First off, let me explain the title of my post to all you “n00bs” out there. This phrase was coined by Deckard Cain, a NPC (non-playable character) in the video game, Diablo. With that, I am SO happy to know that Diablo 3 is coming out. For a long time (2001-2007), the thought of a new Diablo was not even on the “horizon”. Everyone thought Diablo II was the end of the series, and that if they were to make a Diablo III, it would take a miracle. Well folks, the rumors started up late 2007, and have continued and finally escalated to the announcement. It’s been a long time coming - but it’s so worth it. To know that one of my favorite childhood games is going to be continued is one of the greatest feelings for my nerd-side.

I definitely want to create a hardcore character, one where if you die in the game - you can no longer play that character any longer. So survivability is the character’s #1 goal. I remember my friend at Univ. Washington telling me that his barbarian had some ridiculous amount of % damage reduction in hardcore mode so that he could get to level 90+++, I really want to achieve this with a barbarian. I also want to be able to create a hardcore sorceress (assuming that the sorceress will be one of the remaining 3 classes). I am really hoping that Blizzard really does a great job on this game (I have a feeling they will), so that it can be ultimately played for hours on end.

I signed up for a poker training website, www.deucescracked.com. It is a great website for people starting to get into poker and want to watch videos of other people narrating their play and playing. Their customer support really impressed me when I emailed them last night at 12:02am, about a billing issue, and they responded at 12:05am - resolving the issue. Probably the fastest customer service via email I’ve ever gotten. One day I hope to be grinding MSNL tables, but until then…it’s the micros for me.

…(continued from “The World as Reft Saw It”)

Reft continued south through the Fields. There is a common misconception about the “Fields of Azin”. It is in fact not a dry, grassy field as its name suggests - it’s actually a damp, humid marsh, with a stench that the crows cannot even withstand. To make it through - Reft needed to equip his teardrop goggles that he obtained from his parents at an early age. Every citizen of Gaia had one - a pair of these is as common in a household as a pair of shoes. The teardrop goggles are buckled behind the head with a strap, covering the eyes and nose from any harm. There is a built-in filter in which the stench-filled air is filtered through, so that the user breathes in healthy oxygen.

After equipping his goggles, he trudged through the marsh, each step taking a little bit longer than the last. The mud of the Fields of Azin is so dense that after each step, one must shake off the mud to proceed. Surprisingly enough, there is a scroll shop located in the Fields of Azin, in the southwest quadrant of the area. Reft made his way there slowly, along the way encountering a couple of angered wasps that he dealt with no problem. He was slowly progressing to level 2. Level 2 was the exact level needed for him to learn a few of the spells that were to be sold by the scroll shop. Reft wondered why there were so many wasps in the area - and only deduced that it must have been from the orange glow coming from Midgar. After a couple hours moseying in Azin, he finally reached the scroll shop. The shop was named “Merk’s Stolen Scrolls”, perhaps that was the reason why Reft was able to pick up Ice I, Fire I, Lightning I, and Chargra Up I for a mere 8 Gil. Upon entering, Merk kindly greeted Reft. He noticed a look of awe and confusion on Reft’s face. Merk already knew what was on Reft’s mind. He casually started to explain why his prices were so low - he stole the scrolls from tourists that were not so fortunate to pass through his shop. Using slight of hand, while explaining to the tourists what each spell did - Merk would pickpocket his tourists and turn profit on the stolen scrolls. Since Reft started with 12 Gil in his pouch and had slain 4 wasps - he had a total of 20 Gil to spend at Merk’s shop. After acquiring four new spells, he still had 8Gil to spare. Luckily for him, there is an outpost stationed in the Plains of Jordana where he could pick up some extra equipment in the near future.

Currently, Reft’s stats are:

Level: 2

Strength(STR) : 7

Intelligence(INT): 5

Dexterity(DEX): 5

Charisma(CHR): 5

Vitality(VIT): 6

Spirit(SPR): 7

Health(HP): 46

Chargra Points (CP): 10

A true offensive warrior masterpiece as well as a magic user. Reft has not decided which path he wants to pursue. His stats will grow evenly each level until he sees Edgar the path-trainer in the capital city of Midgar.

Reft continued south. As he continued towards Midgar he contemplated the greatness of his new abilities. His golden distinct locks flowing behind him much like his troubled past - he looked forward to becoming the greatest hero in all of Gaia…

Stats of Spells Acquired:

Ice I:

“A bolt of Ice falls from the sky and pierces the opponent. Deals 17-20 Frost Damage to Enemy”

Chargra Usage(CU): 2

Fire I:

“The flame engulfs the enemy and surrounds them in a fiery blaze for 18-22 Fire Damage to Enemy”

Chargra Usage(CU): 3

Lightning I:

“Lightning strikes down your opponent. Deals electric damage of 17-20 Lightning Damage to Enemy”

Chargra Usage(CU): 2

Chargra Up I:

“Infuses the energy of the earth with your current Chargra. Chargra is maximized by 10.”

Chargra Usage(CU): 0

Cooldown: Once per battle.

What is ISQM? That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I tell people about this useless class. ISQM stands for “Computer Information Systems and Operations Management”. So where does the “Q” in ISQM come from? No one knows. This class is so useless that the acronym doesn’t even correlate with the actual name of the course.

So what do we learn about in ISQM? In my mind - nothing. I learn nothing that will actually progress my career in business. In ISQM 377 - The only thing I have learned is to look at the homework assignments - see their solutions, and basically copy the process over to projects with different numbers. Then, I write a memo to the teacher mainly full of fluff and recieve a grade back. The grade is completely arbitrary - since everyone in class actually does the above procedure, grading is based on how well someone replicates the process.

In ISQM 370 - the course description states that “This course stresses the role of managers in the analysis, design, development, implementation, maintenance, and control of information systems as shared corporate resources. This course also stresses the critical role of IS in business organizations.”

HAHA, lets take a look at this description. The role of managers in the control of information systems. What does that actually mean? That means you’ll be learning about what a systems hierarchy of a business is - something you’ll never use. Basically, a systems hierarchy lays out your business, much like a family tree - so that you can see the intricacies of your business. Unless you are starting your own business and need to lay this out for someone, this will never come to be a factor in your life. Next in ISQM 370 we are to complete process flow charts, of how a certain procedure works within a business. Basically, listing the steps of something that happens in a business. For example, how a bank teller completes a transaction. Ok genius LMU, when will that help me? You want me to write 8 steps on how a bank teller completes a transaction?

1. Bank teller is asked a request

2. Bank teller fulfills request

I can write it in two, but that doesn’t really fit your criteria. I still haven’t learned why this is important. Teach me something practical, like a class on how to use Microsoft Excel to such a great extent that any employer would want to hire me simply because I am a master of spreadsheets and formula manipulations. Instead, you’re paying a PHD professor over $80,000 a year to talk for 2 hours a week - basically to himself, since we all know that if students have a computer in front of them during a lecture - no learning actually occurs.

 

Reft stepped into the world of balance and witnessed something unusual: it wasn’t balanced. The sky had turned a beautiful orange-red…but this wasn’t a sunset. The sun was still high in the sky, yet there was something wrong…the source of the glow came from Midgar, the capital city of Gaia. As he left his peaceful cottage in the Fields of Azin - he headed towards his friend Locke’s house. Knocking on his door with a silent desperation, he received no response. This was unusual, for it was mid-day and Locke did not begin his training until the late afternoon and evening. Reft trotted back to his cottage and decided to equip some gear before going back into the world again. Most of the armor that Reft had were hand me downs from his four older brothers. Reft was the youngest, but the most cunning of them all.

As he put on his leather tunic infused with the chargra energy of light, he felt himself gaining energy. Chargra is a known element of the world of balance. Anything infused with ‘chargra’ would gain its properties. It has been said in early recorded prophecies that there were multiple elements of chargra when the world was created. Light brings life and energy, Fire brings aggression and rage, Water brings powerful and the ability to be calm, Shadow brings deception and doom, there are so many more - some are even unknown. Reft’s only piece of armor that was infused with chargra was his leather tunic. He put on his leather boots, and his leather belt. He put his bronze shortsword in a scabbard attached to his belt. He exited his cottage, and out into the world once again. He proceeded south towards Gaia, through the Fields of Azin towards the Great Plains of Jordana.

Within seconds of entering the Fields of Azin - Reft noticed a giant wasp to his left. Giant wasps were known to travel in the Plains of Jordana but he thought it was odd that there would be one traveling as far north as the Fields of Azin. All of a sudden, the wasp turned its attention to Reft, eyes glowing red - unusual for its species. Reft slowly reached for his sword - in case….*WHAP WHAP*, the wasp had attacked Reft with its stinger, dealing 12HP damage to him. With Reft’s little vitality points, 12 HP was more than a quarter of Reft’s total HP of 42. Taken aback, Reft used his advanced tactical skills and used “Defense Up II”, a skill that he had learned from Locke - his evasion was now increased by 20. Any future attacks by the wasp would miss him. Reft then used Sword Pummel I, to deal 20HP worth of damage to the wasp. The wasp was weakened and easily defeated by Reft.

He gained 8 experience points, 2 pieces of gil, and a hefty amount of Beeswax. He could use the Beeswax to sell at the bazaar in towns between his hometown of Chasma and Midgar.

…More to come

For those unfamiliar with Taylor Swift - she is a young, teenage country singer that has some catchy songs (not to mention she’s incredibly hot). Today I want to tell you about Teardrops on my Guitar, which is a love song which tells a story of unrequited love. First and foremost, guys will like this song because it has the concept of unrequited love. Every guy has been through it - you like the girl, the girl likes someone else, and you are forever scarred by the fact that you were rejected / too much of a wimp to tell her or act on your feelings. How many times has this happened to you? If it’s more than 5…you need help, but luckily - for most “bros”, this number is probably 1-3 times.

The protagonist in the song [Taylor] has a crush on this random dude in her class [Drew]. This guy is the subject of the song, and the reason for Taylor’s “Teardrops on my[her] Guitar”. First of all, let’s discount the fact that Drew would probably go for Taylor instead of the other girl in a realistic setting. But no, he doesn’t. He’s way into the brunette (shown in the Teardrops video, probably to make a contrast between Taylor’s naturally blonde curly hair - hence showing how different they are). Anyways, this is besides the fact.

I want to analyze the song’s lyrical value to guys.

Drew looks at me
I fake a smile so he won’t see
What I want and I need
And everything that we should be
I’ll bet she’s beautiful
That girl he talks about
And she’s got everything
That I have to live without

Alright, the first thing I really notice about these lyrics is that Drew is looking at Taylor. Yet, he’s so in love with this brunette girl, let’s just call her Amanda for sake of not getting confused. So even though Drew looks at the beautiful Taylor Swift, he is still in love with Amanda. Guys strive for this goal, to be totally turned off by a beautiful girl because the one you got is so much better in your eyes. They may not admit it, but Taylor is great eye-candy…but probably not someone you want to be long-term with. Plus, these lyrics are so logical - this girl Amanda BETTER be beautiful, or else Taylor would be overtaking her. Perhaps a UFC match between the two to settle the score? Haha, just a joke.

We all hope to find that perfect someone, who doesn’t want that?

Let’s examine further:

Drew talks to me, I laugh cause it’s so damn funny
That I can’t even see anyone when he’s with me
He says he’s so in love, he’s finally got it right,
I wonder if he knows he’s all I think about at night

Man, my first reaction is that Taylor is laughing at his stupid jokes, but if one reads further we realize that Taylor is laughing at herself, because she is so blinded by her love for Drew. In fact, she probably ruins her friendships because she can’t see anyone BUT him when he’s with her. So Drew, you got a keeper - you got a clinger. Guys don’t particularly like clingers - but that’s usually because they aren’t as stunning as Taylor. And man, every guy wants a girl to think about him all night. Boosts self esteem.

Finally, let’s read the chorus together, probably some of the best content is found right here.

He’s the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star
He’s the song in the car I keep singing, don’t know why I do

He’s the reason for this incredibly STUNNING beauty to be crying because she can’t have him. Wow, Drew - way to go bro. She’s wishing about Drew, and she even is so infatuated with him that she likes him more than the song she sings in the car. I’m sorry Taylor, but when I’m driving and listening to Miley Cyrus sing to me “See you Again” - there’s no way I could think of a guy named Drew. Who names their kid Drew anyways? Is that an abbreviation of Andrew? It’s like those people that only go by the shortened versions of their names - so much so that their legal name is the shortened version. (I.e. Kim, not Kimberly).

I also want to note that the guitar is such a beautiful melody in the beginning seconds of the song that is almost feels like there are raindrops coming from it. So maybe this song should be renamed “Raindrops on my Guitar” for how much Taylor is crying over Drew. It’s got a country-pop vibe, with the distinct guitar riffs between the lines of her lyrics. Not to mention her fabulous vocals as she goes into “I wonder if he knows he’s all I think about at night”, or “I put his picture down and maybe get some sleep at NIGHT!”.

It’s such a beautiful song, a beautiful girl, and a beautiful idea that all guys are in love with.

Today the song came on when I was eating a snack with my friend Erik - and a 21 year old male started to sing along to it. Out loud. What does that say about the song? It’s awesome, it’s catchy, so much in fact that I joined in on his rendition of Teardrops. Plus, we all know that when her song comes on in the gym - you can totally pump 30 more pounds of ANYTHING, fueled by adrenaline and her beautiful voice.

Taylor Swift, this post is dedicated to you.

So my computer’s been dead. I am back. Hello World!

I wrote this about a week ago, and never really touched it. Today is 4/9/2008 and I just wanted to tell you my little vendetta about how my computer had been dead.

So I went home that weekend with the lovely Jamie Ng for a some good R&R, to switch cars, and got to see some family. Well it was a 3 day weekend for me, and when I got back to my BEAST of a computer, it was dead. Why? There was a critical file that started up the system that was corrupted. What happened? Well I lost everything on my computer - but luckily music was backed up on my mp3 player, and my pictures are on my laptop at home - and my documents are mostly on USB drives. So I had to reinstall windows, reinstall basically everything so that it would work again. It’s a flaw in my computer, simply because I built it instead of buying it from a company. This probably will happen again but hopefully not anytime soon. There’s the story in a nutshell. Anyways, I’m back up and running. I tried out Mozilla Firefox Version 3 Beta 5 recently, and I have to say that I was quite impressed at how lite it was, in terms of usage of my RAM - but was not too satisfied when the browser couldn’t find the webpage, saying there was a network error - when there really wasn’t. So I reverted back to Firefox 2 and am very happy to have my two favorite extensions back again, PicLens and this extension where if you right click and drag two links, it opens both links in new tabs. It will do this for as many links you drag across. Just make sure you have the computing power to handle it.

P.S. Heard this on ABC: your average cell phone has more computing power than the space shuttles did in the 70s when we landed on the Moon…or for you conspirators out there - how we “filmed the Lunar landing”

Realizing that you have too many meal plan dollars left on your account is always fun, until you realize that the money left in the account will not be returned to you at the end of the school year. Who came up with this? I’ll tell you who: the same people who charge for refills at restaurants (La Strada), or the same people that charge you double for an Arnold Palmer (half iced tea, half lemonade) - (Cheesecake Factory). So to you shrewd businessmen out there, I respect/salute you in a love-hate sort of way.

Just a picture from Flickr, nevertheless - you can see that the lemonade is traditionally on the bottom and the iced tea on the top. This particular drink has way too much ice. I’m starting to not enjoy dining at huge chains anymore (Cheesecake, P.F. Changs, etc) only because after watching kitchen shows such as Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, you really start to appreciate the thought and effort a head chef puts into their menu. At a chain restaurant, it’s almost as if all their food is put together in an assembly line. Sure the menu items could be intriguing - but most of how the food tastes is ordinary and plain - at least they don’t taste poor, they just aren’t particularly great.

Robin Lopez of the Stanford Cardinal Basketball Team is reportedly dating Michelle Wie. Good for him, she is really attractive, and he plays good defense…“thats what she said”.

Yeah, I realized that didn’t make any sense.

Hello world. How am I going to make this into a successful blog? All “successful” blogs have a focus - some talk about just food, some talk about just technology and gadgets, and some - they juts talk about nothing. So what will set me apart? I don’t know the answer to that yet. Right now I am writing, just for the sake of writing and hopefully one day, a lightbulb will turn on in my head and I will know what to focus on. Maybe a multitude of things is in order, I could talk about food - but I do not get a chance to go to many popular restaurants often. I could talk about gadgets and technology - but Gizmodo, Engadget basically have that covered. I could cover current events and news - but Reddit and Digg have that covered too. I could spout out office quotes, but OfficeTally and TheOfficeQuotes website have that already as well!

So what is left for someone like me?

Simply put, I don’t know.

Disneyland - I went there on Saturday and Sunday. No rides on Saturday, just a nice dinner @ California adventure and a parade. Sunday was the full 13 hour experience, got to the park at 11am and left at 12am. Amazing - I wasn’t too excited about it at first, especially after seeing the sheer amount of people that were in the park on Saturday. Easter weekend is one of the most frequented weekends at Disneyland, with attendance of about 70,000-80,000 people in Disneyland alone. On average, Disneyland gets 40,000 visitors a day - so Easter weekend almost doubles that. The lines were ridiculous, 95 minutes for Splash mountain - a 1.5 minute ride. 65 Minutes for Indiana Jones, 45 Minutes for California Screamin, and 65+ Minutes for Space Mountain. Luckily for me and my “party” - which consisted of Olin’s family plus three friends of Olin’s little sister Casey, we all had super fastpasses. Normally the procedure at Disneyland for a fastpass is simple - you go to the ride you want to go on, go to the fastpass distribution center there, stick your admission ticket into a machine and it gives you a fastpass for a designated time (i.e. 3:15-4:25pm). So you get your fastpass (you can only have 1 at a time), and then you walk around the park until the designated time on your fastpass, you come back at the said time and then bypass the stand-by wait line, and go through the fastpass line. Splash Mountain’s fastpass line was 7 minutes compared to the 95 minute stand-by wait.

So then, what is a super fastpass? I don’t know, it’s somewhere between “ultra and mega, and it sort of crosses into the dimension of hyper“. Yeah, so the bold words were actually a topic of debate on the way to Disneyland in the morning on Sunday. Anyways, these super fastpasses allowed us to keep the fastpass, instead of having it for a one-time use. It didn’t have a specific time frame designated on it, so we could go on any ride we wanted, however many times we wanted, at any time during the day. As long as the ride was fastpass enabled (which all the popular rides were). Disneyland Cast Members [employees] had never even seen these super fastpasses. It was valid for the full day: 3/23/2008.

How does one acquire these fastpasses? I’m not sure. After researching around on the internet for quite some time, I still do not have a clear answer. I am planning on asking Cecilia and Carlos Montalvo when I go home for the weekend on Friday.

I really want to learn to SCUBA dive, I know what it stands for - but have never gotten the chance to go. Hopefully this summer I will be able to go to Hawaii with Olin and get to experience the best of what Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparati(?) has to offer me. Snorkeling would be cool too. I will write more on this later. Gotta go for now.

The famed super fastpass

Disneyland’s Attendance Info

Writing Space…I called it that instead of a “Blog” - what is a Blog anyways? An abridgment of the term web log - is what Wikipedia says. How accurate is the Wikipedia? Who knows, but I like to use it as a valid source - unlike many professors that deem is “not a source”. I’ll try to find some statistics on that. Speaking of statistics - I was looking up Disneyland statistics on Wikipedia during my ISQM 377 Class (get more into this later) today, and I found many interesting statistics about the attendance of Disneyland. Wikipedia hyperlinked me to a website where I discovered all this information - so professors of the world, it’s not totally useless.

I was filling out my resume today - trying to fill out my “Objective”. You do not necessarily need an objective for your resume - but usually it helps employers know what you are trying to accomplish by applying for the said position. So what exactly is the Objective of this writing space? “I don’t know // you tell me“. From now on, everything written in blue will be a quote from The Office. That last one was from Dwight when he is rhetorically asking to the camera, if he should trust Jim or not. There is a great fan run website:

http://www.officetally.com

It is based in my hometown area (Palo Alto, CA!) and run by a middle-aged Asian woman.

So I guess there is no Objective to this, I just write because I enjoy it. I’m thinking about giving writing a try for a career, although we all know it does not really pay that well unless you write for a Newspaper, or popular magazine such as The New Yorker.

Current Career Possibilities - Colleen thinks this is a ridiculous list.

Chef
FBI Special Agent
Writer
Food Critic
Investment Banker
Computer Programmer
Professional Video Game Player (not likely, I don’t really like playing all day anymore)
Stock Investor

P.S.: The title of this post screams originality and creativity.