End of Summer
Ah, I feel the end of summer coming 'round the bend.
With just another free week prior to the start of the fall semester, I look back on the summer and find that its been rather enjoyable on the whole. Nothing particularly disappointing has occured, and there have been plenty of great adventures had.
Firstly, there was my English class, Intro to Fiction Writing. I went into the class being told by Mom that the professor was very harsh and the Maymester workload would be nightmarish, but luckily, neither of those proved to be true. My Creative Writing class the previous summer had been fun, but this was even better. I'm not going to claim that all of my pieces were gold, but I do believe I churned out some pretty decent stuff. I'd with confidence state that I was the second or third best writer in the class, and I count that as impressive considering I'm not an English major, much less a Professional Writing focus. The professor really seemed to like my final piece a lot, and the class agreed. Heck, one of the other better writers had loved my first major piece but said that it paled in comparison to my second one. I might expand on it and improve it more later in the semester once I've gotten the comments on the final draft back (the prof left like the day after class ended, so I need to pick it up once the semester resumes). Also seriously considering signing up for National Novel Writing Month (and maybe convincing at least Clay to join me) if my academic schedule allows for it. It'd be nice to kick out a novel and then maybe refine it afterwards.
Second, we have my changing apartments, moving back in with Clay to a large 2-bedroom place at Riverwalk. The two of us mesh very well as roommates (as we did previously), and the additional space is welcome. I nearly fainted when the closet door in my bedroom opened into the closet rather than out (my old room was spacious, but things were designed perfectly that I couldn't really fit anything else in with my bed and desk). And even though I regret not being able to spend a third year living with James, he and Brandon are just a stone's throw away. Plus, we get together for House, Exalted, and DBZ often, so its not like I'll be missing out on too much James.
Third, there's the resumption of DBZ. It took James a while, but he finally got everything worked out. We were finally able to restart a few weeks ago and just finished up our first real challenging fights this evening (oh damn is my character hurtin'). I'm totally pumped about everything that's going on in the game, and there's sure to be plenty of fun ahead for us. James seems totally rejuvenated as a GM, and his vigor is plain to see. All I need now is for my character to get more power slots so I can become a technique monster. That and maybe my ladies can stop getting hurt (though their suicide charges in the last battle did move me a bit). I'm very glad that DBZ is back.
Fourth would be my cross-country trek to visit Kevin and then scurry over to AnimeExpo. Wow! I'm so glad that I made it out to that convention. If you've gotta start out, why not hit up the biggest con in the country (over 40,000 in attendance). Sure the trip nearly wiped out my account for the remainder of the month, but it was well worth it. I have met the most awesome man in the world (Toru Furuya, voice of Amuro Ray, Tuxedo Mask, Yamucha, and Kasuga Kyosuke), and I got to belt out tons of karaoke (blew away the crowd with the Rose of Versailles opening, including a group of girls from Japan). Not to mention I got out of there with autographs from the character designer of Ranma 1/2 as well as the artist of Digi Charat (though sadly we got screwed out of Furuya-san's autograph). Spending the weekend with Kevin made it even more awesome; I wish that kid would end up coming back to Purdue so we could hang out more regularly again (and he could live on our sofa or something, heh). Heck, maybe we'll make the trek to AX again next year.
Those were certainly the biggest things from this summer (though I might be forgetting a thing or two). Hopefully the summer should end with a bang. The gang might be swinging down to GenCon for at least a day this weekend (more karaoke!), and that'd certainly be a fitting way to end this summer. Of course, I'll have to watch the hentai of the same name before the summer can truly be ended, heh.
With just another free week prior to the start of the fall semester, I look back on the summer and find that its been rather enjoyable on the whole. Nothing particularly disappointing has occured, and there have been plenty of great adventures had.
Firstly, there was my English class, Intro to Fiction Writing. I went into the class being told by Mom that the professor was very harsh and the Maymester workload would be nightmarish, but luckily, neither of those proved to be true. My Creative Writing class the previous summer had been fun, but this was even better. I'm not going to claim that all of my pieces were gold, but I do believe I churned out some pretty decent stuff. I'd with confidence state that I was the second or third best writer in the class, and I count that as impressive considering I'm not an English major, much less a Professional Writing focus. The professor really seemed to like my final piece a lot, and the class agreed. Heck, one of the other better writers had loved my first major piece but said that it paled in comparison to my second one. I might expand on it and improve it more later in the semester once I've gotten the comments on the final draft back (the prof left like the day after class ended, so I need to pick it up once the semester resumes). Also seriously considering signing up for National Novel Writing Month (and maybe convincing at least Clay to join me) if my academic schedule allows for it. It'd be nice to kick out a novel and then maybe refine it afterwards.
Second, we have my changing apartments, moving back in with Clay to a large 2-bedroom place at Riverwalk. The two of us mesh very well as roommates (as we did previously), and the additional space is welcome. I nearly fainted when the closet door in my bedroom opened into the closet rather than out (my old room was spacious, but things were designed perfectly that I couldn't really fit anything else in with my bed and desk). And even though I regret not being able to spend a third year living with James, he and Brandon are just a stone's throw away. Plus, we get together for House, Exalted, and DBZ often, so its not like I'll be missing out on too much James.
Third, there's the resumption of DBZ. It took James a while, but he finally got everything worked out. We were finally able to restart a few weeks ago and just finished up our first real challenging fights this evening (oh damn is my character hurtin'). I'm totally pumped about everything that's going on in the game, and there's sure to be plenty of fun ahead for us. James seems totally rejuvenated as a GM, and his vigor is plain to see. All I need now is for my character to get more power slots so I can become a technique monster. That and maybe my ladies can stop getting hurt (though their suicide charges in the last battle did move me a bit). I'm very glad that DBZ is back.
Fourth would be my cross-country trek to visit Kevin and then scurry over to AnimeExpo. Wow! I'm so glad that I made it out to that convention. If you've gotta start out, why not hit up the biggest con in the country (over 40,000 in attendance). Sure the trip nearly wiped out my account for the remainder of the month, but it was well worth it. I have met the most awesome man in the world (Toru Furuya, voice of Amuro Ray, Tuxedo Mask, Yamucha, and Kasuga Kyosuke), and I got to belt out tons of karaoke (blew away the crowd with the Rose of Versailles opening, including a group of girls from Japan). Not to mention I got out of there with autographs from the character designer of Ranma 1/2 as well as the artist of Digi Charat (though sadly we got screwed out of Furuya-san's autograph). Spending the weekend with Kevin made it even more awesome; I wish that kid would end up coming back to Purdue so we could hang out more regularly again (and he could live on our sofa or something, heh). Heck, maybe we'll make the trek to AX again next year.
Those were certainly the biggest things from this summer (though I might be forgetting a thing or two). Hopefully the summer should end with a bang. The gang might be swinging down to GenCon for at least a day this weekend (more karaoke!), and that'd certainly be a fitting way to end this summer. Of course, I'll have to watch the hentai of the same name before the summer can truly be ended, heh.