President's day weekend came not a William Henry Harrison's term too soon. The terrible weather cancelled our camping trip and in a horrific twist of fate, I actually had to take the quantum mechanics midterm AGAIN. Apparently when everyone fails a test because there wasn't nearly enough time to complete it, the correct response is to force everyone to re-do the entire test over the period several days. It's almost like it should have been assigned that way in the first place...

But while it was a trying week, not all was bad. Sushi was delicious as usual and I got a new computer for a birthday/graduation present! I also got the desk pictured below, since desktops, by their very nature, require a surface upon which to rest.

The long president's day weekend was quite relaxing, and I spent a lot of it in that very chair playing through the Starcraft II campaign, which I found to be very enjoyable. I would say that the story was a bit weaker than that of the original (it could be the nostalgia factor though), but the interesting choices available to the player in terms of which units to upgrade and which research paths to pursue easily make up for it.  You are really able to customize the units and their abilities to fit your playstyle (for example, I focused on tanks, goliaths, and the other Terran mechanized units for the most part). These choices, combined with the multitude of achievements and difficultly options, make the replay value seem quite significant. Of course, most people play Starcraft for the player vs. player gameplay, which I will have to try out with some of my friends pretty soon.

So far this week has been spent on homework for the most part, but I did find some time to watch the hilariously over the top Kung Fu Hustle with some friends. The same director also made Shaolin Soccer, a movie we will also have to view before we play IM soccer next quarter (I think our team name might be Rube Goal-berg Machine).

On that note today's villain will be The Beast!

The world's number one killer in Kung Fu Hustle despite his rather unintimidating visage, the Beast was so devoted to the martial arts that it drove him insane. He was committed to a mental asylum which he decided not to break out of because there was no one in the outside would who could challenge his unstoppable Kung Fu prowess. In battle, the Beast relies mainly on his unmatched speed to defeat his opponents; his hands are actually able to move at a pace that allows him to stop bullets. Yet he is not above trickery and deceit, and when threatened he will utilize hidden weapons or worse deploy the dreaded Toad Technique of the Kwan Lon style!