So I just found out today that I got rejected from a financial position from a pretty reputable company in the Midwest. I knew I wasn't going to get the job based on my interview experience, but it still sucks nonetheless. Below, I'll chronicle the entire experience, noting the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good

-I got to visit a mid-western city/state that I had never been to. I had heard of this city before and had assumed it would a hick town full of rednecks, but I could not have been more wrong. It was a pretty progressive area that reminded me a lot of New York City, minus the insane amounts of people. Other people around me compared it to the French Quarter in Louisiana.

-The HR girl who interviewed me was drop dead gorgeous and no older than 25. Usually, I'm easily intimidated by attractive girls, but this girl was so far out of my league, I didn't even blink. She was really friendly and bubbly, too, which helped the interview go smoothly....

Let me just start off by saying I grew up with the Donkey Kong Country franchise, but I am facing the new Wii pseudo-sequel with some apprehension. When I first heard the news at E3, my first reaction was really? A Wii game? If nothing else, I would have expected this to be a Virtual Console Release in the vein of Sonic the Hedgehog 4.

Speaking of the number 4, another thing that immediately caught my eye was how the focus on the title was on the word Returns, and present in its absence was the number 4. This is a bit disappointing as the original DKC was the only one where there wasn't much incentive to get all the Bonus Barrels/DK coins (which didn't exist, if memory serves me correctly) other than bragging rights. This was thee biggest structural change to the gameplay that the two sequels introduced and I loved. Collect all the bonuses, get the "other world" stages to open up.

The more I thought of Returns, the more I began to worry. I quickly came...

So as the name of the blog states, I am a bit lost as to what to do after graduation. I just graduated from a decent university with a decent gpa. However, now I am at a loss as for what to do next. I know that I want to eventually go into finance and or law, but I realize that may not be viable right now and am looking into marketing as a back-up play. I am actively seeking employment and cannot consider grad school a viable financial option for until the next 3-5 years.

I've read more self-help and "how to get a job" articles than I care to admit, but figure I'd now turn my attention to help from real life experiences from real people, and not rambling idealists buried in an ivory tower of academia. Most of my friends went straight on to grad school immediately after undergrad, so they have little advice to offer me.

Now I've posted my resume on monster.com very recently, and I've gotten calls for interviews with a couple of marketing firms. One called...

FAQ. This simple three letter abbreviation is something that is nowadays known by just about every gamer. When I first started gaming, this term to me was an abomination. While I certainly didn't look down upon people who used FAQs, I just personally felt that using them to get through a game on the initial playthrough really cheapened the experience, and to be quite frank, almost felt like cheating. I used to feel that if I sat and pontificated on the puzzle at hand long enough/replayed a difficult section I "knew" how to beat enough times/took a long enough break away from a particular game, I'd eventually be able to get through it through sheer amounts of willpower and copious patience. Perhaps somewhere in the deepest recesses of my core, I stubbornly continue to cling onto this notion, but I've more or less begun to change my views on walkthroughs/faqs. I've decided to list all the possible reasons I could think of to use an FAQ. This brings me to the first usage of FAQs...

This is the first time I'm blogging on CAG. So I thought it would be fun to write about my first game from my favorite genre: RPGs. (WARNING: It's long)

Every once in a generation, there comes an iconic piece which becomes transcendent and symbolizes a genre unto itself. Whether the medium is music, art, literature, film, or video games, the impact these singular works have will resonate for years to come. In the case of the modern Jrpgs, one title will always come first and foremost to my mind: Final Fantasy IV.

I was fortunate enough to play three of the greatest Rpg's of all time as my first 3 entries into the genre: Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, and Chrono Trigger. I played (and beat, I might add) all of these titles when I was a mere 8 years old. I needed a little help with FF4 (and got it via a FF chat room). I am pleased to say that various replays through this years have ascertained one thing I knew right from the start. I'm not waxing poetic based...