Show Posts

* Messages | Topics | Attachments

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Messages - Trainman

Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 7 8 9 ... 160
46
I'm trying to take a no-debt approach to college. Call me crazy, but it's been working well, so far.

People always try to tell me that loans, debt, and credit cards are just an American necessity: "EVERYONE HAS DEBT AND PAYS PAYMENTS; THAT'S HOW LIFE WORKS." I disagree. I don't find that you need a loan for virtually anything except a mortgage for a house (unless you are able to save up for one while in a smaller home/apartment, which is entirely possible). I have a vehicle that I paid cash for.... aaaand that's all I really need. I don't see anything else that I'd need a loan for. I have a small fund for emergencies set off to the side that I saved up for during high school, as well. I have a monthly budget which describes my expenses for the month, my emergency money is off to the side just in case, and I have a small budget for entertainment (which I don't dip into often). I feel like managing your money is really about just watching it closely and being able to resist impulse buying.

I looked at some old paystubs for 2011 and thought, "Wow, where the hell did my money go?" I'd made thousands and realized I had jack [dukar] to show for it. Now that I've been budgeting every month for a long time and telling myself "no," it feels like I have a ton of money even though I make the same amount. Back then, I'd see something or go get fast food and be like, "Ehhhhhhhh I know I have enough on my debit card," then I'd turn around when I got my statement and realize how much freaking money I spent on completely unnecessary stuff.

I am currently able to attend community college while working a near-minimum wage job while also paying bills. I set up a payment plan where I'm paying this semester's 1,500 dollar tuition off over four months. Not a loan, mind you. Next year I'll hopefully be attending the University of Texas in Austin. Tuition is around 4,800 dollars per semester. That's a big jump from the $1,500-$2,200 tuition at the community college I attend (three to four classes). I'm about to apply for Pell grants for the Fall 2013/Spring 2014 school year. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some help that way. I understand that Pell grants are a leg-up... "free" money from the government if you qualify, if you will, and I am willing to accept it right now even though my belief is that if you want something, you must earn it yourself. I have vowed that any grants or whatever I may receive over my college years will be paid back out of my pocket in the form of donations and other types of giving once I am in a better financial position to do so because I would like to balance out what amount taxpayers across the country have graciously, though probably unintentionally, provided for me.

In conclusion, I don't want credit cards, and I'm trying everything I can to not get a loan. The only thing that I would get a loan for (except a house) would be school. I doubt that'll happen, and I sure as hell don't want to graduate college only to turn around and owe people astronomical amounts of money. Life isn't about earning an income just to do an about-face and give it to a bank or whoever for crap that you don't really own until it's paid off. I also don't like the idea of interest, especially when I see broke friends around me that are struggling to pay off stupid payday loans because they can only cover the interest part of it and had no money to fix their vehicle when it broke down. I feel bad for people who have, say, 50,000 dollars in student loans, a 23,000 dollar car note, an enormous mortgage payment, and six maxed out credit cards.

47
I lost.

It's crazy to me that the WBC bills themselves as a Baptist church when, after growing up in a Baptist church until I was about 13 years old, Baptist ideologies are virtually polar opposites of the WBC's. I've never heard my pastor or any fellow churchgoers spew hate or anything like that in my life. The WBC is just a sickening hate group, nothing more. It pains me to see them, yet again, try to use a tragedy as an opportunity to be [dukar]heads.

48
General Chat / Re: New/Returning Members Post Here!
« on: January 05, 2013, 04:25:18 PM »
I noticed Markio returned a few months ago. I must say, wow, he died out in like... what, 2004 or 2005? Late response, but what's goin' on?

All we need now is sadib100/marioguy, and nintendoexpert89, and it'll be an early 2000s party.

49
Mario Chat / Re: Paper Mario 3DS images
« on: January 01, 2013, 07:28:03 PM »
I'm glad they brought up the HP levels. It also allows attacks to have multiple steps so you're at a small advantage if you're good and allows the damage each subsequent, successful action command does to be tweaked reasonably. A good example is the standard jump sticker allowing five jumps if you time it right.

Superguards are gone, and the margin for error with action commands is enormous here. So, don't expect to be messing up action commands basically ever, even if you suck at it.

50
General Chat / Re: Happy New Year!
« on: January 01, 2013, 07:09:08 PM »
I'm calling it Patrick Gets It Goin'. (that's me, btw lol.) I want people to be able to participate in the series with their goals, too, which I will explain below.


Anyway, my life is pretty stagnant right now, and I haven't been able to work up the motivation to start becoming healthier. I weigh more than I ever have in my life as of late. 234 pounds at six feet tall. It's not horrible, but I'm really starting to get a gut now. My goal is to lose about 45 pounds over the next year (I'm sure it will end up happening faster) while doing strength training and topping it off with much better nutrition. I'm hoping that will break me out of this perpetual rut I seem to be in by stirring my life and body up.

I want to make it funny and develop my visual effects skills throughout the year, as well, so I can compare them a year down the road from today. The first episode will be explaining my goals, the series goals, and a bit more about my life... oh and an epic VFX battle against my subconscious in the style of Sticker Star.

There won't be any miracle diet/exercises/pills/etc. Just good ol' fashioned hard work and healthy food substitutions. The most awesome part, as mentioned above, is that I want people who watch to be able to share a bit of their stories as well and really become part of the series. If a viewer has a goal of any sort that they would like to share, I would love to be able to include them in the episodes, no catches.


SO, there's my long-winded explanation.

51
General Chat / Re: Happy New Year!
« on: January 01, 2013, 06:05:11 PM »
Yes it will be

52
General Chat / Re: Happy New Year!
« on: January 01, 2013, 05:47:05 PM »
As part of my new year's resolution that I pretty much already started, I'm gonna start a weekly video series chronicling my path to being healthier among other changes and commitments I must take on in my life. Hopefully people will enjoy it. I'm gonna make it pretty effects-heavy.

53
Mario Chat / Re: Paper Mario 3DS images
« on: December 31, 2012, 08:12:22 PM »
My girlfriend bought me Sticker Star as my Christmas present. Here's an honest review. It's long. There aren't 'spoilers' or whatever in it, and anything I mention has already been plastered all over this thread anyway.

While I initially heard the whole "Miyamoto stepped in and ruined everything" thing (and frankly believed it 100%), I was in for an honest surprise. The game is great. The dialogue is wholly dry and sarcastic as you'd typically expect from something like the Mario & Luigi series. The music is fantastic, and the jazz motif is something you can groove to. This is one of those rare soundtracks where I found no song that just sounded out of place and stupid, or worse, childish (...Toad's Expedition theme from SMG, anyone?) So, having great music all around just brings the game a few notches higher for me.

Yes, this game, while borrowing elements from Mario RPG games of years past, of course, returns to Mushroom Kingdom basics, so think of it as a successor of sorts to the original Paper Mario. Keep in mind, this is a bite-sized RPG adventure; a "lite" Paper Mario, if you will. I clocked in at 19 hours and 19 minutes from start to finish while the usual benchmark for typical RPGs seems to be around 40 hours. You feel like you're getting deeper and deeper into the game then you suddenly realize that it's coming to a close.

There are some quirks: The sequential battle system that Kimimaru, for some reason, put spoiler tags around in his post is kind of screwy. Not being able to choose sort of affects the flow, and if you have the opportunity to use more than one sticker, it will make the order you attack the enemies in sequential (e.g. the battle sticker you have in the second slot will always attack the second enemy in line regardless of if your first sticker killed the first enemy in line or not. Same for third sticker/third enemy in line). Maybe the developers thought that assigning different stickers to different enemies during battle would be too confusing.

Thing Stickers, as much as they were shown off, were implemented weakly which sucks considering that was supposed to be the big thing about Sticker Star. There are points where a Thing sticker is necessary to advance and you have no idea which one you're supposed to use. If you use the wrong one during Paperization, well, sucks to be you because you will lose it. You also get no hints as to which ones are useful in boss battles or anything like that. Which brings me on to my final point...

Kersti (your Sticker partner or whoever) is the most useless freaking sidekick I've ever seen in a Mario RPG. She is the I AM ERROR of the Mario RPG world. She never has location-specific information on hand, ever. She also never has advice on puzzles, what Things might be useful, and no info about environments, where you are, or any hints on what you should be doing next if you're stuck. When you summon her she spits out some quip, and very rarely do you see an option to get more advice, which, more often than not, is incredibly generalized. I've gone through entire worlds where she says the same couple lines over and over and doesn't offer advice.

Besides these few flaws, I believe the game is deserving of the 8.3/10 IGN gave it. I'd go as far as to give it an 8.5. Just remember that it's almost like Mario 3D Land. Everyone coming off Mario Galaxy 2 was thinking, "MAN IT'S GONNA BE LIKE GALAXY 3DS," but while it was great, it couldn't quite live up to the same amount of awesomeness the Galaxy games brought us because they were limited by the 3DS' capabilities. So, if you can keep in mind, like I was saying, that it's a bite-sized, portable version of past Paper Mario games and look past its flaws, you'll have a lot of fun with this one.

54
Maybe it's an issue with licensing costs like Wreck-It Ralph. They said Mario's not in it because of his licensing fee being astronomical.

I wonder how one major company inquires to another about rights, etc.

55
Mario Chat / Re: Ripping Sound Effects from Mario Party, Etc.
« on: November 25, 2012, 04:22:13 PM »
I'm just trying to get the sounds. The problem with older Mario Party games is that the sound test isn't fully developed. It's typically only voice overs, music, and miscellaneous character sounds (like Goomba, Whomp, etc.), but there's no actual sound effects.

56
Mario Chat / Ripping Sound Effects from Mario Party, Etc.
« on: November 21, 2012, 09:30:37 PM »
I'm not well-versed when it comes to digging into a game's internals. I know that sound rips are possible for N64 games, and that there exists a few sound ripping utilities, but I don't know the process of getting to that point. I've managed to rip the sound banks, but not the actual sound effects themselves.

As far as Mario Party, I'm looking to grab sounds from the game like the die appearing, the sound of it cycling, landing on various spaces, etc. Any advice someone can give me, or an offer?

57
Game Help / Re: Wii Disc Read Error w/ Brawl
« on: November 12, 2012, 11:39:40 PM »
Fortunately, I haven't modified my Wii.

58
Mario Chat / Re: Mario Allusions in Zelda Games...
« on: November 11, 2012, 12:14:50 PM »
What I'd like to know is how the heck this decade old thread was even discovered.

59
Mario Chat / Re: New Super Mario Bros. U
« on: November 11, 2012, 12:06:26 PM »
I'm not sure why Nintendo hasn't just rebuilt the sidescroller Marios from the ground up. GamesMaster saying it feels easier than NSMB Wii (an already easy game) with any hint of challenge or unique elements being saved until the probably the final "hard" world.... come on.

I wonder when they're gonna update the character models from the shiny, play-doh-esque NSMB Wii models. Remember the original Brawl trailer where the Melee models run in and transform into their badass Brawl counterparts? NSMB U's recycling of the models is like them leaving Mario's Melee character model in Brawl.

60
Game Help / Re: Wii Disc Read Error w/ Brawl
« on: November 11, 2012, 11:53:06 AM »
Thanks for all the suggestions.

And Mß, really? Huh, I'll have to send mine in then, I suppose.

Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 7 8 9 ... 160