The Endlessness of Space...
For all those looking for a new game out there that is quite good, but won't end up consuming your life, I recommend Freelancer. It was the "immersive" one I was afraid of, but as it turned out the single player portion really isn't as long as it seems like it will be. There are "levels" when it comes to experience so to speak, but the max is only 38, and you only end up getting to around 16 by the end of the plot. All in all it took about eighteen hours to beat, which for a lot of people doesn't even constitute a full weekend. I'll keep my mouth shut on that one. It had been a long time since I played a space sim, or any kind of game that let's you move freely through thrree dimensional space. I remember back in the day I played the Descent series, and those games were great fun because you had that extra axis to work with. Rather than walking down a hallway, you could choose to barrel roll, do some loops, zip through it inverted backwards, or whatever is most helpful in the situation. Only bad thing about the game is you eventually max out your ship and weapons, finish the single player plot, and everything else becomes kind of boring. Unless you really get into it and love to explore the endless realm of space and every base or trade route within it, there's not a whole lot to do. The single player missions however are pretty challenging at times, and the plot is involving enough to make it seem like there's a point. The female lead is pretty cute too. ;) You know programmers and creating female likenesses in computer games.
The bad news is I'm basically done with it already. The good news is with finals starting on Wednesday and then three more the following week, that's probably for the better.
Interesting documentary on MTV tomorrow night at 10 by a journalist who visited Kuwait and our troops. He did a similar thing as a part of the "For The Troops" special which I thought was really good that aired last year and was largely about the War on Terror in Afghanistan. Should be worth watching for sure.
Friday, March 07, 2003
Immortality.
Quite an interesting topic actually. There's actually a whole lot I could say about it. Unfortunately I'm tired. Tonight's movie is what brought up the subject, as some friends and I took in Tuck Everlasting. Of the short and sweet variety, this one had typical live action Disney fare. Basic concept is boy meets girl, boy is immortal, girl isn't, girl has to decide whether to become immortal with him as well, climax at the end where you find out what happens. A whole lot of sappy lovey dovey goodness in the middle. I actually enjoyed the female lead's performance, and I suppose the male lead did a decent job of being your typical hearthrob. We'll go with 4 M's. It was a mere 88 minutes, so it's one you can just sort of breeze through when you have an hour to kill. Cute, helps to remind those of us who are no longer teenagers what it was like to be one once.
Tuned in to the President's speech tonight, primetime live usually means big news, as it turned out it sounded much like repetition of stuff he's already said. I was expecting more, something along the lines of let's go get em. The wait goes on. Saw an interesting 60 Minutes a few nights ago where they went around Kuwait interviewing a bunch of the soldiers, and they all talked about how bored they were with training, and were basically hoping to either get the hell in and do their job, or get the hell out and go home. The natives are getting restless as they say. I guess it's only a matter of time.
Some of the people I hung out with tonight who I hadn't seen in a few months said I looked much thinner. The best part is when people who don't even know you're trying say that. They're the ones you know are actually being honest. It's not like I was ever fat, or think I am now, but being healthier and more in shape is just a very neat feeling, and it'll only get better.
Quite an interesting topic actually. There's actually a whole lot I could say about it. Unfortunately I'm tired. Tonight's movie is what brought up the subject, as some friends and I took in Tuck Everlasting. Of the short and sweet variety, this one had typical live action Disney fare. Basic concept is boy meets girl, boy is immortal, girl isn't, girl has to decide whether to become immortal with him as well, climax at the end where you find out what happens. A whole lot of sappy lovey dovey goodness in the middle. I actually enjoyed the female lead's performance, and I suppose the male lead did a decent job of being your typical hearthrob. We'll go with 4 M's. It was a mere 88 minutes, so it's one you can just sort of breeze through when you have an hour to kill. Cute, helps to remind those of us who are no longer teenagers what it was like to be one once.
Tuned in to the President's speech tonight, primetime live usually means big news, as it turned out it sounded much like repetition of stuff he's already said. I was expecting more, something along the lines of let's go get em. The wait goes on. Saw an interesting 60 Minutes a few nights ago where they went around Kuwait interviewing a bunch of the soldiers, and they all talked about how bored they were with training, and were basically hoping to either get the hell in and do their job, or get the hell out and go home. The natives are getting restless as they say. I guess it's only a matter of time.
Some of the people I hung out with tonight who I hadn't seen in a few months said I looked much thinner. The best part is when people who don't even know you're trying say that. They're the ones you know are actually being honest. It's not like I was ever fat, or think I am now, but being healthier and more in shape is just a very neat feeling, and it'll only get better.
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Vroom.
Man, woke up at 6:15 as usual for a Monday Wednesday or Friday and was still feeling the effects of the cold from the last couple days, it's been sort of a mini version of one that's been going around, but annoying nonetheless. Given the 39 degree outside temperature, decided to go ahead and sleep in and try my luck later on with regards to being able to get a run in and not die of hypothermia. Was a much more livable 60 around 11 when I finally got off my butt, so I went ahead and headed over to the track. It's much more comfortable running on the all weather track than on pavement, and I think it's doing wonders for preventing shin splints. Unfortunately the ROTC group prevents me from doing it in the early morning, so going to have to find a way around that next quarter. Maybe get up even earlier, maybe switch things around in the morning so that I go to class first. Just annoying to have to take 2 or 3 showers a day, that's why taking off to workout right when you wakeup works best.
Anyway, so I decided to go ahead and do another 2 mile time trial like the one I did last Saturday, in which I posted a pretty good time almost identical pacing wise to my fastest 2 mile of the last several years which I ran last July before shin splints put me under. It was still a bit slower though, but I knew with a few more training days it wouldn't be too difficult to surpass it. What I DIDN'T expect, was to haul ass as fast as I did this morning. My opening mile was a blazing (for me anyway) 7:37, which is the fastest mile I've run in quite some time, even though I wasn't even going full speed due to the expectations of having to run another without stopping. At the 1.5 mile mark I was at 11:51. This is also awesome because the requirements for OTS in the 1.5 mile event is 12:00, and that's the first time I've run under it. Yet again though, I could have gone faster if I didn't know I had another half mile to go. During laps 6 and 7 I was really feeling the effects of going out so fast, and my lap times started increasing, but my slow lap on the day was still only a 2:09, compared with a 2:20 or even 2:25 from previous trials. I then managed to turn in the fastest finishing lap I've run since I started training about a year ago. All this put together put me at a 2 mile time of 15:49. Nothing incredibly amazing given my times in the 11's and 12's in High School, but very impressive when comparing with more recent times. I cut over a minute off my PR when not including High School, which most runners know is a gigantic difference. Especially in a four day period. As I was running and turned in that incredible opening mile my goal became to break 16:00, when at the start of the run it was to break 16:30, even with the quicker goal I still made it easily.
For almost three weeks of more serious training, I've managed huge gains in speed. My initial 2 mile time was 18:34, although I definitely wasn't trying for any kind of speed in order to avoid injury. Two days later, 18:10, then two more, 17:54. Couple runs last week outside the track on the beach and so forth more for distance and longevity rather than speed, then Saturday a 16:55, followed with another distance run on Monday, then today's 15:49. It's going to become much more difficult to quicken my times however. Going to be focusing more on the in between runs, going a bit further on the distance runs, trying to get my legs further into the "used to running" shape they need to be in. One goal is to eventually get to training 5 days a week instead of 3, which will really help and allow me to work in some speed workouts along with the distance training. To put that much strain on my legs is going to require at least another month or two of what I've been doing though, until I don't feel the slightest hint of soreness anywhere near my shins or any other part of my lower leg associated with constant pounding. I don't feel ready yet, but I've got plenty of time.
I remember typing in this last summer that my intermediate goal was of course to break what was the requirement at that time when they were still running the 2 mile at OTS, which was 16:30, with my primary goal being to get to 15 minutes. I thought I was a loooooong way off from that. I probably still am, cutting another minute off will be much harder the second time around, especially after how dead I felt after today's. The most optimistic aspect of the whole process is these are times I'm running while alone on the track, never having anyone of the same pace to drag me along, so to speak. When being chased down or passed by hundreds of fellow trainees, with instructors yelling "encouragement" from the side of the track, something tells me the motivation to run even faster will be quite apparent.
Yeah, I thnk that's enough babbling about running today. Looking forward to Friday's weigh in, might see something in the 180s after two weeks ago I was at 190 flat. I've hovered right around there for a while, think it's about time I get into the 180s for good. I forget the conversion, it's something like you should run a mile 5 seconds faster for every pound you lose? Or something like that.
Man, woke up at 6:15 as usual for a Monday Wednesday or Friday and was still feeling the effects of the cold from the last couple days, it's been sort of a mini version of one that's been going around, but annoying nonetheless. Given the 39 degree outside temperature, decided to go ahead and sleep in and try my luck later on with regards to being able to get a run in and not die of hypothermia. Was a much more livable 60 around 11 when I finally got off my butt, so I went ahead and headed over to the track. It's much more comfortable running on the all weather track than on pavement, and I think it's doing wonders for preventing shin splints. Unfortunately the ROTC group prevents me from doing it in the early morning, so going to have to find a way around that next quarter. Maybe get up even earlier, maybe switch things around in the morning so that I go to class first. Just annoying to have to take 2 or 3 showers a day, that's why taking off to workout right when you wakeup works best.
Anyway, so I decided to go ahead and do another 2 mile time trial like the one I did last Saturday, in which I posted a pretty good time almost identical pacing wise to my fastest 2 mile of the last several years which I ran last July before shin splints put me under. It was still a bit slower though, but I knew with a few more training days it wouldn't be too difficult to surpass it. What I DIDN'T expect, was to haul ass as fast as I did this morning. My opening mile was a blazing (for me anyway) 7:37, which is the fastest mile I've run in quite some time, even though I wasn't even going full speed due to the expectations of having to run another without stopping. At the 1.5 mile mark I was at 11:51. This is also awesome because the requirements for OTS in the 1.5 mile event is 12:00, and that's the first time I've run under it. Yet again though, I could have gone faster if I didn't know I had another half mile to go. During laps 6 and 7 I was really feeling the effects of going out so fast, and my lap times started increasing, but my slow lap on the day was still only a 2:09, compared with a 2:20 or even 2:25 from previous trials. I then managed to turn in the fastest finishing lap I've run since I started training about a year ago. All this put together put me at a 2 mile time of 15:49. Nothing incredibly amazing given my times in the 11's and 12's in High School, but very impressive when comparing with more recent times. I cut over a minute off my PR when not including High School, which most runners know is a gigantic difference. Especially in a four day period. As I was running and turned in that incredible opening mile my goal became to break 16:00, when at the start of the run it was to break 16:30, even with the quicker goal I still made it easily.
For almost three weeks of more serious training, I've managed huge gains in speed. My initial 2 mile time was 18:34, although I definitely wasn't trying for any kind of speed in order to avoid injury. Two days later, 18:10, then two more, 17:54. Couple runs last week outside the track on the beach and so forth more for distance and longevity rather than speed, then Saturday a 16:55, followed with another distance run on Monday, then today's 15:49. It's going to become much more difficult to quicken my times however. Going to be focusing more on the in between runs, going a bit further on the distance runs, trying to get my legs further into the "used to running" shape they need to be in. One goal is to eventually get to training 5 days a week instead of 3, which will really help and allow me to work in some speed workouts along with the distance training. To put that much strain on my legs is going to require at least another month or two of what I've been doing though, until I don't feel the slightest hint of soreness anywhere near my shins or any other part of my lower leg associated with constant pounding. I don't feel ready yet, but I've got plenty of time.
I remember typing in this last summer that my intermediate goal was of course to break what was the requirement at that time when they were still running the 2 mile at OTS, which was 16:30, with my primary goal being to get to 15 minutes. I thought I was a loooooong way off from that. I probably still am, cutting another minute off will be much harder the second time around, especially after how dead I felt after today's. The most optimistic aspect of the whole process is these are times I'm running while alone on the track, never having anyone of the same pace to drag me along, so to speak. When being chased down or passed by hundreds of fellow trainees, with instructors yelling "encouragement" from the side of the track, something tells me the motivation to run even faster will be quite apparent.
Yeah, I thnk that's enough babbling about running today. Looking forward to Friday's weigh in, might see something in the 180s after two weeks ago I was at 190 flat. I've hovered right around there for a while, think it's about time I get into the 180s for good. I forget the conversion, it's something like you should run a mile 5 seconds faster for every pound you lose? Or something like that.
Sunday, March 02, 2003
Left Right Left Right A B A B Select Start.
Probably made a mistake a couple days ago when I discoverd a cache of ROMs as they're called, for the prehistoric NES. Also known as the Nintendo Entertainment System, it was quite the amazing toy for my generation. Back then it wasn't quite an addiction, but man were there a lot of hours of fun involved. So yeah, an emulator that can be easily downloaded for a PC can "emulate" a Nintendo system, such that if you download a .nes file, you're able to play the game. In my case, the guy had over 600 games, most of which I've never heard of. But man, when I hear the Super Mario Bros 3 theme, or load up some of the other oldies but goodies, I get taken wayyyyyyyy back.
Luckily the simpleness of the system allowed most games to be beaten in a matter of hours, rather than the days, weeks, or even MONTHS that today's games require. One of the words that always scares me when downloading a game is "immersive," because that usually means it either goes on forever, you can get lost in it forever, or you never want to stop playing. Luckily, I'm not the type to enjoy that kind of game. I usually get bored of a new game, some faster than others. Very rare is the game with the staying power than has me playing it on and off for more than a month.
And yes, I'm still getting real life stuff done too. Last midterm finally on Tuesday, with finals coming in a few weeks. Will definitely be holing myself up at some point, since this set of grades and the next set in June are all there are left to affect my graduating GPA. Did all the reserving and whatnot for Commencement, looks like it'll be 4pm on Saturday the 15th, with all the other hundreds of Econ and Bus Econ majors.
Probably made a mistake a couple days ago when I discoverd a cache of ROMs as they're called, for the prehistoric NES. Also known as the Nintendo Entertainment System, it was quite the amazing toy for my generation. Back then it wasn't quite an addiction, but man were there a lot of hours of fun involved. So yeah, an emulator that can be easily downloaded for a PC can "emulate" a Nintendo system, such that if you download a .nes file, you're able to play the game. In my case, the guy had over 600 games, most of which I've never heard of. But man, when I hear the Super Mario Bros 3 theme, or load up some of the other oldies but goodies, I get taken wayyyyyyyy back.
Luckily the simpleness of the system allowed most games to be beaten in a matter of hours, rather than the days, weeks, or even MONTHS that today's games require. One of the words that always scares me when downloading a game is "immersive," because that usually means it either goes on forever, you can get lost in it forever, or you never want to stop playing. Luckily, I'm not the type to enjoy that kind of game. I usually get bored of a new game, some faster than others. Very rare is the game with the staying power than has me playing it on and off for more than a month.
And yes, I'm still getting real life stuff done too. Last midterm finally on Tuesday, with finals coming in a few weeks. Will definitely be holing myself up at some point, since this set of grades and the next set in June are all there are left to affect my graduating GPA. Did all the reserving and whatnot for Commencement, looks like it'll be 4pm on Saturday the 15th, with all the other hundreds of Econ and Bus Econ majors.
