The Fall Season

Apparently in some places in this world, there are only two seasons in a year. These are very simply named: the dry season and the wet season.

Here in America, though, we've got the slightly more complicated system of four seasons. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Why we can't just have a hot season and a cold season is beyond me, but whatever. It's what I grew up with, and I kind of like it.

Winter is great. As a native of Wisconsin, I have a +5 racial bonus against cold. I love chilly weather, I revel in it! I look forward to this season every year.

Spring is fantastic. Everything smells so fresh, and all around me things are coming to life again. My spirits always soar in this season.

Summer is fun. I have no classes, and I rarely work, Summer is an entire season of relaxing and taking it easy, two of my favorite activities. How could I not love Summer?

Then we come to Fall, the current season. And Fall is great for some very special reasons.

In the Fall I return to school. Back in high school this was a terrible proposition. Everyone treated me like crap in high school. But now I'm in college, and it's great! I can't seem to get through a Fall semester without making some new friends. And I get to go to new and interesting classes, and I always love to learn new things. Unless those things are math. Math is hard!

I also get to reconnect with all of my old friends, people I haven't seen all summer. Playing games, watching movies, even just hanging out... it's all good. New friends and old friends make Fall great!

Right now I'm going through a rough spot. Things aren't looking so bright in general. Tonight I almost let that bring down my opinion of an entire season, but thankfully I was able to take a step back from temporary problems and look at how I really see the season. Hopefully I get over this rough spot soon and can get on with enjoying my Fall!

TINS is gone!

I did nothing. My technical skills just weren't up to par. At least it wasn't laziness this time.

TINS is here!

TINS Is Not Speedhack. But it's exactly the same thing. Seventy-two hours to code a game. One weekend. Rules to build your game around are released on Friday, to prevent cheating, and you have until Monday to finish.

I've got a busy weekend coming up. Class on Friday, and then going to a friends for advice on spells for my wizard. D&D Saturday, where I will use said wizard. Sunday I have church from waking until noon, and then again from five to seven when I volunteer. So basically, Friday evening and Saturday morning are the times I have to work (I'll be too distracted during my free time on Sunday, it's traditionally "Hang out with friends" time). And, because it's labor day weekend, I can stay up as late as I want on Sunday to finish things up. But if I'm doing anything other than polishing up by that point, then I'm doing it wrong. Sunday night will be the finalization of whatever I have at that point, which may not be much.

I have a bad record with these sort of competitions. I often end up doing nothing and feeling bad about it later. Perhaps this time will be different, but perhaps not. Only time will tell.

The new internet punching bag?

I dunno if anyone else has come across this, but I've seen a lot of people lately using autism as the new internet punching bag. Especially in the comments section of Notch's blog (the creator of Minecraft). Also, a few recent Cracked.com articles have presented a grossly inaccurate view of autism and asperger's.

So, are we the new group that it's cool to make fun of? That would kind of suck. And they claim we have no empathy.

/whiny rant