I’m not really sure this needs an introduction… those of you who know how to code and understand netspeak will probably find this as amusing as I do.  Or you might just find it lame. Can you imagine writing an entire program in LOLCODE though?  I think I might try later on :D

I’ve found that I’d much rather have a go at crossword puzzles. Normally I’m not very good at them, particularly the cryptic ones. However, I do enjoy the challenge of thinking about the words more than I enjoy putting numbers into a grid. I guess each to their own. I’m thinking of alternating between sudoku and crosswords each day, just to give me something to do. Hopefully I won’t get bored with them. So why am I doing puzzles? Well, I wanted something to keep my brain active beyond say work or playing computer games. I’d play chess, except it’s been ultra hard to find a decent chess game for the computer and I doubt they’ll release one for the PSP ever. Apparently the DS will be getting a card game compendium type thingy which also includes chess and Othello. That’s kind of tempting. I could probably go on Yahoo! games and play, but the players there can be annoyingly juvenile.

Top 75 Heroines of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror: Part IV
As I wasn’t really interested in showing ALL 75, I’ve given the list from number 14, because that’s what number Hermione Granger is. What I don’t understand is how the Powerpuff Girls beat her? Also, very cool that Buffy was number 2. That’s wicked.

Ancient observatory found
Well, that about dang says it all really. Actually, this sort of thing fascinates me, because the usual unanswered question is: just how did they build these things? Even with all the technology that we have now, building a pyramid would be friggin hard job no? So all I can do is look in awe.

So I was looking into RSS reader extensions for Firefox and found one that I like – Wizz RSS. I used to use the aptly named RSS Reader program, which displayed everything in the old newsgroup style. In some ways it’s a lot easier to just use a Firefox extension because the feeds are just webpages anyways. I haven’t tested its podcasting ability yet, as the only podcast I listen to I get through *shudder* iTunes. Guess I’ll have to look into that. I found the cool http://www.i-am-bored.com which could really have me procrastinating for the whole day. I think enjoyment of the Internet increases as the time to x is due decreases. Must snap out of this habit.

On a totally unrelated note, I had fish for dinner tonight. *ugh*. I think the number of times we’re having fish per week is steadily increasing. It used to be once a week. I swear it’s like two or three times now which means that I’m usually very hungry by midnight.

In other news, I have gotten nowhere with my thesis lately. In fact, I pretty much haven’t started on that JSP. *smacks head*. What the fuck am I doing with my time? I have no idea – I’m slowly, slowly, slowly wasting away on LJ, Yahoo!Groups, and blogs. o_O Actually, it feels kind of pathetic. I really need to get out more but I’m too lazy to get off my arse really.

More importantly, I have a midsemester exam for Computer Engineering this Friday. It is somewhat annoying that this subject has the same name as my degree, because people ask me what subjects I’m doing and I’ll be like “Computer Engineering” and they look at me funny. It’s the subject dammit!!!! It’s a somewhat fun subject, but usually involves a lot of facepalming because my partner and I think too in-depth. We always forget that we’re not really dealing with the ‘circuit’ itself, moreso the ‘system’ and how it fits together. Anyways, it was cool to make the little LCD thing light up. I really would like to make a shift-adder or something though. I suppose writing words to the LCD is more cool or at least, the results are more… noticeable. I must start studying for this very soon. There’s no recommended text, just the two reading pack thingies we bought for the course. So tomorrow will be full on JSP *crosses fingers, closes all web-browsers not JSP related* and then Wednesday will be more JSP and possibly some VHDL. Wish me luck?

Hrm, to add to my memory woes, I left my wallet at home today. This was slightly annoying as I had no money for the bus so I called my dad to pick me up. More annoying than that, I couldn’t buy a drink at lunch. No sugar!

I’ve been playing DJ Max Portable (as previously mentioned) and I’ve been able to get to Stage 4. Completed a few songs at 5 difficulty, so I’m pretty happy :D I’m having a lot of trouble with the combinations that require one button to be held whilst tapping two others – it just requires too much co-ordination that I don’t have. Recently I talked to ConMan about DDR and how you could possibly follow all those steps with a difficulty of 8 feet. Anyways, he was explaining that you don’t really see the arrows and think “have to press right” or “have to press left”. You sort of just see combinations and the stuff streams. I think I understand that more now, having played this game, because I’m no longer just looking at one note as it’s coming down the screen, I’m looking at 4 or 5 notes to see what’s coming next.

I’ve also found an alternative use for this game. Yesterday, I went for a run in my local park. Normally I bring my Neeon so I’ve got music to listen to. But it was out of batteries. So I thought, no worries I’ll my other USB MP3 player. Except that needs AAA batteries and luck would have it that I have none at home. So what did I resort to? My MD. My MD!! Gosh, MD technology. Anyways, it’s still working fine :D and that mix disc I created is still good :P Certainly made my run pretty fun listening to all these old songs I haven’t heard in ages. Anyways, as I was mucking around with DJ Max Portable last night, I found that it has an “OST” and “Vids” mode, where you can listen to and watch the videos of the songs that the game uses. This is pretty cool, and seeing as the PSP was the only thing that was charged I listened to cutesy pop music on the way to and from work. Not bad at all.

Other than that, I don’t have much to say. I haven’t felt very social or talkative lately. Not sure why. I haven’t been very happy, and that’s understandable I suppose. I know that I’m bottling or whatever, but I think it’s more just that, I don’t have anything good to say. And moreso, I know that whatever I’m going to say is probably something I’ve said before, or just re-iterating how I feel so what’s the point? That feeling hasn’t changed and going on and on about it is only going to bore those who are willing to listen anyways. Partly I think it’s also because sometimes I’ve really wanted to talk to someone, and the response I’ve gotten was “yeah, yeah” and then *big long rant about their problems*. And that’s fine – I get that other people have their gripes too, but at least acknowledge mine. I guess when that happens you just sort of think, why should I bother trying to express how I feel if you’re not even listening? I don’t expect you to fix my problems, or even tell me a solution. That’s for me to find out. But if no one’s listening, then I’m not talking.

So yeah, I upgraded to v2.0. I figure that if the homebrew scene ever really takes off, I’ll be able to downgrade and go back to it. Considering I’d tried a few of the new game loaders that supposedly work on v1.5 for v2.0 games and they didn’t work… not much of a choice there anyways.

First game I tried out was DJ Max Portable. This is a Korean game, apparently has been released on PS2. It’s basically DDR but for songs. Unfortunately, even the Easy Mode with 1 difficulty is amazingly hard. Either that, or I’m rhythmically challenged. Or my reflexes are amazingly slow. I finally finished two of the stages at 1 difficulty. The ONLY two. Now I’m stuck – I can’t play those on 2 difficulty and when I complete the ones on 1 difficulty it goes to Stage 2… which only has songs from difficulty 3 and up. One day, I’m going to try the 6 button songs…..

Having given up on that for the time being I thought I’d try out Koloomn which is also known as Ultimate Block Party. Another puzzle game of course, it reminds me of Puyo Pop Fever, although it’s more complex because of all the specials. I’m still getting used to it, but it’s pretty fun.

Games left to try out:
- GTA: Liberty City Stories
- Gottlieb Pinball Classics
- Frantix

In the mean time, I shall try to stop buying any more games.