Ammunition > Heroics

...This may not be very interesting to read, but it's somewhat important that I write it, because I feel like I can't write about anything else here until I've kept you all up to date on what's going on.

Firstly, winter break. I won't go into detail, because there aren't that many details to go into, but I will give some highlights:
-I stayed at my brother's apartment, because I'm a cheapskate and didn't want to (/couldn't even afford to) stay in the dormitory building over break
-A lot of people from my church are in the nearby apartments
-We did a lot of stuff
-We watched several movies, most of which I had never seen before
-We played quite a few games, at least one of which I had never played before
-The weather decided it hates my car and refused to let it run most of the time
-I think I could use a new battery, but I don't want to buy one and once it warms up it shouldn't actually be an issue anymore
-When my car WAS working, I went around trying to get a job
-My search for a job was totally unsuccessful
-I read quite a bit
-I started Death Note, which is pretty incredible so far and very thought-provoking (for me, at least)
-Hopefully that only goes uphill from here
-Speaking of hills, we went sledding
-There was a bump/ramp thing that was almost certainly put there intentionally
-Whoever built it was completely mad
-I hit it (accidentally, of course)
-Witnesses are convinced I put fifteen feet (four and a half meters) between myself and the ground
-I am inclined to agree with them
-The sudden lurch into the air upset my stomach a lot
-The jump must have been just as sudden and crazy as it felt, then, because I don't usually have trouble with motion sickness
-The sled flew out from under me and I hit the ground... hard
-It hurt
-I did not receive any lasting injuries, but I'm sure I would have broken a limb if I had landed on one
-I did bleed
-My left ear swelled to 150-200% of its normal size
-My back was cut up pretty badly
-Everything is fine now, but it's been over a month, I think, and I still have weird spots on my back...
-I went home for about a week
-This time was spent doing more or less the same things, except with my family instead of friends, and all of the job searching stuff was done over the phone or the Internet


...So that was my break. Somewhat uneventful.
But there is good news! Since I've been back, some pretty neat things have happened. One of them is that I got a job in the cafeteria here. It's not enough hours, but I might get more, and I'll still be looking for more work if I ever get the time.
Anyway, I enjoy it so far. Sure, it's washing dishes, but I know all of the people I work with, and we make it fun... Or at least interesting.
It's been a little bit weird getting used to having homework to do again. I don't really know how much free time I'm going to have. I really want to be working on extra stuff, but I'm really pretty busy... I also feel like I already spend too much time sitting in my room. It gets depressing.
Speaking of depressing things, here's an update on GDC (try to ignore the fact that this sentence has been as ominous as a match in an oil well): I got accepted, which was exciting at first... but I ended up having to cancel my application because there was just no way I was going to get the money for travel and other miscellaneous expenses.
That whole situation, then, has been, as you could probably guess... really disappointing.

There is a possibility that, this weekend, I will be driving out to an event that involves the creation of games and hanging around the people who do that sort of thing. It's about an hour away. I don't know if I'll be able to afford the time it will take away from homework, though. Plus there's still the issue of whether or not my car will even run... Well, anyway. If I ever feel disconnected, I at least know where I can go now. Oh, that's right; I forgot to tell you about that.
Over break, I also got an opportunity to visit the office of some independent game developers who work pretty close to here. There's only three or four of them; they're a pretty small operation, but they're cool guys. I might go back and talk to them again in the future if that doesn't bother them.

...A few days ago it was my (nineteenth) birthday. It was pretty much the worst birthday I've ever had, but I'm trying not to take that too hard because:
1. One of the main reasons I didn't enjoy it was because this is the first birthday I've had when I wasn't home. There are a lot of people who don't get to celebrate stuff at home, so I've really been pretty spoiled. I hardly have any right to complain... It was still weird though.
2. It's sort of a random cultural thing anyway. It seems dumb to get upset that I didn't really celebrate it much.
Anyway, my brother made me cupcakes, so that's cool. And people tried to say "happy birthday" as many times as the possibly could, so that's... umm, something. I don't know.
It doesn't help that "happy birthday, Paul" was already a running joke that started a couple of months ago when somebody randomly decided to sing to me during lunch.
As far as the actual being-a-year-older part goes, I don't have any profound thoughts. Sorry. I'm just... a year older now.

I guess that's all there is to say, more or less. To summarize, life right now is basically just... school and work. And work is at school. So basically... school. That's about it, from a broad view of things. I'll probably share more random details as things happen.
And you can probably expect the occasional incoherent ramblings or bizarre essayesque things at various points in the future.
Until whenever next time is,
This has been
...Uhh, me.