I spend way too much time playing this game. Yet of course I have much fun in doing so. It is kind of the reason that I have not been keeping up on my blog, and that I have really nothing to write about except this game. So I will write about it now.

First off, this game is different from any other FF game that I have ever seen or played. It is no longer turn based, it is real time. I like how you can customize your characters, and while I am not finished with the game, I am genuinely involved in the games story. I am interested to see what I do with my characters and how I choose to save the world in this game.

I am interested to see what happens with the empire, Larsa, Vayne, and Gabbranth. At the same time I am wondering how much of a role the Occurians will play in the end of the game. Or how Ashe will handle the commission she has from them.

One thing I cannot stand though, is the Techniks and the Magics. First off there is only one water spell, and it is completely weak sauce. Why no Watera or Waterga? Sorry if that spoils the game for anyone. And the techniks, besides steal and libra, are useless. Even libra is kind of useless unless you are determining which enemy to attack first.

Then there are the Mist powers. Espers and Quickenings. I like the Quickenings. It is fun to string as many as I possibly can together and see how much damage I can do to my foes. On the other hand, I have not really harnessed their power. They don't seem able to do much of anything but die and confuse you. I don't understand how their abilities work, and then they use an ability and they just disappear? It kind of sucks, unless of course I am not using them correctly.

Anyways, I really enjoy this game. I have wasted three days of my life on it so far, and I plan on finishing the game so that I can see what happens.

Overall, this game gets Wo0 out of a Wo0t. It may go up if the last battle isn't as dissappointing as FFX.

Today was President's Day, and as my school district observes this holiday, it was also Stay at Home Day. For me, at least. Lucas still had to go to school. I suppose that is one benefit of being in an elementary school instead of a university...

In honor of President's Day (or, because I just wanted to), I baked a chocolate cake. While I was cracking the eggs for the cake, I realized that eggs are maybe the one food that I will consistently pay higher prices for when grocery shopping. Awhile back, Lucas and I watched a documentary about chickens and egg harvesting. It was pretty appalling...enough so that we buy only free range chicken eggs now (a note: if the box only says "cage free," the chickens are still kept indoors on the floor. If it says "free range," that means the animals were allowed outside--so I've read. Who knows exactly what happens..). Although I am willing to do this, I still can't bring myself to pay more for organic bananas or apples yet. Maybe if the bananas and apples were kept in cages, I would think differently. But, really, it's a piece of fruit. Maybe less pesticides, but until we have a greater source of expendable income, my insides will have to deal with those pesticides...just as they have been doing for 26 years.

Now that I am writing this, I guess there may be a few other things I would spend more on (note: by spend more, I pretty much mean purchase a non store brand or a less well known but higher quality product...think natural peanut butter vs. Great Value). I spend more on quality baking chocolate, Yoplait yogurt, ice cream, and olive oil. Hmmm, that seems to be able to be summed up as the following: spend more on indulgences, less on sustenance.

Well, this post strayed wildly from my original point of buying free range chicken eggs. I'll end with a question: is there one (or more) food items that you will fork over the extra money for?

~Kelly

Wii Play with Wii Remote

Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Third Season

I'm at work, but at least I'm getting holiday pay. So hooray for that. I haven't had much to say lately. Just a couple things:

• I got a 196/200 on my first Intro to Programming test. The average was about 160, so I'm very happy.
• I got a couple of goodies this weekend. First I got Wii Play. The games are fun, especially Tanks and Billiards. The best part is now I have my own Wiimote. Also, I bought a new video card since mine is about to crap out. I got a 512MB NVDIA 9500GT, so that should hold me over for quite awhile.
• I am going to San Francisco in April for my brother's birthday. My mom is coming too. I haven't seen her since my brother's graduation, so that should be really cool.
• Curb Your Enthusiasm: Buy it, rent it, just watch it. It's freaking hilarious.

That's pretty much it. I've just been working, hanging out with folks, and working on a few other side projects I have going on. More on that soon.