Daemonologist

So absolutely, entirely fuckin' giddy. The days cannot pass fast enough, gimme that new series or gimme news that Susumu Hirasawa's doing the music for it.

Not much in the way of news overall, still playing Minecraft and have a few summer classes in the works to make sure I can graduate by the end of next summer. GPA wasn't as high last semester as I would have liked, and I have no real excuse for it. Hopefully it'll be an exception to my college experience, as opposed to the new norm. No real amazing classes, beyond some Chaucer, Dante, & Cervantes. That was a good one from last semester.

Oh yeah, and I've been reading Blood Reaver ALA Aaron Dembski-Bowden. If a Night Lord fan (Warhammer 40K), highly suggest it and his other works (both related to Night Lords and other content).

Y'know, since I'm not dead.

Been listening to some Susumu Hirasawa recently, pretty decent Japanese artist.  Find it interesting that one of his means of protesting global events is to offer some songs of his for free.  Very interesting mean of protest, and one I can readily support.  Much more mature than many other venues people take to share their opinions.

Mucked up with my course planning this semester, so I'm going to have to take an extra class in one of my final two semesters (So six a week, essentially) or take some summer classes.  Shame that this'll be after my FAFSA aid will run dry.  Ah well, I guess I should be happy I had three years paid off beforehand:  The reimbursement from all said years, even with a good chunk of it going toward school books the last six semesters, should provide more than enough for at least a good semester's worth of classes, and with summer's work I shouldn't need that much money to have the final year paid off in its entirety (University of Baltimore is an amazing university for Maryland natives, costing me practically $7500 / year in tuition, or $3700 / Semester).

Of my classes this semester?  Microbiology, Literature (Dante, Cervantes, Chaucer), Accounting Intro, and Sociology 101.   Three of four intro classes filling up electives, the fourth another elective filler but a follow-up from last year's Arts & Ideas class (Which predominantly focused on Homer / Greek works, followed by works from Chaucer, Machiavelli, and some other topics I know I should recall but don't).  Going to be doing a lot of major-related classes next two semesters, need to so I can graduate with my Simulation & Digital Entertainment degree by Summer '12.  

Still reading Vinland Saga and Berserk, as well as watching Lupin III.  Askeladd continues to be one magnificent bastard, wish Berserk would update more often (as always), and Lupin's gang continues to bring smiles and "What the zog?" reactions.

Would like to take this moment to give a shout-out to the artist Mako85 here on DeviantArt, who continues to put out decent work that can consistently bring smiles, smirks, or guffaws from me.  Tyrantwache and several of Mako's other friends / associates deserve an honorable mention as well, but Mako serves in the least as a "Gateway" to other artists and at most someone definitely worth either a Watch or a few favorites (either through DA or your browser).

Beyond such things?  My Orc army continues to progress at what can at best be described as a "Snail Pace".  Working on a few Night Goblin Shamans now to coincide with the new OnG rules, which should be coming out for "good" (See: Until the next Army Book after this one) in a few weeks.  Beyond that, I'll also need to complete those Savage Orc Boar Boyz of mine, as well as start putting paint coats on the remainder of my Goblin units (My Orc boyz, besides the Black Orcs, at least mostly done / started).

New Berserk Anime!

...

New Berserk Anime!  Do I really need to say anything more?

Sorta.  My classes aren't particularly "bad", and I cannot think of any that will be miserable throughout the semester (at least due to poor teaching and classroom experiences:  Homework's going to be a P-A-I-N in several), but barring my Arts class (You want us to read a whole bunch of classical Greek literature, and just be ready to discuss it in class?  Feth yeah!) none of them seem particularly interesting either.  Not liking the amount of online homework I'm getting, but that's more because I rarely get on the school's WebTycho system and such.

The main way I'm staving off the boredom is one word:  Minecraft.  Here's a link, for those interested: www.minecraft.net/  …, well, is hard to explain the game.  However, at least in my opinion, the game's easily worth the $13 to purchase.  There's still problems, if you suffer from them looking on the Minecraft forums is usually a good start for help, but overall it's solidly built and an enjoyable experience almost like a First Person Dwarf Fortress (but a lot, LOT simpler).

Beyond Minecraft and classes, I really haven't been up to much.  I need to get back to painting my Savage Orc Boar Boyz soon, and start shifting the time spent more towards classes than Minecraft, but that's about it.

Oh, and flies.  I hate them.  Buggers (no pun intended) keep flying in our back door as we let the pups inside or outside.  

Final note:  If you get the chance, watch "The Castle of Cagliostro", as well as some of the Lupin III episodes.  Don't often recommend animes, but these are pretty well made.  Note that a lot of movies since Cagliostro are hit or miss, however.

And it's not related to the drama I've been watching.  Imagine my surprise.

First, some touching up from earlier journals.  While I didn't have to read as much for History (Oh, I definitely had to read:  Over 400 pages.  Just that I managed to get by not reading all of what was told of me), Tolkien Lecture ate up a lot of time (In a good way!) with The Hobbit, LotR Trilogy, Tolkien Essays, and having to read a pair of Terry Pratchett books for a final project (Beowulf was also crammed in there somewhere).  And, as stated in "Reading Ahoy!", there was more to be read beyond that.  Good thing I enjoyed practically all of it.

I'm almost sad now, thinking about it:  I should have saved that Tolkien class for later.    It was an amazing class.  If for whatever reason you wind up in Kathryn Summers's Tolkien Class, you'll LOVE it.

To further finish up on journals / preemptively comment about how school starts again soon (Four weeks!  Summer's almost over already), I got a little more done this summer.  At least a good 30+ hours of driving by this time for the license, about to finish my final mandatory lesson this Saturday, have worked on a few O&G models (Definitely "A few":  Mostly building but I have painted at least one Wolf Rider and Savage Orc Boar Boy that I can recall for certain), and have played through a lot of games.  Not exactly the most "productive" summer, but there's limitations to what can really be done when Mon-Fri you're pretty much stuck at home from morning 'till evening.

Second, I've been listening to a bunch of Susumu Hirasawa recently.  If you don't know who he is, he's a Japanese "Musician" who has done work for several projects including Berserk (another thing I shall talk about later).  Overall I'd readily recommend his music.  Current song I'm listening to is "Sign 2", which is not the Naruto song (make sure you search "Sign Susumu Hirasawa" and not just "Sign" or you'll get an entirely different song).

Speaking of Sign 2, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbMKA2… .  An AMV for Berserk to Sign 2.  Not my creation, but felt it'd be nice to share.  I've become a pretty big fan of Berserk in the last few months, probably because - at least to me - it doesn't come off like a typical Manga.  Power tiers aren't constantly being re-written, decent character / character developments, a protagonist that isn't an emo git just because he wasn't popular as a kid (Well, he wasn't popular as a kid, but that was more tacked onto his mental trauma [Yes, trauma, not problems] than the sole cause), and several other factors.  A pretty decent series, if you don't mind blood.

By the way, that AMV and the favorites I have for Berserk?  It's really, really, REALLY not that High Fantasy.  I have to warn you now, as I don't want to see someone going into the Manga (which I recommend heavily over the Anime), going about two volumes, and wondering if they're reading the same series I suggested.  It gets bloody, dark, and downright despondent at places.

For another suggestion, Vinland Saga.  Follows VIKINGS.  Need I say more?  Not quite Berserk quality in my mind, but then it's also much younger in age (as in more recent series, still not a young reader series) and still isn't anywhere near bad.  Both series' are very low in super-power bullshit as well, so if you don't like seeing someone pull out a new super BEAM OF LOVE attack every volume, these mangas won't tick your nerves.

After this?  I've been playing lots of games.  Final Fantasy VII has been a gigantic grind to get sources from the sunk airship / materia from Chocobo Racing, Wind Waker has been a dash across the ocean for treasure / Triforce Pieces, New Super Mario Bros & Darkside Chronicles have been item grinds, actually pretty much everything has been fetching instead of progress.  Have unlocked one new REC level though, and am on World 4 to NSMB now.