It gives you wiiings!

I just realized that I am officially a university student. Not in the sense that I moved seven hours away from home, not in the sense that my rent and tuition drained my savings, not even in the sense that I go to classes and sometimes spend it daydreaming more than actually working. I think the moment I passed my own type of “initiation” that actually makes me a real university student was an evening two weeks ago when I went to an Avril Lavigne concert with my roommate/best friend Mathew.

 

But Avril has gone from this...

...to this.

After attempting to get my obscene homework stack completed before the concert and failing miserably, I figured I could just stop stressing, stay up late for a night and get it all done. After taking the bus to the concert, getting decked out in concert clothes and singing, dancing and screaming the entire night, it was time to head home and assault my workload. I had a friend who was in most of the same classes as me pop over so I would have some company working. Needless to say, we got a little distracted. A couple packs of noodles, a couple of hours of staring at math problems, and a LOT of caffeine later, I realized that I was like a real university student, at least in the stereotypical way. I was up until 5 working, then up again at 9 to finish it all off. Red Bull did not give me any wings that day.

I had a slightly different experience with my learning project this week. I spent an evening playing my game with a friend. Playing with a person is different than playing with an AI because as you learn, so does your opponent. Because of this, learning a new tricky attack or maneuver is not enough to beat a human opponent. When I was spending my time fighting against the AI, I could just practice until I won. Against a person, sometimes he learns faster than I do, so I continue to lose. But this actually causes me to learn faster. The AI has a somewhat predictable reaction time and variety of attacks based on the difficulty level, but a person’s style of play changes around frequently and without warning. I found this significantly more challenging than playing against a machine.

I played around with a variety of characters. With my old favorites Mr. Game and Watch and Toon Link, I had quite a few victories. But that is far too simple for this learning project. I tried out a few characters I was meaning to practice with: Zelda (I lost), Ice Climbers (I lost again) and Snake (my character was essentially the equivalent of a kite in a tornado). But my losses were getting closer and closer by the end of the night. I should spend more time playing against friends to gain more information during my play time.

Picture Bibliography:

– (2008) “Free Wallpapers” GT Wallpaper

http://en.gtwallpaper.com/avril-lavigne.html

(October 26, 2011)

– (March 24, 2011) “Avril Lavigne Talks Marriage Again” Hollywood on Crack

http://hollywoodoncrack.net/category/avril-lavigne/

(October 26, 2011)

– (October 25, 2011) “Adult Sleep Apnea” The Dallas Center for Sleep Disorders

http://www.dallas-sleep.com/adult-sleep-apnea.php

(October 26, 2011)