2013 Update

Woah, it's been a while since my last post. Um uh... quite some stuff happened since the end of the year.

Biggest news for me I think is that I got my ACCA results, which to my relief was relatively good, albeit once more on the borderline. Well, having the 'pass' is already it, so yea, moving on to the other papers, which once more will be mostly theory >~<. Oh well, I'll manage somehow I guess, like I did before and if I happen to fail, I'll just resit the exams. The deadline to pay for the papers is coming quickly anyway.

At work, the busy season was a little less as expected, but still as busy. I had to do quite some overtime, but couldn't charge it in January. Bottom line, I had to charge everything in February, which meant that I had a week where I charged all my January hours. One might think that I worked 24/7 that week if the saw that timesheet x3 Things otherwise have been less than expected, but as I said, there's still a lot of work as there are some 'new joiners' from the other department who joined to give a hand, but they need support which can sometimes be very time consuming. This week however, things have like completely died down. I really don't know how things will be in the next few days and my chargeable hours are dropping down.

Next up I think is PMDe. Things have been picking up in terms of activity in the group, mainly about the tasks. I began the January tasks, it didn't end too well since I lost a big chunk of the story I typed and didn't notice until after posting it to deviantArt. Oh well, I'll rewrite if for sure but it's kind of demotivating to rework on that. I started the last part of M7 (which is also the third) and it might take some time... I've been trying to have something new, but I don't know if it's good so far, character wise and I think I'll have to go over it several times in hope of getting a more or less realistic reaction (I managed to submit my first two part of M7, although it's not as good as I wish it would have been :().

I also got The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS which I already finished the first walkthrough ^^; I'm currently in the Master Quest version in Dodongo's Cavern, which I admit is a tad harder since the order of rooms is different (and I didn't know the roll attack could crush boxes...). I must say that I really liked the game. The last battle with Ganondorf was a bit disappointing though. There's this ledge where it's difficult to reach and Link would almost always miss it and fall down a few dozen storeys... where he could get hearts to restore himself while Ganondorf is patiently waiting for him upstairs to come back. It just doesn't appeal much to me. I don't know, maybe the central pillar should have been wider so you could jump on it easier, but still get attacked. I don't think that Link randomly jumping right or missing it relies on skill but instead on luck (Also the way the camera moved was not always desireable in such situations, or you would lose time trying to adjust it properly).

The last battle with Ganon was a bit more reasonable. That's where I actually used more of the different melee moves I learned through the game. The first was with that armor monster thing with a huge axe. I was glad Link could do backflips and side jumps then ^^. I still don't know how to get all the hear pieces though, which might change with my second walkthrough. Two points in my mind is the heart piece at the top of the Fire Temple, visible from the peaks upper entrance where smokes escapes. I don't know if it's related to the Fire Temple's east tower, which I still don't know how to reach.

The other one is in the desert temple. There's the last room before the final boss there (the twin witches) where there are the mirrors? Well, there's a chest on my map I don't know where it is, nor how to get it. And also various other hidden heart pieces and 5 spiders I don't know the location of.

I also got Pokeradar, which is quite fun, though a bit tiring after some time. The camera would sometimes mess up and you almost have to make more than a 180 degree turn to see every cloud. I've got all the legendary trio, which were quite easy to get really. Though now I need to get the english version of either Pokemon Black 2 or Pokemon White 2 ._. I guess that'll be for another time.

I also got a couple of demos from Nintendo eShop, some are cool at best, notably Kindom Hearts 3D and I think that's it... the others were not as good. I thought Castlevania and Monster Hunter would be good, but the former is lame with lame 2D moves and the latter is much too slow. The protagonist takes so much time to drink potions, or to land combos. Plus the fact that there is no HP bar really annoys me, and there seems to be limited moves.

I've been drawing a bit as well, though there're not as good as I wished I could draw them, partly because I've only my mouse to draw digitally. I wonder when I'll be able to draw with a pentablet =P.

Chinese new year was not so exciting, like last year. We didn't do much. Actually, we went on catamaran at Tamarin. Thing is, you probably know the situation here if you're Mauritian; and there's been a lot of rain. The morning was quite wet (but that wasn't the issue) and we saw some dolphins. A big storm started when we headed to the islet Ile aux Benitiers and there were lightning all around us. Not to mention the BBQ got wet... But we got back safe, so that's about it. Oh, someone had caught a Blue Marlin and hung it upside down for weighing when we got back. It was impressive. The only thing was that it spewed out a half digested fish at one point in time and what I believe was the marlin's heart then dropped down from its mouth, still hanging from its blood vessels... ugh.

That's about it I guess, until next post! ^^

August Update

It's been a while, I know... Anyway, I've been pretty busy lately and yeap, things are on the move. Studies are going full strength (I only got a small break today which gave me a little free slot of time to write this post, but which will be caught up next week with a 5 hour session instead of a 2.5 hour session...) and I've paid for the exams for this coming December. My exams will be on the 5th, 6th and 7th of the month... and I've got no other choice... Wish me luck! ^^;

Work's been going smoothly, until our seniors had to go to South Africa, so all the work comes down on me and my colleagues, with only me and another colleague managing everything technical-wise. And yesterday, she called a sick and I was alone having to deal with everybody at the same time T~T It worked out okay though, and there're some pressing deadlines for this Monday.

I currently also have two possible jobs for which I'll have to travel to South Africa and none of those two have fixed dates yet. One is about SQL and the other about php+html (blech). I just hope it won't be too soon 'cause I have other things to do in the meantime, studies being a big factor about it. Plus I hear that I won't have internet at the place where I'll be sleeping, unless I'm at work (which really isn't the right time for personal purposes...). I want to go on the other hand because I'll be able to visit new places, meet new people and even get to buy some stuff (electronics mainly) that isn't sold here. So, that's always good.

I've seen the first Inazuma 11 Movie \o/ Amazing effects, though the movie doesn't quite well fit in between the series in that they sort of become suddenly stronger, but still not as strong in the series... Oh well.

Otherwise, I've played some Pokemon Conquest and I must say that I liked this game a lot! I'm a little disappointed that I cannot retain some of the progress once I complete the main storyline, like I mean there are a lot of other characters I could have recruited and obtain their best link... oh well, I'm now going through the little stories post game and am upgrading the city structures slowly.

I finished the main story for Pokemon Black 2, and am at the post game storyline. Some more trainers to battle, and I think Team Plasma's HQ. Also, the PokeWood is fun! =P Got some events as well, so that the legendaries I've left to get are Celebi, Shaymin, Meloetta and Keldeo. \o/ Except there's a current event for Keldeo which is non-WiFi *grumble*.

In other news, there's a Laptop bag coming my way from a prize I got on deviantart for writing a little story involving a sad whale, cupid and a road made of bubble wrap. In case you want to read it, it's here.

PMD-E is going on smoothly. Just finished Event 6 (complete one, that is parts 1 and 2 of the event) and the teams sheet is going on well. I did the event with someone else as collaborator (this would be narelith =) ) and I must say that I learned quite a few things in the process. Definitely an experience I'd like to have again. I've also recently hit the 3000 views of my deviant profile \o/ Dunno if I'll take some more contests on dA, but we'll see.

Cheers! =)