Since it seems I am never going to actually sit down and write out what happened last summer, here is the lite version of it:

Freshman year ended well and my grades were much improved over the first semesters (hooray!).

I then decided to get a job as a road construction flagger. First step was to get my flagger certification by taking a 6 hour class + test. Turns out, all you need to qualify is be able to read English. The test was open book, the answers were in chronological order, and the questions were word-for-word from the book. Needless to say I got 100%. The sad thing is, the lady who took the class with me missed 4 questions.

I flagged for a couple weeks in downtown Kent and yes, it really is that boring to stand there all day. And painful. My first week my feet wanted to rip themselves free from my body. Some notable events that happened during this period:

- A large black lady running out from her backyard screaming and asking my coworker and I if we wanted to see some baby skunks as we were driving away from the jobsite.

- As we were paving asphalt, a couple of residents could no longer leave their homes until it had cooled (they were informed of this beforehand by several days) and kept coming over asking me when they could leave. Note that they were what I would describe as gangsters and were getting increasingly annoyed at the delay. Then one of them dropped this hilariously stereotypical line: “C’mon man, a n*****’s gotta do sh** today!”. I laughed on the inside and feared for my life on the outside.

- One of my older coworkers made a comment about a girls chest that was walking by. The girl had just gotten off an elementary school bus. Creepy.

In fall I started my sophomore year at dP. In an interesting turn of events we ended up getting three awesome teachers for our game class as opposed to the usual one. My team and I started work on our game, Proximity. Unfortunately, one of our teammates decided to drop out of dP which brought us down to three team members. The semester ended well (except for Physics, ugh), with Proximity receiving a great grade for first playable.

Spring semester brought radical changes to Proximity and it kept getting better and better each time we played it. The semester finished decently well minus Physics which I barely squeaked by in. Proximity received one of the highest grades in the sophomore class and it was one a few sophomore games chosen to show at the end of the year showcase. Proximity was also voted “Best AI” and runner up for “Best Visual Effects” in the first DigiAwards. Pretty awesome when compared to all the other great games the sophomore class had. Here is the video we showed during the showcase. Someday, when I find a working copy of the installer, I will put a download link up so others can play it.

This summer I had trouble finding a job and eventually moved back to the Tri-Cities to take a flagging job. Wave if you see me around town. I will be the bored white kid with the giant stop sign. I would also like to stress the importance of those four letters. It means you don’t move past me. Ever. EVER.

Time to lockdown

UPDATE: Slight delay due to work load after midterms.

Summer recap post coming soon to a Paultronic near you. But first, midterms.

I leave you with a machine gun cat.

Approaching Critical Mass! Gaming is imminent! Brace for impact!

So I finally fixed my laptop! YAY!

Many thanks to Adam for bringing paultronic back from it’s momentary trip to the graveyard. =)

So maybe my definition of soon-ish means almost a month. Whatever. You had better things to do other than to constantly check back here for a textual adventure. Right? Well in repayment, have a cookie. O (Note: Cookie is smaller than it appears on your monitor)

I finished my first semester back in December with less than ideal grades, but nothing I can’t polish up this semester. My first semester experience at dP, I would say, was pretty informative. I got a small taste of what kind of work load to expect in the future and a basic set of skills to build up on in the coming years. I was especially happy with how my game class turned out, considering it is one of the most important classes to get a good grade in. After finals were done, I hung out in the apartment for a few days doing nothing useful. Exciting, I know. I eventually decided to pack up and head home before my family decided to drive up here and drag me back. Luckily, I never ran into Gandalf on my way over Snoqualmie Pass (laugh, it’s geek humor).

So for the winter break I sat around and visited with my family and friends. For a month. There were many grand adventures, including a trip to Denny’s and Walmart at 3 a.m. Pancakes ALWAYS taste better when you’ve been up for more than 20 hours. Just don’t piss off everyone else who happens to be at the restaurant.

People kind of got mad at us when we laughed while Will Smith killed his dog. What? You don’t think that is funny? Apparently you have never seen Will Smiths face in that scene. He looks like he’s trying to pass a turd the size of a cantaloupe. If I could get a picture of it, you would laugh too.

Christmas rolled around and I got lots of goodies, then New Year’s showed up. I went to coj’s “the fix” for “height”. Cause you know, college kids are just high schoolers with a longer commute. It was there that I realized that Guitar Hero can go become an hero. Rock Band is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much more fun to play. Instead of my hand begging me to commit seppuku, I actually enjoyed playing that fake guitar. Quite enjoyable in fact. I even squealed a few times out of pure joy. SQUEEEEEEAAL! Eventually I had to wander back over to west side of the state and I was kind of dreading the weather on the Pass. Turns out, the weather was suckier between Yakima and Ellensburg. Lots of slush on the road, constant heavy rain/snow, retard drivers, and semi-trucks that would coat my entire car with slush when they passed me. Bleh.

When I got to the Pass, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the entire road was dry and it wasn’t snowing like the weather alert radio channel kept saying. While I was going over the Pass I saw the sun for the first that entire day. So bright and shiny. Weird. I arrived back at the apartment after accidentally taking the scenic route through Bellevue to find everything unburnt, not-dead, and generally okay.

As of today, I have finished the first week of the second semester here at dP. It looks like this semester is going to be very interesting and a lot more involving. However, someone has decided to throw a monkey wrench into the engine. One of my favorite teachers (the game class teacher) quit a week before school began due to health related stuff. Basically, my sociology class went from “could be interesting” to “someone please stab me so I don’t fall asleep”. It sucks, like a vacuum. The rest of my classes look like they are going to be fun though. In one we are programming cars to navigate using sensors and whatnot. In another we are learning to create game engines. Quite interesting. My mythology class even looks good too. Good books to read like “The Hobbit” and “The Odyssey”.

There is, however, one small problem. The Triad. Three individuals whose only purpose it seems is to make the rest of us hate them. Spinny Kid, Box Boy, and Loud Lad. About half of my classes include all three of these bozo’s. They constantly ask stupid questions and interrupt the teacher. Somehow they seem to think they are smarter than the professor’s. I’m surprised they even passed the classes last quarter to get in to the second semester. I bet we could get about 25% more material done in a class period with the absence of the Triad. I just hope they don’t pass this semester or at least are not in any of my sophomore classes next year.

Anywho, things are good over here. That’s about it. I kind of like this whole “wait for a long time and then post something huge” thing. Mayhaps.

Now for some funny stuff (not that I’m not funny or anything):
Crazy Japanese This is from a Japanese show. The green stuff is unprepared wasabi.
A Series of Tubes This is from a speech given by a Alaskan senator. He does not know anything about the internet.

So my first semester at dP is over. Expect a new and exciting post soon-ish.

Finals are now upon us! Flee in terror and grab everything you can before the tides of red sweep over you! AAAAAAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

So my laptop is dead. Hard drives are stupidly dumb and stuff. Need to repair them or something. Luckily I have my old computer! YAY! Old faithful rides again!

INTO THE SUNSET WE RIDE TOGETHER!!!!!!

Hahahah, super surprise visit is in effect!