Tales of the Restless

On the 24th, Ghia and I went to the annual 70's/80's dance at the high school. Although I thought the DJ failed at correctly picking good dance music (he simply picked well-known eighties music, with no regard for dancibility), well still met up with our friends and danced (if you could call it that), having plenty of fun. And my costume drew plenty of compliments as well, which is was surprising, considering I threw it together ten minutes before I left.

After a short nap, I woke up early for a one hour bus ride to the city. Following a short walk around the WTC memorial, which was a bit sombering, we boarded a boat for a half Circle Line Tour. I must say, it was pretty inspirational seeing the beautiful skyline and the Statue of Liberty up-close. After stoping for lunch at Mars2112, we walked a couple of blocks to whatever theater it was that was showing Hairspray. Although I had already seen a bit of it on TV, it was much better in person. I guess I did not expect much after my last visit to Broadway, but this actually had humor that, while not that clever, was definatly enjoyable.

Once we returned home, we quikly sprinted off to the I-Con convention at Stony Brook. Because we spent the day in the city, we had missed most of the programming, so all I accomplished was playing some SSBM and buying plenty of D&D things, such as a d6 emotionas dice, along with Gundam 0080, which I have been wanting to see for a while.

Trailer
That's right, a second new Zelda game is coming out this year. It's gonna be on the DS, which means, as you can tell from the video, that you're gonna be using the stylus to guide Link (in cell-shaded Wind Waker rendering) through the world.
While things like puzzles and the usage of special items are gonna be dependent on how you use the stylus, it appears that so will guiding Link (look how the fairy moves when Link is in battle in the video). While it does seem like it would be an interesting twist, I still hope there's at least the option to control Link with the pad and buttons, as in the pre-N64 days.
Also, something which is about 12 years old is finally being put to use in a Nintendo game, the option to write on the map! While plenty of other games have done this, I haven't played any Nintendo ones that have done so, although I first heard mention of the idea from the Super Gameboy manual, which suggested this as a use of you custom-drawing the border around the screen. While that proved to be a stupid idea in practically, as you couldn't save the drawings between saves, the DS presents an even more accessible method of doing this.

Once again, the climax of German class has come and gone. With things being a bit different this year, due to what I assume is the AATG attempting to be relevant, I think more fun was had than I would have had otherwise.

Previously free-choice programs, such as the skits and the poster contest, now required their subject to be the famous poet Friedrich Schiller. As a skit was something we usually did and placed in, and this man's work was horribly boring, Matt and I instead decided to bake a cake as our second event.

For a first time baking a cake, it was decent. While we burnt the dough part of it (although we followed the directions), and improvised on some of the more exotic ingredients (what the heck is "vanilla sugar"?), it was edible, and tasted good except for how dry the cake itself was. Being has how the cakes were judged on appearance, and ours was a lump of chocolate with white lumps of sugar on top, there was no chance in hell. Then again, it wasn't about winning as much as it was making the cake. After two hours of Stop & Shop, we didn't leave that kitchen until 3, except once for a 2 am run to Wauldbaum's for confectioner's sugar, where we encountered a sad soul buying TV dinners and razor blades. Through much mess, sweetness, fun, and Sean Paul (seriously, he was on every station at least once every three songs), our cake, two T-Shirt designs, and Sam's gingerbread house, the "Gefängnis am dem Nordensee", were complete.

After a quick run home and a two-hour nap, I woke up early than needed in order to have enough time to shower and get ready, which was offset by my falling asleep in the shower (stupid oh-so-inviting warm water...), which was then countered by Sam's sleeping in, resulting in the party arriving later than expected.

After a short half-nap, we arrived at the Haupauge high school, which I realized upon leaving is right next to where I went with Laken to the initial Doctors of Tomorrow meeting. With the appearance of a huge labyrinth on the outside, its interiors are disappointing. Puzzlingly holding the opening ceremonies in the gymnasium instead of in the auditorium (I assume to save money, as they wouldn't have to pay to heat a whole 'nother room for five hours), we were assaulted with the symptoms of one man's World Cup fever. While the World Cup, held in Germany this year, is certainly big news, one should not have dominated 55% of the intro with it, especially with the repetition of a silly cheer 16 times over.

With nothing planned until 11 (I decided against doing individual poetry, as I realized it was going to be judged on interpretation, and I doubt I could have done so on something in a foreign language with only an hour's practice), we wondered around a bit, encountering awesomeness such as the Chuck Norris Vocabulary Competition poster, and eventually settling upon hanging out in the gym, where soccer was being played. Come ten, we went to the Arts & Crafts room, which disappointed us with the same paper cones from last year, with less things to detail it with, a simple game of Bingo, and a horribly depressing aura. Eventually the upperclassmen of Rocky Point assembled upon this room, driving the rest of the participants away. With twenty minutes to spare, I ate most of my lunch of fried rice and Starbuck's Frapachino, with a German Shrek 2, PSPs, and soft guitars playing in the background.

Finally, it was time for Scrabble. Our premiere event we've been kinda-training all year for, I was nervous I would repeat my last year's less-than-acceptable score. Walking around the room, which was nicer than last year's huge uncomfortable library setting, for a bit, I picked the table that appeared to me that I'd have the best chances of success at, which I later found out to be a wise decision. Once the game began, I had a bit of trouble, due to my acquisition of only two "u"s, and no other vowels, after the 2nd round. While Frau remarked our board was the most impressive of the whole room, I still made slow progress, although a couple of intelligent moves allowed me to maximize the bonus spaces, such as scoring the only triple-word of the game.

I really feel I was fighting more against my letters than my opponents this time, my unfortunate draws giving me no new vowels for the whole game. I didn't even get to due any of the clever "x" words or "yen", and "j" was reduced by two points in this set. Luckily, I didn't encounter any umlauts, whose point values were each above a half-dozen, which killed some of the players at the end of the game. While two of the people seemed thrown onto the team, they also received a wealth of the letters, and the third one kept on dropping 12+ point words every turn, although he lost 26 points at the end. I finished the game in second at 56, losing by only 8. While Matt finished similarly, Greg and Dylan saved the day, picking up 108 and 133 respectively, allowing us to combine and claw our way to first place. While not necessary, and actually another "oh, that's cool" moment, it still is nice to finish my last Sprachfest with a win.

Sprachfest concluded abruptly this year, due to a missing microphone and no Culture Bowl or even awards presented, besides next year T-Shirt, which can be said to be the Disney Castle in front of a rainbow of the German colors. This year's T-Shirt, which I initially criticized as being an ugly badge, I now find to be original and actually good looking, compared to those of most years. While I realize this year that Sprachfest is short and not really as exciting as I felt it was in year's past, that's simply a part of growing up, no?