School rant + No more exams

This is sort of a continuation to this blog entry.

So, I was at school in Ljubljana yesterday (Thursday) for my last exam. But although the exam was scheduled only at 4 o'clock pm, I was there already at 11 o'clock am, because I needed signatures from my teachers in a small student booklet to show that I've passed their exam. The thing is, I have all my grades on-line and that's stronger proof than some writing on some paper. And what's more, the generation after me doesn't even need to get the student booklet filled, the on-line grades are enough!
Before leaving I had to find 7 teacher.
I made an appointment with one of them but she emailed me the day before that she won't be able to make it on Thursday.
One was supposed to be giving a lesson to the 4th years, but at school I found out they have their practical work now, so they are without lessons. And no teacher.
Another one was supposed to be teaching that day, again the 4th's, so he wasn't there for the lecture, but he should've been there for his "meeting hours" (when he's supposed to be at school to meet student - too lazy now to find a better word). Nope, he wasn't there. No notes. Just a locked door.
And the last teacher had a note on her door stating that she won't be able to have "meeting hours" that day.
The only consolation is that I met a teacher I hadn't planned.
At the end of the day I still have to find 6 teachers.

I really didn't mean to be writing all of this at first, so I changed the title of the post a bit, added something :D

Anyway, to the happy part.
Me and a schoolmate had our presentation on the topic "how do Slovenian centres for social work e-communicate". I'm the kind of guy who gets stage fright quite easily, so as the exam hour drew nearer, I was getting worse. I played some Harvest Moon to keep relaxed when there was still a lot of time left, but when my classmate arrived to rehearse one last time I was concentrating on trying to relax. Anyway, in the end it turned out there were just 5 of us doing the exam, which helped a bit, since I wouldn't have a big croud. Plus one of the was also a schoolmate, which also helped as I prefer known faces. Still, my palms were sweaty, even though it wasn't hot and I tried wiping them. Yeah, I know, probably not the right assets for a minister candidate... But I digress. The slides were well made content-wise, I think. And they looked perfect, all thanks to Ana, because she helped with the background. Kristjan, my so-presenter, did a good job with his part, he added nice things in the presentation. I think my part went well as well. I was trying to speak slowly and clearly.
But we got only a 9... :P As I said in an earlier post, I needed at least a 9 and I got it. My overall grade is now 8 and I can get into postgraduation programs... after I graduate. Which, well, is getting closer. But that's a different story. For now I'll enjoy the feeling that there's no more exams (at least in pregraduation). But tomorrow I have to go to Ljubljana again, to find 2 professors.

Wtf?! It's snowing!?

First when I looked through the window I saw some strange "drops" among the rain, like you see strange drops when it's hailing (had quite our share of hare this year). And yes, there were snow flakes mixed in the rain! Which is very strange as in these parts it usually doesn't snow much if at all. And at first it wasn't even sticking, but now he grass, rooftops and the middle of the road are getting white. Where is Al Gore with his global warming now?? I believed him, I truly did. But it seems all his talk was just another politician's promise. *throws a snowball at Al*

Edit: It's just raining now. I guess my rant helped =)

Season's break

Two of the series I watch, Smallville and Supernatural, are now on an almost-2-month break. Which means it's time for a recap (so I'll know where they left off when they start again).

Smallville: Clark lost his powers (again) and the Martian helped him restore them and started working at the Daily Planet. Chloe used her Brainiac powers to save Clark and Kara from the Phantom Zone, later got amnesia, gained back her memories but lost the knowledge about Clark's secret. Clark reinstalled the fortress of solitude, which Brainiac overtook and painted black. Davis fell in love with Chloe, but she married Jimmy. Davis is actually Zod's son, the great destroyer. Lana interrupted an almost kiss between Clark and Lois. She also seems to be a double-agent. Davis transformed, kidnapped Chloe and took her to the black fortress. Someone that's probably Lex was shown from behind with tubes in him watching Chloe's wedding video.

Supernatural: Castiel! He's so ultra cute and cool! Uhm, yeah... Dean got rescued from hell after 4 months (on earth), but it was morel ike 40 years for him. Sam practiced his demon ESP with Ruby, with whom he also had sex. Lilith is trying to break 66 seals so Lucifer can walk free. Seems that Dean is supposed to play an important role, that's why they saved him. Then a girl, Anna, could hear angels talking. After a hypnosis she remembered that she used to be an angel, then she and Dean had sex in his car. Both demons and angels wanted her. She got her powers back and disappeared (for now). Dean finally said that in hell he had been tortured for 30 years until breaking and then he started torturing others.

No luck with Harvest Moon

A few days ago, I think it was on Wednesday, we received Harvest Moon DS Cute. This time we made sure the games was an original one by buying one that had a picture of an authentic cartridge on the auction listing. And it really was authentic! the box art had better printing, the manual contained instructions and the cartridge had two sets of numbers on the back. BUT! The game didn't load. Not in my DS, not in Ana's DS Lite, blowing didn't help... We contacted the seller and explained everything. He said the game worked when he tried it before posting. But he's prepared to exchange cartridges, so we'll do that. I wonder what happened and that the next one will be ok.

Also it's been over three weeks since my HM:FoMT has been shipped from the UK and it still hasn't arrived. But it's not the first time that the Royal Post lost a package. They also lost Pokemon Pearl last summer, which in the end arrived much later (after a complaint was filed) and the package was in a bad shape (the game was ok luckilly). I contacted the seller and she said she'll raise a complaint with the post. I hope they'll find it soon. Maybe it travelled to Slovakia, I don't know.

Oh, by the way. I'll post this here as it's the m,ost appropriate place. I finally got my Visa Electron and the PayPal verification :) No more asking around for help, yay! \(^_^)/

Last exam

Today I mailed (not e-mailed) my research papers which are the main part of my last exam. The other part of the exam is the presentation which will be next week. And after this I only have my graduation left.

But I need to get at least a 9 for this exam (the best grade is 10). Then my overall average grade (from all the years) will be 8, which means I can sign in post-graduate studies. Namely this will be firstly a semester of school to get a university degree (now I'll get a college one). And after that I'll get a psychology major. I don't know yet from which field of psychology, but there's still some time to decide. And I also haven't decided about my doctorate. I just know that at some point I want to be minister for social affairs and since ministers usually have doctorates, I'd better get one myself as well.

But before that future becomes present (and past), I still have to finish my thesis and next week start preparing for the presentation. I really need a 9 at least!

Tired

Uhhh, it's been two weeks since my last post. I can't believe it how time flies. There I am studying about blogs and how a post a week should be a minimum (for professional blogs) and I don't have time/will to blog...

For the past couple of days I've been writing two pages daily for my thesis, reaching 32 pages yesterday of raw data, that means without pictures, indexes and all the editing. I feel that now I've really reached the point when I ran ot of any major ideas what else to write about. All I can think about are minor edits here and there.

I've been at school today to see my thesis mentor. I handed the papers to her and she said she'd read it and that I should phone her next week. I wonder what she'll tell me... In the meantime, I'll keep doing work on my thesis, though today I'm hella tired. It'll have to wait till tomorrow.

Yawn...

The ebay-paypal-credit card saga comes to an end?

I really didn't imagine that me buying three Harvest Moon games on ebay would span over that many posts. Here's a recap:
Part 1: tried to get a credit card, help from a friend, ordered the games
Part 2: received first two bootlegs, complained
Part 3: the first bootleger is no longer an ebay member
Intermezzo: waiting for one more game, being prepared for a bootleg
Part 4: Finally received the third game. This time a very well made bootleg.
Part 5: The second bootlegger wanted revenge

And now, for the much anticipated Part 6 of the great ebay-paypal-credit card saga, brought to you on blogspot.com, directed by Synth, starring Synth, Ana, two bootleggers and people from paypal and ebay. Only on Synth's corner from 4th November 2008.

Last time I left you with the unpaid item strike the 2nd seller gave me. Of course that didn't last long because he had no grounds to file it. I got an email from ebay telling me they lifted it, but if tehre will be a next time, I should follow the proper procedure for lifting it. I replied to them that I WOULD have followed the procedure, but the seller is an unreasonable one, so I decided to directly appeal.
I also received a reply from PayPal saying that there's nothing they can do. Well, at least I tried. But I also got a good email from PayPal, telling me I won the dispute against the first seller and I got my money back. Unfortunately the money I got back doesn't reduce increase the limit of money I can still send. And that brings me to the next point.
Ana and me found a way for us to use PayPal! One of the banks here offers Visa Electron to students for free. It's not a credit card, but a debit card, but it's supposed to work with PayPal! So far Ana has applied, but I will too soon. Now we are waiting to receive it, should be any day now.
When I checked on ebay yesterday I saw that the second seller changed his username. And when I checked today, he wasn't a member anymore! Yaaaay! Did my email to Nintendo help? Did too many people (that I warned) reported him? I don't know and will probably never find out.
In the end, I know that this is somewhat of a Sisyphean task: even if I push one bootlegger away, they can just sign in using a different account. All I can do is make them waste some money for the refunds.

I wish upon a star

I think that most gamers, in the pursue of that perfect game and gaming experience, find themselves wishing certain games were different, bigger, better. I am no exception. Here's some of my wishes.

Pokemon: I wish for a remake of the 2nd generation for the DS. Not only were those game great and big (16 badges, remember?), but it would also mean that Kanto would be featured in every generation of the games. I would especially like a remake of Crystal, as in my opinion, that's one of the best Pokemon games of all times.
I also wish for a game that would incorporate all 4 worlds of the main series (Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh). The question here is how to make the games challenging and entertaining, as one has quite a high level after finishing one region. There are various solutions to this, but I'll leave it to the developers (if they'll ever pick up this project).

Harvest Moon: I wish that after marriage it would be possible to choose to play as either of the married couple. Tired of your boy charachter? Then work as your wife! I see the problem for marriageable characters who have a jon to do, for example Trent, the only doctor in Mineral Town. For cases like this I suggest having two characters doing the same job (in Trent's case, Dr Hardy?) and after marriage with Trent, Hardy would complain that since Trent quit his job he has much more work to do. Another addition here would be the requirement of having the other one at a high friendship, or else (s)he won't ket the bachelor(ette) quit the job and get married. And one more aspect (this is the last one): when playing as the spouse, you could resume your previous job for an hour, two, three..., lose some stamina and get paid for this. It would be also cool to play as your child (maybe at the teenage stage) and get a girlfriend/boyfriend (rivals' children).

Rune Factory: (I married Melody in my game. She is a sweet girl with a thing for witches. She also wears a pointed hat.) I wish that after marrying Melody it would be possible to give her the "join me" command, the same as with animals. She would then join the player in dungeons and use spells. That would be so cool!


Wishful thinking? Yes, I know. But I'm allowed to dream, aren't I? :)

Some more Pokemon for me

Last summer Ana and me bought the new pair of Pokemon games, Diamond and Pearl. My copy arrived as stated, but hers got lost somewhere on the road across the big pond. After some emailing back and forth the shop sent us another copy which arrived in due time. Soon afterwards the first copy aarived too. We sold the extra one and gave the money to the shop.
I played my version, Diamond, for the whole summer, filling my pokedex (at least the "seen" part) to about 3/4. I also did some wifi trading.
Then my wireless router and isp modem decided they don't like each other anymore and the modem refused to give internet to the router (later I found out it was actually the isp's fault). In other words, no more wifi for me. It was also somewhere around that point that I stopped playing Diamond. This was around the end of last year's summer.
A week ago I had a sudden idea. The router and modem still didn't like each other, but both talked to the PC. So I thought that if I would connect the modem to the computer and the computer to the router, I might get the internet connection up to the router. The only problem was that I needed two lan ports in the PC. Luckilly I had a spare lan port PCI card. Turned off the PC, unscrewed it, inserted the PCI card, connected the modem, turned on the PC and... nothing. I tried messing around with the cables and some configurations, but all to no avail. Lastly, I tried the wizard for setting up a home network. I told him that the computer was connecting directly to the internet and other computers would use this one to connect. Abrakadabra, hokus pokus, the wizard did it! I had wifi again!
First I downloaded additional puzzles for Layton. I wanted to try IoH's wifi, but was still in a mine. Then I went to my pokemon forum and saw someone who wanted to make a trade. An Eevee. I checked, had one and told him I'd trade with him.
So, that's what got me into pokemoning again. I checked my pokedex and I have a few more than 100 left for the "seen" part. Something like 180 for the "obtained". I already did some breeding to get 5 more (and an Eevee to trade). I also got one for the "obtained" list from the GTS. After close inspection I miss the most "seen" from the third generation. I guess I'll have to play some Sapphire too and migrate them.
If there's anyone reading this and someone with DPPt who'd like to trade, let me know ;)