Dishonored Redemption

Finally, a fresh title to sink my teeth into. I am speaking of Dishonored of course, a game that I finally had a chance to clear in the past month or so. I had been waiting for Dishonored for a long time, and basically bought it when it first came out and managed to play it while I was in my dorm room in Urbino. Unfortunately though, while I was Italy, I discovered that it was the game that pushed my laptop over the edge and would make it overheat. So I finally managed to sink my teeth into it when I got back and managed to get a cooling mat for it. After the first couple chapters I put the game down, as I do with many of my games, and switched to a different one to see how that one suited my fancy for a while. However, in the past month, I made a pact with myself to clear all of my games that I have that I never really cleared (at least the ones with clear endings). So now I only keep five games on my laptop at any time, four games that I dive into, and one for casual play. Thus, Dishonored was reinstalled, and completed finally. WARNING: SPOILERS.

First off, I would like to comment on the beautiful environment that was created in this new world. The city of Dunwall came to life with the distinct architecture though out the entire city, the citizens that had motives, character, depth, and the way that The Outsider spoke to me. The world is huge, allowing you to take multiple paths to the same goal, making it so if I couldn’t sneak past a guard and into the lighthouse, I could scale another building and blink between roofs, and hide in dumpsters to get there. Now, I ran a “no kill” run for my first play through for a few reasons: one, my friend who had seen the game seemed skeptical of an assassin game that could be cleared without killing a soul, two, I wanted the challenge of being the city’s crusader, and three, I read some of the repercussions of killing people and decided to leave that to my “kill everyone” play through.

Going through the game, I noticed that the atmosphere stayed relatively constant: you have a person to murder or not, and you are wanted for killing the empress so you’ll be killed on site. Things were dark and grimy, just the way you’d expect a city in downfall would be. The game doesn’t get too dark though, you never have to murder your sainted mother or anything, for the most part, you are just killing people who are either A, evil or B, part of the evil machine. The environment does all of the work, and a couple of characters add to it, like Granny Rags and The Outsider.

The mechanics work like a dream, never really breaking stride in the game, allowing you to seamlessly blink across a roof, possess a rat, sneak into the building, hit a guard with a sleep dart, steal a safe code, and make it out through the fourth floor window. However, that sequence happened about the six time that I tried the mission. I give the game points for definitely being challenging when trying not to kill people. However, now that I have tried playing by killing everyone that I see, I have found the game much easier to get through. Now, that same sequence goes more like this: kill the front guard, take his key, kill the guard guarding the safe code, and walk out like a boss.

I’ve also started to experience the difference in high and low chaos now that I have started my “kill everyone” run. Playing the first assassination mission showed more rat swarms to start off with, which I know is just the beginning of the mayhem that is going to ensue. Overall, I give the game a high rating, and I’m waiting for the Knife of Dunwall DLC(s) that will be coming out (though depending on price, I may not get them, we will see).

Whatever the risk, still onward.

-The Architect

Journey of the Exile – Week 2

I had my first classes today, starting with my history and theory class for architecture. It was a fairly standard class, sit there, listen, and maybe talk about the material we had read the day before. The material was pretty interesting because we read older texts concerning architecture and the patterns and forms in it. On the readings focused on the idea of modules and construction of the orders, which was pretty interesting because it went into the stories behind why the orders were the way they were. After class we met up with Emily, one of the other American students who are studying here, and had lunch in the cafeteria. We mainly discussed the current green movement in Italy and why it came about here the way it has. We basically concluded that it came about due to the limited resources here and was out of necessity rather than desire to actually do it. After lunch we met up in the city to start our first studio project, an analysis of the orders using one of the buildings in town as an example of what the usual ideas behind them are and how they can change while still falling within the norms of the order. We were given a building that used the Doric order except that it didn’t have a base for its column. The building itself is actually not the detailed, and we were divided into groups so we could further divide up the drawings, making it so each of us only has to do one drawing and then trace the others from our group members. After we finished our analysis I hit up the grocery store as it opened and picked up a bottle of Disaronno and some snacks for the studio. The evening descended into working in the studio for a while and then a night of rough sleep on my bed.

We had our first watercolor class today outside of the studio. We did a fairly rigid wash on a transfer drawing we did the day before of a painting that a famous artist I had never heard of had painted. By the end of class I had a sunburn and kind of shitty piece of artwork to show for my three hours of class time. After we finished our class work we all went into town to look at our buildings for our studio projects and make sure that we had all of the details and measurements that we needed. Once we finished our analysis of the buildings we all seemed to go to the art store at the same time to go and look around, something I do not recommend people do if they ever come over here because I think they get mad when all of us go in and look around and then leave with nothing. We were trying to figure out the paper situation, but that didn’t get resolved so we’ll have to do that tomorrow or something. We went back to the studio after we had dinner and worked on our studio projects, I pretty much finished mine because our building isn’t that complicated in plan view, though the rest of the drawings are more detailed. While working on my drawing I opened up a bottle of wine and had some for the rest of the night. By the end of the night, I had basically had the entire bottle, so while working on my summaries I had to make very certain of what I was typing and how it related back to my work. I wasn’t drunk, just kind of tipsy by the time I left to go to bed for the evening. It was a pretty good day, a part from the sunburn.

We had an interesting discussion of previous projects in the history and theory class today, and I actually talked during this class, unlike the first one, so go me. After class we all went into town to figure out the paper situation and to actually get what we need so people can shut up about having the wrong things or using the wrong paper. Best part of the day though was while I was in the art store because I actually went ahead and bought my fountain pen that I wanted. It came with blue ink so I’ve been practicing with it and see what it is actually like to use one and to get used to the color. While we were in town we had lunch at a local place, at which we all got kebabs with picante sauce, which was just amazing. As we were walking out of town we also picked up a couple of lemon pastry things that were again, delicious. Before heading back to the studio, I went back to my dorm room to use the bathroom, and while there the maids knocked on my door and wanted to clean the room and change my sheets. Well I couldn’t exactly have a conversation with them saying to come back later, so I just told them not thank you. They left after that, which leaves me with the same sheets that I’ve had since I got here, which isn’t bad, but it would be nice to have some clean ones now. After all of our food we hit the studio hard and plowed through our drawings again, only to find that some of the measurements we took were wrong, so we had to go back into the city and take new measurements of the building which was time consuming and annoying. Annoying mainly because Cecilia kept saying “I told you” and “should have done it the way I said” and other crap that was just annoying. The main measurement that was wrong for the building was the repetitive brick pattern measurement we did. We measured one brick and thought that all the bricks were uniform and thus made the pattern easy to measure. Well, it turns out that the bricks are different sizes, but the overall pattern is uniform. It was just really annoying because she kept thinking that she knew what she was talking about, but she really didn’t when it came to the measurements, because even if we had measured one of the other bricks we still would have drawn it wrong because of the irregularity in the bricks. So that just got annoying, but the redo of the drawing was easy for me since I still had the plan view. The rest of the day was pretty normal, just some studio time and internet for the most part, I practiced with my new fountain pen some and updated my Tumblrs. We are meeting up in the morning tomorrow to finish our drawings and start the transfers so we can have a three day weekend and enjoy ourselves some more while we’re here, probably hitting the town some and go grape picking at a winery or something.

Well we all made it into the studio around 9:30am to get to work on our projects, only to have a few hours pass and all of us decide that we didn’t want to have class today and instead have studio on the right day. So Camelo called up John and told him about what we had all decided on, and then we all kind of relaxed for a bit and took things more slowly so we could enjoy our day. It was raining most of the day so we ended up not going out, which was kind of a bummer because I had wanted to see what all of the hype was about for Thursday nights here. We also went to the store today to pick up some snacks and to get some more wine (at least that was the main reason I went) and other liqueurs, but since it was raining, the dirt path we usually take to get to the store close by had turned into a mudslide. We all ended up with some form of mud stuck to our shoes and pants by the time we actually made it back to the studio. So instead we all ended up drinking some wine and watching movies and TV shows together. After that we all were tired and just kind of went off to bed. I’ve been keeping myself busy with Tumblr, drawing, and hanging out with everyone here, which I think has been good for the part. Whenever people go out to do or get anything, I go with them, which has been nice for the most part, but I’m kind of hoping that nothing actually happens this weekend so I can just kind of relax for a bit and maybe just explore town and eat some good food there. The first two weeks here have been really jam packed with things to do and see and eat, and I kind of want to keep looking through the town for all of the little food stores and shops. I also found a hat store in town! A legitimate store that sold only hats and things relating to hats. It looks really cool, and they have a bowler hat!!

We all met up in the studio early Friday so we could keep working on our drawings and readings, until John showed up for class and we all started to do our ink washes. They went well for the most part, but we all really didn’t enjoy defacing our wonderful drawings with our subpar watercolor skills. Afterwards we all went to dinner and then went back to the studio and watched movies. And when I say we in this case, I mean everyone but me. I just didn’t feel like sitting around watching a movie, so instead I stayed in the other room doing my usual things, drinking wine and cruising the internet for interesting things. After a while I went back to my room and just kind of relaxed before going to sleep for the night.

Today we explored the town of Urbino and the markets that were going on to see if we could find anything really cool or interesting to get. While exploring some of the guys got scarves for their girlfriends, which I tend to avoid all conversation about or leaning towards out of the fact that I still don’t enjoy other people being happy yet. I’m getting better on the whole being alone thing though, still not past that undeniable fear of truly being alone, but still making progress. Back to the city though! We went around the walls of the city and ended up outside the walls a couple times, which confused us because we had been on top of the walls the whole time, but we got some great photos and had a really good time. We also encountered this old woman who we think was trying to tell us she was a professor of Italian and English at the university, which we didn’t really buy because she never said a word of English to us. We went to get kebabs again at the place we went before, and then got some gelato to help finish off our lunch. The we all made it back to the studio again to keep working on our summaries for Monday and generally try to get some actual work done.

Today was a very special day, we went out with Eugenia and Mirko around the Marche region of Italy and see all of the sights that we could for a day. We went to the coast and looked at the water and the cities along there and got lunch at a great bar that over looked the water from a cliff side. After lunch we explored a castle for a while, but only Mirko yelled at the ticket lady for not letting us in for free because we were architecture students. She wouldn’t do it because it didn’t say architecture on our student IDs, which we all thought was stupid, I mean who goes up to you and says (translated correctly) “We are students of architecture and would like admission”? It was really annoying. So after we explored the castle we went and looked at some birds and actually practiced some Falconry! I asked Eugenia if I could after Camelo had asked, I’m getting better about this trying things and being more open-minded I think. Once we finished with the Falconry we all went back to Urbino to keep working on our summaries. While driving around the country though, I got to experience Mirko’s driving and how people drive in Italy in general. It was really cool, and I would like to correct what I tell people about why I don’t like having other people drive. I don’t like riding with bad drivers. Mirko knew what he was doing and knew exactly what his car could do, it was actually pretty relaxing, he turned on the radio and we all just talked about what we saw and what we thought. The rest of the day was devoted to summaries and killing zombies to chill before leaving the studio to sleep and indulge my internet needs.

Whatever the risk, still onward.

-The Exile

Journey of the Exile – Week 1

It has begun, my journey has started. It began when I first started with the plane rides with my professor over to Rome where we met up with the rest of the students. When we first got there we had to wait for another plane to come in with them on it, so John (my professor, he asked us to call him John) and I went and had a cappuccino at the bar (bars are different here). It was the most glorious thing I have ever tasted, the milk was steamed properly, and the coffee was just beautiful. They really do have a totally different culture here when it comes to coffee, I have been experiencing it every day since I got here. After a while the plane came in and we all grouped together to get our train ticket to go to the bus depot where we would then catch the four hour bus to Urbino. During the trip I told the story of my relationship to Cecilia and we had a nice conversation about what laid before everyone and how it was going to help and change us all. Once we made it to Urbino, we went to the university where we got dinner and our dorm rooms. The room is alright, it has the essentials: bed, desk, chair, shower, and toilet. We all ended up in the studio after everything so we could all use the internet and contact our loved ones and family. Well part way through Camelo plugged something in wrong and basically blew up the internet. I’m not kidding, there was a loud pop when he plugged it in and it just killed the whole socket he tried and the internet, all in one go. So after that we all started to fade and drift off back to our rooms to sleep for the night.

The next day consisted of a lot of tours around the actual city of Urbino, guided by John and Eugenia (one of the providers) and her husband Mirko. This introduced us to the hill we would be going up and down most of the time we wanted to do anything in town. It is a steep, slick hill that does not lend itself to high heels, and gets really annoying after the first billion times you have to go up it. We looked at the art store in town first so we would know where we could get supplies and stuff for our classes to come. They took us around the city to see what all there was to do and what the city had to offer us. For lunch they took us out to a local restaurant where they served wine and pasta and just so many amazing dishes for us to enjoy while we talked amongst ourselves. After dinner we continued touring the city and finding out so much about it and seeing all of the different amazing buildings that the Duke was a part of. Once we finished our tours and everything, we were left to our own devices. We ended up having gelato in the main piazza, which is just beautiful might I add. The day ended with us having dinner together in the cafeteria and going to the studio to once again mess with the internet. It’s interesting to see how much we all depend on it, and it is a little depressing that we depend on it so much now.

The next day we went on more tours (we were starting to get tired of tours at this point, and because our feet hurt so much) of the city except with a woman who may be giving us Italian lessons later on so that we can better understand and talk to people. We took a break in one of the bars to have a cappuccino, though I had an espresso to help keep me going. There was a woman working in the bar who wanted to practice her English and basically told us about when people go out in the city, which is Thursday here, and how they would love to see us there again.

Well we actually went out on Friday because we had been too tired the previous day. This was my first time actually going out and drinking socially with friends, and to go out with drinking at all with people, so it was an interesting experience. We started off at the bar in which we encountered the woman who told us about going out during the week. I started with a nice glass of scotch, but after that we had what they told us was “Tequila Boom Boom”. This was basically just a bit of a mix of tequila with something else to lessen the strength. It was also my first time doing tequila shots, but it went well for the most part. Once we finished up at that bar went looking around for another and ended up in one that was just across the piazza. I tried to order a scotch and soda, but they just couldn’t get and I couldn’t help them, so I caved and just got a gin and tonic. After a bit I started to loosen up and talk more to people about things that I was thinking and feeling. I ended up telling Sofia that I wouldn’t mind getting to know Britta more, but that I figured I didn’t have a chance for two reasons: one being that she was twenty-seven, and two being because she was vibing up another guy in the group. Once the night was basically over we started to head back to the dorms, but on the way there I just instantly sobered up and became really self-conscious about everything I had said and done while out with everyone. So I hung back for a bit and then just walked at the end of the group not saying much until we reached the dorms.

Now we come to the weekend! John took us to Pesaro and basically just stuck around long enough to show us the beach and how to get on the train if we needed to or wanted to so we could travel. After that he helped us figure out hotels so we could get that taken care of before we went off to the beach. So once John parted ways with us we all grabbed a bite to each at a local café, this time it was a café, though it did seem pretty close to a bar. We had an amazing meal there of some sort of penino or something, which had uncooked ham, cheese, and tomatoes on it. Afterwards we walked along the beach until we found the free section of it and set up camp for the day and play in the water. It was so beautiful there and so much fun. The water was perfect, the sand felt amazing, and everyone was having a blast. There were parts, though, where I just kind of sat and thought about life and where I was going and where I had been. I was a lot quieter than I had been the previous night because I was still self-conscious about it all. I decided to stay the night with a few people that were staying, which was an alright choice. The next day we went shopping in the market they set up each weekend in towns to sell things. Here markets are different, they sell EVERYTHING, from socks, to vacuums, to cars. We wandered around while a couple of people went to the beach. We ended up not getting much of anything, though I did get the most amazing donut thing ever created by human beings, it had a lemon taste to it and was covered in sugar. It was so delicious. After a while Sofia, Cecilia and I headed back to the bus depot to grab a bus back to Urbino so we could relax, have lunch, and start on our homework for the first day of class (which confuses me, but whatever). The end day descended into my usual indulgences, a warm shower, and dinner with everyone in the cafeteria. I finished up my summary homework right after dinner, and rewarded myself with some well-deserved internet time.

Whatever the risk, still onward.

-The Exile

40 Days: Body and Mind – Day 40 – Journey of The Exile

By the time this post is posted I will be in Italy, but not only that, I will have been there for a day already. If you hadn’t noticed it yet, all of the posts were posted two days after they actually happened. This post is mainly to explain my final feelings before actually leaving the country. With this journey ahead of me, I will be taking the role of The Exile so that I may better understand not only architecture, but the world as a whole. The person separated from everything and can see things from an unbiased point of view.

The journey will take me from the shell that I am now, to the full being I will become at journey’s end. I will explore myself as an individual in a new world, myself with respect to other people, other people in respect to me, and to explore everything else that comes to mind. I will be making new friends while I am abroad and creating new bonds. Hopefully through everything that I will experience I will grow to be the person I want and need to be for the future, because I think I’m going back to karma, fate, and maybe a little luck for what happens to me.

To everyone who has been with me through all of this, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and hope you will stay by me because I have a feeling the future has a few twists and turns left for me.

Whatever the risk, still onward.

-The Exile

40 Days: Body and Mind – Day 38

Again I avoided packing and instead indulge my Batman addiction with a marathon of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Under the Red Hood. So with my marathon of movies came good coffee and getting media files ready for Italy. Besides that I organized a last IHOP trip with guys for when I finish dinner with family I could see them one last time.

After dinner with my parents we watched the new Doctor Who before I went out to meet my friends at IHOP. It was a good IHOP trip, had some good conversations with the guys and shared some good stories before we all had to go our separate ways. It was kind of a sad moment getting back into my car and driving off because the next day I would leaving and starting the next big journey in my life. After all of this and everything I’ve been through emotionally and everything I’ve pushed myself to do physically, I think I’m ready for a real fresh start when I get over there. Though having that woman in red would be a nice to have in this new fresh start, but we’ll see what I can manage with things.

Whatever the risk, still onward.

-The Architect

40 Days: Body and Mind – Day 37

My dad and I went out and bought me a suitcase for my trip because we found out that the other one I was going to take was broken. So we hit the luggage and leather store and picked me up a good sized suit case.

After that I watched TV for a while and avoided packing for Italy. I’m really excited for it all, but I’m also really nervous about it as well. I’m excited for all of the new experiences, and people, and projects, and sights, and sounds and just so much more. But I’m also so nervous about everything I will be doing, will it be good enough, will I piss people off, will I survive, will I make new friends, will I further other relations? I’m worried about my trip to France at the end. That part really scares me because I’ll be by myself for the whole thing, which again makes me scared and have to look at my being alone issues.

Finally managed to start packing and figuring out what all is going where though which was good. My room is a mess again because of this though. I wonder if I’ll ever have a clean room for longer than two days.

Whatever the risk, still onward.

-The Architect

40 Days: Body and Mind – Day 36

So I had a really vivid dream last night, and it was a really good dream to boot. So for some reason I was wearing a tailored pinstripe suit and observing something with a group of people, I don’t know what, but I like to believe that it was some sort of demonstration or presentation concerning a well-articulated model. Then, for some reason the view is no longer mine, but instead like a camera on this set of spiral stairs going up to the second floor where I am. Going up the stairs is the red headed woman, wearing a very attractive red dress. Everything about her seems old fashioned, from her hair to how she walks for some reason. She gets to the top of the stairs and comes up to the part of the group that I’m standing in and she slowly breathes on my neck, showing off her red lipstick. It sent chills down my spine and as I turned around in my dream, I woke up. For a while after that I would still get chills when I thought about that moment in the dream. It was so intoxicating that I can barely think of things besides this woman in red. Who is she? What was she doing there? Why did she do that? Why me? How do I get into my dreams and meet this woman?!?

Besides the amazing dream, I went to the doctor today and had my usual “wait for an hour past my appointment time for a two minute appointment and then have nothing change” situation of frustration. After that I went back home and took a nap before going through all of my stuff for school and getting my packing ready.

Okay, seriously, how do I meet this woman? I can’t even make it through this damn post without thinking of her. It’s not even trying to fantasize about her, it’s just what happened in the dream.

Whatever the risk, still onward.

-The Architect

40 Days: Body and Mind – Day 35

Wednesday didn’t start off well because I kept on waking up in the middle of the night. I finally just gave up and showered and checked out earlier than I had really planned to. So I hit up the downtown campus and checked out the new Starbucks that we have down there. It’s not bad, but there are going to be traffic issues for where they placed it. After that I killed some time by questioning fiscal services about an email saying I owed money, but that I seemed to have a credit on my account instead. It turned out alright. It was finally time for my meeting.

The meeting went well, covered all of the things that needed to be covered again. Talked to the two girls that I know that are going. Brit asked how I was doing since she saw my relationship change. Sophia asked how my ex was doing, so I had to inform her of the change. After that we talked about all of the things we would do in Italy and how excited we were for it.

The meeting finished around noon, so I sat down with Erin again for a brief lunch before her next class and talked about her teachers and just kind of capped every topic before I left. Afterwards I hit Herwick’s to pick up some more supplies that I needed for the trip. I’m taking a dozen different sketchbooks that I’m hoping to fill up by the time I get back. Once that was done I hit the road and went back to Houston.

Talked about everything that happened with my parents when I got back. We also talked about living accommodations for when I get back. I would prefer to have my own place now that I know where Overton lives because I’m not a fan of the half hour to forty-five minute drive to the campus. We’ll see what happens, because I’m also not much of a fan of living alone. I don’t like being truly alone. When I lived at the dorms I could seclude myself in my room, but if I ever wanted to socialize I could just knock on Jake’s door and have a conversation about whatever. Another reason why I like being in a relationship, or at least one that has progressed far enough to have staying over be an option. I would be closer to the downtown area if I lived by myself, and could bike and enjoy the life there. The only reason I would be living alone is because most of the people that I could tolerate/enjoy living with didn’t work out that well. Not their fault, just the situation of things.

Whatever the risk, still onward.

-The Architect

40 Days: Body and Mind – Day 34

I slept fairly well in my hotel last night. I started off my day with a shower and got ready for my lunch with Erin, the big lunch. We hit a place called Coulver’s which is some northerner thing that wasn’t that bad. We spent about two and a half hours there talking about everything that was going on with us. The first thing we hit was my relationship and what happened with that, which she had some words on, but not much because there really isn’t too much to go on. We then hit our mutual frustrations with the university and all of the things they do that just really annoys us. She always has some weird class issue going on because she transferred here, and mine are always about study abroad forms either not being filled out (which they are), or being filled out incorrectly (which isn’t my fault because there are no examples). So we continued to talk about all of the things we were going to be doing and all of our current situations. One thing we also hit, which I never want to hit with her again is religion. Now I normally never talk about religion with people because I just do not enjoy the conversation because I’ve had bad experiences with people on it. And I don’t want to talk with her about it again because I disagree heavily with one of the aspects that she said she believes. I respect her view and know where she is coming from with it, but there is no way I could believe in something like that, it just ruins any kind of hope I would have in the world.

So after lunch I went to the university for my appointment with my shrink, but I thought it was at 2pm, but it was actually at 3pm. Since I had an hour to kill, I went to the campus bookstore looking for headphones, only to come up dry. I went to the computer store right by there and picked up some cheap ones and a pair of Skullcandy around ear headphones, which I really shouldn’t have, but I’m a sucker for them.

So I finally make it to my shrink (Hi shrink!) and begin going through all of the stuff that happened to me since I last saw him. I just did a monologue of all of the things, ranging from my relationship, to some burned bridges, to my friends, and to how I felt about myself. We mainly talked about everything that happened with my relationship and how I felt about it all. It was all pretty helpful, I was kind of glad to finally get his point of view and help because I was tired of all of my friends repetitive responses. So by the end I was feeling much better about myself and where I was in life, though I’m still not where I want to be, but I have a different view on what I’m going to be doing. One thing that I’m going to really try to do is just be more about to things, because we had discussed how I felt about relationships and the fact that I don’t want to just date casually because part of my end goal is wife, kids, and happiness. The being open doesn’t just apply to my dating life now, it applies to all of the things around me. I think I’ve become more social to an extent. I’m asking my friends if they want to hang out more, actively seeking out conversations with some of them and whatnot.

Afterwards, I was fairly exhausted because I had forgotten to take my meds that day, which I’m not that fond of. The idea that if I don’t take my meds I can barely make it through the day is not appealing to me, unlike what I was taking before where if I missed a day it wasn’t that bad. The positive effects of my new meds are better, but I don’t like that one negative there. Oh well. I took a nap and then went to see the new Bourne movie with Tony, which was good. And that basically finished off my day. I think it was a pretty good day.

Whatever the risk, still onward.

-The Architect

40 Days: Body and Mind – Day 33

So I woke up on time today and managed to get out the door roughly  when I wanted to so I would get to San Antonio with plenty of time to find where I was meeting Tony and Overton. The drive wasn’t too, plus I downloaded some new music for trip, which made it better. Once I made it to the loop around the city I looked for the shopping center that had the Red Robin so I could be prepared. After I found it I wandered around Target until it was time to actually be at Red Robin for lunch.

Lunch with Tony and Overton went well, we talked about the previous semester some and about the grading. I was glad that Overton agreed that Poursani’s grading was very generous, for everyone. I don’t think my last project deserved a B, and Overton didn’t think he deserved to pass the last project. We also talked about my break-up and how that all went down. They were confused when I told them the reasons, especially the immature part of it. They sympathized with me and wished me well on things. We hit on the topic of Dungeons and Dragons some, Magic, and living accommodations for when I get back. I might get my own place closer to the downtown campus so I don’t have to drive that much and can learn to ride a bike so I can instead bike to class. If I don’t do that then I can live with Overton, his brother, and one of their friends, which would be nice to live with people that I know, but the drive is half an hour to forty-five minutes into the city from where they live. I wasn’t too fond of that, but the rent I would pay would be great.

After lunch we talked a bit more outside the restaurant before separating for the day. After lunch I had a little time to myself before I set out for my dinner with my friends from Group. It was a good dinner, talked about everyone and how they were all doing. We mainly talked about me going to Italy whenever the conversation topics shifted to me, which was nice, but I’m going to be happy when I’m back from Italy and people stop only asking me about it. We touched on my break-up, and when I say touched I mean, I told them, they gasped, and then we moved on.

Overall, it was a pretty good day to have, and the hotel is really nice as well so I could relax fully at night.

Whatever the risk, still onward.

-The Architect