For five days, it seemed everything and anything that could have been due indeed was. For that reason I had close to a week where I had a piddling amount of sleep just trying to get everything finished.

At least that's over. All I'm waiting for nowadays is finals week. I got three exams to finish---one of them at a particularly LATE hour.

So far the term's shaped up to be a pretty nice one in terms of grades. I sucked early on with two of my must-not-flunk subjects (MARKCU1 and QUATECH) but I think I've more than made up my initial sluggish start. QUATECH in particular had me scoring 95% and above over three quizzes---that's enough to cancel out my humiliatingly low early quiz scores.
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My colds and sinusitis haven't gone away though. They've simply become more persistent. To top that off I seem to have a knack for getting only 6 hours of sleep maximum, for some weird reason. I need more sleep.
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I've become reacquainted with a couple of games that have been sitting on my computer for too long.

SimCity 3000 is actually pretty fun. It's a huge challenge to balance expenses and income while giving Sims what they want and making my cities productive and healthy.

Starcraft in the meantime is one game I previously played only with full cheats activated. Now that I've started over with zero cheats (well, apart from the "black sheep wall" code), I see the huge challenge it poses.

Both games are fabulous ways of wasting time.
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I've turned into quite the Gundam fanatic lately.

It all started 9 weeks ago with the TV premiere of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed. Because of watching Mobile Suit Gundam Wing from before, having been put off by its ridiculous dialogue and confusing story, I had my own doubts about Seed. I'm glad to say Seed is a lot better. The characters are no longer simply invincible "poster boys" (or bishounen for the hardcore otaku out there) pretending to have human problems, as in Wing; in Seed they are human, fallible and susceptible. That basically makes all the difference.

This week sees Seed finishing its first season. 5 episodes to go. I can't wait to watch the second season, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Destiny.

Then last week came the 25th anniversary edition of the original series that started it all in 1979: Mobile Suit Gundam. Plot-wise, Seed seems to have taken a lot of its elements from this classic---no complaints there as it works really well both ways. Gundam's animation is a bit iffy and dated (but what can one expect from something done in 1979?), and the music is a bit laughable at parts, but it's also still quite interesting.

I wonder which other Gundam series have that mix of splendid animation and well-integrated plot? They'll be worth spending money on.
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I miss Cher. Badly.

Ever since she went back to Leyte, it seems she's never sent me any text messages or answered any of my calls. I've become more than a bit worried. I shudder to think of what might have happened to her. I do pray she's all right. :(