Time To Turn the Page

Friday was "Family Night". The six of us girls took a trip to Alliance Bank Stadium to see the Sky Chiefs play the Toledo Mud Hens. To no one's surprise, the Sky Chiefs lost, but it was fun anyways. To be honest, we weren't really there for the game. We were there for the six of us to have a good time, to relax, and to cherish the last few weeks that we had together.

Taylor, Jaclyn, Breanna, Me, Anne, and Caroline

In only 12 days, the six of us will be parting ways, not forever, but for a longer time than any of us are truly okay with. Breanna is the only one that isn't graduating, and because of this, she's losing almost every close friend she has in Oswego. We'll be leaving her to fend for herself. She's an independent girl, though, and I'm sure we'll keep in contact enough to help her through the rest of her years at Oswego.

The rest of us though, are done with Oswego. We're not coming back, not for grad school, and perhaps not even to visit. Four years of this place is definitely enough. Caroline is going to grad school at Pace to get her Master's Degree in childhood education, specializing in Special Education. She'll be living in New York City, living the stressful life of a Master's Student. She wants to teach in the city, help underprivileged youths and be a good influence on those that truly need one. She has a presence in the classroom, one that shows that she's meant to be there and I believe she'll do great things while working in the city.

Taylor, well who knows where Taylor is going to end up. Chances are she'll be staying close to home in Buffalo to work at her horse barn, keeping close to Oswego because her boyfriend still has to finish out his last two semesters. She's a girl with high hopes, graduating with a degree in Public Relations. She wants to work with a big time advertising firm, but is planning to settle for volunteer work and possibly the Peace Corp., a place where her generosity would certainly come in handy.

Jaclyn is going to be staying in Syracuse, living with her boyfriend and their dog, trying to find a job that can help put her Broadcasting Degree to good use. I'll still see her quite often since we live only a short distance from each other and she's a girl I've come to be able to rely heavily on when I need someone to talk to. She wants to be a radio personality, and some day, if she remains active in the radio business after her internship at Galaxy Communications with Dave and Gomez, I think she'll be able to accomplish this goal.

Anne is, well, working on it. She wants to work in television, working behind the scenes, using her Broadcasting and Mass Communications Degree as best she can. Her dream is to write the best scary movie of the century and direct it, scaring the pants off of everyone that watches it. She has big dreams, but they are certainly achievable if she sets her mind to it. No one else loves horror movies the way Anne does and no one has studied them more than her. Although she's staying in Syracuse with her family, she'll definitely reach her goals if she sticks to it. She's my best friend, someone I plan to spend a great deal of time with after graduation. I love Anne, my first roommate and best friend at Oswego <3

And me, well I'm moving back home to Oneida and living with my parents while I figure out exactly what I'm going to do with my future. Grad school for Elementary Education gets closer and closer, but that won't happen until January. Closing this chapter of my life is going to be difficult, but I know that I've gotten through it with some of the best friends I could have made. I love each and every one of my girls so much and I know that we'll all do our best to keep in contact throughout the years.

Leaving Oswego will be difficult because I won't just be leaving the six girls, but I'll be leaving some other great friends as well; Andrew, Sarah, Kayla, Matt O., Christian, Matt G., Cameron, Dave, Lesley, and so many more. I'll continue talking to all of them most likely, Andrew, Matt O., and Christian especially. They're great friends and I'll miss them a lot as well.

But it's time to turn a page in my life, start something new, get a full time job, and make money so I can move out of my parent's home. It's going to be tough, but it's something I know I can do. Chances are I'll move somewhere that I can move in with Andrew, the best friend a girl could ask for. We're like two peas in a pod and although I'll hate leaving my girls, he's the one that will be hardest to leave. We're inseparable and he's the best friend a girl could ask for. According to him, "we'll be friends until pigs fly through a frozen hell." Good to know.

Me, Matt O. and Andrew

So I say a great goodbye to SUNY Oswego. It was fun while it lasted. :)

Blast From the Past

This past week seems to have been a blur. Papers are due. Presentations have been scheduled. Final papers are being assigned. Stress is increasing. Things are getting difficult and graduation is only 4 weeks away. Anne has been trying to put all the stress behind her and the other day entered my room with a hankering to play video games.

It started with a conversation at lunch about freshman year. We were reminiscing about the good days, when she was my roommate and she had the rights to use my video game system whenever she wanted to. This, of course, brought up the game that had taken over her life most of freshman year, an NBA GameCube game that was simply a 3 on 3 basketball tournament.

When we were freshman, this game ruled Anne's life. She would skip class to continue her season on the game, winning time after time and never putting the controller down for a break. She would save and turn off the television when she had to leave the room, but the game system would stay running, never being turned off so that Anne wouldn't lose any of her progress in her character's basketball season.

It was pathetic and we almost had to have an intervention to make her quit playing. Luckily, the summer had broken her addiction since she didn't have the game readily available at her home.

As we talked about this game, Anne decided it would be necessary for her to revisit her character and the season she had been doing so well in only three short years ago. When we returned from lunch, Anne took a seat in my green chair and started playing.

I did homework as she played and immediately I began missing freshman year, the stress free beginning classes and the countless fun memories I had with my friends. It made me realize how quickly the past four years have gone by, the ups, the downs, and the countless friends I've made. It's gone too fast and now it's over. There are so many things that I'll miss; Andy (my absolute best friend), the girls, Matt and Chris, and the free time I have to write. It's hard to believe that it's all coming to an end, but the future looks bright.

I watch Anne kick ass in each one of her 3 on 3 basketball match ups and realize that these are the simple times I'll miss the most, just hanging out and talking, watching her play a pointless video game because it helps her to calm down, breathe, and release some stress.

Let the Countdown Begin...

For the past few weeks, video games have become irrelevant. Now it's time to buckle down and get our work done. Of the six of us girls, five of us are seniors...and seniors with intense cases of senioritis. We all have our own things that are keeping us busy. Four of the girls have boyfriends that fill their time. Anne has rugby and her constant rugby parties. I spend most of my time hanging out with my close friend, Christian. There isn't time for video games, only time for homework parties and dinner.

The stress of our upcoming graduation is looming over all of our heads. We're trying to be good and not give in to the pressure of what lies ahead of us in the very near future, but it's difficult. The stress is causing our boiling points to rise and as the end of our undergraduate college careers gets here faster and faster, we are becoming easily annoyed by the little things. Nothing serious, but fights won't be easily avoidable with the high amount of pressure being placed upon the five of the six of us girls.

Last night we took a breather, a nice night to forget homework and other friends and spend the day catching up. The six of us took a walk to Bev's for ice cream. Being outside in the fresh Oswego air, taking in the breeze and enjoying every second that we had with each other helped each of us to relax. While we were walking, we talked about planning a family day, a trip to Alliance Bank Stadium for a Sky Chiefs game, the perfect way to take our mind off of the impending separation.

For now, video games, even though they can sometimes prove to be a definite way to de-stress, have taken a back seat to homework and valuable time with the girls before we all must say our goodbyes. Only a month left until graduation...

The Love of Knowledge

When it comes to video games, I'm a pro. Some games I'm a pro at because I've been playing them forever, and other games I'm a pro at because I've read the books that are created to tell you every little detail of the game. I love gaming manuals and for a long time in my life, I refused to play any game without the manual to go along with it. The game that started my love for this was a game I'm am still incredibly obsessed with.

Zelda. Easily one of the best games ever created. On my own list of favorite games, it can be matched only with my love of Super Mario and Donkey Kong. It's one of those games where you have free range and although there is a set path you must complete to beat the game, you can do it in any order you would like.

I've been playing different Zelda games since I was about 12 years old, the first one being Zelda and the Ocarina of Time. When my sister first bought the game for the Nintendo 64, I was fascinated with it, but since I strictly played classic games like Mario where you can only run in one direction, the free range game play threw me off and I settled for watching her play.

About a month after having the game and not being able to make it past the first level without an intense amount of difficulty, my sister decided to buy the game play book, the manual that tells you every secret of the game and exactly how to beat each section of the game with ease. This began my ultimate love for Zelda as I became what my sister deemed as "the reader".

As "the reader", I would sit and watch my sister play for hours, reading the book to her as she went so she would no longer have to question what she was doing in the game. Some say it's cheating, but I don't care. Reading all about the games inner-workings and the little intricacies of each level was incredible to me. Due to my photographic memory, I began to memorize everything about the book. I would read ahead when she wasn't playing and find out what the future held for my sister.

The only thing was, I wouldn't play the game. I didn't want to. It would take me away from reading the book. But as my sister grew older, she stopped playing as much and to me, reading the book began to seem useless. I had already memorized everything it had to say, so perhaps it was finally time for me to start playing the game. The first time I played the game, I was probably about 15 years old. I had the book sitting next to me, but I can remember never having to open the book because I never ran into a single area in which I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing.

I fell in love with the game because I was so perfect at it. I knew the game better than my sister did because I had read the book. At this point, I felt my brain was the book. I knew everything it had to say and I didn't need it anymore.

And this was what started my love for gaming books. I wouldn't play a game after that without having read the book for it first. The following Zelda games that were created, were bought with the books specifically because my parent's could tell how much I loved the books. My father would constantly call me a cheater, but I didn't want the books to help me with the game, I wanted it for the extra information, the pictures, the stories and character descriptions that you couldn't get specifically from playing the game. I'm a girl that loves details and that's exactly what the books provided me with.

Goodbye Friend...

Well, it's a sad day in Scales, Room 108. The Wii is officially gone...

Jaclyn was the owner of the Wii and in order to provide for her brand new pitbull/boxer mix puppy, Bailey, she made the difficult decision to sell her Wii, her games, and all the accessories along with it.

We should have had a going away party; one last group Mario Party party to say goodbye to our dear friend, but we didn't. That Wii has supplied Room 108 with so many hours of entertainment and laughter over the past two years, it just feels wrong that we weren't able to give it a proper goodbye.

It seems empty in the room. The sounds of dying cats and shrieking birds have disappeared with the loss of the Wii. There is no more Glee Karaoke or Disney Sing-it to be heard through the hallways.

I've lost the power to soar through the universe since I can no longer play Mario Galaxy, and we can no longer have the power to throw our gaming partners off of cliffs since the New Super Mario game was sold as well.

I suppose we'll get over it in time, but it will be tough to fill the void that the loss of our Wii has left deep inside. I love my GameCube and my Super Nintendo, but it's just not the same, not nearly as interactive and fun for the whole group as the Wii was.

You will be missed, Wii, I can promise you that.

Happy Birthday Jaclyn...

In my group of friends, March is one of the months that we look forward to the most. The reason? Several of us have birthdays in March. Jaclyn's is on the 7th, Bre's on the 12th, Caroline's on the 20th, and George's on the 31st. This means that during the month of March, there are a lot of birthday celebrations. Since Jaclyn's birthday was on Monday, we went to Cheap Seats Sunday night for a few drinks. I drove so, like always, I was the sober one.

We all had a good time playing pool and talking, and by the time we left, several of the girls were drunk; including Jaclyn and Anne. By the time we got back to the dorms, it was only 11:00. None of us wanted to go to sleep so Anne followed me and Jaclyn into our room and set up the Super Nintendo.

First, my two drunk friends had to figure out what game to play.

"Let's play Aladdin," Jaclyn yelled, slurring her words.

"No. That...is a one player game. And I...want to play a two player game." Anne spoke with great emphasis so that Jaclyn would understand exactly what she was trying to say.

"Aladdin is better."

"Noparooni. We are playing whatever game is already in the system."

"But I don't want to play that."

"Do you even know what it is?"

"Do you know what your face is?"

Jaclyn was silent.

"Exactly." Anne had proved her point. "Check the game."

"Nooooo." Jaclyn was in no condition to be getting up.

Anne, who was sitting in our green fold out chair, pointed at the Super Nintendo and then put her finger to her nose. This symbolized that she was not going to be the one to get up and turn the game on. Jaclyn, who was sitting in her bed, put her finger on her nose and both girls turned to look at me.

"Screw that." I knew what they wanted me to do and it was not going to happen.

"But you don't have your finger on your nose." Jaclyn said, her finger still pressed to her nose.

"I don't care. I'm not playing. Why the hell would I get up and turn the game on?"

"She has a point," Anne said. "You do it."

"Why me?"

"Because I touched my nose first."

"Awww. Fuck."

Jaclyn was not happy. She agreed to do it, but knowing Jaclyn, she would do it without leaving her bed. She adjusted on the bed and laid down on her side. She reached over the side of the bed and using the controller that was closest to her, she pulled the game system to her. Normally, this wouldn't be a difficult task, but tonight, Jaclyn was drunk.

Anne and I laughed as she pulled system to her. She pulled too hard and almost lost her balance. She started sliding off the bed and screaming along with it. Anne and I didn't move as my drunken roommate hit the floor with a loud thud. Anne started laughing even harder, so hard she was snorting. This made me laugh more as we watched Jaclyn struggle to get back up. She was having a great birthday night.

She pulled her self to her feet using her bed post and started yelling at us. "You guys suck!"

We continued laughing as she stood there, beat red and trying not to laugh at herself.

"I'm not even playing anymore." She kicked the system and stomped out of the room.

"Well, I suppose that's it for the night." Anne stood from her chair, said goodnight, and left the room.

I was still laughing when Jaclyn came back in. She ignored me for the night and went to sleep. It just proves that drinking and playing video games don't go well together, especially if you can't even turn the game on.

"Wii" Are Family

I live in a very closely knit family, but these days we're all very busy and often times don't have time to just sit and talk about our days with each other like we used to. I live in Oswego for about seven or eight months out of the year. My sister works two jobs, and although she still lives at home, she is never there. My brother is 16 and lives at home, but between friends, sports, and school functions, he isn't home nearly as much as he used to be. Often times it's difficult to get the five of us together in one room, but when we do, it's for the same reasons that it used to be; a video game night.

These days we don't play the Super Nintendo together anymore though. We play the Nintendo Wii. Since the Nintendo Wii is an interactive gaming system, my parents felt it necessary to get one for the family. It seemed only right. We have two Super Nintendos, a Nintendo64, three Nintendo Game Cubes, two Play Station 2s, and an XBox 360. Why not add a Nintendo Wii to the mix?

With the interactive bowling and tennis, my parents started arranging little family tournaments. I win the tennis tournament every time, but the bowling champion changes with every tournament. Besides the sports games that come with the system, we have Just Dance 2, an interactive dancing game where you follow the onscreen choreography. My parents enjoy watching me and my brother dance together. Due to my horrible coordination, I'm not specifically good at the dancing game, but I do my best to supply my parents with hours of entertainment.

Other Nintendo Wii games that I enjoy are Disney Sing-it and Glee Karaoke, two games that come with microphones and act as karaoke games. I play these with family and with friends. Now I'm not the best singer in the world, but I try my best to win points and unlock awards by singing songs decently and slightly on pitch.

My friends though, don't care about those things. When Anne sings "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", a classic song from The Lion King, I swear a cat is dying somewhere. She sings as loud and off pitch as she possibly can. It's not a problem since I don't play for points with the girls, but wow, it can definitely be painful sometimes.

The only song on my Disney Sing-it that Anne will take seriously is "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, and she will only take it seriously if she's singing Aladdin's part of the duet. She's something else that girl, but she has a way of making everyone laugh, no matter the game she's playing.

I feel like the Nintendo Wii has become an all too important part of my life, but only because it's been a great way to bring my family back together. It's helping me and my family become more active and giving us a way to connect that had been lost on us for many years.

It has also given me and my friends just one more way to entertain ourselves during the below zero nights in this bitter cold city of Oswego.

Family Bonding

No video games for the girls this week. Anne's sick with the flu and Jaclyn isn't here, so for the first time in a long time I decided to play the Super Nintendo by myself. I put Donkey Kong 3 into the system, started a new file, and immediately my mind fills with childhood memories.

Video games have been quite prevalent throughout my life. When I was younger, perhaps only 4 or 5, I can remember sitting on the floor of my living room playing the Super Nintendo with my sister and my parents. We would play the competition version of the game where instead of playing as a team, we would play against each other. My mother and I would represent one team and my sister and my father would play as the other team.

I could be wrong, but if memory serves me right, I'm pretty close to positive that my mother and I reigned on high as the victorious team. Elizabeth and my father may have won every once in a while, but my mother and I were often times the winners. I wasn't allowed to brag though. It was one of the rules.

       Rule #1: No bragging when you win. It's rude and it's not a good way to make friends.
      
       Rule #2: No fighting.

       Rule #3: No getting upset if you're having trouble with something. It's only a video game.

       Rule #4: No being a sore loser.

I didn't always follow the final rule.

Looking at the rules again, I realize that Anne and Jaclyn break all four rules every time they play together.

Even nowadays, I often times find myself stressing out over a world I can't seem to win or a boss I can't seem to defeat. I let my dissatisfaction with my efforts consume me and become enraged over a stupid little video game. This is when I have to step back and remember those four little rules. The first two rules don't seem to apply to me anymore because I rarely play games with a partner. The last two rules though, they are often difficult for me to follow when I'm stressed out and begin a video game that I may have difficulty with.

Whenever I find myself stressed out over a game, I take myself back to my childhood, sitting next to Elizabeth on the floor, playing video games with my parents. Especially when playing the Super Nintendo, I can feel the warmth of family memories which help to ease my mind.

It was never about the video games themselves when I was little, at least not to my parents. Elizabeth and I spent most of our time outside playing with the neighbors. As soon as the dark hit and our parents called us inside, it became family bonding time. I was too young to understand most family boardgames, so my parents turned to Mario or Donkey Kong on the Super Nintendo to entertain us. We would talk about our days and just spend family time together, one of the reasons I believe we are such a closely knit family.

The living room became our escape from the outside world. It was our sanctuary at night, saving us from the dark or the rain; the only things that seemed to be evil when I was younger. I used to look forward to our video game nights, and these days, I still do. My parents never graduated their video game skills when the Nintendo64 gaming system became popular. The same went for the Nintendo Game Cube. But the Nintendo Wii changed our family dynamic, taking a family that seemed to be slowly growing apart as my siblings and I grew up and pushing them back together.

"What the hell is a 'bajingus'?"

It's Wednesday afternoon between lunch and their next class giving them the perfect amount of time to knock off a couple more worlds in Donkey Kong. They're almost to the fourth level now, breezing through with ease due to the amount of times they've each beaten this game. They're in a treetop world now, running through a massive tree house. It's a favorite world of mine, filled with hidden baddies (bad guys) and secret bonuses. Jaclyn and Anne seem to be having trouble. The hidden baddies are their downfall. Little beavers are dropping from the sky. Jaclyn isn't paying attention during her turn, and almost gets crushed.

"Watch out for falling beavers!" Anne screams.

We start laughing. Only during Donkey Kong would you hear someone yell something as random as that. It's the best part about watching them play. They yell things that just sound so absurd.

They continue playing, yelling along the way. During the tree house world, they encounter what Anne deems the mystery banana. It's just a banana in the level that we think symbolizes a secret bonus, but we can't seem to find the bonus. She screams out "mystery banana!" and continues on. It's Anne's turn at the moment. Jaclyn's trying to tell her what to do again as she looks for the secret bonus world.

"I think you have to...wait...no...the other way...maybe...over there." Jaclyn was trying to direct her. It wasn't working.

"Can you shut up? I can't focus when you talk in that nasally annoying voice."

Anne laughs. Jaclyn throws something at her, perhaps one of the Cheetos she had been eating. We're very mature.

"Oh, thanks." Anne eats the Cheeto. Even better.

Anne finishes her world and now its Jaclyn's turn. As always, Anne is pushing the buttons on her controller as if she's the one playing. Not only is she pushing buttons, this time she decides to add her own sound effects.

"Pow!" She yells as Jaclyn jumps on a baddie. "Pow! Pow!"

"Anne! Shut the fuck up!"

"Jaclyn! Fuck your own face!"

"Seriously, Anne, can you..."

"Suck my dick? Okay," Anne says as she interrupts Jaclyn. I can't help but laugh. Jaclyn falls silent. Anne always wins.

It's Anne's turn now. New world, new problems. It's a water world; no one likes the water worlds. Swimming is difficult and annoying. Anne agrees as she yells "fuck water" at the game system. As she swims through the world, she finds a sidekick crate containing Enguarde, the swordfish that Donkey and Diddy can ride to easily get through the world. Anne calls him "Swordy". That's not his name.

"Anne, it's Enguarde," I say. I know their real names, and I hate when she attempts to rename them.

"Heather, I don't care. It's Swordy to me."

"But that's not right."

"Listen bitch, it's Swordy. Sorta Swordy," she laughs to herself. "See what I did there? Sorta Swordy. It sounds alike." She continues laugh. She's amuses herself quite often.

"Umm, wow." I try not to laugh, but she just sounds so dumb sometimes.

They continue playing, ignoring the time. When I check the clock, it reads 1:42. They both have class at 1:50. "You two not going to your classes?"

"Nope," they say simultaneously, not removing their eyes from the screen.

Anne is playing, running away from an enormous wheel controlled by a running beaver (this game has the most random baddies). She's freaking out, jumping over big gaps, yelling at Donkey Kong to move his fat ass. She jumps a gap, unsure as to whether or not her fat ass character will make the jump. He does, but barely.

"Oh my god. I'm defying gravity!" She screams.

We all laugh and break out into song. Defying Gravity, a song from the musical Wicked, happens to be a favorite of ours.

As we sing, Anne is still being chased by the beaver wheel, and consequently she is still freaking out.

"Holy shit. He is right on my bajingus!"

"Anne, what the hell is a bajingus?" It's a word I've never once heard before, but it makes me laugh hysterically.

"No time to explain," she says frantically. "I need to beat this and your talking is breaking my concentration. So shut it!" Being polite goes out the window during our video game sessions.

I let her finish the world, watching her as she seems to be almost sweating. She lets out a sigh of relief when she finally reaches the end of the world. "For the love of Pete's sake! That was nerve-racking."

Then comes a knock on the door. It can only be one person, Bre, as she's the only one that knocks before she enters the room. I yell that it's open and Bre walks in.

"Stop right there, Bre."

Bre freezes. "What?"

"Don't move. Jaclyn, go save."

"Oh, you're a bitch," Bre tells Anne.

We laugh. Bre is famous for kicking the system, so I completely understand why Anne is taking such precautions. They save the game and enter a new level. It's Jaclyn's turn. She runs through the world as Diddy, entering a secret bonus area. After she defeats the area, her character, Diddy, throws his hat in the air, catches it, and puts it back on his head. For some reason, Jaclyn claims that she can do this. She's uncoordinated, so immediately we don't believe her. She promises to prove it later, and we look forward to watching her hurt herself.

The girls play for another hour or so until Jaclyn has to go to work and Anne has to go to rugby practice. I hang out until dinner time. This is when Jaclyn decides to show us her hat flipping skills. She grabs our friend Matt's hat off his head and tosses into the air. It flips a few times, but instead of catching it, she misses and it hits her in the face.

"Wow, you suck." Anne shows no mercy, making everyone laugh. It's plain and simple; we need more exciting lives.

Saving is Key

This afternoon, at lunch, I discussed my blog topic with Jaclyn and Anne. Both were overjoyed, but relatively hesitant as to what would be expected of them. If they swore, would I write it down? Was I going to be boring and explain each level in detail. No, I told them. I was mainly documenting their reactions to each other and the game. After they were finally completely comfortable with the arrangement, we left lunch, headed back to my room, and started a brand new file on Donkey Kong Country 1, Anne as Donkey Kong and Jaclyn as his little red-hatted sidekick, Diddy Kong.
They started off doing quite well. Switching back and forth with ease, no arguments, but only because they were in the first level of the game. When it's Jaclyn's turn to play, Anne plays along on her controller, pushing the buttons as if she's the one in control. It annoys Jaclyn, but Anne does it anyways. As they continued playing, they would switch after each world, giving each other a chance to play. But it didn't last long. After beating Monty Mole, the boss of the first level, they entered the second level, played two worlds, and took a break when Breanna, a friend of ours, came in.

A main rule of mine when I'm playing a game on my Super Nintendo is to save as many times as I possibly can. It's an old system and it's very temperamental. If it is kicked or moved even the slightest bit, the cord disconnects and whatever you were just playing is ruined. The girls know this and are normally very cautious about it. Our other friends, they don't know the rules. In an effort to go around Anne and take a seat on my bed, Breanna nudged the game system, disconnecting the cord and shutting off the game. The girls gasped as screen went black.

"Bre. Are you fucking serious?" Jaclyn yells, frustrated with the fact that they have to start their file all over again.

"What did I do?" Bre sounds nervous, mainly because she and Jaclyn don't get along too well.

"You fucking kicked it and ruined our game. Awesome."

Bre apologizes, and I can tell she feels awful. It's a game. Who cares?

They turn the system back on and within 25 minutes they're back to where they had been before the incident. This time, they save. Something is different now though. The yelling has begun, the tension has risen, and the intensity has increased. It's no longer just a game. Now it's life and death.

When they restarted their game, I started some homework. They were boring me. It wasn't what I wanted for my blog. I wanted excitement. And then I found it.

"You have to go..."

"Shut up."

"Not that way. Over..."

"Seriously, shut up."

"No. Over there!"

"Jackie. Shut the fuck up or I am going to kill you."

Jaclyn laughs. Anne is serious.

The arguing continues as they reach a new world. It's Jaclyn's turn to play the world, but Anne won't relinquish the control she has over which character is playing. It's one of Jaclyn's favorite worlds because you can ride an ostrich named Expresso, and he's the only animal sidekick in the game that Jaclyn enjoys. Anne knows this and uses it against her, breaking Expresso out of his crate and riding around on him to make Jaclyn jealous.

"Anne! It's my turn!"

"Oh well."

"Come on! I want to ride the fucking ostrich!"

"Sucks to be you then, doesn't it?"

"Fucking switch with me!"

Jaclyn's screaming at Anne by now, but Anne just laughs. It doesn't affect her at all.

"You're such a fucking twat. Let me play."

"Yeah, because that helps." She continues to laugh.

"Cunt! Let me play!"

"Sheesh. Fine." She switches as she continues laughing.

Jaclyn, full of excitement jumps on the ostrich as quickly as possible. She tries to make the ostrich fly, but fails. "How do I do it?" she yells as she jumps, unable to figure out what button makes it fly and she falls to her death.

Anne laughs. Jaclyn's death means that it's Anne's turn now. A devious smile is stretched across her face. Her plan...a total success.

It's Only Just The Beginning...

Okay. So I'm a tomboy, a Yankee fan, a dog lover. My favorite color is green, I have a lot of amazing friends, and I love old school Super Nintendo games. I'm a low maintenance girl with a great support system and a family I wouldn't change for the world. I love to read, I love to write, and I love to play sports. All these things I know for sure, but what I don't know is how to write an interesting blog.

So I took to asking my friends for advice. I asked my friend Anne what to write about, what about me and my life was interesting. Her advice? She had to be a part of it. I asked my roommate Jaclyn the same question and received the same advice. My best friend, Andrew, gave me no advice at all. But as I was sitting in my bed on this typically boring Tuesday night, it came to me: I'm going to document the trials and tribulations of defeating each Super Mario and Donkey Kong Country game that I own, old and new. This way, Anne and Jaclyn, being that they are my Super Nintendo/Wii partners in crime, will both get their way and be involved in the blog about something I know best: Old school style Nintendo games.

For my Super Nintendo, I own Donkey Kong Country 1-3, Super Mario All Stars, and the original Super Mario Brothers. For Jaclyn's Wii, we own the new Super Mario and Donkey Kong Country Returns. This gives us 7 amazing games that the three of us can spend way too much time playing. Each semester, we pick an order, start new files, and defeat each game, repeatedly taking down Bowser or Kaptain K. Rool one by one. This Christmas we were introduced to our newest challenge, Donkey Kong Country Returns, a game created for the Wii which mocks the old school style of linear play, our favorite style.

At the beginning of the semester, we draw straws to see who will play. As usual, the girls want to play without me. They might not like it, but I'm slightly better as I've been playing video games since the age of four. Anne is a great match for me, but most days I emerge victorious. As we begin drawing straws, we discuss which game we'll be starting off with. The girls decide to play the newest Donkey Kong game when I am named as the spectator. Jaclyn draws a straw to be Donkey Kong and Anne becomes Diddy Kong. And then, play begins.

They create their save file, start the game in Level 1, the Jungle, and quickly come to terms with the difficulty they are facing in playing this game. I realize, as I watch them play, I'm happy to be the spectator. I can't play with Jaclyn. She and I have clashing styles of play. She rushes through, leaving the important trinkets, the signature K-O-N-G letter blocks behind. Keeping up with her is tough, whereas Anne is like me and takes her time to kill each bad guy and get every banana coin and K-O-N-G block.

As they face the first 3 worlds within the Jungle, I notice their frustration with each other. They are yelling at each other and laughing as they attempt to kill each other. Jaclyn knocks Anne off of a cliff, killing her in order to go through at her own pace. Unlike the old DK games, you can respawn at any time after each death. A DK barrel carried by a balloon will float onscreen and in order to reenter the game, the barrel must be popped by your partner.

After Anne's unfortunate fall off a cliff into the fatal abyss below, a barrel floats onscreen. Anne shakes her Wii remote so the barrel will fly closer to Jaclyn (Donkey Kong) but Jaclyn doesn't care. She runs from the barrel, attempting to avoi popping it so she can play on her own.

I laugh.

Anne doesn't.

She yells and continues shaking the controller as Jaclyn continues to move away from her. With the ending of the world in sight, Jaclyn pops the barrel and ends the world. Anne is obviously frustrated as I continue to laugh. She gets up to leave but Jaclyn stops her.

"It was a joke. Don't leave."

Anne doesn't seem amused. "If you're going to kill and not pop me so I can keep playing, then why play 2-player at all?" She has a point but I keep my mouth shut.

"Truce?"

"Seriously?"

"Yup. No more killing each other. We work together." She pauses. "And we play a different game. Deal?"

"Deal."

They shake hands, turn the game off, and begin a new save file on Donkey Kong Country, the original for Super Nintendo. I sit back to watch as they begin the new game, their truce breaking almost immediately. This is going to be a long semester...