Hey there -

A few updates for all of you who actually browse my page from time to time.

Sickness - Primarily gone. I still have a deep cough, but it's infrequent. I feel fine, but I'm not allowed to do major exercises until the end of September (but can at least start playing basketball again).

College - Honestly, after a year of college and revamping study habits, learning new techniques, and not overwhelming myself, college is becoming incredibly easy. Calculus III is definitely the easiest of the strand, English is... work, and my programming classes are jokes. Unfortunately, we aren't programming yet so it looks like I'll have to jumpstart and teach myself more, but I will admit I'm getting a formal background I never got being self-taught. Do I need the background? Not sure yet. We'll see.

Life things - I've been partaking in a variety of things. I downloaded a few programs to test out, and I'm going to primarily document (journal) my progress with each item. I looked up several reviews and downloaded what was believed to be the best of each target area.

GeniusIntelligence.com - I'm partaking a trial with this. My goal is to not raise my IQ particularly (which raised my eyebrows in question), but particularly the methods in the program that help increase concentration and memory. I wasn't particularly intrigued by the idea of becoming a genius, because I'm quite skeptical about the notion of transforming into a genius, but I was interested in learning how to focus and intake much more from what I'm actually learning. If I become a genius along the way, great. But this is more to improve studying habits.

PMemory - A memory school that is noted for it's remarkable ability to actually help improve one's memory to incredible levels, as well as noted for having the worst customer service possible. I decided to DL it because, well, for obvious reasons, anyone likes to enhance their memory skills. It focuses on strengthening memory and provides exercises rather than a focus on reading it like a book. Figured, why the hell not?

Speed Reader X - Speed reading. Not much else to say.

Pimsleur Approach to [insert language here] - Noted to be the most efficient way to learn a language, I decided to grab a copy of the German and Japanese courses. I wanted Spanish (I hate Spanish but in California it is useful), but decided I was okay with German for now (I'll be in Germany in 2 years for a year-long bible college) and we'll see where that takes me. So my trial will be the 90 days of German oratory lessons, and then 10 days of reading/writing lessons. Overall, 100 days. I'll tell you in 100 days if I can speak German well enough to feel comfortable to talk to someone who speaks it fluently (which is easy, my boss speaks fluent German). The theory behind it, if you are interested, is that in everyday conversation humans use no more than 2500 words a day. If you learn these common words and phrases, you will naturally learn the grammar structure of the language and the way things are spoken. After that, you can hold conversations and for words you don't know, you simply look up in the dictionary! Seemed sound, so it couldn't hurt to try.

I will post updates on my progress through each of these trials. As well, when I start up the p90x again I will post regular updates on how that goes, and my reviews of all these programs.

BYOND-related

Well, I'm back in business. Save the Queen is sitting here and once I'm done with these exams progress will be continued. Other projects are worked on frequently as I need to finish up a few loose ends here and there, but overall I'm back in business. I do want to finish Save the Queen, but I will admit that will likely be my final "BYOND" project. I'll stay around the community probably forever, but after that I'll venture to other languages, learning their syntax and testing strengths/weaknesses of each to see which suits me and my purposes best. However, I'll still be contributing to others works and I'll probably participate in contests. And if I feel that urge to make a 2d game, well, I'll just damn do that. But I'm planning on not making much after that. I just want a polished game out, to be honest.

Thanks for reading.