A-class

I would have never imagined reaching the top of the online leaderboards of any game, but I guess it finally happened. Even though I’ve been in the top 10 or 15 for the past couple of months, I never reached the top 5 or A class rank until today. I never like to boast when it comes to this game, but I was crazy today. Out of about 25+ matches, I only lost about three times. It’s really safe to say that I’ve really stepped it up in the past month and I’m a lot more cautious when it comes to performing careless moves and attempting to button mash out of situations. I know that the Xbox and PS3 leaderboards are far more competitive and if I were playing on there, my rank would be much lower. I might as well the bathe in the glory of my accomplishment while I still have it though.

With spring semester right around the corner, I’ll probably have to put the Street Fighter away for a while. Surely my skills will go down as will my rank, but it was fun while it lasted. Thank you Street Fighter 4 and Capcom, for nearly three years of challenge, frustration and fun with the most addicting game in my entire life.

Last Summer Here

I would think that summer time would allow for more free time, but I was mistaken. This is my busiest summer yet. While I haven’t really done anything exciting, I’ve stayed busy taking 10 credit hours of classes and working ~16 hours a week. Hectic? Yeah, just a bit, but it feels good knowing that I’m making up for lost time and failed opportunities. I haven’t had a summer this productive since 2008, right after graduating high school. I regret wasting time these past few summers, but it was an experience to say the least.

After this, I will have no reason to return for next summer. There is nothing left here that I need. Future summers will be spent in College Station until I graduate.

This picture is a sloppy reflection of my summer. A simple way of showing what I’ve been up to. I’ll be slightly glad when it’s all over. I feel that fall semester can’t come soon enough.

Also, I understand that I haven’t been really updating an keeping up with the site, but just know I stay pretty up to date with my Twitter. It’s a good way of seeing what I’m up to whenever I’m away from the site and it’s really the only social networking service that I use.

A stroll through Military Walk

It was 1AM last night and I finished up on some schoolwork. I boycotted video games a while back, so there really wasn’t much else to do. I figured I could take my camera, tripod, and bike to campus to kill some time. Problem is, I can’t carry my tripod while riding my bike because it’s too big. Solution? Go to Walmart, buy a bike mount for my car, and finally start taking pictures again after eight months of stopping.

I stayed on campus for about three hours taking pictures of still life, as well as a few self-portraits. One of the best places to take pictures was Military Walk. A 1,500-foot long historical landmark that has sat at the heart of Texas A&M for over a century. It was extremely well lit and shots came out beautifully with little to no effort.

I spent the past few hours redoing my website layout and used this photo for the background. I like the way that it came out and I’m pretty satisfied with it. The biggest challenge was keeping the font readable because the background was too bright, but I feel that I have it to the point where fonts and letters are readable.

I’ve had my new bike, the 2011 Jamis Citizen 1 for a few months now. I will be writing a review for it and including a few pictures that I took last night along with it.

There’s only about one month of school left. And just like that, my first year at Texas A&M will be over. It’s really hard to believe.

The Big Event 2011

The Big Event is today. It’s the largest student-run, one-day service project in the entire nation where Texas A&M students go out and help out the surrounding community of Bryan and College Station. Students will perform a wide variety of tasks, such as painting, cleaning, etc. The event is supposed to “promote campus and community unity as students come together to express their gratitude for the support form the surrounding community.” It’s basically our way of saying thanks. Kind of weird, considering that the community hasn’t really given me anything. But that’s not the reason why I will be participating in The Big Event for the first time this year. I’m simply doing it because I want to… and maybe because feel that I haven’t done enough community work in my lifetime. I will supposedly be cleaning windows, raking leaves, weeding flower beds, and spreading mulch. Bummer, I kind of wanted to paint or do something that won’t get ruined one week later. Ah well, easy community work is easy. It’ll be a good day.

After all of the nitty-gritty is done with, there will be a “thank you” concert with Lee DeWyze, winner of American Idol Season 9, and it’s freeee. I’m unsure if I want to attend, or just work on schoolwork for the rest of the night. Ah, choices choices…

Studyholic?

Aside from the athletic look, warm smile, and flashiness, this is pretty much me every night these days. I study and do homework anywhere from about four to eight hours every day. There almost isn’t a night that I don’t study and there’s never a twelve hour period that I do not study at least two hours. It really isn’t a bad lifestyle and I can’t complain about it. I’m in good health and (aside from homework stress) I’m at peace. Plus, I still manage to stay social. Despite not going out to too many events, I still hang out with buddies whenever I’m on campus.

Since moving to College Station, I have never really used my camera. I’ve never had the urge to really take pictures here like I did back when I was in Killeen and I don’t know why. The campus has plenty of beautiful places to take pictures, why I haven’t taken the time to shoot some scenes is beyond me. Cold weather these days could account for some of it. I just randomly laid eyes on my camera bag in the corner tonight and felt that it would be worth it to take it out and play around with it a bit. Figured it would help relieve some of the stress of homework and kill some time. Surely it did, about three hours.

It’s now three in the morning. I should be sleeping soon, but I think I might dedicate the next hour to some more homework before crashing since I woke up pretty late today. (Thank you TAMU for cancelling classes yesterday! :)