Midterms and programs and break time, oh my!

Its been a while since I was last back here... About 2 weeks I think. Its been a hectic couple of weeks as well.

So not this previous week, but the week before was midterms week. That. Was. Hard. The biggest pain was my 8 page single spaced Computer Science midterm. Luckily it was a take-home exam, but it took me over 8 hours to complete it... But, I got a 98% on it! WOO! The rest of my midterms/group projects went by pretty well too, that CS one was really the midterm of note though. So after that week of torture and work and not having time to do anything it was Spring Break!

Break started off with a bang as I went down to Nerland to do a full playthrough of Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain is an interactive drama for the PS3, and let me say: it is intense. The crazy kind of intense where everyone who's watching is having a good time and the one playing it is scrambling like a madman to keep everyone alive through 8 hours of quick-time events... That is a lot of quick-time events. A lot. But I finished it in about 9 hours with the happiest ending possible, so I can take solace in that. The rest of my break was really comprised of work and video games with some of my awesome residents. So it wasn't too terrible.

And now school has started back up. Time to get that brain working again.

Spring Break Adventures (Part I)

Starting at about 6:45p.m. on Friday I was officially on spring break! WOO! I love breaks. It's when my life finally stops spinning around in endless loops of work and stress and just stops for a little while. I opted to stay up here at UAF for spring break, and I don't regret it at all. Plane tickets are expensive and it could be nice to spend some time in the peace and quiet that is my deserted dorm floor.


So far it has been fantastic. Nuff said.


Friday night I went right after my calculus class to the World Ice Sculpting Championship over in the ice park right here in Fairbanks, AK. Needless to say the works were incredible.

This one was my favorite

The artistic finesse required to do these thing is just astounding. Plus the conditions in which they craft these ornate sculptures are not very hospitable either. It's cold, dark, and you have to spend the whole time outside messing with ice. To me that just sounds like frostbite waiting to happen, but I guess for them it seems like a ton of fun. Plus there are prizes! Who doesn't love prizes? :P


So after a couple hours of fun over at the ice park Denali, Elika, Ashley, and I all drove over to the airport to send Ashley off. She's headed home to spend some time with her family for spring break! Hooray! After our goodbyes the three of us that remained drove back to campus and decompressed for a couple hours. By decompress I mean: we lied on the floor and then watched an episode of The Office and 30 Rock while we waited for airport trip number two.


Trip two comprised of Denali and I driving Elika to the airport for her huge travel itinerary. I don't know if anyone could tell or not, but I think Elika was excited to board the first of her flights heading towards Ecuador. I think I heard her yell "OH MY GOSH!" about 300+ times last week :D She's going down to visit with her emotional twin Valerie who is doing a Baha'i year of service down there (which sounds really amazing by the way). So off she goes to Ecuador!

Valerie and Elika (this picture is on Elika's blog)

Then back to the dorms again for me where I went to go bug Skyler and Kaleb for a while before heading to bed. I like sleep.

Denali headed out early the next morning to hang out with her family in Homer for a while. That should be fun for her. Campus is eerily quiet... But I kind of like it. Having everything just stop for a little while is probably good for me. Skyler, Kaleb, and Marshall headed towards Anchorage today as well to go skiing down at Alyeska.

But so far the single greatest thing about my break is the fact that I now have the time to go skiing. The weather has been beautiful around here for so long now, but my classes are so time intensive when it comes to homework and actual attendance in those classes. So now that everything has stopped, I said "Dude, I can go skiing now!" And so I did! 11k out on the UAF trails after being out of skiing shape had my triceps yelling at me to stop using them... But I did get to go out there for a good hour and took some pictures as well! It was so beautiful and sunny outside yesterday. Plus it felt good to get some decent exercise in.

 
Then I spent the rest of the day messing with Kaleb before they all left. Skyler and I also made some food that turned out pretty well.

And now today has just been a day of relaxation. A little skiing, some music transposition, and some blogging. Plus Diddy Kong Racing! WOO! I love that game so much! If you want to know, I now have sheet music for this video so I can play the music on my horn. Yup, I'm a super nerd.

So that sums up Spring break for me so far. I love having the ability to do nothing with my life for a while :D

I also swear that if Jonathan wakes me up in the morning again I will murder him... Hehehehehe.