Multiple Topics

1) Cost of War : How much the Iraq war costs to maintain.

Not much that needs to be said about this. It's a constantly calculating figure of how much the war in Iraq costs.

2) Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering: "The Great Designer Search"

What does this mean? They're having open casting for a 6-month internship working for Magic's R&D. They're putting up an application tonight at 9pm PST (12am Eastern Time) and will be taking applications until Monday. What does that mean? I'm going to apply. I know I can at least be a contender for the job. I know the design process, I know the color wheel, I read all of Mark Rosewater's R&D articles and I understand them. I love Magic and I love designing. Will I get the internship? Well probably hundreds of thousands of people will apply, and I'll just be 1 of the throng of applicants. Do I stand a chance? Hell yes I do. I may not be the most qualified, but I'm definately better than most.

3) DS Review : Lost Magic

You're a mage and you have a mission... but it's not that important, very cookie-cutter generic. Evil mage, powerful, you have to stop, yadayadayada. Anyways, about the game. It's pretty fun. It's a combination of many game styles, and brings them together in a way only capable on the DS.

The main thing: You're a mage. You cast spells. Fireballs, ice bolts, gusts of wind, etc. How? You use the touch screen and draw runes. ^ for fire, upside down 4 for light, C for wind, S for water, etc etc. There's dozens of runs and eventually you can cast 2 or 3 at a time, resulting in almot 400 unique spells to cast. Also, you gain the ability to capture monsters and scribe them into your spell book. You set up your army prior to combat and control them with the touch screen and the stilus like a RTS game.

You also have levels in your monsters, your character, and your spell power. The 6 elements are Fire/Water, Earth/Air, Light/Dark. Fire hurts water, and water hurts fire, etc etc. When you cast one spell (let's say Earth), your skill in earth magic goes up. As you gain levels in it, they become more powerful, have extended range, longer duration, etc.

This game is pretty expansive and I like it a lot, but it's not perfect. Controls are a bit clunky (if you select a unit, the next button you press is where they move. If you accidentally select a unit, whoops. You can select multipe units at once with the click-and-drag like RTS, but then you have to move them. Also, the monsters will attack units if they get too close, so you can't control them .Sometimes you want them to stay back to lure enemies out, but then your monsters are too stupid and rush in and you sometimes have problems. The music is ok, nothing spectacular but not bad. You have to manage different monsters with different traits (elemental traits, flying, and manage all the different stats, etc). Stats are HP, Speed, Attack, Def, Magic Att, Magic Def.

All in all, there's a lot to like about this game, but not to say it's without it's flaws. I would reccomend at least a test run if you like RTS/RPG/Pokemon-style/Drawing to cast spell, kind of games. =P

I would give this game a 7.5/10, only because it's very appealing to me. Control problems definately drags it down a lot.

4) Trip to Vegas

A ton to say, but I'll wrap it up into an easy to read list, because I'll get carried away, and go on for pages and pages. Ready? here we go:

* Left early, bus ride was excellent, arrived on time, took a Taxi to her work area.
* While waiting for Tasha to get off... work, I purchased a new game, Lost Magic (Review above)
* Purchased Rope...
* Discovered Rope wasn't long enough for misc. needs. *cough*
* Visited a Park, had a picnic with no food.
* Met up with Parents the next day.
* Discovered my parents gave me my own room. (this requires explanation). See, I had no idea what the arrangements were. I thought, we'd get a 2-bedroom hotel room, I'd stay in bed with my mom, my stepdad would stay in bed with his daughter (my stepsister). Then I discover my stepsister is staying with her cousin (who is the Groom) at his apartment. Then I discover that they got me my own room. Each room had 2 beds in it, so I was very confused. Here I was, across from their room, with my own 2-bedroom hotel room and they had their own 2-bedroom hotel room. I suspect foul play. *ponders* lol
* Visited Lions at MGM (So cuuuute~)
* Went to the Wedding (small gathering. Same place my mom and my step-dad got married coincidentally).
* Met lots of family I never knew I had (extended). Met my Step-Aunt (met her before), my Step-Step-cousin (Ok, this one is hard to place. My step-dad's sister [my step-aunt] has a step-daughter. Who is she in relation to me? @_@), my step-aunt's son (the groom, who is my step-cousin?) and met my step-aunt's daughter and her boyfreind.
* Had dinner with family and freinds of people (I don't know anyone at ALL)
* Went to her house for a bit.
* Went home.
* Missing Tasha. =( <3

* Note: Insert lots of naughty things in between each of those asteriks.