Day 1

Well, not much happened today. Just cleaning up and packing. And waiting for the call to leave (we had to pick up mom from her work before we could go). Then began the long, 4.253 (not precisely) hour drive to our first destination: Souix Falls, SD. The former stomping grounds of Bre (why her parents chose Sartell over Souix Falls, I'll never know). We met up with the Beans, great friends of ours, with whom we're partaking in this great 14+ hour trip to Yellowstone. But enough about that. I came up with a brilliant game while driving up. Ready to hear it?

SPOT THE PRIUS!

Yes, as the hybrid becomes more and more prevalent in society, I started counting all of the small, fugly Toyota's I could spot. I came up with 14. Scary.

Also, all the gas in Souix Falls has 10% ethanol added. And I wonder Why? Ethanol is not the answer to high gas prices. It just creates more problems, like slightly higher food prices. Especially since ethanol doesn't get as good a mileage as regular gas gets, so you have to fuel more, which defeats the point. But I digress.

I finally played Portal tonight on a computer that doesn't lag. And it's AMAZING!!!

Well, that's about it, I suppose. TTYL (I'll be playing Wii in the car tomorrow. How? Well, if there is one thing I learned in Engineering, it's that you can do anything with the correct amount of adhesive. XD).

Failure of epic proportions

I suppose I haven't been teribly good at keeping this here blog in up-to-dateness, but the current buzzwords in our house are "productive" and "getting into shape" which translate to "get Ryan off the Internet." X(  So here's a brief recall since...gee...who knows when?

1. Finished all the grad thank yous. I couldn't feel my hands for the rest of that day.

2. Ordered (and received) Windows XP for my new Mac. If it wasn't for the fact that it's needed to play the three greatest games ever (Portal, The Sims 2, RollerCoaster Tycoon), I'm pretty sure I'd ask to be put in the nut house. Windows on a Mac...the absurdity...

3. I is an official Cobber. w00t!

4. Attended several grad parties, and

5. Looked for a fun gadget I could buy for myself with grad money.

I had the craziest idea the other day to try and arrange Professor Layton's Theme for piano. But, knowing my piano playing habits in the summer (read: nonexistent. Sorry, B.), I may just join the Ninsheetmusic forums and request it. 

I also found out I'm not cut out to be a defense attorney. We'll just leave it at that.

 

Where can I get one of those hats?

Finally, as we prepare to drive to Yellowstone and spend the week up there, I am reminded to take me iBook, and probably the Wi-Fi router. I don't want to keep (probably sole) reader out of the loop.

In the immortal (and possibly immoral) words of GLaDOS: Goodbye!

Apathy Sphere

It's brilliant, isn't it?

Photoshops and whatnot

My big achievement of the day was the start of Rachel J.'s grad card. I attempted drawing first, but that turned into an epic failure XD. Last time I tried to hand draw a card, Pluto got demoted. Granted, I doubt that it was my fault, but still.

So I moved on to Plan B: Photoshop. That turned out a bit better, at least, I thought so. At any rate, it'll make her laugh, though maybe more at my skill (or lack thereof) as opposed to my ideas.

Then I started a side project: the Apathy Sphere. GLaDOS has 5 different personality cores: Morality, Curiosity, Anger, Sarcasm (not seen in game; referenced, though), and Cake. I was talking to Rachel J. and I can't remember who came up with the idea, but someone mentioned different traits, and apathy came up. A screenshot and some tint changes later, and the Apathy Sphere is set for action. Well, almost. It needs some apathetic sayings. Any suggestions?

Then the distractions started to creep in. I started poking around YouTube and watched the Professor Layton 2 trailer (shut up, I know its geeky XD) and clicked on a related video. The title was completely in Japanese (oh, bitter is the law that that haunts me), so I assumed that maybe it was a commercial or something. I was wrong.

It was the first cutscene of the game. The intro. SPOILER MATERIAL!!!

Fortunately, though, it was in Japanese, so I couldn't understand the info. But it still didn't stop the traditional range of emotions that follows spoilers (shame, self-loathing, anger). But later I found the official website and played (if you could call it that) the online demo. 

In real life, the nubbins finally came. Now you may be thinking, "What the fudge-duck are the 'nubbins'?" Good question. An IBM ThinkPad came into our possession. It was used, and old; it lacked Wi-Fi, and a trackpad. Instead, it had a TrackPoint, the little rubber-eraser head pointing thinger that is the ThinkPad trademark. Except, the red rubber part was missing. I had to order some from the Lenovo website, and they took their sweet time sending them. But they came, and with the Wi-Fi card I bought of Amazon (best shopping site ever), its a viable computer again. At least for the fact that it can run RollerCoaster Tycoon.

Finally, it was my last piano lesson today. For 5 years (excluding summer, when I never play ;) ), I have been taking lessons from CMMS, and I ended my lessons with my faithful piano instructor Brenda. It is entirely over, since I have my recital to play for, but the end is in sight, and it's a little sad. But I knew it was coming, and now I have to find and play my own music.

Grad Party, among other things

Sorry but I was running of 6 hours of sleep last night, couple with the fact that before then, I had been awake for around 27 hours. All night grad party=tiring, but fun.

I won $45 to Target. I was 4 names away from the car (which was won by Caroline, lucky duck). Rachel won a blender (I can see it now...Ryan: "Will it Blend?" Rachel: "I don't know...let's find out!" XD). Karolyn won a toaster, Libby won a mini fridge, Austin won a 12-piece cookware set (ouch...) and Josh won a quesodilla maker (the only thing that could have been worse? The linens.).

Some facts on my grad party before I go into my randomness. Thanks to everyone who attended. It went from one to five. 2 hams, 4 turkeys, and around 400 buns. Mom and Dad said they figured around 85 people showed up (that's around 50 more than I initially thought would come!) I read all of 2 cards before I started crying. Rachel's Professor Layton card was my favorite.

Speaking of Professor Layton, and you knew this was coming, here's some dirt I found.

Ok, so third game has time travel, and the cliche of time travel is that you get to meet yourself. Just watch Back to the Future II. So I go looking around the web (armed with my trusty Google Translate bookmark button) and found a picture:


Apparently, the future is steampunk. TAKE ME WITH YOU!

Lost my cool for a minute there...(clears throat) anywho, continuing on. So, have you noticed anything interesting about the picture? How about the figure behind the lamppost?

I'm curious now to see the kind of interaction that will arise between the Professor, Luke, and Luke. And the game isn't even completed! Japan gets it "Autumn 2008" and we get it a year latter. And, unfortunately, I can't just ask Rachel to translate it for me. Can you imagine the amount of oranges that would take? Ryan's Law continues.

Oh, and I tripped during graduation. Media for that coming later (or whenever I feel motivated enough to post it ;) ).