Wow, I hadn’t realised it had been *that* long… Well. Update time.
Uni for 2004 for me finished on Monday. Assignments have gone well so far, with my Media Analysis workshop presentation website on Media Space being one of the top marked assignments in the course :). Chika and co were also really impressed with the Media Project our team of four came up with. As for next year, I’m thinking of Honours.

Late last month I turned 21 (no blog entry :S). Got some awesome presents, including an iaito (blunt samurai sword), 17″ notebook (desktop replacement computer), and artwork. Thinking of having a party late this month.

As for my spare entertainment time, I’ve been seeing what the notebook can do (It’s a Clevo D870P). Being 1440×900 resolution, it plays DVDs and High Definition video effortlessly (1080i is awesome - it’s the quality you see in stores that sell High Definition plasma screens). At the moment I’ve got it playing SNES, Sega Mega Drive, Playstation, and Nintendo64 games like a charm (it can play Goldeneye four player! :P). GTA:VC, FarCry, and Live For Speed run awesomely. Now I need to look for some usb gamepads…

Talking about the latter, I’ve been involved in the LFS community…. I joined a team named RiftR (Rift Racing Team), and we had three great Races against HOA (High Octane Aussies) (I came first in one race, but it wasn’t counted cos only 5 people and not 6 started :S). I came 4th overall in points (out of 11 racers). On Nov 1st our team merged with HOA to make ORt (Oceanic Racing Team). We haven’t had any competitions yet, as S2 (the next installment of LFS) is coming soon… The first race I’ve been in under ORt is the AAL S1 Finale (an aussie endurance league race) - a 50 lapper of FE Black (a 6.6km circuit). In the leadup to the race, I obtained the world record laptime of the track using a mouse (instead of steering wheel/pedals) :). However, it was soon taken away as well :P. That race happened this evening, and it went well. I finished 4th overall, despite being disconnected from the server twice, and damaging the engine on lap 23. Got a pb that was more than two seconds faster than my world record as well :). 4 is turning into my lucky number…

I think that’s it for the moment, hopefully not that long till the next update

The other day I went with a friend from Uni to see Kiki’s Delivery Service at the Nova cinema. I hadn’t seen any of Miyazaki’s films in english before (ie with subtitles), and I was pleasantly surprised. An entertaining film, and the cat Jiji is really funny (talking cat)

Oh yeah, and I have Live For Speed Statistics

Considering it was such a lovely day yesterday, I rode a leisurely 13km up to Eagle On The Hill and back (I took my old bike). It was quite windy; I was half being pushed up the hill. Once I got there, the weather cooled down and the sun went out :(. The way down was really windy, and quite cold. I got to Cross rd in 10 minutes (6km) which wasn’t that fast, but was quite fun
I’m still addicted to LFS, and am getting used to the MRT5 car (a formula ford style car). Different fiddling with setups makes such a difference between a leisurely drive, and constant spinning :P.

Currently playing: Do As Infinity - Turezure Hi Naru Mamani

Update time! I’m back into the studying spirit, although some would say I have a five day weekend (cue evil laugh). Doom 3 came out last week, but I’m not too keen on trying it out quite yet. Instead, my latest gaming craze which has lasted so far for the past 3-5 weeks is Live For Speed, an online racing simulator. It is the most realistic car driving simulator I have ever played, minus the lack of damage (Viper Racing was my previous number 1 realistic racer; S2 will have a damage model :D), and is just asking for me to go and buy a steering wheel and pedals (accelerator, brake, and hopefully a clutch is included :D). I play it currently with the mouse movement controlling the analogue steering, as a keyboard is insufficent for the instantaneous and precise steering movement. Two weeks ago I started learning drifting techniques via a Best Motoring DVD with Keiichi Tsuchiya explaining six techniques. Drifting is the art of creating, and controling oversteer, such that a car travels through a corner sideways. Very fun, and extremely challenging. Yesterday I bought LFS (S1 licence), and the extra cars are all very unique in their control and style. The AI on the other hand are just plain aggressive and consistently side-, and rear-end me (same as the demo). The graphics and detail of the extra tracks are of a higher standard than that of the demo. The city track is just plain great. It is also really cool to be able to play a game at 1280×1024 at a high frame rate

Yay! Got my results for semester 1:

American Gothic: Distinction 75%
Media Theory: Distinction 76%

Whoohoo

Well, the changes to my Media Project course have turned to the worse. My workshop time has now changed from tuesday 3-5 to wednesday 1-2. Now I have to officially go to uni three days a week, instead of two :’(. Oh, poor, poor me :P. Anyhoo, gives me more exercise