Magic: The Gathering

Sorry for the dull posts for the last week or so. I've not been feeling well, and the worst symptom is just feeling sluggish. For the past couple days, everything I do saps my energy, from walking up the stairs to having a conversation. Today I'm just plain tired. I got a good eight hours of sleep, and it feels like I only got five. I've barely done anything, and have just been sitting around all day.

On the bright side, my manager felt so bad that I had to take the shift yesterday, that she gave me today and Monday off. Yay! I've informed her that I would like to work less, not that school is in, and I might sort of being seeing someone now. Everyone else is happy with that too, since everyone wants more hours. I'll just keep my minimum of sixteen hours a week, and just be available for up to twenty four.

Now that updates are all done with, let's have a review! Recently I've been introduced to a lot of games, so I have a lot to talk about. Let's start with a popular one, Magic: The Gathering.

If you have an ear in the nerd community, you've probably at least heard of this game. It's simply a luck-based strategy game. And by simply, I mean that's the simplest thing to categorize it as. Now I'm not too bad when it comes to strategy, though to be honest, most of my strategies in these types of games it to overwhelm my opponent with attacks. That doesn't work so well in this game.

It's the type of game where you need to see three turns ahead and know what your opponent will do. And of course, you need luck. If you have too much of one type of card, you can't do anything, while at the same time, if you have too little of the same type of card, you can do even less. I've definitely been on both sides of the spectrum on countless occasions.

So my verdict is: A good game, that's not too hard to learn, but definitely needs some dedication and interest in the subject. I would suggest it for anyone that likes strategy games, and whoever classifies themselves as a nerd.

Being an Adult is Hard

I'm so sick of having to be responsible. I guess I should have know this when I agreed to become assistant manager at work, but I'm just so sick of it now. People are complaining because my manager is grumpy and mean, but I would like to see them work forty hours a week and deal with everything she deals with. It's hard to stay chipper.

Today, at 5:30 pm, I was informed that my coworker could not work her shift tomorrow, and I was only being informed then. I guess she was relying on my manager to change it, but my manager doesn't like that my coworker got a second job and had to change her schedule at Starbucks. So I stayed another half hour trying to work it out. I figured out a perfect plan, but the one last person I need to accept a shift will not answer her phone or her text messages. This leaves us kind of dangling and unable to officially change the schedule until the very last minute. It worse comes to worse, I will take the shift and just work six days in a row.

And now, to top it all off, there is something wrong with me. For three weeks now, I've been feeling sick. It's better some days, worse others. Today is one of those worse days. Normally it's just a small stomach ache, and no apatite, but today my period decided to start. Two weeks early. Needless to say, I was kind of grumpy at work this morning. Not to mention I went swimming in a river yesterday, and I'm feeling every single bump and bruise today (mostly on my feet). I also seem to have pulled a muscle in my shoulder while trying to fix a clogged Pumpkin Spice pump yesterday.

So let's total this up. My feet, back of arms and the front of my right shoulder are all sore. My stomach is aching and I still don't really have an apatite. My time of the month came twice this month, not to mention all my energy seems to be seeping away with every movement I make. I might be facing a six day work week, which all but one of those days I will be working at least six hours.

The really odd thing is? After a while at work, I wasn't grumpy. Time flew, and suddenly I was off. Even now, I'm stressed but not really grumpy. I'm going to say this is because I had an amazing date yesterday.


I'll just leave you with that little tidbit of information.

Work is Work

So recently I've come to notice something at work. And by recently, I mean starting around May or June, right when school was getting out. There is an outrageous amount of female customers at Starbucks. Now of course, everyone knows this. There are memes and stereotypes about the white girl and Starbucks. What really irks me is that these women are middle aged, or at least in their thirties, and are coming to Starbucks in the middle of the day. So my only conclusion can be that they are either not working, or they're doing shift work. I know, many of them are probably on maturity leave, or maybe they just happen to have a full time job that gives them a Wednesday off, but all for the rest, it's just sad.

The economy is not great. Hell, it's pretty much a bolder on the edge of a steep hill. It's not the worst, but there is definitely that chance that it will just all come tumbling down. And this is seen very clearly in the amount of part time, or even temporary jobs. The jobs that are normally reserved for high school or post secondary students. You know, the ones that do not yet have an education and are paying off tuition. But more and more these jobs are being filled by middle aged people, who just cannot get a job elsewhere, whether because they don't have an education, or simply because their chosen field is not hiring. And don't start going 'Well you're a creative writing student, what do you expect to be doing when you're middle aged?'
I know full well that I will not be able to support myself with just writing. I have other passions. I would love to open up a bookstore mixed with a cafe, and recently I've considered starting to make screen prints, either as posters or shirts. I just need to find the stuff for it. And I know that there is a very real possibility that I will be working at Starbucks the rest of my life.

However, I mentioned that I only started to notice this in May or June. So here is the message. Don't take a day off work just because your child has the day off! Seriously! When it's eleven o'clock in the after noon on a Wednesday, and you come in with your two kids, I think it's pretty obvious that you're either skipping out on work, or don't have work. I know it's nice to take a day off to hang out with family, but that's what weekends and vacations are for. Work is work, whether you like it or not. Work means being responsible.


Oh dear lord, I feel like an old lady now. I'm just going to go find my inner child again.

Good Weekend

So after my little rant on Thursday, let's have some good news about my life!

I have friends! Okay, so I had friends before, but not many, and definitely not many that shared my interests. I had about two that played Zelda, and of those only one that lived near by. In addition, we're all too lazy to actually leave our house to hang out. So you can guess, these new friends will be willing to leave their house. In fact, they seem to like being away from their house.

First off, they are friends of a friend, so that's how we met. Second, two are guys and one a girl. I've never had guy friends! Not for a very long time. I just get awkward around guys, because I never really know how to introduce myself, or how to admit that I'm probably a bigger nerd than them. A thirdly, they introduced my to Magic, which I've been dying to learn for years now. Brandon Sanderson, my favorite author, plays it, and it sounded like fun.

Now one of these guys is actually my friend's boyfriend, which has been a little weird. But then again, hanging out with anyone of the opposite gender is kind of awkward for me...

So yeah, my whole week since Thursday has been made up of socializing. I swear, I've been out with people more in the last four days than I have for the last month. Apparently I'm not as anti social as I thought, I just needed a bit of a kick in the but to actually plan stuff with people.

An Anecdote with a Lesson

So I decided to pay my tuition today. That went easily, no complications (except I forgot to print my receipt...) It wasn't until after that I started looking through my schedule to confirm all the days that I would have to go in that I noticed something odd.

My online class has a class in a city that is NOT the one I wanted it in.

I go to a university that has four campuses (for privacy sake, I'm calling them A, B, C and D), all of which are pretty far away from me, but only one (A) that has an easy and direct route. That is the one that I have been going to. That is the one that I made sure all my classes are at. And that is not the one that this specific class had me going to. This class has me going to city B.

So I decided to take a look at the list of classes to try and figure out what went wrong. First off, the professor that I have for that class doesn't teach anywhere but in city C. Looking harder, I realized that I might have made a mistake and not looked at the city when I signed up, thinking that 'hey, it's an online course, I won't have to leave my house'. Of course, there's a mid term, so I would have to go somewhere at some point. But considering this class that I signed up for said city C, it should NOT be sending me to city B. There is not an ounce of logic in that.

I got really confused at this point, and went to see if there were even any online classes that sent me to city B. There aren't. So yeah, an online class in city C is sending me to city B for the ONE in-class test. No sense!

Finally I just dropped that class, as I saw a pretty convenient one right before another class I have on Monday. Unfortunately, after all this time trying to figure out what went wrong, someone had taken the last spot in that class. And in the next best class. Jerks. So I have now signed up for a class that is actually part in-class and part online, which is pretty cool. The only downside is that now I need to take another day off of work, and I will actually be spending more time in my round trip to and from the campus, than in the actual class. I'll need to stock up on some new music or something.

The moral of the story? Get your shit in order before starting post secondary. You hear that high schoolers? It's not the actual university classes that are hard, but just getting registered for them. Talk to a counselor! Let someone else do it! I have a headache, just from spending half an hour figuring it out. Imagine having to do this every semester. We seriously need a class just to learn how to get into classes.

Oncers

So I did something today that I've wanted to do for at least a year now. I went out to Steveston with a couple friends to watch the filming of Once Upon a Time. It was awesome.

Unfortunately, the scene they were filming when we got there was fairly small and uneventful. After watching it redone several times, we decided to go off and explore the town a bit. I was under the impression that Hook's ship was docked somewhere, but we were unable to find it, and near the end of the day we asked someone and they told us that it had been moved recently. So I was right, if we had only come sometime before March.

After our little trip around town, I'm really not sure what was going on with the filming. There were a lot of people standing around and some equipment moved, but otherwise we didn't see much. They must have been filming inside.

But Steveston is a beautiful little town! There are a ton of restaurants, coffee shops, fish places and souvenir shops. My favorite was the first coffee shop we went into, because it was also a book store. I found a couple books I've been looking for, and according to my friend, their coffee was really good.

So even though we didn't see much of the filming, and the only actors that we saw played Robin Hood, Marian and their son, it was a lot of fun. We barely got lost on the way there, and we were able to get ourselves unlost and the way back.

I also got myself a storm trooper PEZ dispenser, so I'm really happy.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar children review

I just finished reading another fantastic book, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. From now on, I'll just called it Peculiar Children, because the whole title is a mouthful.

This is a book that I saw once and found it interesting, but didn't buy. My friend happened to have it though, and offered to lend it to me when she was done. Thinking it would just be a quick read and a nice break from the large books I normally read, I happily accepted.

I went into it thinking it would be a young adult novel, aimed more toward children than actual young adults. After only a few chapters though, I realized this wasn't the case, as an child reading this would have nightmares. You see, this is a picture book. Each picture relates to the story, and many of them are of peculiar children. This means, quite often the pictures are creepy. The very first one you see inside the book is of a face behind a small flame. That's like opening your eyes at night and seeing nothing but darkness and a pair of eyes staring at you. Despite these pictures, the writing style is still aimed more toward a younger reader. Not that that's bad, of course. It's beautifully written, with the details being fleshed out and vivid, but not to the point of being boring. However, this also means the monsters in the story are very vivid too.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

The moment the grandpa died is when I realized that this book is much darker than I thought. It's one thing to kill off a character, but another to describe it so clearly. This is seen again near the end with another corpse.

So no, not a children's book at all, unless the child is mature enough to no longer be afraid of the dark, or see monsters in the shadows. Peculiar Children was, as I expected, a fast read, but after that it blew all my expectations. It's no wonder I'm suddenly seeing the book being sold everywhere. I would definitely recommend it to any of my friends.

Thirteen Years Later

Finally! I am elated that I can finally post a review on Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is the very first Zelda game that my sister and I played. This is the game that we named Link 'Zelda', because everyone has to do it at one point. This is the second video game that I ever played (Animal Crossing was the first).

I can't even be sure it was thirteen years ago. It might be fourteen, might be twelve. I was somewhere around seven or eight years old when my sister and I asked for a Gamecube for Christmas. Or, more like my sister had played Animal Crossing on a friend's Gamecube, then managed to convince me that I wanted to play it too. I should probably thank her for that, or else I probably would not have come to love video games as I have. Or, maybe I would have fallen in love with Playstation, or X-box. I'm glad it was Nintendo though.

If I remember correctly, I was the first one to turn Ocarina of Time on and play it. I didn't even manage to find the sword though, so I gave up, and later my sister found it. We struggled through the Deku Tree, somehow got through Dodongo's Cavern (I have no memory of this, so someone else probably did it for us), and eventually finished Jabu Jabu's Belly. It was magical to see Link all grown up. Until you leave the Temple of Time and suddenly REDEADS. It must have been years before we got any further.

Of course, the first few years we didn't have a memory card, so all of this was done over a few days, when we kept the Gamecube running constantly. I have to admire our dedication, and wonder how we even managed to turn it off and restart anew later on. Once we got a memory card, it was a breeze. Not that we really got any further. The Forest Temple was terrifying, the Fire Cavern was difficult, the Water Temple was impossible, and the Shower Temple was just one big NOPE. We never got farther than halfway through the Shadow Temple, at least not by ourselves. (Any time where someone outside of the family had to complete more than one temple for us doesn't count as actually completing the game.)

This time around, I'm proud to say that I actually beat Gohma myself. That's pathetic, I know. I suck at using the slingshot. My sister did half of Dodongo's Cavern and fought Dodongo himself. I did the whole Jabu Jabu's belly, including mini and full boss. I did most of the Earth Temple, while my sister fought the final Poe sister and killed Phantom Ganon. I did most of the Fire Temple, and my sister tried to beat Volvagia, but in the end I had to do it. I did the while Water Temple, but handed the controller off to my sister to kill the boss (who's name I cannot remember). I found the courage to do the bottom of the well, and later the Shadow Temple, while my sister beat Bongo Bongo (I did a rage quit after my first death). I navigated the Gerudo fortress, while my sister beat each of the thieves that strange up. I completed the Spirit temple and let my sister try the boss. She failed, and Twinrova became my favorite boss!

It seems like I did a lot, but my sister beat both Ganondorf and Ganon, since I suck at electricity ball tennis, and I did another rage quit after running out of arrows to fire at Ganon. So yes, quantity wise, I did most of the game, but my sister did most of the hardest parts. (Except for the Water Temple. God damned Water Temple.)

So this turned more into a review of my experiences with the game, but that's okay. That's basically what a game is, right? The graphics and gameplay don't matter, as long as you enjoy playing it. As you might have figured out, I've been playing it on a Gamecube, so although it's not the original, it's closer to the remake that just came out. I do believe the remake was made a bit easier in places such as the Forest Temple and the Water Temple, but that's just what I've heard. Either way, I'm happy to have played it in its original form.

The Long Lost Roommate

Whoops, I forgot that yesterday was Thursday. But believe it or not, I actually had a social life! It was kind of an accident, actually. But onto some writing!

The Long Lost Roommate

Hey Heart, it's me, Brain. I know you've been off chasing wild dreams and fawning over useless junk, but I need you to come back now. Dreams are great, but should really be left to me, and I know you just absolutely love that video game, and all those books, but you really need to get focused. You're a Heart. You were meant to love, but objects and dreams cannot love you back. I know you're a little out of practice, but take it a step at a time. Then start running. I know you can do it. You were so affectionate when we were younger, what happened? And don't give me all that bullshit about no one loving you, or that you're just too shy, or that you have no time. You have a great life, you're really not that shy, and you have more time than you think. That is, if you don't waste it. Time is passing, we're aging, and it's only going to get harder. So come back to me, Heart. Listen to Brain for once. Love isn't that scary.