175 down. it wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible. very neutral.

USP's up last. I'm going in about 5 minutes for it.

172a final down. did okay, i think...but i definitely missed 3 subsections of a couple problems.

2 finals to go.

175's up next.

goddamn 175...what a bitch

econ120B final down. did very...ehhhhh......

3 finals to go.

172's up next.

CNN.com - Group warns parents about 'killographic' games - Dec. 9, 2003

absolutely amazing.

they couldn't come up with a better word?

only in america, where they blame everything on movies, media and games.

look at canada. they have the same things but they're not destroying each other.

look at japan. they have freaking rape as mainstream porn, but they're not raping each other.

only in america.

tycho from penny-arcade says it best:

You have probably heard about killography, the new word coined by the National Institute on Media and the Family to describe our depraved entertainments. Yes, Spell Checker, that is now a word. We do not dispute that it is a lot of fun - perhaps even stuponfucious - to invent new words to describe the events in our world. We also think there are perfectly acceptable words that exist already, whole books full of words, some of which are capable of describing gratuitous violence. The trouble is, they just don't pack the propaganda punch cultural watchdogs crave.

I've seen articles recently praising the ESRB ratings system, which is great, and while I endorse efforts to make people aware of that system I don't think it's all that hot. It's the system we've got, so I don't mind using it until we change it to the system I am about to describe.

There is absolutely no reason that games should not be utilizing the same ratings system as movies.

The shift isn't really that complex. The ESRB has EC (Early Childhood), E (Everyone), T (Teen), M (Mature), and AO (Adults Only). I've never seen the first one or the last one. I have a sneaking suspicion that they have established this parallel system in order to actively exploit the fact that parents don't know what it means, but that's impolite and I apologize. At any rate, let's just switch it out. G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 are perfectly analogous to the existing system, the only difference being parents already know what it means. No doubt, parents will continue to let schools, televisions, and videogames do their parenting. The only difference is now they can't feign ignorance regarding the content.

The movie industry, which boosters of electronic entertainment always compare our passtime to, polices itself because they know that PG-13 is a magical alchemical formula for producing money. Certain sorts of movies, or movies released at certain times strive for this rating because it is a sort of sweet spot. It's possible that a system that employed the sensible, established ratings for films might have a similar effect - coupled with enforcement of these ratings at the store level. Ordinarily, I support measures like this with tongue firmly in cheek, because I know that young gamers are clever creatures: they can get their games on ISOs from IRC, so my suggesting such a system won't actually keep you from games any more than some RIAA bugaboo is going to keep you from downloading music. But I have a fear that this whole thing - the whole violent games thing - is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Call it a hunch.


word.

so this is my final's schedule for this week:

Economics 120B - Wednesday - 3:00PM-6:00PM
Economics 172A - Thursday - 11:30PM-2:30PM
Economics 175 - Friday - 11:30PM-2:30PM
USP 1 - Friday - 7:00PM - 10:00PM

None down, four to go.

I feel pretty confident about 120B actually. I won't bore you with the details.

The sad part for me though...is that it leaves me about 17 hours to study for 172A.
It's probably sufficient, but I wish I had more. But I'll be studying it as soon as I get off this blog.

What worries me most is 175. That class is going to fucking slaughter me. I'll just go from the 172A test STRAIGHT into studying for 175. That leaves one problem.

I haven't done SHIT for USP1. Granted I'm taking that class pass/no pass, but I still need to do the identifications and know at least what the hell is going on. The final's 35% again, and I got an 88% on my midterm which was 20%, 100% on my paper which was 20%, and I'm POSTIVE i'm passing participation which is 25%.

I hate worrying about this stuff. And I need to get ALL B's or above this quarter to satisfy my own personal goals. It's certainly possible, but it's going to take some ass busting on my part, starting right now.

FUH2 | Fuck You And Your H2

check it.

real post later.

So, to recap what happened this last week:

Monday:
Turned in Econ120B HW. Tried to do it at home, but totally couldn't. Ended up asking Vince for help from his EconTutor notes. Oh well.
Worked on USP Paper with group and then chilled for a little bit before going home and working on it some more. 1000 words max. Does that even count as a paper?

Tuesday:
Went to 172A, consequently got BORED out of my mind. I hate Sobel. He looks like a nice guy, and he's totally nerdy...but goddamn, he can be cruel, unusual, and just downright fucking mean. I'm sure he's a good guy, great father, all that....but he was just mean to me.
Turned in USP paper with group, sat around for the "Little Italy" presentation, consequently got bored out of my mind since their project might've been investigative, but it was just downright boring. I left early, went home and started on my 175 homework, stopped at the calculations. Couldn't do it at all.

Wednesday:
Sat through 175.
Sat through 120B with Calvin sitting next to me and studying.
After, went to the EconTutor. Not too bad. Had good times with friends, that's for sure...hahah

Thursday:
Turned in 172A homework, with a feeling of satisfaction. Understood 4/5 of the homework, which isn' t great, but definitely better than not understanding it at all.
Went to USP. Sat through class, and found out that we got a freakin 100% on our Rocky Horror Project. I wanted to hug the TA right there. The other girls in our group was like "I'd totally kiss/do you right now." Of course our TA wasn't in earshot, but that was definitely on their minds. 100% on my project, with an 88% on the midterm, and definitely at least an 85% on participation...that just means that I can slack off on the final, which is the last final of this week. YES. The final's from 7-10 pm. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Got 175 homework from a really nice and sweet girl, friend of a friend. She hand copied everything so we could read it...and there was a LOT OF SHIT. There was no wonder I couldn't do the 175 homework on Tuesday at all.

Friday:
Turned in 175 Homework.
Sat through 120B.
Sat through 175 Review Session, which was mostly crap.
Studied for about an hour and fifteen minutes in the library with Calvin and Jason. Was hella productive too!
Went home, got car, got a friend, and then met up with other DSPers @ SunGod to go to Tajima.

We waited outside for 30 minutes, and when we ate it was closer to 9 o'clock than anything.
When we got inside, I ordered Wasabi Marinated Octopus. HOLY COW, SO SO SO GOOD. Robert and I just kept eating it and eating it. We even convinced Dan, Angie and Ray to try some. It was just a great time. Watched Calvin and Vince crank through 13 plates of Shabu Shabu sliced beef, and watched Melody turn pink.

Hung out at Calvin's after, studied for 2-3.5 hours with Calvin and Jason, and then went home to sleep.

Saturday:
Woke up, studied 120B a little, kicking my own ass in the process.
Went to DSP Regional Banquet at 6 pm. Was pretty fun, but didn't stick around for the festivities. Felt the obligation to go home and study.
So study I did, and by 1:30am, Econ120B was kicking my ass again. Went to sleep.

Sunday:
Went to breakfast with Provincial VP of DSP and Regional VP of DSP with a couple of DSPers. Not too bad, got some really good shrimp, bacon, sausage, steak, potatoes, waffles and horchata. (It was Acapulco, the mexican restaurant.) Definitely had fun. Came home, crashed for about another hour...(food coma dammit.) and now i'm here, baking cookies and writing in my blog.

This entry was pretty boring, but Finals Week is spooling up. We'll see how things go, eh?