IT HAS HAPPENED: Bethesda releases OFFICIAL Fallout 4 Trailer

So have you ever seen something so beautiful that it causes you to burst into tears? And they're not manly tears, they're ugly, snot dripping down your face, wracking, sobbing tears... Yeah well that's what happened to me today when Bethesda released the official trailer for Fallout 4.







Even though we don't have an official release date, we will know more soon during Bethesda's E3 showcase on June 14th at 7pm PST.



So far, Bethesda has finally put up the official Fallout 4 website where one can pre-order the game from Amazon, Best Buy, or GameStop. I dunno about you guys, but I may stick with my local Mom and Pop gaming store for this release.



Still, are you guys as STOKED as I am?



Anyway, I'll post more as I get it! In the meantime, let's celebrate! I'm cracking a Nuka just for you!



~Wolf

IT'S HAPPENING... FALLOUT 4 ANNOUNCEMENT IS IMMINENT.

I figure that this is appropriate: 

The moment that we have been waiting for... Looks like it's time for me to spend lots of money upgrading my consoles:

Bethesda has put a countdown timer on their website, which will lead up to the official announcement. Of course, the internet is about to blow up, but we knew that would happen, right? This announcement has hit us like the A-Bomb hit Japan.

.

.

.

Too soon?

Anyway, I don't know about you guys, but as soon as the official release date is announced, I'll be putting in for time off from work. What should I say about my reason? ...

Me: "Oh uh hey boss, I need to take a week off starting X day."

Boss: "Why? You never take time off without a good reason."

Me: "Oh, Fallout 4 is being released and I will need time to tell the whole world to go fuck itself."

Boss: "You're fired."

Me: "Sure thing boss."

No, seriously though, I am taking a week off from work when it comes out.

Everyone and everything can suck it once Fallout 4 comes out.

Still, isn't it odd that Bethesda is not waiting until E3 to announce this? But, I have to say that I'm happier than a Bloatfly in dead bodies! 

What about you guys?

Until then, happy travels my friends!

~Wolf

Fallout 4 Announcement Coming Soon?

Today is a good day my friends.

Today, your Wolf of Fallout learned some very interesting and possibly Fallout 4 related news.

According to EGMNow, ZeniMax, Bethesda's parent company has recently registered a new domain name titled "thesurvivor2299.com."

Why is this so exciting? Well my friends we may soon be "fighting the good fight" again.

Our long waited for announcement may come as early as next month!

Right now if you go to the website you will find a black page with some beeping. The page also shows what I believe is a countdown clock, much like those we have seen in the past for big releases of video games.

What is the beeping you ask? Well my friends that is Morse code and it spells out "11.12.13." The page's source code reveals that this is a date. A European date MM/DD/YYYY, but still it's a date. The clock is counting down to December 11, 2013!

My friends, this is huge!

And you may be saying "But Wolf, a countdown clock and some beeping doesn't mean anything."

Well kiddies inspect the source code again and you will see in the script "fallout.css."

There ya go.

And why "survivor 2299?"

Well, our friends over at EGMNow have speculated the following:

Speculation is that “The Survivor” is the name of the player-character in Fallout 4, since its style is in the same vein as “Vault Dweller,” “Chosen One,” “Lone Wanderer,” and “Courier.” The number, 2299, is believed to be the year Fallout 4 takes place. Fallout 3 took place 2277, while Fallout: New Vegas took place 2281.

 There you go friends. So is anyone as pumped as I am?!

So long for now!
-Wolf

Fallout: Lanius (I want you all to see this.)

So I was hanging out on FB earlier today as my "real self" and I came across this:

Fallout: Lanius which is a fanmade film!

They have their own FB page too:

https://www.facebook.com/FalloutLanius

I really think everyone should check it out! It looks like it's going to be awesome:

~Wolf

Obsidian: Fallout New Vegas 2 on the Horizon?

Yes, yes, I know it has been entirely too long. Let's see... I think about six months? Damn, Wolf! What the heck have you been doing since then?!

Well not a whole hell of a lot. I got engaged. Then I graduated from my graduate program (redundancy anyone?) and I have been searching for a job. I even applied for a job with... dun, dun, dun, BLIZZARD. Don't worry, I was rejected, so I'm not going to the dark side quite yet. Someday though... someday...

Still, I do have a couple of irons in the fire and when I get a job... well... I guess I'll tell you guys. In the meantime, I'm still searching the internet constantly for Fallout related news, while substitute teaching on the side. That's right. I teach your kids when their teacher is sick, so watch out! ... No seriously, your kids will like me.

Anyway, I came across an interesting tidbit on my Facebook feed today involving Fallout related rumblings. Nathan Grayson from the PC gaming blog "Rock, Paper, Shotgun" recently interviewed Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart about the studio's future prospects for another Fallout: New Vegas.

Now I know from some of your comments that not all of us were happy with FNV. I completely understand your sentiments, especially when it came to how buggy the damn thing was. I actually had to completely restart the game on several occasions to work around the bugs. Still, don't you think it would be exciting if Obsidian did another Fallout concentrating on the West Coast while leaving the East Coast to Bethesda? 

I would tell them to:

Would you? Tell me what you think in the comments below!

<3 you guys forever!

~Wolf

FALLOUT 4 RUMORS! BOSTON!

I woke up this morning thinking that nothing particularly amazing was going to happen. This is pretty much how life is now everyday since I graduated from graduate school. On top of that I'm bored as all fuck. I don't quite have a job yet and my parents are breathing down my neck, but today... Today is good.

Today is good because of this.

Another rumor is flying around about Fallout 4 and this time it seems to be from a credible source. I've said before that we needed to find out where Bethesda was sniffing around to find out where the location of the next Fallout would be. Apparently, most of us were wrong with our predictions. Boston, Massachusetts is being investigated right now by Bethesda employees. 

Anyone as psyched as I am about this? Now I don't have to fight that Death Claw!

Teaching the Atomic Age: There's a reason why I'm not a professor.

In one week I am set to lecture my peers on a historical event. I have chosen to teach what I know and that is the Atomic Age, specifically the circumstances surrounding Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For those of you who don't know this, I have a bachelor's degree in history. I know. Super useful, but I was raised in a family full of history buffs. It just seemed like the right specialization at the time, however, I did not get a teaching degree with my BA.

I realized early on that keeping me out of a classroom full of children who have their crazy parents backing them was probably a good idea. I have a bad habit of telling people who criticize me to "go fuck themselves" or to make some kind of sarcastic, passive aggressive comment. No seriously. I do. Also, I cuss when I try to talk about historical events, which is something that most parents would be unhappy about.

On top of that, public speaking scares the crap out of me. I have a hip flask that I keep full of vodka and it has been very tempting for me when faced with the possibility of public speaking to take a snoot full before getting behind that podium. But I have never actually done this because I get even more obnoxious after I've had a couple of drinks. This is why I usually drink at home in my apartment while yelling all kinds of profanities into my Turtle Beach Headset. (I often threaten to break off certain "sexual play things" in people's orifices if I feel that their assassination attempt was in cowardice.)

But now, I have to give this lecture to a group of my peers to complete grad school. This is the last thing that I wanted to do while here at Pitt and while I was encouraged to give it on something related to library and information science, I realized that I'm not passionate enough about anything in my field to actually give a lecture on it.

Anyone have some advice on how I can get through this without taking a shot from my hip flask before getting behind that podium?

Removal of Anonymous Commenting Abilities

Today, after much deliberation, I have decided to remove the ability to comment anonymously from this blog. Part of this decision was made due to problems with anonymous commenters making hurtful/lewd/inappropriate comments toward other commenters or members of this blog. I will NOT tolerate this. This is supposed to be a friendly environment where people can express their opinions and be heard out as equals. If you want to call someone a "fag" then don't do it on my blog. If you want to call someone a "fag" on my blog, then you better attach your name or a name to it because doing it anonymously makes you a coward. If you have a problem with someone TAKE IT OUTSIDE.

G4: Fallout 3 is number 75/100

G4 just ranked Fallout 3 as their number 75 greatest game of all time. This is out of 100 by the way.

Anyways, it got me thinking: Where does Fallout 3 rank on your list?

Personally it's in my top five.

Leave me your thoughts in the comments below!

GameSpy: Zenimax Online Boss: Single-Player Elder Scrolls Games "Are Still Going to Be Made"

GameSpy: Zenimax Online Boss: Single-Player Elder Scrolls Games "Are Still Going to Be Made"

As I was looking for news today about the next Fallout, I stumbled upon this little prediction. Stapleton says that he's shooting for a 2016 release date for the next major Bethesda game. I'm thinking that's a little too far out, but on the other hand I have to agree with him.

We are getting to the end of another console generation. With Nintendo's premier of the Wii U at E3 last week, the end is coming faster and faster. Still there has been very little confirmed on the next gen console's for Nintendo's biggest competitors, Sony and Microsoft. So I can see where Stapleton is coming from when he predicts the next big Bethesda game in 2016.

Does anyone out there have any predictions on when the next big Bethesda game will be released? The next one will probably be Elder Scrolls Online or Fallout 4, but that's just my opinion.

I'm on Twitter!

So to save some space I have decided to start a Twitter page. Now you can find out what I'm thinking everyday if you want to... which you probably don't... Anyway, I'm on Twitter now! You can follow me @WolfofFallout.

On a slightly related note, it looks like I will be taking a shit load of chems and fighting a Death Claw with my bare hands. Who wants me to record it and post it here?

Let me know!

Bethblog: A Sign of the Future?

I feel oddly disturbed by the state of Bethesda's Blog today. While Bethesda is obviously gearing up for E3 next week, they are mostly paying homage to other games like Dishonored, a new Skyrim DLC, and Doom 3 BFG edition. This has me a little worried. I feel that if Bethesda were going to make any noise about the announcement of the location of next Fallout they would make a teeny bit of noise on the Bethblog. Unfortunately, I see nothing. The last time Bethesda made an announcement about Fallout was in relation to some discounts on the PS Network. Troublesome... very troublesome.

Remember, if there is no announcement about a new Fallout in our future, I will take every drug I can get my hands on and fight a Deathclaw with my bare hands. You can bet your sweet ass on that one cause I am not fucking around here.

New Poll

I've added a new poll today. I want to know what you want me to blog about. If what you want is not included in my poll, leave a comment below or email me at blackwolfcries@gmail.com. Thanks ya'll!

E3 Starts a Week From Today

E3 starts a week from today and while I anticipate good things, how will we all feel if Fallout 4 is not announced at the annual convention this year? Well I don't know about ya'll but I will be so angry that I will:

I'm 100% serious on that one. I will be so fucking pissed.

Also, little update for you. If I can get more followers on this blog, I will hire a web designer to customize this thing. So do me a favor: stop commenting as Anonymous and follow this blog! I don't bite! Well... not all the time :3

Took a break and now I'm back! (Fallout 4 Rumors Cont) UPDATED

I did not know until yesterday that this blog has become a little more popular, especially among fans of the Fallout Franchise. I am ecstatic to see that my blog is finally taking off, even if it is in relation to just one post. I figured that it would be the most popular to begin with. One thing is bothering me though: if you are going to comment on a post, do me a favor and join the site! I want to get to know everyone!

Anyways, I know that many of you are excited about learning the location of Fallout 4 at E3 in June. We are less than a month out from the biggest video game conference in the U.S. and the rumors are running wild. I have kept my ear to the ground for any rumblings/rumors about F4's location. I thought for a bit there that Bethesda would be announcing it via their Twitter feed but unfortunately I was probed wrong when Bethesda announced "Dishonored" instead. While this was disappointing, I understand why they are being tight-lipped about F4.

Now I did see in the comments on FALLOUT 4 RUMORS! that one of our Anonymous friends claims to have a reliable source who claims that the new Fallout will take place in New York. While this is an interesting idea, I am going to take this with a big ass grain of salt.

It would be very interesting to have the next Fallout be in NYC. For those of you who don't know, I was born on Long Island, so the idea of seeing NYC as a hulking slag heap is a little odd. On the other hand I have to take into consideration the logic of another Anonymous friend:

This is a GREAT observation! The Big Apple is already showing signs of problems due to global warming. It is at a much higher risk of flooding due to its location than other U.S. cities. But if you look back to my first couple of posts about the last FNV DLC you will notice that Bethesda made a huge blunder in logic. For more info please see An Introduction: I just ruined Fallout New Vegas for myself and The adventures of Super Spaz! (I was right and now it's bothering me even more.). So I honestly would not be surprised if they repeat this blunder and make F4 in NYC.

Some of you also mentioned the possibility of the Midwest:

I forget, have any of the previous games ever mentioned Chicago, Detroit, or Cleveland? Chicago was mentioned in F3 by Scribe Jameson and Rothchild and it does make an appearance in Fallout Tactics but not actually in the game. There have been hints of an Enclave outpost there, so there is always the possibility of a similar scenario with a game in Chicago like there was in New Vegas. For example, two major factions fighting it out (again) with smaller factions present, but I feel that this same scenario is unlikely. Maybe they will bring back the Vault Dweller from F3 but the Courier was practically a revolutionary step in characters for the Fallout Franchise.

There have also been rumblings that the Fallout MMORPG would have taken place in Detroit. And of course there have been similar ideas about it. The motor city would have been in its prime if things had continued going the way they were in 1950 by the start of the Great War. There would be a lot of exploration of burned out car factories and more things would blow up there than in FNV. All of the burned out cars in FNV really put a kink in my style considering that I love to blow them up when fighting an enemy.  Anyway, the Fallout Wiki does show that some other boys and girls are talking about the possibility of Detroit.

There has not been much talk about the possibility of Cleveland though. If Pittsburgh was "the Pitt" (literally) in F3 then there is the distinct possibility that its proximity to Cleveland might also produce a highly irradiated hole in the ground. I really think that Cleveland is unlikely but I may be wrong! I have been before!

What's truly amazing is that they stayed true to the Pittsburgh skyline in this DLC. Love it! But this bridge should be yellow just like all of the other bridges in Pittsburgh. This is the South Tenth Street Bridge and it's yellow not green. Have to say that the dead bodies at the top were a nice touch. Also they were highly accurate with the layout of Haven except for the part where Pitt's campus is not DOWNTOWN. It's in Oakland which is up the Boulevard of the Allies. And yes that really IS the Cathedral of Learning. 

How Bethesda sees it.

How I see it.

Anyways, I love being able to see all of your interesting ideas! But tell me what areas would be featured in future DLCs if any of the aforementioned cities are picked for Fallout 4?

-Wolf

UPDATE

Rumors persist as E3 moves closer that Fallout 4 will be announced there as the long awaited Fallout MMO: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/e3-2012-what-to-expect-from-this-years-show-1082083

Halo 4 Release Date Announced: Start the Count Down!

To those of you who are interested, the release date of Halo 4 has been announced by 343 Industries just weeks after Bungie turned over the servers. To keep all ya'll updated on the wait, I have included the Halo 4 countdown ticker to the VERY BOTTOM of my blog. My HTML editing skills are shi- I mean limited so that was the only place I could squeeze it in. Enjoy!

Over Analysis: The curtains are no longer blue.

I'm sure that many of you who attended high school or are currently attending it, remember your English teacher and his or her over analysis of literature. I believe it was Stephen Crane, author of the Red Badge of Courage, who said of his writings that if one could find a deeper meaning from them then you must be on crack or something similar. For example:

As human beings, we are always trying to find a deeper meaning in EVERYTHING. (*cough* religion! *cough*) This often causes us to over analyze everything. As an information professional, I have read entirely too many papers where scholars demonstrate this terrible habit. Suddenly "the curtains were blue" no longer has the same meaning. Instead the curtains are a symbol of depression and attention deficit disorder with a theme of a ham and cheese sandwich on a sesame bagel being run over by a Prius with flame details. See? If we over analyze something then it loses its meaning and becomes useless to the reader. 

Today I read four papers by four different scholars, all of whom were describing the results of indexing for systems of information retrieval that were used for art and music collections. Riveting, right? One author presented the reader with an entity relationship model that was meant to illustrate how her system worked. And while looking at it made me want to punch a panda in the face, I was able to understand the basic workings of her retrieval system. But she chose to describe EVERY SINGLE STEP IN MINUTE DETAIL. About halfway through her paper, I realized that I was lost and the whole article had lost its meaning. See what happens when you over analyze? 

Maybe it was the way I was brought up through high school in honors English classes. I had a total of three English teachers during my four years of high school. The last one I had for two years in a row, and she was the queen of over analysis. And while I must thank her for her harshness in grading my papers (thanks for all the C's you bitch) because she has made me the writer I am today, she also made me the cynical bitch I am today. And by bitch I mean that I will come out and say exactly what I mean whenever I want. Often times, people are offended by what I have to say, but at least I say what I mean instead of beating around the bush.

I am calling for the simplification of speech and writing. Stop over analyzing everything. Say what you mean and be done with it. Then we can all move on, and I don't have to work so hard to get two-hundred and fifty words on a page for a discussion posting about your boring shit paper you bitch. 

The End.

10 Truths about grad school

As most of you already know I am a graduate student in the field of library and information science. The sad truth of grad school today is that everyone and their brother is going. Partly to avoid the bad job market, but also because a bachelor's degree has almost become the equivalent of a high school diploma.

Sadly, this is how some people end up in grad school.

I graduated last May from a state school with a Bachelor of Arts in History. (Although, my degree doesn't even list my major. It just says "Bachelor of Arts." So if I get Alzheimer's, I won't even be able to look at that to remind myself what I went to college for! "Why yes I went to college, but my degree has made me conveniently forget what for! All well!") And yes, I knew going into my major that I would be unable to do anything with my degree unless I sought even higher education. Honestly, my choices were 1. go to grad school 2. become a bum and scream at people that I went to college so I deserve their respect. I decided to go to grad school.

Now my program is unique. It is advertised as being a two year program, but in reality, they push you through in eleven months of trial by fire. When I pointed this out to my professors, they looked at my like I was crazy. "Well of course it's two years," one of them said to me with a smile. "You start one year and you finish the next year. Two years."

-_- No bitch. Two years is four semesters with a summer break in between. But evidently my iSchool (that is what a certified MLIS school is called, short for "Information School"), does not use logic. But I am actually very happy about being able to finish my degree in eleven months. I will get out into the job market quicker AND I will not spend as much money.

While here though, I have learned some ultimate truths about grad school. So let me teach them to you, especially if you are thinking of taking this crazy ride.

1. You will age.
   No one ever believes me on this one. And those people are usually the ones who get to know you DURING your time in graduate school. Unfortunately, this is one of the worst truths of grad school. You can kiss your youth good-bye if you are a traditional student who has gone with no or very little time between your undergraduate and graduate time. The amount of stress that one is dealing with is almost unimaginable, especially during the first semester. For those of us who start our graduate programs in the fall, most of us will say the same thing. The first month, September, is terrible. October is make or break and November... well you're pretty much screwed. When your first semester is over, you will not see many waking hours. Most of your time off in between semesters will be spent sleeping. Unless you decide to take advantage of the winter "mini-semester" if your program offers one. (If you do you should probably be admitted to the asylum.)

When I came home from my first semester, before I walked in the door, my parents were under the impression that I was going to go back to my job at the grocery store down the street. But when I walked in the door, my mother was shocked at how terrible I looked and my dad actually said to my face "Wow you look like crap. Did you age by five years or something?" My mother patted my shoulder and told me to spend the next two weeks doing whatever I wanted. I spent the next two weeks sleeping as much as possible and playing video games while crying in the mirror about my appearance. I have really aged. I don't even get carded anymore.

My boyfriend started grad school with a lot more hair. He finished grad school in December with a highly noticeable receding hairline. People have told him that he looks like he is at least forty. He turned twenty-four in November...

Still don't believe me? Believe it.

2. You will be hungry.

  Now while I do have a job that pays, the university finds every way possible to screw over its student workers. Pay cycles are once a month. Now I have been lucky that I have a partial scholarship, so I get back about half of my loan money that goes into a savings account for my third semester. But I try as hard as possible not to touch it. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that I have not been given a full paycheck since I started back this semester. The way that the pay cycle is here makes it next to impossible to be paid regularly, a full paycheck, every month.

So in the meantime, you are left wondering how you are going to afford to feed yourself. You find yourself constantly haunting the halls, looking for receptions that have leftovers so that you can descend like a common rat, stuff yourself and your school bag, and then run off like a thief in the night. If you ever see a grad student with a guilty look and a packed school bag that they are cradling like a baby, you can almost guarantee that they have just raided someone's reception leftovers.

Let me say again, you are 100% going to be hungry at some point during grad school. Do whatever is legal to get a job and get money. Honestly, I have at least one classmate who has applied for food stamps and gotten them.

3. You will think about dropping out. Many times.

  I have contemplated dropping out and going home on several occasions. While the prospects of getting that Masters Degree is attractive along with all of the extra money that it can potentially bring you, this journey does not come without bouts of depression and hopelessness. Several of the people that I started this program with have succumbed to their demons and dropped out already.

 Basically, it's a lot of money, time, and effort that you put at stake. You take an expensive risk in hopes that your life will ultimately be better later on for it, but during this risk, you often wonder if it was the right risk to take. There will be that assignment that is so terrible, so truly awful, that you will be in tears, begging your professor for more time/help, and they will tell you no. For me this was my breaking point. Me and half of my classmates sat in class the day that an assignment was due weeping and begging for more time and help. We were given none. For me, if one of my classmates had not taken pity on me and helped me out, I would have failed the assignment and dropped out.

You will run into this assignment/task eventually if you decide to go on to grad school. And I am going to sound like a broken record here but you have to stick with it. If you do not, you will end up regretting it forever. And the shame. The shame will be unbearable.


4. You will take abuse with grace and not even notice it until later.

  Honestly, most of grad school is abuse. You're hungry, sleep deprived, over-worked, under-paid and under appreciated. If you have to teach while in grad school, you will take a lot of abuse from your students and not even notice it until after the fact. Undergrads are more likely to not respect you if you fill in for a professor to teach a class or lab. And while you are deserving of their respect, you will not think so until later on. Remember, you already HAVE the degree that they are working toward, but this will not make them anymore inclined to respect you. Grad students are like a joke to undergrads and sometimes professors will treat you the same way. Your students will bug the crap out of you to grade their papers/tests along with your professor. You will do so with grace, not realizing until later that you have been abused.

And this is all perfectly legal. It's simply part of academia. Undergraduates are just like children and so are professors. Graduate students are kind of the old people of academia. They want respect, but are not likely to get it very often. So take the abuse, but do so with grace. Do it with a smile because all of this will be over soon.

5. You will continuously wonder how the hell you got to grad school.

  I wonder all the time how in the hell I got to where I am. I would like to say hard work and studying, but I really have a hard time with that. Let me illustrate my point:

This is how most of us spend our four years as undergrads. We are told to read something and decide that it means there is no homework. Unless there is written work, you often times refuse to complete reading assignments. We get to class, having not read anything, but end up dominating discussion anyway. THOSE are the people who end up in grad school. We got to grad school by bsing our way through our undergraduate work. 

And when you get to grad school, you will start to have to read for homework. There is no more bsing your way through a discussion. If you do not have sources to back up a point, you will be eviscerated during discussion. So you will keep asking yourself "how the hell did I get here?" Well you got here by bsing your way through the last four years, but now you have to get into the REAL work.

6. You will seriously wonder whether or not you belong in grad school.

 I am one of the youngest people in my program. Most of the people that I entered the iSchool with have been out of school for a couple of years and have worked in libraries and have a better knowledge of what they are getting into than I do. This ultimately made me wonder how I got to grad school and whether or not I belonged here. They all seemed so much more motivated and knowledgeable than me. I realize now that it's just because they have more life experience than me and they have to work harder to get back into the study groove.

So yes, you're going to wonder whether or not you belong in grad school. The reality of it is that if you were accepted, then whoever looked over your application sure as hell thought so and that's a big deal. AND if you are lucky enough to get a scholarship from the school, then you definitely belong because they are SPENDING money on you. That means they want you for something. They see potential and you should see it too, but all too often, we as grad students do not.

7. There will be books, articles, etc. that you will read and not understand even when your professor explains them.

  My first two weeks of grad school were terrible. I was reading books and articles that I did not understand and my professors were not helping. In this case, you should not panic. This is going to happen from time to time. You are not going to understand everything you read, and sometimes I think that professors do it on purpose to knock you down a few pegs. It's okay. As long as you understand other books/articles that you have been reading, it's okay if every once in a while you do not understand a few things.

If you don't understand it, try to listen to your professor's lecture on it. And if you still don't understand, ask for clarification on the subject later, maybe during office hours. If you still do not understand, don't worry about it. Just let it go.

8. Your adviser is virtually useless.

In grad school you are assigned an adviser, just like you were as an undergrad. Remember how helpful you thought your undergrad adviser was? Yeah well you can forget about your grad adviser. They are often too busy with everything else they have to do as professors to meet with you. Last semester, I asked to meet with my faculty adviser only to find that she was less than interested in discussing my career goals with me. I never got to meet with her in person because she was "simply too busy to see me." So she asked me to send her questions via email. Even then she was less than helpful.

But remember something: Professors are very busy. It may not seem like it, but they have full schedules. And, believe it or not, you are an adult capable of making your own decisions. I know, it's mind blowing. So don't worry about your adviser. If you need to see them, insist vehemently that you must meet with them in person. If not, don't worry about it. Make your own decisions, but remember that if you screw up you have no one to blame but yourself.


9. If you get even a day off, you will use it to catch up on homework NOT sleep.

The amount of work that grad students are expected to complete in a timely manner is ridiculous. I'm not saying that you should use every waking minute of everyday on homework, but on your days off, you may be forced to do so. So, when you get a day off, make sure that you use it catching up on homework instead of sleeping. This will ensure that you spend the least amount of time possible cramming the night before an assignment is due.


10. Alcohol is your best/worst friend.

If you are not a drinker now, you will be once you start grad school. Alcohol may be expensive, especially in PA where I live because of the drink tax, but sometimes, it is more important to you than food. I have written my most brilliant papers while completely snockered off my ass, with perfect grammar, spelling, and citations and just the right amount of cynical sarcasm to make it interesting. Liquid inspiration.

But this is a healthy median that is difficult to reach. This is the thin line between being a brilliant scholar or a sloppy, pisspants drunk. This is what I mean by your worst enemy. If you drink even an ounce too much, your paper will ultimately end up terrible, or you may end up forgetting about it in your drink induced fog and decide to take a nap, have sex, get arrested, destroy public property, etc. So yeah it can definitely be your worst enemy so be VERY careful with your timing on papers. I like to start mine at least a week an a half before they're due so that if I screw up the first time, I have plenty of time to fix it and make it right.

These are the ten truths of grad school. I am not AGAINST people going to grad school. If you wanna go, great! All the more power to you! But these are the things that I wish someone had told me before I went. I could have been better prepared for the inevitable.

FALLOUT 4 RUMORS! (UPDATED)

Hey ya'll! I want to take some time today to discuss some recent rumors about Fallout 4. This morning I was told by a friend that it will be taking place in San Francisco! I know right?! It's freaking crazy!

Has it been officially announced by Bethesda? No. A quick check of Bethesda's website this morning shows no news about Fallout 4. The most you will hear about there related to Fallout is the recent release of the FNV Ultimate Edition on Tuesday.

So how do I know that it's in San Francisco? Weeeellllllll a teaser trailer has been floating around on YouTube. Now there is some argument that it is user made, but I have to say that if this was user made then this user should be WORKING for Bethesda. Anyway, this video has the Bethesda logo. It's been up since January 2011, and if it were fake and were using Bethesda's logo without their permission, I'm sure that Bethesda would have demanded that it be taken down. But you know, Bethesda is a little funny about things like that. They do defend their name and their licenses like rabid animals, but this... from a copyright nerd's point of view, I think this is real. Considering Bethesda's past fights in the copyright world, I think this is real.

Also, since the release of Skyrim, I think that leaks of information about Fallout 4 are inevitable. And since Bethesda has neither confirmed of denied the validity of this trailer, maybe we should take it as truth with a grain of salt.

There is an argument that Bethesda would never revisit places that have already been featured in previous games, but maybe it's time that we revisit them. Think about it. The first Fallout takes place eighty-four years after the Great War of 2077. Now fast forward to Fallout 3, the year is 2277, exactly two-hundred years after the Great War. FNV takes place in 2281. That's a lot of time between the original and the most recent games. A lot may have changed between now and then in San Francisco. And very little is known about the area as of 2281. It is not mentioned in FNV. It has not been mentioned since F2. Maybe it's time that we find out what is going on there?

So I want to know: what do you think my friends? Is this real? Is it fake? If it's fake, where do you think F4 will take place? Because if this is fake, then I am out of ideas on F4.  

UPDATE

http://fml-mlisn.blogspot.com/2012/05/took-break-and-now-im-back-fallout-4.html

Today is the day! FNV Ultimate Edition hits stores!

Well, the wait is over today in the States with the final release of the Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition! And while I will not be purchasing it, I'm sure that sales will initially be excellent as more patient gamers pick up the completed New Vegas today.

This edition of FNV has the original FNV but it also has all of the DLCs (Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road) and of course the content add ons (Courier's Stash and Gun Runner's Arsenal). This edition is reminiscent of the Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition from a couple years ago which also included all of the DLC's. Honestly though, who can wait for that?

So for those of us who are super nerdy, this would make a great Valentine's Day present for that special someone, especially if you have a gamer girlfriend/boyfriend!

Also, I found this little tid-bit the other day and it is completely accurate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G__TiVl9xME

And those of you who are female gamers out there, you know it's true. We all say these things! And we do them too! Who HASN'T played video games on the toilet or angrily eaten Doritos while screaming into our mics?

And guys, I didn't leave you out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=310-Fdu4qHk