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As you may have gathered from my last post, I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the computer game Far Cry 2. Now it’s out! Here’s a little gallery I created, documenting some hunting I did in the game.

Rise up at the crack of dawn, the wild buffalo are grazing:

Got one in my sights:

Ooh! A zebra too!

Got one! The family will eat tonight:

Something makes me want to say ‘You killed 1346 lbs of meat but were able to carry only 200 lbs back to the wagon.’ Anyway, the game is pretty amazing. The graphics are just stunning, these small screenshots do not do it justice. Unfortunately, hunting is not an official part of the game and there is nothing to do with animals once you kill them. Ah well.

I’m still here. So is school. New, however are the rather striking colors up in the trees. And it’s dark outside when I get up for my 8:00 AM class. Walmart has had halloween candy on the shelves for a solid 3 weeks now. Without a doubt, autumn is here.

Today I took the motorcycle out for a nice little joyride. It’s been a long time since I took it out for pleasure, most of the time lately I just take it to class. I like to motorcycle to class because 1) Parking is very close 2) It’s quick 3) It’s cheap. Today I took it out along the portage canal toward McLain state park, and then turned north along the lake to the Calumet Waterworks park (map). I’ve never been there before, and it was nice. Walked along the beach for a good while. There’s a lot of older/smaller houses right there on the Lake Superior shore of the type I wouldn’t mind living in.

Autumn colors are nearing the end of their peak time right now too. This means my ride was accompnied by trees full of brilliant red, orange and yellow. Autumn is a great time of year. I love the crispness in the air. For a good amount of Autumn it seems like the weather is calm, and I very much get a sense of ‘calm before the storm.’ Winter in Houghton could definitely be likened to a storm. Anyway, things were very peaceful and scenic at the lake today.

P.S. 8 more days till Far Cry 2!

Well, school is here. With it homework and all those sorts of things. Monday marked the beginning of week 3 already! Things are pretty much into full swing and I have homework assigned in all my classes. Classes are going quite well thus far. I find all of them to be interesting and they are moving at a reasonable pace…hopefully those facts will remain unchanged through finals week 🙂

Not too much has been going on for me aside of the ordinary. I did go out and buy a crock pot recently. Our apartment already had one but man that thing is huge! I’m thinking the one we had was a gallon and a half or maybe even larger. I was able to find an appropriately sized one (2 quarts) at Walmart for the low low price of $10. I had been initially searching around the second hand stores, but $10 for a new one is pretty unbeatable. Thus far I’ve made a couple of different stews and a batch of scalloped potatoes. I like it quite a bit — crock pot cooking is relatively simple, cost effective and healthy.

About a half an hour ago I was hard at work solving the problem pictured above for my circuits class. I saw the diagram in the book and just sighed…the problem seems to be rather pointlessly complicated. I understand the importance of learning the basics, but this just seems silly. Talking with friends of mine I find that one noticeable difference between engineering (math, physics, etc) classes and those in other programs is that all of our problems deal with real world situations and reasonable numbers. They all have appropriate units. The problem posted above is an obvious exception…and an annoying one.