Autumn

The Pillar of Autumn was (will be?) a UNSC Navy Cruiser under the command of Captain Jacob Keyes that, following the battle for Reach, discovered Installation 04. She landed there, the Marines fought the Covenant and the Flood, and Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 detonated the Autumn's fusion reactors and destroyed the installation. Hooray!

Crap, I did it again. I really must stop thinking of nothing but Halo.

The "Autumn" that I meant to refer to is the season, and the fact that it feels like it's approaching, as the mornings have been rather cool these last few days. Afternoon-time is still kinda hot (and apparently we have 90s in the forecast), but fall is almost here, which makes me happy.

I failed to mention the other day that I finally got around to reading issue 600 of "Amazing Spider-Man," which came out in July. Yes, I'm that far behind. But the book was spectacular, and it's incredible to think that it has been in production as one long, continuous saga of one character for 47 years! A couple of years ago, after Marvel made some rather...drastic decisions regarding the past and future of the Spider-Man character, I was upset and swore I would stop reading it. I stuck with it, however, and finally had to admit that the new direction turned out to be rather good, and some amazing stories have been created since then. I still don't agree with the means by which Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada brought the changes about, but the results have been exceptionally better than anyone expected. Which is why I'm going to reserve judgement on the Disney sell-out until I see what comes of it.

I actually had to work today, which felt really strange on a Friday, but no complaints. Happy, happy paycheck for me. I had to reset the scrapbooking aisle today, which consists of what seems like thousands upon thousands of packs of stickers. And by reset, I mean COMPLETELY reset, as in it looks nothing like it used to; but I managed it in about seven hours, well short of the given eleven hours, so it wasn't really a problem.

Gotta go work on some non-Halo stuff.

Out of New Mombasa

The ODST campaign is done. Finally. Yesterday evening, I was at the end of the third-to-last level when my Xbox Live connection was lost, which was no big deal because I was playing solo. But like a doofus, I decided to hit my guide button and reconnect, which threw my game back to the title screen. I thought I could restart the level where I was disconnected (a frustrating but minor inconvenience), and continue on from there. But no. As it turns out, the last two levels cannot be accessed until one has completed every other mission in one game. So, while I could start back where I left off, I actually ended up having to go back and re-do every previous mission. Grr...

I really enjoyed the game, though. The way the story played out was nice, and the characters were fun. A worthy addition to the franchise, even without a mere mention of Sierra 117 (or Halo, for that matter). Plus, I loved the fact that three of the troopers were voiced by Firefly alums, and Nathan Fillion's character was actually made to look like him. And Alan Tudyk's character is a pilot. Hmm...

Oh, by the way, I went and signed my Air Force job contract today.

But back to Halo. It's going to be interesting to see how the game works when played cooperatively, as it's very much designed as a single player experience. Luckily, I have Halo-playing friends that can help me figure that out. And I'm really looking forward to checking out Firefight (probably) tomorrow. We'll see. I do need to get some actual real-life stuff done, as I've been out of commission for two (should have only been one) days, so I may resist the Xbox urge tomorrow. Plus, I'm honestly a little Halo-ed out right now.

ODST Tomorrow!

I tried to get some stuff done today, but between trying not to fall asleep (unsuccessfully for about a half-hour) and my computer not wanting to cooperate (it's okay now), I ended up just being frustrated all afternoon. I did, however, get a hold of a couple of music videos that have been absent from my rather vast collection, and that I have greatly desired for quite some time; all thanks to a friend and his ability to know where to look ^_^ So that kinda made my day.

I ran by Sgt. Kim-Mata's office this morning and picked up my job description (though I failed to ask about my exact ship date), only to find that it is not in English. At least, I don't think it is, as I have absolutely no idea what the description is describing. Why does everything in the military have to be an acronym? But I still think that "Cyber Systems Operations" sounds cool.

"So, Mike, what do you do for a living?"

Last four years: "I work at Target."

Starting next year: "I'm in Cyber Systems Operations in the United States Air Force." :D

Much better.

I hovered around the receiving area at work today, waiting for the UPS guy to show up so I could intercept the box containing Halo 3: ODST. I am proud to say that my mission was a success. I got to touch it first. Hah! Obviously, I will be playing it all day tomorrow, so if I don't get on here and post, that's why.

:P

Okay, fine, I'll do it...

I wasn't going to post anything today, because today was rather uneventful; but my mother insisted, so...

I went to church and played my viola and heard a good sermon.

I ate pizza.

I finished Gears of War 2 with Thomas.

I'm going to bed.

^_^

Four Months

Basic training is in January.

JANUARY!

I don't know the exact date because I kinda zoned out after Sgt. Kim-Mata said "January." I really wasn't expecting it to be such a long time, but it's okay. I no longer feel so rushed; I feel that I can relax a bit. Plus, I'll have more time to get into good basic training shape; with four months to prepare, hopefully next January and February will be relatively smooth sailing.

I am happy with my AFSC, though. 3D032: Cyber Systems Operations; a fancy way to say that I'll be working with computers ^_^

On Monday, I'm going to stop by the recruiting station to pick up some details, so I'll post more when I know more.

In other news, the Ohio State game was wonderfully boring today; a 38-0 wallop over Toledo. Illinois next week. Hey! I'm going to get to see the entire football season! Woo-hoo!

In more other news, this morning it was announced that Koharu Kusumi will be graduating from Hello!Project in December. And since nobody here cares, I'm going to head over to Hello!Online to talk about it ;D

But it's not even October yet...

A long day at work plus a trip to the comic book store meant that I didn't get home until 3:00 today, which stinks. But tomorrow promises to be a quick and easy day, which is nice, because these last two days (finishing the Halloween set) have been rough. Of course, as I was putting the final touches on Halloween, I happened to walk a few aisles over only to discover that a cow-orker was putting the first of the Christmas stuff out. Oh dear.

"Kimagure Princess," the new Morning Musume single, was heard for the first time today, and is very cool. But since I have a Musume-specific blog, I'll detail my thoughts there rather than here. Deal?

Also cool is the fact that artist Mike Mayhew is back to doing what he does best, which is (artisting?) drawing comic book covers. I was very happy to see that he did the latest Amazing Spider-Man cover, as I am a huge fan of his work. I haven't seen a lot of him lately, so I'm glad he's back, and I hope he sticks around.

27

'Tis my birhday. Twenty-seven. A good number. A cube, in fact. Unless one lives to 125, a person only experiences three cube ages in a lifetime. Scratch that - four cube ages. I forgot 1*1*1. :P

I'm finally back on my regular schedule. The last couple of days, I've been sleeping when I'm usually awake, and awake when I'm usually asleep. I spent the better part of today merely trying to force myself to stay awake so I could get back to "normal," and I was quite literally falling asleep at work early this morning. But I managed.

I bought the DS game "Scribblenauts" today, which is conceptually the most fascinating game I've ever seen. There are a few control issues that hinder the experience slightly, but not too drastically, and the game pretty much delivers what it promises. Basically, you have to solve puzzles by any means you can dream up, simply by writing, and thus summoning, any object. If you write it, it appears in the game. There are literally tens of thousands of possible items. It seems impossible, but the developers managed to pull it off. At one point, I had myself riding on the back of a top-hat-wearing gorilla whilst wielding a bazooka and being chased by a T-Rex on a skateboard. Endless possibilities. :D

With my birthday gift Target gift-cards, I now have enough that I needn't pay a single shiny red cent for ODST next week. Huzzah!

Bed time. Gotta go.