This was somewhat pre-recorded and added to as December came to a close. I meant to post this on New-Years eve, but I spent it in the traditional fashion (drinking and with friends). A recovery day and me melding with Assassin’s Creed 2 later (verdict: WAY better then the first one) and here I am, finally ready to present this. So here it is, 2009 in review.
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My year in review. Since it is a traditional thing to do something like this on New Years…well…here I go. January through April aren’t as well documented, so they’ll be a bit…sparser.
January
-I had beaten the game Persona 4 during winter break (which I had gotten on release day, but mom delivered it on Friday…even though that friday was a snowstorm day, I wouldn’t normally press that, but she did promise and I was so looking forward to that game). I didn’t get the “true” ending (I was underleveled and too concerned with finishing up my gaming projects before school started to go through an extra dungeon), but I did beat the game, got the newgame+ etc.
-The beginning of an era. I had gotten a Zune that I named Isfarel. This was the month I had just started using it with my few (at the time) game soundtracks and my faint CD’s. Now Isfrael and I are inseparable, and his 120Gb HD is being well used.
-I know this is true for every winter (even though with a few exceptions, it didn’t really show that much this December), but FUCK it was cold that month. I waited 20 minutes after Java lab for the shuttle bus to show up. SO VERY VERY COLD!!!
-Discovered I REALLY hate Ice Skating. Not the act itself, that I am fairly indifferent to. I just hate it when I have to Ice Skate. I have officially declared myself done with that…permanently.
-And let’s not forget, back to school (implied in the “bitter cold” part, but still, it is worth mentioning)
February.
-This was the month I REALLY bonded with the J’s. I was friends with them since the previous October, but this is when they and I got really really close. Deep long conversations about this and that, really cool looks in to things, and an emotional state I truly resonated with. They are awesome friends that I value very deeply.
-This is also the month I had my Kidney Stone. I assume it had passed since then (I say assume because I didn’t “feel” it pass, but given that it has been nearly a year since that painful day when I found out I had it, I am pretty sure it’s not there any more). I got my space-age pee-catching stuff to snag that stone too…
March.
-I got me a bad case of seasonal depression. This is the month it usually hits me the worst, so that’s no surprise.
-I FINALLY beat Persona 3 FES (during Spring Break) even though I had had it for nearly a year (seems that’s my post collegiate fate, good game-expansion-pack though)
-I also got around to finally finishing Bioshock (I had to start over, because my friend G-man [whose copy I originally played and my data was from] had some Downloaded content [herin referred to as DLC] that I don’t, so it was incompatible)
-Best buy had an “All anime half off” sale. I got the first boxed set of Code Geass for less than 20 bucks (which I proceeded to watch while super drunk, just like the very first time I saw that show)
-Started playing the game Tales of Vesperia (which I had had for a while). Got stuck in the Goliath due to not seeing a certain ladder I needed.
-Got the game Disgaea 3. I had gotten the DLC for it beforehand (my weakness for secret characters T_T).
-I went to Family Fun Center for the first time in 2 years (I think). I had HUGE gaming day there.
-For my friend JJW, I volunteered to be an “insane person” for her clinical psychology interview. Afterward she had asked me “what I would diagnose myself as” (essentially asked me to do her homework). I told her, and that “diagnosis” got her the tied highest grade in the class.
April
-I had a rather infamous leak under my sink (it ended up covering the entire kitchen floor and soaked some of the carpet). I put a towel under there that remains there to this day.
-In game geekery, it should be known that 04/07/2009 is the day that the events in the game Persona 3 start.
-Saw Ramanda’s BFA exhibit (it rocked like few art exhibits ever do). Indulged in drinks with her, Skot (her hubbie), Tzar David, and his wife Melinda. Good times
-During the day of silence, there was a preacher who came with the sign “day of silence, day of shame” and all that other blah. I wanted to ram my fist down his throat. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the first time I had encountered Anna (who would have thought I would have a chance encounter with the woman I now love way back then). I recall her arguing with him and saying something like “well, I don’t affirm you either.” Oh Anna, you are so awesome.
-Thanks to ZC, I discovered the awesomeness of the remix-soundtracks of Hyadain. Normally I am not one for “arranged” game music, but this guy does it really cool.
-After the gateway basically shoved Ramanda’s BFA exhibit (her 4 years worth of work culminated into one display) to the side and completely misrepresented it, I have decided to declare open war on that newspaper. A purely hypothetical (and exceedingly handsome) individual and this person’s purely hypothetical friends may have taken all the copies of that issue of the gateway they could find and incinerated them.
-On 04/29/2009, it is the day that the events in the second half of Metal Gear Solid 2 happen (called “Big Shell day” by those in the know). As per “the religious ceremonies of my people”, I was planning on going through a speed-walkthrough. But since I was studying for my French Final (which was pushed back to dead week by class vote), I couldn’t (until finals was over). That final was particularly tough to study for, since my last lightbulb had decided to die and I lack any spares.
-On/Near the end of this month, I met Kit for the first time. At first I was convinced she hated me. Now she is one of my nearest and dearest friends. Up there with the J’s. Someone I would give my life for without a second thought.
May
-I OBLITERATED my finals. Trig final was so easy I was the first one in class done. I got done so fast I thought I had screwed up royally somehow. It turns out I got a 195 (out of 200) on it.
-As I mentioned, I met Kit last month. Throughout this month, I became steadily closer to her. Also previously mentioned is that she is one of my best friends now.
-I stared my summer classes a week after finals ended (no rest for the…me it seems)
-An…infamous series of events at the J’s birthday party (which I deem the C-ko incident). I’ll not go in to too much details (I don’t think “C-ko” wants to acknowledge that it ever happened). I’ll just say that it taught me a lot about a certain key part of myself that I honestly thought dead. Things I know I want, things I need to let myself feel. It did wound me, but in retrospect, that wound let some parts that were infected for 13 years finally heal up properly.
June
-Went to my first and only Poetry Slam with Kit. Not as much of a contact sport as it sounds. It is a fun and free-flowing event. It seemed to touch Kit more then it did me, but I did like it.
-VICTORY OVER SUMMER CLASS. Another A for me from intro to psych 2. Random funfact, one of the test questions asked what negative reinforcement was. One of the answers was “an act of torture under the Geneva Convention.” HEE
[It was the month of MUCH GAME RELATED DOINGS]
-Got the Game Mass Effect. It was cheap, I liked it when I rented it, and talking to Addie (whom REALLY likes it) made me want to play it muchly.
-Got The World Ends With You. I’ve heard many good things about this (even though I still have yet to play it…)
-Got my own copy of Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. It is a game I like that my brother owns that I had was in the mood to play. Also it was being sold for 5 bucks so I was definitely…well…definitely game.
-Got the remake of Final Fantasy 5 for the Game Boy Advanced. It is the only one of the FF SNES trilogy that I didn’t have the GBA remakes for. This completes my re-collecting of my favorite of the FF trilogies (I do have the PS1 remake of FF5 that was released here, but I MUCH prefer this translation. Fewer loading times is also a plus).
-Got Devil Summoner: Kuzanoha Raidou versus King Abaddon (after going to the mall with the J’s [whose place I spent the night at the day before] to get a haircut). It is awesome and they cleaned up all the right parts from the first game.
-Got Flower, Sun, and Rain: It is a puzzle game made by Suda Goichi. I LOVE the works of Suda (even if he is pretentious as hell). In the words of a net acquaitance “This game will hurt. The story is good hurt, the puzzles are bad hurt.” I beat this game in one long protracted 15 hour game session.
-Got Devil Survivor: This game is a tactical RPG whose art style and story are essentially a love letter to old school Shin Megami Tensei, which suits me just fine (I am a hopeless sucker for “megaten”). I’m actually currently playing that game right now.
-Shakespeare on the green was practicing at night. Miranda (who like me, is easily woken up) did not take well to this. “The Smallest” is a very…expressive little lady, and she was not shy about saying how pissed off she was about that whole debacle.
-Renewed old ties with the “Christian Coalition” at the wedding of my friend Archie’s younger sister (Beth). Unlike most church organizations, these guys do throw a decent afterpary. Also, dancing in dress shoes = PAIN (my poor feet)
July
-My birthday, I turned 28. My major present was my awesome digital camera
-The month I met Allie. I have never gotten so close (friends wise) with someone so quickly. The second day I hung out with her it was like she and I were BFF’s. She is awesome in a way only people like me and her (aka “hermits”) understand.
-The net died at UV for 70 freaking hours. This along with a general anti-social mood, lead to a HUGE gaming spurt. It resulted in a successful Persona 3 replay AND getting the true ending on Persona 4 (that one I didn’t get back in January).
August:
-FINALLY beat Tales of Vesperia: That is the game I started back in March. Despite what “stray” thinks, I like it.
-Rented and beat the game Infamous. An interesting sandbox game (like GTA3 and the like) where you have electrical super powers and you can be either good or evil. I got the evil ending just to spite the title.
-Had a brief stint of single occupancy. Let me tell you, single occupancy absolutely rules. Something about living without anybody else in that living space is just so awesome. Of course, now I would prefer to live with Anna, but she’s an obvious exception to the rules of “someone else” (example, I can walk naked in front of her and it wouldn’t be a bad thing [if anything, it would probably be encouraged so long as we are alone]).
-Got abducted to avoid the rigors of move in day. I stayed at Kit’s place for a little shy of 2 days. I thank them deeply for that.
-School resumes once again.
-During one of the early weekends, I went to Kit’s place. I got super-drunk and watched Religuous. I also tried playing Final Fantasy 7 whilest demonically intoxicated. It…was definitely a different take on the game (I got hit with a lot of Tail Lasers due to delayed reactions, and I often paused to gigle saying things like “Barret has to fap with one hand”).
September
-The incident where I was arbitrarily reported to studen affairs by my speech teacher. While it was a hassle and an over-reactive occurrence, it was a blessing in disguise. I was in a different and better scheduled speech class, which I summarily passed. Still, throw me to the intra-university judicial system for something I said in passing and distort it despite conversational context? GAH
-09/09/99 was the day the Dreamcast was released. This is the 10th anniversary of that. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to properly celebrate Dreamcast day (where you play a game that was once on Dreamcast, preferably on said system if available).
-I realized I have considerable annoyance at blind hope (thanks to a certain bubbly lady in my bio class)
-09/30/2009: The day Anna and I got…let’s say “close.” While we weren’t “officially” dating for some time (we only declared it for the sake of other people, labels like that are meaningless to us), this is the day I mark us as getting together. It was awesome, let’s just say I skipped bio class to continue this…closeness.
October
-MISSED THE KMFDM CONCERT!!! RAAAAAAAAAR! EVEN THE OPENING BAND (Angelspit) WAS GOOD! I FREAKING MISSED IT! If I had known sooner, I would have called the J’s and told them “you have a sick day coming up, because KMFDM is coming to town and I thnk you might both mysteriously get H1N1 on the day of the concert…”
-…which is an ironic choice of fun jokes to say because on fall break, I got the flu (or as I call it “the plague”) REALLY hard (it was a common occurrence this year it seemed). Not sure if it was H1N1 or just some other local plague. It super-heated me, made it hard to sleep and even harder to eat. My increased hormone intake (thanks to Anna) had jacked up my appetite, but this knocked it back down. When I was feverish, for some reason it was REALLY tough for me to sweat. Damn but that plague sucked. I wasn’t the only one either. Kit got Pneumonia AND the Flu. Fall of that year (especially that month) was plague central. At least I found out I was clean from STD’s a week prior.
-Went to the Zombie walk with the J’s and Ramanda (her stepson was there too). It was definitely an amusing affair. It’s gotta be up there with an anime convention for something that gravitates nerds toward one spot (I approve).
-Halloween was MUCH fun for me. RIGHT when it turned Halloween (as in just past midnight the day before), I cavorted around campus in my Zuko costume with Anna. We got “married” that day too (we said our vows of commitment in front of Joe K of the Christian Coalition. I was told that “…technically all marriage is in the bible is a man and a woman vowing commitment in front of God and a Witness,” which is exactly what that was XD). That night (after some sleep), I met up with Kit (who had just gotten over her own plague) and her, the J’s, Allie, and I all went out for drinks (well, Allie doesn’t drink, but she was there hanging out). Good times.
November
-In August, Stray (who works at Wal-mart) hid a copy of Valkyria Chronicles for me (it was on sale there for 20 bucks, which is a DAMN good deal). I FINALLY found it this month. During that shopping trip, I got “Terra Tower” (a 1.5 Tb external HD).
-On the 5th of November (“V-day” [as in V for Vendetta]), I discovered that I in fact do love Anna, and that she loves me. I knew it for a while now, but was unwilling to accept that that is what it was until I heard her say that she loved me. It was like it was the sign I was waiting for but never realized it.
-Got my Awesome Xmas present early (before the rush). I am now among the HD owners of the world. Also got 2 HDMI chords (for my gaming systems). On this new TV I beat Call of Juarez Bound in Blood (which I was renting) and Modern Warfare 2.
-Spent Thanksgiving breat at the folks house with Anna. The folks like Anna, and she likes them. It was true paradise for her, and me as well.
December
-I beat Silent Hill 2 (which I started back in September with the intention of beating by Halloween)
-I FINALLY beat Devil Summoner: Kuzanoha Raidou versus the Soulless Army (aka “Raidou 1″). I have had this game since it was released in…(I want to say 2005). I got about halfway through then got stuck, let Eric borrow it (he was in college at the time and I wasn’t…funny how things have gone full circle with him not going to school and taking a hiatus from working and me perusing my college education), and went on to a different project. Getting Raidou 2 made me want to beat this, and I FINALLY went about doing it! *does victory fanfare*
-We had a HUGE snowstorm on the morning of the 8th. It closed school that day and the day after (and UNO doesn’t close that often). It made dead week pretty true it its name (well, it is “prep week” now, but I still call it dead week, it sounds cooler). While I didn’t get the calc review I needed (which made the final TOUGH), it was a pretty nice vacation. Apart from a brief stint in speech class, I didn’t have any class for 8 days because of that.
-On the second school closing day, I walked to and from Anna’s place and mine (it is about 20 minutes on foot in good weather, I would estimate it is about 1-2 miles by most direct foot route). For about half of that, I walked in drifts that nearly came up to my knees. For the other part, I walked in a somewhat-icy public street (the sidewaks weren’t cleared yet). Luckily, there were very few cars that day. I walked back a different longer, yet less snow-drifted way. Despite all this, it was SO worth it to see Anna again.
-On the next day (when school was up and running again), I went on the shuttlebus to go to Scott Hall for some munch (which I did get, and it as awesome). The route was so backed up it took an extra half hour. We saw a snow-tractor get stuck in a drift too. Anna said the traffic was like in Moscow.
-During finals week, I had a mean case of some sort of fatigue plague. I was ALWAYS tired.
-…That ended on the 19th. However, that day I had to get up early to see the folks. I saw the family (tired, but happy to see them), went back, went to Dave and Busters for Kit’s Birthday celebration (tired and HUNGRY AS ALL HELL while there, but easily worth it, as they are all awesome), then went home and finally got some sleep and then much needed food.
-Was “extracted” by parents on the 23rd early in the morning to avoid the freezing rain. Trip to relatives was delayed due to dad not wanting to risk the killer blizzard coming the next day (it was a deadly blizzard, over a foot of snow)
-Went to relatives on the 26th. Saw them, got presents, saw great grandma on her 100th birthday (the 28th). Generally good times (if a bit tired and stressful here and there).
-Spent new-years in the traditional fashion: Drunk and with friends. Finally executed my plan to see my speeches while thoroughly intoxicated (I gotta say, it made me sound better. I guess when I watch myself, all I see are horrific flaws).
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And that is my 2009 in review. Post-drinking, I essentially rang in the new year in a style definitely characteristic of me. I powered through and beat a game (Assassin’s Creed 2). Good game too (as I said earlier, WAY better then the first one).
