First off, my new excuse for not coming to GS often enough anymore. Life seems to be happening. I getting other things to do. Gotta check Facebook every now and then (for all sorts of reasons) talking to people on the phone, graduating, things like getting a license, car, job, going to college, keeping in contact with people, working out, actually playing games :p. All sorts of things. I know some people (not pointing any fingers, Neon and Light ) can still be as active despite their schedules, and I salute you all for that.

Anyway, I graduated today! WEEE! Was I excited or nervous? (which seem to be the favorite questions). Not really. I do feel expanded though. All the oppurtunies opening and others closing. It's an odd feeling, knowing that the bus that has come to my house for 12 years requiring me to wake up at 6 and wear shoes will no longer stop for me. I'm done now. The world has prepped me to live in it as it sees fit, and now waits to reap the benefits of me living in it. Cool huh?!

I started playing Iris Online and for the most part have quit playing Quake 3. The learning curve is just too crazy considering that the only people playing have had years of experience playing with people of equal skill level. No one ON THE ENTIRE PLANET ever plays in the lesser ranked servers, so I must throw myself to the big dogs right off the bat. Iris online is fun. It doesn't seem enormously innovative, but it's innovative and fun enough to enjoy. Of course, I play the mage. The class that, if your skill is on the higher tier, will be inevitably better than any other class. Whether or not I am, it's more fun knowing that whether or not I win or lose is almost always 100% my fault. Does that make any sense? Whatever. Anyway, it's an mmo rpg based on gypsies and tarot cards. The only problem I've found with playing the mage in this game is since it's relatively turn based, a stand alone mage is very hard to play. It isn't like Diablo where it's only about play style. Mages need space to be effective , but when hacking through waves of enemies, space is not readily apparent. Enemies respawn very fast, so I can't just walk backwards if I want after I get to the middle of an area when enemies spawn. Being completely alone AND being relatively turn based but real time with a cooldown system for your skills, playing the mage is rough. But, mages are late bloomers. I don;'t doubt that I'll be able to turn the tide with a wave of my hand soon. I'm still trying to figure some things out though. The Battlefield system rarely works (a pvp... thingy...)simply because enough people rarely join a bracket of your level. Getting a team to go into a dungeon is the same way. Without a party, you can't even enter a dungeon. You can learn different sorts of special Assistant Skills to craft buffing stuff of all kinds.

I went to a LAN party (hooking up a crap ton of computers and playing games on em) with my whole computer and electronics class at CTC. I was a force. I played Unreal tournament for a few hours. I kind of whooped a$$. Quake Live got my reflexes nuts. We played mostly Capture the Flag, but I always got a team that couldn't do anything. (couldn't work together, aim, or really do anything) and the other team was always, like, the epitome of teamwork. Pi$$ed me off. I literally sat in my base with the enemy flag in my hand waiting for our flag to be returned so I could make a point for my team for 10 minutes. My entire team together couldn't take 1 flag holder for 10 minutes. After that, I just ran over to the opposite base and slaughtered the endlessly respawning waves of giant black males wearing armor and incredibly similiar dreadlocks. Never died after that.

After a while I quit and started playing Super Smash Bros Brawl for the first time. I'm crazy at Melee, but I've never played Brawl. The guy who owned the game who thought he rocked didn't know that until the 3rd time in a row I wiped the floor with him with Fox. "WHAT!? THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME!?" It was pretty satisfying. I do that to people all the time with fighting games. . Kinda average at FPS's for the most part though.

Gonna go play Iris Online.