Not mauled by land-sharks (pst~ new banner)

Contrary to popular belief.  I am not dead.  And, possibly more importantly, I haven't been mauled by land-sharks.  No matter how much you will it so.

Anyway, long time no see.  It's been... what?  11 days?  According to my memory it has, since my last post was the anniversary post.  In that time not too much has happened.  Things got even more hectic than before (is that even possible)?  As now I'm plagued by the ominous  presence of exams every waking moment, and it just makes me stop and wonder:  Why the hell am I doing all these exams?

For a sheet of shiny, colourful piece of paper?  A letter from the alphabet?  Or for numbers to contribute to this total that could affect if I go to university or not?

It's not just me though, for the last week or so, the whole nation has been gripped by exam fever.  SATs, GCSEs, you name it.  I'm just reluctant to believe the whole: "These are the most important exams of your life and will stay with you FOREVER!" after it's been used THREE F*CKING TIMES already on me.  First, Year 6 SATs, our teacher tells us that.  We work hard and we're all like: "Yay!  Good grades!"  Get to secondary school and we're told:  "Pft.  The SATs you did in Year 6 mean nothing!  Now do these SATs for Year 9!  It's just like the ones you have already done before BUT HARDER.  Oh, and did I add that these exams are the most important exams you will ever take?"  So, yet again, we're fooled into thinking that doing bad in this will ultimately mean you end up living in a dumpster, eating rats for a living (professional rat eater FTL).  After obtaining damn good grades in that (Daisy still bugs me about the bloody 8 she got in maths, damn woman) we're told:  "Screw the SATs!  Here come your GCSEs!  We decided to mix it up a little so it doesn't seem like your just doing slightly harder exams over and over again!  Oh and these are definitely the MOST IMPORTANTEST EXAMS THAT YOU WILL EVER EVER TAKE."

By now, we're all a bit skeptical about the whole educational system and life in general.  It's like older people deliberately throw exams in our faces just to see how we thrash about and flail our arms wildly because of all the pressure.  Maybe they derive pleasure watching us suffer, who knows what goes through the minds of the people who make the exams.  Oh, and while we're on the subject of the 'Exam makers' (what the hell are they called anyway?) I've got a question for them:  Why are your questions so awkward?!  Let me throw in a similar question that might show up on our exams:

Bill and Ackmed are in a field.  They notice a lighthouse 200 metres away.  From Ackmed's eye level of 1 metre of the floor, he calculates that the angle from his eye level looking up to the top of the light-house is 56 degrees.  Work out the height of the light-house.

Wait, what?  Apart from the obvious question of why the hell Bill and Ackmed aren't playing like normal children and are instead doing maths outside, not to mention how the hell they can perfectly pinpoint who far away the lighthouse is and work out the angle that they are looking at to see the lighthouse!  If they're so smart why don't they work out the height themselves?!  It's not like it'll be difficult to their super-genius brains.  You've also got to notice the inclusion of "Ackmed" in a blatant way to introduce an ethnic minority.  It's like the people who write these exams deliberately attempt to make the stupidest questions just for kicks.

Where was I now?  Oh yea, we finish our GCSEs (some with flying colours) the teaches are like:  "Oh good.  Yippee.  Now go to college."  And so repeats the never-ending vicious cycle of work, exam, repeat.  Don't think it you break out of this ruthless cycle when you go to work, since there will be exams there.  Only they will be cleverly disguised as obstacles and other things.  So, in the end most of us live in this monotonous world doing the same things over and over again.  Doomed to repeat ourselves.

Gee, the future looks bleak.

 

That being said, I have 7 bloody exams this week.  *sigh*  At least I can look forward to the Summer holidays which are tantalizingly close.  So close... yet so far away...

***

Anywayz, let me get out of miserable-emo-like-exam-hating mode.  In other news, I made my way through GTA IV and utterly loved it.  It's just that Liberty City feels so... so... ALIVE.  I'm continually awed by little touches Rockstar has put in for guys like me to notice (like the beating heart in the Statue of Happiness), and making it more realistic has really improved how this game immerses us into feeling part of that world.  It doesn't mean that the game is not fun anymore as it's too realistic, far from that actually.  It's not all realistic like, as I found that in GTA IV travelling quickly in a car and hitting something impossibly tiny and insignificant (like a traffic cone or the odd person) results in a jaw-dropping, eye-melting, five minute long saga of flips, rotations and explosions.  Well, what can I say?  It's a great way to show off the physics in the game.

The game just never fails to amaze me, while you're driving along there are people who have broke down on the side of the road and are fixing their engines.  Other people have hit each other and have decided to settle their quarrels in a contest of who-shouts-the-loudest.  Then there's also how you can turn off your radio and have a gander at what others are listening to.  And it's a perfect fit.  Gangster-types are listening to the rap radio station, while OAPs tend to like listening to Classical music.  And piloting helicopters without tails is always fun.

Oh and Rock Band comes out here on May 23rd apparently.  After some long discussion, I think we're getting it.  Hooray!  For quite the hefty price though.  £140 from PLAY.com (with both versions), and that's the cheapest I can find them.  Man, why is Europe rip-off central?  But you can't deny that the game looks fun, especially played in a group of people.  As the following picture shows:

Above.  How to look like fools when playing Rock Band.

I'll definitely tell you how awesome it is when I get it.

I think that about wraps things up... oh and Super Smash Brothers Brawl is coming out June 27rd!  Hooray!  FIN-FRICKINALLY.

EDIT#1:  New banner.  Hooray!  I decided to go for a simple design this time, clean and minimalist.  That and also because I'm short of time.  Enjoy.  Here's the banner for future reference: