October 14, 2013 by

A brief update as to what I've been up to recently.

I haven’t been on MyIGN that often recently. Part of the reason is college, of course. I told you guys in my previous personal blog that I started college six weeks early and that things would be back to normal once I settled into my new home at the University of California, Irvine. But apparently the real deal doesn’t happen until Fall Quarter, which began just a little under three weeks ago. Since then, things have been absolutely hectic for me, especially as a Freshman. So, as my apology for not being here as often, here’s a few updates as to what I’ve been up to.

Hall Bonding

I love my hall. There about 80 people living in the same building as me, and I’ve gotten very close to many of them. It’s definitely difficult to memorize that many names though, and even though I’ve tried my best to get to know every single one of them personally, it’s just impossible! Doesn’t matter though; this stuff takes time.

Of course, much of the time I spend in my hall is in my room with my two roommates. They’re pretty awesome people and are always open to conversation. We spent quite some time decorating our room the other day too, and after spending countless hours of planning and decorating (okay, more like one hour of haphazardly pinning things to the wall) we ended up with a pretty sweet setup. It still blows my mind how perfect everything is; perfect hall, perfect room, perfect roommates – in a world where everything seems to go wrong for me, I’m having a surprisingly good time.

Welcome to my crib!

Welcome to my crib!

Classes

Of course, the best part about college is classes! At least, I wish it was the best part. I’m currently taking three classes this quarter: Calculus 2 (at 8 in the morning – poor me!), Intro to Programming, and Computer Games and Society. In case you couldn’t tell by my classes, I’m majoring in Computer Science, which so far is working pretty well for me! Of course, waking up for 8 a.m. classes has its negatives, but at least it gives me more time afterward to do whatever I want!

Actually screw it. I hate 8 a.m. classes. No more of that for me ever thank you very much.

Setting a Guinness World Record

Part of UCI’s tradition every year is to set a new world record. The past two years were dodge ball fights, but this year we set a new world record for most people in a water pistol fight! If you want proof, click here! Yup, I along with 3874 other UCI Anteaters completely obliterated the previous record and now reigns supreme amongst the water pistol community! Such a thing exists, right?

I swear I'm in there somewhere...

I swear I'm in there somewhere...

Joining the Video Game Development Club

Joining clubs is important in college; not only does it give you other things to do other than classes, but they also give you exclusive access to things that you wouldn’t otherwise have. Being who I am, of course, I joined UCI’s Video Game Development Club.

My first experience with VGDC wasn’t so pleasant. Our first programming workshop involved creating a game of Pong within one hour; for the people in the room who didn’t have any experience coding in C# (which was about half of us), it was near impossible. Thankfully, they decided to open another workshop created specifically for beginners, and that was a much bigger success and enjoyable experience for me.

I also took part in their game design workshops as well, which involved a lot less math and a lot more abstraction. All in all, VGDC is something I’m enjoying very much and definitely a thing I want to be a part of in the future.

Writing for the College Newspaper

Obviously, since I love writing, I signed up to write for the New U, UCI’s official student-run newspaper. I’m not officially a staff writer just yet (I just started, after all), but I hope to work my way up and one day be part of the main editorial team. But for now, I just write a few articles here and there. I don’t think it will affect my blogging schedule significantly (I’m still able to blog at least once a week here on MyIGN), but in the case I do somehow drop off the face of the blogosphere – well, now you know. I hope that won’t ever happen though!

thebattlestrikerblog

Introducing my new project, The Battlestriker Blog!

Starting My Second Blog

Finally, one last thing. I’ve been working on my own separate project called “The Battlestriker Blog.” Basically, it’s my second Wordpress blog. Actually, calling it my “second” Wordpress blog would be a bit misleading, since the content on The Battlestriker Blog is basically the same as the content I post here, except with better formatting and organization (something MyIGN sorely lacks). But don’t worry, I won’t be leaving MyIGN. In fact, MyIGN will continue to be my main blog. However, if you only want to see my more formal posts like my opinion pieces or features, then The Battlestriker Blog is the place to be. Otherwise, stay here! It's still a work in progress though, but either way I’d appreciate it if you guys at least gave it a click. The link to my second blog is here.

But yeah, that’s all I have for you guys today. Sorry for not being active here all of the sudden, but life is full of crazy twists and turns and you just don’t know where it will take you! I’ll continue to blog here as frequently as I used to (at least I hope), but if you see me disappear for longer periods of time… well now you know.

Thanks for being awesome followers and readers! Keep on keeping it cool.

~Bryce (Yes, I’m using my real name for my personal blogs now. Feel personal enough?)

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