chibiforte

Simpson is offering about $4,000...
Cal Baptist is offering about $3,200 from the Dean's Scholarship...
Colorado is offering $8,000, if that message was correct...

And due to FAFSA, my Mother believes that the expected family contribution is about $6,000 to $8,000, but we are not certain of that, yet.  And the above offers are just the beginning, seeing as how each college will try to put more scholarship money and grants to pay for as much as they can.

Simpson's about 6-7 hours away in Redding, which is in Northern California.  That is close to where both my Brother and best friend is, or will be, stationed.
Cal Baptist is about 2.5 hours away in Riverside, which is to the South.  I know someone's who has been there, and I will eventually get to see someone I know attend.
Colorado is way far away, obviously, but it is near my other Brother and his two children, both of which I know would be fun to be near.  Plus, it is close to Colorado Springs, where I may be able to intern at AiO when it airs again.

And yet, my decision cannot be based on my family's location.

Simpson is in a nice area, with trees and grass and good weather.
Cal Baptist is in a place my Mother did not care for, but the man who went there said it was safe and interesting.
Colorado is in a cold place, which I enjoy far more than intense heat.

Simpson may or may not allow me to learn the languages I want.
Cal Baptist has clubs and activities that I highly enjoy.
Colorado has locations around it that offer sophisticated activities.

And yet, I have no idea how the spiritual component plays out in each place.  Expository sermons, or simply topical?  Exegetical teaching?  Bad theology, or just plain heresy?  Do they offer conferences for students to attend?  Will they allow me to play video games or watch shows I enjoy?  I'm pretty much finished with most movies and their blasphemy and cursing, not to mention other elements that just drive me to the brink of insanity.  Will I be able to use the internet freely (to a point, of course, while blocking out all the bad stuff)?  I cannot imagine them really blocking out Kiva or Go-Onger when viewing them on video sites... but then again, who knows?  Will I be able to get "fed" properly, with the ministry, fellowship, and everything related to that?  Can this properly convert and grow me as necessary to live?

Auuuhhhh... how many questions must be raised and answered before I can make a decision?

I've been accepted at all three of the above places, and yet I can't decide.

I just have to wait for the acceptance letters and financial aid award information before I can delve deeply into this...

MyAnimeList
MyMangaList

Nice, no?

I'm lovin' Den-O so far.  Momotaros is probably one of the funniest tokusatsu characters I've seen so far, and it's nice to see these main heroes in Kamen Rider, at least the recent ones.  They are just so quiet, shy, and just plain refreshing to see as opposed to the SuperMan-esque heroes that are ultra-confident and all that.  They remind me of actual people as opposed to cardboard cutouts.  They remind me of myself, and I totally relate to how Ryotaro and Wataru act.

I finally received LostWinds on the WiiWare channel, today.  It seems interesting.  It has a very Eastern look about it, flowing from the music to the character designs.  Kind of reminds me of computer generated updates on the art style used in Journey to the West.  I'll have to give it more time.

Wii Fit on Wednesday.  So hyped, yet am unsure as to how I'll be able to exercise in this heat.

Getting Senior pictures taken tomorrow morning.  Don't really feel like I need them, but whatever, my Mom wanted them done.  At least it gets me out of a few hours of work.  We've been doing a lot of work on the yard this past week.

GekiRanger is getting awesome.  I just watched the appearance of GekiViolet, and he has such a great backstory and henshin sequence.  I didn't know that he used Shigeki as opposed to the normal Geki that the Triangle uses.  Hopefully Ken's introduction will be equally as awesome.

Boukenger is also getting good.  I'm now getting into the BoukenSilver introduction, which will be nice.  Hopefully Eiji is an interesting character, instead of simply being a live-action doppleganger of Inuyasha.

Oh yes, another thing here...

...

Simpson University called today.  Apparently, I've been accepted.  Neat-o!

Now, we just have to send in my deposit and immunization records, and then I get to start picking out my classes and discussing financial aid and whatnot.  Should be interesting to see where this takes me.

 Still pondering that particular transition in the novels that I have to figure out.  Hopefully I'll be making some headway on that soon, since I want to finish up these summaries.

This upcoming Spring Anime Season doesn't look all that special.  Allison & Lillia looks really interesting, as well as Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, Nijuu Mensou no Musume, Itazura no Kiss, and especially kure-nai, but that's pretty much it.  I really doubt I'll even watch much else besides Allison & Lillia, but we'll see how it goes.

We forked Ben and Jay's yard, last week.  And just earlier tonight, my older brother and sister-in-law placed hundreds of post-it notes on both Gabe's and Jeremy's trucks.  It looked awesome.  This'll show everybody at the Youth Group that our family is not meant to be messed with. :3

I read today that the Ben Stein movie is going to definitely be airing at our local theater, which is a huge plus for me, seeing as how I didn't think the subject matter would be accepted by the theater's owner (seeing as how he aired the Al Gore movie thing), but it turns out that he's just in these things for the money, and if he can make money from a movie, it doesn't really matter what the subject matter is about.  And considering this is a small town, it'd probably be more accepted than all of these big cities.  I'm predicting that there will be at least one boycott of the movie in at least one state, probably here in California in certain cities.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least, considering the terribly hypocritical patrons of this state who think they're open-minded, but are far more bigoted than the things they fight against. xD

I haven't been playing as much Brawl, lately, but that's because there's not much more for me to do on it.  We've unlocked pretty much everything we can, except for the Boss Battle challenges, which are horrendously difficult and something that I don't want to partake in.  I want to try to get into some RPGs again, like Earthbound, but I just can't seem to find the time to sit down and play it.  If nothing else, then I'm certainly going to have a giant backlog of video games that will finally be completed once I'm in college with free time on my hands.  I predict weekend marathons will be taking place with my roommates.

Speaking of roommates, I'm really hoping that I get some cool ones.  I think the current allocationg per room is about four people, so I'll have three roommates.  I want at least one of them to be a chef of some sort, so they'll constantly make food and ask me to taste-test it.  I'm also hoping that another one of them is a computer genius who can help me with tech stuff.  And I hope the last one is an artist or musician of some sort, who can draw or help me with music stuff.  It'd be awesome if that happened.

I downloaded at least two gigabytes of OCRemixes, today.  I decided that it was time I go through what that website has and just enjoy what they put out.  So far, I'm impressed by these remixers.  They really know how to take chiptunes and rework them into a completely new creation.

That's right, who's the one who spent all day yesterday getting Clannad to work on my ever-suffering laptop?

Yep, it's me.  I can now play Clannad.  <3

Between downloading the actual game through the torrent, changing the non-unicode language/region, using some trickery through an emulator in order to get the executable files from the .cdi file, patching the actual game with the English patch, and figuring out why it just wouldn't load up until I changed the region, I'm sure I spent about six hours working on this crazy thing.  Maybe more, I didn't time myself.

All I know is that I'm finally going to play the story to the game that I've wanted to play since last year, and I can play it in my own native language (albeit, slightly gimped, considering the grammar errors).

I win.  Again.

(Don't worry, I'm going to actually purchase a copy of the game when it comes out with the new version, since the original version is nigh unfindable)

Oh yeah, and I also got all A's on my semester report card.  Nice.  I'm upholding my 4.0 GPA quite well.  Next comes college.

And I purchased Harvest Moon: Boy and Girl for the PSP, today.  I don't know when I'm actually going to find time to play it, considering the other games I have to finish, but it's always nice to have a little Harvest Moon to play, right?


The duck is totally stealing lettuce from the bucket.  Little thief.  
And that cow is trying to stomp on the ducklings and chicks.  
Didn't PETA see this before the game was released?

• Retake SAT; get better score.
• Continue my studies; get into deeper theology.
• Focus more on studying Eastern Religions as opposed to Western Religions (mostly Abrahmic).
• Stay jobless; need my time to enjoy myself before college.
• Actually watch the entirety of Go-onger and Kamen Rider Kiba.
• Read more books from John Wesley, Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, John Bunyan, Ravi Zacharias, John Piper, John Macarthur, Ray Comfort, Dinesh D'Souza, Alistair Begg, and any I've forgotten.
• Apply for as many scholarships as humanly possible, and then some.
• Watch anime in a more timely fashion, and prioritize my viewing.
• Legally purchase soundtracks and DVDs to anime and video games.
• Build up my game collection to a high level so I will have enough games to play during college, so I don't have to buy too many games.

~More to come, perhaps?~

My monthly meeting for schoolwork was today.  Always nice to go to, even though I usually wait till the last minute to do my work.  We (my brother and I) were surprised that we had to take some extra tests, but we were able to get them done.  Although, I'm not sure I'm happy with the test results.  I mean, I did really well on them, and I honestly don't understand why.  This isn't false humility, because I seriously thought I didn't do well on them, and I'm kinda angry that I somehow stumbled upon the correct answers without putting much thought into them.

I mean, really, I'm a seriously lazy student.  I wait until the last few days before our work is due before I actually finish it, and I don't put that much thought into what I'm doing, and yet... I still get correct answers?  You might think I'm weird, but I'd rather FAIL HARD and actually get the motivation to work on the schoolwork the proper way, than to just take the easy way out and do things haphazardly and somehow get the answers correct.  Isn't that the difficult, yet morally and ethically correct, way to do things?

And I can't change myself, since I'm already settled into my routine and can't diverge from my set habits... v_v

And c'mon, the test results said that I was well above my grade in MATH!  I mean, COME ON!  MATH?!  If there's one thing that I believe I'm so terribly BAD at, it's definitely math!

...

Wow... Baroque actually looks pretty swell.  Not that I'm much for the obviously questionable symbolism, but the art style is pretty nifty.  Looks like a winner on the Wii.

Oh yeah, speaking of the Wii, I did end up buying a Wii Points Card.  2000 points, to be exact.  And yes, I did indeed purchase Pokemon Snap on the Virtual Console, and I just unlocked the Volcano level.  It's about as fun and entertaining as I remember it, although I'll probably finish it fairly quickly.

I apparently can't go to the book store, anymore.  As soon as I walk into the appropriate section, I waste so much time just looking at the various titles, picking up books in my hands, examining them, memorizing the names of the authors and titles, etc... and then I find out that I don't have any money to buy them.  I'm certain that as soon as I get any cash whatsoever for Christmas, I'll be buying books.  I need to add more to my theology shelf...

Oh yeah, and a new book arrived on my doorstep, today.  It's thick as a phone book (768 pages, to be precise), and it has a ton of information on pretty much every major religion in the world.  Neat.

I've been watching more of -ef- a tale of memories, lately.  And it's actually a pretty decent show.  I can't wait to see where it takes us, as I'm only on episode 9 and it's going to finish off at 12 or 13 episodes in three or so weeks.  I gotta say, though... if there is a single anime on earth that reminds me of Kingdom Hearts in both artistic style and musical choice, it's definitely this show.  I mean, just watch the opening theme.

I'm still getting close to finishing Rune Factory.  I'm still on the second-to-last dungeon, but I'm getting stronger and stronger, and my crops are almost finished up with their growing, since the door to the second half of the dungeon requires you to grow five crops near the door to proceed.  I just wish it was a bit easier to finish these dungeons up, but eh, what can you do?

And... there's not much else to talk about.  I'm sending away for college information tomorrow (and let me tell you, I'm going to sign up to get information from well over fifteen colleges, at the least), so I'll be happy with that.  Definitely trying to go for Cal Baptist, since employers are actually predominantly looking for workers from Christian colleges these days, due to the fact that they believe they'll be getting workers with more honesty and integrity than graduates from secular universities.  Plus, that's where Gabe went, and he's one of the smartest guys I've ever known, so why not?  In addition to that, they have an arcade right there on campus, with a bunch of arcade cabinets with games that I'll probably be familiar with, so that's a definite benefit.

But eh, what can you do?  I had schoolwork to finish, a guild thread to write announcing my hiatus, and stuff to take care of.  I should be more diligent, yes, but I'm really, really lazy. xD

I'm sure there might be some guild members who saw my post, and to them, I must ask: do any of you have an account on LiveJournal?  I have no problem with adding anybody who asks of me to my friendslist, just so you know.  I'm totally down for commenting on journal entries and having brief (or in-depth, if you prefer) discussion and conversations!

I'm getting close to finishing Rune Factory pretty soon, here.  I'm in the second-to-last cave, I have pretty decent levels in order to fight the final boss, I think, and as soon as the last cave is finished, I'll be able to marry Mist, and only then will I consider the game finished (as I already have about 500,000 Gold and don't have very many things I can do after marriage, short of having the baby, and even then, that doesn't further the story at all).

I honestly can't wait until Christmas.  Who wouldn't love that day?  Hopefully we won't have any problems with anything, as we kinda have had in the last few years...

I'm thinking of trading in a few DS games in order to buy a Wii Points Card, so that I can purchase a few Virtual Console games.  I was initially thinking of buying Pokemon Snap, but I don't really know... it'd be a short game, with not that much Wii support, and with hardly any Pokemon from the last ten years.  On the other hand, it was still a fun game, but I'm not sure if it's worth the $10.00 I'd have to pay.  Maybe I'll just go with something that's a given, like Super Mario Bros. 3.

John Piper is one of the best speakers I've heard in terms of sheer emotion within the last few years. :3

I love this message. <3

I'm trying to finish off as much as I can of Rune Factory before Christmas vacation starts, so I can move on to other games and not have to spend hours on a single week in the game.  I started Luminous Arc even though I wasn't finished with the previously mentioned game, and it's okay, but kinda difficult.  I also have to play Hoshigami Remix and Phantom Hourglass... x_x;

I gotta start applying for colleges and financial aid and scholarships and all that, soon.  Pastor Miles bought me a college magazine, which kinda surprised me because I completely forgot that I talked to him about colleges and theology and the like.  He's such a nice guy. :3

I also have to retake the SAT sometime this year or next.  I received a fairly decent score the first time around last year (1640), but my parents believe it'd be in my best interests to try for a higher score now that I understand a few more things (like Geometry stuff).  I'm okay with it, but I have to find out when I need to sign up for it...

I'm going to try to purchase Pokemon Snap for the Virtual Console sometime this week.  I could probably trade in a game or two at GameStop when we go out of town for our monthly meeting, and I could buy a 1000 Wii Points Card then.  I'm really looking forward to replaying that game. n_n

I might be getting a PSP for Christmas.  Ever since the Xbox 360 debacle and the fact that we're certainly not going to be getting one anytime soon, my parents have been kinda skirting the issue and not giving me a direct answer about the PSP.  That'll be cool.  I just don't know how I'm going to purchase Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku for it, or whether I should at all (text adventure + only Japanese text = not understandable at all).  But it'll be fun to play games like Jeanne d'Arc, Parappa the Rappa, MegaMan: Powered Up, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, etc.

I'm going to clean off my shelf in the room and put all of my theology-based books on a single shelf.  I'll call it the "Shelf of Theology".  Yes, that's totally clever, and completely awesome.  Maybe I'll take pictures of it.

My face still hurts from my accident, yesterday... x_x

I bought an R4 earlier tonight, since I had just the right amount.  Sara's going to let me use her microSD card in the meantime until I buy my own.  I'm excited for this, really.  I get to back-up all my current (legally bought) games so I don't have to bring my entire case of 25ish games with me all the time, not to mention I get to try out some of those rhythm games I love so much (Ontamarama, Taiko no Tatsujin DS, Daigasso! Band Brothers, etc.). :3

Smallville was decent, tonight.  It almost felt like a finale, or what a finale SHOULD be like, at least.  Hopefully the new plot developments with Kara will last more than a few episodes, and that Clark gets pwned by Jor-El in some way, shape, or form.

GekiRanger is shaping up to be pretty awesome, and will probably have a decent ending.  I'm really wanting to see the team-up movie and the actual movie they made (they have a team-up special and a general movie special for each Sentai season).  I find it interesting that they set the movie in Hong Kong rather than Japan, as it usually is.  Of course, given what the theme of the season is, it shouldn't be too surprising.  It'll be cool to see the rangers out of their normal setting, and maybe the Kensei will make a cameo.  We're pretty sure that Sha Fu will at least be in it, but I'd like to see Elehan make an appearance and flirt with all the girls, as usual. xD

I got all A's this month, as per MY usual.  This'll be good for college, though, and if I do better on the SATs this December (if I take it so soon), it'll be great for my future.  I'd actually like to look into studying "Radio and Communications" type professions.  Maybe I'll be a future radio host, broadcasting my opinions over Sirius, XM, online streams, radio stations, and internet podcasts?  It'll be interesting to see where I head.

I don't usually take those online quiz things, but this is one that tests what career will suit your personality, and I'm all for something like that.  I found that the answer was... pretty good, actually.  I'll link to it so you can take it, too, and maybe I'll post more of these in the future.  However, I crossed out the careers mentioned that I knew I can't, or won't, do.  I don't think I'm creative, either.

You would be very happy in a career that utilised your level-headedness, and allowed you to work mainly on your own. You want a career that allows you to be creative, without having to be involved with lots of people. Some careers that would be perfect for you are:

• Artist (I'm terrible at art)
  
• Historian (I like history)
  
• Banker (I could handle money)
  
• Novelist (I'd like writing books)
  
• University Professor (It'd be fun to teach)
  
• Photographer (Pictures I take are terrible)
  
• Vet (I don't like most animals)
  
• Paralegal (what is that?)
  
• Graphic Designer (I'm still not good at art)
  
• Online Content Developer (I could come up with interesting content)
  
• Webmaster (I can code stuff)
  
• Producer (Movie Producer?  Nice)
  
• Managing Director (I could manage people if necessary)
  
• Nutritionist (Errr... well, it'd work with what I've done for the past several months)
  
• Advertising (I can make stuff sound good)
  
• Nursing (I get queasy too easily)
  

You like working and being alone. You like to avoid attention at all costs. You tend to keep to yourself, and not interact much with the people around you. You enjoy spending time with a few a close friends. You like to listen to others, but don't like sharing much about yourself. You are very quiet and private.

You are very practical, and only act after thinking things through. You don't like being forced to answer quickly. You have to evaluate the situation completely. You make decisions based on what you can verify with your senses.

You like to be deeply involved in one or two special projects. You like to be behind the scenes. You are very logical and fair. You feel you should be honest with others and protect their feelings.

You trust your gut instincts. You are easily inspired and trust that inspiration. You are very innovative. You analyse things by looking at the big picture. You are concerned about how what you do affects others. You worry about your actions and the future. You tend to use a lot of metaphors and are very descriptive and colourful in your choice of language.

You are very creative, and get bored easily if you don't get to express yourself. You like to learn new things. You don't like the same old routine. You like to leave your options open.

Quiz taken here

I'll talk about Tiffany's pageant... tomorrow.

I'm going to have to spend a lot less time on the computer for the next week or so.  It's that time of the month again, where I have to focus more on getting my schoolwork finished for the monthly meeting.  Not such a bad thing, since I could use a break from this little machine.

Smallville was decent tonight.  Evil Lana is pretty awesome, even if this whole deal with Lex does tend to get old every now and then.  I don't know why, but I didn't particularly enjoy Tom Welling's performance as Clark this episode.  Something just seemed kinda... off.  It just seemed weird to me.

I'm totally lovin' the fact that Gray Fox (AKA, the freakin' Cyborg Ninja!!) is going to be in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, at least in Assist Trophy form.  Sure, I'd much rather have him as a playable character, but eh, I'll live with it.  I have the feeling that Raiden is going to show up with his new MGS4 ninja gear anyway, so I'm fine.  I just wish that they'd put a villian in the game as Snake's counterpart, like Liquid, or Ocelot, or even Big Boss, I don't care.  Just gimme more MGS goodness, Nintendo! :D

I'm totally anticipating the last episode of Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive.  This has been one of the greatest seasons of Power Rangers since Time Force, at least to me.  I love Mack as the Red Ranger, and he is almost as awesome as Wes was as the Red Time Force Ranger.  He has the absolute best backstory in the entire line of past and present Rangers, and it'll be sad to see him go.  I really, really hope that he comes back for a team-up during Jungle Fury, but the odds are against that.  Still though, I can hope and dream. :3

I retooled the Clark Kent icon a bit since it was somewhat pixelated, and yes, I used Photoshop to do so.  It's funny, I've had the program on here for months, but I only just started using it for icon-making (well, cropping pictures to make icons, at least).  I always need a border around them though, there's no choice in the matter.

What bit of info could they possibly release about Smash Bros. Brawl tonight, I wonder?  For some reason, I'm anticipating something kinda big...  and I don't know why...

Oh yes, since I've been making a bit of extra cash lately, I decided that I needed to purchase two games instead of my usual one game.  I'm going for MegaMan ZX Advent and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.  Do those sound good, or has anybody actually played either one of them and can tell me how either of them are?  I'm awaiting your comment.

Here's hopin' that my cousin does well on that Government test tomorrow...

I stayed up until about 1:10AM last night, trying to finish that accursed 100th episode.  But I did finish it, and the ending was satisfactory.  VegettoEX sounded a bit choked up about the deal, though it's hard to tell if you haven't listened to all the episodes like I have.  It's actually really interesting to think that it's been nearly two years since I started on this podcast-listening adventure.  It makes me more anxious to start a real podcast of my own, but circumstances cause me to have to wait.

All in all, though, it was a nice tribute to a great show. :3


Oh yeah, and the Straw Hat Pirate icon is fantastic.  I'm so glad I grabbed the Color Walk books while I could, and that Photoshop helps keep it somewhat clean and doesn't pixelate the image like MS Paint. n_n

Gotta tutor a friend in Government today, yet again.  It was fairly easy yesterday, though, so it shouldn't be too hard today.  I'm gonna make me some cash! :D