One of the best parts about February is that it's short. Painful, in many cases, but short. Let's list the things I did with my February vacation:

- I played MGS2: Sons of Liberty.

Now, moving on... School...
It's been a while, and academics have been simply craazy. French test on Thursday. Friday was reminiscent of the Run From Hell, with a Chem test, in-class Jerry essay, Grucela test (83! What the ****?), and Trig test. Followed by French, which, obviously, ain't the most rewarding of experiences.

We consider French class. Typically it ain't fun, and I can get downright frustrated. Frustrated to the point that I use the word "downright". Yet.. the test on Thursday and my feelings toward it are hard to describe. Perhaps the best way to put it into words would be to borrow from the often-quoted Max: "I MADE IT MY BITCH!!!"

No, I didn't display a massive domination, but c'mon. It's French honors. You don't expect much. But I'm pretty sure I got upward of a 94 or 95 on this sucker. I'm pretty pleased with myself. WARNING: NOBODY GET NEAR... I don't want my bubble burst by say, I dunno, Anton. [Bitch.]

AE History? I don't want to complain about Grucela, but yeah, he was pretty anal with the partial on that. Minus 6 for a poorly phrased question... random -3s and -4s... Plus some truly worthless multiple choice questions. Not that I was exempt from all blame. Procrastination does take some toll.

Chem came out to be a 22/25 - acceptable for a quiz consisting almost entirely of BS word answers and poorly-executed word problem-solving. Trig was a 99. The 5.0 isn't out of question... but I'll need to maintain a flow of 100s... can I pull the Patrick!? ... as Jerry would say, Y-Y-Y-Y-Yes-NO.

This is what we're entering February looking like. Not a pretty sight, but I've persevered. It is now Wednesday of the disastrous Chem midyears. Jerry's test for Thursday, which he'd announced Tuesday, is under hot debate. White bitches are whining, Asians are dying, and Jerry is crumbling under the pressure. Finally the test is pushed to Friday, to many's dismay, with a weak promise of the Mark Twain quiz sometime the week before vacation. Meanwhile we have a lingering "two days of practice" for the pathetic 20-point project Jerry assigned earlier.

Friday arrives. Jerry is absent. Mixed feelings. Some actually felt prepared, and wisely realized that a test Monday would be much more unnecessary stress. Peter Colby discusses Holes with us. Ironically, he seems to be much better at teaching than Jerry. Jerry is out Monday, but we get the test anyway. Massive, massive whining as we see that the test is vintage Jerry, oozing with indecipherable multiple choice questions and obscure passages. Indian is currently favored with a 10-point spread.

But it doesn't end there. Peter Colby subs for the entirety of the next week, the week right before PCR day, effectively eliminating a massive opportunity to discuss course selection next year. The Mark Twain America quiz lies totally forgotten. Not that anyone wants it returned, actually, but the irresponsibility is undeniable.

But it gets better. Expending his yearly sick days, having been out for a week, maintaining a project that his peer teachers have canceled, insisting on making the project due the same day despite eliminating the promised work time in class, assigning massive work to an incompetent sub (who is still ironically more competent than himself), wimping out on a test and a quiz all while absent... he gives us a pop 100-point essay while not even present. Not showing up at school, and assigning a substitute to impersonally inform us that we'd be assessed based on something for which... we'd had no forewarning or preparation. Yeah. All that on top of his not-brilliant deeds so far this year... yep. That'd make him the single most irresponsible teacher I've ever had. Sure, Davolio was stupider, and Lotz was worse, but Jerry is easily the most irresponsible.

Fortunately, the essay itself was livable. It could've been so much worse... Wait. No.

PCR day: Lets' Do This. English III H, AP Chem, AP Bio, French IV H, US II AP, BC Calc.

Suicid? What?

Gaming
First, a smidge of SSBM. A fun game, wot? I also had a taste of Soul Calibur II. Mm... toasty. YOSHITMITSU!!!

Obviously, that was just a decoy. The main game I've gorged myself on this entire vacation is Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. After completing Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid, respectively, I was ready to open up the most controversial of the series.

When I first played the game, I watched the introduction video. After a cold, menacing introduction, that lovable Metal Gear Solid theme song started up. It was an excellent cinematic, starring the tried-and-true Solid Snake. The very definition of badass. The music concluded, and before the title screen appeared, I saw him, the legendarily hated Raiden. More hated than Tidus. Was this it?

The visuals are very, very impressive. Definitely the best-looking game released before the launch of Gamecube and Xbox. Everything moves at 60FPS, and all the character models are extremely slick. Solid Snake is given a face in-game for the first time, and he looks excellent. Sounds are also similarly on key, with voice-acting that is unusually tolerable ... in the Tanker Chapter, at least. More on that later. Music... there isn't much of it, but what's there, especially the intro video, is high-caliber and definitely worth your time.

Gameplay is extremely slick. Your character controls smoothly and... well, smoothly. Controls are fairly tight, and you have all the stealthy spy-like super-powers from Metal Gear Solid. You can run, roll, push against walls, make noises, crawl, and shoot, now in first person. There's tons of little details that you can explore... and stealth is more critical than ever before. Chances of surviving an all out fight are very, very slim. Everything feels fine-tuned and ridiculously polished.

The game is so polarized though. I can't help feeling that though the story seems kickbutt in its depths, that it's becoming convoluted and losing meaning. Similarly, no matter how I tried to overcome stereotypes, Raiden is truly teh pastay whaht boi. Similarly, Rose is consistently hinting at massive backstory, and I frankly don't care at all. Mei Ling, Otacon, and Para-Medic are to-the-point, sometimes blunt and stupid, but always there. Rose is... angsty.

Anyway, the style and gameplay make the game. So far, so good.