Me & my Nightmares
I seem to be have this problem where I'm constantly being plagued by nightmares. Okay, not
constantly, but definitely more than you'd think a sane person should get. My nightmares follow two general themes: 1) someone trying to kill me, and 2) failing an exam/course.
In the past several years, people/creatures who have tried to kill me in my dreams included zombies, random psychos, Darth Vader, the villains from Pokemon (don't ask), the mafia, various predators in the animal kingdom, classmates, my old Calculus teacher, etc. A couple of nights ago, Montreal was overrun by a zombie outbreak (not the first time, either, lol). Me and a handful of survivors managed to get our hands on a car, and we were trying to evade the legions of zombies (who were able to run, like in the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead. Awesome movie, btw). At one point, we decided to make a pit stop at a seemingly safe area. Safe? Wrong. Zombies popped out of the bushes and came after us. Having no guns, we had to run like hell back to the car. One of our groupmates got bit, but we had to leave him behind, knowing that it would be a matter of time before he became a zombie. He was staggering after us, screaming, "Guys, don't leave me! I don't want to die! Please!" We sped off in our car, as the zombies swarmed in around that fellow. I woke up at that point, my heart pounding, thinking, "Holy hell! What a dream!"
Another dream I had recently was school-related. I dreamt that ALL my final exams were the next day, and I hadn't studied one bit. In fact, one of my classes turned out to be this English Literature course I didn't even know I was registered for. "Oh shit!" I thought. "I'm gonna fail everything! My GPA is going to drop to god knows how low!!!" After freaking out for a while, I realized, "Wait a minute, I did all my exams in the first week of the exam period. They're all done! This is just a dream!" I dunno about everyone else, but when I'm dreaming, very rarely do I realize it's a dream until I wake up. This was one of those rare instances where I figured out that the entire situation wasn't real. Strange how I couldn't figure out that the zombie outbreak was just a dream, too, lol!
New template!!!
Don't worry, you haven't come to the wrong house ;). I decided to do a little redecorating in here. I don't think I've changed the template to this blog for more than a year, possibly longer.
I think I'm gonna have a heart attack when I see my credit card bill, what with all the gift purchases and paying the $60+ application fees for each graduate school I'm applying to. I wonder what the application fee is used for; I guess some of it goes towards paying the selection committee, who have to go over hundreds of applications in the evening after a long day of work.
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
In celebration of having completed all my exams and papers, I rented "The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age" (see the
official website), and I've played it so much in the past few days, I'm surprised I didn't end up suffering from seizures (apparently excessive video gaming can do that to you, what with the flashing lights and all). I managed to finish the game (YAY!) yesterday evening. It's extremely addictive, as you can imagine. It's a lot like the Final Fantasy games, in that you add to the character's skills, strengths and health as you progress through the game, the battles involve your characters and the villains taking turns taking whacks at each other, and you can't avoid a battle. It was a good game, but I wouldn't bother buying it now that I've finished it.
The game starts off with Berethor, a Gondorian soldier, who has (supposedly) been ordered by Denethor to catch up with Boromir in Rivendell; he ends up getting his ass kicked by some Ringwraiths. Luckily, a Lothlorien she-elf, Idrial, fights off the wraiths and heals Berethor. She accompanies him on his quest, and they are later joined by a ranger, Belegost, and a Dwarf, Hadhod.
They follow the Fellowship through Moria, and catch up in time to witness (and assist) Gandalf fighting the Balrog. When Boromir dies, Berethor is relieved of his mission, but decides to go help defend Rohan during the Battle for Helm's Deep (Gandalf is somehow able to communicate long distance with Berethor, which explains how he knew where to go, what to do, how Boromir died, yadda yadda). They encounter and are joined by a Shieldmaiden of Rohan, Morwen, and a Rohirrim solider, Eaoden. The team fight at Helm's Deep, Osgiliath, Minas Tirith, Pelennor Fields and Mordor, with a million and one little battles along the way.
Here are the good things about this game. As mentioned previously, it's extremely addictive, and beating that occasional really stubborn villain (who just refuses to die) becomes a total obsession, and you won't rest until you beat him. The graphics were
amazing, especially Idrial's Spirit Powers attacks. Speaking of
Idrial, thank god for her powers; she ultimately develops the ability to revive a fallen comrade (or give a character a 'second life' in case they die), she can clear the team of a curse (such as those annoying stunning or life-draining curses placed on the heroes by the enemies). Each of my characters must've died at least 50 times through the course of the entire game, so winning the game without Idrial would've been impossible. Berethor had some of the strongest attacks, such as the triple-strike Ecthelion Wrath (or whatever it's called) that can kill an enemy in one turn. Morwen starts off pretty weak, but her attacks become stronger later on, and technically she strikes twice per turn since she uses two small axes.
Now, the bad things about the game. The voice acting in the cut scenes were...unconvincing. I dunno, it just felt really fake at times. The dialog got pretty unoriginal, too, since quite a few lines were taken word-for-word from the movies; although apparently this is because, although EA Games owned the rights to the movie version of LOTR, they weren't allowed to use anything that appears exclusively in the books, otherwise they could get sued by the owners of the rights to the books. Anyway, one gamer humourously commented that Idrial "introduces herself by stealing Arwen's lines", namely, 'What grace is given me, let it pass to him. Let him be spared.'
The Idrial-Berethor-Morwen love triangle (or rather the end result) was really stupid. The writers were building up the relationship between Berethor and Idrial quite a bit throughout the game; Idrial saved Berethor's butt and devoted much of her time and energy to prevent him from being consumed by the spell of the Nazgul, and Berethor returned the favour by going back for her after the Witch King (I think) attempted to abduct her in Osgiliath (it seems Sauron knew she was too much of a threat to his plans), when the city was being overrun by Orcs (she was being carried away in the talons of the Fell Beast, who she slashed with her sword, at which point she fell through the sky onto a nearby island). Idrial even kisses Berethor twice; the first time, after some of the stairs in Moria collapsed and she came >this< close
to falling into the bottomless pit of Khazad-dum (she even said, "You have my love," in Elvish), and the second time, when the Uruk-hai were trying to smash their way into the Hornberg at Helm's deep, and Berethor was questioning whether they would survive. But then, after he rescues her after her attempted kidnapping, and indirectly professes his love for her, she tells him that he is destined for Morwen, and turns her back and walks away. Morwen ends up being stabbed by the Nazgul at the end of the Battle for Pelennor Fields, and after being healed by Aragorn, she whispers, upon regaining conciousness, "Berethor!" to which he says, "I am here!" and then they smooch. Oh god, that scene totally made me gag.
Anyway, enough complaining about the stupid outcome of the love triangle. Another thing that bugged me was the lousy ending. After spending 20+ hours playing the game, all I got was a little video clip with Gandalf in the background saying that Middle-Earth is saved, but Berethor's journey has only begun. The End. Um...that's it? What journey? So what happens to my team? Where do they go? What do they do? Does their fellowship end? Does Berethor actually end up marrying Morwen this time? (They were at one point engaged, but presumably through an arranged marriage, since they didn't seem to recognize each other upon their first meeting at Rohan)
Another weak point (also related to the story) was the whole 'Berethor-actually-being-under-a-spell-by-Saruman-the-entire-time' thing. Berethor was once stabbed by a Morgul blade, but lost all memory of his very first encounter with the Nazgul; Sauron was planning to use him to help overthrow Minas Tirith from the inside, while Saruman sent him to steal the One Ring from Boromir (he was expecting Boromir to succeed in taking the Ring from Frodo). However, throughout the game, Berethor shows no signs whatsoever of being cursed and under Saruman's control, except for this one part in Helm's Deep where his voice sounds all cursed-like. That plot twist is dumped on the gamer very suddenly, and not really done well.
But anyway, the weak points pretty much all relate to only the story. The rest of the game was awesome, and it was definitely worth playing. I might even get into the whole Final Fantasy craze now. ;)
I live!!!
Aaaaaccccckkkkkk, I survived!!! I survived this ungodly intense semester!!! I had my last exam yesterday, and now I'm free! Well, I still have to finish the final draft of my research paper by next Friday, but I'm more free now than I was for a loooooooooooooong time!
This semester, not only was I doing four classes plus my research project, but I also had to worry about scholarship applications for when I start my Master's, as well as worry about searching for potential grad schools and supervisors. And as icing on the cake, all four of my exams were one day after the next (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday), and all in the first week of the exam period.
I knew well in advance that I was going to have a very bad exam schedule, so I aimed to do as well as possible during the semester, in case the finals didn't go well. But luckily, the finals actually did go pretty well, despite the fact that I had so little time to study for them (not to mention having to study for all four of them at once). I was really exhausted by the time I had to write my last one (for my Soils & Environment class); admittedly I probably didn't do as well as I did on the mid-term for that class, but I feel I did a decent job.
Seriously, this was the most intense semester I've ever had; I remember saying to myself earlier in the semester, when I was really feeling overloaded, "If I can survive this, I can seriously survive anything." And I
did survive!
