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Reading: finished Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them, and promptly made a donation to the Democratic National Convention. This book was the kick in the pants every propaganda-spewing ultra-conservative needed to receive, and it was the perfect bit of guidance for the easily-misled masses out there. If the other blogs haven't convinced you to go read this book yet, do it now. It made a world of difference when watching the State of the Union.

I got the new Clancy book Tooth of the Tiger for Christmas, but I don't know when I'll find the time to start on it. I'm hoping it was as fun to read as R6 was.

Class reviews, after one week:

World Lit, pt 2 - going to be impossible, just like last semester. Let's hear it for the struggle for a B! But the good of it is I'll come out able to handle any bitchy research class, and I'll be done with English!
Jazz Appreciation - liking it. Might be challenging for the kind of work involved (two mandatory concert reviews, stuff like that) but it'll be worth it just to be one of those cool guys who knows his jazz.
History 315K - according to everyone I've talked to about it, this class has blow-off written all over it. The reading seems easy, and I plan on doing it for safety's sake, but... yeah.
Spanish 312L - Jesus Christ, this class is stupid easy. I would test out of it but the test isn't offered again until April, so I'll just tough it out and get some oral practice. (heh heh, he said oral practice)
Plan II Math - I ***love*** this class, even if it's obvious that most P2ers hate math with a passion. Patrick, my World Lit buddy, is scared of the class and I'm happy to be able to help him for a change.

Just pretend I have something witty to close this mostly informational post. It's 3AM and I must be... tired.

You ever been told that college is where you find yourself? I felt philosophically uneasy coming into freshman year. It wasn't a day-to-day stress kind of thing, but after being settled down so long in my satisfaction with my identity (to myself and to the outside world) it was a shock to suddenly have to feel the need to make sure I was in the right standing.

I found that I really wasn't far off the mark the first time around. Tonight, instead of going to the P2 party, or Joe's party, I went to my brother's apartment. There probably needs to be some background story with him. When we were both younger, we spent all the imaginable time we had together playing games. In the times between, when Kris was still a teenager, he just found addictions to games and played them obsessively until he felt he mastered them. He topped the best national score in Nintendo Power score for the Game Boy version of Tetris. He 100%'d the Zelda games, Pilotwings, and so on. By the N64 era, he really started to drop off, on account of attending college and so forth. He's managed to remain a Nintendo fanboy though, and every time there's a new Zelda or F-Zero game he picks it up and keeps up his habit. While I was playing every PC and N64 game under the sun in junior high and early high school, Kris focused entirely on F-Zero X and tried to beat all of the hidden Nintendo staff ghosts, the best recorded runs by the development staff on each course. He beat more than half.

For Christmas this year, I surprised him with F-Zero GC. I played it with him tonight and got addicted too. After less than an hour of playing, there we were, two little 20-something nerds, making charts of how to best completely beat the game with its new part customization feature. After what seemed like decades on hiatus from playing games hardcore with him, we were right back into the thick of it, kissing our GPAs goodbye, after an hour. Suddenly I felt like I had never lost myself to begin with; maybe I really just am a gamer through and through.

At 1:30 in the morning, Kris and I called it a night and I started to drive home, where I found another piece that felt missing: driving. As I drove home through southern Austin, on dark roads, Incubus blaring, downshifting into the curves to compensate for the rain, I just said to myself declaratively: I love driving. I love cars. The whole idea of getting a cheap Miata popped into my mind once more.

Throw all that fun together with a few moments to myself late at night (which I always appreciate) and I came home a damn happy camper. Probably a lot happier than had I gone to the parties.

Ah, the wonders that racing games can work.

So the Scion tC looks pretty damn sexy. Take a coupe that looks like the new Accord (but sexier), put it on Toyota's European small-sedan platform, and throw in the 160hp Camry 4-cylinder. Then add a sunroof, 17" rims, power everything, and a complete Pioneer system (that supports MP3 playback, RMS 115 watts) and price it for $17k. Bolt on a TRD supercharger (takes peak hp to 200) and you're talking $20k, plus a couple thousand more for suspension/shifting mods. So for $22-23k, you've got a friggin' nice sportscar that's entirely under warranty. My only complaint? No navigation system. But I'm good spatially so I'd live.

Pretty damn cool idea, I say. Alex and I talked about it at length as to what cars it could outrun. We decided that it could most likely outdo a 325, a 330 would be close (20-30 extra hp but some 300-400 extra pounds) and he and I are at odds as to how it would take a Sentra SE-R.

Even still, if my automotive future weren't already decided, I'd probably spring for one of these.

And Mom, if you happen to read this like many parents do onto their children, this does NOT mean I'll take it over the 325. We already had that convo.

But still. Cool car.

So, yes.. it's 1:30AM and I'm very tired and I really don't feel eloquent at the moment. But I am back here, and wasting tons of time, and thoroughly enjoying it before class starts. Here's the spring schedule rundown:

-World Lit (second semester)
-History 315K (1st semester American, I took them in reverse order)
-Spanish 312L (4th semester)
-Math 310 (Plan II math, non-major advanced topics)
-Music 307, Jazz Appreciation

Here's what I've been studying in preparation for this:
-Family Guy
-Family Guy
-Family Guy
-Halo
-Family Guy
-Family Guy

It's definitely good to be back; I spent the last few days re-uniting with various friends and it's been a very happy experience. Taking care of defensive driving, however, has *not* been a very happy experience.

rrr.

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I done signed up. Once I get the stats I'll update this post with what you get.

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