Taernost and Hachi's Spring Break Misadventure!
Well, Spring Break has come and gone, but what a ride it was. Unfortunately, it both began and ended with me receiving bogus tickets, the first for making use of a loading zone (appealed, appeal denied, $50 coughed up; yay for the UT parking system, or lack thereof...), and the second being a citation for speeding (I was going 51 at the transition from a 50 MPH zone to a 40 MPH zone; note that the 40 MPH zone was less than 300 feet or so in length, and went right back into a 50 MPH zone, and there were other cars nearby going at least as fast as I was); I'm supposed to call the judge in the next 10 days or so to determine what fine I'll be given, though it's my hope that he'll realize this was a speed trap (and my first traffic offense, no less) and let me off with a warning (or at least a penalty that I can actually afford).
Other than those bits of bad news, and the hassle that came from trying to juggle so many people's schedules, things went pretty well. Saturday was more or less a bust for me, as we spent a good half the evening trying to figure out where our hotel was located, but Sunday was spent with one Mr. Frent Yumon, who aided me in getting my friend eternalhachi hooked on Azumanga Daioh (he has now purchased the series thanks to this). The next couple of days were spent hanging around with valshier and shadowlark71, who showed us Supreme Commander (which is so very obviously Total Annihilation 2, and thus I must someday get a copy of it) and RTK XI (which looked easier to play than RTK X, but far less involved, and with much less focus on individual characters [in other words, more like an RTS than an RPG]), as well as The Grudge 2, which (thanks to the deleted scenes) has me seriously looking forward to the third installment in the series. Next we spent another evening with Frent, during which we mainly messed around on Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires (which he was kind enough to let us borrow) and went to dinner together (we found ourselves eating out quite a bit more than I'd anticipated). Finally, we spent a couple of days with Tenketsu and gale_dragoon, who showed us City of Villains (yet another MMO I have to admit I'm considering playing, if and when I ever get the time and money to do so) and several humorous internet videos. Finally, I spent Saturday and the better part of Sunday at Hachi's house, where I mainly dealt with his small army of dogs, two of whom were the yipping, annoying type (though they did finally seem to warm up to me a bit), and went about enjoying the city of Houston and its various restaurants and shopping centers (needless to say, we didn't even scratch the surface of the city, but it was still certainly interesting for me).
All in all, nothing terribly amazing or even unusual took place during this trip (well, nothing unusual that wasn't unpleasant, anyway), but I have to admit that it was still very enjoyable, and certainly something I'd like to do again someday. Of course, next time I'll try to avoid the whole speed trap incident, and can only hope that parking around campus won't result in another parking ticket. Better planning would be a good idea too; it would've been nice to know that Saturday was going to be a bust for me due to the presence of someone who'd rather avoid me, or that the hotel room wasn't needed for the all of the days we reserved it as we could've stayed at one of my friend's houses, etc, etc.
Anyway, time for me to get back to work; the Spring Break has only just ended, and that means that the professors are continuing their mad rush to stuff as much work into as small a period of time as possible. Still, I think I'll still be on a decent amount of the time, so I'll likely see everyone later!
Other than those bits of bad news, and the hassle that came from trying to juggle so many people's schedules, things went pretty well. Saturday was more or less a bust for me, as we spent a good half the evening trying to figure out where our hotel was located, but Sunday was spent with one Mr. Frent Yumon, who aided me in getting my friend eternalhachi hooked on Azumanga Daioh (he has now purchased the series thanks to this). The next couple of days were spent hanging around with valshier and shadowlark71, who showed us Supreme Commander (which is so very obviously Total Annihilation 2, and thus I must someday get a copy of it) and RTK XI (which looked easier to play than RTK X, but far less involved, and with much less focus on individual characters [in other words, more like an RTS than an RPG]), as well as The Grudge 2, which (thanks to the deleted scenes) has me seriously looking forward to the third installment in the series. Next we spent another evening with Frent, during which we mainly messed around on Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires (which he was kind enough to let us borrow) and went to dinner together (we found ourselves eating out quite a bit more than I'd anticipated). Finally, we spent a couple of days with Tenketsu and gale_dragoon, who showed us City of Villains (yet another MMO I have to admit I'm considering playing, if and when I ever get the time and money to do so) and several humorous internet videos. Finally, I spent Saturday and the better part of Sunday at Hachi's house, where I mainly dealt with his small army of dogs, two of whom were the yipping, annoying type (though they did finally seem to warm up to me a bit), and went about enjoying the city of Houston and its various restaurants and shopping centers (needless to say, we didn't even scratch the surface of the city, but it was still certainly interesting for me).
All in all, nothing terribly amazing or even unusual took place during this trip (well, nothing unusual that wasn't unpleasant, anyway), but I have to admit that it was still very enjoyable, and certainly something I'd like to do again someday. Of course, next time I'll try to avoid the whole speed trap incident, and can only hope that parking around campus won't result in another parking ticket. Better planning would be a good idea too; it would've been nice to know that Saturday was going to be a bust for me due to the presence of someone who'd rather avoid me, or that the hotel room wasn't needed for the all of the days we reserved it as we could've stayed at one of my friend's houses, etc, etc.
Anyway, time for me to get back to work; the Spring Break has only just ended, and that means that the professors are continuing their mad rush to stuff as much work into as small a period of time as possible. Still, I think I'll still be on a decent amount of the time, so I'll likely see everyone later!