DarthTofu

I'm finally off from school- today's the first day of Winter Break. And another bonus: My SAT Scores came in. I did pretty well- 2030 out of a possible 2400, good enough in most categories for most of the schools in my book The 363 Best Colleges in the United States, which is quite awesome. I got a 9 out of twelve on the essay portion, but that's partly because I was only halfway through my concluding paragraph when time was called... The other reason might have been that I took a Traitor-style approach; the essay gave positions A and B to argue for, and I argues for position C, which was somewhere between position A and position B. *shrugs* Breakdown by subject: Math: 700 Critical Reading: 640 Writing: 690 All in all I think I'm entitled to pat myself on the back at least once. *Cue everyone on the forums from the USA to mention that they got a perfect score on the SAT*

I got the multiple choice results for my AP Chem back today. We had five "stars," which basically means that the question is counted as correct where we use them, and considering that the test was only 40 questions long, those helped a lot. I got 30 out of 40 correct. A fair number of people scored in that range, and it was the best anyone did on the exam. Stinking lack of calculators... For the essay portion I know I aced both essay questions, but I'm a bit concerned about the three reactions I had to write- I'm not positive about them, though I'm pretty sure I did them well. When the example problem makes you catch an error, though, it kills confidense. Got an 83% on my "not-exam" in Latin II, but as the name implies, it isn't the exam; rather, the exam is the exact same test, taken later, with the original test being returned to us so we can revise it. Wootang.

I have more exams, yes, but these are in high school; yes, they're supposedly college level, but I only need a 3 (A "C") on the AP Test, which I'm not taking, to get the college credit. My classes aren't nearly as difficult as yours; I'll bet money on that!

Half easy, half impossibly difficult for me. I took my "not exam" in Latin this week (I believe I mentioned that, officially speaking, we take exams in January for stupid reasons) and it was rather tough- I don't know the subjunctive case as well as I should. Fortunately that wasn't the exam grade- rather, the exam is exactly the same as that test, and we get our answers to go over and correct in between now and then. It should be pretty easy. AP Chemistry, however, was and will be a bitch. Cramming in Physics combined with overall studying wasn't enough for the multiple choice problems. Forty problems, twenty of which require calculations, fifty minutes, no calculators allowed. Not fun- I had to guess on three or four of them. I take the essay question portion tomorrow, which I do get a calculator for, which should help a lot considering I don't enjoy doing long division with numbers like .0821 (Gas constant in atm. per liter) or 6.022 x 10^23 (Avagadro's number). AP US History promises to be a pain, as we have 281 vocab words that we defined for a study guide to memorize for a 200 question test wherein some has been promised as fill-in-the-blank. AP English will be equally difficult; this woman is brilliant, but she expects high school students to operate on her level. Not all of us intrinsically know what the hell words like "somnambulance" mean (Sleep walking), nor are we graced with the ability to determine why Gatsby is so infatuated with a green light before we finish reading the book. Physics should be a breeze (It's all concept stuff, and I own at Physics), Pre-Calc promises to be challenging, but doable considering I have the highest grade for juniors in my period. *Glances up* Wow, that was kind of a lot...

I'd forgotten that once you were a Roman enthusiast, it means you have to be pro-homosexual marriage. Your "logic" never fails to amuse me, Tofu. If memory serves, I mentioned about a year ago a rather conservative friend who claimed to homosexuality led to the decline of Greek and Roman civilizations. You lashed back with a rather angry diatribe on the many, many reasons that was an invalid conclusion. Furthermore, the only time I ever recall you saying anything negative about Greeks or Romans was when you said that the realism on the base Rome: Total War was rather off. Going back to Fett: Do you get the feel that there's a "mini" trilogy within each author's three novels? For instance, Aalston is the only one who really touched on Wedge that much. By and large Alema is Denning's character (Aalston and Traviss have had to use her a bit, but for the most part they leave her alone, or operate her in the background). I feel almost like Fett is the one Karen Traviss develops within her own "mini" trilogy. I'll be interested to see what happens to Wedge and family in Fury when my friend finally loans it to me. I sincerely hope Wedge lives (Nobody tell me if he does or doesn't or I'll have to kill you), though I was most frightened it would be his end back in Exile and, before that, during Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand when the Vong had him in their sights.

Not sure why I thought it had an "S" on it... I was a bit confused by the lack of Han and Leia in Sacrifice as well, but I figured that was partly due to Taviss not having a storyline for them- I actually thought that Inferno might take place partly during the events of Sacrifice and focus on Han and Leia, but no such luck. Granted, we really have gotten relatively little by way of news from Correllia of late. In Sacrifice Gejjen (sp?) was assassinated and a triumvirate was placed in command, but that's all we know. Maybe Correllia is being conspicuously quiet? Or maybe, as SOCL said, Han and Leia just got passed up for Boba Fett. BTW: I wasn't suggesting that you'd find an issue with Beviin and his husband. You're a Roman/Greek enthusiast; that makes you pro-gay marriage is memory serves.

Grand Moff/Emperor, though I'm sure he'd be fine with either posting.

Assault transport is ultimately the fastest ship- I don't know what the fastest initial ship is, though.

... My bad. My rage directed at Troy Dennings blinded me to my grammar for a moment there. I'm still way too cheap to buy every last book, so I thankfully can use the library (apparently there's a large crowd I don't know about that loves these books on my little island, so the library has all seven that are out so far) to get whichever book I need... And friends who enjoy spending money frivolously. I actually really, really like the ones by Aalston and Traviss, though; both authors have a firm grasp on what they're writing and how to write it well. They have believable characters, witty lines, clever parallels to our own world and such. Aalston has gotten a bit bogged down by details of late, but that's my only real complaint. SOCL doesn't like Taviss making the Mandalorians out the way she does. I guess they're just made a bit too gay for him. (Check the "Behind the scenes" section) I personally like the Mandalorians, but hey, to each his own- I can understand why you might view what they do as being distracting, and from what I've gathered in the Round Robin interview at the end of Inferno she did sort of choose to adopt the Mandalorians into her writing- I don't think Del Rey specifically asked for it.

Achmed the Dead Terrorist My appologies if you've seen it before. The last three minutes or so are solid gold.

Ditto on the hardback thing, Elvis; I had to get Sacrifice from the library while I wait for the paperback. I got Inferno from a friend and I'm getting Fury from him when he finishes. Now, then, rant time: (Warning: This rant goes through the events of Inferno and mainly focuses on bashing Dennings for the piece of crap that Inferno was. If you liked Inferno, like Dennings, or haven't read through Inferno, I suggest you not read the black text bellow.) First off: The GAG. As SOCL and I have agreed on another site, Dennings makes them out to be horrendously evil and incompetent, totally different from Traviss and Aalston, both of whom got what the GAG is supposed to be when Traviss created it. The GAG is not inherently evil: Jacen is turning dark, and so the GAG is being used for worse things, but it is not, itself, evil. And it's far from incompetent or under-supplied. A twenty-something recruit with an E-11 threatens Leia at the start of Inferno. WHAT? The E-11 is Rebellion-era tech, and the GAG consists of 636 hand-picked soldiers. Who is so stupid as to pick a recruit for the secret police? You want folks who know what the hell they're doing! And the evil thing: It's banal to have it be black and white like Dennings makes it. Suddenly Jacen is just totally the bad guy, 100%. NO! That is not what this has been in the last five novels, even after he killed Mara! Jacen is doing this because he believes it will bring peace, and he doesn't want to kill and hurt unless it's necessary for the overall good of the galaxy! Yes, he'll sacrifice a few to save many, but some of the crap he pulls is just retarded. Next: Kashyyyk action. The hell didn't he destroy/capture the Kashyyyk assault fleet for before it launched? Yes, lighting the planet on fire forces Confederation forces to show up, but destroying the fleet significantly reduces the issue of angry Wookies whose forest you've just burnt that are now sided with your enemies. Not attacking the fleet was retarded, just like not targeting the fighters in advance. Next: "Killing" Luke. He should have taken into account one major fact: He's writing a paperback. Luke will never, ever, ever die in a paperback novel- one can tell that right away. If you're going to fake kill someone, leave them fake-dead for at least the time between novel A and novel B so that we have to wonder! And why would Leia not know what it felt like when Luke died? Or Jaina, or Jacen? They all felt Anakin go way back when, they ought to be able to tell when someone is just cutting himself off from the Force. Next: The shitty attempt to be Traitor. Never, ever try that again, Dennings. You failed epically with your roughly two page attempt to be the first third of Traitor. You instilled absolutely none of the feelings of the novel and none of the revelations it revealed. Next: Jag and Zekk. They got screwed over in this novel when suddenly they both harbor a great desire to be with Jaina. Jag was uncomfortable working with her two novels ago, and nothing in Sacrifice suggested otherwise. The two aren't acting naturally at all. Next: He killed Kam and ripped off Tione's arm and leg. What the hell, man? That was just a stupid "Oh, I'll kill someone else's character to try to make my novel seem better!" moment, like in Star-by-Star. Next: The manner of Luke's "death." When did Jacen become such a proficient pilot? Luke and Jaina are the best of the best at piloting; Jaina and Luke are, in fact, probably the best pilots in the galaxy. And Jacen takes on both of them with no problem, forcing Jaina to blow up Luke's StealthX. Way to fail, Dennings. Overall final complaint: Dennings tries to compensate for sucking by including horrible wounds for main characters in each novel. He scorches Jacen's kidney and rips off half of his scalp, he breaks Luke's leg, he blows off half of Tione's body, etc. If you want to be moving, don't wound characters physically: Wound them spiritually. Give us something more than "A tearful conversation convinced them that Jacen was now dead to them." Give us the conversation, and don't half-ass it like everything else I've read by you with the (barely) exception of Tempest! It angers me to have discovered that Dennings could come up with this great concept and then Bork it up so horribly.

Man... Just last month one of my best friends was diagnosed, type one. He's seventeen right now, going on eighteen this school year. I really hope he doesn't have the same complications as poor Paul My condolences to your brother and to you, Dragon. Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on.- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. May it rain at your funeral, Paul, for you deserve that greatest of memorials.

OOC: I guess it isn't necessary to write out of character posts in colors now, is it? You'll be missed, Paul, for your constant comments as we wrote throughout this, and I'll be sure to find you a place in this story as it unfolds farther; you deserve that much and much, much more... IC: "One more second and we're good to go." "One more second and I'm gone!" She probably meant it. Omen was at her rope's end right now, fending off the survivors of her thermal detonator attack and then some as new waves came in. A cut ran along her collarbone from a near miss of a razor bug that had continued along its ballistic trajectory to smack me solidly in the back of the head, and a bruise was starting to purple up brilliantly over her left bicep, which she still seemed incapable of using ever since that thud bug had smashed into it. Nonetheless she was still standing, still whirling her lightsaber in impossible complex patterns and fending off bug after bug while I affixed the varying bits and pieces of the backpack to the root of the Vong building. "One more second... one more second..." Omen let out a grunt as one more ranged projectile hit her. "One. You've had your second, either leave it and run, or keep working on it without me!" "Almost done," I said, staring at the small diode that was flashing increasingly quickly, indicating that the chemical had almost all been absorbed into the nutrients web of the damutek. It became a constant light. "Done. Alright, let's move." "Gladly." I looked up and grimaced. Omen had taken a hard blow to the sternum from a thud bug and was bent over with the pain. It wasn't compassion over her life that concerned me so much as it was the loss of assets. Losing her drastically decreased my chances of making it out of here. Leaving her to die removed me entirely from Hohass's good books, and eliminated my access to weapons being run to and paid for by the Hutt Underground. I had to get her out, but wounded as she was she could only slow me down. Then there was the issue of the ten warriors still standing. I emerged from my cover behind one of the taproots of the damutek and back into the dilapidated corridor that we'd been using for a battleground. A hail of bugs instantly swarmed toward me, but they came from far enough back that I could duck them with relative ease. It seemed that only sheer numbers had gotten to Omen rather than any actual difficulty with dodging or deflecting the organic weapons. I dropped to one knee and pulled out both of my heavy pistols from my belt. Sighting along my arm I fired once, twice, three times with each pistol. The the shots from my left hand found only armor, which was to be expected considering how it was my non dominant hand and not the one I was aiming with. My right shots, however, each slammed into bandoleers of bugs. As the living sacks burst the weapons that were their charges did the one thing they knew how to do- they buzzed out and swarmed the nearest targets, the warriors. In the ensuing confusion I rushed forward, firing as I went at an enemy that wasn't certain whether to maintain ranged attacks or to switch over to mele weapons. Two of them fell to shots in the eyes while they were busy deciding, but that still left eight warriors, albeit stunned ones. This would not be fun.

Paul! No! He will be missed by all... May he rest in peace. Man... My best wishes go out to his family and friends in this difficult time. Paul will most certainly be missed. I initially thought it would detract from any value of what I had to say to tell Paul to rejoin the Force happily, but truth be told, as Eagle and Forge have said, he likely would have appreciated going out from these forums as much a nerd as when he entered. So join the Force once more, Paul, and may you conquer the galaxy until the end of time.

I want to go on strike because my finals come after the Winter Break! Stupid legislators decided that having an equal number of days in both semesters was important, so we can't have our midterms until after Chistmas; in January, in fact. Most of you are probably wondering why I'm pissed about the extra study time; Here's why: I want the in-class reviews! Over the holidays I want to spend the time carefree with my family, not reviewing Lewis Dot Structures and matrices and American History and Latin! Well, okay, I do the last one strictly for the fun of it, but the rest of my subjects? Hell no! I don't want to have to worry about an AP English essay to write or two hundred vocabulary words for AP US History, or Physics equations on gravitational pull and coeffecients of friction down ramps or- Well, you get the idea. Stupid board of education...

You people make me so jealous- we still have the air conditioning running down 'round the equator!

It doesn't have its own official topic yet, and now that we're on book seven, I think it should. Discuss the series, but be careful to state how far in you're going; I know that SOCL and I are both still on Inferno as opposed to the more recent Fury, so anyone in here runs the risk of spoilers.

Ah, there we are! It's a mite big; is anyone going to be annoyed if I leave it like this rather than shrink it down?

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a169/DarthTofu/merrychristmas.jpg ...Can't... make it... small enough! Argh! I suppose I must go with J's old gif; Come on, photobucket, upload and work! Edit: Okay, I got the gif up, but the site refuses to let me use it as an avatar- it claims that it isn't a gif. Photobucket says it's a gif. http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a169/DarthTofu/JsGif.gif Any advice?

... Congrats, Kryt, I think you've guaranteed me some interesting nightmares about that thing attacking me!

I'm, what, three years younger than you? The states trust me to drive a car far before Switzerland will trust you. Add in the fact that I'm not a heavy drinker at all, and I think I got the better deal, here. *Points finger at Mad and laughs*

It's a Jackaguineapig. Like a Jackalope, but far fluffier and more cuddly.

(Almost the) Greatest birthday present ever. I'm aware that it isn't out at the time of posting. Check the date it's due for release: Feb. 26. My birthday, bitches! I get to pay for rated R movie tickets without having an adult of 21 years of age or older on hand, and I can go buy Revelation on the same day! Boo ya! ... I suppose now would be a good time to mention that I'm only about a quarter of the way through Sacrifice right now. (In my defense, it took a good five months before I could finally place a hold on it at the library)

Splendid, LLF! Against the Vong the Borg would be in for one hell of a fight, considering I don't think they could assimilate any of their ships, and since the Dovin Basals are all biological in their technology... It would be interesting to say the least. I'm tempted to say that one super-basal, like the one that killed Chewbacca, would be enough to create a large enough black hole to, at the very least, heavily damage to Borg Cube. Now, then: Borg vs. Stargate's Replicators?

Yes... all of it. Very nice looking, Krytos. A little bit of work on the skull and it'll be perfect!