Been seven weeks since my last post? No shit.

Kinda settling into college life -- still not crazy over it, though. Definitely feel the need to get a job soonish; rather find work than spend money on classes I don't particularly care about, but I may as well use up my scholarship as long as I can.

Or maybe I'll join the Navy next year.

At least nowadays I have some free time to mess around with. Got to reading more; spent the past few nights reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn until the wee hours o' the morn'. God, I love Mark Twain. He's a hilarious author, and I love the way he writes accents and stuff. I'm kinda half-surprised that it doesn't trip me up, like it seems to for a lot of people, but then again I spent nine years in the Ozarks. Wouldn't have thought it rubbed off that much on me, but I guess my own accent belies that. I try to write with it, 'cause hell, it's fun to do, but I'm not as good as Twain as far as gettin' it across.

Besides the readin', been getting back into the video games again. I'll have somethin' like a few weeks where I won't even as much as look at 'em, but then I'll pop one in and play for a few hours in other weeks. The cool thing is, it seems I get better the longer I don't play the game.

I've had a few times where I'd be stuck on a boss, and set the game aside for a while, do other things. Maybe I'll forget about it for a few weeks or months, and then, on a whim, I start up where I left off, and suddenly -- boom -- I wiped the floor with 'em. Doesn't seem all that logical, but that's how it works. I guess once I've had a chance to sit on my problem for a while, I reconsider my strategies, and I get wiser as time goes on. Maybe. That;s my theory, anyway.

Lately I've been into FFXII. Got it cheapish at a second-hand book store a few months back, and I fell in love with it. I'd only played FFVII, FFX and X-2 up until then, so the game system took a little getting used to. I thought it was just the coolest thing to be rid of those random battles, and actually be able to walk up to your target, like you do in other RPGs. I love the map-web, which is a lot better than the linear one I'd been playing on in FFX. All the items and are still a little overwhelming, but I've got the liscense system down pat, and I've finally figured out the overdrive-type attacks in this game -- the Quickenings. Took me a long time to understand the whole thing, but, after I set it aside for a little while, I was able to figure it all out. I've finally been able to chain up to nine attacks in a single go -- shame Exodus had his Paling up, so it didn't actually do any damage. God, that pissed me off to no end.

And speaking of Espers, I finally got Adrammelech and Exodus; within a day of eachother, no less. I'd already gotten Belias and Mateus, no biggie, but Adremmelech, once I found him, was a pain in the ass. The shambling corpses were a nuissance, and my people kept getting hit with sap and other nasty status effects. In the end, after leveling up a little bit, I was able to get down a system where I'd inflict Stop on the zombies, and have everyone hit the esper with Blizzara until he finally kicked it.

Exodus was a royal pain. After all the trouble I went through to open up the path to the Empyrean Seat, and when I get there, just just wipes me out every time I step into the ring. Well, I spend some time leveling up, get everyone up to 43, and try again.

I got trashed. Scathe is a nasty, nasty attack, y'know. At one time it wiped out my entire active party, it sucks so bad. (Can't wait to buy the spell so I can use it in battle.) But, I realize that every time I take a swing at Exodus, a surprisingly large chunk of his health is knocked off. Well, after a few trial-and-error battles, I finally get a system of dispelling reflect, (keeps Exodus busy), Reviving fallen comrades, and just whacking away at the esper. The last battle, I waited until I was sure the Paling wore off before unleashing some Mist Chains, and down he went, finally. Only had two people not dead by that time, so it was a pretty close call. Had to charge my depleted MP and revive everyone, bring up their health so I wouldn't screw myself by rushing through a field of vultures and maybe getting killed that way and have wasted my victory.

Need to find out how to get some more of the side-quest espers, (Zalera and Cuchulainn I know about, but need to level up first). Then again, I still haven't gotten past Draklor Laboratory... Better get that done soonish.