In my prior blog post, the examples I gave for life events that may spur a new entry were my marriage or my ordination. Something must've been wrong with me then, because I forgot the other crucial life event which, ideally, was impending: my completion of the Pantheon of Hallownest in 2017 Metroidvania game Hollow Knight.
That being said, this blog post may contain spoilers for 2017 Metroidvania hit "Hollow Knight." Reader beware!
Indeed, the other day, I finally got around to clearing that darn boss rush, a task I was unable to accomplish five odd years ago when I'd first played the game. My problem back then was not only that I was wuss and a creep, but also that I didn't use spells enough, and that my charm build wasn't optimized for offense. Descending Dark and Abyss Shriek are so broken, man, and why you using Quick Focus?! That doesn't increase your damage output!!
It was a nice goal to work towards once I'd finished all of my classes for this term. For a given definition of finished. What I mean to say is I passed all but one: the linear algebra course for which I had perhaps the worst professor ever.
Well, his score on Rate my Prof dot com was 1.2 (out of 5), so maybe he was 0.2 better than the worst professor ever and needs to down his game if he wants to be taken seriously. In any case, reading his reviews, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought that he was mighty difficult to learn anything from. And his handwriting is so very messy. At one of the few lectures I bothered to attend, I sat there staring at what looked like a Japanese katakana ム for a good couple moments before realizing it was a 4.
Now, to clarify, it wasn't totally the professor's fault that I failed the course. I definitely could've played my cards better. But I will posit that passing a course is a whole lot easier when it's possible to glean any kind of information from the lecture content.
Truly, I should've checked that professor rating site prior to subjecting myself to that course. It had been right in the past: my Japanese professor's got raving reviews on there which, after having taken two courses with her this academic year, I can confirm she totally deserves. Those classes were peak, as the kids say.
Bah, academics this, academics that. This ain't how a blog post is supposed to go. I need to weave in more nonsense about games, annie mae* and other nerd stuff that nobody cares about. Except for maybe you, in the back, with the Danganronpa t-shirt.
Yeah, so what I'm getting at is that I think it's really funny that Hollow Knight's Nailmasters have voicelines where they go "GESOOOO!!!!" since that's the thing the Squid Girl from 2010 anime Squid Girl says. It means squid, I think.
Funny story regarding 2010 anime Squid Girl, and I'm not talking about how Splatoon 1 for the Wii U included her outfit as a gear set, and how that phenomenal collab was not renewed in the two future instalments of the franchise. That's not a funny story. That's a tragic one.
Anyway, I was studying for some math test, as one does. Sometimes. Pretty sure it was the night before a midterm. But of course you, dear reader, being a clever cookie who might score higher than a 38 in linear algebra, could have already guessed that. So as I was saying I was feeling done with studying (as opposed to done studying) and reckoned I'd watch a show before turning in for the night. As has been long established, I always keep up with the latest shows. Hence, I decided to watch an episode of 2010 anime Squid Girl.
Each episode of the series is split into four or so titled segments. I'd finished the first of these when, as per usual, the title to the second appeared onscreen. It read: "Shouldn't you be studying right now?"**
At that, I gawked, if that's the word. Cackling to myself, I accepted this no doubt divine message from God, closed the totally legal anime streaming website I had open, and carried on with my studies for a bit longer before hitting the hay.
I actually wound up doing rather well on that midterm. Thank you, 2010 anime Squid Girl.
If only I could say the same about the course as a whole! You know, on the final exam, there was a question which asked one to use the "method of least squares." Now, I knew that was a thing, but it was a thing that was covered at the end of the textbook. And I hadn't gotten there. So I threw down some nonsense calculations accompanied by the explanation: "I have not drawn a single square upon this sheet of paper, therefore this is the method of least squares."
I think I may have been the first person to leave that examination hall (read: gymnasium with a bunch of desks in it), a little around an hour earlier than the exam end time. I didn't feel very bad for having quite obviously failed the course, however. I think the levity from my comedically incorrect answers offset any sort of regret that could have encroached upon my mind.
Last night I hung out with some friends from my Japanese class. Yes, that's right. Even I do that. We hit karaoke, which was pretty awesome but I think I may have meant it when I said "If the 'K-On!' Girls saw me like this I would kill myself," when I'd grossly overestimated my ability to sing Don't Say Lazy.***
Anyway, we went for dinner after that and when I'd made an epic wisecrack or two about my 38 in linear algebra, one of them**** asked how I cope with failing a class, saying that her academic perfectionism wouldn't be able to stand for such a thing. After maybe a second or so of consideration I concluded that the fact that I had more important matters to attend to the day I saw my grade let me better roll with the blow.
Though now that I think about it (Yes, that's right. Even I do that.) the fact that I'd pretty much long accepted that I'd be failing that course was also a comforting factor. So was the fact that it was the cheapest of all the courses I took this term. Perhaps I'm more financially savvy than I give myself credit for...
Backtracking a bit, the more important matters or rather matter that I had to attend to that day was, in fact, the Pantheon of Hallownest. And that was also the day that I cleared it! Yahoo!
Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, while it's funny that the Nailmasters say "Geso," it's even funnier that the Nailsmith says "Akari."***** Though Iselda's "Sigh, baphanada," will always be my favourite of the voicelines, even if it isn't referencing any nerd stuff that only I and you with the Danganronpa t-shirt could care about. At least none that we know of.
Ah, but while completing the Pantheon of Hallownest was nice and all, it may have been what caused the bit of a slump I found myself in the subsequent day. I think suddenly not having some big thing I'm working towards put me off kilter. I recovered a bit the next day, but I don't think it was quite until last night's karaoke that I fully covered. It's almost like going out and doing stuff improves your mood or something.
Not that I like doing so all the time, though. I've always considered myself something of a homebody ever since I first read the term "homebody" in a Dragon Maid spin-off manga. But, you know. Familiarity breeds contempt, so if I spend all my time at home I grow tired of it and need a change of pace, I suppose. Sometimes the homebody needs his homeboys, is what I'm sayin'.
Speaking of growing tired of things, I think I've written enough for this post. If I write any more, I might further tarnish the public's perception of me with additional references to nerd stuff. I might even inadvertently reference Kaguya-sama: Love is War yet again, such as by admitting to following along to a "Chika dance" tutorial that one time******. But don't worry. Next blog post will be about football or something. That's the thing with the clubs, right?
My apologies for this one perhaps being more of a nonsensical ramble than usual. Maybe I should've planned this out more, or maybe this is fine. Though, I really should round things off by looping back to the start. Like a video game BGM.
So, what I really meant to say with all this, is what while in my prior blog post I said to expect a new entry when I either get married or ordained, neither will happen because I am already married to my waifu: Shaman Stone from Hollow Knight.
I love spell damage.
This is Not Billison, who nobody can prove owns a Danganronpa t-shirt, signing off.
(Now, how do I run my Python script that helps format my post's HTML? Been a year since I wrote and used that.)
*How else will I somehow manage to incorporate Kaguya-sama: Love is War into this blog post?
**Actually, the English translation they gave was "Squidn't you be studying right now?"
***On the bright side, I had "My Sweet Heart," the opening song to 2002 magical girl anime Tokyo Mew Mew, down pretty well, only having to adlib "something" for a couple kanji that I couldn't read for parts I didn't quite have memorized. Since the lyric video I'd loaded wasn't in romaji. And on another note I tried the Strawberry Panic S1 opening as well, with some success. For a given definition of success. I still love that one as much as I did back when I asteriskically mentioned it in my famous 2023 blog post, Allowance. This is because I've always been perfect and never change.
****One of my friends from my Japanese class, that is. Not one of the 'K-On!' girls.
*****HAAAII YURU YURI HAJIMARU YOOO!!!!!
******It was fun.