What's on Your Mind?

[What's on Your Mind?]

Whoa. whoa. Enough of the troll, pls. I already read a benchmarking article between Win 7, 8 and 10 on some PC geek site awhile ago and there's not really much difference.

that wasn't a troll attempt

it was just based on what I've read from user experience

[What's on Your Mind?]

EDIT: Ehrmmmm.... http://www.pcworld.com/article/2971088/windows/fears-of-microsoft-scanning-your-windows-10-pc-for-pirated-games-are-overblown.html and http://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3h5wwg/windows_10_disabling_pirated_software_not_so_fast/ . You. Trolled. Me :V

LOL, if anything, I was the one who was trolled

 

I probably should've done more research on this myself

ahahahaha, this is tinfoil hat worthy

 

thanks for bringing this to my attention, btw

I might consider the upgrade in a few months

 

Coz if it's speed gain, there's not much difference, lol, assuming you have Win 8/7.

actually, a lot of people have been saying that Win 10 is loads faster than 7 or 8

[What's on Your Mind?]

I havent updated yet.

What do you mean by pirated programs?

Is it Antivirus, Photoshop and these kinds of things? Because I downloaded them all for free :v

a pirated program is essentially anything you downloaded that didn't require a registration code/serial number

...unless the program didn't need one to begin with--like SketchUp or Malwarebytes (the basic versions, at least)

 

programs like Photoshop and Sony Vegas require you to cough up money in order to obtain a registration code/serial number (which you use to "verify"/access the program)

if you didn't obtain a registration code/serial number for these kinds of programs, they're pirated

 

tl;dr

pirated programs = illegally obtained programs

 

 

The programs, whether pirated or not, does not matter.

it matters

by updating to Windows 10, you sign an agreement stating that you'll allow it to scan and disable any illegally obtained programs you have on your PC

in other words, if you don't want to risk any pirated programs getting disabled, you shouldn't update to Windows 10

but no one ever reads the licensing agreements, so everyone just blindly dives in thinking that Windows 10 is just going to give them a cleaner interface

it's quite sneaky of Microsoft to slip that condition in there

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

"Reflection (Mirror Night)" -- VK

God bless this game...

"Evolution Era" -- VK

No seriously, God bless this game.

(I'm going to be spamming this thread with a ton of these until I can get over how amazing the OST is.)

"Wings of Piano" -- VK

 

goddammit, Akazora

I have a soft spot for piano OSTs

 

now I feel inclined to dig through all of Deemo's OSTs instead of doing my schoolwork like I'm supposed to do

I can sense what's left of my productivity gradually crumble away as I type this very post

 

you sick bastard

these kinds of instrumentals are like crack to my ears

I think I just felt my heart swell after hearing the orchestral accompaniment

the cello geezus the cello argh it's so good

I freaking love piano and orchestral OSTs, you have no idea

I hate you

I hate you so much for spoiling my ears with this heavenly soundtrack

Wings of Piano is what did it for me

goddammit, Akazora

y-you sick bastard<3

 

but in all seriousness, thank you for posting them

[What's on Your Mind?]

I got really excited at first too but then I read the rest of it and just 

I feel so betrayed

they got my hopes up and everything

 

The rumor has progressed even further.  It now seems that there will indeed be a Shovel Knight amiibo but it won't be Smash-based and will instead be directly tied in with Yacht Club Games.  Nothing has been confirmed yet, but this is looking very very likely.  Not that SK will be in Smash, but that he'll be getting an amiibo at least.

but the thing is, just because the box art doesn't have the smash logo on it doesn't mean that SK is out of the question as a potential smash character

for all we know, the current box art could just be a placeholder (not saying it's likely though)

 

well, after thinking about it, I guess it would feel strange inviting an indie character into the game

 

OMM: Hillary Clinton in person is... exactly how she is on television.  I... I don't know why that even remotely surprises me, but for some reason it does.  Same with Dr. Claude Steele, though his picture on the back of Whistling Vivaldi was kinda small and hard to make out.  I guess he looked a bit older than I expected him to be.

sounds like someone was starstruck, hehe

 

Is there any techie here which can guide me to Windows 10 update and FAQs? Because I suck at these kinds of things.

Thanks :3

I'm no expert on Windows 10, but if you have cherished pirated programs on your PC, I wouldn't recommend getting the update

also, if you haven't updated yet, I suggest you backup everything on your hard drive

 

if you updated your PC already, just disregard everything I typed

in the case that you can't find your old files, everything should be under the "windows.old" folder

 

worst comes to worst, you could always roll back to Windows 7 or 8 within 30 days

 

 

--

OMM: schoolschoolschoolschoolschoolschool

go away, senioritis

it's not even September yet

[What's on Your Mind?]

OMM: HILLARY CLINTON IS GOING TO BE CAMPAIGNING AT MY SCHOOL ON THURSDAY!!!  

I'M NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY POLITICAL PARTIES NOR DO I SUPPORT ANY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AT THIS MOMENT BUT HOLY HELL THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!  I'M TOTALLY GOING JUST FOR THE EXPERIENCE!!!!!

Well, I technically have a phys ed wellness class at that time, but screw it.  Today was supposed to be the day I met my wellness teacher, but the guy didn't even show up.  Literally sat in a classroom filled with other confused students and just played Deemo for a full hour.  

I can't believe it, less a week into college and I'm already planning on skipping class, ufufufufufu

(worth it doh)

 

 

--

OMM: the salt is real

idk why everyone's raging about Sakurai

they're the ones who voted for Shovel Knight; it's not Sakurai's fault, lol

 

OMM2: I got excited when I saw this on my fb feed

I sent the link to my sister and a bunch of friends before I read the article because of how ecstatic I was

and then I read the article

;(

[What Was the Last Video Game You Played?]

 

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...............

[When will Detective Conan end?]

>fixed the typo in my previous post because it was really bothering me

 

I'll say it again—even if you're right, why is it even there? Why would they put something like that there if they considered how things may change in the future?

 

It's no more far-fetched than every other speculation on when DC will end... 

it's probably there just to stir up the fanbase.

...and I never mentioned anything about other speculations having more merit.

 

You're probably joking, but I'll say this if you're not:

 

Gosho Aoyama is 52. Odds are, he'll live for another 30 years, maybe even just 20, or as much as 40. Odds also are you'll outlive him. Most extreme-case scenario is he'll die before finishing the series. 

it was a joke, lol

[When will Detective Conan end?]

You read my post, right? It could very well be that DC will end in June, 2020, given the possibility that Files 599–609/Episodes 498–504 are the halfway point of the series, given Shuichi Ikeda's comment at the very end of Episode 500: "We're just passing the halfway point."

There's really no way the animators could've known that beforehand. Gosho isn't showing any signs of stopping any time soon, and the whole halfway point spiel was so vague it couldn't possibly be an indication of when Gosho will finish writing the series. If Gosho specifically told the animators that episodes 489-504 would be the halfway point, he'd have to adjust how he releases the files based on the anime, which really limits how many files he can put out. It'd be completely backwards. The manga controls the anime output; not the other way around.

 

"We're just passing the halfway point" could mean anything, really.

Also, if Ikeda was actually referring to the series' halfway point, he'd be breaking the fourth wall.

 

And if you think about it, DC is huge in Japan. Gosho is going to stop when he wants to. He's not going to run out of material since he can always recycle old cases. He's been doing this for nearly 20 years. DC is a cash cow. Why limit the amount of output based on one line in the anime?

 

How long will you give DC before you say, "I'm out."?

I'll give it a few years.

 

But at the rate at which things are going, I'll die of old age before he finishes writing the series.

[Time to Say Goodbye]

It's always nice seeing another friendly face around here, so please don't hesitate to stop by once in a while to see how things are going

Thank you for your contributions to the site, and best of luck to you in the future!

[What's on Your Mind?]

Lol I know but I'm actually concerned, not trying to insinuate. They should totally choose Bernie Sanders. okay I stops now =X

tbh, no one in America is taking the election seriously, lol

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufGlBv8Z3NU

 

I can't get over this. It's hilarious.

 

Finally, a candidate I can get behind #DeezNuts2k16

ikr

machine knows what's up

 

--

OMM: I'm addicted to italian dressing

I've been eating celery with it for breakfast lately

I think I might have a problem

[When will Detective Conan end?]

So this expands my range for Detective Conan's end year: 2020–2035. I'd still be very surprised if it ends as early as 2020, though, especially with Gosho's 28 breaks between September 22nd, 2014 and August 10th, 2015—that's only 18 files released over the course of nearly a year, which is half of what he typically achieves in a year.

 

I mean, DC is great and all, but

 

 

I just want to finish it before I lose all of my interest, ya know...

[What's on Your Mind?]

make a site is too expensive ,in my country no one will do it

probably because every site ends up either filtered or blocked by the government, lol

 

 

--

OMM:

 

 

 

avocado will serve us well

[Anime Couple??]

Shiro and saber

you might want to check out the visual novel then

[Gosho's romance style]

You're a troublesome and tough case, you know! With all these distracting emotions... Even if I were Holmes it'd still be impossible to figure out! The heart of a woman whom one likes... How can anyone accurately deduce that?

I am a ConanxAi fan. I can argue all day that they are the best couple. But what really bothers me about the romance in the series is that its really dry. The one scene that really proved to me that Gosho's romance writing is just boring, is the scene between Ran and Shinichi in London. Now I know they will end up together and I think I made my peace with that, but when Shinichi tells her after 520 episodes 'how can someone understand the heart of the woman he loves' or something like that. It really made me mad.

That was just Shinichi's way of confessing.

 

It's a stereotype that women are fickle and have a difficult time directly admitting their feelings to someone. Additionally, Ran is a bit of a tsundere and will turn defensive whenever someone teases her. The last sentence of his quote addresses that. If you take apart Shinichi's quote piece by piece, you'll realize that this overly embellished statement of his is just his geeky way of admitting his feelings to her.

Also, the "The heart of a woman whom one likes" makes it pretty clear that this is a confession.

A bit underwhelming, I'll admit, but it's still a confession nonetheless.

If you're still bothered by it, think of it as Gosho's way of slowing down plot progression.

I mean she told him countless times that she loves huh so when he says he doesn't understand how she feels it really bothered me and I thought of it as the biggest flaw in the series.

I don't remember Ran ever confessing to his face. She only unknowingly confessed to him when he was Conan (episode 2).

Shinichi is pretty dense. You would've thought that he would at least know that Haibara also has feelings for him. He doesn't. 

 

So I was wondering what you guys thought about it all. Personally I feel like I've been subjected to watch a love story filled with nothing but blushes and awkwardness. But DC is still the best there ever will be. So tell me what you guys think.

You're better off looking somewhere else if you're only watching DC for the romantic subplot.

DC isn't a love story, and to be frank, Gosho isn't exactly the best at writing one.

[Help with Detective Conan Links?]

https://www.reddit.com/r/OneTruthPrevails/

http://dreamskye7.tumblr.com/

http://dcrewatch.tumblr.com/

 

just to name a few

 

if you visit the reddit page (first link), there will be a chart under the words "Important Links" located on the right side of the page. There, you will also find manga scanlations and episode and chapter archives

 

might update list later if I can dig up a few more sites

 

hope that helps a bit!

 

 

EDIT: this might also help

http://www.detectiveconanworld.com/wiki/Detective_Conan_Wiki:Fan_Sites

[What's on Your Mind?]

The very same day I get Dark Pit in the mail, you up and change your profile pic to Aya Shameimaru, the source of the image being from this video I believe, since I can't seem to find it anywhere else.  *sniff* I feel betrayed  Nah, I'm just playing, I like it!  (now our propics are Christmas-y, heh)

pshh, dear pittoo has had enough spotlight

...also, wtf, that's exactly where I got that picture from

how did you even find it I don't even...

 

BUT IT'S NOT EVEN CHRISTMAS YET lol we're four months early

maybe we should coordinate our propic changes sometime

 

Sigh, lost the last Splatfest before college, what a bummer.  Hopefully I can redeem myself during Christmas break.  I wonder what it'll be, ham vs turkey?

#teamham

 

Stealing your words: HOME STRETCH!!

And thanks, I hope senior years treats you well, too!

hehe first semester's gonna be hell but at least I'll have second semester to look forward to

and thanks!

 

wtf i thought that was reimu

 

i feel really stupid

A for effort

nah, I'm just pulling your leg

reimu was actually my second choice

 

 

where is your god now bwa ha ha

Our God has abandoned us ;___;

#onetruegod is dead!!  Spam "F"!  [insert "It's happening!" gifs]  Meme overload!!

[DEFINE the Word Above You [Forum Game]]

MITOCHONDRIA IS THE POWERHOUSE OF THE MUDDAFKING CELL

 

ahem, got a little carried away there...............

 

Define Strawberry Knight

[What Was the Last Video Game You Played?]

 

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

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

"Fallen" -- EGOIST

geezus, thanks to marasy8 I can recognize Psycho Pass's EDs even though I haven't watched it yet

and I'm more familiar with his covers than the actual songs themselves

everything is backwards holy crap

 

 

--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFWy27pBJAM

 

my sister used to be obsessed with Jay Chou, and she frequently played this on her piano

I recently stumbled across this (thanks to Kyle Landry), and I really need to find the time to watch the movie soon because the piano battles in there are freaking epic

[Describe Ran Mouri in one word]

housewife material

[What's on Your Mind?]

OMM1: UPS decides to hold my package at their facility in my town and just do literally nothing with it for three full days before finally shipping it out the last couple of miles.  Guess that's my punishment for not paying for expedited shipping, huh?  Whatever, not really complaining, at least Dark Pit came in amazing condition!  Woot, after Link arrives this Friday all I'll need is Ganondorf!

HOME STRETCH!!

 

OMM2: Team Hot Dog lost.................... pls, do squid kids like marshmallows that much??

#teammarshmallow

 

OMM3: Oh dear, leaving for college in less than four days...

I still got a year :<

lemme just ... crawl in my little corner and die

jk, second semester iz gunna be bomb

I hope you have fun though!

 

 

--

OMM:

 

it's a little bit quiet around here... too quiet...

 

 

our lord and savior Assimofirst has stepped down from his position as overseer of DCW

the end is near

everybody run

[What would you change about DC?]

-create an ending in sight (c'mon Gosho, I'm not getting any younger)

-legitimately kill off a main character for once

-more Gin screen time

-fire whoever's writing the Anime Original episodes, and burn the fillers to the ground while we're at it

[What Was the Last Video Game You Played?]

 

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

 

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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.

[What's the last movie you saw?]

Soooo......... I recently watched Inside Out and Jurassic World.

 

 

Inside Out was hilariously relatable (the gum commercial had me in tears) and I absolutely loved it. The characters were all great and everything was executed fabulously. The emotions were personified flawlessly and so creatively. The plot was relatively bland, but everything else completely made up for it. My sister also seemed to like it a lot, haha.

This movie was honestly one of the most original movies I've ever watched. It's fantastic.

 

Jurassic World was, meh. It was pretty bad. The CGI was fine, but everything else was cringe-worthy. The characters were stale and predictable, the amount of overused TV tropes in the movie is too damn high to count, the humor was forced, the whole purpose of the movie seemed like an excuse to show off dinosaur fight scenes instead of focusing on the plot (which was also nothing unique), the romantic subplot was completely unnecessary, Zach should be nominated for the Darwin Award, and the ending was blasphemous.

The spiel about sticking together for "survival" was corny, ridiculous, left a bad aftertaste, and was probably the one of the worst possible ways the movie could've ended. The only "major" character who died was that one British babysitter/assistant who no one really gave a damn about. Heck, I even laughed at how cruel and morbid her death was.

I knew the movie was bad after I caught myself looking down at my watch repeatedly while impatiently waiting for the movie to end. Also, the mother of those two kids looked strangely like my dreadful pre-calc teacher, making this movie, by default, the worst movie I've ever watched.

loljk, I actually liked my old pre-calc teacher.

But in all seriousness, this movie sucked.