Aslan

oh, I didn't realize you responded so I never got around to reading this until a couple days ago, and now that it's the weekend and I have a bit more time I can finally lounge around and type this---also wow, a month and two weeks for your breaks?? it is about 3 months here, but people have argued that it's damaging to have a long break 'cause you end up forgetting a lot of your highschool coursework over such a lengthy absence! and you're in uni now right?? how's the transition been?

my mum did make me take swimming/skating lessons which I hated but if I think about it I feel that I enjoyed a lot of physical activities when I was younger even if I wasn't too good at them. lots of tag during recess, camping during breaks, dodgeball, and I loved skiing - also it's funny that you bring up badminton, yes that was probably my most played and enjoyed sport, in a more traditional sense of the word (ie excluding dodgeball and whatnot); I shyed away from and generally didn't like football/baseball/basketball. I'd be curious hearing about your experiences here, was it much of the same? when I was young all my friends were boys and I never really paid any attention to what the girls in the class were doing, I think of a lot of the trends that swept through my social circle, videogames, skateboarding, guitar playing, and I don't suppose those were popular among your friends? ofc you must've played lots of pokémon since you're here and you did mention water guns at one point?? outside of pokémon, the big games then for kids I knew were halo and call of duty

ehh I totally derailed my train of thought there, we were talking about Debussy, yeah? Clair de lune is great, it reminds me of his arabesque - his work along with Ravel's get called 'impressionistic' a lot which I think is kinda fitting even if he didn't like the label. october 17 was pretty nuts for me this year, I had a 75 minute presentation worth 70% of that course's mark the evening of my birthday - ah it was a math class; the sheer thrill and challenge of the whole experience of presenting was riveting, it's been such a long time since I've given a presentation! I'm glad you liked Good Will Hunting btw, It's always been a favourite for me I did talk quite a bit about it before, have you been watching anything else?

but as far as history goes, lately I've actually been really curious about very recent history, probably not even considered history at this point with how recent it's been, we're talking 80s, 90s up till now. though I've been fascinated with it all for a long time, about a week ago I read a very curious book called The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution, Simons was a very accomplished mathematician who hired a bunch of other math/computer science people to try and build models predicting market prices, the end result was Renaissance Technologies, arguably the most successful hedge fund on the planet, though they have competitors like TGS Management and spinoffs like Edgestream. outside of having a fascinating history they're also had enormous influence on American politics, I dunno if people in Australia pay attention to Trump, but the former co-ceo of Ren Tech Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah, practically set up Trump's victory! Robert Mercer funded Breitbart and Cambridge Analytica, and early into the race when Trump wasn't doing too well, the Mercers had a lot of their friends (Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, David Bossie) take over key positions in Trump's campaign staff. I guess managing a hedge fund gives you a good skillset to judge these kinds of things, as well as the money needed to orchestrate it all. most fascinating for me has been how many people I've talked to irl who have never heard of the Mercers, or even Renaissance Tech. These quantitative hedge funds have got such an enormous influence on the world, what with how many billions of dollars their firms pulls of of thin-air, and many of them are so secretive. anyways what have you been reading? I'm curious if your reading habits have changed now that you're in uni??

I did play it! It's ok fun but I don't have enough time to really enjoy it

I can do pretty much any night this week after monday! Just let me know on discord if you are around and we can hop on

and yes twitter is amazing. best app

Congrats on graduating! That really is exciting

And I've been good! Been kinda busy so I haven't had much time to be here but all in all things are great. Maybe we can catch up soon and battle or something

hello!!! how is life?

have you taken your trip yet? i forgot when you said it was :o

Damn, you've got quite the trip ahead of you in the states it seems, hope it's a great one!

Yes in August I believe!

drugs are bad for you don't do it be like me i'm a good person

Wtf that's not that far away!!! This year is flying by

FRIENDLY VM HELLO

SOPHIEEEEEEE!! ❤ I know I'm ridiculously late here, but THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH, OMG!!! :D :D :D

Awww, you're right about that! I'm getting sentimental now, ehehe! ^__^ All of that KFC dictatorship stuff still feels like yesterday, which makes it hard to believe that four years have seriously passed since those days...!! :o

That's great! Good luck with your upcoming exam block! I'm sure you'll do splendidly. Ooh, a double decker train? It's the first time I've heard of it! I can't believe that's the norm for you guys :o

Public transportation here is not good. It takes so long to go from one place to another, not to mention how sweaty everyone ends up getting, the lack of ample seats in most bus and train rides, and how heavy the traffic is all the time. One time I was at the train station, and the train just completely missed its designated stop, only halting after having missed like one-third the length of that station. :'( I hope it improves one day, because productivity brought by good public transportation is key to our country's progress, and it seems like our government doesn't see that.

Yeah I hope so! Definitely a pipe dream, but I'll try to make it happen haha. And yeah, space is wonderful. It's like the vast black ocean that our pale blue space rock is floating on, and every horizon is filled with beautiful, faraway galaxies. I honestly hope I still have enough left in the tank to get through my MS and PhD, but I feel like I do, and I suppose having that feeling is enough. I'd like to visit my dad's and my thesis adviser's alma maters someday, as well as my cousin's uni! Other than that, if a particular uni is close to one of my friends and family, that's somewhere I'd like to go. And yeah, considering it's been seven years since we all graduated from my boarding school, with some of my batchmates having graduated into medical doctors already, it's nice to reminisce.

Tolkien and Martin are masterful world builders. I love what they did with their respective series; it really goes to show how much they can do when it comes to imagining an entire world from their minds. I haven't read any recreational books at all recently, but I've been meaning to change that. I have that experience in common with you, the magic of those fantasy books when we were younger. Speaking of which, have you heard of the recent Niantic smartphone game that's basically Pokémon GO but for Harry Potter?

Yeah. Like that guest speaker in that one old song said, "Know that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Fight hard to bridge the gap between geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you'll need the people you knew when you were young."

Thank you, Sophie. You know, I managed to find a kind therapist in my old uni, and I have a second appointment with her in a few days. So it's been better! The first session was free in my case, too, which is nice.

And it was, an unforgettable experience. A sandbar is like this little nub of sand that stretches out to the sea from a small part of an island. It usually gets completely covered in water during high tides. It's fun to walk on it when it's there. And yes, I hope you do make the most of that high school and uni in-between! I'd love to hear about wherever you guys will go in the future, even just the most memorable experiences.

That's okay! It's pretty daunting to reply properly when VMs get this long; I know the feeling. Also I only get to reply fast because waiting for my chance to study again can get pretty dull, haha. No pressure! But I am glad you got some downtime sitting on the train. That is a well-needed break. I'm sure trains are wonderful where you live, too. Here they're more like sardine cans during rush hours. :( Re: the Stardew photos, ditto! Will try to get screens when I open it up again.

I want to go to the Moon, and I'm not even kidding, haha. The idea of working for the planned Moonbase is just so enticing to me. But given the trend, I'll probably just teach, do research, and attend conferences after all my graduate studies are done. I'd love to visit universities around the world for postdoc, though! Re: my boarding school, siblings either didn't take the entrance exam for it or opted to attend the secondary school closest to us. That same school was my original plan before I got convinced to take the aforementioned exams, and in hindsight, I'm glad I did.

I hope it retains its magic, for sure. It's a world that really draws you in, and reminds me of the effect that J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis had with their anthologies. I wouldn't be surprised to see media adaptations of it in the future, akin to how LotR and Narnia keep getting adaptations even decades later. And I did make friends in my boarding school! It's hard to catch up with them now because everyone's busy with their own lives and live far away but, yeah. I love that place because of them.

For sure, I hope I do get the time and manage to invite my friends to come volunteer with me. :) And yeah, sometimes I wish I had a therapist as well. :( But the Philippines is such a backwater country when it comes to mental health that I have very little faith in the bang-for-your-buck ratio of therapy here, which sucks. Oh, my vacation-- I flew to Bohol and took a ferry to Cebu before flying back to Manila. It was fun, and I'm glad to have recovered from my slump upon returning. We went to a lot of tourist spots in Bohol, and took a four hour bus ride in Cebu to see a famous sandbar and a waterfall. Pretty exhausting, but with the sights my friends and I saw and the people we met, it was definitely worth it. I hope you get to experience a similar thing Sophie, when you get a freer schedule. Sometimes these vacations can teach a person a lot, too.

Definitely gonna binge on the Singaporean food. Considering work will be paying for food, it's a buffet for me basically! Aside from that, surfing, diving, exploring, getting a henna tattoo. My friends are also coming by to visit me while I'm there so that should be exciting.

You're coming to the US? Where exactly? And when's school end?

Same! I haven't played it in a while. I'll try to look for a thread when I do boot it up again, haha.

Yeah. I love that about it. And yeah, Eric Barone is amazing. He made all of this on his own, and it really shows how much love he put into it.

Thanks! I do think it's a bit difficult to find an application for it. I was talking to my friend the other day, and he told me that he wishes he had a research area with a more palpable effect to what was happening around him, and I couldn't help but agree. All I could really say to him was that contributions to the field simply helped the universal knowledge bank of physics, and that in itself would have a trickle down effect after some years. Instrumentation involves dealing with instruments used by meteorologists, engineers, and experimental physicists. And yes, 11 years. Sometimes I did wish I had a different experience, but I honestly learned a lot from having gone through what I did, so I can't really say I have any true regrets. That's true. I don't know how much it affected me, personally, but comparing myself with how my siblings act does shed some light on it. They seem to have taken a lot longer to adjust to adult life than I have, at least from what they've been telling me.

Yeah, Harry Potter was great, haha. It was my childhood as well, so getting to live that in a way was nice. It can get lonely if you're more introverted like I was. You know that's probably one of the few areas where I would tell my younger self to change it up a bit. Like, open up, and don't be afraid to make yourself vulnerable to others. It's such a short and memorable time in your life, so make the most out of it! Thank you, though. I hope things do work out.

That's good. And yeah, it's difficult to focus on the present when there's the past and the future to look at. I hope it was memorable and that you'd do it again; I actually feel like you've inspired me to do the same. Enormous difficulties and lows are tough to get through, yeah. I think you have the right attitude towards them, though! Just don't be afraid to share how you feel during those lows with your closest friends, even if it seems like you're being a burden to them. It's the one lesson that I keep having to relearn over and over. Going on vacation was great, but tiring. I met a lot of new people that I didn't expect to meet, and I learned a lot. I'd love for you to have the same experience when you get a freer schedule. Just don't push your body too hard as I did, haha.

Thank you! I have, but it's freaking hard haha. I can't seem to reach Floor 25 on my own, so I'm currently stockpiling on enough Stone to craft my way down with staircases. :'D And yeah, moving from one place to another is opportunity cost 101. I kind of love that it is that way, because it reflects life in a weird way. Yeah huhu, waay easier to forage now with Sleipnir with me.

I should! Thank you, I try my best. I'd love to see your farm as well; I've never done multiplayer but I would want to in the future! Or even just screenshots of your farm would be nice, because I'd love to share mine through screenshots as well. Does PC have a thread for that sort of thing yet? Maybe I should make one. hmm. Collecting all the fish will be one of the bigger end game endeavors to look forward to, haha. Then I can always try to optimize my farm after. I feel like there's no end to this game if you know how to have fun with it! I would love something like that, too; honestly anything that Eric Barone would add, I'd probably be happy about. But I would like skills to level up like bug catching, which is exactly what you suggested. Stuff like that would make an already rich game even moreso. And yeah, I guess I could look at it like that. Gus needs the money. :)

It was a great experience. I ended up studying BS Applied Physics, major in Instrumentation. I have gone back to take MS Physics, but I stopped for a bit to catch my breath, since I've been away from home for almost 11 years! That's because I studied at a boarding school of sorts for four years of high school, too. Now I'm looking at the option of taking a course in the uni near my home instead of going back, but we'll see come August. I'm honestly just excited, whatever happens. Thank you, and I wish you the same. :)

It is. PC is like a fine bottle of wine; it gets better with age. At least, that's what I feel. And yeah, don't rush the growing up thing. Most of us don't really have everything figured out even when we get to mid-20s or so, but when things fall into place, they feel amazing. Look forward to stuff like that, try to keep at it with whatever it is that you feel you can do, you have to do, and you want to do, and you'll do great. :) It makes me so happy to hear that you are doing so well so far; volunteering is probably up there as one of the greatest things you could do at any age. I hope you enjoyed it while I was away. Good luck with anything that's coming up, as well! Break a leg.

I have reached the bottom. It's much further down than I anticipated, but it felt like a pretty good accomplishment! Make sure to repair the Boiler Room first, the mine carts are amazing when they get fixed. Oh, and build a stable. I made the mistake of building one like four seasons in. :'D

<3

Yeah, I really feel like he's gone through so much. I haven't interacted with him much since repairing the Community Center, but I feel like he should be in a better place now? I should really catch up with him. My favorite farm animals would be cows, even though I only have one. The fact that I can see hearts from them twice in one day is just. <3 Besides that cow, I have three chickens, one rabbit, one duck (oh gosh I love the sound my duck makes, too), and two pigs. I grew crops for most of Year 1 and delved into farm animals on Year 2. I haven't fished since reaching level 10, but I promise to come back to it when Fall arrives. :'D Gotta make the most of the salmon season. As for the master chef thing, I feel like people are just great at writing and following recipes in the SDV universe, haha. I like that you don't get to cook everything right away; they're locked behind these recipes. Speaking of which, I completely missed a lot of the early recipes, because I kept leaving my house without watching the TV! Buying them from Gus I feel like was also a waste of money, ahaha. :'D

It feels weird, man. Everyone's still the same, but it feels like I see PC under a different lens now. Everyone seems a lot more mature, too. Considering the fact that the Pokémon fanbase has aged up with the franchise, it makes sense. And yeah, college was great. I'm glad I went. So great in fact, that I want to study again! Undergraduate was apparently not enough for little old me. :'D And 17, yes. I did leave at that age. Now that you're at the age that I left, it's like wow, you're all grown up! How are things irl, by the way? I hope you're doing great. :)

She's one of the few villagers outside near midnight, too, because she stargazes often. It's nice to pass her by after a long day at the mines.
Yeah, that's probably why I befriended George and Evelyn the earliest. Evelyn was so kind and motherly from the start, and seeing George open up was heartwarming. Their family is my favorite in the entire valley.
Yeah, I really hope he gets some sort of closure with Emily in the next update. I feel bad for him. </3

I think the fact that they were the last two villagers I befriended made my memory of them more vivid than most. :)

Oh man, Harvey is the perfect guy. He knows how to radio aircraft above the valley, too! That was so cool to find out. Shane's entire arc is so heartbreaking; I made sure to buy a blue chicken when they became available because of how endearing he became at the end. Robin is such a nice character; I always make sure she eats Spaghetti whenever she does any construction in my farm (as long as I can actually access her, because sometimes she's inside the thing and completely cut-off). :'(

Oh and Penny! She's probably the most dateable of the girls, despite the fact that she can't cook. :'D I love that she teaches Vincent and Jas almost everyday.

I guess that's just one of the things I wasn't here to be for. Everyone growing up. I left as a 17 year old and came back already 23. It's like getting snapped and coming back six years later.

I love Maru's affinity towards astronomy. Upon looking it up, her old design looked gorgeous, so I was a bit disappointed that Eric Barone changed it. But she's still pretty cute. Alex is my man, though. His character's a lot more tragic than I expected. As for non-marriage candidates, Clint is adorable, and Vincent and Kent really grew on me.

I see. :o I'm glad to hear that you still keep in touch with them. :)

I am! Thanks, haha. I actually got into it a month ago. It's been eating my downtime ever since.

Do you still go to the battle server?