Oh. Em. Gee.

I was hooked. So hooked, that I stayed up late on Thursday night and Friday morning finishing the first book and started on the second book. Then I stayed up until 7:30am on Saturday finishing the second and the third book. I just could not stop reading. I found myself really liking the first and the second book. The third book, while providing a good finale, was the weakest in the series, and I felt it was awfully rushed and kind of confusing.

Despite that, the book’s characters and plots really grabbed me. The dystopic setting, the totalitarian nation of Panem and her districts — all of them just gripped me like one of the Capitol’s citizens watching the game. Yet the harshness of the game, the cruel fates awaiting for the Tributes, and the whole political shebang of the trilogy have left me quite horrified at the same time. The philosophy of the books reminded me of Animorphs; both series made me question the world and how it’s not always black-and-white. Really, it has been a long time since I’ve read something so impacting. I am only sorry it took me this long to read it, but at the same time, I’m glad I waited for the whole trilogy to be completed instead of waiting around with a nasty cliffhanger living in my head.

Last year, when I found out that my high school band teacher was going to retire this year, I thought about getting her a special retirement gift. I came up with the idea to have a friend design a collage of her favourite things, and I’d get the design made it into a puzzle that I’d put together and get it framed. This is the end result (with a matching mousepad). I had the gift all ready since January, and while I did not want time to fly by, I still wanted May to come so I could give this to her. This gift is finally in her hands.

School had completely taken over my life. I always thought undergrad was bad, but grad school is even more time consuming! Arghhh. Thank goodness this is the last week for spring semester. I will have a bit of a reprieve before starting my summer semester in mid-May.

I plan to enjoy this breather with a lot of gaming and other entertainment. I need it — no, I deserve it. This semester was just really brutal because one of the classes subject matter was far too difficult for me to comprehend. I did not like learning about budgeting, management, and other programming details. I’m just glad it’s all over!

This week, my tax return came back to me. I’d already decided to stash a good chunk of it towards my grad school fund, and the remaining I could spend however I wanted. Well, after getting a PS Vita, a Kindle Paperwhite, a Nintendo 3DS XL, and a Samsung Galaxy S III . . . I pretty much realised that I did not need anything “big”. Well, I’d like a surround sound system, but that can wait. Haha, seriously, though, I did not want anything else, so I decided to donate to a charity or organisation.

So I asked my friend B. for suggestions. I told her I wanted to donate to an LGBT-related organisation. B. knows that I also am interested in youth work, so she suggested some LGBT youth organisations. One of the ones she suggested was GLSEN. I looked into them and their mission, and I decided this group was the one I wanted. I also looked into The Trevor Project, but their donation page was not using encryption (I didn’t see the “https” symbol on my browser), so I decided to just stick with GLSEN. And so I donated. In B’s honour. I wasn’t able to donate a lot, but I hope what I did donate will help them somehow.

A few days ago, my old phone basically kaputed. Well, it was fixable, more or less, but it’d require reformatting the whole phone. Even then, I’d still have trouble with it, so that made me decide to just get a new phone, with a new number, on a new carrier.

I sought out one of my cousins to help me get this phone. Through research and friends, I decided to get the Samsung Galaxy S3 in pebble blue, on SK Telecom, with the LTE 42 plan that comes with 180 minutes of phone call, 200 text messages, and 1.1 GB of data.

My verdict so far? I LOVE IT. It is so much faster than my old phone, with more available RAM memory at 700-900mb (compared to 200mb on my previous phone), and it just feels so new. I do not regret choosing to upgrade to this phone. In fact, I feel like I should have done this sooner!

(Image Source)

I was surfing through Raptr, and I saw a post asking community members their top ten video games that have defined their past. That got me to think about my own list. I came up with a lot of video games, but after much contemplation, I narrowed mine down to five. These five games do define my gaming preferences, but not to the full extent. They are also on here for nostalgic reasons, too.

1. Pac-Man — I admit, I am not a big fan of this game. I always start panicking when those things start chasing after me. Regardless, this is the first video game I remember playing at the bowling alley. Back then, the bowling alley had a lot of arcade games, and I vividly remember playing this when I was five. I practically grew up in the bowling alley (because my parents and I were active bowlers), so along with Pac-Man, I grew up playing Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and pinball machines. Those days of wasting quarters bring back so many memories.

2. Phantasy Star IV — This Sega Genesis game was the very first RPG introduced to me in fourth grade. My best friend had this, and I watched her play. I remember falling in love with handsome Rune. My best friend told me about Wren and Demi, telling me that they weren’t humans, which surprised me. Back then, I did not know the plot or what an RPG was, but Rune made a lasting impression on me to where I eagerly sought out this title when I got into video games later on. Even today, this game holds a very special place in my heart!

3. Oregon Trail — Before I had any sort of game consoles, arcade and PC gaming were what I was used to until fifth grade, which was when I finally got a GameBoy and a Super Nintendo. But even after I got those two systems, I still played a lot on the PC, and one of the games that I adored to death was the PC version of Oregon Trail. I first played the Apple’s version, but I could never hunt properly in that game. Needless to say, when the PC version came out with a user-friendly hunting game, I became addicted to it.

4. Chrono Trigger — While I credit Phantasy Star IV for being the first RPG I was introduced to, I credit Chrono Trigger for being the RPG that made me become a fan of RPGs. For me, this game had it all — good music, characters, plot, battle system, and time travelling. The group of friends I hung out with in junior high introduced me to this game, and I am forever grateful they did. Otherwise, I would have completely missed out on this gem.

5. Suikoden II — The same group who introduced me to Chrono Trigger also introduced Suikoden I to me. I love the first game of the series, but the second game is what really cemented me to be a big fan. This game is one of the most heart-breaking game I ever played, and even now when playing, I become quite emotional. Let me also add the fact that this is the only series I have beaten. I have yet to beat a single Final Fantasy game, but it was always a priority of mine to beat a Suikoden game.

If I ever decide to expand the list, I’d also include Gyakuten Saiban and couple of other games, but those games came to me when I was older, in my 20s. But these five games are the games that have impacted me when I was younger. Not only have they influenced me to be a gamer today, but they also illustrate my gaming preference and style.

Fellow readers/bloggers, if you are a gamer, what games would go on your list?

Everyone, meet my new Nintendo 3DS XL named Sakura. This baby almost didn’t make it to me because my dad accidentally left it on top of the car O_O; I’m very, very glad nobody took this package!

Oh, and for those who do not me well — I am not a fan of pink. In fact, I usually avoid anything in pink, orange, red, and so forth so on, but I actually like this shade, and I really didn’t like the other colour choices of blue and red, so pink it is.

Now with Sakura in my possession, I can finally play Tales of the Abyss and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy!