MMO gaming

I've probably been putting more time into playing games than I should be. This post will be a reminder why this is a bad idea.

Farmville: After getting to level 16, I've concluded Farmville is not a very fun game. It combines all the things that discouraged me from World of Warcraft and places them in the dynamic and adventurous world of farming. My ideas of having a customized agrarian wonderland were soon swept away with thoughts of maximizing XP gain and cash flow. After a week, I scrapped my carefully organized garden of fruits, vegetables and animals for a block of strawberry field. Another week of grinding strawberries every two waking hours until I was level 13 led me to rethink my approach. I scoured the market for a more efficient way to level and bought what would probably be enough haystacks to make a small McMansion. Then I realized the game was dumb and quit. After planting pumpkins to harvest in the morning.

Monopoly City Streets: Hasbro has teamed up with Google to create an online version of Monopoly. While an awesome idea on paper, a day of playing the game reminded me of this small little tidbit: Monopoly is a horrible game. All the player can do is buy or sell, which doesn't really leave them with much to do. The only thing you can hope for is that someone else has a bad die roll and randomly land on the elaborate stretch of hotels that you laid out. Too much luck involved (RNG lawl). The online game hasn't really addressed those issues.

I had no intentions of global domination but I felt like I should have a goal going into the game. Being the ruler of suburbia Elk Grove appeal to me that much, so I opted to go with east Davis. The game doesn't really have a robust registration system, so I decided to take advantage of that fact. Three accounts later and I was the proud but sullied owner of some of the prime real estate in the area. Two days later, I was the unrivaled King of Davis underneath Heaven, but then KINGDAVIS and OXYGENBARFIGHT blew up my park and built a nuclear power plant in its stead. Wankers. Absolute wankers. Probably cheaters too. I'll check up on the game from time to time, but I've pretty much put my aspirations to be a real estate tycoon to rest.

World of Warcraft (WoW): I renewed my WoW account and immediately felt guilty about it. But then I three shot a mage and all was well again.

This semester was the semester where I would dabble in a bit of political activism. So the first step on this path would be to find other like minded individuals and gauge the environment at Sac State. I tried joining the College Republicans to see how they were faring these days and what kind of insight they could share, but their little stand had no one there for most of the day. The College Democrats on the other hand had a nice little flier along with a schedule of important dates in September to meet and greet other people.

Previous attempts over the summer didn't pan out. Doris Matsui didn't hold any town halls that I knew of, aside from some teleconferences. I regret missing Paul Smith's town hall meeting near Arden, he seemed pretty anti-health care and it would have been interesting to see how the turnout went.

fall semester is here oh snap

Summer official ended for me today as I stepped onto campus to start Fall. The first thing that came to mind was "bloody hell, where did summer go". I'm guessing the all too familiar environments and sights served as a seamless transition between semesters. Second thought I had was, "need to find out where the college republican booth is so I can sign up later" but that's for another blog post.

Classes were good, I even got to take time and jot down some random ideas for the Jobber Cartel during "California Local and State Politics". Feeling as comfortable as I did during classes only furthered the point that I've been in school for too long. This was further reinforced during Immunology when someone asked me, "So is this like, your first upper division class?"

Survival Mechanisms

The only souvenir I got from Blizzcon 20009 was a cold courtesy of this guy. I'm not a dietitian, but I'm sure Whoppers and ramen are not the way to good health. My cooking probably isn't the best option either but whatever.

Canh Chua Ca (sweet and sour fish soup)



Ok, that's not mine. My version is much less appetizing since I have a lot less ingredients to work with (ingredients are important, do not skimp). The key ingredients in my version contain: tomatoes (canned in my case since I accidentally froze the ones I got earlier), chicken broth, fish, and pineapple.

Late for work will edit later with photos.

Dearest Pha...

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This American (subsidized) Life

So I've decided to take another year to graduate. I was planning on finally graduating this fall but seeing as how I won't have a job after I graduate, I decided to take a tepid step backwards and take one more semester. While it's more of a financial decision, I'm sort of relieved to be able to stay in the shelter of the academic system. Can't really complain about being employed and financial aid is a hell of a perk. The quiz midterm final routine is rote now (after years and years of practice) which removes a lot of the annual stress and anxiety.

Also, I'm bad at reading people. Women especially. Another thing to work on for Fall semester.

World of Crimecraft

I have to admit I am a sucker for ridiculous and gimmicky stuff so when I got an email to try a game called “Crimecraft”; I was up and running in the beginner zone within an hour. Would I start off as a lowly errand boy like in “Goodfellas?” Did the quest structure allow me the freedom to backstab people like in “Scarface?” At the very least, put drive-bys in the game. Sadly, the reality did not match my imaginary world in any way. Fetch quests galore for crooked cops and washed up dealers dominated my leveling experience. Going from point A to B to point C (in an area that strangely resembles downtown Sacramento but nicer) wasn’t very fun. In lieu of open-world PVP, the game lets players shoot amongst themselves in instanced zones for no real reason except to fulfill their kill quotas.

I have to admit the “gangster” genre doesn’t really appeal to me. I thought “Scarface” was average and have only heard Tupac (or is it 2pac?) on the radio. When I think about the gangster culture, I think of a survival mechanism in downtrodden environments and a path toward economic prosperity. I knew that Crimecraft wasn’t going to be like “The Wire” but I hoped that it would cover the elements of gangster culture that are romanticized in our popular culture. In turn I would gain a better understanding of why people like sporting three foot caricatures of Al Pacino on their chest. But no, 8 levels in and I’m still wondering why people don’t prefer samurais and superheroes.