My ankle hurts. The SciFi Channel's showing Live and Let Die. I guess if Cartoon Network can play reality shows, SciFi can show James Bond. It's been a bit, but it's always been a bit. Posting journal entries to the largely uninterested eyes of the Internet hasn't been a regular thing for me since I moved to Las Vegas; why should opening each entry up with that thought be a habit?

I graduated. I graduated almost a month ago. Getting a high school diploma without stepping foot in a high school for two years makes a guy feel pretty good 'bout himself, especially when it's an honors diploma. Still, I'm two credits short of my associates'. I'm knocking those out with a four-week online lit course, but none of this is interesting. This is supposed to be a reflective space, not a step-by-step playback.

Let's start over. If I possess a quality that I'm grateful for, it's having a level of eccentricity that manages to attract people instead of pushing them away like a giant sign reading "This boy ain't right in the head". Being a likable goofball certainly has perks, especially when you can chalk up possibly-embarrassing moments to planned actions of unique hilarity. The downside? People might not tell you to adjust your cap and gown because they expect you to make yourself stand out. I can't complain about the ceremony, though. It was short, the musical performances were great, and I got the great surprise of being awarded the Founders' Award. I'm starting to believe that most of the student body sees me and Trevor as a single entity, two sides of the same coin, so tying as the award's male recipient shouldn't really be a shock. I think any clumsiness in the ceremony was appropriate; I couldn't imagine a more fitting end to this chapter in our lives. Nevada State High School will definitely miss this class, even if legends of us are not passed down to each new batch of recruits. Now what are the odds that the funds we left for the new student union'll still be there by the end of the summer?

Hideaki, my main character in World of Warcraft, has finally reached a level cap. My disciplined discipline priest reached level 80 three and a half years after his creation. My third character (the first two being precursors to Hideaki and Hatasu on my brother's account), he started joined to the hip of Kellie's warrior Anastar, a leveling and roleplaying pair. Sadly, that partnership started breaking apart into our 30s, with Kellie's presence in WoW becoming rare. With my leveling partner and semi-motivation lost, Hideaki's career became slow and irregular. That didn't stop me from developing the priest's background story , becoming engrossed in Warcraft's plethora of lore. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure why Hideaki started as the fragile and slouching scholar, but his transformation into something that wasn't just Anastar's equal and foil is a pleasing thing to reflect on. His Azerothean journey was marked by strength, self-reliance, and personal faith, probably both the most clear and fantastic reflection of my teenage growth I've put into a fictional character, no matter how lame that sounds. So what does this event in Hideaki's life reveal? While my roleplaying has taken a downturn for the sake of gearing up, this achievement wouldn't have come upon me so quickly into summer if not for my improved friendships with Kevin and my brother. At the very least, hitting 80 gives me some goals and distractions for the summer.

What's on my plate for the coming weeks? The most urgent responsibilities I've got are my previously-mentioned class and some pretty pictures I've got due. I'm redesigning a redesign of a friend's mass-produced mecha concept for an illustration and a two-page comic for a scholarship. That needs to be done within the week and hopefully it'll turn out pretty rad. From there, I owe myself the construction of a spray booth to start building an overflowing closet of gunpla (Gundam model kits). If I get to the master grade GP01 before I leave for New York, I'll be damn happy. While doing that, I hope to pump out some short comics, a few autobiographs and an ongoing series, working title "Legends of Deheleshen: The Blank of 14 Years", based on our current Exalted campaign. Handling all of that and some more illustrations tossed in should give me a pinch of confidence and some works to fatten up this gallery. I can only hope that that'll be enough for me to walk into SVA with my chin high and that I can even finish it all. I was actually able to finish leveling Hideaki (for now), so let's see what I'm capable of!

Edit: Oh hey, Calvin's coming in a month! Win!