War of the worlds is sooo scary, and other stuff

I saw War of the Worlds yesterday. It freaked me out, and to think I had to go to work after that! (I didn't have to go in till 3:00 yesterday). I felt really bad for Dakota Fanning's character. Man can that kid scream. There's also something about machine-head aliens with tentacles and long spidery legs grabbing people and torching others with a laser beam that is far from appealing.

Next up on my list: Herbie: Fully Loaded and March of the Penguins. Then probably Sky High and Must Love Dogs, which come out this weekend.

I have made some nice purchases lately. I bought Pokémon Colosseum for my Game Cube yesterday. It didn't come with any kind of book though, so I set out today to try to find a player's guide, but it seems to have gone out of print. I was told I might have to go to Barnes and Noble, since they would be able to back-order it if they don't have it.

Today I bought an Etta James CD at Starbucks and then, after not finding the player's guide, I bought another game: WTA Tour Tennis.

I am still playing Tales of Symphonia, and today I picked up Final Fantasy Tactics Advance again after a long while, but had to repeat a battle cause I forgot to save after it when I turned my GBA off to go clock in.

I have a problem in Tales of Symphonia. I am in the new world, Tethe'alla, and I am about to go through the Meltokio Sewers. But I don't have any Magic Lenses (I used them all up in the Fooji Mountains en route to Pronyma) so I can't add the boss to the Monster List (the other monsters don't matter; I can get them later). I can't get into either of the nearest cities--Meltokio and Sybak--because Meltokio's entrance is closed off by guards, and the Grand Tethe'alla Bridge isn't open, which is the only way to Sybak right now. I can't get to the north part of the continent due to a stupid inlet river that I can't get around. The mountains block the way to the south (I tried going south around them but I wound up going in circles). So for the meantime I am fighting monsters hoping that one will drop a Magic Lens. It will help me get my new team members--Zelos and Presea--to learn Techs. Zelos learns Techs really slow cause half the time that you tell him to use a Tech, he doesn't do it. Fortunately, he learned Eruption and Grave after I made him use Fire Ball and Stone Blast a gazillion times. I'm working on making him learn Air Thrust, cause when he learns that, he can learn Healing Wind. I think I 'm trying to get him to learn some kind of sword tech too. Presea, Colette, and Sheena all had Techs they began learning too (Finality Punishment, Triple Ray Satellite, and Power Seal Pinion), but they were easier to deal with. Fortunately, I made pacts with the three Summon Spirits of Sylvarant (Undine, Efreet, and the Sylphs) before going to Tethe'alla so that their HP won't be way higher otherwise. Well, actually Undine you have to get while still in Sylvarant, since you need her for the Unicorn event. Efreet and the Sylphs can be fought later, after going to Tethe'alla, but if you wait till later their HP goes up, so it makes sense to deal with them right after Undine. So right now my party is (I think) Lloyd, Genis, Zelos, and Raine. If I could find a dumb Magic Lens, I can use it on the boss in the sewers (if I can figure out the dumb puzzle!!) and finally get back into Meltokio.

I just thought about something today. One time you meet the Wonder Chef, he is disguised as a "cat toy," according to the player's guide. But if you look closely, you will notice it is not a mere cat, but a maneki neko, or beckoning cat, which is considered good luck in Japan. That this should appear in the English version of the game is quite funny. Animal Crossing had the maneki neko taken out of it when it was translated.

I went to school today in search of a book on Cascading Style Sheets for my IMT class. I found one all about it in the library. Sweet. I also found out that the bookstore had the books for fall already, so I wrote down the info on those.

Mum says I have to buy my books this time. The thing that stinks is my chemistry book is WAYYY expensive, even used ($105.25!!). But since I am making more right now cause I'm working full-time, my mom makes me buy everything. I was going to look at Dell computers and possibly get a new tower with this check, but it may have to wait. For chemistry, I've got to buy the textbook, a lab book, a composition notebook, a class packet, and my own goggles. Why do I have to buy goggles?! Shouldn't they provide those?!

For my other classes I have one book apiece required, but they seem to be reasonably priced. My human development book is basically just available used right now, which is priced at $77.75 (as opposed to $103.50 for new). My western civ book is pretty cheap too, I think, and if my brother still has All Quiet on the Western Front (a recommended book for western civ...figures, there was a recommended novel for my last class with this same teacher...Traitor's Gate, but that was much more interesting) I won't have to buy that.

Why are college books so darn expensive?! I mean the course packet, goggles, lab book, and composition book for chemistry will amount to around $30 if I get the lab book and packet new (who wants a used lab book anyway??...it's like when I got a used workbook for French, and it had writing in it that I had to erase). The bulk of my money will go to the other books. At least if I buy them, I can keep the money from buyback.

Once school starts, I'm going to see if my teachers require scantrons and buy a whole bunch at the beginning so I won't have to keep going back.

Okay enough I'm tired. Pity I forgot to get my check before I left work today; I could've deposited it tomorrow morning. Oh well. It doesn't matter; I still have money from the last check.

As for a new computer tower, there's a basic one in a Dell catalog my mom brought home for me for $299, which is really cheap. It only has a CD-ROM drive (well, and probably a floppy drive too, although they didn't say that) but that's fine. I wanted a DVD-ROM (so I don't have to hog the TV downstairs to watch my small personal collection of DVD's, mostly the $1 kind you can get like at Wal-Mart now) and a ZIP drive (since my ZIP disk has a higher storage capacity) but I can buy those separate and get somebody to install them for me, if there's room. Well, ok, the DVD one's not absolutely necessary, after all I've gotta go downstairs sometimes. The ZIP I would really like. That can't be that expensive. I can see if Office Depot or some place like that sells them. Otherwise I have to go all the way out to Fry's, which is quite a ways away, plus I don't know how to get there by bus.

Okay...tired now. Going.