hard these past three-plus years to be dealt a good hand, and once you finish your college essays the final piece of the puzzle will be in place.  Then you just need to spin the wheel and hope for the best!  I’ll pray for you as well, haha.

 

With stationary like that and an e-mail in reply, I’m sure the interview went splendidly!  Ah, so that’s how Inside Out and stargazing worked their way into the conversation.  Ohh, and she stargazes, too?  I’m definitely going to have to look up some of those stargazing spots she might be talking about and check them out.  Actually, there's a psychics and astrology club at Case, which I'll be checking out.  They don't meet very often, so I should be able to work it into my schedule.

 

Well, speaking of Case, I guess I’ll give you a rundown of how orientation went!  Officially, orientation isn’t over, since there are still events planned for today and tomorrow, but all the big events happened on Monday through Wednesday.  Things really slowed down Thursday and Friday, and today as well as tomorrow there’s almost nothing to do expect wait for classes to start on Monday.  I’ll try not to ramble too much (in case you have PTSD from reading about my Orlando trip or something…) but I also want to make up for the lack of a response last week, so I’ll still be writing a fair amount!

 

I left New Jersey Saturday morning and arrived at a bordering town to sleep in a hotel later that evening.  It was about an eight hour drive, and nothing really happened. I believe I slept most of the time, ahah.  Actually, to back track for a bit, sneaking out my Smash 3DS XL as well as my old DS was more difficult than I thought.  My parents were all over the suitcases and boxes, organizing, rearranging, and putting things into them.  I was afraid they’d stumble upon my games if I put them in a box early, so I waited and waited and finally, right before we got in the car to leave, I found the very brief chance to stuff everything into one of two backpacks (yeahh, I don’t know either).  After that, I made sure to guard that backpack like a hawk and so if someone needed something from in there for whatever reason, I was the one to fetch it.  It made the trip to Case safely and my parents didn’t suspect a thing, heheheheh.  Though, I’ll admit I’ve been too busy to even play any of my video games, ironically enough.  Orientation was crazy busy, believe it or not.  Ahh, and to backtrack even more, I bought multiple new shoes!  You might recall me mentioning that I only ever wear one pair of sneakers for an entire year before it falls apart and I buy a new one.  Well, I decided to change that.  My go-to shoes are these pair of sneakers that aren’t even really sneakers.  Like, they’re made out of this soft material, but they aren’t loafers and the have laces and stuff but they aren’t sneakers.  They’re just… shoes I guess.  This is what I’ll be wearing on most days, whenever I need to walk and go about my day.  Apart from that, I have a pair of heavy-duty shoes.  They aren’t boots, but they’re brown and will be good for hiking or walking in slight mud, so perhaps really rainy days.  I also got my first pair of boots, which I’ll use for snowy and icy winter days.  Finally I bought two (only brought one to college though) true sneakers, ones that are thin and flexible and everything, which I’ll use for jogging and any other form of exercise that would be hindered by my black not-really-sneakers shoes.  As you can see, my footwear collection has really grown, ahahah.  It’ll take some getting used to, but I hope they serve me well!  And apart from clothes and just simple living appliances, I didn’t buy anything else of note for college, so I’ll move on to actual stuff about Case…

 

You already know I got surprise A/C in my dorm room, which was great, so I won’t talk about that.  As for the rest of the room, it’s pretty standard.  Beds you can bunk or keep closer to the ground, a desk with a little shelf on top for books, a three-layer cabinet, and a closet with storage space up top as well as a mini-cabinet inside.  You can open the windows to let the air in (though I never need to, ufufufufufu).  I found room on the wall to hang up my Saber scroll, hah.  And I kept my bed not bunked.  It’s high enough to allow for storage space underneath (suitcases, boxes, water bottles) of course, but it’s fairly easy to get on.  My roommate is also a nice guy.  He’s actually considered an international student, despite being from Georgia.  As I mentioned before, he’s Korean.  Unfortunately his English isn’t that good, especially not when compared to some international students I’ve met.  Like, seriously, some of them have impeccable pronunciation and are comfortable and familiar with American slang and colloquialism, it’s insane.  He likes anime and is a fan of the Fate series.  He spends quite a bit of time on his phone (I think there’s a game on there he really likes to play) and on his computer, but then again, I spend a lot of time on my computer too, soooo…  While he’s not much of a conversationalist just given the language barrier, he’s friendly enough.  Goes to sleep at a decent hour, isn’t obnoxious about anything, and just happily keeps to himself.  We’ll get along well enough, that’s for sure.  As for the rest of my floormates, they’re pretty cool too, I guess.  I don’t talk to them very often though.  Some floors are super open about things, so they keep their doors open and unlocked for people to walk in and out, and some of my floormates do the same.  I keep my door closed whether I’m out or in it, since I’m many times watching anime and don’t want to be disturbed.  Not to mention, nice as everyone is, there’s still the possibility of theft.  Funnily enough though, the only other person from my high school to also attend Case this year actually ended up on the same floor as me, completely by chance, hah.  Overall though, my floor is a bit too… party-oriented, for lack of a better term.  Though some floors are co-ed (I believe the third floor of every building), the fourth and second floors are always single-gendered.  I’m on the fourth floor of Taplin, and so my floor consists of all guys.  The really social “jocks” on my floor love to bring people upstairs, usually girls, and chat and play cards all night long.  Like, seriously, usually up until two or three in the morning before my residential assistant (RA) kicks the strangers out.  Some of these girls come from other buildings and not just floors below, so they actually have to walk back to their dorms in the dark.  They can be super rowdy too, and even with music playing modestly loud in my room I can hear their shenanigans through the walls, from across the floor.  I’m really not for this at all, and I do hope they settle down once classes actually start.  I may sound pretty critical of them, but they’re still nice people.  Even the womanizers that really run the floors and stay up late “partying” were nice enough to let me in on a game of Melee when I walked by an open door and saw that one of them had a television and system set up in his room.  Don’t worry though, I’ve talked to a lot of people this past week and it seems like my floor is an outlier.  They’re definitely the rowdiest floor in my building, probably the rowdiest floor in all of the Juniper residential college, and one of the rowdiest in the entire northern residential village.  If you’re having concerns about potentially getting a bothersome floor, you most likely won’t, ahah.

 

So, orientation consisted of a lot of things and I don’t want to give you all the details, not just because it’ll take too long, but also because I’d like for you to experience a lot of these firsthand if you come to Case.  To get one thing out of the way, there are events for parents and other family members to attend for the first two days (Monday and Tuesday) and they occasionally coincide with the events freshman have.  One of the first things you do is meet up with your Orientation Leader (OL) and group.  An OL is pretty much an upper classman who will be your guide for the first few days and leader for activities around campus.  Together with a group of just about under 20 freshman, consisting of fellow members of the same residential college (in my case Juniper, as I mentioned before), you will be led from event to event during the entire day.  There are all kinds of things, ranging from info sessions, tours of important facilities, group discussions and ice-breakers, mini-games, job and club fairs, the whole nine yards.  The days are fun but long, spanning from 8 am to up to 11 pm, with minimal breaks in between.  This is only the case for Tuesday and Wednesday though.  After that, there are less required events for you to attend and less meetings with your OL.  Orientation is really nice, since they gently and gradually ease you into the college life.  First, you’re still with your parents, as well as an OL and a strict schedule.  Then eventually your parents leave, the first step of being independent.  After that, the schedule becomes loose, and there are less and less required events to attend and more optional programs.  Then you finally stop meeting with your OL, and you’re moving around on and off campus without a supervisor, familiarizing yourself with the lay of the land without being led around.  And once classes start on Monday, you’ll be fully prepared!  It’s actually quite a good strategy to get freshman acclimated to a new environment.

 

Hmm, and I guess as for friends, I’ve kinda made a few.  During orientation, there’s a really big focus on just putting yourself out there and meeting new people.  It’s encouraged to just walk up to a stranger and make small talk, whenever and where ever.  I’ve kinda done this, usually when I’m at the dining hall and need to find a seat.  It’s common to just approach a table and ask if you can sit there, and if you’re lucky enough you hit it off with the people there.  If you’re unlucky, then, well… you can just finish eating and leave after exchanging a few polite words, no harm done.  I don’t think I’ve really, truly clicked with anyone, at least not in the same way I did with you (we’re so similar, it’s scary) but I’ve met agreeable people at the very least.  The hardest thing I guess is finding people interested in business, let alone accounting.  Everyone here is studying engineering or medicine or something, so I know I will most likely not be seeing much of them around campus since I won’t be sharing classes with them.  Once classes start up on Monday though, I’ll probably make more established and enduring friends, rather than just a hodgepodge of acquaintances, ahah.

 

Ohh, and the weather has been okay.  Monday through Wednesday, the days we just so happened to be walking around the most, was blazing hot.  Especially Tuesday, which peaked at the low 90s at one point.  However, Thursday and today are pretty good, at least temperature-wise.  Friday was the best though.  It was a gorgeous day, never went above 76 degrees, no clouds in the sky, and there was a constant breeze to boot.  Just beautiful, ahah.  It may have drizzled a little on Tuesday, but that just made things humid instead of cooler.  I'm still looking forward to the winter, or at least autumn weather, eheheh.  I hope I don't end up eating my words.

 

Well, apart from that’s there’s not much to say.  I could ramble on and on about the small details, but I feel like that would end up being a hassle to read and respond to, so I’ll just leave it at this.  If you do want more specifics, then just let me know I guess.  I don’t want this to be so focused on me either.  It’s been over two weeks since I’ve really heard from you, so how have you been?  It’s already late August, so I’m guessing you’ll be starting up senior year very soon!  Have you done your summer reading yet?  Speaking of summer reading, I actually only just finished Whistling Vivaldi the night before the first day of orientation.  Stayed up late doing it, too.  Sigh… the epitome of procrastination.  Well, I could have done worse; many others I’ve talked to admitted they either didn’t read it or stopped after the first three chapters.  It was an alright book I guess.  Kind of like Freakonomics or The Tipping Point.  Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying the last days of your summer break!  Hopefully you’ve had luck with the Common App essay as well as driving!  Ohh, and don’t forget to do some back-to-school shopping if you need to.  It wouldn’t be a bad idea to maybe stock up on some new outfits to start the school year fresh either.  Hope to hear from you soon!

 

My iPhone is still working for me at the moment so I'm not too worried about getting a new phone. It'll probably last me for about another year or two. And I don't want to be too greedy since I already have a 3DS XL, lol. Also, it seems that most of my friends don't know about the OnePlus One (I actually didn't know about it either until you told me about it, haha). How did you initially discover it? I'm a bit surprised I didn't know about it earlier considering how good of a phone it is (especially considering its functions and price).

 

I mean, I've been using the website since eighth grade, haha. So I guess four years of derping around on there was enough to help familiarize myself with the site, lol. Once again, no problem! Feel free to let me know if you have any more concerns!

 

I'm actually rather happy with what I've written so far. I have an introduction (a really rough one that needs polishing though) and a conclusion-ish. Once again, I'm having trouble writing the meat of the essay, sigh. If I can figure out what to sandwich in between those paragraphs I think I'll be in good standing. You might be wondering what I'm writing about now, but it's actually hard for me to summarize, haha. Since I don't have any of the body paragraphs written yet, the essay can go in any direction. Gosh this is hard.

 

You know how if you put any text in quotation marks in the google search bar, it'll help filter out sites that don't have those specific arrangement of words? Like if you type "the high school detective protagonist of the manga and anime Detective Conan" (which is part of the first sentence of Shinichi's wiki page) quotations included, google will filter results so that you'll only see pages with that exact text. So when I saw your puzzle, I figured the "low D, high D, F, F, A" were notes, but to be sure, I inserted "low D" (with quotations) and the name of one of your favorite games into the search bar. And sure enough, OoT was the only game that came up with matching results. To be more specific, it led me to this wikia page. Now, if you scroll down, you'll see a chart. That's when I knew this had to be the game you were referring to. Afterwards, I dove into some YouTube playthroughs in order to figure out how the corresponding notes "low D, high D, F, F, A" came out. Thanks to the timeline feature, I was able to skim through the playthroughs and hone in on the portions when the Let's Player utilized the ocarina. I specifically looked for a playthrough that included both the top and bottom screens of the 3DS. Conveniently enough, the game actually showed which buttons were being pressed as the notes came out. And that's how I figured out your first name. But I was really lucky to have stumbled across your last name, haha. Don't worry though; I didn't spoil myself. That was the only wikia page I visited, and I didn't look at any other parts of the playthrough. Actually, the videos were in Spanish so I didn't understand a lick of what he was saying, lol. Here's the Let's Play I was talking about (it wasn't this specific video though; it was more towards the middle of his playthrough). Actually, the only reason why I remembered it was this specific playthrough I used was because of the video intro, ahahahaha... As for why I used a Spanish Let's Play, I have no idea. It just happened somehow. But yeah, that just about sums it up! Phew, that paragraph was a bit longer than I thought it would be, but I hope that helps clarify things. Also, I'm still curious; how did you manage to find the image source for my avatar? I know it's a random question to bring up, but that video you posted was exactly where I got it from--which I thought was a bit interesting.

 

Smash it is! I'm thinking of Fire Emblem for my second game. I've never touched anything in the series before so I think that'll be a good choice. I've already played Minish Cap (couldn't finish it because it kept crashing for whatever reason), so I'll save Zelda for later. I'm not too sure what I'd get for my third game, but chances are it'll be a Pokemon game from the main series. I don't know what the 2016 game will be, but apparently it's not Pokken. I'll still check out a playthrough of Pokken though since it seems pretty cool watching Pokemon in Tekken style gameplay. I think the 2016 game is going to be an X/Y sequel. Actually, depending on how early it'll be released, it might actually be my second game, haha. Ehh, maybe I'm looking too ahead into things since I don't even have a game yet. But hey, it doesn't hurt to hope. Gah, just thinking about it puts such a stupid grin on my face. I'm so freaking excited!

 

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about Niagara Falls. I've been there a few times but I only remember my most recent visit (which was actually a few years ago). I'm not even sure why I was there or if it was supposed to be a vacation, but it was fun! Especially during the nighttime when the waterfalls lit up--that was pretty awesome. Dang, you actually visited quite a bit of Canada, haha. Is there any particular reason why your family enjoys going there? Surprisingly, despite how many times I've visited China (about four-ish), I haven't been to many places. In fact, I don't think I've ever visited Shanghai even though it's considered the biggest city in China. I've only gone to Beijing, Changsha (most of my family members live here), Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and few of the lesser known cities like Huaihua. Our family consists of mainly Hunan people, so I guess that's why, haha.

 

I haven't been to a single football game--not in school or ever. I'm not exactly the most spirited person for school, but will dress up for the occasion if it means bringing our class to victory (we've been the most spirited class for the past three years; time to make it four, hah). I know UMich is really big on spirit. Apparently, the school's rivalry with OSU is nothing to be taken lightly. It's probably one of the main reasons why UMich is like a wolf pack, lol. Even if you're not too big on football, your school spirit will not fall short once you're at the stadium. Everyone will be enshrouded in spirit because of how contagious it is. Even if you don't care for your team or the rival team, you will find yourself cheering. Even if you go alone, you will find yourself high-fiving some random stranger sitting next to you whenever your school scores. There will always be one thing everyone there has in common: to watch their school beat the absolute crap outta the rival. The stadium becomes packed, victory ensues, losing team goes ballistic, winning team howls and screams at the top of their lungs while berating rivaling team, and the stadium explodes go blue!. Or so I'm told. Even though I'm not too big on sports, I've always wanted to experience that for myself, haha. But, you know, I don't watch football so it's not a be-all and end-all situation if I never go to one, lol. Ahaha, you were that stressed about college? It seems that Case is treating you well by the looks of it! And Hillary Clinton is going to campaign at Case tomorrow?? and you're going to be skipping your first class not even a week into the school year, tsk, tsk. But in all seriousness, that's awesome!!

 

I think the only reason why people started commenting on my tan was because it all happened so suddenly. I'd be pale on Friday, but the weekend after a tennis tournament, I'd be three shades darker. It was almost as if I just vacationed to Florida over that weekend. If you saw my uniform tan, you'd know what I mean. My skin tone is anything but consistent. I get weird tan lines all the time, but I just laugh it off, lol. I never really thought about skirt tans either since I only wear them to tennis, but the fade tan on my legs is hard for me to ignore. It's not a big deal though, since my shorts and capris do a decent job of hiding it, haha. I used to pair my skirts with leggings/capris so that I would end up with a capri tan at most, but a skirt tan was unavoidable for me this year since the uniform didn't go well with any of my capris or leggings. And you can't really see my watch tan until I take off my watch so that's not much of a problem for me. I mean, I can't function without my watch. It's just so convenient having the time on my wrist. I don't know how I managed to survive without one back in elementary school.

 

I-I-I'm going to be an adult...in a year? Dear lord no, I'd make a terrible adult. My decisions are far from adult-like and everything I do and my interests are all far from adult-like. Typical adolescent mentality, I suppose, but you gotta make the most out of everything, haha. Yeah, my mom is more into those "realistic" movies. She doesn't watch cartoons and legitimately didn't understand what was going on in Inside Out. Maybe it's because she couldn't relate to it?

 

The "hotness" of the characters? What about the plot or story? What about the characters' personalities? Ehh? Just their physical attractiveness? I mean, yeah, I guess that could add to the enjoyment (not gonna lie, I've been there), but that's it? If they're fishing for good looking characters, just look up fanart or posters or something, lol or one of those waifu/husbando pillows. Oh waitt, I think I know what they might've been talking about. Were they referring to Free? A few of my friends were gushing about how good looking the characters were, haha. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I've been tempted to watch the anime for this very reason ...err, I mean... the "friendship". Even my sister was dragged to the dark side despite the fact that she supposedly gave up on anime years ago, lol.

 

Ahaha, great! Let me know how Cave Story goes once you get around to it! Oh, wow, well uh, derp. I should've known better than to think that it's actually possible to physically adjust laptop screen size. Ehehe, whoops. An HP laptop? I've never had one before, but our school seems to have an affinity for HP and Dell laptops (and UMich seems to love Apple for some reason). Hmm, my laptop's not too old. I've had it for about four years. It's an Acer; this one, to be more specific. Decent laptop overall, but the power jack sucks. Oh, and so does the customer service. I wouldn't be surprised if the power jack breaks while I'm in college. Acer isn't considered a good brand by most, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to avoid it if you ever plan to get a new laptop. If I ever get a new one (which I probably will), I'll probably get an Asus or Lenovo. But really, how good the laptop is varies between brands. Although Acer sucks, the quality of the laptop I currently have is probably on the higher end. My sister also has an Acer but her laptop isn't that great. Honestly, what I'm looking for is good processor speed and decent battery life (and a not problematic power jack while we're at it). Oh, and longevity, I guess. I don't want a laptop that'll break down after two years. I'm not too big on much else. As for the Win 10 update, I'm not going to do it. Apparently, it can detect and disable any pirated programs. My Photoshop is pirated. I'm not risking it, haha. 

 

My apologies; I didn't mean to trigger you like that, eheh... Funny thing is, I actually experienced something really similar though. Back in fifth grade, we'd have small competitions. The teacher would pit students against each other to see who could solve math problems the fastest. Problems like double digit multiplication and fraction adding. Winner receives a piece of candy, whoever loses has to go back to his/her seat. Another student then approaches the board to replace whoever lost. And the cycle repeats. I was in it to win it. I always went back to my desk with a handful of candy. I didn't have the same mentality towards tests though. For whatever reason, I never took them seriously. So when the teacher assigned each of us into a math class for middle school, I was placed in the regular math class. I bet you could tell how embarrassed I was. My friends would be pestering me about my classes, and I'd sheepishly admit that I was placed in regular math. "Oh, but weren't you the one who always won the candy last year?" "Yeah, but I guess the teacher didn't acknowledge that and only put me in regular math based on my grades." Him putting me in regular math almost felt like he was... teasing me; mocking me. I was... kinda angry, actually. Here I was, already doing algebra in fifth grade (thanks to my dad), but couldn't even get into a sixth grade pre-algebra class. My mom was dumbfounded. My dad was furious. As you can imagine, I was quite upset that I was placed in the minority (in terms of my friend group, I suppose). During math class, I wouldn't talk to anyone, not even the teacher despite how friendly everyone was. But when the teacher approached me with icebreaker questions or for an answer to a problem, I would give measly one line answers. I isolated myself and didn't participate in anything. So when we were all given a placement exam after the first week of sixth grade, I zoomed through it. I was the first in my math class to finish. In fact, I finished in half the time it took most of the others. It wasn't hard or anything; adding negatives, fractions, multiplication, simple geometry. I got a perfect score and the sixth grade math teacher pushed me up to the pre-algebra class (or the "honors" math all of my friends were in). I'm really glad that the school district allowed it. If I hadn't jumped up to pre-algebra back in sixth grade, I'd be taking calc as a senior--which means I wouldn't have room to take Physics C. And interestingly enough, despite having been exposed to it in fifth grade, I actually struggled with algebra in seventh grade. But I regained my drive after taking geometry in eighth grade (freaking loved geometry). Calc almost ruined it all for me, but I still love math. Just... not calc, lol.

 

(separated paragraph to ease the eyes)

But the thing is, even if you're not taking the same level of math as "everyone else" around here, you're not gonna be ostracized. Or at least for high school. Middle school had a pretty strict schedule. So what if you're talking pre-calc instead? So what if you're taking AB? So what if you decide to take AP stats instead of calc? It's not like anyone cared. The school schedule is so flexible that even if you're not on the same track as others (which most people aren't), it didn't matter to anyone. So what if you're taking a sophomore or junior oriented class as a senior? Admittedly, I'm one of those people since I'm taking AP Econ this year. But it's not like any of my friends cared. We all had a good laugh during orientation since I'm going to be surrounded by juniors. Hell, even one of my friends is taking World History I (which is mainly directed to freshmen). Why look down on that? Who cares, lol. Almost everything on our schedules is chosen by choice and not by requirement (since we can get those out of the way with summer school). So even if you're in a "lesser" class, you're not gonna be ostracized. If you hate chemistry and want to avoid it like the plague, that's completely respectable. Hate English as well? A lot of people do, so just take the regular class. Not a problem. Even if you're not taking the same classes as someone else, everyone's still on the same playing field. We all want to get into a good college. It's just that our means of getting there might differ, and that's perfectly fine. Also, I'm not planning on using my AP credits. It's to pad my GPA for grad school. I might use a few, but I'm planning to retake most of the classes. And now that I think about it, I might not even take any AP tests as a senior. I'm just taking the classes for the experience. But to comment on your experience, geez, your school system is messed up. It's so formulaic and restrictive. Couldn't you waive your way out of environmental science? Or maybe talk to the teacher about it? Over here, those who don't do well in science back in eighth grade are placed in Bio B (a more basic version of Bio A) but could waive out of it if they wanted to. And you guys are forced to take AP Physics 1? Our school doesn't offer AP Physics 1, and only offers regular physics 1, AP Physics 2, and AP Physics C. The only requirements to get into either of the AP Physics classes is to pass regular physics 1. Heck, we aren't even required to take physics. We have the choice of taking either chemistry or physics. Take one class and you don't have to take the other unless you want to. I know I've already commented on how inflexible your school schedules are, but this is taking it to a whole new level. So if you're stuck in a "regular" class, you can't get out of it? Seriously, kudos to you for being able get through it. I probably wouldn't have handled it as well as you did. And I don't blame you for having such a negative perspective on science. I'd probably be the same if I were in your shoes.

 

The dozing off randomly is kinda ingrained for me at this point. I dozed off in at least one class everyday during second semester. Even with a solid 6 hours of sleep on those rare, rare occasions, I couldn't control it. Doesn't matter how interesting the topic is. If I'm sitting in a chair without stimulation for a long period of time just listening to a lecture, I will, without fail, doze off at some point. Doodling can sometimes prevent this. Sometimes. I guess the fact that I've been dozing off pretty much everyday second semester makes it an ingrained habit now. And the only reason why I was dozing off in the first place was because of sleep deprivation. It was like a never-ending cycle. My summer sleep schedule is pretty regular at the moment. I usually sleep between 12am and 1am and wake up around 9am - 10am ish. Not like before when I would sleep at 3am and wake up at 11am or something. Geezus, I'm still a wreck. Junior year completely demolished my sleep schedule. My mattress is fine (aside from that one indent I've made from sleeping in the same position these past few years), so I don't think that's the problem. The underlying problem is that I've fallen into the habit of dozing off. I'll try my best to fix it, though I have my doubts.

 

Glad to hear that college is treating you well so far! You're one of the lucky few who has access to A/C? Personally, I think it's well deserved considering what you were forced to endure in high school. Congrats! And yeahh, last week was also rough in Michigan. It's was really humid and the temperature decided to spike into the high 80s and low 90s for whatever reason. That's no longer the case now, and I'm assuming that it's the same for you guys in Ohio? Or at least I hope so, haha. But geez, full blast is barely enough to keep the room at a comfortable temperature? I don't know what kind of A/C was installed into your dorm since the lowest setting at UMich was already too cold for me. Well, at least it's better than nothing! Yupp, winter is kind of depressing here in Michigan. I really dislike January and February in particular even though winter is my favorite season. I wake up for school on a dark, dreary morning and trudge through the snow while anticipating my impending doom that is midterms. I used to joke to my friends that the only reason why I went to school in the winter is because of the heating they provide since my parents rarely turn it up while I'm home. My fingers also feel like icicles when I type, and I get small cuts on the back of my hand that come out of nowhere. Although we get a fair amount of sunny days in the winter, we also get an equal amount of overcast days. Now, you may be wondering why winter is my favorite season when I associate so many negative things with it. It's because I love December. I absolutely love the holidays and the festivity; it basically makes up for everything else, haha. I love the first sight of snow and I love being hugged by my jackets and sweaters (oh, and snow days). December is one of the only reasons why I love winter. You'd prefer an overcast winter's day over a sunny summer's day? What about a sunny winter's day then? I love sunny days! Seeing the sun shining overhead brightens my mood so much; it's so uplifting! And sunsets. You can't see gorgeous sunsets while it's overcast, heh. Though I guess the sweating that comes from hot summer days can be a bit of a downer. Thanks to tennis, I automatically associate sweating with headaches.

 

I'm not much better, haha. I've never even heard of 21 Jump Street or The Interview until my friends showed them to me. At least you managed to stumble across them through trailers, lol. And yeah, I also have years when I completely skip out on going to the movies. I rarely even suggest going to the movie theater. The most I remember is my friend dragging me along to watch Frozen with her and my sister pushing me with watch Brave with her. Same with movies like Despicable Me and that one horrid Avatar adaptation (not the James Cameron one). I haven't even watched Interstellar yet (and I really want to). Oh, and worst of all, I haven't watched a single Star Wars movie [insert inaudible gasp]. I'm just as out of the loop as you, if not more so. Wait, Grave of the Fireflies is the only Ghibli film you've watched? (I actually haven't watched it yet, is it good?). What about Spirited Away? You had to have watched Spirited Away. Oh my gosh, I will force you to watch some of them if I have to, haha. You can skip out on Ponyo though, because it was a weird movie. 

 

So I tried typing in "permit" in the DCW search bar, and I really don't think I mentioned anything about my permit in any of my previous responses. Hmm, strange. Well, I actually passed my driving test on Saturday, haha. The spaces they gave us were a lot bigger that what you would see in typical parking lots so the backing-in and parallel parking weren't much of a problem. There's a point system they use to grade how you drive. As backwards as this sounds, the more points you get, the worse off you are. Each point is essentially a "warning" in this context. You can get up to 6 points on the parking portion and up to 25 in the driving portion before it's considered a fail. Although I didn't bump into any cones, I still ended up with 4 points on the parking portion. Every reposition is considered a point, which is kind of annoying. And in the driving portion, I ended up with 11. I kept hesitating when turning even when the light was green, and apparently you get points for not looking both ways even when you're passing a green light. You get points for not correctly answering a question the road tester asks you, for not coming to a full stop, for jerky movements, for making a Michigan left improperly, for not fully stopping at a stop bar/sign (which might even be considered a fail in some cases), for passing a stop bar, for wide turns. Hell, you can get points for anything. But they allow up to 25, so I'm grateful for that. As far as I know, I only got those 11 points from not looking both ways when passing stoplights, for getting that railroad question wrong (I didn't mention looking both ways before proceeding, go figure), for hesitating, and for one wide turn. Oh, and funny enough, my road tester turned out to be my dad's old co-worker, lol. I finally got my parking down after a bit of practicing (although 4 points was cutting it close), and the road test itself went okay, I guess. I still suck at driving though, so my parents probably won't let me drive anywhere outside of Troy, lol. But I finally don't have to ask for rides or pester my parents anymore! Ahh, what a relief. Oh, and the written test isn't as hard as you might think. It's mainly common sense like "which of the following age groups is more likely to get into car crashes" kind of thing. Just brush up on a few statistics and some basic signs and road markings, and you should be golden. The passing grade is an 80 percent on the first one and a 70 percent on the second one, so it's not that bad. I mean, they even provide you with a study guide, haha. And they allow up to two retakes. It's honestly pretty crazy how young they let us obtain a permit. I ain't complaining though. The hour requirements aren't a problem because it's your parents who verify it. Even if you only had 3 hours of experience, if your parents "verify" that you drove 60 hours (by signing some slip of paper), you can take the road test. There's no way in hell I reached the required hours, but my parents didn't care, lol. The time restriction is the only real problem, but with school in the way of things, the 180 days restriction goes by relatively quickly. So I looked up the skills tested in the NJ road test, and you guys are tested on sitting properly? I'm actually curious though--how do they grade the way you sit? Is it posture or something? You guys aren't required to back in or drive on highways? And on top of the fact that the entire test takes only 10-15 minutes for you guys? I was mainly referring to this site, but only 10-15 minutes? Ehh?? Well, uh, ehem, I used to get to school using the school bus, but my dad started sending me towards the second half of junior year. If I could drive myself, I could probably savor 5-10 extra minutes of sleep, which I think is well worth it. And I don't have to worry about my parents being ticked off about picking me up after school from tennis practice and other after school activities! As for my backing in ordeal, I think I must've been having a rough day. After trying again a few weeks later, I did a lot better. Plus, like I mentioned before, the parking spaces on the actual road test are bigger than they typically are in normal parking lots, which helped ease my anxiety, haha. The parallel parking didn't go as well, but eh, it's not like I'll ever use it again (and now that I think about it, I'm never going to back in again either). But thank you for your concern! I should also be thanking my dad since he was my drill sergeant. It was frustrating hearing him yell at me whenever I screwed up, but he's ultimately the reason why I passed. Black ice can form regardless of whether there's snow and usually appears after rain. It's scary, especially when you begin to lose control of the car on a main road. Ahh, sorry, didn't mean to sound too anxious, but best of luck to you, and I hope it goes well!

 

The Steins;Gate movie was the only thing I watched that legitimately made me cry. Tissues and everything. In hindsight, I'm not sure why I cried. I rewatched that specific scene just now to see how I would react again (thank the lord for the YouTube timeline feature), and I didn't even come close to feeling anything this time around. I'm not sure why I feel so stoic towards it now. The other movies and shows I've watched sometimes caused emotions to well up inside of me, but not enough for tears to come out. Would you mind listing a few of the anime, manga, and movies that moved you to tears? I kinda want to check some of them out for myself, haha. And yeah, sensationalism gets annoying after a while since most of the articles tend to be click baits. I don't think I'm really made of "tough stuff". Maybe I haven't witnessed enough touching moments in anime and movies? The reason why your birthday message made me so happy was because it was so genuine. I've never had such a heartfelt message given to me before--especially from someone over the internet--so I guess it really is the thought that counts, haha. Receiving such a passionate message from you--someone who I don't know in real life, someone who I wouldn't recognize on the streets, someone who I only met through a forum--just felt...really unexpected and special. I honestly don't know what I was feeling when I first read the message. It was like a mix of shock, joy, captivation, fervor...I-I don't know. I was just so overwhelmed with emotion. Well, whatever I was feeling made such a big impression on me. So big that I couldn't help but let a few tears come out. Even if you say you were merely stating your feelings, I was truly moved. So there you have it. There are stories of men actively attempting to make their significant other cry tears of joy, but you just did something some of those men could only hope to do. You're pretty amazing, heh. I suppose if we ever meet in real life, we'll have to make up for all of the times we wished we could give each other hugs, haha. I still doubt that anyone's going to bother digging through our conversations. Only a few people bothered commenting on our exchanges, and even then, the topic didn't stay afloat for too long. Maybe the mods never bothered to check this section of the forum? We've been doing this for quite a while now, so it does feel a bit strange that none of the mods paid any heed (I mean, over a third of the thread's content consists of our responses). I don't see why they would bother reading through them though, lol.

 

As of right now, I'm also planning on applying to UMich (of course), Michigan State, Vanderbilt maybe, UChicago maybe (just because the prompts seem interesting), and perhaps a few schools that have emailed me saying that they'll waive my application fee if I apply, because why not. Now, you may be wondering why Michigan State is on my list. MSU isn't a bad school, it's just that...it's UMich's rival school. That's the only thing I have against it, haha. Otherwise, it's a perfectly fine option. Of course, I'm hoping that I won't have to resort to it or the other schools I'm applying to since I'm pinning my hopes on Case. 

 

I also forgot to mention... when I walked into the Weatherhead School of Management, there was this sort of magic... just knowing you were there at one point and that it was the closest that I've ever been to meeting you. I kinda wish I stuck a note of some sort for you on the underside one of those tables or chairs near the entrance. The thought never occurred to me until after I left the campus though. I'm not sure what I would've written, but what an opportunity that would've been! I only had sticky notes with me at the time, so I don't know how long the adhesive would've lasted if I ended up casually pasting it under a table or chair without any extra reinforcement... Gosh, I wish I had the epiphany while I was still on campus. It would've been worth a try, right? Ahaha, what am I even saying... Oh, and the information session that I went to on Sunday gave the exact same presentation they gave us when I went on the campus tour. I wouldn't have missed anything if I decided not to go, but I guess I was able to show some more demonstrated interest by attending, haha. Ohmygosh, when I first read that paragraph I misread "psychics and astrology club" as "physics and astronomy club". I...I just erased everything I typed for this portion of the paragraph. Holy crap, I'm really glad I caught that in time. At first I went on about how much I loved astronomy as a little kid and the dozens of astronomy books I read, but then I started questioning why you would bother joining a physics club if you detest the subject so much, and then I noticed that what you typed wasn't "physics" but was "psychics"... and then I, uh, I... I think I need to get my eyes checked. I'm just going to stop here now before I embarrass myself any further this gets out of hand, ahahaha......... It's pretty interesting that Case has a psychics and astrology club! I've heard stories of introspective psychics that were able to unearth some really personal things that have happened to people. For this reason, I've always wanted to visit one myself just to see how much merit psychics really have. And I didn't know that you're into astrology! Actually, I didn't think you were the metaphysical kind of person, haha. Is there any particular reason why this club caught your eye?

 

Ohh, it looks like you're heading off to college with a good start! You managed to sneak your 3DS XL into your backpack safely (you sly bastard, heh), you were one of the lucky few to have A/C, and you brought four new pairs of shoes with you! I hope they serve you well! 

 

Your roommate is also into anime? And Fate as well? Ahaha, what are the chances! He seems like a nice guy, but hopefully the language barrier won't be too troublesome. Damn, the social jocks were already bringing girls from other buildings upstairs to chat and play cards? I never imagined Case to be a "party" college, even if it's only your floor. I'm willing to bet that the rowdiness will die out soon enough. Except for maybe the weekends if they turn out to be those kind of people, lol. It seems that your floormates are friendly though, which is always good, haha. How are the classes faring for you so far?

 

That's actually a really clever strategy to help ease you guys into the college life! Although it sounded quite busy, it also sounded like a lot of fun! What was your favorite part of orientation?

 

Since it's already been a few days since classes started, how has your people-hunting been so far? (for lack of a better word; my vocabulary is failing me, lol).

 

School starts on September 7th this year--the latest it's ever been. And because I'm an idiot, I'm stupidly behind on my summer reading. I've only finished Oryx and Crake and have yet to get through the remaining three. Jane Eyre being one of them, which contains over 500 pages worth of sheer delight. I'm probably going to end up skimming through one of them, since it looks like it's only a supplement to the class rather than something we'll end up analyzing or having assignments on. So yeahh... I'm not in a very good position, lol. I'm not too worried about it though. Two of the books are from lists you choose from, and since the teacher can't possibly go through all sixteen in-depth, I'm just "pleasure" reading them, I guess. And it's not like they created sixteen tests--one for each book. Wow, just typing this out makes me feel ashamed of what I'm resorting to. So much for starting off senior year on a positive note. Hooray for school, ahaha... Gosh, I didn't mean to end the response so negatively. But hopefully college has been going well for you!

 

alsoooo....

I've been getting a ton of emails from Case lately, but this one caught my eye:

I'm sure you know why, heh.

 

...and oh my gosh, at the part where I mentioned the "Spanish" Let's Play, it was Portuguese

I just saw the title and the word "parte" and assumed it was Spanish or something

it's an insignificant detail, but man do I feel like an idiot

I thought it was really suspicious how I actually couldn't understand a single word he was saying

you'd think I could catch at least morsel of words here and there from my nonexistent limited Spanish vocabulary if the video really was in Spanish

I don't know why I didn't catch this earlier or why I decided it was now that I would check on my suspicions

but I finally realized my mistake

and I feel pretty bad for some reason, as if I just offended the Spanish and Portuguese cultures or something

ahaha, sorry, I just wanted to get this off my chest since the thought was bugging me a lot (gosh, I'm such an idiot)

I hope it didn't bother you too much, ehehe...............

Edited August 28, 2015 by Kenzi

[Akazora 293]

My iPhone is still working for me at the moment so I'm not too worried about getting a new phone. It'll probably last me for about another year or two. And I don't want to be too greedy since I already have a 3DS XL, lol. Also, it seems that most of my friends don't know about the OnePlus One (I actually didn't know about it either until you told me about it, haha). How did you initially discover it? I'm a bit surprised I didn't know about it earlier considering how good of a phone it is (especially considering its functions and price).

 

I mean, I've been using the website since eighth grade, haha. So I guess four years of derping around on there was enough to help familiarize myself with the site, lol. Once again, no problem! Feel free to let me know if you have any more concerns!

 

I'm actually rather happy with what I've written so far. I have an introduction (a really rough one that needs polishing though) and a conclusion-ish. Once again, I'm having trouble writing the meat of the essay, sigh. If I can figure out what to sandwich in between those paragraphs I think I'll be in good standing. You might be wondering what I'm writing about now, but it's actually hard for me to summarize, haha. Since I don't have any of the body paragraphs written yet, the essay can go in any direction. Gosh this is hard.

 

You know how if you put any text in quotation marks in the google search bar, it'll help filter out sites that don't have those specific arrangement of words? Like if you type "the high school detective protagonist of the manga and anime Detective Conan" (which is part of the first sentence of Shinichi's wiki page) quotations included, google will filter results so that you'll only see pages with that exact text. So when I saw your puzzle, I figured the "low D, high D, F, F, A" were notes, but to be sure, I inserted "low D" (with quotations) and the name of one of your favorite games into the search bar. And sure enough, OoT was the only game that came up with matching results. To be more specific, it led me to this wikia page. Now, if you scroll down, you'll see a chart. That's when I knew this had to be the game you were referring to. Afterwards, I dove into some YouTube playthroughs in order to figure out how the corresponding notes "low D, high D, F, F, A" came out. Thanks to the timeline feature, I was able to skim through the playthroughs and hone in on the portions when the Let's Player utilized the ocarina. I specifically looked for a playthrough that included both the top and bottom screens of the 3DS. Conveniently enough, the game actually showed which buttons were being pressed as the notes came out. And that's how I figured out your first name. But I was really lucky to have stumbled across your last name, haha. Don't worry though; I didn't spoil myself. That was the only wikia page I visited, and I didn't look at any other parts of the playthrough. Actually, the videos were in Spanish so I didn't understand a lick of what he was saying, lol. Here's the Let's Play I was talking about (it wasn't this specific video though; it was more towards the middle of his playthrough). Actually, the only reason why I remembered it was this specific playthrough I used was because of the video intro, ahahahaha... As for why I used a Spanish Let's Play, I have no idea. It just happened somehow. But yeah, that just about sums it up! Phew, that paragraph was a bit longer than I thought it would be, but I hope that helps clarify things. Also, I'm still curious; how did you manage to find the image source for my avatar? I know it's a random question to bring up, but that video you posted was exactly where I got it from--which I thought was a bit interesting.

 

Smash it is! I'm thinking of Fire Emblem for my second game. I've never touched anything in the series before so I think that'll be a good choice. I've already played Minish Cap (couldn't finish it because it kept crashing for whatever reason), so I'll save Zelda for later. I'm not too sure what I'd get for my third game, but chances are it'll be a Pokemon game from the main series. I don't know what the 2016 game will be, but apparently it's not Pokken. I'll still check out a playthrough of Pokken though since it seems pretty cool watching Pokemon in Tekken style gameplay. I think the 2016 game is going to be an X/Y sequel. Actually, depending on how early it'll be released, it might actually be my second game, haha. Ehh, maybe I'm looking too ahead into things since I don't even have a game yet. But hey, it doesn't hurt to hope. Gah, just thinking about it puts such a stupid grin on my face. I'm so freaking excited!

 

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about Niagara Falls. I've been there a few times but I only remember my most recent visit (which was actually a few years ago). I'm not even sure why I was there or if it was supposed to be a vacation, but it was fun! Especially during the nighttime when the waterfalls lit up--that was pretty awesome. Dang, you actually visited quite a bit of Canada, haha. Is there any particular reason why your family enjoys going there? Surprisingly, despite how many times I've visited China (about four-ish), I haven't been to many places. In fact, I don't think I've ever visited Shanghai even though it's considered the biggest city in China. I've only gone to Beijing, Changsha (most of my family members live here), Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and few of the lesser known cities like Huaihua. Our family consists of mainly Hunan people, so I guess that's why, haha.

 

I haven't been to a single football game--not in school or ever. I'm not exactly the most spirited person for school, but will dress up for the occasion if it means bringing our class to victory (we've been the most spirited class for the past three years; time to make it four, hah). I know UMich is really big on spirit. Apparently, the school's rivalry with OSU is nothing to be taken lightly. It's probably one of the main reasons why UMich is like a wolf pack, lol. Even if you're not too big on football, your school spirit will not fall short once you're at the stadium. Everyone will be enshrouded in spirit because of how contagious it is. Even if you don't care for your team or the rival team, you will find yourself cheering. Even if you go alone, you will find yourself high-fiving some random stranger sitting next to you whenever your school scores. There will always be one thing everyone there has in common: to watch their school beat the absolute crap outta the rival. The stadium becomes packed, victory ensues, losing team goes ballistic, winning team howls and screams at the top of their lungs while berating rivaling team, and the stadium explodes go blue!. Or so I'm told. Even though I'm not too big on sports, I've always wanted to experience that for myself, haha. But, you know, I don't watch football so it's not a be-all and end-all situation if I never go to one, lol. Ahaha, you were that stressed about college? It seems that Case is treating you well by the looks of it! And Hillary Clinton is going to campaign at Case tomorrow?? and you're going to be skipping your first class not even a week into the school year, tsk, tsk. But in all seriousness, that's awesome!!

 

I think the only reason why people started commenting on my tan was because it all happened so suddenly. I'd be pale on Friday, but the weekend after a tennis tournament, I'd be three shades darker. It was almost as if I just vacationed to Florida over that weekend. If you saw my uniform tan, you'd know what I mean. My skin tone is anything but consistent. I get weird tan lines all the time, but I just laugh it off, lol. I never really thought about skirt tans either since I only wear them to tennis, but the fade tan on my legs is hard for me to ignore. It's not a big deal though, since my shorts and capris do a decent job of hiding it, haha. I used to pair my skirts with leggings/capris so that I would end up with a capri tan at most, but a skirt tan was unavoidable for me this year since the uniform didn't go well with any of my capris or leggings. And you can't really see my watch tan until I take off my watch so that's not much of a problem for me. I mean, I can't function without my watch. It's just so convenient having the time on my wrist. I don't know how I managed to survive without one back in elementary school.

 

I-I-I'm going to be an adult...in a year? Dear lord no, I'd make a terrible adult. My decisions are far from adult-like and everything I do and my interests are all far from adult-like. Typical adolescent mentality, I suppose, but you gotta make the most out of everything, haha. Yeah, my mom is more into those "realistic" movies. She doesn't watch cartoons and legitimately didn't understand what was going on in Inside Out. Maybe it's because she couldn't relate to it?

 

The "hotness" of the characters? What about the plot or story? What about the characters' personalities? Ehh? Just their physical attractiveness? I mean, yeah, I guess that could add to the enjoyment (not gonna lie, I've been there), but that's it? If they're fishing for good looking characters, just look up fanart or posters or something, lol or one of those waifu/husbando pillows. Oh waitt, I think I know what they might've been talking about. Were they referring to Free? A few of my friends were gushing about how good looking the characters were, haha. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I've been tempted to watch the anime for this very reason ...err, I mean... the "friendship". Even my sister was dragged to the dark side despite the fact that she supposedly gave up on anime years ago, lol.

 

Ahaha, great! Let me know how Cave Story goes once you get around to it! Oh, wow, well uh, derp. I should've known better than to think that it's actually possible to physically adjust laptop screen size. Ehehe, whoops. An HP laptop? I've never had one before, but our school seems to have an affinity for HP and Dell laptops (and UMich seems to love Apple for some reason). Hmm, my laptop's not too old. I've had it for about four years. It's an Acer; this one, to be more specific. Decent laptop overall, but the power jack sucks. Oh, and so does the customer service. I wouldn't be surprised if the power jack breaks while I'm in college. Acer isn't considered a good brand by most, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to avoid it if you ever plan to get a new laptop. If I ever get a new one (which I probably will), I'll probably get an Asus or Lenovo. But really, how good the laptop is varies between brands. Although Acer sucks, the quality of the laptop I currently have is probably on the higher end. My sister also has an Acer but her laptop isn't that great. Honestly, what I'm looking for is good processor speed and decent battery life (and a not problematic power jack while we're at it). Oh, and longevity, I guess. I don't want a laptop that'll break down after two years. I'm not too big on much else. As for the Win 10 update, I'm not going to do it. Apparently, it can detect and disable any pirated programs. My Photoshop is pirated. I'm not risking it, haha. 

 

My apologies; I didn't mean to trigger you like that, eheh... Funny thing is, I actually experienced something really similar though. Back in fifth grade, we'd have small competitions. The teacher would pit students against each other to see who could solve math problems the fastest. Problems like double digit multiplication and fraction adding. Winner receives a piece of candy, whoever loses has to go back to his/her seat. Another student then approaches the board to replace whoever lost. And the cycle repeats. I was in it to win it. I always went back to my desk with a handful of candy. I didn't have the same mentality towards tests though. For whatever reason, I never took them seriously. So when the teacher assigned each of us into a math class for middle school, I was placed in the regular math class. I bet you could tell how embarrassed I was. My friends would be pestering me about my classes, and I'd sheepishly admit that I was placed in regular math. "Oh, but weren't you the one who always won the candy last year?" "Yeah, but I guess the teacher didn't acknowledge that and only put me in regular math based on my grades." Him putting me in regular math almost felt like he was... teasing me; mocking me. I was... kinda angry, actually. Here I was, already doing algebra in fifth grade (thanks to my dad), but couldn't even get into a sixth grade pre-algebra class. My mom was dumbfounded. My dad was furious. As you can imagine, I was quite upset that I was placed in the minority (in terms of my friend group, I suppose). During math class, I wouldn't talk to anyone, not even the teacher despite how friendly everyone was. But when the teacher approached me with icebreaker questions or for an answer to a problem, I would give measly one line answers. I isolated myself and didn't participate in anything. So when we were all given a placement exam after the first week of sixth grade, I zoomed through it. I was the first in my math class to finish. In fact, I finished in half the time it took most of the others. It wasn't hard or anything; adding negatives, fractions, multiplication, simple geometry. I got a perfect score and the sixth grade math teacher pushed me up to the pre-algebra class (or the "honors" math all of my friends were in). I'm really glad that the school district allowed it. If I hadn't jumped up to pre-algebra back in sixth grade, I'd be taking calc as a senior--which means I wouldn't have room to take Physics C. And interestingly enough, despite having been exposed to it in fifth grade, I actually struggled with algebra in seventh grade. But I regained my drive after taking geometry in eighth grade (freaking loved geometry). Calc almost ruined it all for me, but I still love math. Just... not calc, lol.

 

(separated paragraph to ease the eyes)

But the thing is, even if you're not taking the same level of math as "everyone else" around here, you're not gonna be ostracized. Or at least for high school. Middle school had a pretty strict schedule. So what if you're talking pre-calc instead? So what if you're taking AB? So what if you decide to take AP stats instead of calc? It's not like anyone cared. The school schedule is so flexible that even if you're not on the same track as others (which most people aren't), it didn't matter to anyone. So what if you're taking a sophomore or junior oriented class as a senior? Admittedly, I'm one of those people since I'm taking AP Econ this year. But it's not like any of my friends cared. We all had a good laugh during orientation since I'm going to be surrounded by juniors. Hell, even one of my friends is taking World History I (which is mainly directed to freshmen). Why look down on that? Who cares, lol. Almost everything on our schedules is chosen by choice and not by requirement (since we can get those out of the way with summer school). So even if you're in a "lesser" class, you're not gonna be ostracized. If you hate chemistry and want to avoid it like the plague, that's completely respectable. Hate English as well? A lot of people do, so just take the regular class. Not a problem. Even if you're not taking the same classes as someone else, everyone's still on the same playing field. We all want to get into a good college. It's just that our means of getting there might differ, and that's perfectly fine. Also, I'm not planning on using my AP credits. It's to pad my GPA for grad school. I might use a few, but I'm planning to retake most of the classes. And now that I think about it, I might not even take any AP tests as a senior. I'm just taking the classes for the experience. But to comment on your experience, geez, your school system is messed up. It's so formulaic and restrictive. Couldn't you waive your way out of environmental science? Or maybe talk to the teacher about it? Over here, those who don't do well in science back in eighth grade are placed in Bio B (a more basic version of Bio A) but could waive out of it if they wanted to. And you guys are forced to take AP Physics 1? Our school doesn't offer AP Physics 1, and only offers regular physics 1, AP Physics 2, and AP Physics C. The only requirements to get into either of the AP Physics classes is to pass regular physics 1. Heck, we aren't even required to take physics. We have the choice of taking either chemistry or physics. Take one class and you don't have to take the other unless you want to. I know I've already commented on how inflexible your school schedules are, but this is taking it to a whole new level. So if you're stuck in a "regular" class, you can't get out of it? Seriously, kudos to you for being able get through it. I probably wouldn't have handled it as well as you did. And I don't blame you for having such a negative perspective on science. I'd probably be the same if I were in your shoes.

 

The dozing off randomly is kinda ingrained for me at this point. I dozed off in at least one class everyday during second semester. Even with a solid 6 hours of sleep on those rare, rare occasions, I couldn't control it. Doesn't matter how interesting the topic is. If I'm sitting in a chair without stimulation for a long period of time just listening to a lecture, I will, without fail, doze off at some point. Doodling can sometimes prevent this. Sometimes. I guess the fact that I've been dozing off pretty much everyday second semester makes it an ingrained habit now. And the only reason why I was dozing off in the first place was because of sleep deprivation. It was like a never-ending cycle. My summer sleep schedule is pretty regular at the moment. I usually sleep between 12am and 1am and wake up around 9am - 10am ish. Not like before when I would sleep at 3am and wake up at 11am or something. Geezus, I'm still a wreck. Junior year completely demolished my sleep schedule. My mattress is fine (aside from that one indent I've made from sleeping in the same position these past few years), so I don't think that's the problem. The underlying problem is that I've fallen into the habit of dozing off. I'll try my best to fix it, though I have my doubts.

 

Glad to hear that college is treating you well so far! You're one of the lucky few who has access to A/C? Personally, I think it's well deserved considering what you were forced to endure in high school. Congrats! And yeahh, last week was also rough in Michigan. It's was really humid and the temperature decided to spike into the high 80s and low 90s for whatever reason. That's no longer the case now, and I'm assuming that it's the same for you guys in Ohio? Or at least I hope so, haha. But geez, full blast is barely enough to keep the room at a comfortable temperature? I don't know what kind of A/C was installed into your dorm since the lowest setting at UMich was already too cold for me. Well, at least it's better than nothing! Yupp, winter is kind of depressing here in Michigan. I really dislike January and February in particular even though winter is my favorite season. I wake up for school on a dark, dreary morning and trudge through the snow while anticipating my impending doom that is midterms. I used to joke to my friends that the only reason why I went to school in the winter is because of the heating they provide since my parents rarely turn it up while I'm home. My fingers also feel like icicles when I type, and I get small cuts on the back of my hand that come out of nowhere. Although we get a fair amount of sunny days in the winter, we also get an equal amount of overcast days. Now, you may be wondering why winter is my favorite season when I associate so many negative things with it. It's because I love December. I absolutely love the holidays and the festivity; it basically makes up for everything else, haha. I love the first sight of snow and I love being hugged by my jackets and sweaters (oh, and snow days). December is one of the only reasons why I love winter. You'd prefer an overcast winter's day over a sunny summer's day? What about a sunny winter's day then? I love sunny days! Seeing the sun shining overhead brightens my mood so much; it's so uplifting! And sunsets. You can't see gorgeous sunsets while it's overcast, heh. Though I guess the sweating that comes from hot summer days can be a bit of a downer. Thanks to tennis, I automatically associate sweating with headaches.

 

I'm not much better, haha. I've never even heard of 21 Jump Street or The Interview until my friends showed them to me. At least you managed to stumble across them through trailers, lol. And yeah, I also have years when I completely skip out on going to the movies. I rarely even suggest going to the movie theater. The most I remember is my friend dragging me along to watch Frozen with her and my sister pushing me with watch Brave with her. Same with movies like Despicable Me and that one horrid Avatar adaptation (not the James Cameron one). I haven't even watched Interstellar yet (and I really want to). Oh, and worst of all, I haven't watched a single Star Wars movie [insert inaudible gasp]. I'm just as out of the loop as you, if not more so. Wait, Grave of the Fireflies is the only Ghibli film you've watched? (I actually haven't watched it yet, is it good?). What about Spirited Away? You had to have watched Spirited Away. Oh my gosh, I will force you to watch some of them if I have to, haha. You can skip out on Ponyo though, because it was a weird movie. 

 

So I tried typing in "permit" in the DCW search bar, and I really don't think I mentioned anything about my permit in any of my previous responses. Hmm, strange. Well, I actually passed my driving test on Saturday, haha. The spaces they gave us were a lot bigger that what you would see in typical parking lots so the backing-in and parallel parking weren't much of a problem. There's a point system they use to grade how you drive. As backwards as this sounds, the more points you get, the worse off you are. Each point is essentially a "warning" in this context. You can get up to 6 points on the parking portion and up to 25 in the driving portion before it's considered a fail. Although I didn't bump into any cones, I still ended up with 4 points on the parking portion. Every reposition is considered a point, which is kind of annoying. And in the driving portion, I ended up with 11. I kept hesitating when turning even when the light was green, and apparently you get points for not looking both ways even when you're passing a green light. You get points for not correctly answering a question the road tester asks you, for not coming to a full stop, for jerky movements, for making a Michigan left improperly, for not fully stopping at a stop bar/sign (which might even be considered a fail in some cases), for passing a stop bar, for wide turns. Hell, you can get points for anything. But they allow up to 25, so I'm grateful for that. As far as I know, I only got those 11 points from not looking both ways when passing stoplights, for getting that railroad question wrong (I didn't mention looking both ways before proceeding, go figure), for hesitating, and for one wide turn. Oh, and funny enough, my road tester turned out to be my dad's old co-worker, lol. I finally got my parking down after a bit of practicing (although 4 points was cutting it close), and the road test itself went okay, I guess. I still suck at driving though, so my parents probably won't let me drive anywhere outside of Troy, lol. But I finally don't have to ask for rides or pester my parents anymore! Ahh, what a relief. Oh, and the written test isn't as hard as you might think. It's mainly common sense like "which of the following age groups is more likely to get into car crashes" kind of thing. Just brush up on a few statistics and some basic signs and road markings, and you should be golden. The passing grade is an 80 percent on the first one and a 70 percent on the second one, so it's not that bad. I mean, they even provide you with a study guide, haha. And they allow up to two retakes. It's honestly pretty crazy how young they let us obtain a permit. I ain't complaining though. The hour requirements aren't a problem because it's your parents who verify it. Even if you only had 3 hours of experience, if your parents "verify" that you drove 60 hours (by signing some slip of paper), you can take the road test. There's no way in hell I reached the required hours, but my parents didn't care, lol. The time restriction is the only real problem, but with school in the way of things, the 180 days restriction goes by relatively quickly. So I looked up the skills tested in the NJ road test, and you guys are tested on sitting properly? I'm actually curious though--how do they grade the way you sit? Is it posture or something? You guys aren't required to back in or drive on highways? And on top of the fact that the entire test takes only 10-15 minutes for you guys? I was mainly referring to this site, but only 10-15 minutes? Ehh?? Well, uh, ehem, I used to get to school using the school bus, but my dad started sending me towards the second half of junior year. If I could drive myself, I could probably savor 5-10 extra minutes of sleep, which I think is well worth it. And I don't have to worry about my parents being ticked off about picking me up after school from tennis practice and other after school activities! As for my backing in ordeal, I think I must've been having a rough day. After trying again a few weeks later, I did a lot better. Plus, like I mentioned before, the parking spaces on the actual road test are bigger than they typically are in normal parking lots, which helped ease my anxiety, haha. The parallel parking didn't go as well, but eh, it's not like I'll ever use it again (and now that I think about it, I'm never going to back in again either). But thank you for your concern! I should also be thanking my dad since he was my drill sergeant. It was frustrating hearing him yell at me whenever I screwed up, but he's ultimately the reason why I passed. Black ice can form regardless of whether there's snow and usually appears after rain. It's scary, especially when you begin to lose control of the car on a main road. Ahh, sorry, didn't mean to sound too anxious, but best of luck to you, and I hope it goes well!

 

The Steins;Gate movie was the only thing I watched that legitimately made me cry. Tissues and everything. In hindsight, I'm not sure why I cried. I rewatched that specific scene just now to see how I would react again (thank the lord for the YouTube timeline feature), and I didn't even come close to feeling anything this time around. I'm not sure why I feel so stoic towards it now. The other movies and shows I've watched sometimes caused emotions to well up inside of me, but not enough for tears to come out. Would you mind listing a few of the anime, manga, and movies that moved you to tears? I kinda want to check some of them out for myself, haha. And yeah, sensationalism gets annoying after a while since most of the articles tend to be click baits. I don't think I'm really made of "tough stuff". Maybe I haven't witnessed enough touching moments in anime and movies? The reason why your birthday message made me so happy was because it was so genuine. I've never had such a heartfelt message given to me before--especially from someone over the internet--so I guess it really is the thought that counts, haha. Receiving such a passionate message from you--someone who I don't know in real life, someone who I wouldn't recognize on the streets, someone who I only met through a forum--just felt...really unexpected and special. I honestly don't know what I was feeling when I first read the message. It was like a mix of shock, joy, captivation, fervor...I-I don't know. I was just so overwhelmed with emotion. Well, whatever I was feeling made such a big impression on me. So big that I couldn't help but let a few tears come out. Even if you say you were merely stating your feelings, I was truly moved. So there you have it. There are stories of men actively attempting to make their significant other cry tears of joy, but you just did something some of those men could only hope to do. You're pretty amazing, heh. I suppose if we ever meet in real life, we'll have to make up for all of the times we wished we could give each other hugs, haha. I still doubt that anyone's going to bother digging through our conversations. Only a few people bothered commenting on our exchanges, and even then, the topic didn't stay afloat for too long. Maybe the mods never bothered to check this section of the forum? We've been doing this for quite a while now, so it does feel a bit strange that none of the mods paid any heed (I mean, over a third of the thread's content consists of our responses). I don't see why they would bother reading through them though, lol.

 

As of right now, I'm also planning on applying to UMich (of course), Michigan State, Vanderbilt maybe, UChicago maybe (just because the prompts seem interesting), and perhaps a few schools that have emailed me saying that they'll waive my application fee if I apply, because why not. Now, you may be wondering why Michigan State is on my list. MSU isn't a bad school, it's just that...it's UMich's rival school. That's the only thing I have against it, haha. Otherwise, it's a perfectly fine option. Of course, I'm hoping that I won't have to resort to it or the other schools I'm applying to since I'm pinning my hopes on Case. 

 

I also forgot to mention... when I walked into the Weatherhead School of Management, there was this sort of magic... just knowing you were there at one point and that it was the closest that I've ever been to meeting you. I kinda wish I stuck a note of some sort for you on the underside one of those tables or chairs near the entrance. The thought never occurred to me until after I left the campus though. I'm not sure what I would've written, but what an opportunity that would've been! I only had sticky notes with me at the time, so I don't know how long the adhesive would've lasted if I ended up casually pasting it under a table or chair without any extra reinforcement... Gosh, I wish I had the epiphany while I was still on campus. It would've been worth a try, right? Ahaha, what am I even saying... Oh, and the information session that I went to on Sunday gave the exact same presentation they gave us when I went on the campus tour. I wouldn't have missed anything if I decided not to go, but I guess I was able to show some more demonstrated interest by attending, haha. Ohmygosh, when I first read that paragraph I misread "psychics and astrology club" as "physics and astronomy club". I...I just erased everything I typed for this portion of the paragraph. Holy crap, I'm really glad I caught that in time. At first I went on about how much I loved astronomy as a little kid and the dozens of astronomy books I read, but then I started questioning why you would bother joining a physics club if you detest the subject so much, and then I noticed that what you typed wasn't "physics" but was "psychics"... and then I, uh, I... I think I need to get my eyes checked. I'm just going to stop here now before I embarrass myself any further this gets out of hand, ahahaha......... It's pretty interesting that Case has a psychics and astrology club! I've heard stories of introspective psychics that were able to unearth some really personal things that have happened to people. For this reason, I've always wanted to visit one myself just to see how much merit psychics really have. And I didn't know that you're into astrology! Actually, I didn't think you were the metaphysical kind of person, haha. Is there any particular reason why this club caught your eye?

 

Ohh, it looks like you're heading off to college with a good start! You managed to sneak your 3DS XL into your backpack safely (you sly bastard, heh), you were one of the lucky few to have A/C, and you brought four new pairs of shoes with you! I hope they serve you well! 

 

Your roommate is also into anime? And Fate as well? Ahaha, what are the chances! He seems like a nice guy, but hopefully the language barrier won't be too troublesome. Damn, the social jocks were already bringing girls from other buildings upstairs to chat and play cards? I never imagined Case to be a "party" college, even if it's only your floor. I'm willing to bet that the rowdiness will die out soon enough. Except for maybe the weekends if they turn out to be those kind of people, lol. It seems that your floormates are friendly though, which is always good, haha. How are the classes faring for you so far?

 

That's actually a really clever strategy to help ease you guys into the college life! Although it sounded quite busy, it also sounded like a lot of fun! What was your favorite part of orientation?

 

Since it's already been a few days since classes started, how has your people-hunting been so far? (for lack of a better word; my vocabulary is failing me, lol).

 

School starts on September 7th this year--the latest it's ever been. And because I'm an idiot, I'm stupidly behind on my summer reading. I've only finished Oryx and Crake and have yet to get through the remaining three. Jane Eyre being one of them, which contains over 500 pages worth of sheer delight. I'm probably going to end up skimming through one of them, since it looks like it's only a supplement to the class rather than something we'll end up analyzing or having assignments on. So yeahh... I'm not in a very good position, lol. I'm not too worried about it though. Two of the books are from lists you choose from, and since the teacher can't possibly go through all sixteen in-depth, I'm just "pleasure" reading them, I guess. And it's not like they created sixteen tests--one for each book. Wow, just typing this out makes me feel ashamed of what I'm resorting to. So much for starting off senior year on a positive note. Hooray for school, ahaha... Gosh, I didn't mean to end the response so negatively. But hopefully college has been going well for you!

 

alsoooo....

I've been getting a ton of emails from Case lately, but this one caught my eye:

I'm sure you know why, heh.

 

...and oh my gosh, at the part where I mentioned the "Spanish" Let's Play, it was Portuguese

I just saw the title and the word "parte" and assumed it was Spanish or something

it's an insignificant detail, but man do I feel like an idiot

I thought it was really suspicious how I actually couldn't understand a single word he was saying

you'd think I could catch at least morsel of words here and there from my nonexistent limited Spanish vocabulary if the video really was in Spanish

I don't know why I didn't catch this earlier or why I decided it was now that I would check on my suspicions

but I finally realized my mistake

and I feel pretty bad for some reason, as if I just offended the Spanish and Portuguese cultures or something

ahaha, sorry, I just wanted to get this off my chest since the thought was bugging me a lot (gosh, I'm such an idiot)

I hope it didn't bother you too much, ehehe...............

I discovered it sometime during senior year, when I asked one of my friends from physics what phone he had (I was trying to casually scout out good phones at the time, even though I knew I wasn’t going to buy anything until the summertime).  When he replied with “a OnePlus One” confusion obviously arose (it’s not a very good name to first come across spoken to you, haha) but it intrigued me.  I later learned that two other people in my physics class alone also had OnePlus Ones and they all recommended it, and since they’re all techy people (going into engineering and computer science and stuff) I figured I could take their word for it.  It’s not like there was much else to consider that could compete with it price and power wise anyway, so the search for my first phone wrapped up rather nicely right there.  Since then, I’ve noticed it kinda gain popularity.  During graduation, after the ceremony, I heard someone call out in the crowd “Yo, you got a OnePlus One?” to one of his friends.  Though I never got the chance to verify who said this, know it wasn’t one of the three friends from physics class.  Also, one of my favorite YouTubers/livestreamers has an OPO.  He got a call during a livestream and when he reached for his phone to silence it I recognized it immediately as a OnePlus One, and he later verified that that was indeed what it was, as well as saying how hyped he was for the OnePlus 2.  So it’s definitely still underground, but I’d like to think it’s getting more and more popular.

 

Ahh, I guess since the last time I heard from you, that you’ve made at least a little bit of progress is still good!  I really am intrigued though.  You have an intro and a conclusion but not a body?  Hm, that certainly is an odd way of structuring your essay.  Personally, I didn’t have a conclusion for the longest time for my essay and then one night it just came to me and I typed it up all at once.  Hopefully the same happens to you soon, so you can begin the process of proofreading and peer editing as soon as possible.  Good luck and let me know how it goes!

 

Ohhh, I-I actually didn’t know, eheheheh…  That’s an awfully handy trick, I should try it out some time!  And it was still pretty creative of you to figure everything out, so good on you for that!  Really, I thought apart from the obvious relation to musical notes there was very little to base anything off of and it would just be too daunting of a task for anyone to even bother with, ahah.  And there was really no need for you to correct yourself about the Spanish/Portuguese mixup, you didn’t mean any harm by it, hahah.  In fact, I didn’t even realize your mistake because I didn’t click through the video enough to confirm or deny the language.  It’s kinda cute though, how you keep on going back to fix mistakes.  It’s flattering to know you’re trying your best to make your responses are free from errors, but don’t stress out too much about it either!  I’ve made plenty of embarrassing mistakes as well, we’re all human after all.

 

The image source for your avatar?  Well, I only bothered looking for it because I didn’t recognize the character and was honestly expecting some fab hair or at least one of the characters you mentioned as ones you were considering.  I started off by reverse image searching (right clicking on your pic and then selecting “Search Google for this image”).  The fourth result down led directly to the video, and every other result indirectly pointed towards that same video.  I even made the video full screen, took a screen shot, uploaded it to imgur, reverse image searched it again, and still came up with the same video.  I couldn’t for the life of me find the original source material for the image in the video, so the chances were very high that you found that image from the video itself.  So yeah, the coloration didn’t throw me off (you purple-ized your Dark Pit avatar previously, so I assumed you red-ified Aya Shameimaru as well).  Oh yeah, and I only figured out who the girl was after Googling some of the stuff in the description and title of the video and figuring out the song came from the game Touhou Bunkachou ~ Shoot the Bullet, whose main character is Aya.  So that’s the gist of it, heh.

 

Yup, you really can’t go wrong with your second game, be it Awakening or a new Pokemon game or whatever.  Though, if a new Pokemon main series game comes out, the earlier you get it the better.  There are always time sensitive WiFi events that correspond directly with the initial release of those games (as you probably know) and it would be a pity to miss those.  I’ve downloaded nearly 20 of them and the last one I even bothered to take from the delivery man/girl was the Reshiram in my White version.  I haven’t missed a single WiFi event since then, but likewise haven’t picked up a single WiFi event since then either.  Ohh, and speaking of which, I finished Y!  Kinda, at least.  Got through Victory Road, beat the Elite Four, beat Diantha, beat AZ, saw the credits, and finally got to the “Fin” signifying the end of the game.  Of course, I haven’t done anything after that, so don’t spoil me on post-game stuff just yet!  I actually liked Y quite a bit.  The whole story of AZ and the weapon and the weird magical stuff that pretty much wasn’t even present in previous gens was rather fascinating, and some of the philosophical points brought up were more thought provoking than the much praised ones from the Unova games.  The grey morality was pretty neat (I already explained how Lysandre is like Archer and how the children are like Shirou), and I recall some of the random NPCs bringing up some pretty deep insights on the Pokemon universe, though I can’t remember specifics.  Actually being celebrated by the general populace for your heroic actions was a welcome first.  I think I only liked this game as much as I did because everyone was saying how bad it was compared to BW.  The Kalos region actually has the deepest lore of all the regions (Kings and actual wars?  The intricate details of AZ’s story told through random books that many people wouldn’t bother to read in Team Flare’s hideout?  Damn, there’s actually a lot of stuff to keep track of.)  I had my expectations super low, and so they were exceeded.  I know a big complaint was the lack of post-story content, but I’m rather satisfied with the plot and good god would you look at the gorgeous 3DS models??  Oohhh also, when I versed Serena for the last time on Victory Road, it was during an outdoor area of the maze and before the battle, while the text was rolling, the camera was angled upwards so you could see the sky.  I happened to do this at night, and daaayyumm the starry night sky in Kalos is amazing!  I checked and it doesn’t look like any playthroughs on YouTube did this part at night, so you most likely didn’t see it.  I wish I took a picture, since I can’t seem to find an image online.  The small details like that really amaze me.  So yeahh, while not my favorite Pokemon game (nostalgia goggles on, heh) I think it deserves some credit for being so revolutionary.

 

I think my parents were just under the impression that the rest of America would be relatively boring and the same as New Jersey, and figured a whole new country like Canada would surely provide more entertainment, ahah.  I didn’t do anything too amazing there, but it’s not a bad place either.  Ohh, interesting, and it’s fine, Shanghai can be a pretty ugly place.  I actually haven’t ever been to Hong Kong though.

 

I can only follow what goes on during the Super Bowl because of watching my high school football team fumble around during my freshman year when I was in marching band, aha.  It was pretty fun, sitting with the rest of the alto sax group and trying to understand what was going on on the field and sharing hand warmers and stomping our feet to cheer stay warm and complaining profusely about how freezing it was and nearly dying while waiting in line during halftime to buy some of that sweet sweet hot chocolate.  too bad the rest of the band…………  Y-you actually dress up because you want your class to win??  Whhaaaa, I only dress up if I get extra credit in chem for it.  And even then, I only did it about a third of the time because I didn’t want to be bothered.  Sheesh, you try hard.  Joking; sheesh, my lazy self.  Thank god Case doesn’t care about sports or school spirit very much.  I don’t know if I’d be able to handle something like UMich’s atmosphere.  I guess all the Big Ten schools, Rutgers being one of them, are like that, though it may be even more profound in UMich and OSU’s case because of their rivalry.  And also, don’t underestimate my stolidity.  You claim all these absolutes about how everyone will be cheering and getting hyped during UMich football games, but I’m proud to say that at the FLOW concert I refused to do anything more than clap at the end of every song, despite everyone else jumping up and down and fist pumping and losing their minds the whole time.  Furthermore, during the Hillary Clinton rally, I only politely clapped a few times, but didn’t react in any other way.  If even in the presence of world renowned celebrities I can maintain my composure, nothing can faze me (expect for meeting you in person, I’d probably be overwhelmed with emotions then, eheheheheheh).  The saying goes: there’s an exception to every rule, and I’m that exception for UMich football games!  Ufufufufufufufufufufu!  (I’m sorry for being a no fun party pooper by the way, bleh).  

 

Oh, and speaking of the Clinton rally, I actually didn’t miss class.  My wellness teacher canceled all the classes for this past week and the first day of class will actually be next week, starting with Tuesday, September the 1st.  So yay, my attendance is still perfect!  The rally itself was interesting.  There were some Clinton supporters that creepily tried to force stickers onto you and some counter-ralliers that silently protested from the sidelines with signs and everything.  Nothing too major, but interesting to see in person nonetheless.  There were news cameras set up all in a row in the back and someone from CNN actually took a minute to interview some stranger standing next to me (he only had a voice recorder, not a camera crew, so don’t bother trying to check for a glimpse of me on YouTube, heheh).  The biggest thing I took away from the rally was that Hillary Clinton is a good speaker.  Like, a damn good speaker at that.  There were some people who spoke before her, for introductions and all, and while they were good, none could come close to even matching the finesse and poise that she possessed.  However, I’m not completely for her politically and I need to do more research on other candidates of course, but this was still a good experience.

 

Yeah, your tanning situation does sound rather odd, but it’s good you’re not bothered by it!  There’s no point in getting upset over something you can’t change, haha.  Hmm, did your school get new tennis uniforms or something?  It’s weird how this year you can’t wear anything with your skirt but last year you could.  Oh man, once I discovered the blessing that was a watch back in middle school, I wore one every day.  I thought I would never stop wearing it, but during my junior and senior year the watch I was wearing broke and I just couldn’t be bothered to get a new one, sooo……  I’ve started wearing a watch again in college though.  It’s a lot more convenient than having to check my phone, and it’s more discreet, too.  If a lecture is getting boring and I want to check the time but don’t want to obviously twist my head around to look behind me or reach for my phone, I can just subtly angle my wrist and quickly glance down.  It wouldn’t be good to give my professors the wrong impression or anything, eheh.

 

Ahhh yes, the famous body/hug/love pillows from Japan.  Stay classy, my friends.  Actually, I wasn’t referring to Free specifically, just anime in general, but yeah Free seems to be one of the biggest culprits.  Of course, that series is one of the few shows with female fanservice in it, so that’s understandable.  Girl anime fans have had to settle for just regular shoujo shows, with reverse harems being the only even remotely risqué genre at their disposal outside of straight up BL doujinshi.  Free was the long awaited answer to all the ecchi that guys have been receiving for years, so I can imagine it was quite liberating (ahah “free” and “liberating” ucwutididthar??).  Maybe that’s why your sister just couldn’t resist watching it?  And oohhhhh you’ve been tempted to watch Free as well?  Now now Kenzi, I thought you to be better than that.  Just joking, watch what you want to watch, even if it’s for a reason like that.  I’ve watched tons of fanservicey shows myself, and while most of them are pretty bad and I’ve tried avoiding them nowadays, some of them ended up being fairly entertaining, like in Highschool of the Dead’s case.  And it’s okay, you’re a growing girl and you’re at that age now, aren’t ya? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  okay okay, seriously, I’m done with the jokes, sorry about that, I just couldn’t resist using that gif, it’s too perfect

 

Four years, hm?  I guess that’s not too old, but I can imagine it’s starting to show its age.  When you go off to college next year, you should consider getting a new laptop, just so you can get off to a fresh start.  I don’t have any personal recommendations though, so you’re just going to have to do your own research when the time comes to that, eheh.  And the laptop I have right now is pretty new, a little over a year old I believe.  I just want it to last at least through college, which I think it will.

 

Ohh my, I didn’t expect you to type up a whole two paragraphs in reply to that, ahah.  It’s actually interesting that you experienced something similar when you were younger, though it’s good you were able to test out of it.  So yeah, you can imagine how it felt having to deal with that all of high school.  Did I potentially miss out on opportunities by being in environmental science my freshman year?  Yeah, maybe.  It sucked but it’s behind me now, so whatever.  Ah yes, daily reminder that my high school was terrible.  Yup, if you’re stuck in a lower level class, you pretty much have no chance of skipping up ahead.  There is no waive process and talking to your teacher isn’t going to get you anywhere.  Do recall that they don’t take summer credit for pretty much anything, so you can’t even do that.  You’re forced to take at least three years of science: one year of bio, one year of chem, and one year of physics.  Because environmental science took up a wasted spot in my freshman year, I was fated to take bio and chem and physics (in that order nonetheless, since you can’t take physics until after you take chem and you can’t take chem until after you take bio).  It’s really rigid, though admittedly there aren’t any specifics with it comes to English or math classes; you just need to take four years of whatever with those subjects.  Ohhh, that’s really nice how people don’t care what classes you take in your high school!  I wish things were like that in my school.  It’s not like people openly gave you a hard time for it, generally speaking, but it was hard trying to fit in, especially given I was put in this situation freshman year, which is pretty much the best time to make established friends and when strangers silently judge you the most.  Because there’s such a lack of flexibility with classes, when someone steps out of the “honors and AP classes” mold, it’s easy to misunderstand that as “inability to perform and handle the pressure of college level courses”, as faulty of an assumption as that may be.  Sigh, it’s just what happens when my fellow classmates are too competitive and the district isn’t flexible enough to accommodate everyone’s educational needs.

 

Ah, and speaking of AP classes, I’m actually going to be using all of the AP credits I’ve accumulated these past few years.  Because I’m doing the accelerated accounting dual degree program, I don’t really have the time to spare casually taking courses and exploring my interests, else I risk not graduating in four years (and being disowned by my mother).  I just need to clear out as many prereqs as I can (especially for subjects I’m not a fan of) and get started on classes that count toward my major as soon as possible.  Hmm, I failed to go into detail about this now, but I guess I’ll give you a rundown of my schedule for this year and beyond.  First of all, if you want to major in accounting, you still need to take two semesters of math, natural science, social science, humanities, and phys ed each, as well as the SAGES reqs (required of all Case undergrads regardless of major).  SAGES is a Case specialty and you can’t use AP credit for it, so I can’t do anything about that.  I used the 4 I got on my Calc AB exam to knock out a semester of math, so hopefully the calc class I’m taking right now will be the last true math class I ever take.  I’m able to skip another semester of natural science with the 4 I got for AP Bio, but since I messed up my AP Physics exam with a 3, I’m still one class short of being completely free from a natural science class.  I really dislike either chem or physics, so I wouldn’t be very comfortable taking even intro level courses in those subjects.  Bio is alright, but I don’t want to take a next-level class because then I’d be competing with students who actually want to go into that field of study.  Since it’s only one semester and it’s for a prereq class, the plan for now is to apply to have summer credit transferred over.  I want to take an accepted summer course in Rutgers next summer, and as for the subject I wouldn’t even care if it was chemistry or physics since the grade I’d get in that class wouldn’t affect my Case GPA and just be there as credit.  As for the humanities classes, I have that completely cleared out.  In fact, I’ve overcompensated.  I got 5’s on my Lit, LangComp, and APUSH exams and a 4 on my WHAP exam (why does nobody see the importance of these beautiful classes *sniff*).  I’ll have two of those exams count for the prereqs and the remaining two count toward a minor or something.  I actually haven’t even thought of a minor.  Maybe creative writing?  As for social sciences, I don’t have any AP credit for that, so I’ll just take two semesters of political science or psychology or sociology or whatever sounds interesting.  Unfortunately, economics when taken for your major doesn’t cover the prereqs, which is a bit of a bummer, otherwise I wouldn’t have to worry about it given the micro and macro classes I need to take for accounting anyway are technically social science classes.  There’s no getting out of phys ed, and since I’m not athletically inclined (sports wise at least) I’m just going to be taking some silly classroom classes, kinda like health classes from high school.  You can join a sports team and have that count as credit, so don’t worry, if you come to Case you can just continue playing tennis as you always have and free up your academic schedule that way.  As it stands, I’m taking a SAGES course on inequality, Calc 126, accounting 101, econ (micro), and wellness for phys ed this semester.  Huh, though this may be going a bit out of order, I’ll save how my classes are specifically going for later in this response, just so I don’t bog this area down and make it difficult for you to respond to.

 

Ah, I’m pretty sure there’s an indent on my mattress back at home as well!  Oh dear, poor springs…  I’m sure they’re faring much better now that I’m not there to crush them every night.  I was pretty proud of myself for a while, because I thought I had my sleep schedule under control starting college, but it’s already gotten out of whack.  Even though I set a really obnoxious alarm that wakes me without fail every morning, I always get up, turn it off, and then go back to sleep, rendering the point of an alarm useless.  I still get to classes and breakfast on time, but as each day passes I’m starting to rush more and more each morning…  And to make matters worse, I don’t even feel completely well-rested during the day.  The first time I ever dozed off in Case was during Fall Convocation, when Dr. Steele was giving a speech about the common reading book, Whistling Vivaldi.  He started going on about something that he had already covered extensively in the book, and since I knew what he was going to say I got kinda bored… and the seats in Severance Hall were pretty comfy, sooo…… eheh…  I’m sorry Dr. Steele, please forgive me!  I went and got the copy of my book signed by him, so hopefully that made up for it.  And the first time I fell asleep in class was just this past Thursday, when I nodded off for a minute or two in accounting.  Oh geez, this shouldn’t be happening the first week of class.  So it’s okay, you’re not alone!  We can both work toward fixing up our bad sleeping habits during this upcoming crucial year of our lives, ahahah.

 

Well, it seems God is dead [insert that Nichijou image/video] once again, as it’s cooled down enough in Cleveland where the A/C isn’t even necessary.  Pls, I only had one week of smug satisfaction, this can’t be what I endured four years of JP for……  Right now, I really don’t need to have the A/C on but I have it set to blasting cold just to spite God.  Are my hands white and freezing and am I hugging myself to stay warm?  Yes.  Will I turn off the A/C?  No.  I refuse.  I may be 18, but the immature kid inside of me refuses to let that A/C just sit there and do nothing.  The air will be cooled!  Bwahahahahah-ah-ah-ah-atchoo!!  (my roommate doesn’t mind by the way, so don’t think I’m being cruel or anything, eheh)  Oh, and the A/C in my room is really good, I just wasn’t using it right before, derp.  Even if you set it to Cool/High, it won’t continuously blow out cold air nonstop.  You have to use the arrows to set the lowest temperature that it will eject cold air.  So if I set the temperature to 73 degrees, it will spew out cold air until the temperature in the room reaches 73 degrees, after which it will shut off the cold but the keep the fan blowing room temperature air.  I feel kinda dumb, that was probably common sense to anyone who’s used these types of A/C units before, but since I haven’t in the longest time I didn’t realize that’s what I had to do, heheheh.  I think I had the temperature set really high the first week, which also happened to be the hottest week.  I-I complete blew my chance… what a way to start the year…  Anyway, enough of that A/C talk.  At the rate at which I’m responding back to you, I’m never going to finish in time!  Christmas is amazing, I love the atmosphere of it!  Though, since winter starts December 20th-ish, Christmas is barely a winter holiday and most of the Christmas hype occurs before winter starts.  The biggest chunk of winter is still January and February, grueling and dreary months for high schoolers, heh.  But regardless, winter is still great because of the snow and just getting all warm and snug in thick sweaters and blankets and peering your face into heating vents and drinking hot chocolate and anticipating those snow days and waking up late realizing school is canceled and the sun after a good snowfall and seeing your breath in front of you as you exhale and oh my gosh I can’t wait for it to be winter!!  And yeah, I guess sunny winter days are great, too.  Even if there’s no promise of snow, it’s still fine because it’s never hot or sweat inducing, which is my only gripe of summer.  Fall is my second favorite season, just because of Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Though they may not be as magical as Christmas, there’s a fair amount of nostalgia associated with them, which is good enough to give autumn an edge over the other seasons.  And of course, the transient changing of the leaves, which is always gorgeous despite not lasting very long.

 

Grave of the Fireflies was pretty good.  Didn’t make me cry, but I know many people consider it depressing and whatnot.  I don’t know how it compares to other Ghibli movies (just because I haven’t seen any others) but it’s one of the more well received ones from what I gather, so check it out if you want!  My mom loved it, and it really messed her up despite that she generally prefers live-action movies (because cartoon characters aren’t “real” and are hard to relate to, heh).  She keeps on randomly bringing it up whenever she reads a sad news story about war and she’s told all her colleagues at work about it as well.  Oh my, I’m open to watching Ghibli movies but just haven’t found the motivation or time for it.  Heheheh, if you come to Case I guess I wouldn’t mind watching some of them with you, so work hard on those applications!

 

Yay, congratulations on getting your license!  Driving is no easy feat (or maybe it is, I wouldn’t know) so good on you for passing!  Hm, I have no idea how driving tests work since I can’t be bothered to look that up right now given it’s not relevant to me until at least winter break and I know I’m going to forget all the details by then if I read up on it now.  The point system is interesting, and it’s good they give you a lot of room for error.  My parents would be really close to failing if they try to take a driving test now.  They’re very jerky when they drive, they always (without fail) cross stop bars, and they reposition all the time when parking front-ways-in (I don’t know my terminology very well, sorry).  And the written test in Jersey is really hard… sometimes.  It depends on the version of the test you get.  If it was mainly common sense and road signs and rules questions I wouldn’t have needed to study.  But on occasion they throw in a crazy amount of petty and stupid stuff.  What is your jail sentence for your third offense of driving while suspended?  In regards to alcohol concentration, how much liquor is equal to six ounces of beer??  At what speed should you approach a horse or horse-drawn vehicle???  How much longer percentage-wise does it take a truck to stop in bad weather conditions????  If you get a high enough rate of these questions, just common sense isn’t gonna save ya.  My heart goes out to all those immigrants I saw there attempting to take the test, Godspeed.  You shouldn’t have moved to Jersey, I’m sure Pennsylvania would have been better.  Rejoice in the fact that our road test seems easy enough though.  As I said before, I have zilch idea as to how road tests work.  I even believed until just recently that it occurred on an enclosed practice course, not on actual roads, blehh.  But if the tests don’t last very long, then I can imagine they’re only so difficult, at least in New Jersey.  So unfortunately, I have no idea what they mean by sitting properly.  I guess if you’re slouching heavily and leaning your seat back then obviously you’re going to get marked down for it.  And whaaa, you can fudge your hours?  Psht I take it back, I guess you can cheat the system anywhere in America.  But I’m really happy you managed to overcome your backing-in problem and pass the test!  Haha, yeah, there’s no need to be so anxious.  I haven’t driven before sure, but pretty much everyone is forced to drive in slippery conditions at some point in their lives, so I’ll manage.  It might be a good opportunity for the roads to beat me into shape early on so the test itself seems easy in comparison!  In all seriousness though, I will be careful.  But that won’t be an issue until winter, and my bigger concern is you being safe.  Now that you actually have the power to drive yourself around, do so with utmost caution.  Driving to and from school, driving at night, whenever and where ever, please be careful.  I will be praying each and every day now for your safety.  Ahh, not that I wasn’t worried about you before you got your license or anything, but my thoughts will be going out to you ever more fervently from now on, ehehe.

 

A-a-anime, manga, and movies that made me cry??  O-oh dear, you’re outright asking me to be rather open with you right now, eheh.  I-I’ll do it if you want me to though… b-but it’s not like I’m doing it for you or anything b-b-baka!!  Let’s see, I’ll start with manga since it’s a short list.  The only two that I recall moving me enough to tears was One Piece and Bakuman.  I read these a long time ago, back when my emotions were more easily swayed, so I’m fairly certain crying during Bakuman was a bit of a fluke.  One Piece however is an emotional rollercoaster.  It’s one of the big three shounens so it’s easy to brush off as childish and corny, but one part in particular messed me up real bad.  Like, it was one of those things where I started crying and I couldn’t finish reading the chapter so I had to run off and wipe away my tears, and when I calmed down and came back a wave of sadness hit me again and I had to grab tissues again.  It was got me really really really bad.  It was hard to read the next few chapters for the longest time.  While I do like One Piece a lot, it’s daunting to start and catch up on (I think I’m even starting to fall behind the weekly chapter releases) so don’t feel pressured to read it especially since it shows no sign of ending.  Also, while these didn’t make me cry, I got pretty emotional during Monster and Battle Royale, maybe even a bit in Midori no Hibi, funnily enough.

 

Now on to anime.  Geez, I’m going to be going through my whole list for this one.  I’ll start with what’s on my favorites to ease my way into this.  This is the only thing in the history of everything to make me do this, but I cried during Mawaru Penguindrum… the second time I watched it.  I just didn’t really get what was going on the first time I watched it, but once I rewatched it and everything clicked into place it became really emotional.  Also, this one you’ve already seen, but Fate/Zero got me during Rider’s last stand.  I loved that charismatic little bastard and his interactions with Waver, really hurt to see him go.  For this next part, I’ll be a bit random with my titles since I’ll be going in alphabetical order down my list and will be mentioning those that made me cry as well as ones that got very close to making me cry.  Angel Beats got me close to crying, but after rewatching it I realized it wasn’t as good as I first made it out to be.  5 Centimeters Per Second is a great one-hour movie, and it almost made me cry as well.  Eve no Jikan, another movie, actually made me cry.  Very little, but enough to count.  I can’t remember if Hoshi no Koe made me cry or not, but at the very least it left me with an empty feeling inside.  It’s a quick episode long short, so I recommend you check it out if you have the moment to spare.  One random episode in the second season of Nisekoi actually made me cry.  It was kinda silly in retrospect given how subpar I though the second season was overall, but I can’t deny the fact that that specific episode was admittedly really good.  I also cried during the first episode of Plastic Memories, somehow.  I think I was in an emotionally manipulative mood that day, so it was probably a fluke.  Ahah, and I barely cried during the first episode of Shingeki no Kyojin as well.  Really was not expecting the show to start off so strong.  I don’t know whether or not Summer Wars made me cry, but at the very least it got pretty close.  And finally Tsumiki no Ie, an artistic 12-minute short, got me on the brink of tears though I ultimately didn’t cry.  I think that’s pretty much it, though I may have missed a few things here or there or forgot about how emotional certain anime made me feel.  Of all the ones I listed, the only ones I really would strongly recommend are Penguindrum, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Eve no Jikan, and Hoshi no Koe.  While Penguindrum is my favorite anime of all time, it’s 24 episodes and may be difficult to fit in your schedule.  The other three are all movie-length or shorter, so you’d probably have more luck finding time for them.

 

Oh geez, trying to remember all the movies that made me cry is impossible, so I’ll just list the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  First off, I have to admit Inside Out got me good during Bing Bong’s sacrifice.  I knew it was coming, I could see it from a mile away, but dammit when it actually happened I couldn’t help myself.  Other Pixar movies that got me were Up and Toy Story 3.  The Lion King got me really emotional when I watched it over and over and over again as a kid, as did the lesser known The Land Before Time (the first movie, not the spin-off sequels).  I probably cried at least once during those many rewatches.  Wow, it seems I might just have an affinity for animated things, eheheh.  Let’s see, as for non-animated movies, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes made me tear up at one point.  As with Plastic Memories, I think I was just having an emotional day, so it was probably a fluke.  I can’t actually recall any other movies that brought me to tears or at least brought me to the verge of them.  Hmm, I don’t keep a very extensive database on them so that’s probably why, but if I remember anything later I’ll let you know.

 

(oh my gosh, I keep on getting hung up on certain parts of this reply, sorry for rambling, I’ll get back on topic now…)

Awww gee Kenzi, there you go again, making me blush, eheh.  I’m just awfully glad you liked my gift since I was a bit worried that it would come off as “oh, just more text to read” instead of something more personal.  And I’m also really happy my feelings got across to you.  I mean, I couldn’t imagine I’d bring you to tears nor was that my intention in the slightest, but since it means my words touched you then I’m satisfied, ahah.  And if it weren’t for you being such an amazing person, I never would have been able to type up something so genuine either.  You’re at least half the reason my birthday present to you came out as it did.  It wouldn’t be right to give me all the credit.  And as for what you experienced, all those overwhelming emotions… I guess I don’t know either, hah.  Perhaps… I dunno, you know you better than I know you.  It’s fine that the mods are ignoring this thread I guess, since it doesn’t look like we’re really bothering anyone too much, though you’d think at least someone would find the row of consecutive rep points kinda suspicious and report it, heh.

 

Oh, you aren’t applying to many schools then.  Three you’ll definitely apply to and a few you might.  Of course, you do have a dream school and you’re going to be hoping for the best with that.  I applied to sixteen, but only because I really had no idea where I wanted to go, not until later.  I’m confident in your abilities, so there’s no need to over-apply.  Still though, I wish you the best of luck in the coming months!

 

Ahhhh, actually, I felt something similar when I moved into Case!  You had been there not too long and it was the closest we had come to actually meeting and well, as you say, it was a kind of magical feeling of sorts.  Not just the Weatherhead School of Management, but also the descendant of Newton’s apple tree.  I just imagined you posing there and how you had stood at that very spot, eheheh.  While I’m not entirely sure how well that would have worked, it definitely would have been worth a try.  It’s okay though, if all goes well then we’ll be able to meet each other in person soon enough and then you can say whatever you want to me directly.  Hmm, speaking of which, I wonder what your voice sounds like…?  Ah, I’m getting carried away again.

 

Hold the mayo, did I say psychics and astrology club???  I-I-I made a big mistake, whoops.  I’m so sorry, there’s no need for you to be embarrassed.  I actually meant physics and astronomy club, not psychics and astrology.  H-How did I mess that up??  Oh my, maybe when I typed that up I still wasn’t quite accustomed to being in college and flubbed my words.  I apologize for the confusion, and I’m sorry you deleted that entire part of your response because… you were actually right the first time, eheheheh………  Welp, uhh regarding your confusion as to why I’d be interested in that club despite disliking physics, I guess it’s because it’s actually focused more on astronomy than physics.  It only meets once every month or so.  There’s like a science talk/lecture as well as free pizza, and on occasion they take little trips to physics and astronomy related places.  I’m pretty sure that at least once they’ll take everyone to a stargazing location, so that’s what I’m pinning my hopes on.  And if the physics stuff is kinda related to astronomy, then maybe I’ll come to like it.  This isn’t a class and is more of just a way to explore and broaden my horizons, so I probably won’t harbor any negative feelings toward it.  But to address the psychics and astrology side of things, I actually don’t think I’m a “metaphysical kind of person”.  I mean, I guess horoscopes are kind of interesting to think about but I wouldn’t say I truly believe in any of that stuff either.  I dunno though, haven’t really given it a ton of thought.

 

Yeah, all college campuses are breeding grounds for parties and illegal substance use, but Case is definitely on the quieter side, unlike public schools and such.  Case loves accepting tons of international students, most of them Chinese, so their general conservative attitude (with everything save for smoking) rubs off on others and makes the overall feel of the campus less party-oriented.  If you’re really craving a party though, I can imagine it won’t be very difficult finding once given you know where to look.  All in all though, studies are put before parties which is good.  And yeah, the ruckus pretty much stopped during this past school week though it picked up again just last night.  It was the first weekend of college that wasn’t part of orientation, so a lot of people went crazy.  It sounded like a raid was happening on my floor and there was a mini EDM concert going on outside that I could hear from my room.  A bit distracting, but I know this isn’t going to be a recurring thing, so it should be fine… I think.  My roommate even disappeared for a bit.  Well, not just a bit, but quite a while.  He left on Friday at around six in the afternoon and only just came back today at noon.  When I asked him where he went, he said he attended some Korean Students Alliance event.  They went to same campsite, had a barbeque, and then… got completely wasted.  Apparently it’s a tradition in Korea to get drunk on the first day at university or something, since the legal drinking age over there is 19 and Koreans generally start college after that.  So yeahhh, that was an interesting thing to contemplate today over dinner……  It’s the reality of college life I guess, but still…  It still bothered me, heh.  Maybe I’m just too uptight about things but I feel it wouldn’t hurt to show some decency and restraint, you know?  There are much better things to be doing than getting drunk and high and confused for one night and then waking up hungover with a headache, right?  That’s just dangerous and unpleasant.  There’s so much more life has to offer, why settle for such temporary and double-edged pleasures?  Is the way I think outdated?  Am I just crazy?  I dunno, I’m rambling again, and there’s still quite a bit I have to type, so moving on…

 

Enough about the dark underbelly of American universities and more about the education!  My classes are alright, but what I’m really pleased about is my overall schedule.  On Mondays I have calc at 11:30 and econ at three.  On Tuesdays, my most packed days, I have wellness at ten in the morning, calc at 11:35, accounting at 1:15, and SAGES at 2:45.  Wednesdays are identical to Mondays.  Thursdays are the same as Tuesdays, except I don’t have any calc class.  Friday is my easiest day, with just a quick calc class at 11:30.  The classes are around an hour long, I believe ranging from 50 minutes to an hour and a quarter.  My earliest class is only 10 am, and that’s only on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it’s phys ed of all things.  The latest any of my classes goes is 4:15, which is on Mondays and Wednesdays for econ.  Nice, easy, and stress-free.  My calc professor is alright.  He’s actually a grad student and from Ghana, so he’s young and has a bit of an accent.  He’s not the most engaging instructor, but it’s only calculus and I just need to quickly take care of this semester, nab a good grade, and leave high level math behind me.  He gives a quiz every Tuesday and three exams over the course of the semester.  He assigns recommended homework but doesn’t check it nor does he grade participation.  I’m just hoping his quizzes and exams aren’t too difficult.  I guess I’ll find out on the first of September.  My econ teacher is an old man.  He’s not very engaging either, though econ as a subject is surprisingly kind of interesting.  He’s a classic kind of college professor as he doesn’t take attendance or give out homework and only has exams with which to base your final grade off of.  The good thing is, he has five exams but only three of them are counted so it gives you room for error.  I have a pretty good feeling about that class.  Accounting is my biggest class, but even then it only consists of barely over 50 students.  Intro level bio and chem classes are well into the hundreds.  My professor is new to Case though he’s already in his forties.  He gives pop quizzes and electronic homework based on reading checks as well as big exams.  He doesn’t grade on attendance or participation, but the pop quizzes are pretty good incentives to show up.  My SAGES professor is a nice old lady, who’s a really enthralling speaker.  She’s one of those “speaks softly so you have to be quiet and lean in to hear what she says” kind of teachers.  Helps that the class consists of only 17 people, my smallest class yet.  It’s also the class with the most work.  She gives tons of homework, takes attendance, and grades for participation.  Of course, since it’s an essay based class, there’s not a ton of studying involved but the homework makes up for it.  My wellness class… hasn’t started yet.  As I mentioned before, the classes last week were canceled and my first class will be on this coming Tuesday.  I’m hoping it’s an easy A; it would be silly to have my GPA lowered by a phys ed class after all, eheheh.

 

My favorite part of orientation was probably the class picture.  I believe it occurred on the night of the second day of orientation.  I wish I could say more, but I feel like if I did that might spoil it a bit.  Hopefully if you come to Case, you can experience it firsthand yourself (so don’t ruin it by looking it up!).  But yes, that part was pretty exciting.  Everything else was a tad bit bland, and after a while some of the events got a bit repetitive, but it was a good way to meet new people.

 

Speaking of meeting new people, I guess I’ve made some “friends” at Case.  My Facebook friend list has increased dramatically (a whole 33% percent!) and my phone contact list is seeing some activity.  I haven’t really hit it off with anyone though.  Sometimes I bond with someone rather well one day, but then after that we’re doing our own thing and have trouble finding time to just hang out, so we kinda stop talking.  I guess that’s the thing with orientation; though you may meet a ton of new people, you most likely won’t be seeing them in your classes and therefore won’t be seeing each other every day.  Unless you’re living in the same dorm or hall or unless you make an effort to coordinate your dining times and club participation, they’ll just end up just being a friendly face that you can wave to if you happen to walk past them between classes.  Friends made in your classes last longer, but even then I haven’t gotten too close with anyone.  You only really have time to chat a bit before and after class anyway, not during.  Hmm, I should try to establish some study groups soon though since quizzes and exams will be upon me before I know it.

 

Oh no, you’re actually pretty far behind!  Well, as you say, I guess you don’t really have to read all those books so seriously, and a little over a week is still a pretty substantial amount of time to get through all of them.  If you find you’re having trouble getting your reading done, then you don’t have to reply back to this on time if that would make your life a bit easier.  Especially since I believe I wrote quite a bit more than usual this week, eheheh...

 

Woah, forget the Grammy thing; one of my classmates placed in the top 10 at the US National Video Game Championship Series?!  Dayum, we e-sports now!  I’m gonna track this guy down and have him train me in Smash 4.

 

And phew, barely got this reply out on time!  Sorry it’s such a long read, I didn’t expect to go out on so many tangents…

 

EDIT:

In case you've kinda taken a fancy to Deemo (or its OST at least) I'll give you a quick rundown.  It's a really artsy, plot-driven rhythm tap game.  A girl falls from an open window in the sky and into Deemo's world.  Deemo is a tall, black, silent figure who decides to help the girl return to the world she came from by playing the piano, which in turn grows a tree ever taller, slowly but surely.  It's available for both Android and iOS devices, and you get the first few songs and parts of the story for free, though after some point you're asked to pay $1.99 for the full experience (I couldn't resist, I paid up).  The songs used in the game are all composed by different artists, many of which have a name and reputation outside of Deemo.  My favorite composer of the lot is VK, the man behind the piano/orchestral pieces you completely fell for in the song thread, ahah.  I adore this game.  I haven't finished it yet, but I will in a couple days (the plot at least).  I came in completely blind.  I only learned about this game because I was browsing the Android Play Store for fun after a day of orientation.  I didn't want to download the boring, mainstream games so I just scrolled through the popular stuff in other categories.  In the music genre, Deemo was one of the most popular ones.  The art style look interesting, and the reviews looked good, so I just downloaded it on a whim.  It was free and if I didn't like it I could just uninstall it, so why not?  Gosh, a video game hasn't swept me away so fast before.  If you listen to the music directly from the source material, with headphones, you'll know what I mean.  The very first song I played, Dream, completely amazed me.  It was gorgeous and I flubbed the very first round so bad because the music completely took me off guard.  I couldn't stop playing.  Just unlocking more and more songs and finding more and more beautiful pieces... it was magical.  When the music swelled I couldn't help but grin like an absolute fool.  When the free trial ran out I threw money at Rayark Games immediately.  They deserve it, seriously.  I highly recommend you get the game, though you should wait until you get a new phone to buy it since it'd be best to play the game on a crisp, clean device (like a OnePlus!).

Edited August 30, 2015 by Akazora

[Kenzi 146]

 

I discovered it sometime during senior year, when I asked one of my friends from physics what phone he had (I was trying to casually scout out good phones at the time, even though I knew I wasn’t going to buy anything until the summertime).  When he replied with “a OnePlus One” confusion obviously arose (it’s not a very good name to first come across spoken to you, haha) but it intrigued me.  I later learned that two other people in my physics class alone also had OnePlus Ones and they all recommended it, and since they’re all techy people (going into engineering and computer science and stuff) I figured I could take their word for it.  It’s not like there was much else to consider that could compete with it price and power wise anyway, so the search for my first phone wrapped up rather nicely right there.  Since then, I’ve noticed it kinda gain popularity.  During graduation, after the ceremony, I heard someone call out in the crowd “Yo, you got a OnePlus One?” to one of his friends.  Though I never got the chance to verify who said this, know it wasn’t one of the three friends from physics class.  Also, one of my favorite YouTubers/livestreamers has an OPO.  He got a call during a livestream and when he reached for his phone to silence it I recognized it immediately as a OnePlus One, and he later verified that that was indeed what it was, as well as saying how hyped he was for the OnePlus 2.  So it’s definitely still underground, but I’d like to think it’s getting more and more popular.

 

Ahh, I guess since the last time I heard from you, that you’ve made at least a little bit of progress is still good!  I really am intrigued though.  You have an intro and a conclusion but not a body?  Hm, that certainly is an odd way of structuring your essay.  Personally, I didn’t have a conclusion for the longest time for my essay and then one night it just came to me and I typed it up all at once.  Hopefully the same happens to you soon, so you can begin the process of proofreading and peer editing as soon as possible.  Good luck and let me know how it goes!

 

Ohhh, I-I actually didn’t know, eheheheh…  That’s an awfully handy trick, I should try it out some time!  And it was still pretty creative of you to figure everything out, so good on you for that!  Really, I thought apart from the obvious relation to musical notes there was very little to base anything off of and it would just be too daunting of a task for anyone to even bother with, ahah.  And there was really no need for you to correct yourself about the Spanish/Portuguese mixup, you didn’t mean any harm by it, hahah.  In fact, I didn’t even realize your mistake because I didn’t click through the video enough to confirm or deny the language.  It’s kinda cute though, how you keep on going back to fix mistakes.  It’s flattering to know you’re trying your best to make your responses are free from errors, but don’t stress out too much about it either!  I’ve made plenty of embarrassing mistakes as well, we’re all human after all.

 

The image source for your avatar?  Well, I only bothered looking for it because I didn’t recognize the character and was honestly expecting some fab hair or at least one of the characters you mentioned as ones you were considering.  I started off by reverse image searching (right clicking on your pic and then selecting “Search Google for this image”).  The fourth result down led directly to the video, and every other result indirectly pointed towards that same video.  I even made the video full screen, took a screen shot, uploaded it to imgur, reverse image searched it again, and still came up with the same video.  I couldn’t for the life of me find the original source material for the image in the video, so the chances were very high that you found that image from the video itself.  So yeah, the coloration didn’t throw me off (you purple-ized your Dark Pit avatar previously, so I assumed you red-ified Aya Shameimaru as well).  Oh yeah, and I only figured out who the girl was after Googling some of the stuff in the description and title of the video and figuring out the song came from the game Touhou Bunkachou ~ Shoot the Bullet, whose main character is Aya.  So that’s the gist of it, heh.

 

Yup, you really can’t go wrong with your second game, be it Awakening or a new Pokemon game or whatever.  Though, if a new Pokemon main series game comes out, the earlier you get it the better.  There are always time sensitive WiFi events that correspond directly with the initial release of those games (as you probably know) and it would be a pity to miss those.  I’ve downloaded nearly 20 of them and the last one I even bothered to take from the delivery man/girl was the Reshiram in my White version.  I haven’t missed a single WiFi event since then, but likewise haven’t picked up a single WiFi event since then either.  Ohh, and speaking of which, I finished Y!  Kinda, at least.  Got through Victory Road, beat the Elite Four, beat Diantha, beat AZ, saw the credits, and finally got to the “Fin” signifying the end of the game.  Of course, I haven’t done anything after that, so don’t spoil me on post-game stuff just yet!  I actually liked Y quite a bit.  The whole story of AZ and the weapon and the weird magical stuff that pretty much wasn’t even present in previous gens was rather fascinating, and some of the philosophical points brought up were more thought provoking than the much praised ones from the Unova games.  The grey morality was pretty neat (I already explained how Lysandre is like Archer and how the children are like Shirou), and I recall some of the random NPCs bringing up some pretty deep insights on the Pokemon universe, though I can’t remember specifics.  Actually being celebrated by the general populace for your heroic actions was a welcome first.  I think I only liked this game as much as I did because everyone was saying how bad it was compared to BW.  The Kalos region actually has the deepest lore of all the regions (Kings and actual wars?  The intricate details of AZ’s story told through random books that many people wouldn’t bother to read in Team Flare’s hideout?  Damn, there’s actually a lot of stuff to keep track of.)  I had my expectations super low, and so they were exceeded.  I know a big complaint was the lack of post-story content, but I’m rather satisfied with the plot and good god would you look at the gorgeous 3DS models??  Oohhh also, when I versed Serena for the last time on Victory Road, it was during an outdoor area of the maze and before the battle, while the text was rolling, the camera was angled upwards so you could see the sky.  I happened to do this at night, and daaayyumm the starry night sky in Kalos is amazing!  I checked and it doesn’t look like any playthroughs on YouTube did this part at night, so you most likely didn’t see it.  I wish I took a picture, since I can’t seem to find an image online.  The small details like that really amaze me.  So yeahh, while not my favorite Pokemon game (nostalgia goggles on, heh) I think it deserves some credit for being so revolutionary.

 

I think my parents were just under the impression that the rest of America would be relatively boring and the same as New Jersey, and figured a whole new country like Canada would surely provide more entertainment, ahah.  I didn’t do anything too amazing there, but it’s not a bad place either.  Ohh, interesting, and it’s fine, Shanghai can be a pretty ugly place.  I actually haven’t ever been to Hong Kong though.

 

I can only follow what goes on during the Super Bowl because of watching my high school football team fumble around during my freshman year when I was in marching band, aha.  It was pretty fun, sitting with the rest of the alto sax group and trying to understand what was going on on the field and sharing hand warmers and stomping our feet to cheer stay warm and complaining profusely about how freezing it was and nearly dying while waiting in line during halftime to buy some of that sweet sweet hot chocolate.  too bad the rest of the band…………  Y-you actually dress up because you want your class to win??  Whhaaaa, I only dress up if I get extra credit in chem for it.  And even then, I only did it about a third of the time because I didn’t want to be bothered.  Sheesh, you try hard.  Joking; sheesh, my lazy self.  Thank god Case doesn’t care about sports or school spirit very much.  I don’t know if I’d be able to handle something like UMich’s atmosphere.  I guess all the Big Ten schools, Rutgers being one of them, are like that, though it may be even more profound in UMich and OSU’s case because of their rivalry.  And also, don’t underestimate my stolidity.  You claim all these absolutes about how everyone will be cheering and getting hyped during UMich football games, but I’m proud to say that at the FLOW concert I refused to do anything more than clap at the end of every song, despite everyone else jumping up and down and fist pumping and losing their minds the whole time.  Furthermore, during the Hillary Clinton rally, I only politely clapped a few times, but didn’t react in any other way.  If even in the presence of world renowned celebrities I can maintain my composure, nothing can faze me (expect for meeting you in person, I’d probably be overwhelmed with emotions then, eheheheheheh).  The saying goes: there’s an exception to every rule, and I’m that exception for UMich football games!  Ufufufufufufufufufufu!  (I’m sorry for being a no fun party pooper by the way, bleh).  

 

Oh, and speaking of the Clinton rally, I actually didn’t miss class.  My wellness teacher canceled all the classes for this past week and the first day of class will actually be next week, starting with Tuesday, September the 1st.  So yay, my attendance is still perfect!  The rally itself was interesting.  There were some Clinton supporters that creepily tried to force stickers onto you and some counter-ralliers that silently protested from the sidelines with signs and everything.  Nothing too major, but interesting to see in person nonetheless.  There were news cameras set up all in a row in the back and someone from CNN actually took a minute to interview some stranger standing next to me (he only had a voice recorder, not a camera crew, so don’t bother trying to check for a glimpse of me on YouTube, heheh).  The biggest thing I took away from the rally was that Hillary Clinton is a good speaker.  Like, a damn good speaker at that.  There were some people who spoke before her, for introductions and all, and while they were good, none could come close to even matching the finesse and poise that she possessed.  However, I’m not completely for her politically and I need to do more research on other candidates of course, but this was still a good experience.

 

Yeah, your tanning situation does sound rather odd, but it’s good you’re not bothered by it!  There’s no point in getting upset over something you can’t change, haha.  Hmm, did your school get new tennis uniforms or something?  It’s weird how this year you can’t wear anything with your skirt but last year you could.  Oh man, once I discovered the blessing that was a watch back in middle school, I wore one every day.  I thought I would never stop wearing it, but during my junior and senior year the watch I was wearing broke and I just couldn’t be bothered to get a new one, sooo……  I’ve started wearing a watch again in college though.  It’s a lot more convenient than having to check my phone, and it’s more discreet, too.  If a lecture is getting boring and I want to check the time but don’t want to obviously twist my head around to look behind me or reach for my phone, I can just subtly angle my wrist and quickly glance down.  It wouldn’t be good to give my professors the wrong impression or anything, eheh.

 

Ahhh yes, the famous body/hug/love pillows from Japan.  Stay classy, my friends.  Actually, I wasn’t referring to Free specifically, just anime in general, but yeah Free seems to be one of the biggest culprits.  Of course, that series is one of the few shows with female fanservice in it, so that’s understandable.  Girl anime fans have had to settle for just regular shoujo shows, with reverse harems being the only even remotely risqué genre at their disposal outside of straight up BL doujinshi.  Free was the long awaited answer to all the ecchi that guys have been receiving for years, so I can imagine it was quite liberating (ahah “free” and “liberating” ucwutididthar??).  Maybe that’s why your sister just couldn’t resist watching it?  And oohhhhh you’ve been tempted to watch Free as well?  Now now Kenzi, I thought you to be better than that.  Just joking, watch what you want to watch, even if it’s for a reason like that.  I’ve watched tons of fanservicey shows myself, and while most of them are pretty bad and I’ve tried avoiding them nowadays, some of them ended up being fairly entertaining, like in Highschool of the Dead’s case.  And it’s okay, you’re a growing girl and you’re at that age now, aren’t ya? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  okay okay, seriously, I’m done with the jokes, sorry about that, I just couldn’t resist using that gif, it’s too perfect

 

Four years, hm?  I guess that’s not too old, but I can imagine it’s starting to show its age.  When you go off to college next year, you should consider getting a new laptop, just so you can get off to a fresh start.  I don’t have any personal recommendations though, so you’re just going to have to do your own research when the time comes to that, eheh.  And the laptop I have right now is pretty new, a little over a year old I believe.  I just want it to last at least through college, which I think it will.

 

Ohh my, I didn’t expect you to type up a whole two paragraphs in reply to that, ahah.  It’s actually interesting that you experienced something similar when you were younger, though it’s good you were able to test out of it.  So yeah, you can imagine how it felt having to deal with that all of high school.  Did I potentially miss out on opportunities by being in environmental science my freshman year?  Yeah, maybe.  It sucked but it’s behind me now, so whatever.  Ah yes, daily reminder that my high school was terrible.  Yup, if you’re stuck in a lower level class, you pretty much have no chance of skipping up ahead.  There is no waive process and talking to your teacher isn’t going to get you anywhere.  Do recall that they don’t take summer credit for pretty much anything, so you can’t even do that.  You’re forced to take at least three years of science: one year of bio, one year of chem, and one year of physics.  Because environmental science took up a wasted spot in my freshman year, I was fated to take bio and chem and physics (in that order nonetheless, since you can’t take physics until after you take chem and you can’t take chem until after you take bio).  It’s really rigid, though admittedly there aren’t any specifics with it comes to English or math classes; you just need to take four years of whatever with those subjects.  Ohhh, that’s really nice how people don’t care what classes you take in your high school!  I wish things were like that in my school.  It’s not like people openly gave you a hard time for it, generally speaking, but it was hard trying to fit in, especially given I was put in this situation freshman year, which is pretty much the best time to make established friends and when strangers silently judge you the most.  Because there’s such a lack of flexibility with classes, when someone steps out of the “honors and AP classes” mold, it’s easy to misunderstand that as “inability to perform and handle the pressure of college level courses”, as faulty of an assumption as that may be.  Sigh, it’s just what happens when my fellow classmates are too competitive and the district isn’t flexible enough to accommodate everyone’s educational needs.

 

Ah, and speaking of AP classes, I’m actually going to be using all of the AP credits I’ve accumulated these past few years.  Because I’m doing the accelerated accounting dual degree program, I don’t really have the time to spare casually taking courses and exploring my interests, else I risk not graduating in four years (and being disowned by my mother).  I just need to clear out as many prereqs as I can (especially for subjects I’m not a fan of) and get started on classes that count toward my major as soon as possible.  Hmm, I failed to go into detail about this now, but I guess I’ll give you a rundown of my schedule for this year and beyond.  First of all, if you want to major in accounting, you still need to take two semesters of math, natural science, social science, humanities, and phys ed each, as well as the SAGES reqs (required of all Case undergrads regardless of major).  SAGES is a Case specialty and you can’t use AP credit for it, so I can’t do anything about that.  I used the 4 I got on my Calc AB exam to knock out a semester of math, so hopefully the calc class I’m taking right now will be the last true math class I ever take.  I’m able to skip another semester of natural science with the 4 I got for AP Bio, but since I messed up my AP Physics exam with a 3, I’m still one class short of being completely free from a natural science class.  I really dislike either chem or physics, so I wouldn’t be very comfortable taking even intro level courses in those subjects.  Bio is alright, but I don’t want to take a next-level class because then I’d be competing with students who actually want to go into that field of study.  Since it’s only one semester and it’s for a prereq class, the plan for now is to apply to have summer credit transferred over.  I want to take an accepted summer course in Rutgers next summer, and as for the subject I wouldn’t even care if it was chemistry or physics since the grade I’d get in that class wouldn’t affect my Case GPA and just be there as credit.  As for the humanities classes, I have that completely cleared out.  In fact, I’ve overcompensated.  I got 5’s on my Lit, LangComp, and APUSH exams and a 4 on my WHAP exam (why does nobody see the importance of these beautiful classes *sniff*).  I’ll have two of those exams count for the prereqs and the remaining two count toward a minor or something.  I actually haven’t even thought of a minor.  Maybe creative writing?  As for social sciences, I don’t have any AP credit for that, so I’ll just take two semesters of political science or psychology or sociology or whatever sounds interesting.  Unfortunately, economics when taken for your major doesn’t cover the prereqs, which is a bit of a bummer, otherwise I wouldn’t have to worry about it given the micro and macro classes I need to take for accounting anyway are technically social science classes.  There’s no getting out of phys ed, and since I’m not athletically inclined (sports wise at least) I’m just going to be taking some silly classroom classes, kinda like health classes from high school.  You can join a sports team and have that count as credit, so don’t worry, if you come to Case you can just continue playing tennis as you always have and free up your academic schedule that way.  As it stands, I’m taking a SAGES course on inequality, Calc 126, accounting 101, econ (micro), and wellness for phys ed this semester.  Huh, though this may be going a bit out of order, I’ll save how my classes are specifically going for later in this response, just so I don’t bog this area down and make it difficult for you to respond to.

 

Ah, I’m pretty sure there’s an indent on my mattress back at home as well!  Oh dear, poor springs…  I’m sure they’re faring much better now that I’m not there to crush them every night.  I was pretty proud of myself for a while, because I thought I had my sleep schedule under control starting college, but it’s already gotten out of whack.  Even though I set a really obnoxious alarm that wakes me without fail every morning, I always get up, turn it off, and then go back to sleep, rendering the point of an alarm useless.  I still get to classes and breakfast on time, but as each day passes I’m starting to rush more and more each morning…  And to make matters worse, I don’t even feel completely well-rested during the day.  The first time I ever dozed off in Case was during Fall Convocation, when Dr. Steele was giving a speech about the common reading book, Whistling Vivaldi.  He started going on about something that he had already covered extensively in the book, and since I knew what he was going to say I got kinda bored… and the seats in Severance Hall were pretty comfy, sooo…… eheh…  I’m sorry Dr. Steele, please forgive me!  I went and got the copy of my book signed by him, so hopefully that made up for it.  And the first time I fell asleep in class was just this past Thursday, when I nodded off for a minute or two in accounting.  Oh geez, this shouldn’t be happening the first week of class.  So it’s okay, you’re not alone!  We can both work toward fixing up our bad sleeping habits during this upcoming crucial year of our lives, ahahah.

 

Well, it seems God is dead [insert that Nichijou image/video] once again, as it’s cooled down enough in Cleveland where the A/C isn’t even necessary.  Pls, I only had one week of smug satisfaction, this can’t be what I endured four years of JP for……  Right now, I really don’t need to have the A/C on but I have it set to blasting cold just to spite God.  Are my hands white and freezing and am I hugging myself to stay warm?  Yes.  Will I turn off the A/C?  No.  I refuse.  I may be 18, but the immature kid inside of me refuses to let that A/C just sit there and do nothing.  The air will be cooled!  Bwahahahahah-ah-ah-ah-atchoo!!  (my roommate doesn’t mind by the way, so don’t think I’m being cruel or anything, eheh)  Oh, and the A/C in my room is really good, I just wasn’t using it right before, derp.  Even if you set it to Cool/High, it won’t continuously blow out cold air nonstop.  You have to use the arrows to set the lowest temperature that it will eject cold air.  So if I set the temperature to 73 degrees, it will spew out cold air until the temperature in the room reaches 73 degrees, after which it will shut off the cold but the keep the fan blowing room temperature air.  I feel kinda dumb, that was probably common sense to anyone who’s used these types of A/C units before, but since I haven’t in the longest time I didn’t realize that’s what I had to do, heheheh.  I think I had the temperature set really high the first week, which also happened to be the hottest week.  I-I complete blew my chance… what a way to start the year…  Anyway, enough of that A/C talk.  At the rate at which I’m responding back to you, I’m never going to finish in time!  Christmas is amazing, I love the atmosphere of it!  Though, since winter starts December 20th-ish, Christmas is barely a winter holiday and most of the Christmas hype occurs before winter starts.  The biggest chunk of winter is still January and February, grueling and dreary months for high schoolers, heh.  But regardless, winter is still great because of the snow and just getting all warm and snug in thick sweaters and blankets and peering your face into heating vents and drinking hot chocolate and anticipating those snow days and waking up late realizing school is canceled and the sun after a good snowfall and seeing your breath in front of you as you exhale and oh my gosh I can’t wait for it to be winter!!  And yeah, I guess sunny winter days are great, too.  Even if there’s no promise of snow, it’s still fine because it’s never hot or sweat inducing, which is my only gripe of summer.  Fall is my second favorite season, just because of Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Though they may not be as magical as Christmas, there’s a fair amount of nostalgia associated with them, which is good enough to give autumn an edge over the other seasons.  And of course, the transient changing of the leaves, which is always gorgeous despite not lasting very long.

 

Grave of the Fireflies was pretty good.  Didn’t make me cry, but I know many people consider it depressing and whatnot.  I don’t know how it compares to other Ghibli movies (just because I haven’t seen any others) but it’s one of the more well received ones from what I gather, so check it out if you want!  My mom loved it, and it really messed her up despite that she generally prefers live-action movies (because cartoon characters aren’t “real” and are hard to relate to, heh).  She keeps on randomly bringing it up whenever she reads a sad news story about war and she’s told all her colleagues at work about it as well.  Oh my, I’m open to watching Ghibli movies but just haven’t found the motivation or time for it.  Heheheh, if you come to Case I guess I wouldn’t mind watching some of them with you, so work hard on those applications!

 

Yay, congratulations on getting your license!  Driving is no easy feat (or maybe it is, I wouldn’t know) so good on you for passing!  Hm, I have no idea how driving tests work since I can’t be bothered to look that up right now given it’s not relevant to me until at least winter break and I know I’m going to forget all the details by then if I read up on it now.  The point system is interesting, and it’s good they give you a lot of room for error.  My parents would be really close to failing if they try to take a driving test now.  They’re very jerky when they drive, they always (without fail) cross stop bars, and they reposition all the time when parking front-ways-in (I don’t know my terminology very well, sorry).  And the written test in Jersey is really hard… sometimes.  It depends on the version of the test you get.  If it was mainly common sense and road signs and rules questions I wouldn’t have needed to study.  But on occasion they throw in a crazy amount of petty and stupid stuff.  What is your jail sentence for your third offense of driving while suspended?  In regards to alcohol concentration, how much liquor is equal to six ounces of beer??  At what speed should you approach a horse or horse-drawn vehicle???  How much longer percentage-wise does it take a truck to stop in bad weather conditions????  If you get a high enough rate of these questions, just common sense isn’t gonna save ya.  My heart goes out to all those immigrants I saw there attempting to take the test, Godspeed.  You shouldn’t have moved to Jersey, I’m sure Pennsylvania would have been better.  Rejoice in the fact that our road test seems easy enough though.  As I said before, I have zilch idea as to how road tests work.  I even believed until just recently that it occurred on an enclosed practice course, not on actual roads, blehh.  But if the tests don’t last very long, then I can imagine they’re only so difficult, at least in New Jersey.  So unfortunately, I have no idea what they mean by sitting properly.  I guess if you’re slouching heavily and leaning your seat back then obviously you’re going to get marked down for it.  And whaaa, you can fudge your hours?  Psht I take it back, I guess you can cheat the system anywhere in America.  But I’m really happy you managed to overcome your backing-in problem and pass the test!  Haha, yeah, there’s no need to be so anxious.  I haven’t driven before sure, but pretty much everyone is forced to drive in slippery conditions at some point in their lives, so I’ll manage.  It might be a good opportunity for the roads to beat me into shape early on so the test itself seems easy in comparison!  In all seriousness though, I will be careful.  But that won’t be an issue until winter, and my bigger concern is you being safe.  Now that you actually have the power to drive yourself around, do so with utmost caution.  Driving to and from school, driving at night, whenever and where ever, please be careful.  I will be praying each and every day now for your safety.  Ahh, not that I wasn’t worried about you before you got your license or anything, but my thoughts will be going out to you ever more fervently from now on, ehehe.

 

A-a-anime, manga, and movies that made me cry??  O-oh dear, you’re outright asking me to be rather open with you right now, eheh.  I-I’ll do it if you want me to though… b-but it’s not like I’m doing it for you or anything b-b-baka!!  Let’s see, I’ll start with manga since it’s a short list.  The only two that I recall moving me enough to tears was One Piece and Bakuman.  I read these a long time ago, back when my emotions were more easily swayed, so I’m fairly certain crying during Bakuman was a bit of a fluke.  One Piece however is an emotional rollercoaster.  It’s one of the big three shounens so it’s easy to brush off as childish and corny, but one part in particular messed me up real bad.  Like, it was one of those things where I started crying and I couldn’t finish reading the chapter so I had to run off and wipe away my tears, and when I calmed down and came back a wave of sadness hit me again and I had to grab tissues again.  It was got me really really really bad.  It was hard to read the next few chapters for the longest time.  While I do like One Piece a lot, it’s daunting to start and catch up on (I think I’m even starting to fall behind the weekly chapter releases) so don’t feel pressured to read it especially since it shows no sign of ending.  Also, while these didn’t make me cry, I got pretty emotional during Monster and Battle Royale, maybe even a bit in Midori no Hibi, funnily enough.

 

Now on to anime.  Geez, I’m going to be going through my whole list for this one.  I’ll start with what’s on my favorites to ease my way into this.  This is the only thing in the history of everything to make me do this, but I cried during Mawaru Penguindrum… the second time I watched it.  I just didn’t really get what was going on the first time I watched it, but once I rewatched it and everything clicked into place it became really emotional.  Also, this one you’ve already seen, but Fate/Zero got me during Rider’s last stand.  I loved that charismatic little bastard and his interactions with Waver, really hurt to see him go.  For this next part, I’ll be a bit random with my titles since I’ll be going in alphabetical order down my list and will be mentioning those that made me cry as well as ones that got very close to making me cry.  Angel Beats got me close to crying, but after rewatching it I realized it wasn’t as good as I first made it out to be.  5 Centimeters Per Second is a great one-hour movie, and it almost made me cry as well.  Eve no Jikan, another movie, actually made me cry.  Very little, but enough to count.  I can’t remember if Hoshi no Koe made me cry or not, but at the very least it left me with an empty feeling inside.  It’s a quick episode long short, so I recommend you check it out if you have the moment to spare.  One random episode in the second season of Nisekoi actually made me cry.  It was kinda silly in retrospect given how subpar I though the second season was overall, but I can’t deny the fact that that specific episode was admittedly really good.  I also cried during the first episode of Plastic Memories, somehow.  I think I was in an emotionally manipulative mood that day, so it was probably a fluke.  Ahah, and I barely cried during the first episode of Shingeki no Kyojin as well.  Really was not expecting the show to start off so strong.  I don’t know whether or not Summer Wars made me cry, but at the very least it got pretty close.  And finally Tsumiki no Ie, an artistic 12-minute short, got me on the brink of tears though I ultimately didn’t cry.  I think that’s pretty much it, though I may have missed a few things here or there or forgot about how emotional certain anime made me feel.  Of all the ones I listed, the only ones I really would strongly recommend are Penguindrum, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Eve no Jikan, and Hoshi no Koe.  While Penguindrum is my favorite anime of all time, it’s 24 episodes and may be difficult to fit in your schedule.  The other three are all movie-length or shorter, so you’d probably have more luck finding time for them.

 

Oh geez, trying to remember all the movies that made me cry is impossible, so I’ll just list the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  First off, I have to admit Inside Out got me good during Bing Bong’s sacrifice.  I knew it was coming, I could see it from a mile away, but dammit when it actually happened I couldn’t help myself.  Other Pixar movies that got me were Up and Toy Story 3.  The Lion King got me really emotional when I watched it over and over and over again as a kid, as did the lesser known The Land Before Time (the first movie, not the spin-off sequels).  I probably cried at least once during those many rewatches.  Wow, it seems I might just have an affinity for animated things, eheheh.  Let’s see, as for non-animated movies, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes made me tear up at one point.  As with Plastic Memories, I think I was just having an emotional day, so it was probably a fluke.  I can’t actually recall any other movies that brought me to tears or at least brought me to the verge of them.  Hmm, I don’t keep a very extensive database on them so that’s probably why, but if I remember anything later I’ll let you know.

 

(oh my gosh, I keep on getting hung up on certain parts of this reply, sorry for rambling, I’ll get back on topic now…)

Awww gee Kenzi, there you go again, making me blush, eheh.  I’m just awfully glad you liked my gift since I was a bit worried that it would come off as “oh, just more text to read” instead of something more personal.  And I’m also really happy my feelings got across to you.  I mean, I couldn’t imagine I’d bring you to tears nor was that my intention in the slightest, but since it means my words touched you then I’m satisfied, ahah.  And if it weren’t for you being such an amazing person, I never would have been able to type up something so genuine either.  You’re at least half the reason my birthday present to you came out as it did.  It wouldn’t be right to give me all the credit.  And as for what you experienced, all those overwhelming emotions… I guess I don’t know either, hah.  Perhaps… I dunno, you know you better than I know you.  It’s fine that the mods are ignoring this thread I guess, since it doesn’t look like we’re really bothering anyone too much, though you’d think at least someone would find the row of consecutive rep points kinda suspicious and report it, heh.

 

Oh, you aren’t applying to many schools then.  Three you’ll definitely apply to and a few you might.  Of course, you do have a dream school and you’re going to be hoping for the best with that.  I applied to sixteen, but only because I really had no idea where I wanted to go, not until later.  I’m confident in your abilities, so there’s no need to over-apply.  Still though, I wish you the best of luck in the coming months!

 

Ahhhh, actually, I felt something similar when I moved into Case!  You had been there not too long and it was the closest we had come to actually meeting and well, as you say, it was a kind of magical feeling of sorts.  Not just the Weatherhead School of Management, but also the descendant of Newton’s apple tree.  I just imagined you posing there and how you had stood at that very spot, eheheh.  While I’m not entirely sure how well that would have worked, it definitely would have been worth a try.  It’s okay though, if all goes well then we’ll be able to meet each other in person soon enough and then you can say whatever you want to me directly.  Hmm, speaking of which, I wonder what your voice sounds like…?  Ah, I’m getting carried away again.

 

Hold the mayo, did I say psychics and astrology club???  I-I-I made a big mistake, whoops.  I’m so sorry, there’s no need for you to be embarrassed.  I actually meant physics and astronomy club, not psychics and astrology.  H-How did I mess that up??  Oh my, maybe when I typed that up I still wasn’t quite accustomed to being in college and flubbed my words.  I apologize for the confusion, and I’m sorry you deleted that entire part of your response because… you were actually right the first time, eheheheh………  Welp, uhh regarding your confusion as to why I’d be interested in that club despite disliking physics, I guess it’s because it’s actually focused more on astronomy than physics.  It only meets once every month or so.  There’s like a science talk/lecture as well as free pizza, and on occasion they take little trips to physics and astronomy related places.  I’m pretty sure that at least once they’ll take everyone to a stargazing location, so that’s what I’m pinning my hopes on.  And if the physics stuff is kinda related to astronomy, then maybe I’ll come to like it.  This isn’t a class and is more of just a way to explore and broaden my horizons, so I probably won’t harbor any negative feelings toward it.  But to address the psychics and astrology side of things, I actually don’t think I’m a “metaphysical kind of person”.  I mean, I guess horoscopes are kind of interesting to think about but I wouldn’t say I truly believe in any of that stuff either.  I dunno though, haven’t really given it a ton of thought.

 

Yeah, all college campuses are breeding grounds for parties and illegal substance use, but Case is definitely on the quieter side, unlike public schools and such.  Case loves accepting tons of international students, most of them Chinese, so their general conservative attitude (with everything save for smoking) rubs off on others and makes the overall feel of the campus less party-oriented.  If you’re really craving a party though, I can imagine it won’t be very difficult finding once given you know where to look.  All in all though, studies are put before parties which is good.  And yeah, the ruckus pretty much stopped during this past school week though it picked up again just last night.  It was the first weekend of college that wasn’t part of orientation, so a lot of people went crazy.  It sounded like a raid was happening on my floor and there was a mini EDM concert going on outside that I could hear from my room.  A bit distracting, but I know this isn’t going to be a recurring thing, so it should be fine… I think.  My roommate even disappeared for a bit.  Well, not just a bit, but quite a while.  He left on Friday at around six in the afternoon and only just came back today at noon.  When I asked him where he went, he said he attended some Korean Students Alliance event.  They went to same campsite, had a barbeque, and then… got completely wasted.  Apparently it’s a tradition in Korea to get drunk on the first day at university or something, since the legal drinking age over there is 19 and Koreans generally start college after that.  So yeahhh, that was an interesting thing to contemplate today over dinner……  It’s the reality of college life I guess, but still…  It still bothered me, heh.  Maybe I’m just too uptight about things but I feel it wouldn’t hurt to show some decency and restraint, you know?  There are much better things to be doing than getting drunk and high and confused for one night and then waking up hungover with a headache, right?  That’s just dangerous and unpleasant.  There’s so much more life has to offer, why settle for such temporary and double-edged pleasures?  Is the way I think outdated?  Am I just crazy?  I dunno, I’m rambling again, and there’s still quite a bit I have to type, so moving on…

 

Enough about the dark underbelly of American universities and more about the education!  My classes are alright, but what I’m really pleased about is my overall schedule.  On Mondays I have calc at 11:30 and econ at three.  On Tuesdays, my most packed days, I have wellness at ten in the morning, calc at 11:35, accounting at 1:15, and SAGES at 2:45.  Wednesdays are identical to Mondays.  Thursdays are the same as Tuesdays, except I don’t have any calc class.  Friday is my easiest day, with just a quick calc class at 11:30.  The classes are around an hour long, I believe ranging from 50 minutes to an hour and a quarter.  My earliest class is only 10 am, and that’s only on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it’s phys ed of all things.  The latest any of my classes goes is 4:15, which is on Mondays and Wednesdays for econ.  Nice, easy, and stress-free.  My calc professor is alright.  He’s actually a grad student and from Ghana, so he’s young and has a bit of an accent.  He’s not the most engaging instructor, but it’s only calculus and I just need to quickly take care of this semester, nab a good grade, and leave high level math behind me.  He gives a quiz every Tuesday and three exams over the course of the semester.  He assigns recommended homework but doesn’t check it nor does he grade participation.  I’m just hoping his quizzes and exams aren’t too difficult.  I guess I’ll find out on the first of September.  My econ teacher is an old man.  He’s not very engaging either, though econ as a subject is surprisingly kind of interesting.  He’s a classic kind of college professor as he doesn’t take attendance or give out homework and only has exams with which to base your final grade off of.  The good thing is, he has five exams but only three of them are counted so it gives you room for error.  I have a pretty good feeling about that class.  Accounting is my biggest class, but even then it only consists of barely over 50 students.  Intro level bio and chem classes are well into the hundreds.  My professor is new to Case though he’s already in his forties.  He gives pop quizzes and electronic homework based on reading checks as well as big exams.  He doesn’t grade on attendance or participation, but the pop quizzes are pretty good incentives to show up.  My SAGES professor is a nice old lady, who’s a really enthralling speaker.  She’s one of those “speaks softly so you have to be quiet and lean in to hear what she says” kind of teachers.  Helps that the class consists of only 17 people, my smallest class yet.  It’s also the class with the most work.  She gives tons of homework, takes attendance, and grades for participation.  Of course, since it’s an essay based class, there’s not a ton of studying involved but the homework makes up for it.  My wellness class… hasn’t started yet.  As I mentioned before, the classes last week were canceled and my first class will be on this coming Tuesday.  I’m hoping it’s an easy A; it would be silly to have my GPA lowered by a phys ed class after all, eheheh.

 

My favorite part of orientation was probably the class picture.  I believe it occurred on the night of the second day of orientation.  I wish I could say more, but I feel like if I did that might spoil it a bit.  Hopefully if you come to Case, you can experience it firsthand yourself (so don’t ruin it by looking it up!).  But yes, that part was pretty exciting.  Everything else was a tad bit bland, and after a while some of the events got a bit repetitive, but it was a good way to meet new people.

 

Speaking of meeting new people, I guess I’ve made some “friends” at Case.  My Facebook friend list has increased dramatically (a whole 33% percent!) and my phone contact list is seeing some activity.  I haven’t really hit it off with anyone though.  Sometimes I bond with someone rather well one day, but then after that we’re doing our own thing and have trouble finding time to just hang out, so we kinda stop talking.  I guess that’s the thing with orientation; though you may meet a ton of new people, you most likely won’t be seeing them in your classes and therefore won’t be seeing each other every day.  Unless you’re living in the same dorm or hall or unless you make an effort to coordinate your dining times and club participation, they’ll just end up just being a friendly face that you can wave to if you happen to walk past them between classes.  Friends made in your classes last longer, but even then I haven’t gotten too close with anyone.  You only really have time to chat a bit before and after class anyway, not during.  Hmm, I should try to establish some study groups soon though since quizzes and exams will be upon me before I know it.

 

Oh no, you’re actually pretty far behind!  Well, as you say, I guess you don’t really have to read all those books so seriously, and a little over a week is still a pretty substantial amount of time to get through all of them.  If you find you’re having trouble getting your reading done, then you don’t have to reply back to this on time if that would make your life a bit easier.  Especially since I believe I wrote quite a bit more than usual this week, eheheh...

 

Woah, forget the Grammy thing; one of my classmates placed in the top 10 at the US National Video Game Championship Series?!  Dayum, we e-sports now!  I’m gonna track this guy down and have him train me in Smash 4.

 

And phew, barely got this reply out on time!  Sorry it’s such a long read, I didn’t expect to go out on so many tangents…

 

EDIT:

In case you've kinda taken a fancy to Deemo (or its OST at least) I'll give you a quick rundown.  It's a really artsy, plot-driven rhythm tap game.  A girl falls from an open window in the sky and into Deemo's world.  Deemo is a tall, black, silent figure who decides to help the girl return to the world she came from by playing the piano, which in turn grows a tree ever taller, slowly but surely.  It's available for both Android and iOS devices, and you get the first few songs and parts of the story for free, though after some point you're asked to pay $1.99 for the full experience (I couldn't resist, I paid up).  The songs used in the game are all composed by different artists, many of which have a name and reputation outside of Deemo.  My favorite composer of the lot is VK, the man behind the piano/orchestral pieces you completely fell for in the song thread, ahah.  I adore this game.  I haven't finished it yet, but I will in a couple days (the plot at least).  I came in completely blind.  I only learned about this game because I was browsing the Android Play Store for fun after a day of orientation.  I didn't want to download the boring, mainstream games so I just scrolled through the popular stuff in other categories.  In the music genre, Deemo was one of the most popular ones.  The art style look interesting, and the reviews looked good, so I just downloaded it on a whim.  It was free and if I didn't like it I could just uninstall it, so why not?  Gosh, a video game hasn't swept me away so fast before.  If you listen to the music directly from the source material, with headphones, you'll know what I mean.  The very first song I played, Dream, completely amazed me.  It was gorgeous and I flubbed the very first round so bad because the music completely took me off guard.  I couldn't stop playing.  Just unlocking more and more songs and finding more and more beautiful pieces... it was magical.  When the music swelled I couldn't help but grin like an absolute fool.  When the free trial ran out I threw money at Rayark Games immediately.  They deserve it, seriously.  I highly recommend you get the game, though you should wait until you get a new phone to buy it since it'd be best to play the game on a crisp, clean device (like a OnePlus!).

 

Oh dang, so I guess the OPO is fairly popular at your school. Only one person I've talked to so far recognized the name. No one in my family knew what it was, which I thought was surprising since both my dad and sister are techy people. The only person who knew about it was a classmate from the UMich summer program. He was the one who told me that you'd only be able to get one through invite, which is probably why he had a Samsung. I have a few more techy friends at school, so I might ask them about it once school starts. 

 

I'm not even quite sure how I came up with my conclusion before the body. I was just gazing at the corner of the ceiling and I was casually thinking to myself, "what do I find meaningful" and then it hit me. My introduction paragraph feels a bit too... forward. Yeah, I guess it's attention-getting, but it almost seems kinda sudden? It felt like a solid idea when I first started, but now it just... argh. It's about an incident when I fell ill, and goes into detail about what the experience was like. Coughing up blood on a school morning and watching buckets of it come out. I was planning to use that introduction to lead into my fascination with biology because I was not horrified by the incident; rather, I was intrigued. What kind of sane person would be fascinated from watching blood surge out from his/her innards. I figured that would be enough to catch the admissions officer's attention. So here's a synopsis of the remaining paragraphs: I thoroughly enjoy learning about the processes around me. Ever since I was a kid my favorite kinds of questions were the why/how questions. With each passing year these questions I'd ask would become more elaborate; there's never an end to the why/how questions since they're always multi-layered. No matter how trivial the question starts off as, there will always be deeper answers. "Why do oranges and lemons have different scents?" Although they both contain limonene, oranges and lemons each harbor different forms of limonene because limonene is a chiral molecule (and therefore has enantiomers/left and right handed structures). "Why does that contribute to what oranges and lemons smell like?" Because the chirality (or the "handedness") of the molecule affects how the it interacts with the olfactory receptor neurons in our noses. "How does that allow us to interpret the smells?" The S-enantiomer (or the left-handed structure) will bind to different receptors than the R-enantiomer (or the right-handed structure), allowing us to distinguish the two smells. And so on. I'm not okay with just "accepting" that it happens. Everything feels meaningless to me when I'm kept in the dark. As I've grown, I've noticed myself craving for more answers. Why does this happen? How does this happen? As I find more answers, more questions will come up. In other words, I'll never be bored because I feel gratified in finding the answers. I find meaning in life in knowing and understanding the processes that occur around me. Any step closer to this goal makes life more fulfilling; more meaningful to me. And that just about sums it up. It obviously needs work since this is just a summary, but that's what I'm planning to build my essay around. I'm open to any criticisms, suggestions, and even new ideas/topics because this is rough. 

 

The quoting trick is really helpful when you need to hunt down a phrase from a book or movie, check idioms, or even look for homework help. It has quite a few uses so be sure to take advantage of it when you can! When I first saw your puzzle, I was thinking to myself that there was no way I'd ever be able to figure that out, and as you said, I didn't have anything to go off of either, haha. Heck, I was doubting whether the hints were even notes, lol. And I guess I didn't have much of a reason or ambition to want to decipher your first name at the time since we didn't start talking to each other until a bit later. Was there any reason why you left the puzzle there for people to solve? And about the Spanish/Portuguese mixup, my pride and dignity were at stake so I felt the need to fix my slip-up, is all. It's not like I fixed it for you, b-b-baka!

 

I also did the same with your avatar when you changed it to Kino! Ever since I discovered it a few months ago, I've been reverse image searching everyone's avatars that I can't recognize--so it's a habit now, ahahaha. I also do the same when I highlight a few words and right-click "Search Google for 'insert whatever I highlighted here'" instead of typing it all out or copy/pasting in the search bar. It's so convenient! I originally had a picture of Gilgamesh I wanted to use, and I actually used it for a few minutes, but then I decided nah and switched it back to Dark Pit and then changed it to Aya a week or two later. Oh, and the reason that video was the only source of the image is because it's art made exclusive for marasy8 (may or may not have been for one of his albums; I'm not too sure). You can tell from the pink monkey hanging off of Aya's arm--which is marasy's icon/mascot. Also, here's another handy trick you can use: if you ever need to find the original source image for a YouTube thumbnail, click on the video and then press Ctrl+U. You might encounter a random wall of gibberish that's supposedly a code. But do not be deterred! Press Ctrl+F and type in ".jpg". The URL it leads you to will be the original image. Try it! This way, you can reverse image search from there instead of going through the trouble of screen-shotting again. Not sure what you'll need it for, but I've used this a few times (mostly for tracking down wallpapers though, lol). 

 

Nothing's been said about the new Pokemon game yet, but I'll keep it at the back of my head, heh. BW was fine, but I didn't think it wasn't much better than XY (aside from the difficulty, because Ghetsis was a pain to beat; I was almost forced to use a max revive). N's Castle was definitely a nice plot twist after reaching the champion. I loved the idea behind AZ's Floette, but the overall story seemed really farfetched. I know Pokemon isn't supposed to be realistic, but AZ built some contraption that brought Floette back to life then turned it into some "ultimate weapon" that brought destruction on the world? I feel like that could've been developed better. I guess what bothered me was just that he built some machine that caused this (kinda funny since I think it would've been more believable/fitting if it was a Pokemon that caused the destruction instead). Then again, the playthrough I watched didn't go through any of the books in the hideout, so I missed out on that. And it also wouldn't have hurt if the games provided some text on the legendaries' history. I'm guessing the new Pokemon game is going to fill us in on that then. Otherwise, I don't have many other complaints. It's a solid game, and the backlash is probably just coming from a bunch of genwunners who are complaining for the sake of complaining. The graphics and music were top-notch. Ohh, the Kalos night sky? I tried looking it up after you mentioned it, but the only thing I could find was the Pokemon league while it was nighttime. Still looks nice though, haha. 

 

My parents actually had my sister in Canada before they realized that everything over there's kinda overpriced and then moved down to NYC. It's an interesting place, I guess, haha. Hong Kong is really different compared to the other Chinese cities I've visited. For starters, the driver sits on the right side--which completely blew me away. The overall vibe feels downtown-esque around the inner portion of the city and the shoreline during the nighttime is gorgeous. And the Hong Kong ten-dollar note looks really nice, so I kept one for myself, heh.

 

Haha, I don't think I'll ever be able to follow a football game. I've never watched the Super Bowl, and I don't really plan to either. I'm not a big sports fan, but I wish I knew what the hype was all about. It seems like you had a good time during marching band for the most part! Aw geez, you're poking at my curiosity again. jkjkjk, it's cool. Well, uh, what I mean by "dress up" is wearing specific color schemes during spirit week. Maybe one day everyone's supposed to wear red, white, and blue. And maybe pajamas the next day. I'm not wearing pajamas to school, lol. I won't go that extreme. Whaa, you get extra credit for dressing up? You lucky duck, haha. I'm on the fence on school spirit. I'm not one of those people who'll paint their faces for a football game or wear all attire associated with the school. Free t-shirts are always nice though, lol. You only clapped during the FLOW concert? Wait no, you refused to do anything more than clap at the end of every song? I probably would've been one of those people jumping and cheering, heh. So nothing can faze you, hm? Challenge accepted, hah...

 

Whaaaaa?? Your wellness teacher cancelled your classes last week? Haha, was it because of the Clinton's campaign? And uh, wow you party pooper. I was just about to open a new tab in hopes that I could see what you look like. That was cruel of you to tease me like that :c hehe, jk. It must've been awesome to see her in person though. Lucky you!

 

Oh, I had new uniforms every year, lol. I had a plain white skirt and a white/gray/black skirt during my freshman and sophomore years on JV. The skirt I was forced to wear this year on varsity was... I don't know how to explain it, haha. The pattern resembled scribbles, I guess, but it actually looked nice. Most sports teams at our school also have new uniforms every year. Did your school reuse uniforms? Ohh, you have a new watch now! It's seriously one of the best things I've ever used. I don't know how you managed to live without one for two years. For some reason, I always feel really exposed and vulnerable whenever I'm not wearing a watch. On those occasions, whenever I need to check the time I'd be staring at my blank wrist, and it bothers me so much. It almost feels as essential as glasses for some people. Except that I don't wear glasses, so I wouldn't know. I guess I always have my phone, but it's so much more convenient having the time on your wrist! I don't know why I feel so strongly about this, haha. And now that you have a watch again, hopefully you'll understand what I'm getting at, lol.

 

Erm, there's a "wife" mode on those pillows? Good ol' Japan, never failing to make some of the strangest products around. Hmm, wow, I don't think I've ever thought about fanservice for girls. I always thought the anime industry just cranked out more shoujo in order to satisfy the female audience. I guess it was quite liberating for some (icwutudidthar, hehe). When my sister was still in the anime craze, she seemed pretty caught up with Lelouch, so I guess it's not too surprising that she eventually got exposed to Free. And, uh, pfft, w-what are you talking about. I told you I-I was only tempted to watch it for the friendship, ahahahaha.................... A few of my friends wouldn't stop talking about it and I just want to see what the hype was about! Fanservice, psh... what a ridiculous reason... to watch... an anime...b-but the art is so pretty...why is the water animated so nicely???? Okay, yeah you caught me, lol. But that Nichijou gif almost made me jump out of my chair, haha (I'm also adding that gif to my library; the thing is too darn perfect). Oh, and Gigguk's reactions to the anime are solid. It might be a good anime to watch come next summer, for uh, scientific research, ahaah.........

 

Yuup, the laptop is definitely starting to show its age. Recently, it's been really laggy and unresponsive. I don't even know why. I haven't downloaded anything in a while, but the darn laptop is really slowing down. I can't even have three Chrome windows open anymore since it can barely operate with two (but to be more specific, I typically have two Chrome windows, one Firefox window, and two Word documents open on the average day). Maybe it's because I always force it to hibernate instead of shutting it down completely, but I've been doing that for years without a problem. I'll shut it down after a few months but whenever I'm not using it, it's usually hibernating. I don't think my parents will let me get a new laptop though. It's still fully functional; it's just that it's not as good as it used to be. Unless the laptop completely breaks down, I'm probably not getting a new one, haha. 

 

Ack, I really dislike thinking about how rigid your high school schedules are. I'm not even taking an actual math class this year. I'm counting Physics C as a math credit so I don't have to take AP stats. There are quite a few people around here who've dropped to regular English and regular math in order to lighten their course load, so barely anyone judges based on the classes you take (unless you're one of those people who doesn't take a single AP class, then it's a bit hard to "fit in"). I can't imagine how different my life would've been if I attended your high school. I don't want to bring back any more bad memories for you, so I'll stop here. Ehehe, sorry about that.

 

Ohh, you're planning on transferring over credits from Rutgers for classes you don't like? I might consider doing something like that. Except I want to pursue a volunteering opportunity or a way for me to shadow someone over the summer. Or perhaps I'll research or intern for someone... which might not leave me any time to take a summer course. Hrm... I'll be keeping the idea in the back of my head though since I might need it for classes I don't want to take during the school year. Geezus, 5's on your Lit, Lang, and APUSH exams, and a 4 on WHAP?? Damn, that's really impressive. I honestly had no idea what I was doing in Lang, and those in class essays were such a pain. English and History are my worst/least liked subjects so I wouldn't dare attempt what you managed to accomplish, eheh. That's pretty awesome of you, haha. And congrats on the 4 in bio! I'm not going to major in accounting, so when I head off to college my schedule's going to look a bit different from yours. It's nice to see the schedule of a typical college student, so thanks for sharing with me! And I can free up my academic schedule by playing tennis if I go to Case? Ahaha, that's great! 

 

Personally, I think obnoxious alarms are the worst. I absolutely hated being jump-scared every morning by this blaring, abhorrent screeching that sounded like a dysfunctional fire alarm. And waking up at the hour of satan's buttcrack didn't exactly give me better outlook on the morning either. So I downloaded this app on my phone that sets up a more easy-on-the-ear alarm that gradually increases in volume. A lot better than my previous alarm that gave me a heart attack and/or near death experience every time it woke me up. It's an improvement, or at least I think so. It made waking up a bit more pleasant, and that was enough for me. A phone alarm can be a bit unreliable, I'll admit (since there will, inevitably, be days when you forget that your phone is still on silent), but I'll take this over some obnoxious alarm clock any day. Or maybe I just need to get a better alarm clock... but enough of that, lol. While I was at UMich, I also felt more rushed with each passing day. On the first day, I woke up at 7:30am for my 9am class. Then I'd wake up a 7:45. Then 7:50. Then 8:00... and the latest I've woken up during the program was 8:15--45 minutes to brush my teeth, get ready, go to breakfast, and rush to class. And while I wasn't sleep-deprived, I didn't feel well-rested either. So yeahh, I know that feel, haha. You're only just starting college though, so be sure you get enough sleep! Assuming you sleep around 1-2am and wake up around 9am for your 10am class, you should be getting at least 7 hours every day. I better not be hearing anything lower, heh. Ohh, it must've been exciting to have Dr. Steele give a speech about his book. And you even got your book signed! 

 

In all honesty, I probably would've done the same, lol. If A/C is such a luxury, I'd also hate for it to go to waste, heh. Oh, and don't most A/C's work like that? The one I have at home is the same. Set it to a certain temperature and it'll keep heating/cooling the air until it reaches that temperature (despite living in this house for nearly half of my life, I didn't realize this until a few years ago, haha). What kind of A/C do you have at home then? Nope, winter hits the moment December starts for the people in Michigan. We might see a few flakes in November, but we'll see a good amount of snowfall in December. Christmas is barely a winter holiday for you guys? What the... oh geez, if Ohio gets as much snow as Michigan, you're absolutely going to love December (not that you don't already, lol). It usually takes at least 6 inches of snow before schools close around here, otherwise we'd have at least 10 snow days every year. And sometimes, we'll be forced to go to school in -25* conditions because stubborn school districts are stubborn. I love December; it's my favorite month--there's no doubt about that. But I really dislike January and February. January is like the Monday of the year and February isn't any better. They're just downright depressing. Maybe if I wasn't forced to wake up while it still looked like the middle of the night, I might've had a better impression. And it's really, really, really hard to get out of bed during January and February--more so than usual, because it's cold and dark. And I'm snug in my blanket where I'm warm and toasty. And I can't turn on the heater without my guilt tugging at me. It's just a really depressing time for me. I don't like January. I don't like February. The festivities are gone, and all that's left is a wasteland of polluted slush and tarnished snow. The roads are saturated with salt, and everything is lined with salt stains. That's pretty much all I associate with January and February. Salt. And lots of it, because that's all I feel during those two dreadful months. My second favorite season is spring because all of that salt goes away. Everything regains color, and the rain! I love the soothing sound of rain lightly tapping on the windows and roof. I love seeing the tulips sprout, and waking up becomes a bit easier since it's brighter and warmer. I really dislike the humidity though. Everything feels sticky and walking outside feels like walking into a stuffy shower room. Fall is all right and all, but I don't have any fond memories I associate with the season, so overall it's kind of meh. The cascade of prismatic yellows, oranges, and reds being gently wafted around is gorgeous though--I won't deny that.

 

The only reason I didn't watch Grave of the Fireflies was because it wasn't a Miyazaki movie, ahaha... I was only digging through Miyazaki movies at the time, and uh, they're the only Ghibli movies I've watched, eheh. Phew, I'm going to have to catch up on a lot of movies and anime when I have the time. Ohh, how did you get your mom to watch it then? My mom rarely finds the motivation to watch "cartoons". Ahh, yes. More motivation for me to want to get into Case. I'm going to make sure you at least watch Spirited Away, one way or another, heh.

 

The mechanics of driving aren't bad (I may or may not have struggled with learning how to turn when I first started...). It's just the anxiety of not knowing what to do in certain situations. Let's say you're in a construction zone where all of the traffic lights on the right side are null because of all of the cones underneath them. Perhaps you're the first car to stop at the traffic light, and the only thing to guide you is a green arrow pointing left. Except that you don't want to go left, you want to go forward, but there are no traffic lights telling you that it's safe to go forward. For an old-time driver, common sense might take over. For a newbie, well, uh, what are you supposed to do? There's a string of cars behind you and you're anxiously waiting for some surefire sign to indicate that you can proceed. And you can't follow the example of any cars because you were the first to approach the traffic light. But you're afraid you're going to hold up the traffic if you do. And so you zoom forward, completely ignoring the green arrow while crossing your fingers and praying to God in hopes that you don't cause road rage or get into a car crash... and that just about sums up my first experience driving at 10:30pm without parental supervision on nearby unfamiliar roads outside of Troy (my parents were too lazy to send me to/pick me up from a friend's birthday party). Best part is, by law, my license didn't even permit me to drive that late at night. But my parents didn't care. They just threw a GPS into the car in case I got lost and bid me adieu (which, by the way, I did end up using after getting lost on the way back, so thank goodness for that). I guess they were just sick of driving me to places, and maybe they trusted me enough to allow me to drive by myself. Still though, driving in unfamiliar construction zones is the worst. What an adventure. 10/10 would not experience again. Geezus, what kind of questions are those? What speed should you approach a horse?? The beer/liquor question seems a bit more reasonable, but you need to know how much longer it takes for a truck to stop in certain weather conditions?? What the... do they at least give you a study guide or allow retakes? Aww you. I'll try my best to avoid driving recklessly, and I'll pray for your safety as well when you get out on the road!

 

Gosh, I'm sorry for poking at your personal bubble like that, ehehe..... I-I just wanted to see if I could be moved as much as you were. Bakuman seems to have a relatively simple plot. I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to get through 20 volumes so I might skip that for now. The character reactions in One Piece seem kinda overdone. A lot of the scenes I've come across are hard to take seriously for this reason. Call me heartless, but I honestly can't take panels like this seriously. Then again, I've never read One Piece before so I can't say much. Oh yeahh, I actually added Monster to my list of PTW on MAL not too long ago. Would you recommend the manga or anime? And funny thing about Battle Royale... a friend actually recommended it to me a few years ago. He was going on about how the Hunger Games was ripped off from it and how Battle Royale was loads better. So I placed a hold on it while I was in the library. But I was really confused because what I received was a manga. And so I returned it. Granted this was back in middle school so my idiot self never bothered to look up that Battle Royale came in both the novel and manga formats. I still don't know which one my friend was referring to since this was such a long time ago, but maybe I'll take a look at it sometime soon. Do you think I should go for the manga or the novel?

 

Ahaha, sorry for giving you so much trouble. I'll add Mawaru Penguindrum to my PTW list. As for that scene with Rider, what got me was when Waver collapsed after saying that he was Rider's loyal subject. I didn't cry, but I definitely felt something welling up and I wanted to yell at my computer screen (had the same reaction after the Desperate Revival arc out of rage that Gosho never bothered to build on it afterwards). I've never considered Angel Beats as something I'd watch, so I'll pass on that. I'll add 5 Centimeters Per Second, Eve no Jikan, and Hoshi no Koe to my PTW though (thanks for the recommendations!). SnK didn't get to me for the most part. I wasn't attached to many of the characters and so seeing them die didn't affect me much; maybe a little angry at most (dammit Petra). But that one bit with Eren's mom was just so grotesque and shocking. I felt something there for sure. That episode was really solid. There were a lot of scenes in FMA and FMAB that were apparently cry-worthy. I was really hard to move back when I first watched them. Yeah, I felt something when sddfgdfkjghsdfkghk happened (I couldn't help but notice you haven't watched them yet?? O:). I keep seeing these comments about how these scenes were oh, so sad and how these people cry every. single. time they watch them? At first I just thought the people who posted those comments didn't literally mean what they typed and were just exaggerating for some literary effect or something (kinda like when someone posts "omg lol im dying" when they're not actually dying). Like those instances when Mayuri kept dying and that one scene when Okabe and Kurisu kissed. I don't know, I felt something, but I didn't shed any tears. And for the Steins;Gate movie, I think I was forcing myself to cry so I could understand what people were feeling? I guess that's why I didn't have as strong of a reaction after watching that scene again (it was actually kinda cheesy now that I think about it). Yes, I understand how some of these scenes are moving, and of course I get feels from watching some of them. It's just that I... I don't know why I should cry over fictional characters. Maybe I'd go on a rant on how so-and-so shouldn't have died, or maybe how badly carried out the death was. Maybe I need to watch some shoujo or some dramas? Wolf Children also has a few scenes that were touching, I guess.

 

Bing Bong's sacrifice was really obvious, but I also felt kinda sad when I saw it. I haven't watched Up yet, and I watched Toy Story such a long time ago (back when I didn't even feel anything whenever something tragic happened onscreen). Okay, I'm afraid to admit that I haven't watched The Lion King before because now I feel like there's going to be a mob of people hunting me down for not having watched such a Disney classic. I've watched The Land Before Time movie loads of times as a little kid and I don't remember ever being close to shedding a tear. This was probably back in kindergarten and first grade--back when I didn't have any sympathy or empathy for anyone or anything. I haven't watched Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, so I can't say anything about that. And wow, now I feel... like a cold, heartless sociopath after typing all of that out, sigh.

 

O-oh gosh, y-you're complimenting me and giving me credit for being the reason you were able to come up with such a genuine birthday message? I-I don't know what to say, ahah... you're quite the flatterer, I'll say that much. I don't see why anyone would bother reporting our responses, though I'll admit the string of rep points might look suspicious, haha.

 

I'm kinda relieved that I'm not planning on over-applying. I'll only have to write supplements for a few schools, and for the rest I'll just turn in the Common App essay and be done with it. I'm still kind of nervous though, so I'm afraid your confidence in me might be misplaced, eheh... I appreciate the sentiment though!

 

Ahaha, I'm glad it wasn't just me. And the more I think about the note, the more I wish I could've done it. But as you said, if all goes well we can meet each other in person! Hmm, my voice? I'm not too sure, lol. It's not high-pitched, but I guess it isn't masculine? I wouldn't call myself soft-spoken (mainly depends on who I'm around though). I don't know how I'd describe my own voice; I've never really thought about it before. Now, you can't ask me about my voice without triggering my curiosity about what your voice sounds like, heh.

 

That's actually pretty funny, haha. You didn't seem like the kind of person who'd rely on horoscope readings so the psychics and astrology caught me by surprise. I think it's kind of funny how they base your personality on the months you were born in; as if everything's set in stone. And the descriptions they give about your readings and personalities are so vague that they can be applied to anyone, really. I guess it's kind of interesting how they came up with that kind of stuff, and it's always fun reading about your "future" I guess, haha. But back to the physics and astronomy, it's great to hear/read that you're into astronomy! It definitely sounds like a club I would join if it was offered at our school. I'd also love to hear about the stargazing places they'll take you to! And hopefully the lectures will be engaging as well!

 

I was actually a bit concerned about what the college environment would be like. Troy High School is a really safe school in a really safe city. I've heard about neighboring schools regularly inviting drug dogs to sniff out weed and crack and stuff around lockers and in people's backpacks. I never even knew drug dogs existed until some people from the summer program told me about their experience with them. I thought our district was just really strict about substance abuse and sexting since none of it ever happens around here. But it turns out that it can be a recurring problem in many schools, which I guess kinda scared me. For the longest time, I lived in a bubble where I thought most teenagers had enough common sense not to do things like drinking or smoking, and that schools were just being overbearing and too uptight about everything and just didn't trust us enough. And yeah, I guess college is different. Lots of freedom means lots of opportunities to try new things. Party like crazy, drink like crazy, smoke like crazy. And while I have no say in what people should or should not do, I don't think I'd ever be comfortable in that kind of environment where those activities are commonplace. It's nice to hear that Case is on the quieter side. I wouldn't mind a party once in a while, I suppose, but it really is relieving to know that it's not something that's ingrained in the community. College freedom is one of the main things I'm looking forward to, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere, haha. A mini EDM concert? Geezus, was it really that noisy? And, uh, your roommate got completely wasted even though he's still underage? (well, in America at least). I mean, I guess if it's part of Korean tradition... (TIL Koreans get drunk af when they start college).

 

What on earth... your earliest class starts at... 10am? Oh man, I'm really looking forward to college now. A-and your schedule is so spread out... not like in high school where it's just one class after another... this is unreal. The classes must be really difficult then. To have up to only four classes in one day, and as little as one on another. Are the classes really tough and do they require a lot of outside studying? How would you compare the workload between high school and college? Sorry for bombarding you with these questions, but I'm really curious. Also, how is SAGES going for you so far?

 

The class picture was your favorite part of orientation? That's pretty interesting, haha. I would ask you more about it, but if it means spoiling one of the best parts of orientation then I'll wait, heh.

 

Even though you seem to be against the ruckus, maybe try going to one of those parties? You never know, haha. I'm not saying that you have to go completely out of your comfort zone and party hard, but perhaps you'll encounter a person there who was forced to tag along with friends; someone who was reluctant to go. Maybe you'll have something in common with him/her. Maybe he/she is wearing a FE graphic tee and you think to yourself, "I have to get to know this person!" This is pretty situational, but hey, you never know! Hmm, you might be able to find some people in that physics and astronomy club. What other clubs have you joined? It's good to know that you've added some people to your contacts and upped your fb friend list, and that you've also bonded rather well with some!

 

Nah man, I'm still on summer vacation so I'm not having much trouble typing these out... or at least at the moment, ahaha... I'm a bit worried about you though. Since you've started college already, don't hesitate to take a break yourself!

 

Haha, I just thought it was interesting that the email was probably alluding to you. Was it something you just casually mentioned on your application? And the thing about someone placing top 10 in the US National VGC series, I know right????!!

 

A plot-driven rhythm tap game? Kinda like Guitar Hero or Audiosurf? ...and from that description, Deemo sounds like Slenderman, lol. Interesting plot though. I seriously love the music so I might get the game just for that. T-t-the piano in Dream... t-the strings the cello...... and ohhhh is that an oboe? kdfjgfklgsfldghfdgsdkjfhlskj. But I have to wait until I get a new phone?? It'll be worth it though. Dammit Akazora, making me feel things.............

[Akazora 293]

Oh dang, so I guess the OPO is fairly popular at your school. Only one person I've talked to so far recognized the name. No one in my family knew what it was, which I thought was surprising since both my dad and sister are techy people. The only person who knew about it was a classmate from the UMich summer program. He was the one who told me that you'd only be able to get one through invite, which is probably why he had a Samsung. I have a few more techy friends at school, so I might ask them about it once school starts. 

 

I'm not even quite sure how I came up with my conclusion before the body. I was just gazing at the corner of the ceiling and I was casually thinking to myself, "what do I find meaningful" and then it hit me. My introduction paragraph feels a bit too... forward. Yeah, I guess it's attention-getting, but it almost seems kinda sudden? It felt like a solid idea when I first started, but now it just... argh. It's about an incident when I fell ill, and goes into detail about what the experience was like. Coughing up blood on a school morning and watching buckets of it come out. I was planning to use that introduction to lead into my fascination with biology because I was not horrified by the incident; rather, I was intrigued. What kind of sane person would be fascinated from watching blood surge out from his/her innards. I figured that would be enough to catch the admissions officer's attention. So here's a synopsis of the remaining paragraphs: I thoroughly enjoy learning about the processes around me. Ever since I was a kid my favorite kinds of questions were the why/how questions. With each passing year these questions I'd ask would become more elaborate; there's never an end to the why/how questions since they're always multi-layered. No matter how trivial the question starts off as, there will always be deeper answers. "Why do oranges and lemons have different scents?" Although they both contain limonene, oranges and lemons each harbor different forms of limonene because limonene is a chiral molecule (and therefore has enantiomers/left and right handed structures). "Why does that contribute to what oranges and lemons smell like?" Because the chirality (or the "handedness") of the molecule affects how the it interacts with the olfactory receptor neurons in our noses. "How does that allow us to interpret the smells?" The S-enantiomer (or the left-handed structure) will bind to different receptors than the R-enantiomer (or the right-handed structure), allowing us to distinguish the two smells. And so on. I'm not okay with just "accepting" that it happens. Everything feels meaningless to me when I'm kept in the dark. As I've grown, I've noticed myself craving for more answers. Why does this happen? How does this happen? As I find more answers, more questions will come up. In other words, I'll never be bored because I feel gratified in finding the answers. I find meaning in life in knowing and understanding the processes that occur around me. Any step closer to this goal makes life more fulfilling; more meaningful to me. And that just about sums it up. It obviously needs work since this is just a summary, but that's what I'm planning to build my essay around. I'm open to any criticisms, suggestions, and even new ideas/topics because this is rough. 

 

The quoting trick is really helpful when you need to hunt down a phrase from a book or movie, check idioms, or even look for homework help. It has quite a few uses so be sure to take advantage of it when you can! When I first saw your puzzle, I was thinking to myself that there was no way I'd ever be able to figure that out, and as you said, I didn't have anything to go off of either, haha. Heck, I was doubting whether the hints were even notes, lol. And I guess I didn't have much of a reason or ambition to want to decipher your first name at the time since we didn't start talking to each other until a bit later. Was there any reason why you left the puzzle there for people to solve? And about the Spanish/Portuguese mixup, my pride and dignity were at stake so I felt the need to fix my slip-up, is all. It's not like I fixed it for you, b-b-baka!

 

I also did the same with your avatar when you changed it to Kino! Ever since I discovered it a few months ago, I've been reverse image searching everyone's avatars that I can't recognize--so it's a habit now, ahahaha. I also do the same when I highlight a few words and right-click "Search Google for 'insert whatever I highlighted here'" instead of typing it all out or copy/pasting in the search bar. It's so convenient! I originally had a picture of Gilgamesh I wanted to use, and I actually used it for a few minutes, but then I decided nah and switched it back to Dark Pit and then changed it to Aya a week or two later. Oh, and the reason that video was the only source of the image is because it's art made exclusive for marasy8 (may or may not have been for one of his albums; I'm not too sure). You can tell from the pink monkey hanging off of Aya's arm--which is marasy's icon/mascot. Also, here's another handy trick you can use: if you ever need to find the original source image for a YouTube thumbnail, click on the video and then press Ctrl+U. You might encounter a random wall of gibberish that's supposedly a code. But do not be deterred! Press Ctrl+F and type in ".jpg". The URL it leads you to will be the original image. Try it! This way, you can reverse image search from there instead of going through the trouble of screen-shotting again. Not sure what you'll need it for, but I've used this a few times (mostly for tracking down wallpapers though, lol). 

 

Nothing's been said about the new Pokemon game yet, but I'll keep it at the back of my head, heh. BW was fine, but I didn't think it wasn't much better than XY (aside from the difficulty, because Ghetsis was a pain to beat; I was almost forced to use a max revive). N's Castle was definitely a nice plot twist after reaching the champion. I loved the idea behind AZ's Floette, but the overall story seemed really farfetched. I know Pokemon isn't supposed to be realistic, but AZ built some contraption that brought Floette back to life then turned it into some "ultimate weapon" that brought destruction on the world? I feel like that could've been developed better. I guess what bothered me was just that he built some machine that caused this (kinda funny since I think it would've been more believable/fitting if it was a Pokemon that caused the destruction instead). Then again, the playthrough I watched didn't go through any of the books in the hideout, so I missed out on that. And it also wouldn't have hurt if the games provided some text on the legendaries' history. I'm guessing the new Pokemon game is going to fill us in on that then. Otherwise, I don't have many other complaints. It's a solid game, and the backlash is probably just coming from a bunch of genwunners who are complaining for the sake of complaining. The graphics and music were top-notch. Ohh, the Kalos night sky? I tried looking it up after you mentioned it, but the only thing I could find was the Pokemon league while it was nighttime. Still looks nice though, haha. 

 

My parents actually had my sister in Canada before they realized that everything over there's kinda overpriced and then moved down to NYC. It's an interesting place, I guess, haha. Hong Kong is really different compared to the other Chinese cities I've visited. For starters, the driver sits on the right side--which completely blew me away. The overall vibe feels downtown-esque around the inner portion of the city and the shoreline during the nighttime is gorgeous. And the Hong Kong ten-dollar note looks really nice, so I kept one for myself, heh.

 

Haha, I don't think I'll ever be able to follow a football game. I've never watched the Super Bowl, and I don't really plan to either. I'm not a big sports fan, but I wish I knew what the hype was all about. It seems like you had a good time during marching band for the most part! Aw geez, you're poking at my curiosity again. jkjkjk, it's cool. Well, uh, what I mean by "dress up" is wearing specific color schemes during spirit week. Maybe one day everyone's supposed to wear red, white, and blue. And maybe pajamas the next day. I'm not wearing pajamas to school, lol. I won't go that extreme. Whaa, you get extra credit for dressing up? You lucky duck, haha. I'm on the fence on school spirit. I'm not one of those people who'll paint their faces for a football game or wear all attire associated with the school. Free t-shirts are always nice though, lol. You only clapped during the FLOW concert? Wait no, you refused to do anything more than clap at the end of every song? I probably would've been one of those people jumping and cheering, heh. So nothing can faze you, hm? Challenge accepted, hah...

 

Whaaaaa?? Your wellness teacher cancelled your classes last week? Haha, was it because of the Clinton's campaign? And uh, wow you party pooper. I was just about to open a new tab in hopes that I could see what you look like. That was cruel of you to tease me like that :c hehe, jk. It must've been awesome to see her in person though. Lucky you!

 

Oh, I had new uniforms every year, lol. I had a plain white skirt and a white/gray/black skirt during my freshman and sophomore years on JV. The skirt I was forced to wear this year on varsity was... I don't know how to explain it, haha. The pattern resembled scribbles, I guess, but it actually looked nice. Most sports teams at our school also have new uniforms every year. Did your school reuse uniforms? Ohh, you have a new watch now! It's seriously one of the best things I've ever used. I don't know how you managed to live without one for two years. For some reason, I always feel really exposed and vulnerable whenever I'm not wearing a watch. On those occasions, whenever I need to check the time I'd be staring at my blank wrist, and it bothers me so much. It almost feels as essential as glasses for some people. Except that I don't wear glasses, so I wouldn't know. I guess I always have my phone, but it's so much more convenient having the time on your wrist! I don't know why I feel so strongly about this, haha. And now that you have a watch again, hopefully you'll understand what I'm getting at, lol.

 

Erm, there's a "wife" mode on those pillows? Good ol' Japan, never failing to make some of the strangest products around. Hmm, wow, I don't think I've ever thought about fanservice for girls. I always thought the anime industry just cranked out more shoujo in order to satisfy the female audience. I guess it was quite liberating for some (icwutudidthar, hehe). When my sister was still in the anime craze, she seemed pretty caught up with Lelouch, so I guess it's not too surprising that she eventually got exposed to Free. And, uh, pfft, w-what are you talking about. I told you I-I was only tempted to watch it for the friendship, ahahahaha.................... A few of my friends wouldn't stop talking about it and I just want to see what the hype was about! Fanservice, psh... what a ridiculous reason... to watch... an anime...b-but the art is so pretty...why is the water animated so nicely???? Okay, yeah you caught me, lol. But that Nichijou gif almost made me jump out of my chair, haha (I'm also adding that gif to my library; the thing is too darn perfect). Oh, and Gigguk's reactions to the anime are solid. It might be a good anime to watch come next summer, for uh, scientific research, ahaah.........

 

Yuup, the laptop is definitely starting to show its age. Recently, it's been really laggy and unresponsive. I don't even know why. I haven't downloaded anything in a while, but the darn laptop is really slowing down. I can't even have three Chrome windows open anymore since it can barely operate with two (but to be more specific, I typically have two Chrome windows, one Firefox window, and two Word documents open on the average day). Maybe it's because I always force it to hibernate instead of shutting it down completely, but I've been doing that for years without a problem. I'll shut it down after a few months but whenever I'm not using it, it's usually hibernating. I don't think my parents will let me get a new laptop though. It's still fully functional; it's just that it's not as good as it used to be. Unless the laptop completely breaks down, I'm probably not getting a new one, haha. 

 

Ack, I really dislike thinking about how rigid your high school schedules are. I'm not even taking an actual math class this year. I'm counting Physics C as a math credit so I don't have to take AP stats. There are quite a few people around here who've dropped to regular English and regular math in order to lighten their course load, so barely anyone judges based on the classes you take (unless you're one of those people who doesn't take a single AP class, then it's a bit hard to "fit in"). I can't imagine how different my life would've been if I attended your high school. I don't want to bring back any more bad memories for you, so I'll stop here. Ehehe, sorry about that.

 

Ohh, you're planning on transferring over credits from Rutgers for classes you don't like? I might consider doing something like that. Except I want to pursue a volunteering opportunity or a way for me to shadow someone over the summer. Or perhaps I'll research or intern for someone... which might not leave me any time to take a summer course. Hrm... I'll be keeping the idea in the back of my head though since I might need it for classes I don't want to take during the school year. Geezus, 5's on your Lit, Lang, and APUSH exams, and a 4 on WHAP?? Damn, that's really impressive. I honestly had no idea what I was doing in Lang, and those in class essays were such a pain. English and History are my worst/least liked subjects so I wouldn't dare attempt what you managed to accomplish, eheh. That's pretty awesome of you, haha. And congrats on the 4 in bio! I'm not going to major in accounting, so when I head off to college my schedule's going to look a bit different from yours. It's nice to see the schedule of a typical college student, so thanks for sharing with me! And I can free up my academic schedule by playing tennis if I go to Case? Ahaha, that's great! 

 

Personally, I think obnoxious alarms are the worst. I absolutely hated being jump-scared every morning by this blaring, abhorrent screeching that sounded like a dysfunctional fire alarm. And waking up at the hour of satan's buttcrack didn't exactly give me better outlook on the morning either. So I downloaded this app on my phone that sets up a more easy-on-the-ear alarm that gradually increases in volume. A lot better than my previous alarm that gave me a heart attack and/or near death experience every time it woke me up. It's an improvement, or at least I think so. It made waking up a bit more pleasant, and that was enough for me. A phone alarm can be a bit unreliable, I'll admit (since there will, inevitably, be days when you forget that your phone is still on silent), but I'll take this over some obnoxious alarm clock any day. Or maybe I just need to get a better alarm clock... but enough of that, lol. While I was at UMich, I also felt more rushed with each passing day. On the first day, I woke up at 7:30am for my 9am class. Then I'd wake up a 7:45. Then 7:50. Then 8:00... and the latest I've woken up during the program was 8:15--45 minutes to brush my teeth, get ready, go to breakfast, and rush to class. And while I wasn't sleep-deprived, I didn't feel well-rested either. So yeahh, I know that feel, haha. You're only just starting college though, so be sure you get enough sleep! Assuming you sleep around 1-2am and wake up around 9am for your 10am class, you should be getting at least 7 hours every day. I better not be hearing anything lower, heh. Ohh, it must've been exciting to have Dr. Steele give a speech about his book. And you even got your book signed! 

 

In all honesty, I probably would've done the same, lol. If A/C is such a luxury, I'd also hate for it to go to waste, heh. Oh, and don't most A/C's work like that? The one I have at home is the same. Set it to a certain temperature and it'll keep heating/cooling the air until it reaches that temperature (despite living in this house for nearly half of my life, I didn't realize this until a few years ago, haha). What kind of A/C do you have at home then? Nope, winter hits the moment December starts for the people in Michigan. We might see a few flakes in November, but we'll see a good amount of snowfall in December. Christmas is barely a winter holiday for you guys? What the... oh geez, if Ohio gets as much snow as Michigan, you're absolutely going to love December (not that you don't already, lol). It usually takes at least 6 inches of snow before schools close around here, otherwise we'd have at least 10 snow days every year. And sometimes, we'll be forced to go to school in -25* conditions because stubborn school districts are stubborn. I love December; it's my favorite month--there's no doubt about that. But I really dislike January and February. January is like the Monday of the year and February isn't any better. They're just downright depressing. Maybe if I wasn't forced to wake up while it still looked like the middle of the night, I might've had a better impression. And it's really, really, really hard to get out of bed during January and February--more so than usual, because it's cold and dark. And I'm snug in my blanket where I'm warm and toasty. And I can't turn on the heater without my guilt tugging at me. It's just a really depressing time for me. I don't like January. I don't like February. The festivities are gone, and all that's left is a wasteland of polluted slush and tarnished snow. The roads are saturated with salt, and everything is lined with salt stains. That's pretty much all I associate with January and February. Salt. And lots of it, because that's all I feel during those two dreadful months. My second favorite season is spring because all of that salt goes away. Everything regains color, and the rain! I love the soothing sound of rain lightly tapping on the windows and roof. I love seeing the tulips sprout, and waking up becomes a bit easier since it's brighter and warmer. I really dislike the humidity though. Everything feels sticky and walking outside feels like walking into a stuffy shower room. Fall is all right and all, but I don't have any fond memories I associate with the season, so overall it's kind of meh. The cascade of prismatic yellows, oranges, and reds being gently wafted around is gorgeous though--I won't deny that.

 

The only reason I didn't watch Grave of the Fireflies was because it wasn't a Miyazaki movie, ahaha... I was only digging through Miyazaki movies at the time, and uh, they're the only Ghibli movies I've watched, eheh. Phew, I'm going to have to catch up on a lot of movies and anime when I have the time. Ohh, how did you get your mom to watch it then? My mom rarely finds the motivation to watch "cartoons". Ahh, yes. More motivation for me to want to get into Case. I'm going to make sure you at least watch Spirited Away, one way or another, heh.

 

The mechanics of driving aren't bad (I may or may not have struggled with learning how to turn when I first started...). It's just the anxiety of not knowing what to do in certain situations. Let's say you're in a construction zone where all of the traffic lights on the right side are null because of all of the cones underneath them. Perhaps you're the first car to stop at the traffic light, and the only thing to guide you is a green arrow pointing left. Except that you don't want to go left, you want to go forward, but there are no traffic lights telling you that it's safe to go forward. For an old-time driver, common sense might take over. For a newbie, well, uh, what are you supposed to do? There's a string of cars behind you and you're anxiously waiting for some surefire sign to indicate that you can proceed. And you can't follow the example of any cars because you were the first to approach the traffic light. But you're afraid you're going to hold up the traffic if you do. And so you zoom forward, completely ignoring the green arrow while crossing your fingers and praying to God in hopes that you don't cause road rage or get into a car crash... and that just about sums up my first experience driving at 10:30pm without parental supervision on nearby unfamiliar roads outside of Troy (my parents were too lazy to send me to/pick me up from a friend's birthday party). Best part is, by law, my license didn't even permit me to drive that late at night. But my parents didn't care. They just threw a GPS into the car in case I got lost and bid me adieu (which, by the way, I did end up using after getting lost on the way back, so thank goodness for that). I guess they were just sick of driving me to places, and maybe they trusted me enough to allow me to drive by myself. Still though, driving in unfamiliar construction zones is the worst. What an adventure. 10/10 would not experience again. Geezus, what kind of questions are those? What speed should you approach a horse?? The beer/liquor question seems a bit more reasonable, but you need to know how much longer it takes for a truck to stop in certain weather conditions?? What the... do they at least give you a study guide or allow retakes? Aww you. I'll try my best to avoid driving recklessly, and I'll pray for your safety as well when you get out on the road!

 

Gosh, I'm sorry for poking at your personal bubble like that, ehehe..... I-I just wanted to see if I could be moved as much as you were. Bakuman seems to have a relatively simple plot. I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to get through 20 volumes so I might skip that for now. The character reactions in One Piece seem kinda overdone. A lot of the scenes I've come across are hard to take seriously for this reason. Call me heartless, but I honestly can't take panels like this seriously. Then again, I've never read One Piece before so I can't say much. Oh yeahh, I actually added Monster to my list of PTW on MAL not too long ago. Would you recommend the manga or anime? And funny thing about Battle Royale... a friend actually recommended it to me a few years ago. He was going on about how the Hunger Games was ripped off from it and how Battle Royale was loads better. So I placed a hold on it while I was in the library. But I was really confused because what I received was a manga. And so I returned it. Granted this was back in middle school so my idiot self never bothered to look up that Battle Royale came in both the novel and manga formats. I still don't know which one my friend was referring to since this was such a long time ago, but maybe I'll take a look at it sometime soon. Do you think I should go for the manga or the novel?

 

Ahaha, sorry for giving you so much trouble. I'll add Mawaru Penguindrum to my PTW list. As for that scene with Rider, what got me was when Waver collapsed after saying that he was Rider's loyal subject. I didn't cry, but I definitely felt something welling up and I wanted to yell at my computer screen (had the same reaction after the Desperate Revival arc out of rage that Gosho never bothered to build on it afterwards). I've never considered Angel Beats as something I'd watch, so I'll pass on that. I'll add 5 Centimeters Per Second, Eve no Jikan, and Hoshi no Koe to my PTW though (thanks for the recommendations!). SnK didn't get to me for the most part. I wasn't attached to many of the characters and so seeing them die didn't affect me much; maybe a little angry at most (dammit Petra). But that one bit with Eren's mom was just so grotesque and shocking. I felt something there for sure. That episode was really solid. There were a lot of scenes in FMA and FMAB that were apparently cry-worthy. I was really hard to move back when I first watched them. Yeah, I felt something when sddfgdfkjghsdfkghk happened (I couldn't help but notice you haven't watched them yet?? O:). I keep seeing these comments about how these scenes were oh, so sad and how these people cry every. single. time they watch them? At first I just thought the people who posted those comments didn't literally mean what they typed and were just exaggerating for some literary effect or something (kinda like when someone posts "omg lol im dying" when they're not actually dying). Like those instances when Mayuri kept dying and that one scene when Okabe and Kurisu kissed. I don't know, I felt something, but I didn't shed any tears. And for the Steins;Gate movie, I think I was forcing myself to cry so I could understand what people were feeling? I guess that's why I didn't have as strong of a reaction after watching that scene again (it was actually kinda cheesy now that I think about it). Yes, I understand how some of these scenes are moving, and of course I get feels from watching some of them. It's just that I... I don't know why I should cry over fictional characters. Maybe I'd go on a rant on how so-and-so shouldn't have died, or maybe how badly carried out the death was. Maybe I need to watch some shoujo or some dramas? Wolf Children also has a few scenes that were touching, I guess.

 

Bing Bong's sacrifice was really obvious, but I also felt kinda sad when I saw it. I haven't watched Up yet, and I watched Toy Story such a long time ago (back when I didn't even feel anything whenever something tragic happened onscreen). Okay, I'm afraid to admit that I haven't watched The Lion King before because now I feel like there's going to be a mob of people hunting me down for not having watched such a Disney classic. I've watched The Land Before Time movie loads of times as a little kid and I don't remember ever being close to shedding a tear. This was probably back in kindergarten and first grade--back when I didn't have any sympathy or empathy for anyone or anything. I haven't watched Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, so I can't say anything about that. And wow, now I feel... like a cold, heartless sociopath after typing all of that out, sigh.

 

O-oh gosh, y-you're complimenting me and giving me credit for being the reason you were able to come up with such a genuine birthday message? I-I don't know what to say, ahah... you're quite the flatterer, I'll say that much. I don't see why anyone would bother reporting our responses, though I'll admit the string of rep points might look suspicious, haha.

 

I'm kinda relieved that I'm not planning on over-applying. I'll only have to write supplements for a few schools, and for the rest I'll just turn in the Common App essay and be done with it. I'm still kind of nervous though, so I'm afraid your confidence in me might be misplaced, eheh... I appreciate the sentiment though!

 

Ahaha, I'm glad it wasn't just me. And the more I think about the note, the more I wish I could've done it. But as you said, if all goes well we can meet each other in person! Hmm, my voice? I'm not too sure, lol. It's not high-pitched, but I guess it isn't masculine? I wouldn't call myself soft-spoken (mainly depends on who I'm around though). I don't know how I'd describe my own voice; I've never really thought about it before. Now, you can't ask me about my voice without triggering my curiosity about what your voice sounds like, heh.

 

That's actually pretty funny, haha. You didn't seem like the kind of person who'd rely on horoscope readings so the psychics and astrology caught me by surprise. I think it's kind of funny how they base your personality on the months you were born in; as if everything's set in stone. And the descriptions they give about your readings and personalities are so vague that they can be applied to anyone, really. I guess it's kind of interesting how they came up with that kind of stuff, and it's always fun reading about your "future" I guess, haha. But back to the physics and astronomy, it's great to hear/read that you're into astronomy! It definitely sounds like a club I would join if it was offered at our school. I'd also love to hear about the stargazing places they'll take you to! And hopefully the lectures will be engaging as well!

 

I was actually a bit concerned about what the college environment would be like. Troy High School is a really safe school in a really safe city. I've heard about neighboring schools regularly inviting drug dogs to sniff out weed and crack and stuff around lockers and in people's backpacks. I never even knew drug dogs existed until some people from the summer program told me about their experience with them. I thought our district was just really strict about substance abuse and sexting since none of it ever happens around here. But it turns out that it can be a recurring problem in many schools, which I guess kinda scared me. For the longest time, I lived in a bubble where I thought most teenagers had enough common sense not to do things like drinking or smoking, and that schools were just being overbearing and too uptight about everything and just didn't trust us enough. And yeah, I guess college is different. Lots of freedom means lots of opportunities to try new things. Party like crazy, drink like crazy, smoke like crazy. And while I have no say in what people should or should not do, I don't think I'd ever be comfortable in that kind of environment where those activities are commonplace. It's nice to hear that Case is on the quieter side. I wouldn't mind a party once in a while, I suppose, but it really is relieving to know that it's not something that's ingrained in the community. College freedom is one of the main things I'm looking forward to, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere, haha. A mini EDM concert? Geezus, was it really that noisy? And, uh, your roommate got completely wasted even though he's still underage? (well, in America at least). I mean, I guess if it's part of Korean tradition... (TIL Koreans get drunk af when they start college).

 

What on earth... your earliest class starts at... 10am? Oh man, I'm really looking forward to college now. A-and your schedule is so spread out... not like in high school where it's just one class after another... this is unreal. The classes must be really difficult then. To have up to only four classes in one day, and as little as one on another. Are the classes really tough and do they require a lot of outside studying? How would you compare the workload between high school and college? Sorry for bombarding you with these questions, but I'm really curious. Also, how is SAGES going for you so far?

 

The class picture was your favorite part of orientation? That's pretty interesting, haha. I would ask you more about it, but if it means spoiling one of the best parts of orientation then I'll wait, heh.

 

Even though you seem to be against the ruckus, maybe try going to one of those parties? You never know, haha. I'm not saying that you have to go completely out of your comfort zone and party hard, but perhaps you'll encounter a person there who was forced to tag along with friends; someone who was reluctant to go. Maybe you'll have something in common with him/her. Maybe he/she is wearing a FE graphic tee and you think to yourself, "I have to get to know this person!" This is pretty situational, but hey, you never know! Hmm, you might be able to find some people in that physics and astronomy club. What other clubs have you joined? It's good to know that you've added some people to your contacts and upped your fb friend list, and that you've also bonded rather well with some!

 

Nah man, I'm still on summer vacation so I'm not having much trouble typing these out... or at least at the moment, ahaha... I'm a bit worried about you though. Since you've started college already, don't hesitate to take a break yourself!

 

Haha, I just thought it was interesting that the email was probably alluding to you. Was it something you just casually mentioned on your application? And the thing about someone placing top 10 in the US National VGC series, I know right????!!

 

A plot-driven rhythm tap game? Kinda like Guitar Hero or Audiosurf? ...and from that description, Deemo sounds like Slenderman, lol. Interesting plot though. I seriously love the music so I might get the game just for that. T-t-the piano in Dream... t-the strings the cello...... and ohhhh is that an oboe? kdfjgfklgsfldghfdgsdkjfhlskj. But I have to wait until I get a new phone?? It'll be worth it though. Dammit Akazora, making me feel things.............

Yeah, OnePlus is still far from a popular company.  It has a devoted and dedicated fanbase, but it still has a long ways to go.  I’ve been at Case for three weeks and haven’t caught a single glimpse of anyone else wielding an OPO, despite people being more open to brandishing their phones whenever and where ever when compared to high school.

 

Woahhh, that… definitely was not how I expected you to open your essay, jeezus.  Admittedly, the talk and sight of blood that’s not my own can get me pretty queasy.  You once fell so ill you coughed up buckets of blood?  I-I thought that was just an anime specialty (ehem, Fate series, you seriously overuse this technique).  But apart from that, that would definitely make for an… uh, interesting introduction.  I do feel it’s a bit jarring starting off with that, only to lead into your love for biology and discovery.  Like, ayyy so the sight of your blood surging up from within you is fascinating instead of horrifying?  What about the sight of a dead body?  Is that intriguing instead of revolting as well?  wut if ur really a physco ahhh  I dunno, I just kinda feel like the admissions officers might take things the wrong way, or at least be rubbed the wrong way subtly enough to affect your application negatively.  Your body paragraphs definitely feel a bit more grounded, just as long as you make sure it doesn’t get bogged down by the scientific facts.  Because I’m not scientifically inclined, that bit with the lemons and oranges and scent didn’t do much for me.  It went over my head when I read it fast (because admissions officers are going to read your essay pretty fast) and only contributed to the fact that you’re passionate about biology and the way the world works.  Even then, your good science grades are somewhat evident of that even without that specific example laid out in the essay.  Finally, the conclusion might need a bit more oomph.  The intro perks the reader up, the body demonstrates your passion and intellect, but by the end… so what?  How does all that build-up make you special and different from everyone else who loves biology?  I definitely struggled with the conclusion with my essay.  Initially it never really ended.  I just rambled on and on with description and by the end it was just like “yeaahhh, I like stargazing *two thumbs up* accept me will ya?”  It was a couple weeks after my sister first read my rough draft that I was hit with an epiphany and finally wrote a conclusive final paragraph. From what you have so far, since you didn’t give me the exact words that you’ll be using and instead just summarized, it’s hard to tell whether or not your conclusion will leave a lasting impact.  Either your essay will go out with a bang as strong as its beginning or it will go out with a whimper and leave the reader unsatisfied, depending on how you spin it (eheh, threw in a literary reference).  Hrmm, after writing all that down, I feel like I might have criticized your essay a bit too much.  I’m not saying you should scrap your essay completely because its faults make it beyond saving or something extreme like that, but it is in a rough place right now.  Why don’t you finish up a full rough draft and have your former (and current) English teachers take a look at it?  They’ve all had a lot of experience reading college essays, while as opposed to me I’ve only written one full-length one for the Common App and kinda glanced over a few of my peers’.  They’ll be better judges as to what major things need to be tweaked or completely overhauled.  Ahh, sorry, I don’t know if my advice was of any help.

 

While playing OoT3D, I realized that I could spell out my name with the Ocarina (or at least have the buttons match).  For whatever reason, that was the first time I realized that a lot of Nintendo controllers had buttons with all the letters of my name on them (GameCube, DS, etc.) and decided I might as well make a riddle out of it.  I didn’t really mind if people on the Internet knew my name in real life, but at the same time I felt like just spouting it out everywhere wouldn’t be any fun, so I made the puzzle for anyone driven and capable enough, ahah.  I didn’t expect anyone to figure it out.  I believed I would grow out of and leave DCW before that time came, so I thought I was dreaming when I saw your message, eheheh.

 

Ohhh, that’s where the monkey came from!  I was confused because it didn’t seem like Aya carried a monkey around with her anywhere else I looked.  That explains it, heh.  And geez, you sure are full of surprises!  Never knew that’s how you could easily get pictures from YouTube videos, probably would have helped a lot if I knew about it earlier, bleh.  All that print screening, sigh.  Thanks for the advice again!

 

I can be a sucker for improved graphics, so honestly even if a Pokemon game was pretty forgettable all in all, I’ll always remember how in awe I was when I first laid eyes on the 3D effects.  White had a lot of those moments.  Skyarrow Bridge was like woahhhh, and then Castelia City was like geeeeezzzz, and then N’s Castle when it popped out of the ground, completely dwarfing the Elite Four, was like daaaayyuuuum, and by the time the legendaries faced off I was ded.  Even though XY utilized true 3D instead of the pseudo 3D in fifth gen, I wasn’t quite as blown away.  The Elite Four was massive and grand and a lot of the camera angles and cut scenes were fantastic, but I think the magic is starting to fade.  Except for Brave Bird’s animation.  Hory shet, that’s one badass looking move in sixth gen.  Ahaha, and the playthrough skipped the books in the hideout, huh?  (see, this is why I have qualms about playthroughs Joking joking, though I do hope you realize in retrospect just how much you would have been missing if you watched someone play through 999 instead of experience it firsthand.)  Yeah, that was pretty much what I saw when I versed Serena, but since the camera was angled upwards and the sky was a lot vaster, it looked a lot better.  I guess it just took me my surprise as well, since I hadn’t laid eyes on it before.

 

Speaking of Pokemon, I’ve finally started Alpha Sapphire.  I didn’t do much with the Y post-game.  I just poked around Kiloude City a bit, and when I looked up post-game content to find that there was indeed very little to do after the celebratory parade, I figured I couldn’t be bothered to do the Looker Side Quest.  Y was fun, but I wasn’t too emotionally connected to it either, and I have so much else to do I don’t want to be held back by it.  As for Alpha Sapphire, I’m loving it.  Seeing the parallels and comparing the similarities and differences to RSE (which isn’t that difficult in my case given how much I replayed those games) is tons of fun.  The DexNav, which I didn’t even realize was a feature in ORAS, is pretty cool.  I especially like how they incorporated old RSE sprites for the background of the DexNav.  The music is top notch, and Hoenn brought to 3D is gorgeous.  I especially like how much more character the NPCs have now.  May, while retaining pretty much the same lines as in the original games, is a lot more dynamic with her facial expressions and body movements.  She’s even kinda cute now!  Same with Wally.  His wide eyes and uncertain expression make him actually seem like a shy, sickly child as opposed to in the original games where he just seemed like a normal kid.  Even he’s cute now (no homo…).  As for how far I’m in the game, I’ve only just finished talking to Norman and setting Wally off on his very own adventure, so only in Petalburg.  I’m going to be there for a while, since I need to Super Train my shiny Beldum.  After giving it much thought, I realized that I didn’t know which starter to pick.  Not only that, but I’ve played through the Hoenn region so many times I didn’t have much motivation to catch everything I saw and make a team of 3rd gen Pokemon.  Hrmm, what to do?  I came to the conclusion that I would solo run the game.  I would take the event shiny Beldum from the delivery girl in the PC and use only him (err, it?) the entire time (aside from the very beginning of course).  The rest of my team will consist of Mudkip (the starter I ended up picking), Skarmory, and three Zigzagoon.  Mudkip and Skarmory will be my HM slaves, with Mudkip running Strength, Surf, Waterfall, and Dive and Skarmory running Fly, Cut, and Rock Smash.  The three Zizagoon will be Pickup-ers, so I can snag free items.  Also, I will turn on Exp. Share.  I’m not doing this to make my team OP (I’m only solo running after all) but I’m doing this to make sure my Zigzagoon (to be Linoone) will maintain high enough levels to Pickup worthwhile items, since the quality of the items is tied to the level of the Pokemon with Pickup.  All in all, it’s very similar to my shiny Blaziken solo run team (that I’m still in the middle of because goddamnit Kyogre, I don’t feel like RNG abusing you). Ufufufufufufu, now I can get through this game as fast as possible while not worrying too much about my party to fully enjoy and appreciate the changes they’ve made to Hoenn!  Ohh, if you were wondering, my shiny Beldum is Jolly natured with perfect IVs in Attack (an hour and a half of soft resetting...).  Sounds amazing, I know, but its other IVs are slightly below average, so ehh.  I’ll be running a pretty standard 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 Def set with whatever moves I feel like it needs to get through the game.  I haven’t quite thought that far ahead, but I have time to contemplate while I Super Train it, heheh.

 

Interesting to hear that your sister was born in Canada, hah.  And yeah, the driver’s seat is on the right side because they were under British control almost continuously from the mid-1800s after the First Opium War until just a few years ago.  Guess the automobile rules and regulations are already too far developed and ingrained to change now.  I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to visit Hong Kong, since my parents don’t have any reason to travel there and neither do I apart from curiosity, but if I have the time and money to afford it I’ll keep it in mind.

 

I don’t truly get what the hype is about either.  Football games are fun once in a while every year when it’s Super Bowl season, but they’re not anything I specifically look forward to nor are they anything I’d get especially excited about, so I wouldn’t say you’re missing out on much.  Geez, everything I say and do gets you curious, there’s just no satisfying you.  Even just wearing the right colors is something I don’t bother doing, heh.  And we didn’t always get extra credit.  It was mainly for the big spirit days (80’s day, cartoon character day, etc.) where you had to go out of your way to prepare something especially extravagant that nabbed you a few extra points, and even then only with the nice teachers.  Ohh, ahahah, I wouldn’t wear my pajamas to school either, eheh (b-because I don’t wear much when I go to sleep… not even in the winter…………)  Yupp, nothing can faze me!  Th-though I didn’t expect for you to take that as a challenge either.  I don’t have a very good feeling about this, heheheh…

 

Nah, the class isn’t anything to really take seriously anyway.  I had a class, and it’s just attendance-based essay writing, so as long as you show up and BS some words on a paper, you’ll get full credit.  He probably just didn’t have enough material planned for the full semester, so he cut two classes for us, eheh.  Pls Kenzi, you got your own hopes up, I didn’t even lead you on in the slightest, hah.  There’s not much footage of that rally though; nothing of major importance really happened.  There will be tons of campaign stops just like that in the coming months, so it doesn’t really warrant anything more than a minute or two on the evening news, tops.

 

Whhaaaa, new uniforms every year???  How does your school afford that plus A/C???  Edison always struggles making the most of their school budget.  Sports teams just reuse the uniforms and only get new ones like, once every never.  The only “sports” team that got new uniforms while I was there was the marching band, I believe my junior year.  And even then, that shipment of new gear was two years late (they legit expected to have new uniforms purchased in time for when I was part of the organization my freshman year).  Football, soccer, tennis, volleyball, basketball, track, cheerleading, the list goes on.  They’ve had those same uniforms for at least four years, and probably even longer than that.  P-Put in a good word for sad, old Edison Township, would you?  Troy’s too rich and they won’t let the money trickle down…  It took me a while to get used to not wearing a watch, but after some time I just didn’t need it anymore.  I was never so busy or so worried about the time that I needed to constantly check it.  I didn’t have a cellphone either, but whatever, if I really needed to know the time I’d just ask someone or find a clock lying around.  My watch was so distracting for me when I first started wearing it a few days ago (it still is, I can’t stop twisting it around and messing with it) and I take it off immediately when I’m back in my dorm room.  It’s rather intrusive; I can’t seem to type well with it clanking all over the desk.  But yeah, it’s useful, sure, but I could live without it since it has its flaws.  And I’m not too sure why you feel so strongly about this either, eheheh…

 

Shoujo is popular with girls but it still only covers the romantic side of things.  There’s still that lack of “guys with perfectly sculpted bodies do both subtly and overtly sexual things because why not?” that’s already saturated the ecchi genre when “guy” is replaced with “girl”.  Anime with fanservice specifically catered toward females is just as rare as anime with genuine, dramatic romance specifically catered toward males (like seriously man, romance when done right is awesome, where are all the good ones that aren’t shoujo??).  Hrm, your sister was/is a Lelouch fangirl eh?  Make her print this out and hang it on her wall.  Insist if she refuses.  She knows she wants it.  The water is animated nicely?  Mhm, sure, that’s totally what you were lookin’ at Kenzi…  I was waiting for the perfect moment to use that gif as well, haha; so glad that chance came.  It’s most effective when you have to click on a link to get to it, ahahahah.  And scientific purposes, hm?  Be sure to write up a report and publish it; won’t be official otherwise.

 

But on a more serious note, the animators of Free are Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) and they have a budget bigger than ufotable’s, in all honestly.  They churn out gorgeous show after gorgeous show every year and have been doing so for years.  Unfortunately though, recently they’ve just been animating a bunch of subpar light novels or original content, generally slice of life and/or ecchi in nature, which is why as successful and popular as they are, they aren’t usually taken too seriously.

 

Geez, you seriously need a new laptop.  I’m sure for your eighteenth birthday your parents will be okay with letting you buy one, especially considering you’ll be going to college.  It’s for the education, right?  Right??  I actually have the habit of always completely turning off my laptop.  I’m hesitant to put it to sleep, unless I know I’ll be back working on it soon.

 

Physics C as a math course??  Wuuuuut.  And it’s no problem at all.  My PTSD isn’t so bad, and I don’t really like to regret the things that have happened in the past, be they good or bad.  I mean, there’s so much in my life to be grateful for right now, why spend the time getting upset over the things that didn’t work out so well?  Everything until now has shaped me into the person I’ve become, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.  Speaking of my school though, we were somehow featured on CNN.  I… I have no words…  (okay, joking, I do)  I love how this article praises JP for being so competitive, while on Facebook (where I actually found this) all of the people I know from my high school are lamenting how rigid, cutthroat, and miserably judgmental the entire four-year experience was.  Just look at this excerpt from the article, “Social hierarchy was based (in part) on the number of AP classes you took, your SAT score, and how many extracurricular activities you were in -- with one unspoken rule: Participation in clubs didn't count unless you were president or on the executive board.”  W-why are they acting as if this is a good thing??  Goddamnit media, you had one job…

 

Yup, it kinda sucks that science course will eat up an entire summer’s worth of time, but it’s the smartest choice given my weaknesses and my need to take as many classes as I possibly can in order to graduate on time.  As long as you don’t also pursue some dual-degree program, you shouldn’t be under nearly as much time pressure.  I’m just a bit of an odd case, don’t mind me, bleh.  Hopefully I’ll find internship or co-op opportunities later, perhaps the summer between my junior and senior year?  Then I could potentially study abroad the summer between sophomore and junior year, and that would pretty much pack my entire four year schedule right there, hm.  That’s still thinking a bit far ahead though, haven’t even declared my major yet and gotten the groundwork officially laid out, haha.  Those scores on the English and history AP exams aren’t that amazing; I like those subjects and it didn’t require much work or motivation on my end to do well, eheh.

 

Hmm, my alarm clock isn’t obnoxious at first.  Even though I don’t have your app, it naturally starts off kind of soft and then grows into an ear-splittingly loud screech of noise.  If you’re curious as to what exactly I made my phone alarm, it’s this, the famous wombo combo video, hah.  Well, famous in the Smash community and pretty much the father of all those MLG parodies you’ve probably stumbled upon on YouTube.  It definitely gets me up and does its job well enough, so no complaints so far.  Weeeellll, I suppose it’s possible to go to sleep between one and two in the morning, but on bad days with lots of work I stay up pretty late.  So far the latest I stayed up was about four in the morning.  And as for when I wake up, ideally I need two hours between when I wake and when I get to class (I’m sorry, I don’t function correctly in the mornings, okay?).  I never ever get that much time (I could force myself to get to class in 30 minutes if I don’t eat breakfast) but I do try my best.  S-So you want to hear n-nothing lower than s-s-seven hours?  Uhmm, ohh yeah, sure, of course, no way I’ve gotten any less, eheheheheh…… 

 

Yeah, the A/C system in my house works that way too, but the thing is the A/C at Case tricked me!  Instead of turning off when it reached the set temperature, it continued blowing out air… room temperature air.  But there is nothing that signifies that it’s changed from cold to room temperature air.  The low rumble the unit makes doesn’t change and neither does the intensity of the air.  Unless you stand in front of it, you won’t realize anything’s different.  I always just assumed the A/C was inefficient and alternated between cold and room temperature whenever it felt like it, sighhh…  I know, that’s really dumb, but that’s what I thought.  The coldest I can get the room is 70 degrees; doesn’t seem to ever hit 69 no matter how hard I try.  That’s right, I set the limit way down and put the A/C on full blast and froze my fingers off.  I tried this when my roommate was out, though when he came back he screamed and made me turn it back up to a still somewhat unreasonable 73 degrees, where it generally sits around nowadays.  It’s so cold, it’s sometimes uncomfortable.  It’s so cold, when you step outside in the hot and humid hallway it feels like your pant legs are wet because the temperature difference is confusing your sense of touch.  It’s… glorious.  I would have it no other way, ufufufufufu.  I’m using the A/C to condition myself for winter weather.  I keep it nice and cold, so in the mornings it’s already a struggle to get out from under my toasty blanket.  Hopefully I get used to it by the time the really bad weather comes around.  Oh no no, Christmas definitely feels like winter (the temperatures are right) but it doesn’t snow nearly as much in December as it does in the new year.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a white Christmas.  Closest we got was some leftover snow from a previous storm sticking around on the grass, kinda.  Oohhh, negative 25 degree conditions??  Sounds like something I’d love to take on!  Wow though, you have crazy strong words for January and February.  Spring is pretty good, too.  The rain actually irks me because sneakers and water just don’t work (all those days walking back home from school, oh my gosh) though maybe I won’t mind now that I actually have heavy-duty shoes.  And whaaa no fond memories of fall?  No Halloween or Thanksgiving nostalgia??

 

Don’t remember the full details, but my brother convinced her somehow.  She was obviously skeptical at first.  “Japanese?  World War II?  Sons, do you know what the Japanese did to Chi--”  “Yes ma, I took WHAP and my brother is a history buff, we know…”  But once she sat down and started getting into the movie she ended up loving it, ahah.

 

Hahahahahahahah, sorry, I know that was probably and frightening and nerve-wracking experience for you, but I find it funny how easily your parents change their minds. Last week: “Child, you may drive now but only in Troy do you understand?”  This week: “Damn, she’s out of town in an unfamiliar area late at night when it’s illegal for someone with her type of license to be out on the roads?? ……………… Drive yourself back sweetie, your poor parents are old and our eyesight isn’t what it used to be.  Good luck.”  In all seriousness though, I’m glad you’re safe and that things went well, eheh.  I, ummm, really don’t know what I would do if something happened to you…………  The alcohol question is still kind of silly though.  You should never drink and drive, not even a little, so what difference does the alcohol concentration make?  It’s already common knowledge that hard liquor has a higher concentration than wine which has a higher concentration than beer, so why do we need to know the exact conversion rate?  Like seriously, that question was pointless on two different levels (I may or may not be salty because I happened to accidentally skip over the conversion table when I was flipping through the guidebook in re-preparation).  Even the truck stopping question didn’t irk me nearly as much (it’s 25% more, by the way, because that’s tots going to help you out on the road).  Hm, they allow retakes in NJ (they don’t lower the required percentage to get right to pass, though) but they don’t provide a study guide.  Unless you count this 200-page long handbook as a study guide.  It takes quite a while to load, just be patient.

 

(Don’t play dumb with me Kenzi.  I saw how you’re now determined to faze me earlier in the response.  You’re just going to use this new-found information to see what sets me off and try to emotionally break me.  I’m on to you…)  Ehem, seriously though.  Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend Bakuman.  It has its moments but it didn’t blow me away so it’s not worth the time investment.  And don’t worry, I think One Piece’s reactions can be hard to take seriously as well.  But artwork aside, the backstories are fantastically done so it kinda balances out.  The Monster anime is apparently virtually a frame by frame, word for word adaptation of the manga.  The truest kind of adaptation you can find (I can taste the saltiness of the F/sn VN readers from here).  You can’t really go wrong with either, but I’d recommend the manga.  While the Monster anime provides the obvious benefits (color, voice acting, music, and animation), the manga is significantly faster to complete.  Because I know time is probably your biggest concern right now, I’d say go for the manga.  I mean hey, that’s how I experienced it and it’s my favorite manga of all time, so it’s not like you’re missing out on much by choosing to ignore the anime.  Also, I believe it would be in your best interest to read the Battle Royale manga.  The novel costs money (unless you find it in the library I guess) and because it’s the source material it’s longer (600 pages…) and more detailed.  Once again, given you’re short on time, the manga should suffice.  The manga is a very good adaptation of the novel.  Not one-to-one, but damn near to it.  The art style is weird (don’t Google it even though you might be tempted to, there are spoilers all over Google Images, I just checked) but it’s something that will grow on you, trust me.  It’s a really raw story, I’ll warn you about that.  Violent, bloody, grotesque, brutal, sexual at times, this is definitely not something to be taken lightly.  It’s portrayed very graphically and completely uncensored in manga form, so that’s another plus if you’re still hesitant about picking it up over the novel.  The author of the novel actually oversaw the creation of the manga, to make sure they didn’t completely butcher the source material, so rest assured that the manga is equally as good as (if not better than in some cases) the novel.

 

Oh my gosh, that was the final nail in the coffin.  I didn’t actually cry when Rider died, but afterwards when Gilgamesh confronted Waver I completely lost it.  Thank God the episode was pretty much over at that point, because I had to get up and wipe away my tears.  Yay, you’re adding all those anime to your PTW!  Start with the small stuff first (the shorts and movies) before moving on to Penguindrum, just so it doesn’t feel too overwhelming, especially with those solidly lengthed manga you’re also considering.  Eheh, FMA and FMA:B are so daunting with how long they are.  I’ll consider the manga though, since that’ll be faster to get through, unless the anime experience is significantly better than the manga one for some reason.  It’s okay, I know how you feel.  I don’t cry very often when I watch anime (that I could recall and list all the instances where I did or at least got close is evident of that) compared to some people, and it baffles me just as much as it baffles you just how emotional people can get as well.  Maybe not to quite your extent, but I’m also not going to just shed tears willy-nilly for any random character’s death.  It better be some top notch stuff.

 

Hmmm, it seems you’ve already seem a lot of the movies I cried during, and even the ones you haven’t watched I wouldn’t strongly recommend enough for me to want you to go out of my way to watch them (just focus on the anime and manga, that’s plenty to keep you busy for a while).  Aww no no no, don’t get yourself down about it!  Really, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t find what I found that emotional or if you just don’t see how one could care enough about fiction to cry over it.  I can’t even give you a good reason as to why I cried all those times I did.  Sometimes it’s because I just related too much to the characters.  Maybe it was because I saw myself in a character or a character parallels someone I know in real life.  Sometimes it’s the music that fits the mood just right.  Sometimes it’s the directing, the camera angles and cinematography, that brings forth the emotions.  Sometimes it’s the colors or the art.  Sometimes it’s just how invested I’ve gotten myself in a story, even one that’s fictional.  Most times it’s a mix of these.  I don’t know if that makes any sense.  I don’t even feel like that’s a sufficient explanation, but it’s the best I can muster, eheh.  Regardless of what I say though, everyone’s different.  Even if you read all that manga and watch all that anime that I recommended and despise every minute of it, that’s okay.  You’re not a cold, heartless sociopath for being the way you are, haha.

 

Ah yes, there you go with your curiosity again.  I dunno how to describe my voice either.  My voice used to be relatively low when compared to my peers back in middle school, only because I hit puberty early.  But now my voice has settled into a medium range; definitely not high-pitched but not grumbly either.  I can be loud when I’m with people I know and we’re talking about things I’m passionate about (err, pretty much just anime and video games…) but I can also be reserved around strangers and in unfamiliar situations.  I’m not particularly eloquent either, as I fumble my words and stutter quite a bit on my bad days.  Ohh, people tell me I have a bad habit of talking pretty fast as well.  When I don’t dictate my words clear enough and just spew out sentences at a mile a minute, my voice can be a jumble I guess, eheheh.  That’s usually only with friends I can talk about anime and video games with, so they’re used to it.

 

Mhm, I know what you mean.  While I didn’t like my school very much, it’s over-competitiveness prevented people from partying too much.  There were still some people I knew who loved getting high every once in a while and even Ivy League-bound classmates who seemed to take great joy from getting painfully drunk, but they’re a small minority.  But it is pretty scary to think that in some places it’s no big surprise if a girl ends up pregnant in high school and it’s expected that a couple of kids kill themselves (intentionally or not) over the course of the school year.  I’m at least grateful to Edison for providing a safe place to grow up.  There is no college out there that’s going to be like Troy HS or JP Stevens.  Even the most conservative, no-fun campuses out there will be more drunk and high than those two high schools combined.  Case is one of those “no-fun” schools, so it’s the closest you’re really going to get, heh.  To those who went to rowdier high schools and enjoyed it, this is a negative, but I’m sure given your background and upbringing you’ll appreciate it, aha.  The EDM concert was a one-time thing, but yeah it was loud enough to hear muffled cheers and vibrations from my desk, and my desk isn’t even near the windows.  Then again, my windows were directly overlooking the concert sooo…  My roommate paid the price for his indulgence though.  His hangover headache was pretty nasty (had to sleep through nearly all of Saturday to recover) and even afterwards his stomach was feeling cramp-y for the following few days and he could barely eat.  He’s feeling better now though, I think.

 

And no no, I’m fairly certain parties are not for me.  Going completely outside of my comfort zone would be the physical act of attending a party, so even the thought of it is ehhhh.  Ahah, you’re pulling one of those “pleasantly surprised” spiels on me to get me to attend parties.  It’s uncannily like that prom conversation we had a while back…  I think I covered this already, or briefly touched up on it sometime in the past, but I can pretty stubborn for the stupidest of reasons.  When I was younger, I was determined never to get a cellphone, never to get a Facebook, never to get a driver’s license, and never to drink alcohol.  I didn’t think these things were “sinful” per se, but I just… felt a personal need to abstain from these mainstream forms of “living”, for lack of a better way to phrase that.  M-maybe I'm a hipster at heart????  Well, here I am today and I’ve already failed, nearly.  I was forced to get a cellphone and Facebook and begin the process of getting a license (all in the span of one summer, mind you) and now all I have left is alcohol.  I’m going to see this through, silly as it may sound.  People say that alcohol is pretty much a given and necessity at social events and that it’s something you just have to accept once you become an adult, but I say nay.  I’m not alone either; this is apparently a thing.  I guess that makes me a teetotaler.  Lots of famous people out there have proven that you don’t need alcohol to fit in with society or be happy.  So yeah, that’s my stance on all this.  I won’t drink alcohol.  Not now, not when I’m twenty-one, not on the last day of my life.  Now, back on the topic of parties.  The reason I brought this up was because one of my party-savvy friends said it’s no fun being the only sober person in the club.  I won’t have fun if I go, I know I won’t.  The only reason I’d go to a party is if…… umm, you say you wouldn’t mind going to a party in college every once in a while, and, well… if you come to Case and decide to get a little crazy on a Friday night, then…... I’d probably be too worried about you to let you go alone, ya know, in case you run into shady folks there…… so I’d tag along.  Yeahhh, uhh, i-it’s not like I’m saying that because I l-like you or anything b-b-baka!!

 

Oh no no no, don’t apologize for asking this many questions!  I’m actually glad you did; I’d be more than happy to tell you all about college life, hah!  Not everyone has a schedule as nice as mine.  I made sure to choose classes that were as late as I could possibly make them without having them be at unreasonable hours.  But yeah, the extra sleep cramming time is super helpful! Probably the biggest improvement from high school, maybe even better than all the free time I have without my parents yelling at me to do more work.  Hmm, are the classes difficult?  As of now, no (there would be a huge problem if I was already struggling) but I can definitely see them giving me a hard time in the future.  The thing about college classes is that you’re actually learning for the knowledge and not for the grade.  It’s not like in high school where you can BS your way through the things you don’t really like or forget difficult and memory-intensive material once you’ve taken a test.  The things you learn related to your major are important because you’re going to be using that knowledge for the betterment of society in the future.  If you forget everything after you graduate and a company hires you, how are you going to do your job if you can’t remember some chemistry or accounting mumbo jumbo from your junior year?  Because what you learn holds so much more importance and weight, even if the workload itself is no greater than what you’d find in high school, just the pressure of stuffing as much as you can into your brain and retaining it long term is enough to make the experience hard.  That being said, you have to do a lot of outside studying.  The professors won’t give you nearly enough material during the lectures, and even if they do, seeing them as little as twice a week isn’t going to make that information stick.  You have to do a lot of reading and re-reading outside of class in order to truly commit everything to memory.  The workload pretty much relates to what I’ve said before.  How much homework you get for each class is up to the professor.  You could get a semester where they all decided to chuck homework at you like bread crumbs to a stuffed pigeon, or you could get a semester where you have no graded homework at all.  Neither extreme is good, since no homework doesn’t develop very productive study habits, and an excess is just that: excess.  How much of your non-sleeping/eating/classroom/homework time you allot to studying and leisure is up to you.  You’re pretty much the judge of how much work you’re willing to put in, how much of that extra mile you’re willing to go past the bare minimum.

 

Also, when things go wrong, you gotta work things out yourself.  (Story time, so grab the popcorn.)  Just this past Tuesday, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I royally screwed up.  I went to sleep pretty early, but I must have misjudged how tired I was because I woke up late.  Really late.  12:30 in the goddamn afternoon late.  I had woken up to my alarm on time, turned it off, and then got right back in bed to sleep for a few more hours.  My roommate was gone, off to class.  Well crap.  I completely missed my first wellness class as well as my first calc quiz.  Very vulgar thoughts were swirling through my head at that moment.  Accounting would start at 1:15.  In order to get even remotely good seats you need to be in the classroom at least 15 minutes in advanced.  Could I make it?  Knowing how bad I am at getting ready in the morning, I knew I probably couldn’t.  But I did anyway.  What if today was the day my professor decided to give a pop quiz?  Those he specifically said you couldn’t make-up at a later date and you’d just end up with a “zero” in the books.  Blazed through my morning routine, skipped breakfast, practically ran to the Peter B Lewis Building, and made it on time.  Got through the class (no pop quiz, psht) and immediately had to go to SAGES.  After that was over, I was starving so I grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Leutner dining hall before settling back in my dorm feeling like crap.  First things first I e-mailed my wellness professor and calc teacher and explained the situation, apologizing profusely.  My wellness professor said no worries, I just used up one of my excused absence days (I would later find out that course is a joke and an easy A anyway, so it’s all good).  My calc teacher said I could take the quiz during his office hours tomorrow.  I flipped through my calc notes and thankfully I had scribbled it down when he put it on the board on the first day of class.  His office was room 265 in Yost Hall and he was free from 1:30 to 3:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays.  I have calc earlier that day that ends at 12:20 and econ that starts at 3.  Perfect, the quiz is 50 minutes long so I just come in at 1:30 which will leave me plenty of down time between obligations.  I e-mailed him saying I’d be there at half past one.  Everything was looking good.  

 

As I started my SAGES homework and checked my syllabus, I realized I had messed up again.  I had a Fourth Hour to attend tomorrow.  Fourth Hours are pretty much an extra hour+ event every week that corresponds to your SAGES class.  They can be presentations by public speakers or outings to public places.  They’re laid back, but there’s a journal entry aspect to it that my professor assigns, so it’s just a day of more homework.  My Fourth Hours fall on Mondays and Wednesday, at random times depending on whenever my professor wants to have them.  On the syllabus it says I need to be at Thwing Center by 12:20.  Well hot damn, that’s exactly when my calc class ends!  And when does the Fourth Hour for tomorrow end?  It didn’t say, but it could potentially interfere with my quiz.  Dammit.  I e-mailed my SAGES professor, explaining I would be slightly late to the Fourth Hour and that I might leave early to take a make-up quiz if the presentation didn’t end early enough.  I e-mailed my calc professor again, explaining that I might be a little late to the 1:30 quiz but that I wouldn’t be too late (after all, I need 15 minutes to get a good seat in my econ class afterwards which starts at 3, and the PBL Building is pretty far away from Yost Hall).  After that, I finally really start my SAGES homework, before I realize that I have to write a three to four paragraph essay.  Looking at the prompt, I’m hit with writer’s block so I decide to start my accounting homework instead.  It’s only multiple choice stuff, so not too hard, right?  I use the textbook and try to answer the questions, but some of them are really difficult.  The answers can’t be found in the text book, and Google isn’t helping.  Holy hell, my stress level is so high right now.  And you get points off your homework grade for getting questions wrong.  I very slowly and very carefully get through it, after texting a friend in that class led me to no substantial help.  At this point it was late and I still didn’t know what to write for SAGES.  This assignment wasn’t due until Thursday, so I still had Wednesday to finish it…  Instead of fruitlessly trying to work on SAGES, I studied some calc for the quiz.  After wasting time on the Interwebs following that, I called it a night early to ensure I didn’t sleep in again.

 

The next day I actually eat breakfast before going to calc.  I sheepishly tell some of the people I was acquainted to in that class how I slept in, but they reassured me the quiz was easy.  After some note taking, I practically run to the Fourth Hour.  I arrive late of course, but not by much.  I watch the presentation, and it’s pretty interesting stuff.  I wish I could have seen the end, but when 1:30 rolled around and they showed no sign of stopping, I quietly took my leave before bolting my way to Yost.  I’ve never been in there before, so I struggled a bit trying to find his office.  I locate it and proceed to take the quiz.  As my peers said, it was easy.  I finish with ample time, so I casually make my way over to PBL to claim an especially early and good spot in my econ class.  When I get there, a girl is already studying at one of the desks.  Geeezz.  I grab a seat and read the econ textbook (which I would have done yesterday if I hadn’t screwed up and stressed myself out).  Bam, out of nowhere, I get a notification on my phone.  My SAGES professor just e-mailed saying for extra credit, we could attend the evening version of the presentation I saw for Fourth Hour, which would be different than the one earlier that day, and write a journal entry on it.  Let’s see, I still had that essay that gave me writer’s block to write which was due the next day as well as the journal entry for the Fourth Hour I had just watched, which was due the next day as well (journal entries are due exactly 24 hours after each Fourth Hour, sent electronically).  Should I do this extra credit?  This would be a third writing assignment, and it’s not like I’m struggling in SAGES or anything…  But I recalled how my mom said to always do extra credit since every point counted in college, so I was like why not.  The evening presentation was at seven that evening.  I got through econ, rushed back to my dorm to drop off my stuff, went to Leutner for dinner again, and went back to my room to rest until the extra credit presentation.  I watch an episode of anime (too damn stressed not to) and write most of my required Fourth Hour journal before I leave once again for Thwing Center.  I sit through the presentation, which is over an hour long, and head back.  At this point in time it’s 8:30.  I finish up the journal entry and jump right into the extra credit journal (I still had writer’s block with the full essay).  I finish the extra credit, submit it, and try my best not to get distracted by the Internet while I work on the essay.  I barely squeeze one out on time, and because I have no self-control, by then it’s nearly three in the morning.  Some time before this I remembered to check DCW and read your reply (thank you for that by the way, it couldn’t have come at a better time).  I take a shower and head to bed at half past three, knowing I need to wake up on time for my second first wellness class.

 

And yeah, that ends my way too long story.  Tl;dr don’t sleep in.  But yeah, as you can see, if things go wrong, they can go very very very wrong and it’s pretty much up to you to pick yourself up and keep going.  I could have cut corners, but I decided not to.  I did the extra credit even though I didn’t have to.  I somehow managed to get a perfect score on my math quiz as well.  It’s as hard as you make it for yourself, and unfortunately you’re going to have to make it hard if you want to succeed.  You have to always be on top of your schedule.  Know when you have class, know when you have assignments due, know when you have events to attend, know when you're free, know when you're busy.  No one but you will be there to say, "Hey, don't you have such and such a thing to attend at such and such a time on such and such a date?"  If you're not constantly looking multiple steps ahead of yourself, you're going to end up tripping.  Ahhh, sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble and I also hope I didn’t scare you.  College really isn’t so bad; I just dun goofed and paid the price for it.

 

My SAGES class is alright.  My professor is really good, but it’s also the source of most of my homework.  However, because it’s an essay/writing/reading based class, I don’t find it innately difficult.  Some SAGES courses aren’t nearly as focused on literature as mine.  You choose four potential SAGES courses, and of those four you’re randomly assigned one depending on how the classes fill up.  There’s a class out there for everyone, hah.

 

Apart from physics and astrology, I’ll be joining the newspaper.  You can write an article whenever you want, be it once a week or once a month or somewhere in between.  I’ll be writing opinion papers, which are pretty easy.  You also get paid for your work, which is awesome!  Only downside is, you can’t really make friends through that club.  You write articles on your own and submit it through e-mail, so there’s very little human to human interaction unless you’re a part of the exec board.  I considered joining the anime club, but I honestly don’t have the time for it.  If I find time in my schedule for fun time, I’d want to spend it watching all that I’ve been meaning to watch, not the first few random episodes of shows that don’t interest me too much.  They’re watching six shows simultaneously, and if I tried to keep up I know I’d majorly fall behind on my academics.  I’m going to try and keep extracurriculars on the down low for now, just so I can put all my effort into maintaining a high GPA.  Once I have that under control and I figure how much time I need to spend studying in order to get good grades, I’ll consider loosening up and working more free time into my schedule.

 

Speaking of anime though, there’s a mini-Internet celebrity attending Case Western.  His name is Shaquille Dent and he was just featured in a BuzzFeed article a few days ago.  You’ll know immediately what makes him stand out.  It says he’s attending the Cleveland Insitute of Art, but he’s pursuing a joint program with both Case and CIA, so I see him on campus.  I got to personally speak to him in the dining hall yesterday while we were waiting in line next to each other.  He’s a super chill guy, seriously.  We spoke for no more than a minute about nothing other than small talk, but he’s really easy to get along with.  He says if I ever see him around campus I should say hi and that he’s always open to hanging out and just chilling.  He’s popular with everyone, it’s like he has F/Z Rider levels of charisma.

 

I can’t even remember what I specifically put on my applications, but I know I mentioned band a lot, haha.  I don’t like my band program, but they did accomplish some pretty amazing things which were good for my application.

 

I haven’t played either Guitar Hero or Audiosurf, but yeah something like that.  And I think that’s either an oboe or an English horn; it’s really hard to tell with the little that it played.  Yes, it’s definitely worth the wait and the minimal cost.  Eheh, gomen Kenzi, for making you feel things…?  I guess??  Also, the game isn’t that dark, not like the lyrics of Nine Point Eight at least.  It’s melancholic and somber, but the atmosphere is also rather beautiful.  The songs don’t even really relate to the plot (for the most part); they’re just a collection of pieces that act as the backdrop for the story.

 

Welp, looks like summer break has pretty much drawn to a close for you!  And are you sure school starts on the 7th?  Isn’t that Labor Day?  CWRU doesn’t have any classes that day (yeeee long weekend!) and I was under the impression most schools wouldn’t.  Whenever school starts for you, I wish you luck!  I want you to tell me all about it.  Hopefully your teachers are nice and your classes are easy, relatively at least.  Time to get the beginning of your last year off to a good start!

[Kid the Phantom Thief 252]

iSketch

 

*goes off to write a novel - or two*

[Kenzi 146]

 

Yeah, OnePlus is still far from a popular company.  It has a devoted and dedicated fanbase, but it still has a long ways to go.  I’ve been at Case for three weeks and haven’t caught a single glimpse of anyone else wielding an OPO, despite people being more open to brandishing their phones whenever and where ever when compared to high school.

 

Woahhh, that… definitely was not how I expected you to open your essay, jeezus.  Admittedly, the talk and sight of blood that’s not my own can get me pretty queasy.  You once fell so ill you coughed up buckets of blood?  I-I thought that was just an anime specialty (ehem, Fate series, you seriously overuse this technique).  But apart from that, that would definitely make for an… uh, interesting introduction.  I do feel it’s a bit jarring starting off with that, only to lead into your love for biology and discovery.  Like, ayyy so the sight of your blood surging up from within you is fascinating instead of horrifying?  What about the sight of a dead body?  Is that intriguing instead of revolting as well?  wut if ur really a physco ahhh  I dunno, I just kinda feel like the admissions officers might take things the wrong way, or at least be rubbed the wrong way subtly enough to affect your application negatively.  Your body paragraphs definitely feel a bit more grounded, just as long as you make sure it doesn’t get bogged down by the scientific facts.  Because I’m not scientifically inclined, that bit with the lemons and oranges and scent didn’t do much for me.  It went over my head when I read it fast (because admissions officers are going to read your essay pretty fast) and only contributed to the fact that you’re passionate about biology and the way the world works.  Even then, your good science grades are somewhat evident of that even without that specific example laid out in the essay.  Finally, the conclusion might need a bit more oomph.  The intro perks the reader up, the body demonstrates your passion and intellect, but by the end… so what?  How does all that build-up make you special and different from everyone else who loves biology?  I definitely struggled with the conclusion with my essay.  Initially it never really ended.  I just rambled on and on with description and by the end it was just like “yeaahhh, I like stargazing *two thumbs up* accept me will ya?”  It was a couple weeks after my sister first read my rough draft that I was hit with an epiphany and finally wrote a conclusive final paragraph. From what you have so far, since you didn’t give me the exact words that you’ll be using and instead just summarized, it’s hard to tell whether or not your conclusion will leave a lasting impact.  Either your essay will go out with a bang as strong as its beginning or it will go out with a whimper and leave the reader unsatisfied, depending on how you spin it (eheh, threw in a literary reference).  Hrmm, after writing all that down, I feel like I might have criticized your essay a bit too much.  I’m not saying you should scrap your essay completely because its faults make it beyond saving or something extreme like that, but it is in a rough place right now.  Why don’t you finish up a full rough draft and have your former (and current) English teachers take a look at it?  They’ve all had a lot of experience reading college essays, while as opposed to me I’ve only written one full-length one for the Common App and kinda glanced over a few of my peers’.  They’ll be better judges as to what major things need to be tweaked or completely overhauled.  Ahh, sorry, I don’t know if my advice was of any help.

 

While playing OoT3D, I realized that I could spell out my name with the Ocarina (or at least have the buttons match).  For whatever reason, that was the first time I realized that a lot of Nintendo controllers had buttons with all the letters of my name on them (GameCube, DS, etc.) and decided I might as well make a riddle out of it.  I didn’t really mind if people on the Internet knew my name in real life, but at the same time I felt like just spouting it out everywhere wouldn’t be any fun, so I made the puzzle for anyone driven and capable enough, ahah.  I didn’t expect anyone to figure it out.  I believed I would grow out of and leave DCW before that time came, so I thought I was dreaming when I saw your message, eheheh.

 

Ohhh, that’s where the monkey came from!  I was confused because it didn’t seem like Aya carried a monkey around with her anywhere else I looked.  That explains it, heh.  And geez, you sure are full of surprises!  Never knew that’s how you could easily get pictures from YouTube videos, probably would have helped a lot if I knew about it earlier, bleh.  All that print screening, sigh.  Thanks for the advice again!

 

I can be a sucker for improved graphics, so honestly even if a Pokemon game was pretty forgettable all in all, I’ll always remember how in awe I was when I first laid eyes on the 3D effects.  White had a lot of those moments.  Skyarrow Bridge was like woahhhh, and then Castelia City was like geeeeezzzz, and then N’s Castle when it popped out of the ground, completely dwarfing the Elite Four, was like daaaayyuuuum, and by the time the legendaries faced off I was ded.  Even though XY utilized true 3D instead of the pseudo 3D in fifth gen, I wasn’t quite as blown away.  The Elite Four was massive and grand and a lot of the camera angles and cut scenes were fantastic, but I think the magic is starting to fade.  Except for Brave Bird’s animation.  Hory shet, that’s one badass looking move in sixth gen.  Ahaha, and the playthrough skipped the books in the hideout, huh?  (see, this is why I have qualms about playthroughs Joking joking, though I do hope you realize in retrospect just how much you would have been missing if you watched someone play through 999 instead of experience it firsthand.)  Yeah, that was pretty much what I saw when I versed Serena, but since the camera was angled upwards and the sky was a lot vaster, it looked a lot better.  I guess it just took me my surprise as well, since I hadn’t laid eyes on it before.

 

Speaking of Pokemon, I’ve finally started Alpha Sapphire.  I didn’t do much with the Y post-game.  I just poked around Kiloude City a bit, and when I looked up post-game content to find that there was indeed very little to do after the celebratory parade, I figured I couldn’t be bothered to do the Looker Side Quest.  Y was fun, but I wasn’t too emotionally connected to it either, and I have so much else to do I don’t want to be held back by it.  As for Alpha Sapphire, I’m loving it.  Seeing the parallels and comparing the similarities and differences to RSE (which isn’t that difficult in my case given how much I replayed those games) is tons of fun.  The DexNav, which I didn’t even realize was a feature in ORAS, is pretty cool.  I especially like how they incorporated old RSE sprites for the background of the DexNav.  The music is top notch, and Hoenn brought to 3D is gorgeous.  I especially like how much more character the NPCs have now.  May, while retaining pretty much the same lines as in the original games, is a lot more dynamic with her facial expressions and body movements.  She’s even kinda cute now!  Same with Wally.  His wide eyes and uncertain expression make him actually seem like a shy, sickly child as opposed to in the original games where he just seemed like a normal kid.  Even he’s cute now (no homo…).  As for how far I’m in the game, I’ve only just finished talking to Norman and setting Wally off on his very own adventure, so only in Petalburg.  I’m going to be there for a while, since I need to Super Train my shiny Beldum.  After giving it much thought, I realized that I didn’t know which starter to pick.  Not only that, but I’ve played through the Hoenn region so many times I didn’t have much motivation to catch everything I saw and make a team of 3rd gen Pokemon.  Hrmm, what to do?  I came to the conclusion that I would solo run the game.  I would take the event shiny Beldum from the delivery girl in the PC and use only him (err, it?) the entire time (aside from the very beginning of course).  The rest of my team will consist of Mudkip (the starter I ended up picking), Skarmory, and three Zigzagoon.  Mudkip and Skarmory will be my HM slaves, with Mudkip running Strength, Surf, Waterfall, and Dive and Skarmory running Fly, Cut, and Rock Smash.  The three Zizagoon will be Pickup-ers, so I can snag free items.  Also, I will turn on Exp. Share.  I’m not doing this to make my team OP (I’m only solo running after all) but I’m doing this to make sure my Zigzagoon (to be Linoone) will maintain high enough levels to Pickup worthwhile items, since the quality of the items is tied to the level of the Pokemon with Pickup.  All in all, it’s very similar to my shiny Blaziken solo run team (that I’m still in the middle of because goddamnit Kyogre, I don’t feel like RNG abusing you). Ufufufufufufu, now I can get through this game as fast as possible while not worrying too much about my party to fully enjoy and appreciate the changes they’ve made to Hoenn!  Ohh, if you were wondering, my shiny Beldum is Jolly natured with perfect IVs in Attack (an hour and a half of soft resetting...).  Sounds amazing, I know, but its other IVs are slightly below average, so ehh.  I’ll be running a pretty standard 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 Def set with whatever moves I feel like it needs to get through the game.  I haven’t quite thought that far ahead, but I have time to contemplate while I Super Train it, heheh.

 

Interesting to hear that your sister was born in Canada, hah.  And yeah, the driver’s seat is on the right side because they were under British control almost continuously from the mid-1800s after the First Opium War until just a few years ago.  Guess the automobile rules and regulations are already too far developed and ingrained to change now.  I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to visit Hong Kong, since my parents don’t have any reason to travel there and neither do I apart from curiosity, but if I have the time and money to afford it I’ll keep it in mind.

 

I don’t truly get what the hype is about either.  Football games are fun once in a while every year when it’s Super Bowl season, but they’re not anything I specifically look forward to nor are they anything I’d get especially excited about, so I wouldn’t say you’re missing out on much.  Geez, everything I say and do gets you curious, there’s just no satisfying you.  Even just wearing the right colors is something I don’t bother doing, heh.  And we didn’t always get extra credit.  It was mainly for the big spirit days (80’s day, cartoon character day, etc.) where you had to go out of your way to prepare something especially extravagant that nabbed you a few extra points, and even then only with the nice teachers.  Ohh, ahahah, I wouldn’t wear my pajamas to school either, eheh (b-because I don’t wear much when I go to sleep… not even in the winter…………)  Yupp, nothing can faze me!  Th-though I didn’t expect for you to take that as a challenge either.  I don’t have a very good feeling about this, heheheh…

 

Nah, the class isn’t anything to really take seriously anyway.  I had a class, and it’s just attendance-based essay writing, so as long as you show up and BS some words on a paper, you’ll get full credit.  He probably just didn’t have enough material planned for the full semester, so he cut two classes for us, eheh.  Pls Kenzi, you got your own hopes up, I didn’t even lead you on in the slightest, hah.  There’s not much footage of that rally though; nothing of major importance really happened.  There will be tons of campaign stops just like that in the coming months, so it doesn’t really warrant anything more than a minute or two on the evening news, tops.

 

Whhaaaa, new uniforms every year???  How does your school afford that plus A/C???  Edison always struggles making the most of their school budget.  Sports teams just reuse the uniforms and only get new ones like, once every never.  The only “sports” team that got new uniforms while I was there was the marching band, I believe my junior year.  And even then, that shipment of new gear was two years late (they legit expected to have new uniforms purchased in time for when I was part of the organization my freshman year).  Football, soccer, tennis, volleyball, basketball, track, cheerleading, the list goes on.  They’ve had those same uniforms for at least four years, and probably even longer than that.  P-Put in a good word for sad, old Edison Township, would you?  Troy’s too rich and they won’t let the money trickle down…  It took me a while to get used to not wearing a watch, but after some time I just didn’t need it anymore.  I was never so busy or so worried about the time that I needed to constantly check it.  I didn’t have a cellphone either, but whatever, if I really needed to know the time I’d just ask someone or find a clock lying around.  My watch was so distracting for me when I first started wearing it a few days ago (it still is, I can’t stop twisting it around and messing with it) and I take it off immediately when I’m back in my dorm room.  It’s rather intrusive; I can’t seem to type well with it clanking all over the desk.  But yeah, it’s useful, sure, but I could live without it since it has its flaws.  And I’m not too sure why you feel so strongly about this either, eheheh…

 

Shoujo is popular with girls but it still only covers the romantic side of things.  There’s still that lack of “guys with perfectly sculpted bodies do both subtly and overtly sexual things because why not?” that’s already saturated the ecchi genre when “guy” is replaced with “girl”.  Anime with fanservice specifically catered toward females is just as rare as anime with genuine, dramatic romance specifically catered toward males (like seriously man, romance when done right is awesome, where are all the good ones that aren’t shoujo??).  Hrm, your sister was/is a Lelouch fangirl eh?  Make her print this out and hang it on her wall.  Insist if she refuses.  She knows she wants it.  The water is animated nicely?  Mhm, sure, that’s totally what you were lookin’ at Kenzi…  I was waiting for the perfect moment to use that gif as well, haha; so glad that chance came.  It’s most effective when you have to click on a link to get to it, ahahahah.  And scientific purposes, hm?  Be sure to write up a report and publish it; won’t be official otherwise.

 

But on a more serious note, the animators of Free are Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) and they have a budget bigger than ufotable’s, in all honestly.  They churn out gorgeous show after gorgeous show every year and have been doing so for years.  Unfortunately though, recently they’ve just been animating a bunch of subpar light novels or original content, generally slice of life and/or ecchi in nature, which is why as successful and popular as they are, they aren’t usually taken too seriously.

 

Geez, you seriously need a new laptop.  I’m sure for your eighteenth birthday your parents will be okay with letting you buy one, especially considering you’ll be going to college.  It’s for the education, right?  Right??  I actually have the habit of always completely turning off my laptop.  I’m hesitant to put it to sleep, unless I know I’ll be back working on it soon.

 

Physics C as a math course??  Wuuuuut.  And it’s no problem at all.  My PTSD isn’t so bad, and I don’t really like to regret the things that have happened in the past, be they good or bad.  I mean, there’s so much in my life to be grateful for right now, why spend the time getting upset over the things that didn’t work out so well?  Everything until now has shaped me into the person I’ve become, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.  Speaking of my school though, we were somehow featured on CNN.  I… I have no words…  (okay, joking, I do)  I love how this article praises JP for being so competitive, while on Facebook (where I actually found this) all of the people I know from my high school are lamenting how rigid, cutthroat, and miserably judgmental the entire four-year experience was.  Just look at this excerpt from the article, “Social hierarchy was based (in part) on the number of AP classes you took, your SAT score, and how many extracurricular activities you were in -- with one unspoken rule: Participation in clubs didn't count unless you were president or on the executive board.”  W-why are they acting as if this is a good thing??  Goddamnit media, you had one job…

 

Yup, it kinda sucks that science course will eat up an entire summer’s worth of time, but it’s the smartest choice given my weaknesses and my need to take as many classes as I possibly can in order to graduate on time.  As long as you don’t also pursue some dual-degree program, you shouldn’t be under nearly as much time pressure.  I’m just a bit of an odd case, don’t mind me, bleh.  Hopefully I’ll find internship or co-op opportunities later, perhaps the summer between my junior and senior year?  Then I could potentially study abroad the summer between sophomore and junior year, and that would pretty much pack my entire four year schedule right there, hm.  That’s still thinking a bit far ahead though, haven’t even declared my major yet and gotten the groundwork officially laid out, haha.  Those scores on the English and history AP exams aren’t that amazing; I like those subjects and it didn’t require much work or motivation on my end to do well, eheh.

 

Hmm, my alarm clock isn’t obnoxious at first.  Even though I don’t have your app, it naturally starts off kind of soft and then grows into an ear-splittingly loud screech of noise.  If you’re curious as to what exactly I made my phone alarm, it’s this, the famous wombo combo video, hah.  Well, famous in the Smash community and pretty much the father of all those MLG parodies you’ve probably stumbled upon on YouTube.  It definitely gets me up and does its job well enough, so no complaints so far.  Weeeellll, I suppose it’s possible to go to sleep between one and two in the morning, but on bad days with lots of work I stay up pretty late.  So far the latest I stayed up was about four in the morning.  And as for when I wake up, ideally I need two hours between when I wake and when I get to class (I’m sorry, I don’t function correctly in the mornings, okay?).  I never ever get that much time (I could force myself to get to class in 30 minutes if I don’t eat breakfast) but I do try my best.  S-So you want to hear n-nothing lower than s-s-seven hours?  Uhmm, ohh yeah, sure, of course, no way I’ve gotten any less, eheheheheh…… 

 

Yeah, the A/C system in my house works that way too, but the thing is the A/C at Case tricked me!  Instead of turning off when it reached the set temperature, it continued blowing out air… room temperature air.  But there is nothing that signifies that it’s changed from cold to room temperature air.  The low rumble the unit makes doesn’t change and neither does the intensity of the air.  Unless you stand in front of it, you won’t realize anything’s different.  I always just assumed the A/C was inefficient and alternated between cold and room temperature whenever it felt like it, sighhh…  I know, that’s really dumb, but that’s what I thought.  The coldest I can get the room is 70 degrees; doesn’t seem to ever hit 69 no matter how hard I try.  That’s right, I set the limit way down and put the A/C on full blast and froze my fingers off.  I tried this when my roommate was out, though when he came back he screamed and made me turn it back up to a still somewhat unreasonable 73 degrees, where it generally sits around nowadays.  It’s so cold, it’s sometimes uncomfortable.  It’s so cold, when you step outside in the hot and humid hallway it feels like your pant legs are wet because the temperature difference is confusing your sense of touch.  It’s… glorious.  I would have it no other way, ufufufufufu.  I’m using the A/C to condition myself for winter weather.  I keep it nice and cold, so in the mornings it’s already a struggle to get out from under my toasty blanket.  Hopefully I get used to it by the time the really bad weather comes around.  Oh no no, Christmas definitely feels like winter (the temperatures are right) but it doesn’t snow nearly as much in December as it does in the new year.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a white Christmas.  Closest we got was some leftover snow from a previous storm sticking around on the grass, kinda.  Oohhh, negative 25 degree conditions??  Sounds like something I’d love to take on!  Wow though, you have crazy strong words for January and February.  Spring is pretty good, too.  The rain actually irks me because sneakers and water just don’t work (all those days walking back home from school, oh my gosh) though maybe I won’t mind now that I actually have heavy-duty shoes.  And whaaa no fond memories of fall?  No Halloween or Thanksgiving nostalgia??

 

Don’t remember the full details, but my brother convinced her somehow.  She was obviously skeptical at first.  “Japanese?  World War II?  Sons, do you know what the Japanese did to Chi--”  “Yes ma, I took WHAP and my brother is a history buff, we know…”  But once she sat down and started getting into the movie she ended up loving it, ahah.

 

Hahahahahahahah, sorry, I know that was probably and frightening and nerve-wracking experience for you, but I find it funny how easily your parents change their minds. Last week: “Child, you may drive now but only in Troy do you understand?”  This week: “Damn, she’s out of town in an unfamiliar area late at night when it’s illegal for someone with her type of license to be out on the roads?? ……………… Drive yourself back sweetie, your poor parents are old and our eyesight isn’t what it used to be.  Good luck.”  In all seriousness though, I’m glad you’re safe and that things went well, eheh.  I, ummm, really don’t know what I would do if something happened to you…………  The alcohol question is still kind of silly though.  You should never drink and drive, not even a little, so what difference does the alcohol concentration make?  It’s already common knowledge that hard liquor has a higher concentration than wine which has a higher concentration than beer, so why do we need to know the exact conversion rate?  Like seriously, that question was pointless on two different levels (I may or may not be salty because I happened to accidentally skip over the conversion table when I was flipping through the guidebook in re-preparation).  Even the truck stopping question didn’t irk me nearly as much (it’s 25% more, by the way, because that’s tots going to help you out on the road).  Hm, they allow retakes in NJ (they don’t lower the required percentage to get right to pass, though) but they don’t provide a study guide.  Unless you count this 200-page long handbook as a study guide.  It takes quite a while to load, just be patient.

 

(Don’t play dumb with me Kenzi.  I saw how you’re now determined to faze me earlier in the response.  You’re just going to use this new-found information to see what sets me off and try to emotionally break me.  I’m on to you…)  Ehem, seriously though.  Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend Bakuman.  It has its moments but it didn’t blow me away so it’s not worth the time investment.  And don’t worry, I think One Piece’s reactions can be hard to take seriously as well.  But artwork aside, the backstories are fantastically done so it kinda balances out.  The Monster anime is apparently virtually a frame by frame, word for word adaptation of the manga.  The truest kind of adaptation you can find (I can taste the saltiness of the F/sn VN readers from here).  You can’t really go wrong with either, but I’d recommend the manga.  While the Monster anime provides the obvious benefits (color, voice acting, music, and animation), the manga is significantly faster to complete.  Because I know time is probably your biggest concern right now, I’d say go for the manga.  I mean hey, that’s how I experienced it and it’s my favorite manga of all time, so it’s not like you’re missing out on much by choosing to ignore the anime.  Also, I believe it would be in your best interest to read the Battle Royale manga.  The novel costs money (unless you find it in the library I guess) and because it’s the source material it’s longer (600 pages…) and more detailed.  Once again, given you’re short on time, the manga should suffice.  The manga is a very good adaptation of the novel.  Not one-to-one, but damn near to it.  The art style is weird (don’t Google it even though you might be tempted to, there are spoilers all over Google Images, I just checked) but it’s something that will grow on you, trust me.  It’s a really raw story, I’ll warn you about that.  Violent, bloody, grotesque, brutal, sexual at times, this is definitely not something to be taken lightly.  It’s portrayed very graphically and completely uncensored in manga form, so that’s another plus if you’re still hesitant about picking it up over the novel.  The author of the novel actually oversaw the creation of the manga, to make sure they didn’t completely butcher the source material, so rest assured that the manga is equally as good as (if not better than in some cases) the novel.

 

Oh my gosh, that was the final nail in the coffin.  I didn’t actually cry when Rider died, but afterwards when Gilgamesh confronted Waver I completely lost it.  Thank God the episode was pretty much over at that point, because I had to get up and wipe away my tears.  Yay, you’re adding all those anime to your PTW!  Start with the small stuff first (the shorts and movies) before moving on to Penguindrum, just so it doesn’t feel too overwhelming, especially with those solidly lengthed manga you’re also considering.  Eheh, FMA and FMA:B are so daunting with how long they are.  I’ll consider the manga though, since that’ll be faster to get through, unless the anime experience is significantly better than the manga one for some reason.  It’s okay, I know how you feel.  I don’t cry very often when I watch anime (that I could recall and list all the instances where I did or at least got close is evident of that) compared to some people, and it baffles me just as much as it baffles you just how emotional people can get as well.  Maybe not to quite your extent, but I’m also not going to just shed tears willy-nilly for any random character’s death.  It better be some top notch stuff.

 

Hmmm, it seems you’ve already seem a lot of the movies I cried during, and even the ones you haven’t watched I wouldn’t strongly recommend enough for me to want you to go out of my way to watch them (just focus on the anime and manga, that’s plenty to keep you busy for a while).  Aww no no no, don’t get yourself down about it!  Really, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t find what I found that emotional or if you just don’t see how one could care enough about fiction to cry over it.  I can’t even give you a good reason as to why I cried all those times I did.  Sometimes it’s because I just related too much to the characters.  Maybe it was because I saw myself in a character or a character parallels someone I know in real life.  Sometimes it’s the music that fits the mood just right.  Sometimes it’s the directing, the camera angles and cinematography, that brings forth the emotions.  Sometimes it’s the colors or the art.  Sometimes it’s just how invested I’ve gotten myself in a story, even one that’s fictional.  Most times it’s a mix of these.  I don’t know if that makes any sense.  I don’t even feel like that’s a sufficient explanation, but it’s the best I can muster, eheh.  Regardless of what I say though, everyone’s different.  Even if you read all that manga and watch all that anime that I recommended and despise every minute of it, that’s okay.  You’re not a cold, heartless sociopath for being the way you are, haha.

 

Ah yes, there you go with your curiosity again.  I dunno how to describe my voice either.  My voice used to be relatively low when compared to my peers back in middle school, only because I hit puberty early.  But now my voice has settled into a medium range; definitely not high-pitched but not grumbly either.  I can be loud when I’m with people I know and we’re talking about things I’m passionate about (err, pretty much just anime and video games…) but I can also be reserved around strangers and in unfamiliar situations.  I’m not particularly eloquent either, as I fumble my words and stutter quite a bit on my bad days.  Ohh, people tell me I have a bad habit of talking pretty fast as well.  When I don’t dictate my words clear enough and just spew out sentences at a mile a minute, my voice can be a jumble I guess, eheheh.  That’s usually only with friends I can talk about anime and video games with, so they’re used to it.

 

Mhm, I know what you mean.  While I didn’t like my school very much, it’s over-competitiveness prevented people from partying too much.  There were still some people I knew who loved getting high every once in a while and even Ivy League-bound classmates who seemed to take great joy from getting painfully drunk, but they’re a small minority.  But it is pretty scary to think that in some places it’s no big surprise if a girl ends up pregnant in high school and it’s expected that a couple of kids kill themselves (intentionally or not) over the course of the school year.  I’m at least grateful to Edison for providing a safe place to grow up.  There is no college out there that’s going to be like Troy HS or JP Stevens.  Even the most conservative, no-fun campuses out there will be more drunk and high than those two high schools combined.  Case is one of those “no-fun” schools, so it’s the closest you’re really going to get, heh.  To those who went to rowdier high schools and enjoyed it, this is a negative, but I’m sure given your background and upbringing you’ll appreciate it, aha.  The EDM concert was a one-time thing, but yeah it was loud enough to hear muffled cheers and vibrations from my desk, and my desk isn’t even near the windows.  Then again, my windows were directly overlooking the concert sooo…  My roommate paid the price for his indulgence though.  His hangover headache was pretty nasty (had to sleep through nearly all of Saturday to recover) and even afterwards his stomach was feeling cramp-y for the following few days and he could barely eat.  He’s feeling better now though, I think.

 

And no no, I’m fairly certain parties are not for me.  Going completely outside of my comfort zone would be the physical act of attending a party, so even the thought of it is ehhhh.  Ahah, you’re pulling one of those “pleasantly surprised” spiels on me to get me to attend parties.  It’s uncannily like that prom conversation we had a while back…  I think I covered this already, or briefly touched up on it sometime in the past, but I can pretty stubborn for the stupidest of reasons.  When I was younger, I was determined never to get a cellphone, never to get a Facebook, never to get a driver’s license, and never to drink alcohol.  I didn’t think these things were “sinful” per se, but I just… felt a personal need to abstain from these mainstream forms of “living”, for lack of a better way to phrase that.  M-maybe I'm a hipster at heart????  Well, here I am today and I’ve already failed, nearly.  I was forced to get a cellphone and Facebook and begin the process of getting a license (all in the span of one summer, mind you) and now all I have left is alcohol.  I’m going to see this through, silly as it may sound.  People say that alcohol is pretty much a given and necessity at social events and that it’s something you just have to accept once you become an adult, but I say nay.  I’m not alone either; this is apparently a thing.  I guess that makes me a teetotaler.  Lots of famous people out there have proven that you don’t need alcohol to fit in with society or be happy.  So yeah, that’s my stance on all this.  I won’t drink alcohol.  Not now, not when I’m twenty-one, not on the last day of my life.  Now, back on the topic of parties.  The reason I brought this up was because one of my party-savvy friends said it’s no fun being the only sober person in the club.  I won’t have fun if I go, I know I won’t.  The only reason I’d go to a party is if…… umm, you say you wouldn’t mind going to a party in college every once in a while, and, well… if you come to Case and decide to get a little crazy on a Friday night, then…... I’d probably be too worried about you to let you go alone, ya know, in case you run into shady folks there…… so I’d tag along.  Yeahhh, uhh, i-it’s not like I’m saying that because I l-like you or anything b-b-baka!!

 

Oh no no no, don’t apologize for asking this many questions!  I’m actually glad you did; I’d be more than happy to tell you all about college life, hah!  Not everyone has a schedule as nice as mine.  I made sure to choose classes that were as late as I could possibly make them without having them be at unreasonable hours.  But yeah, the extra sleep cramming time is super helpful! Probably the biggest improvement from high school, maybe even better than all the free time I have without my parents yelling at me to do more work.  Hmm, are the classes difficult?  As of now, no (there would be a huge problem if I was already struggling) but I can definitely see them giving me a hard time in the future.  The thing about college classes is that you’re actually learning for the knowledge and not for the grade.  It’s not like in high school where you can BS your way through the things you don’t really like or forget difficult and memory-intensive material once you’ve taken a test.  The things you learn related to your major are important because you’re going to be using that knowledge for the betterment of society in the future.  If you forget everything after you graduate and a company hires you, how are you going to do your job if you can’t remember some chemistry or accounting mumbo jumbo from your junior year?  Because what you learn holds so much more importance and weight, even if the workload itself is no greater than what you’d find in high school, just the pressure of stuffing as much as you can into your brain and retaining it long term is enough to make the experience hard.  That being said, you have to do a lot of outside studying.  The professors won’t give you nearly enough material during the lectures, and even if they do, seeing them as little as twice a week isn’t going to make that information stick.  You have to do a lot of reading and re-reading outside of class in order to truly commit everything to memory.  The workload pretty much relates to what I’ve said before.  How much homework you get for each class is up to the professor.  You could get a semester where they all decided to chuck homework at you like bread crumbs to a stuffed pigeon, or you could get a semester where you have no graded homework at all.  Neither extreme is good, since no homework doesn’t develop very productive study habits, and an excess is just that: excess.  How much of your non-sleeping/eating/classroom/homework time you allot to studying and leisure is up to you.  You’re pretty much the judge of how much work you’re willing to put in, how much of that extra mile you’re willing to go past the bare minimum.

 

Also, when things go wrong, you gotta work things out yourself.  (Story time, so grab the popcorn.)  Just this past Tuesday, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I royally screwed up.  I went to sleep pretty early, but I must have misjudged how tired I was because I woke up late.  Really late.  12:30 in the goddamn afternoon late.  I had woken up to my alarm on time, turned it off, and then got right back in bed to sleep for a few more hours.  My roommate was gone, off to class.  Well crap.  I completely missed my first wellness class as well as my first calc quiz.  Very vulgar thoughts were swirling through my head at that moment.  Accounting would start at 1:15.  In order to get even remotely good seats you need to be in the classroom at least 15 minutes in advanced.  Could I make it?  Knowing how bad I am at getting ready in the morning, I knew I probably couldn’t.  But I did anyway.  What if today was the day my professor decided to give a pop quiz?  Those he specifically said you couldn’t make-up at a later date and you’d just end up with a “zero” in the books.  Blazed through my morning routine, skipped breakfast, practically ran to the Peter B Lewis Building, and made it on time.  Got through the class (no pop quiz, psht) and immediately had to go to SAGES.  After that was over, I was starving so I grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Leutner dining hall before settling back in my dorm feeling like crap.  First things first I e-mailed my wellness professor and calc teacher and explained the situation, apologizing profusely.  My wellness professor said no worries, I just used up one of my excused absence days (I would later find out that course is a joke and an easy A anyway, so it’s all good).  My calc teacher said I could take the quiz during his office hours tomorrow.  I flipped through my calc notes and thankfully I had scribbled it down when he put it on the board on the first day of class.  His office was room 265 in Yost Hall and he was free from 1:30 to 3:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays.  I have calc earlier that day that ends at 12:20 and econ that starts at 3.  Perfect, the quiz is 50 minutes long so I just come in at 1:30 which will leave me plenty of down time between obligations.  I e-mailed him saying I’d be there at half past one.  Everything was looking good.  

 

As I started my SAGES homework and checked my syllabus, I realized I had messed up again.  I had a Fourth Hour to attend tomorrow.  Fourth Hours are pretty much an extra hour+ event every week that corresponds to your SAGES class.  They can be presentations by public speakers or outings to public places.  They’re laid back, but there’s a journal entry aspect to it that my professor assigns, so it’s just a day of more homework.  My Fourth Hours fall on Mondays and Wednesday, at random times depending on whenever my professor wants to have them.  On the syllabus it says I need to be at Thwing Center by 12:20.  Well hot damn, that’s exactly when my calc class ends!  And when does the Fourth Hour for tomorrow end?  It didn’t say, but it could potentially interfere with my quiz.  Dammit.  I e-mailed my SAGES professor, explaining I would be slightly late to the Fourth Hour and that I might leave early to take a make-up quiz if the presentation didn’t end early enough.  I e-mailed my calc professor again, explaining that I might be a little late to the 1:30 quiz but that I wouldn’t be too late (after all, I need 15 minutes to get a good seat in my econ class afterwards which starts at 3, and the PBL Building is pretty far away from Yost Hall).  After that, I finally really start my SAGES homework, before I realize that I have to write a three to four paragraph essay.  Looking at the prompt, I’m hit with writer’s block so I decide to start my accounting homework instead.  It’s only multiple choice stuff, so not too hard, right?  I use the textbook and try to answer the questions, but some of them are really difficult.  The answers can’t be found in the text book, and Google isn’t helping.  Holy hell, my stress level is so high right now.  And you get points off your homework grade for getting questions wrong.  I very slowly and very carefully get through it, after texting a friend in that class led me to no substantial help.  At this point it was late and I still didn’t know what to write for SAGES.  This assignment wasn’t due until Thursday, so I still had Wednesday to finish it…  Instead of fruitlessly trying to work on SAGES, I studied some calc for the quiz.  After wasting time on the Interwebs following that, I called it a night early to ensure I didn’t sleep in again.

 

The next day I actually eat breakfast before going to calc.  I sheepishly tell some of the people I was acquainted to in that class how I slept in, but they reassured me the quiz was easy.  After some note taking, I practically run to the Fourth Hour.  I arrive late of course, but not by much.  I watch the presentation, and it’s pretty interesting stuff.  I wish I could have seen the end, but when 1:30 rolled around and they showed no sign of stopping, I quietly took my leave before bolting my way to Yost.  I’ve never been in there before, so I struggled a bit trying to find his office.  I locate it and proceed to take the quiz.  As my peers said, it was easy.  I finish with ample time, so I casually make my way over to PBL to claim an especially early and good spot in my econ class.  When I get there, a girl is already studying at one of the desks.  Geeezz.  I grab a seat and read the econ textbook (which I would have done yesterday if I hadn’t screwed up and stressed myself out).  Bam, out of nowhere, I get a notification on my phone.  My SAGES professor just e-mailed saying for extra credit, we could attend the evening version of the presentation I saw for Fourth Hour, which would be different than the one earlier that day, and write a journal entry on it.  Let’s see, I still had that essay that gave me writer’s block to write which was due the next day as well as the journal entry for the Fourth Hour I had just watched, which was due the next day as well (journal entries are due exactly 24 hours after each Fourth Hour, sent electronically).  Should I do this extra credit?  This would be a third writing assignment, and it’s not like I’m struggling in SAGES or anything…  But I recalled how my mom said to always do extra credit since every point counted in college, so I was like why not.  The evening presentation was at seven that evening.  I got through econ, rushed back to my dorm to drop off my stuff, went to Leutner for dinner again, and went back to my room to rest until the extra credit presentation.  I watch an episode of anime (too damn stressed not to) and write most of my required Fourth Hour journal before I leave once again for Thwing Center.  I sit through the presentation, which is over an hour long, and head back.  At this point in time it’s 8:30.  I finish up the journal entry and jump right into the extra credit journal (I still had writer’s block with the full essay).  I finish the extra credit, submit it, and try my best not to get distracted by the Internet while I work on the essay.  I barely squeeze one out on time, and because I have no self-control, by then it’s nearly three in the morning.  Some time before this I remembered to check DCW and read your reply (thank you for that by the way, it couldn’t have come at a better time).  I take a shower and head to bed at half past three, knowing I need to wake up on time for my second first wellness class.

 

And yeah, that ends my way too long story.  Tl;dr don’t sleep in.  But yeah, as you can see, if things go wrong, they can go very very very wrong and it’s pretty much up to you to pick yourself up and keep going.  I could have cut corners, but I decided not to.  I did the extra credit even though I didn’t have to.  I somehow managed to get a perfect score on my math quiz as well.  It’s as hard as you make it for yourself, and unfortunately you’re going to have to make it hard if you want to succeed.  You have to always be on top of your schedule.  Know when you have class, know when you have assignments due, know when you have events to attend, know when you're free, know when you're busy.  No one but you will be there to say, "Hey, don't you have such and such a thing to attend at such and such a time on such and such a date?"  If you're not constantly looking multiple steps ahead of yourself, you're going to end up tripping.  Ahhh, sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble and I also hope I didn’t scare you.  College really isn’t so bad; I just dun goofed and paid the price for it.

 

My SAGES class is alright.  My professor is really good, but it’s also the source of most of my homework.  However, because it’s an essay/writing/reading based class, I don’t find it innately difficult.  Some SAGES courses aren’t nearly as focused on literature as mine.  You choose four potential SAGES courses, and of those four you’re randomly assigned one depending on how the classes fill up.  There’s a class out there for everyone, hah.

 

Apart from physics and astrology, I’ll be joining the newspaper.  You can write an article whenever you want, be it once a week or once a month or somewhere in between.  I’ll be writing opinion papers, which are pretty easy.  You also get paid for your work, which is awesome!  Only downside is, you can’t really make friends through that club.  You write articles on your own and submit it through e-mail, so there’s very little human to human interaction unless you’re a part of the exec board.  I considered joining the anime club, but I honestly don’t have the time for it.  If I find time in my schedule for fun time, I’d want to spend it watching all that I’ve been meaning to watch, not the first few random episodes of shows that don’t interest me too much.  They’re watching six shows simultaneously, and if I tried to keep up I know I’d majorly fall behind on my academics.  I’m going to try and keep extracurriculars on the down low for now, just so I can put all my effort into maintaining a high GPA.  Once I have that under control and I figure how much time I need to spend studying in order to get good grades, I’ll consider loosening up and working more free time into my schedule.

 

Speaking of anime though, there’s a mini-Internet celebrity attending Case Western.  His name is Shaquille Dent and he was just featured in a BuzzFeed article a few days ago.  You’ll know immediately what makes him stand out.  It says he’s attending the Cleveland Insitute of Art, but he’s pursuing a joint program with both Case and CIA, so I see him on campus.  I got to personally speak to him in the dining hall yesterday while we were waiting in line next to each other.  He’s a super chill guy, seriously.  We spoke for no more than a minute about nothing other than small talk, but he’s really easy to get along with.  He says if I ever see him around campus I should say hi and that he’s always open to hanging out and just chilling.  He’s popular with everyone, it’s like he has F/Z Rider levels of charisma.

 

I can’t even remember what I specifically put on my applications, but I know I mentioned band a lot, haha.  I don’t like my band program, but they did accomplish some pretty amazing things which were good for my application.

 

I haven’t played either Guitar Hero or Audiosurf, but yeah something like that.  And I think that’s either an oboe or an English horn; it’s really hard to tell with the little that it played.  Yes, it’s definitely worth the wait and the minimal cost.  Eheh, gomen Kenzi, for making you feel things…?  I guess??  Also, the game isn’t that dark, not like the lyrics of Nine Point Eight at least.  It’s melancholic and somber, but the atmosphere is also rather beautiful.  The songs don’t even really relate to the plot (for the most part); they’re just a collection of pieces that act as the backdrop for the story.

 

Welp, looks like summer break has pretty much drawn to a close for you!  And are you sure school starts on the 7th?  Isn’t that Labor Day?  CWRU doesn’t have any classes that day (yeeee long weekend!) and I was under the impression most schools wouldn’t.  Whenever school starts for you, I wish you luck!  I want you to tell me all about it.  Hopefully your teachers are nice and your classes are easy, relatively at least.  Time to get the beginning of your last year off to a good start!

 

So no one you've seen so far at Case has an OPO? Most of the people here have iPhones and Samsungs but I'll try to keep my eyes peeled for someone who happens to have one. I've been getting more conscious about it lately, lol.

 

Oh no, I didn't mean it that way, haha. I wasn't fascinated to the point where I would stab myself or hunt for corpses to see more blood if that's what you got from what I typed, lol. It was more like, "whoa, this is so weird, what the..." but yeah I get what you mean. That's why I was hesitant to use it, but I was really running low on steam so I was like, eh, screw it we'll see how it goes. Call me psychotic, but I've never considered myself a sane person, hah. I'm actually a bit relieved to know that I shouldn't be using that introduction. It was nice to hear that since it was a good reality check for me. The only problem is I'm back to square one now. Overall, the body/conclusion is rather stale, however grounded it may have seemed in comparison. To be honest, I disliked it from the beginning because of how unoriginal it felt. I just wanted an opinion to make sure I wasn't being too picky. Thank you for the criticisms and advice! Even though I'm probably going to scrap this again, it truly is relieving to know that I have the freedom to come up with another topic now. I think I'll be scouring the internet for weird essay prompts to help inspire me some more, haha. Less than two months huh... oh geez...

 

Ohh, that's interesting. There were a few creative guesses on your profile feed, and Chek seems like someone who'd be able to figure it out. Was it something you actually wanted people to solve or was it just there for fun, haha. Hmm, you thought you would grow out of DCW before anyone would figure it out? How long were you planning on staying then? Also, you've been here since 2010, so you joined when you were thirteen. You're one of the few DCW veterans who are still active on here. I know you've mentioned something about wanting to donate to the site, but aside from that, what else compelled you to stay on the site for so long when everyone else left? Were you always this active/inactive? (however you want to put it since I wouldn't know, lol). 

 

Well, if this counts as anything, I'm still in awe from fifth gen's pseudo 3D graphics. The Marine Tube was awesome, and the skyline from the Castelia cruise ship was just oomph. N's castle completely blew me away and the cut scenes were just sfsdklfjslka;ggsldfgsdfjg. And then XY came and I was like yooooooooooooooooooooo what the... it was great but something didn't click. I guess the improved graphics just made me feel really old. My favorite attack animation is probably Draco Meteor (it's so beautiful in the new and improved graphics, oh geez). Outrage lost its magic in 6th gen though. And Brave Bird is pretty badass. Honorable mention goes to Gunk Shot for creativity. You should've seen me when I first saw Earthquake though; that was awesomeeeee. I know I've said this before, but one of the main reasons I watch playthroughs is for the commentary, haha (I have a few YouTubers I regularly watch). That, and the fact that many of these games are games that I can't get my hands on (and/or games that I'm reluctant to play, like Ao Oni or Cat Mario). For games like Pokemon of course I want to experience it first-hand; it's just that I didn't have the luxury to play XY or ORAS without a 3DS (that's not a problem now, hehe thanks again, but a couple of years ago it was). And the reason I was planning to watch a 999 playthrough was because I genuinely didn't think you'd go through the trouble of sending me the files. I'm really grateful that you did because I would've missed out on a lot if it weren't for you. So seriously, thank you so much. For everything, haha. Oh man, fingers crossed that the new Pokemon game will have camera angles like that. Maybe I'll plan on only playing the game at night just to take advantage of the nighttime scenery, hehehe......

 

Ahaha, so you're going to end up ditching your Mega starter to focus on the shiny Beldum instead. I still remember when you were debating on which starter to pick from the game, lol good times. Respectable choice though. After all of those run-throughs, I can't imagine you doing anything otherwise. Watson and Flannery might be a problem, so would you resort to Mudkip to get through them? Actually, never mind. That would defeat the purpose of a solo run... I think... Whaa... Jolly nature with a perfect Attack IV? Pshh, Adamant's where it's at. Haha, jk, I don't know anything about ideal natures for solo running. An hour and a half of soft resetting though? Phew, that's quite a while. Was it something you multitasked or did you give it your full attention? And how many times did you run into a Jolly Beldum with a 30 IV in Attack? Hehe, just curious. Even though its other IVs are slightly below average, at least it came out better than the random shiny Beautifly with 0 IVs in sp. attack, lol. Be sure to update me on your progress when you have time!

 

Oh yeahh, I vaguely remember hearing about Hong Kong being under British control in one of my history classes. Very vaguely. I kinda wish I paid more attention to be honest. It would've made some of these trips a bit more meaningful. Geez, you really know your history, though I shouldn't be the least bit surprised, lol. 

 

Ahaha, okay good. Glad to know I'm not the only one who doesn't hype about football games as much as others. Extravagant clothes? Something that extreme? I didn't know you were the kind of person to go that far, even if it's for extra credit, haha. Hmm, what would you look like in extravagant clothes... oh don't mind me, eheh. Whaaatt, you don't wear much when you go to sleep? Not even in the winter?? Ehhh??? In the winter, sometimes I'm wearing my hat, jacket, gloves, and an extra layer of socks when I go to sleep (mainly to help me endure the arctic temperatures when wake up though). W-what do you mean you don't wear much when you go to sleep?? Don't you get cold?? Yupyup, I have a clipboard and a checklist prepared and everything. I'm gonna find out the different ways I'll be able to break ya. Ahaha, jkjkjk. Don't worry, I'm just pulling your leg, lol.

 

Wut. It's just attendance-based essay writing? I see you Akazora, taking it easy, hehe. Not enough materal planned for the full semester? What does he teach you anyway, lol. Yes, you did get my hopes up, "CNN actually took a minute to interview some stranger standing next to me" if that isn't leading me to believe that I could catch a glimpse of you, I don't know what is. Hmph, meanie. Haha, kidding. Everyone's attention seems to be on Trump at the moment. People joking about voting for him and others trying to deter these people from voting for him as a joke. Oh and the memes. They are everywhere. And it's hilarious. Ahh, what a time to be alive.

 

Well, actually, the school doesn't pay for our uniforms. We get new ones every year but we have to pay for them ourselves. Oh what... you guys have to reuse uniforms? Uniforms that multiple people have worn down and sweated in? Even though you can wash them, it still seems a bit... unhygienic. Wait, that can't possibly be it. You must mean your school has uniforms that reuse the same design every year, right? Except that your school would still have to pay for them every year... which also doesn't make sense. The only uniforms we're forced to reuse are the band/orchestra uniforms (the velvet concert dresses and tuxes/dress shirts/dress pants/ties/cummerbunds). The people in marching band have to pay for their marching uniforms though. Everything else (sports, clubs, etc.) also requires us to pay out of our own pockets. And I honestly didn't think the school district was that wealthy... until today. Apparently they're giving away iPads to elementary schoolers. Yes. Giving away. As in, they get to keep them. For free. This has been going on for a few years but I didn't know that until today. Uhh???? Why elementary schoolers?? I don't even know why they're doing this. I don't know why they're entrusting iPads to elementary schoolers. Since when did the school district have this much money????? I'm not mad or anything, but this is kinda crazy, I'm not gonna lie. Oh man, I freaking love having a watch. I keep it on at all times (even when I'm sleeping) except for when I shower. The watch is waterproof, but that's just me being paranoid. It's just a generic digital watch so I don't fiddle around with it too often (unless it's daylight savings or something). I always need to know what time it is because it helps me control my life better. Looking at the time is a lot more subtle when you're looking at your wrist as opposed to twisting your body and neck to peek at the clock behind you. You don't have to bother the person sitting next to you and you don't have to whip out your phone either. And my watch doesn't clank on the desk when I'm typing. Maybe it's the way you type or the size of your watch? Nope, I can't survive without my watch. It's a habit ingrained in me to look down at my wrist every once in a while. I have a very bad perception of time so taking away my watch is like handicapping me, eheh... The only flaw I see with having a watch is getting too attached to one before it breaks. I love having a watch, ahah...  

 

I've never seen guys do anything remotely sexual in media. Well, aside from stuff like the generic hip thrusting and crude hand gestures, which really isn't anything to gawk at (but it's sometimes funny. sometimes). I'm not into yaoi, or even yuri for that matter, so I tend to stay away from things like that. Wow, now that I think about it, that's actually really strange. I've never seen guys doing legit sexual acts in anime, or at least I don't think I have (I'm not counting things like implied sex scenes or those PSG Fly Away transformation parodies). It's always just a bunch of girls in skimpy swimsuits flaunting off their physics-defying... bodies. You'll see panty shots left and right and the unsuspecting guy getting thrown under some girl's skirt or accidentally groping her, but aside from that... there's really not much else. It's almost always the girl committing these sexual acts. But eh. I wouldn't watch it if the genre existed. I'm not big on that kind of fanservice though I can imagine a good chunk of the female audience indulging the hell out of it seeing as how successful Free turned out to be. Huh... I guess I never really thought about that since I've just learned to accept it for so long... well that was a bit of an eye-opener. Haha, sorry for rambling on so much. I just needed a place to type out my thoughts, lol. Oh wow, I'm missing out on a lot. I don't think I've watched any legit romance anime. Does Tokyo Mew Mew count. Heyhey, don't judge, this was back in early middle school when I didn't know any better. Also, what do you mean by romance catered toward males? Isn't the romance genre widespread? But yeah, the shoujo-esque romance stuff is just too fanservicey and harem-filled for my taste. I feel like you specifically found a picture of Lelouch dappled with water droplets while holding a water bottle just to mock me. Hrmph, you jerk. loljk. But I don't think my sister would be comfortable hanging that in her apartment or workplace, lol. Hmm... she might give in to a picture of Marth though. Kidding, kidding. She'd murder me. And uh... that's... some nice... water... he has there... Dammit Akazora, don't do this to me. Water is a necessity of life and seeing it animated so nicely is just too much eye candy for me to handle. I can feel you judging me. Uhh, pfft, a report. 3ez5me. Writing a report on world's best animu is just what I need to help enhance my understanding of the intellectual masterpiece that is Free. Ahaha....ha.....ha...................ha...................

 

KyoAni has a budget bigger than ufotable's?? Ah, what a shame! I would've loved to watch some of their works (aside from Free... possibly...). Is there a reason why they abstain from animating some of the better light novels? I mean, I can't see why they would, haha.

 

Part of the reason why it's so laggy might be because I have nearly thirty tabs open on one Chrome window, eheh... but it's not as big of a problem now. I cut off the battery life by changing the power plan from "Balanced" to "High Performance", so the battery life sucks but the laptop is not as laggy anymore (it's still pretty laggy though). Well the thing is, my parents gave me the most expensive laptop in the household so................... I don't have any room to complain. Don't get me wrong, I like the laptop a lot (aside from the crappy power jack), but it's just... kinda slow now (especially YouTube videos; I want to rip my hair out sometimes). I feel like updating to Windows 10 might help fix the problem, but I want to do that after school's over (in case any problems come up). I have until July to catch the Win 10 update, so I'm in no hurry. Because I have so many tabs/windows open (usually not as many as I do currently), I don't feel comfortable shutting down my laptop and having to reopen them every time. I only put the laptop to sleep when I know I'll be returning in a few hours. Otherwise, I let it hibernate. Hibernating is like a mix of shutting down and sleeping. It saves all of your windows and "turns off" in order to minimize battery loss but restores everything you've kept open after turning it back on.

 

I already finished my required science classes after sophomore year, and if I counted Physics C as a science credit, I would've surpassed the science requirement by five credits. So yeah, I'm using Physics C as a math credit since it's a calc oriented class anyway, lol. I'm really glad you have such a positive outlook on things! I'm especially happy that you're not letting your high school experience bog you down, so good on you! I find it quite admirable, actually, haha. What the, JP is a 2.5 billion dollar school? Ehhh?? Still no A/C?? Something doesn't add up. Also, what is up with your yearbook pictures. Everyone's wearing the same thing with the same background and everyone's Asian? Okay maybe not everyone, but a lot. And the social hierarchy is based on APs, SATs, and whether or not you were president of clubs?? Geezus, what kind of school promotes that kind of environment? Academics and extra-curriculars are important, but sheesh, that's insane. Yeah at our school you get "street cred" for taking 895345739489 APs and getting first place in national competitions, but it's nothing that we build our social ladder around. In fact, the one guy at our school who's president of nearly everything gets teased for this very reason (it's all in good fun though since everyone knows he's likely Ivy-bound). Your school is a hellhole. I would be miserable in that kind of competitive atmosphere. How did you get out alive in that every-man-for-himself warzone and come out as well as you did?? What is this I don't even... God bless you.

 

I actually think it's quite ambitious of you to pursue a dual-degree program. Ohh, you're also planning to study abroad? Look at you! Taking a stab at everything! Well, even though you haven't declared your major, at least you know where you're going. I'm still kind of at a loss about where I want to go, eheh... Whaa, it didn't require much work or motivation for you to obtain such scores? O-okay then...

 

Oh my gosh, I haven't seen that video in ages. That's your alarm? Ahahahaha, I might give it a shot after I get sick of my current one. Oh geez, that brings back memories. It's only been a few weeks and already the latest you've slept is four?? And you need two hours between when you wake and when you get to class? Is the dining hall far away? If you want my opinion, sleep > everything else. I will willingly wake up with only 30 minutes to get ready, eat, and go to class if I'm feeling especially tired. 15 minutes to get my butt out of bed and get ready and go to the dining hall (jeans/shorts and t-shirt or something, easy), 10 minutes to eat, and 5 minutes to get to class. I don't wear makeup and combing my hair or putting it up only takes a few minutes, tops. 30 minutes doesn't seem too unreasonable, although it's not something I'd personally recommend since it can leave you kinda absent-minded about things. But if it means savoring an hour and a half's worth of extra sleep, pfft, I'm all for it. Still, my ideal would probably lie around one hour of wakefulness since it would certainly feel less rushed (and my appetite doesn't kick in until around 30 minutes after waking up). On the other hand, two hours would be a bit too much for me. I usually try to finish my assignments before I go to bed, I only take night showers, and I don't have much of a morning routine, so one hour would be best. You know, unless I decide to become a morning person all of a sudden and regularly go for morning jogs or something (I might actually consider that). Back at UMich, 10 minutes was all I needed to eat (barely any lines in the mornings), but I was forced to wake up early on most days since a few friends wanted to socialize and explore the campus after breakfast. So what do you usually do during those two hours?

 

Haha, the A/C tricked you? That's a new way to put it, lol. Glad to hear that you resolved the confusion! And it doesn't hit 69 no matter how hard you try? Now why would you want that, Akazora ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Your roommate screamed and made you turn it up to a "somewhat reasonable" 73? Was it really that cold? The temperature difference confuses your sense of touch, and you even feel uncomfortable, yet you consider it glorious? Oh my gosh what has JP done to you. Y-you poor soul.  So you're using the A/C to condition yourself for winter? icwutudidthar. If it's making you uncomfortable to the point where getting out of bed becomes a struggle, don't you think that's a bit much? Well, if this is your way of spiting the torture JP put you through, best of luck, lol. Like geez, you even ended up with a nasty cold that probably stemmed from setting the A/C at such low temperatures! Joking, I don't believe that kind of stuff, but you're making this too easy, hah. Stay frosting safe and don't get frostbite. But in all seriousness, I'm glad that you're recovering! I didn't get sick from sending you that digital hug, but thank you for your concern, haha. You've never experienced a white Christmas?? Oh geez, you're missing out. You're really missing out. In your 18 years of living you've never had a white Christmas. Psht, impossibru. Ehh?? You'd be fine going to school in -25* conditions? W-why would you want that when you can have a cold day? We had to endure those frigid temperatures at least twice last year. On previous years, -20* conditions were enough to elicit school closings. But if they kept that decree, we'd have more cold days than snow days. Yeahh, I don't like January and February. Glad I managed to get my point across, eheh... Ohh, that's right. You sometimes walk home from school. I used to do that in middle school (sometimes biked when my backpack wasn't too heavy), but it would take me almost an hour to walk to Troy HS. How often did you walk? Didn't you have a school bus or did you have after-school activities that forced you to miss it? Or did you live too close to school for a school bus to come to your area? I don't have many bad experiences with rain (you know, aside from getting soaked from downpours) so I don't mind the rain too much. Walking outside or playing tennis during a gentle drizzle is so relaxing. Sunshowers are also nice, haha. I love watching rain through a window. Yeahh, not many fond memories of fall. Halloween was fun in that I got free candy, I guess. And our family just makes hotpot during Thanksgiving, which is also kinda nice, I suppose. I like stepping on dried leaves though, lol. I love that crinkling feeling and sound of leaves crunching under my shoes.

 

I don't think my mom would care as much about the fact that it was made in Japan as much as the idea that it's a "cartoon". My dad would outright refuse because it's Japanese and a "cartoon". How did you discover the movie? Or rather, what made you want to watch it?

 

LOL, yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I didn't realize how intimidating driving by myself at night was. The drivers ed teacher kept hammering into our heads about incidents of other cars getting completely totaled by drunk drivers driving at 90mph on the main roads. On Fridays. Late at night. Which was when I was driving. Plus I wasn't supposed to drive that late. The instructor even showed us pictures and videos of said cars just to help reinforce the idea!! And it worked. So you can imagine how paranoid I was that night. I flinched every time I saw a police car and kinda ducked behind the steering wheel whenever it looked like I was passing one. Really glad that's over. Still though, it's quite flattering that you care so much about my well-being--more so than my parents in this case. Haha, thank you. It really means a lot to me. Okay, yeah, I'll admit the alcohol question was a bit out there, but hey, if you ever need to know how to convert shots to blood alcohol concentration or to a glass of beer or something, now you will! And while I completely agree that you should never drive under the influence, there will always be people who think they're the exception. And uh, now I know that it takes a truck 25 percent longer to stop in bad weather conditions! The more you know! Haha, maybe they're just sticking these kinds of questions in the test for filler or to make it seem more legit or something. But the thing with retakes is, they give you the exact same test (or at least in Michigan). So if you go to the first test completely blind and fail, you'll know what to study for the retake. It might save you some study time, but then again why bother taking it twice, lol. You had to read through a 200 page handbook for your written test? The instructor just gave us one of those ringed folders with a few sheets of paper hooked to them. If we memorized those word-for-word statements, it's pretty much a guaranteed pass. Because of this, I took advantage of the way he graded the tests to run a small experiment, if you will, hehehe... it's a bit hard to explain in words, but it succeeded and I'm happy. Oh and the 200 page handbook took about four seconds to load on my laptop, which was... a lot faster than I thought it would take considering my laptop's current state. 

 

I'm not planning to get through my PTW list any time soon, actually. It's mainly there for things I can watch during break since I can't invest my time into anime during school nights. I have pretty poor self-control and perception of time so this is just to keep myself in check, ahaha... Would you still recommend the manga over the anime though? I refuse to read/watch anything on school nights so it doesn't make much of a difference to me since I'm saving everything for winter/spring/summer break. Eheh, it'll be a while before I can get through any of them though, gomen. Alright, Battle Royale manga it is! 

 

Admittedly, Waver's confrontation with Gilgamesh that was one of my favorite scenes from F/Z, haha. I really liked how someone as bigoted as Gilgamesh praised Waver on his loyalty. I also loved Caster's monologue after Ryuunosuke was killed. The whole spiel about showing him the greatest cool really got to me. And thanks for the suggestions once again! The voice actors for FMA and FMAB are good. Like really good. Even the dub. The dub is just as good as the sub so you can't go wrong with either of them. Both FMA and FMAB are good anime, but if you want my personal opinion, FMAB beats FMA (except for the introduction; FMA does a better job with that). I'm just really baffled that you haven't read or watched it yet. It was one of my gateway anime and I assumed the same for most others as well. You've been an anime veteran for quite some time so it kinda surprised me--even more so than when I found out you haven't watched Steins;Gate not too long ago. I read a few volumes of the manga a few years ago, but I couldn't find the motivation to finish it since I finished the anime already so I can't encourage or discourage you from reading it. If time is a concern for you, by all means go for the manga! 

 

I know I haven't been exposed to as many anime as a lot of people out there, but I just find it a little disheartening that I can't relate to the ones I've watched as much as others can. Thank you for the kind words and helping me feel a bit more... human, haha.

 

I only have a handful friends who watch anime or play video games (or at least the ones I've watched and played) so I can't be loud to them about it :c Most of them just binge on western shows like Grey's Anatomy and Sherlock (which I've been tempted to watch for quite some time). There was this one guy who I used to rave about everything to, but our interests split paths a while ago. He still gives me recommendations from time to time though. I can also be pretty reserved in certain situations, but I'll try to strike up a conversation whenever I can. Oh geez, I'm not eloquent. I'd make a terrible public speaker. I often have freudian slips and screw up words when I talk too fast. One of my old teachers said that it must be a side effect from living in NYC, but eh. It can be a problem for me, but it can also make situations more light-hearted after laughing it off. I can still be pretty loud when I'm arguing/debating with my friends about certain topics though, haha. 

 

I don't have a single friend who's ever gotten high. I know about friends of friends who have though (apparently, it's a regular thing in band??). There was one suicide that happened at our school when I was a freshman. The girl was terminally ill and was taking painkillers to help cope with it. She ended up hanging herself to rid herself of the pain. That was... kinda scary. Our rival school seems to have problems with drugs, and I think there were some girls who've gotten pregnant over there. Even the assistant director was arrested for being in possession of child pornography, which is... also kinda scary. Ahaah, to think I've lived in this bubble for so long... Thank goodness for Case though. Oh man, was his hangover really that bad? He had to sleep through a Saturday and could barely eat?? But it's good that he's recovering! Hmm, I think I might stalk a few Korean friends on Facebook after they head off to college just to see how legit this tradition is. I'm quite curious, heh.

 

Wha?? It would be out of your comfort zone to even attend a party? So you won't even take a peek? Gosh, you're stubborn, haha. I actually had the same mentality toward cellphones and Facebook back in middle school. I was proud that I managed to "survive" without them for so long (I even told my sister I'd never get a Facebook; she laughed at me). I ended up getting a Facebook after my friend told me something was going on that warranted my attention. That, and peer pressure was the last straw for me before I broke. As for my cellphone, I never asked for one. My parents were sick of me borrowing other people's phones to call them so they shoved one in my hand, and that was that. I survived until sophomore year so it must count as something, lol. And admit it, having a cellphone is damn convenient and useful, hehe. I was never really against getting a license though (being able to drive is actually really liberating). And while I was never open to the idea of getting drunk, I still want to be able to "drink" a little. Just to see how good/bad beer or wine really is. I almost had my first experience in third grade when my uncle jokingly tried to force beer down my throat, but I chickened out (this was in China, so it's legal). My sister claims that alcoholic drinks taste horrible (from her experience in Italy and after she turned twenty-one). And I'm not against the idea of abstinence err... teetotaling either, but if getting drunk is a necessity at social events, then I might have to pass on them. Sure, I'll take a sip out of curiosity, but I want to do everything in my power to avoid hangovers. I already have enough headaches to deal with. I guess if it's no fun being the only sober person at a party, then I'll just have to join you, hah... Plus no one can get their hands on alcohol until they're twenty-one (unless they're audacious enough to create fake ID or something) so I think we're safe... for now... Ahaha, Akazora, you're too much. Pshh, I can totally fend off those supposedly shady people on my own. Not that I would mind if you accompanied me to a party... that's awfully sweet and considerate of you to go out of comfort zone just to look after me, b-but you better not take this the wrong way b-b-baka!! 

 

Waaaaiitt, you can choose the timeslot of your classes?? Like if there was a calc class that started at 11am you could choose that over the calc class at 8am? tfw college sounds like heaven (jk, just watch me eat my words). Then again, all of that extra free time and schedule flexibility seems to be all balanced out by the extra work you need to put into the classes. I've been getting mixed outlooks when I ask whether or not people prefer the college experience over high school. A few of my college friends have been telling me that college is a ton better, but my sister seems to have preferred high school. Maybe it's because she was having a hard time finding a place to live during her junior and senior years in college (she seemed really stressed). Have you been forced to splurge on textbooks yet? Do they actually help for the classes? Haha, I guess the college experience can't be defined as easier or harder than high school then; it's just different and I'll just have to make the most out of it when the time comes. Ahh, so college is the real deal. Thanks for your input!

 

Oh geez, so all of this was caused by oversleeping? Duly noted; I think I'll prepare myself three alarms when I head off to college then. And I'm just curious, but is there a reason why Fourth Hours are called Fourth Hours? Also, what do you mean by getting a "good seat" for econ? Even though it's not your biggest class, how big is it? Geezus, you write your journals and essays quickly (you wrote all three in one night??). It takes me hours just to crank out one essay worthy of a 9. Oh dear, if I'm going to get a crapton of writing assignments in college, I don't think I'm going to last very long... and then you go to bed at 3:30am. Gosh Akazora, you need to treat yourself better than this! I learned a while ago to attempt every point of extra credit (lesson learned in my freshman English class; I'm still really salty about it), even if it becomes overkill. And congrats on your calc quiz! I think I'll finally start making use of one of those planners I have sitting in my closet. I'm not the most organized person in the world, so that'll probably help me a bit. Thanks for sharing your experience with me! Hopefully this ends up being the first and last time you experience this, haha. 

 

SAGES is an... essay/writing/reading based course... Oh geez. As much as I, uh, love English, the idea of the class and those journals is making me feel a bit uncomfortable. I really hope you're right when you say that there's a class out there for everyone...

 

Ohh, so you'll be joining newspaper? Hmm, you'll be writing opinion papers, and you'll be paid?? You landed your first job (it kinda sounds like one, haha) already?? Whoa, that's awesome!! Did you just walk in and ask for the position? Or was it something you had to apply for? What interested you in joining newspaper? Haha, I thought you were going to join the anime club for sure by the looks of it a few months ago, but if it means watching episodes of anime you're reluctant to watch, I can see why you didn't. Oof, they're watching six shows simultaneously? Geez, haha. So as of right now, you're in physics and astronomy and newspaper? Sounds pretty good at the moment! Do you plan on joining a fraternity?

 

What the... when I saw the first picture, I thought he was a Goku cosplayer or something, lol. He has that kind of hair all the time? That's awesome! Aw man, do you think I'll get the chance to see him next year if I go to Case? And damn, I see he's into SnK. According to the article, he has haters?? F/Z Rider levels of charisma, huh... Pfft, he seems like a person I'd want to get to know. And you got to talk to him! Ahhhhh!

 

Wait, what do you mean by you mentioned band a lot? The only area I can mention anything about orchestra is under "Activities" on the Common App. Well, unless you count the one "Honors" tab where I listed the first division placement in MSBOA. Aside from those, I can't see where else I can mention orchestra, lol.

 

Deemo is only two dollars?? Damn, that sounds great. The game also has such a wide array of music ranging from purely instrumental to electro and gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... is it bad that I kinda want my phone to break so I can get a new one to download Deemo on, eheh................

 

Oh, lol, I lied. I meant September 8th, haha. Completely forgot about Labor Day (had an extra day to bs finish my summer reading assignment, huzzah). I'm pretty happy with my schedule for the most part. Just not... anatomy. I didn't receive the teacher I wanted; the teacher I received was my freshman bio teacher. She's nice, I guess, but she's not one of those teachers who I'd want again. And after some thought, I decided that I want to switch into a different class entirely. Our school offers orgo, so... I mean, why not, lol. It's a one semester class so I can use the following semester to take computer science or astronomy. Or vice versa. Ah yes, the beginning of the end. Really looking forward to second semester!!