September 23, 2008

  • Other Stuff


    In case you’re wondering, no, I did not watch the Emmys (or, at least, not more than about 30 seconds worth). As a matter of fact, I happened to walk in my parents’ bedroom while the credits were rolling and saw a brief clip of the show that, upon further and somewhat unwelcome elaboration from my mom, made me quite glad I did not watch it (I’m sorry, but the combination of piano games and TV theme songs just sounds exceptionally disturbing to me). When I said as much to my mom, however, she said, “I recorded it on the DVR.” That’s great. I’m still not watching it.

     

    I also did not watch the final game at Yankee Stadium, despite assertions from my dad’s friend that as a baseball fan, it was my “sacred duty” to do so. Part of the reason was the same reason I did not watch the Labor Day game at Comerica Park: It’s better to just let some things die. The other part was that I had a Pharmacology exam to study for.

     

    On most days, I eat my lunch in one of the booths in front of a place called Rocky’s Grille. Rocky’s Grille is in a rather large lounge-type area in the Student Union that has at least four TVs in it. There is a TV quite a ways away from me that is directly in my line of sight. That TV normally has ESPN on it (so I am forever seeing Sportscenter out of the corner of my eye). There is another TV that is along the same wall as the booths, so I can’t see it, but it is close enough that I can sometimes hear it (although you’d be surprised how many times the ESPN TV is louder). That TV normally has CNN (The other two TVs usually have ESPN 2 and Fox, but they’re so far away that I could see them if I wanted to, but I would never be able to hear them). As I said, the ESPN TV is usually louder than the CNN TV, but occasionally they are at the same volume. For instance, yesterday CNN was covering a John McCain speech (which I was doing my best to ignore), when all of a sudden it sounded as though someone started playing the Monday Night Football theme at his speech. This was actually a commercial on the ESPN TV, but it struck me funny nonetheless. This morning, the ESPN TV had BET on instead, while on CNN, George Bush was making some sort of speech (which, once again, I was trying to ignore). BET had some sitcom I didn’t recognize on, but what happened was that the laugh track was rather well-synced up to pauses in Bush’s speech, so it sounded as though the audience was laughing at Bush. Which is, once again, funny, in a mean sort of way.

     

    I mentioned that I often eat lunch in front of Rocky’s Grille, but I rarely actually get my lunch FROM Rocky’s Grille, and this morning made me kind of glad I don’t. I was eating my sandwich from Subway and kinda staring off into space, when I noticed a mouse running across the floor of Rocky’s Grille and behind a display case. The girl in the booth next to mine noticed it as well. We informed someone working at Rocky’s Grille once the place opened, and she happened to look down behind the display case just as the mouse decided to poke its head out. After that, she spent the entire time working the cash register and nervously peeking over at the display case. Now I know why I keep seeing that Orkin van parked outside the Student Union.

     

    Most of you who know me know that I am exceptionally bad at video games. Case in point: The only two video games I have ever “won” are Barbie and Power Rangers (If you want to throw computer games into the mix, I have also “won” Command and Conquer for both the Soviet and Allied sides, albeit on the easiest level). It took me ten years to figure out how to defeat the first boss in the Home Alone 2 Game Boy game, and I had to get the answer from a message board in the end (Though, to be fair, how was I supposed to know that, in order to defeat the master chef, you had to use your least powerful weapon to stun him and then slide back and forth across him until his pants fell down?). Also, whenever possible, I totally cheat my way through games using walkthroughs I find on the Internet. Anyways, I’m still kinda new to the Playstation world (having only just bought a PS2 last December). One of the games that I bought that I was enjoying a lot was Kingdom Hearts, which is basically a Disney version of the Final Fantasy games. However, I got stuck on the first Hercules level (Olympus Coliseum) where I had to break a bunch of barrels in 30 seconds. Now, this was actually the first of two “barrel-breaking tasks,” and while most walkthroughs suggested strategies for the second task, all they said about the first one was “you should have no problem with this.” Well, I did. For the life of me, I just couldn’t get all the barrels in time. Finally, after months of on-and-off attempts, I found a walkthrough which told me “you need to unequip the Vortex ability.” I did that, and lo and behold, I got it on the first try. You know that sense of useless accomplishment you get after beating a video game level you’ve been stuck on forever? I was so proud of myself. Oddly enough, it only took me about six tries to get through the second barrel task. Also, ever since then, I’ve only died in boss battles once, maybe twice (although it’s still annoying when you die because then you have to sit through the entire cutscene that precedes the battle). In case you’re wondering, I’ve just finished the Pinnochio level (Monstro), which was kinda funny, because the walkthrough I was reading told me to go into one of the rooms, after which the writer commented “Is it just me, or does this whale have the most screwed-up anatomy ever?”