I stayed off the pretty good for someone who is horribly addicted to the internet. Unfortunatley, things got even busier after that post (Novemeber is always the worst time of the semester) and I had to quite working on Nonamegamers.com which I'm sure my future fellow No-name Gamers were dissapointed about (Liquid Sky, Atari Jess, and Sigma), but it could not be helped. My faith and school come before all else. The last few days before break I had a total of three hours of sleep as I had to do a 15 page project, two five page papers, and an exam...in two days! I love school, I love learning, always have, I just hate the darn extra work that goes with it. I would be more than happy going to class and listening to engaging lectures if I didn't have to worry about jotting down all the notes and preparing papers (though I do love writing about the stuff that really interests me) and exams. I don't think I ever mentioned it but I got a job near my school at a grocery store...its a half hour away which sucks the gas but I make enough to cover it and have plenty of spare cash...however I HATE working there, I went from working at a small store to a very large one that's heavily monitored and I have to work with other stockboys who are generally somewhere in between a jellyfish and pigeon as far as intelligence goes...yes it is a proven fact that pigeons are indeed more intelligent than our friend the jellyfish (okay I didn't research that..but come on, it has to be true). Oh yea, and this store has actual night managers and the one I work with the most is a complete rude punk who thinks there's only one way to do things and is totally in your face when you don't do it exactly how he would do it. I have, however, found peace in my alone time and when I work with junior highers on Wednesday nights. The group I had last year were absolute terrors, but the kids this year are more my pace...and I am VERY grateful for that. They have strengthened my will to do ministry as they are proving I can actually do it, whereas last year I was getting very discouraged about it. I'm taking a class about teaching and it is making me much more comfortable getting in front of a class and teaching people, which I hope to be doing a lot of in the church and outside of the church, I had to "team" teach, which I thought I would hate since I hate doing group work...but it was a lot of fun and we each basically took turns doing our own thing. We talked about disciplines and how people train themselves to become strong in something and related it to how Christians need to train themselves in spiritual disciplines to become stronger in their faith. One fellow student talked about how he has trained for years in martial arts to get his black belt, the other is a soccer player and talked about the work that goes into being good at that, and what did I bring to the table? Gaming. Heck yes, I wore one of my Pac-Man shirts, brought an Atari Joystick and NES controller to class and talked about how I got good at gaming by playing the classics over the years. It was good fun and everyone really appreciated the disciplines we mentioned, even my more lighthearted one. I havn't had much time for gaming either but I made sure to pick up Mario Kart for the DS and I've been playing it at least once a day since I've got it. It was great to have around for study breaks these past few days...just hopping online and playing a few rounds with some talented strangers online. It makes me think of the ridiculously fun prospects of playing Animal Crossing online with strangers and friends...I can't wait to visit some fellow AA'ers towns. But all in all, I'm glad to be back here over turkey break and I plan on continuing my regular posting from here on out. I hope you guys noticed I was gone and hope that my return here will be all good and people won't be too saddened that I'm back!