Infinity
22 June 2009
Why do university text books have to be so expensive? I've been thinking of buying a couple of them for next year but I'd forgotten how expensive they were. It's going to cost me over £50 just to buy the two books that I should have bought last September. The high price was the main reason why I decided to just borrow them from the library for the whole year instead. I never intended to do that but it just sort of happened. I had expected to borrow them for a couple of months and then buy my own copies but I quickly ran out of money that semester. As long as no one reserved them (which no one did) I could theoretically keep them for the whole year, renewing them every four weeks. And that's exactly what happened. I'm not sure if that tactic will work next year, though. There will be new students starting on the course and I might have to compete for 'ownership' of the book. So it might just be easier to finally give in and buy my own. But as I said earlier, it's so bloody expensive! Plus, I'll probably have to buy the next volumes of the text books soon as we've almost covered all of the material in the current ones. I have two choices really: fork out over £100 for new text books; or fight the first years for them!
Among the books for my course, there's one that's not actually required but will probably be quite useful. It's the 2008 edition of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test exam paper. I'm planning to take the exam this December and get my first formal Japanese qualification. It's not required by the university but I've been planning on taking it for awhile now. The only thing is, I'm not entirely sure of which level I should take. I'm fairly confident that, with minimal revision, I could pass Level 3 (Level 1 being the hardest, Level 4 being the easiest). However, I wonder if I should try for Level 2 and just work a bit harder during the lead up to the exam? The only problem with that is that the jump from Level 3 to Level 2 is supposed to be massive (hence why they're changing the system in 2010). As the exam is only available once a year (and costs £60), should I risk it? I'll have to consider my options carefully before the application period opens in July.
Posted byHocchan at 12:15 am 0 comments
Don't Say Lazy
19 June 2009
I'm currently enjoying my summer holiday at the moment by catching up on all the computer games that I've neglected during the year. I finally completed Lost Odyssey a few weeks ago. I think my play time at the end was just over sixty-hours, which wasn't bad considering that I spent a lot of time levelling up and doing side quests. I have to say that the game was a lot better than I had expected it to be. I was kind of put off by the artwork when I first saw it. However, as I played through the story, the characters really grew on me. Well, all except that twat called Mack anyway...
One thing that I'm very pleased about is that they included the original Japanese audio track. It made the experience a million times better. I'm slightly disappointed that they didn't sync the lips to the Japanese vocals, though, that would have made it even better. But at least the option to listen to the Japanese voices is there. It really pisses me off when publishers don't keep the Japanese audio track as an option. Unfortunately, it seems like Lost Odyssey was a one-off as the latest JRPGs to be released in the UK (Star Ocean: The Last Hope and Tales of Vesperia) both don't include a Japanese voice option. Bastards! One thing is for sure, when Final Fantasy XIII gets released, I'm importing a Japanese copy instead of buying the domestic release. English dubbing can go screw itself!
After I completed Lost Odyssey I moved onto Oblivion for awhile. I bought it together with The Last Remnant and had only intended to give it a quick go. However, it quickly got me hooked and I found myself playing it full time. Unfortunately, several things started pissing me off big time, and it wasn't long until I gave up on the game and moved on to The Last Remnant. It's a pretty good game so far, despite the horrendous frame rate problems that it suffers from. The battle system is very interesting and I like the way you recruit leaders and soldiers to fight for you. I'm disappointed that there isn't a Japanese voice option, the English dubbing is truly dire. But at least you can turn them off during the battles, that's one saving grace.
But alas, it's not all fun and games for me at the moment. I seem to be suffering from some pretty severe toothaches lately. I think the reason why it's so painful is due to the fact that it's coming from two different sources. The first being the massive cavity that I've developed on my third molar on the right-hand side, and the second being the emergence of my Wisdom teeth. As a result, they've both combined to give me an excruciatingly painful time. I think that if it continues to be so unbearably painful then I might have to give in and finally pay the dentist a visit. I'm sure the pain of root canal surgery can't be as bad as what I've already experienced.
Posted byHocchan at 8:21 pm 2 comments
