idiosyncrasy of tea: April 2005

Jade Empire

At first I was a bit ashamed to be playing Jade Empire, thinking that my asianness should either be offended by its usage of Asian culture (this coming from a person who owns far too many iterations of Dynasty Warriors); however, in the end my interest in the game was piqued by the good reviews from various game sites.

The first thing I enjoyed about the game was that I could actually play as a female character that wasn’t dressed too provocatively. As the game progressed, I realized that the story had been thought through not only for a male character, but also with the female character in mind. The makers of the game probably had to create different dialogue for the female character. The one aspect I most enjoyed was that they still managed to put in a love story for my female character. Admittedly, it was somewhat hurried and out of the blue to me, but that might just be my obliviousness to things of that nature.

Gameplay was also created with a broad audience in mind. You’re allowed to change the difficulty setting of the game at any point in the game, so if you’re having a really hard time with a particular bad guy, you just crank the difficulty down to easy and go on with things. This is good for me since I’ve never really gotten the hang of combos and technique in my button mashing. For those who are more interested in technique and something beyond mindless mashing of the hit button, the game offers a lot of different fighting styles that you can string together to create “Harmonic Combos” or something of that nature, I can’t say what’s so special about them, as I never attempted to do one. I’m not ashamed to admit that I played the entire game on easy mode. Well, I’m a bit ashamed, but the shame is overwhelmed by the fact that I actually beat the game, which has been a rare occurrence of late.

Jade Empire was better then I had anticipated, but then again, I’m drawn into any game with a good story, which this seems to have with its plot twists, character development, diversity of side quests, and of course the love story for my female character.

Tea Rank: Warm with some good subtle flavor, and probably one refill.

And now for a brief ego trip

English Genius
You scored 92% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 86% Advanced, and 86% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I
can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon
intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You
have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly!
Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 36% on Beginner
You scored higher than 67% on Intermediate
You scored higher than 21% on Advanced
You scored higher than 90% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

Graduation Stuff

I like to tell myself that I've graduated from college, but with no official document from the school, it still doesn't feel real. However, since I have told people I'm done with school, the graduation gifts are starting to trickle in. So far I've gotten a spiffy $200 Discover gift card from an aunt and a grown up purse from my parents. The purse was pricey and makes me feel like a pretentious 30 something. It's some Louis Vuitton thing. Link. And yes, that was how much they paid for it (>.<) Think of all the toys I could have gotten instead!