Greetings From Austin!
Hehe, it's true, I AM in fact alive and well. I haven't updated the entire summer because everytime I sat down to do it, I thought to myself, "Ok, so what happened today that I should write about?" My answer to myself was usually "nothing," so I'd give up. However, if you look at the big picture over the summer, it turns out that a lot of cool things DID in fact happen. So let's get on with it.
-GRADES-
Sometime before last semester started I posted in this journal about the grades I was going to make taking 17 hours. I promised myself I would pull at least a 3.5, and GUESS WHAT - my grades came out to a 3.56. Score. I really could have done better, especially in my diff eq class, but I'm still proud of myself. I even made the University Honors List, hehe. At any rate, I'm coming off the previous semester strong and hoping this one will be as good.
-A-KON-
Sometime in June I went to A-Kon with the usual crowd. As usual, I had a blast, but this year didn't seem quite as good as last year. I think it has a lot to do with A) too many people, B) too many RETARDED people, and C) not a whole lot of new anime shown. However, there was plenty of good stuff to counteract the bad stuff. For instance, this was the first year I went to the art auction. Some people dragged me there so we could see Amy's sister's art being sold. (note: I did take a look at it, it was really good stuff, but somehow I don't think it was the kinda stuff that gets sold at an anime convention.) Anyways, that was lots of fun listening to all the auctioneers. I also participated in the Smash Brothers tournament, and got all the way to the quarterfinals without losing this year. I'm slightly disappointed, but keep in mind these people might very well be the best Smash Brothers players in the COUNTRY. Losing to them isn't so bad. This is why I keep saying there should be a Gamer Olympics or something. Overall, A-Kon was great, but if Greggo isn't going to be there next year, I'm probably not going to go either. I mean, the game shows are half the fun. Hum.
-NOT FINDING A JOB-
I was really pissed off at the world around the middle of June - I had hit every restaurant in the greater Pearland area looking for a job as a server. No eating location was safe from my attack, but they somehow found it in their hearts to reject me. I mean, shouldn't 10 months of waiting experience count for SOMETHING? I suppose not, seeing as how none of those places hired me, and then 2 weeks later I see "Hiring Servers" signs in their windows. Everytime I saw one of those I mentally flipped the bird at the restaurant, as I drove to the one job I DID get.
-FINDING (AND DOING) A JOB-
I did eventually find a summer job at the same Chinese restaurant Marc works at. They desperately needed a driver, and I guess Marc pulled some strings or something over there, and they hired me. Let me tell you, Chinese food delivery is about a bajillion times better than IHOP. Here's why:
-People ordering delivery from you actually tip you more than $2.00. What a concept!
-You get to drive your car around everywhere and listen to CLASSIC ROCK. WOOOOOOO!!!
-My coworkers weren't all pregnant chain-smokers.
-I only had to work 5 hours a day, 6 days a week. Compared to IHOP, where I worked 9 hours a day, 6 days a week.
-This is the best part: I made as much money in 2 months working for them as I did in 4 months working for IHOP. Score.
So yeah, that job is much better suited to me. It was actually fun. And now, I have a buncha money that went to the "Dustin Gets To Eat While At College" Fund.
-THE GRAND PLAN-
"The Grand Plan" was a phrase coined by my CS friend Peter as "sitting on one's ass and doing absolutely nothing." He coined it because everytime he asked me What I Did Over The Weekend/Holiday/Vacation it was just easier to say "I stuck to the Grand Plan." So yeah, in other words, this summer, except for my job, I sat on my ass and did absolutely nothing. As usual, it was great. I'm not going to be able to do this much longer, so I gotta enjoy it while I can. To pass the time, I played Megaman Battle Network 4 a lot. And by a lot, I mean all the time. When I wasn't messing around with that I was either playing DOTA or hanging out with people at the movies or getting 30 cent wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. Mmmmm. I can't remember what movies I saw this summer, most of em were forgettable. So I forgot them. Oh yeah, Spider-man 2 was one of em....but that's it. Hehe.
-QUAKECON-
This is the second year I've been to QuakeCon, and it was about twice as fun this year as it was last year. Reason: I didn't play any Quake this time, actually I messed around with this really nice Super Mario World level editor I found. If I ever finish my version of it, I'll post it to my webspace so you can all load it into ZSnes or whatever and try it out. Anyways, yeah, hanging out with David and his brother and some gamer friends of his was pretty fun. We went to Bennigans AND this really expensive Brazillian steakhouse-type place called Boi Na Braza in Dallas. It was really good, but I don't think it was worth the 50 bucks total I ended up paying. Oh well, it's a vacation, you're supposed to splurge. As for the actual BYOC(Bring Your Own Computer) room, I played Warcraft 3 pretty much the whole time when I wasn't working on the SMW levels. I was pretty sad to go home.
-THIS SEMESTER-
So now I'm about to start semester #5 at college. I've already moved into my apartment, and of course there are a few things wrong with it, but hopefully the maintenance people will fix it. Hopefully. My car survived the trip over, and of course I forgot quite a few things at home. My parents are coming up this weekend to bring the stuff that I couldn't fit in my car, so I'll have to thank them by making awesome grades this semester too. That's going to be harder, since I'm taking a whopping 9 hours of CS this time around. I hope I won't be burned out by the time this semester is over.
Welp, that's a wrap. If I think of anything else I forgot to put here, I might add it later....or I might not.
-GRADES-
Sometime before last semester started I posted in this journal about the grades I was going to make taking 17 hours. I promised myself I would pull at least a 3.5, and GUESS WHAT - my grades came out to a 3.56. Score. I really could have done better, especially in my diff eq class, but I'm still proud of myself. I even made the University Honors List, hehe. At any rate, I'm coming off the previous semester strong and hoping this one will be as good.
-A-KON-
Sometime in June I went to A-Kon with the usual crowd. As usual, I had a blast, but this year didn't seem quite as good as last year. I think it has a lot to do with A) too many people, B) too many RETARDED people, and C) not a whole lot of new anime shown. However, there was plenty of good stuff to counteract the bad stuff. For instance, this was the first year I went to the art auction. Some people dragged me there so we could see Amy's sister's art being sold. (note: I did take a look at it, it was really good stuff, but somehow I don't think it was the kinda stuff that gets sold at an anime convention.) Anyways, that was lots of fun listening to all the auctioneers. I also participated in the Smash Brothers tournament, and got all the way to the quarterfinals without losing this year. I'm slightly disappointed, but keep in mind these people might very well be the best Smash Brothers players in the COUNTRY. Losing to them isn't so bad. This is why I keep saying there should be a Gamer Olympics or something. Overall, A-Kon was great, but if Greggo isn't going to be there next year, I'm probably not going to go either. I mean, the game shows are half the fun. Hum.
-NOT FINDING A JOB-
I was really pissed off at the world around the middle of June - I had hit every restaurant in the greater Pearland area looking for a job as a server. No eating location was safe from my attack, but they somehow found it in their hearts to reject me. I mean, shouldn't 10 months of waiting experience count for SOMETHING? I suppose not, seeing as how none of those places hired me, and then 2 weeks later I see "Hiring Servers" signs in their windows. Everytime I saw one of those I mentally flipped the bird at the restaurant, as I drove to the one job I DID get.
-FINDING (AND DOING) A JOB-
I did eventually find a summer job at the same Chinese restaurant Marc works at. They desperately needed a driver, and I guess Marc pulled some strings or something over there, and they hired me. Let me tell you, Chinese food delivery is about a bajillion times better than IHOP. Here's why:
-People ordering delivery from you actually tip you more than $2.00. What a concept!
-You get to drive your car around everywhere and listen to CLASSIC ROCK. WOOOOOOO!!!
-My coworkers weren't all pregnant chain-smokers.
-I only had to work 5 hours a day, 6 days a week. Compared to IHOP, where I worked 9 hours a day, 6 days a week.
-This is the best part: I made as much money in 2 months working for them as I did in 4 months working for IHOP. Score.
So yeah, that job is much better suited to me. It was actually fun. And now, I have a buncha money that went to the "Dustin Gets To Eat While At College" Fund.
-THE GRAND PLAN-
"The Grand Plan" was a phrase coined by my CS friend Peter as "sitting on one's ass and doing absolutely nothing." He coined it because everytime he asked me What I Did Over The Weekend/Holiday/Vacation it was just easier to say "I stuck to the Grand Plan." So yeah, in other words, this summer, except for my job, I sat on my ass and did absolutely nothing. As usual, it was great. I'm not going to be able to do this much longer, so I gotta enjoy it while I can. To pass the time, I played Megaman Battle Network 4 a lot. And by a lot, I mean all the time. When I wasn't messing around with that I was either playing DOTA or hanging out with people at the movies or getting 30 cent wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. Mmmmm. I can't remember what movies I saw this summer, most of em were forgettable. So I forgot them. Oh yeah, Spider-man 2 was one of em....but that's it. Hehe.
-QUAKECON-
This is the second year I've been to QuakeCon, and it was about twice as fun this year as it was last year. Reason: I didn't play any Quake this time, actually I messed around with this really nice Super Mario World level editor I found. If I ever finish my version of it, I'll post it to my webspace so you can all load it into ZSnes or whatever and try it out. Anyways, yeah, hanging out with David and his brother and some gamer friends of his was pretty fun. We went to Bennigans AND this really expensive Brazillian steakhouse-type place called Boi Na Braza in Dallas. It was really good, but I don't think it was worth the 50 bucks total I ended up paying. Oh well, it's a vacation, you're supposed to splurge. As for the actual BYOC(Bring Your Own Computer) room, I played Warcraft 3 pretty much the whole time when I wasn't working on the SMW levels. I was pretty sad to go home.
-THIS SEMESTER-
So now I'm about to start semester #5 at college. I've already moved into my apartment, and of course there are a few things wrong with it, but hopefully the maintenance people will fix it. Hopefully. My car survived the trip over, and of course I forgot quite a few things at home. My parents are coming up this weekend to bring the stuff that I couldn't fit in my car, so I'll have to thank them by making awesome grades this semester too. That's going to be harder, since I'm taking a whopping 9 hours of CS this time around. I hope I won't be burned out by the time this semester is over.
Welp, that's a wrap. If I think of anything else I forgot to put here, I might add it later....or I might not.