An Overdue Update

School has kept me extremely busy, so I've been neglecting things like my blogs. Well, my personal blogs for fun. I had to start a blog for a class, so that one has gotten all of my attention lately (you can check it out here if you're interested).

Besides school, I got a new laptop and Halo ODST in September. My old laptop has given me tons of problems over the years, like the battery dying (and if I hadn't removed it, the battery would have eventually killed the laptop). The newest problem was that a purple vertical line appeared down the left side of the screen. If you want to see what I'm talking about, check out this page. Apparently this was a common problem with the HP ZD8000 laptop. I decided that this was the last straw, so I went out and bought a new laptop. The new one is an Acer. It's a million times quieter and cooler than the ZD8000, and also a lot faster. I'm still getting used to the keyboard (it's not as sensitive as the ZD8000's was when it worked properly), but so far I'm liking it.

Halo ODST is another thing I'm liking. I preordered it in the summer, and was counting down the days until it was released. Luckily it didn't disappoint. I haven't been able to play as much as I'd like (school is keeping me very busy) but I'm enjoying it. The campaign is a bit off - it's not as bad as Halo 2, but not as good as Halo 1 and 3. But once you play through it, you unlock the entire New Mombasa Streets, which is a lot of fun to wander around in. And the multiplayer is fun too. You battle with up to three friends against waves of enemies, instead of gainst other players. It's really tough, but great fun.

I also went to see Streetlight Manifesto in Toronto back in September. They were amazing! You can check out the pics on flickr!

The one thing I'm sad about is my lack of time to write. I wrote a quick poem on Apocalypse Madness for last month's quote, but missed writing for the September quote. I got to post this month's quote, and I'm really hoping I'll have time to write a couple of stories for it. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak some writing time in during the end of next week when I should have a bit of time.

Chocolove

While shopping with a friend earlier this evening, I found this fantastic chocolate bar: Chocolove. The chocolate bar itself wasn't anything overly special: it's a bar of dark chocolate with 70% cocoa (which is my favourite). No, the selling point was that there is a love poem inside!

When I first saw this selling feature, I knew I had to get the chocolate bar just for the love poem; had know what it was. So as my friend and I were walking out of Homesense, which was where I found the chocolate bar, I tore into it, looking for the love poem. The poem was titled The Sleeping Beauty by Samuel Rogers, and it was printed on the inside of the wrapper. This wasn't the type of poem I was expecting to find in a chocolate bar. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but it wasn't really this. I might head back in a few days to buy another Chocolove, just to see if you end up with the same poem.

In case you can't read it in the picture, here's the poem:

The Sleeping Beauty

Sleep on, and dream of Heaven awhile -
Tho' shut so close thy laughing eyes,
Thy rosy lips still wear a smile
And move, and breathe delicious sighs!

Ah, now soft blushes tinge her cheeks
And mantle o'er her neck of snow:
Ah, now she murmurs, now she speaks
What most I wish - and fear to know!

She starts, she trembles, and she weeps!
Her fair hands folded on her breast:
-And now, how like a saint she sleeps!
A seraph in the realms of rest!

Sleep on secure! Above controul
Thy thoughts belong to Heaven and thee:
And may the secret of thy soul
Remain within its sanctuary!

-Samuel Rogers.