Getting It Together

 School  No Responses »
Sep 212013
 

As I finish up my associates degree, and prepare to enter into my Bachelors, I realize I have to buckle down and decide exactly what I want after graduation. I can no longer experiment with classes that look cool, or interesting, and get me my credits where I need them. That was amazingly fun the last couple years, but moving forward…well, we all have to decide what we want to be when we grow up eventually.

For me, that’s been a long journey. At first, I was going to jump into a BA in Psychology. I had lofty goals of helping military families dealing with things like deployments, PTSD, life with the military etc. But the required math kicked that to the curb when I realized that try as I might, I couldn’t overcome my limits in that department. I almost decided to just settle for my associates and move on. But I couldn’t do it.

So, I changed my future major to match my current one. I’ll continue along the path of Letters, Arts and Sciences. I love the classes, even the required ones. It’s not a single disciplined approach, which is a benefit in and of itself. I have a broad range of opportunities in the work force thanks to this multi discipline approach. Well Rounded is the word that comes to mind. I even decided on a minor in Political Science! I was set.

Or so I thought. that changed again this week. First, it started with deciding I’d like an Undergrad Certificate in Children, Youth, and Family services. Still with the idea of working with families like mine, dealing with military life. Also, with a thought toward teaching in the future. And it struck me, that my Political Science minor didn’t quite fit among studies that center on sociology, ethics, critical thinking, and human and family development. Not really.  But you know what does? A minor in Sociology.

So, with registration for Fall just around the corner, I buckled down, and scoured degree audits and course lists and tentatively mapped out the classes I’d need to complete my BA, Certificate, and Minor. The magic number? 24. Pending a discussion with my advisor, I even have my classes chosen for the next 5 or 6 semesters (depending on how many classes I take per semester). This is it. My final decision, and the one I will stick with unless something beyond my control pops up and demands a change.

BA in Letters, Arts and Sciences

Minor in Sociology

Undergraduate Certificate in Children, Youth, and Family Services.

And maybe, if I save my pennies, eventually a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Educating Individuals with Autism. Maybe.

I still don’t know what exactly I want to be when I grow up. But at least I have a direction.

From Small Screen To Big Screen with a Female Lead!

 Games  No Responses »
Sep 102013
 

What could possibly be happening that makes me THAT excited? News of another female lead video game. Not just ANY video game, but a franchise I’ve wanted to play for ages but just couldn’t get into with it’s always male lead! But no more. Well, to be fair this game has ONE female lead, but it’s exclusive to the PS Vita.

I’m talking about Assassin’s Creed! Finally, they are bringing Assin’s Creed: Liberation to HD. For Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC! This makes me so damned happy I can’t even find more words! But here, have a look at this amazing woman in the trailer for the HD Release in 2014!

 

TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE!!!

Hell Week In Review

 General, School  1 Response »
Aug 302013
 

My writing every day plan got hit with a major curveball on Monday. Monday was the official start of my fall semester, and also the day a deposit I’d been waiting for hit my account. Thus, the bulk of the day was spent gathering things we’d been waiting for that couldn’t come from our monthly budget, or lack thereof. This was also crucial in actually creating a stable, livable budget for the future. Which I’m happy to say has been done, as long as I don’t get “something shiny” syndrome.

Tuesday-This was spent setting up my school laptop, and waiting for the arrival of my textbooks so I could get to work on my classes. Yes, I did just get one last year. However, when my husband’s laptop died, I gave him my school laptop at the time. Rather than try sharing it, I found a nice little red Acer at Newegg.com and got that. It’s not fancy, but it’s perfect for my school needs.

Wednesday began the real cramming. Usually my first week is all introductory activities, and very little actual class work. This semester however a couple of my classes decided to jump right in. Comparative politics required two chapters and a quiz, health required a chapter and a discussion. Math and Spanish weren’t du until next Sunday. I’m now a week ahead on Spanish, and almost done with the math. this stuff would go much faster if I wasn’t taking notes, but I suppose not taking notes is a bad plan.

The Fun Stuff and a WTF Moment

One of our purchases included a new TV. Ours was starting to go bad, with horizontal lines present across much of the screen. Now, I thought that was the only problem until I saw the picture on the new one. We purchased a 50″ HiSense LED Smart HDTV to replace our old Samsung 27 inch CRT model. Yet for some reason, we weren’t getting HD quality…I always thought it was a tad off on the old one as well even after Charter techs came out and “fixed” it.

You see, when I’d connect the TV to the DVR box with HDMI there was no sound. The tech “fixed” this by hooking up a big component cable instead. Which, as it turns out, was definitely not giving us an HD picture. But as far as we knew our TV was to blame, and as it was a few years old and had gone through a move that made sense. Well low and behold I hook our new TV up through HDMI, and no sound. Hmmm…that’s not quite right. I quickly googled the problem, and found the solution. All that danged tech had to do was hit the settings button on the remote, and change the audio to HDMI! Now, I realize that’s all I had to do as well, but I’m not the one getting paid to fix shit!

Let me tell you, I’ve never enjoyed console gaming…I’m a PC Gamer and happy! But the picture from the Xbox on that TV is so amazing, I’ve actually started playing on it. I grabbed a used copy of the Tomb Raider reboot, even though I’ve completed it on PC. It looks fantastic! Maybe I’ll finally play that Final Fantasy game I have in there. I forget which one but Lightning is in it and I love her.

Other purchases included my Nexus 7 tablet, which I bought the wrong one…I wanted 32gb I bought 16gb…oooops. Oh well I saved money anyhow. I FINALLY found the pink Nintendo 3DS XL I wanted, hubby got a new hunting rifle, and I got a new .22 pistol, one that went out of production in 1974, that my mom has, and came back into production in 1993. I haven’t seen them in all this time, so I grabbed the one I did see.

Each of the girls got a 3DS and Animal Crossing New Leaf too, so we can play that together.

AND! I got my Hunter’s Education Course taken, so I can get a license and go hunting with my husband this season.

No Games

I never found time to play any games this week for longer than a few minutes. Hubby is still on leave, so we are doing things together that we haven’t been able to the two years he was a Drill Sgt. Between that and classes, gaming took a back seat. However, by next week I should have my routine coming back as he goes back to work Tuesday, and I get settled into my class schedule.  For now, it’s a weekend full of plans to hang out with some friends tonight, gget some range time in tomorrow, and take off on the Harley on Sunday!

TGIF!

To Sub or Not To Sub…That is the Question

 Gaming  No Responses »
Aug 242013
 

There’s been a lot of talk in the blogosphere recently about subscription vs free to play and everything in between in an MMO. I didn’t think I had much to offer until I was reading Rowan’s post at I Have Touched The Sky and Belghast’s post at Tales of The Aggronaut. I’m not going to defend one or the other, that’s already been done by better and more informed bloggers than myself. Buut I can discuss what affect they have on my decision making between MMO’s.

I started with World of Warcraft. My subscription lapsed this summer and I haven’t renewed it. I currently have no plans to either, although that could change at some point. I also let my SWTOR subscription run out.  I did however subscribe to Rift. That’s right, after a week of free to play, I was handing over monthly payments even though I didn’t have to!

Why would I do that? Because I got to try out all the features of the game, I got to explore, quest, learn, with virtually no limitations while I decided if I liked it enough to commit. WoW in a sense allows this too, with a character level limit set at level 20.  Even being capped at level 20 gives you plenty of time to decide if the game is for you or not.

Now we have several new MMO’s coming to the market. The Elder Scrolls Online, a Final Fantasy MMO, Wildstar, those are the ones I have heard around the web recently. And at least two are subscription based. Which, for me…means I’m likely not going to even try them until they provide a way to do so for free. And that’s where I think a change can be made. Right now, many games start as a subscription, and later convert to f2p. Which I’m fine with. However, what would be a great advantage to people of my mindset…who maybe aren’t sure about paying an extra subscription unless the game is truly amazing to them, would be to have a free to play period available from the start…a trial period that lets you get the full sense of the major aspects of the game. Now, I don’t think it should be FULLY f2p in that period, rather something like WoW’s model. You can make your account, play to a certain level…to see if it’s something you’re willing to pay for.

The issue for me isn’t “subscription bad, f2p good” it’s more gray than that. If you let me TRY the game to decide if I want to pay, and make it an experience worth paying for, I’ll throw my wallet at you no problem. But if I’m left with only the option to buy the box and pay the fees…I’ll hesitate, and probably pass you by. That box is around $60, that is money I can spend on something I already know I love rather than gamble on something I may or may not.

I’m a Gamer, not a Gambler.

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