Happy New Year!
Well, it seems that another year has gone by already, and what a year it was! Quite a few major events happened in 2006 and I will go ahead and talk about them here in this update (the events that pertain to me, anyway!).
First, however, I want to appologize for not having updated my LJ since September 11, 2006- I've been very busy lately and during the times that I haven't been "busy" I guess I've just been doing other things besides sitting around and updating journals (i.e. playing Guild Wars, playing console games, working on my "RPG Maker XP Project" called the Wizardry Wars which I will talk about later, hanging out with friends, or doing something else along those lines). I'm certainly not saying that there's anything wrong with updating one's LJ, MySpace, etc. quite frequently, but I just haven't been doing it!
The month that truly deserves to be talked about is the month of December 2006. Of course December 7 was my birthday ("Pearl Harbor Day") and my friends and I (and of course Laura) went out to celebrate it at the Old Venice Pizza Company. Later that night we went over to Brett and Cody's apartment and celebrated Christmas as well, where I got both Birthday and Christmas presents from them (Brett gave me a very nice shelving unit for CDs/DVDs as well as a 1GB USB Stick). I should also mention that on December 1, 2006 we went to Garibaldi's Grill to celebrate Laura's birthday and many of our friends got together. In commemoration of this being her 3rd birthday since we've been together I got her a very similar present as her first present- a "Flower Cake."
December 8 and 9 were very important days- both of our graduations (from college)! Laura graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering on December 8 at 7:00 pm and I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in History on December 9 at 10:00 am. Both of our families came for the ceremonies (her attendance was very large as most of her family lives in the area and is extended, but my grandparents came and it was very nice), so everyone got to meet each other and we had a nice dinner together that Saturday afternoon. My grandparents bought Laura a nice present for her graduation (a nice scarf, woolen hat, and glove set) and wrote me a very nice check and after Laura and her family left we went out to dinner and went to see a Holiday concert on campus.
My major graduation present from my parents, however, was to take a cruise with them on the Carnival Fantasy from December 16 to 21 out of New Orleans that went to Coasta Maya and Cozumel, Mexico. The entire cruise experience was, in a word, awesome. All food and drink expenses onboard were paid for minus alcohol so even when you went to eat at the formal dining room you could get as much as you wanted (I once got three appitizers, a salad, prime rib, and a desert). The had constant activities like bingo at all hours of the day, shows each evening, and, of course, "shore excursions" for you to sign up for when you arrived at your Port of Call (that you did have to pay for, averaging around $79.99 per person, but well worth it).
In Coasta Maya, a port created in 2001 to service the tourists from the cruise industry, we went on guided tour to the Mayan ruins of Chacchoben (about 100 km inland and right near the Beliz border). We got to see how very different the people were living (many people, if they even had electricity, didn't get it until the 21st century). The ruins themselves were incredible- very close to what we saw in archaeology courses. I took lots of pictures, but on regular film (maybe I'll scan them one day so some of you can see them!) which means the pictures will be going in my photo album for 2006. The best structure was the equinox temple where on 8:15 am on the equinox the sun shone through the temple and made a spot in the center of the plaza.
Cozumel was badly damaged by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and their docks were destroyed. As such, we had to be "tendered" by smaller boats to where we wanted to go (in our case to the port town of Playa del Carmen on the mainland). From there we took a guided tour to Xcaret (pronounced "ishcaret"), an "eco-archaeological" park. It had ruins, wildlife, lush jungles, tropical beaches, and underground caverns filled with flowing rivers of spring water. Perhaps the most exciting part of Xcaret was getting to swim about 1 km through the underwater caverns, filled with large tree roots (which were looking for water). It was such an amazing experience, but you'd have to have been there to imagine it.
Well, since the cruise there has been, of course, Christmas and New Year's Eve 2006/07. Christmas was our usual family get-together here in Diamondhead and my aunt and uncle came as well as our "family friend" Evelyn (she's about 85 years-old now). We had our present-opening at around 11:00 am on Christmas Morning and we had a large dinner mostly prepared by my grandmother at 2:00 pm. I got some very nice presents, money, and practical gifts to furnish the new apartment that I will be moving into on January 2.
New Year's Eve was my grandmother's 79th birthday, so we gave her birthday presents and cards and then went to the "Silver Slipper Casino" in the Bay St. Louis area to eat at their buffet. After that, we all went and gambled for a while and I ended up winning a bit on the slot machines (I asked my grandmother to pick a slot for me since she always seems to be so lucky and she picked a good one for me!).
On January 2 Laura and I will be moving into our new apartment and will be getting ready to begin Graduate School at Mississippi State University! I was accepted into the program back in late-October, 2006 and will be majoring in European History with a minor in East Asia Since 1600. My main focus will be on the British Empire and the British East India Company. Classes start on January 8 and my schedule is:
1
HI 6213
01
13752
Grand Strategy and Int. Sec.
S
F
N
3
N/A
N/A
N/A
M
04:00pm - 06:50pm ALLEN 253 Mary Barbier
1
HI 6643
01
13759
Resaissance, Reforma
C
F
N
3
N/A
N/A
N/A
T R
08:00am - 09:15am ALLEN 253 Dennis Doyle, IV
1
HI 8763
01
14929
Read In Far East
E
F
N
3
N/A
N/A
N/A
TBA
TBA TBA Shu-hui Wu
Total Credits
9
Aside from all of this, I have still been playing Guild Wars and am now the leader of my guild, "Aura of Shadows," since the leader Sanji Whitefire quit. Our guild is actually pretty well organized. If you are interested, you can check out our website:
http://www.freewebs.com/auraofshadows
Guild Wars: Night Fall, the latest expansion, was released on October 27, 2006 and added a new continent to the game, a whole new story with quests, missions, classes (professions), etc. Sadly I already have a "max level" character with "max" armor in NF, but I am still nowhere near completing all of the game (my character in that game is "Thomas Xavier Light," an ode to the Mega Man series, and is a Paragon/Warrior).
I've also been working on my "RPG Maker XP" project, Wizardry Wars. The latest "demo" released was Demo 3.1 and the game has had nearly 1,400 visitors/downloads. In my opinion, the project is quite a success considering I haven't even been working on it half-a-year and it's just me working on it. If you want to see what it's like, check it out at:
http://www.freewebs.com/wizardrywars
Well, that's about all I've got to say for now...
I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year and that 2007 is a great year for you all!
First, however, I want to appologize for not having updated my LJ since September 11, 2006- I've been very busy lately and during the times that I haven't been "busy" I guess I've just been doing other things besides sitting around and updating journals (i.e. playing Guild Wars, playing console games, working on my "RPG Maker XP Project" called the Wizardry Wars which I will talk about later, hanging out with friends, or doing something else along those lines). I'm certainly not saying that there's anything wrong with updating one's LJ, MySpace, etc. quite frequently, but I just haven't been doing it!
The month that truly deserves to be talked about is the month of December 2006. Of course December 7 was my birthday ("Pearl Harbor Day") and my friends and I (and of course Laura) went out to celebrate it at the Old Venice Pizza Company. Later that night we went over to Brett and Cody's apartment and celebrated Christmas as well, where I got both Birthday and Christmas presents from them (Brett gave me a very nice shelving unit for CDs/DVDs as well as a 1GB USB Stick). I should also mention that on December 1, 2006 we went to Garibaldi's Grill to celebrate Laura's birthday and many of our friends got together. In commemoration of this being her 3rd birthday since we've been together I got her a very similar present as her first present- a "Flower Cake."
December 8 and 9 were very important days- both of our graduations (from college)! Laura graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering on December 8 at 7:00 pm and I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in History on December 9 at 10:00 am. Both of our families came for the ceremonies (her attendance was very large as most of her family lives in the area and is extended, but my grandparents came and it was very nice), so everyone got to meet each other and we had a nice dinner together that Saturday afternoon. My grandparents bought Laura a nice present for her graduation (a nice scarf, woolen hat, and glove set) and wrote me a very nice check and after Laura and her family left we went out to dinner and went to see a Holiday concert on campus.
My major graduation present from my parents, however, was to take a cruise with them on the Carnival Fantasy from December 16 to 21 out of New Orleans that went to Coasta Maya and Cozumel, Mexico. The entire cruise experience was, in a word, awesome. All food and drink expenses onboard were paid for minus alcohol so even when you went to eat at the formal dining room you could get as much as you wanted (I once got three appitizers, a salad, prime rib, and a desert). The had constant activities like bingo at all hours of the day, shows each evening, and, of course, "shore excursions" for you to sign up for when you arrived at your Port of Call (that you did have to pay for, averaging around $79.99 per person, but well worth it).
In Coasta Maya, a port created in 2001 to service the tourists from the cruise industry, we went on guided tour to the Mayan ruins of Chacchoben (about 100 km inland and right near the Beliz border). We got to see how very different the people were living (many people, if they even had electricity, didn't get it until the 21st century). The ruins themselves were incredible- very close to what we saw in archaeology courses. I took lots of pictures, but on regular film (maybe I'll scan them one day so some of you can see them!) which means the pictures will be going in my photo album for 2006. The best structure was the equinox temple where on 8:15 am on the equinox the sun shone through the temple and made a spot in the center of the plaza.
Cozumel was badly damaged by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and their docks were destroyed. As such, we had to be "tendered" by smaller boats to where we wanted to go (in our case to the port town of Playa del Carmen on the mainland). From there we took a guided tour to Xcaret (pronounced "ishcaret"), an "eco-archaeological" park. It had ruins, wildlife, lush jungles, tropical beaches, and underground caverns filled with flowing rivers of spring water. Perhaps the most exciting part of Xcaret was getting to swim about 1 km through the underwater caverns, filled with large tree roots (which were looking for water). It was such an amazing experience, but you'd have to have been there to imagine it.
Well, since the cruise there has been, of course, Christmas and New Year's Eve 2006/07. Christmas was our usual family get-together here in Diamondhead and my aunt and uncle came as well as our "family friend" Evelyn (she's about 85 years-old now). We had our present-opening at around 11:00 am on Christmas Morning and we had a large dinner mostly prepared by my grandmother at 2:00 pm. I got some very nice presents, money, and practical gifts to furnish the new apartment that I will be moving into on January 2.
New Year's Eve was my grandmother's 79th birthday, so we gave her birthday presents and cards and then went to the "Silver Slipper Casino" in the Bay St. Louis area to eat at their buffet. After that, we all went and gambled for a while and I ended up winning a bit on the slot machines (I asked my grandmother to pick a slot for me since she always seems to be so lucky and she picked a good one for me!).
On January 2 Laura and I will be moving into our new apartment and will be getting ready to begin Graduate School at Mississippi State University! I was accepted into the program back in late-October, 2006 and will be majoring in European History with a minor in East Asia Since 1600. My main focus will be on the British Empire and the British East India Company. Classes start on January 8 and my schedule is:
1
HI 6213
01
13752
Grand Strategy and Int. Sec.
S
F
N
3
N/A
N/A
N/A
M
04:00pm - 06:50pm ALLEN 253 Mary Barbier
1
HI 6643
01
13759
Resaissance, Reforma
C
F
N
3
N/A
N/A
N/A
T R
08:00am - 09:15am ALLEN 253 Dennis Doyle, IV
1
HI 8763
01
14929
Read In Far East
E
F
N
3
N/A
N/A
N/A
TBA
TBA TBA Shu-hui Wu
Total Credits
9
Aside from all of this, I have still been playing Guild Wars and am now the leader of my guild, "Aura of Shadows," since the leader Sanji Whitefire quit. Our guild is actually pretty well organized. If you are interested, you can check out our website:
http://www.freewebs.com/auraofshadows
Guild Wars: Night Fall, the latest expansion, was released on October 27, 2006 and added a new continent to the game, a whole new story with quests, missions, classes (professions), etc. Sadly I already have a "max level" character with "max" armor in NF, but I am still nowhere near completing all of the game (my character in that game is "Thomas Xavier Light," an ode to the Mega Man series, and is a Paragon/Warrior).
I've also been working on my "RPG Maker XP" project, Wizardry Wars. The latest "demo" released was Demo 3.1 and the game has had nearly 1,400 visitors/downloads. In my opinion, the project is quite a success considering I haven't even been working on it half-a-year and it's just me working on it. If you want to see what it's like, check it out at:
http://www.freewebs.com/wizardrywars
Well, that's about all I've got to say for now...
I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year and that 2007 is a great year for you all!