too much to do

I've come to the conclusion that I am far too busy these days. It's funny, really; back in high school, I used to think I was busy, and that I'd have more free time when I started college because I wouldn't be involved in as much. I was dead wrong there. In fact, I think I got myself involved in even more time consuming things during college than I did in high school. Because of this, I again made the foolish assumption that I would have more time to do things after college. After all, I would only have a job to concentrate on rather than school and work. Wrong again. Of course, most of the things I want to find time to do are pretty trivial and meaningless. Like finding more time to play Final Fantasy XI or Crystal Chronicles.


Ah, Crystal Chronicles...what a wonderful time sink. Although I don't imagine that it will take me that long to finish the single player mode. I sat down in about two hours and completed what was probably 15-20% of the game (and I thought I was taking my time at that). I'd really like to find someone else to play with so that I can try out the multiplayer mode. Of course, nobody I know (save one person) owns or has any interest in owning a Game Boy Advance. So I will probably be relegated to playing the single player mode.

On another note, I also picked up a copy of Lunar Legend for the GBA last weekend. I was completely shocked to find it at an electronics store in Nashville. I mean, I didn't even know this game existed, so it was quite a pleasant surprise. I'm a little at odds with the game though since they do change several key plot points. The sprites and in-game graphics are amazing, however, even rivaling some of the in-game graphics of Silver Star Story Complete. Lunar always has been one of my all-time favorite RPGs, so this was a must-have for me.

I'm still studying for the MCSD tests, hoping to take the first one sometime in the next few months. I'm working my way through a couple of books that I picked up a few weeks ago. So far, I haven't run across anything I didn't already know, so maybe this test won't be as difficult as I was led to believe at first. I just need to find some time to make it through the rest of these books.

Just today, I decided to start messing around with the Managed DirectX Framework for .NET. I've programmed a little in C++ using DirectX 7, so I was slightly familiar with the framework this go around, but I've still got a lot to learn. Hopefully I'll be able to find some good examples and tutorials around that I can use to familiarize myself more with how things are done under this system. I'd love to be able to write some games of my own, even if they'll never be commercial quality. I had a few small games and demos coded up in C++ that I might try to translate to C# given the time.

Tomorrow, we're heading up to Paducah to have a nice lunch and also to attend my uncle's wedding, so it will be good to get out of the house. We really need to clean up a little bit, so there's nothing like a good excuse to push that chore back a little longer. :)