School is now in full swing. I do not anticipate this being a difficult quarter; it will also not be a particularly exciting quarter. But the class on words is interesting enough, and quite different from anything I've done previously in the literature department. I will be happy when this quarter is through, however, mostly due to the awful schedule I have to keep, which I have complained about enough and will try not to mention again.

Having so much time at school to study, I have been able to play a fair amount of Final Fantasy X-2. It is a good game, I'm enjoying it. But it seems rather easy, once you get the hang of the new battle system. The mission system is interesting; I'm not sure if I like it or not, but I do like the fact that there are lots of side-quests, and the game makes it relatively easy to find them. Some might say too easy, but I prefer that to Final Fantasy X, where it seems that, without using a strategy guide to find all the sidequests, you end up missing out on a lot. I try to use the on-line walkthroughs as little as possible, and as such feel like I missed a lot in FFX. I suppose it adds to the replay value, but I don't find it fun to read what to do on-line and then follow instructions.

I went to Cecily's on Saturday to use her CD Burner. Met her husband. Turns out they already got married. I was under the impression that the wedding was some months away, and was planning on attending. They still might go through with that, as their wedding was a rather minor affair. Slightly miffed at not being told earlier, mainly because a friend was down for Christmas and asked if I heard about Cecily getting married, and I explained to him, no, she's not married, yet. So I look like an idiot, and he already knew, and he doesn't even know Cecily directly (a friend of his was apparently the "minister"). But no big whoop. It was nice to get to meet the fellow. Nice enough guy, likes Sanford and Son, which is one of those nice things to know about someone, because it makes you like them more, yet you can still make fun of them for it. Bit of a pothead, I think. But we're none of us perfect.

The premiere episode of The Surreal Life II was on last night. I have expressed my fondness for Tammy Faye on this site before, and have the pictures to back it up. So, I was excited to see the first episode. For those who don't know, Tammy Faye will be spending a week or so living in a house with Vanilla Ice, Erik Estrada, Ron Jeremy, some girl from The Real World: Las Vegas, and Tracy Bingham (Baywatch). The first episode was okay, though the presence of the Real World chick was annoying. She reminds me of Counselor Troy on Star Trek: The Next Generation, in her incessant need to make observations that are painfully obvious to everyone. Tracy Bingham is a primadonna, Tammy Faye is religious, Ron Jeremy is a pervert. It's especially annoying since she is the one person on the show whom I'm quite sure no one at all cares about. Tammy Faye comported herself nicely, I thought, and actually seemed to get along fairly well with Ron Jeremy. Vanilla Ice seems to be the powder keg on the show; apparently his anger issues have not subsided since his notorious trashing of an MTV set some years back. The previews seem to strongly suggest he makes Tammy Faye cry, which, while admittedly not difficult to do, is not nice. I never watched the first season of the show, which is unfortunate, because I hear it was pretty sweet. I don't think this edition will be that noteworthy, but I will be watching.

Watching Adult Swim last night, they showed the first episode of Sealab 2021 without Capt. Murphy (Harry Goz, the voice of Captain Murphy, died a few months back). I can't say I enjoyed the replacement character, whose name escapes me (some sort of sadistic football coach), but I must reluctantly admit they were right not to replace Goz with another character doing the same character. Last week's episode had Capt. Murphy briefly voiced by another actor, and it was off-putting. Interestingly, the voice of the new character is Harry Goz's son.