This weekend I had the great pleasure of talking with my fifth grade teacher Pilar. She is one of my Mom’s best friends. Even after more than a decade of living in a different country she is still considered a great friend. She is going to come and visit this summer and I could not be more excited.

We had a catch up session over the phone where she told me plenty about what is going on with her life and I also told her how much my life has changed. Like my grandfather she has always been a great supporter of me. She then told me a story that I did not remember about my early years.

The first time I ever walked into her classroom I was very young, I had been listening to her talking about the sun and what she was teaching stuck with me. Then she was talking about God and I told her that I felt that God was the sun. I said “The sun is everywhere warming us up and even at night it gets to us because its being reflected by the moon.” She is still amazed to this day that I had that capability of reasoning at such an early age. I have very vague memories of this happening and it was not until she mentioned that I even remembered it.

She later on became my fifth grade teacher, but when I first met her I was not even going to school yet. I am not sure if I ever told this story here but I actually started first grade when I was four years old. It was a mixture of luck and opportunity even though if I had the choice I probably would have waited until I was a little older to start school.

Teachers are some of my favorite people in the world. Something I did not tell Pilar was that even as a professional now I still dream of some day becoming a teacher and hopefully affecting people in a positive way as she did with me.

• Graphics (7)
• Gameplay (8)
• Replay (9)
• Sound (5)
• Multiplayer (2)
• Total (6)

Many games attempt to mix genres and not many do it very well. I am happy to inform that puzzle quest does quite nicely mixing RPG and Puzzle elements. The combination is not a new one, but it is one where the puzzle element is not just mixed with the fighting system, it is the way you fight. Puzzle quest uses the connect 3 system of electronic grandkid of connect 4 (Bejeweled).

The graphics while not very animated work for the game. The characters have an anime flavor and the monsters are very RPG. The worldmap is HUGE and all the little towns have their own little feel to them. The story line is quite interesting and adds depth to the game in a surprising way. At first I thought I would not be very interested on the story but the more I played the more I wanted to follow the character progression.

The game’s biggest asset is replay value. This is a game that you can pick up any time and spend hours or just minutes and have just as much fun. There are plenty of sidequests besides the main story as well as paths. There are many choices to make, “Take the princes to the trolls to be married or add her to your party…” You also have four races to pick from and have male and female characters.

Even though the game is highly addicting the most annoying thing is the music. Most of your time is spent in the middle of battles and there is only one song for all of the. A different song per type of creature would have been an excellent mix. I ended up just playing without music. The soundeffects are ok, but not very impressive.

My biggest complaint with this game is the lack of head to head multiplayer with a single card. It would have beens simple enough to strip the game just for a head to head battle. The multiplayer does not work for online play, the only way to battle someone is if they are in the same room with you. While this does not ruin the game completely it does take away from a final score that could have been awesome.

The final word is that if you enjoy puzzle games or love bejeweled, this is a must have for your DS. However, if you are just a casual puzzle gamer I would stick to Tetris DS.

Appetizer
Fill in the blank: The best thing about where I live is _________________…
It’s people, almost everyone I have encountered here in KC has been a very nice genuine person. I am amazed by how polite and nice people are.

Soup
Create a new name for a deodorant (like “Flower Fresh” or “Shower Scent”).
Forest Rain.

Salad
What was the last piece of software you installed onto your computer?
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Manager Thingiemagigui.

Main Course
If you were to receive a superlative award today beginning with the words ”Most likely to…”, what would the rest of the phrase say?
Tell you exactly what don’t want to hear but need to.

Dessert
What two colors do you like to wear together?
Lately earth brown and baby blue… I might actually change my blog with those colors.

I have not shaved all my facial hair in quite some time. I have used a mustache pretty much since it started growing and shaving is not one of my favorite things to do. I have been using a little beard or a goatee for probably 5 years and just recently shaved it all off.

It was quite amazing to see the reaction of some of my friends that had to do double takes or said… did you just get a haircut… LOL leave it to guys to notice that something has changed but not know quite what it is.

Long time ago I did not ever miss a Wednesday Mind Hump… I remember I used to be involved even in the tagging of people letting them know it was up. I made some good friends and time, life and even Katrina affected the mind hump… well, today is the day for my return! Come and play with us Crazies!

Wednesday Mind Hump

Greetings, humpers! Today is Kitchen Klutzes Of America Day. That means we’ll be talking about all the things that can go wrong in the good ol’ kitchen.

1. Have you ever cut or burned yourself while cooking?
Now that I think about it I think I have cut myself cooking several times… never stitches but plenty of blood.

2. Have you ever put in a wrong ingredient in a dish (sugar instead of salt, for example)?
No, but I have put too much of one or the other in one of them… I get happy with spices too.

3. Have you ever dropped, or otherwise ruined, a dish just before serving it? Bonus points if you had a large number of people waiting to eat it.
I think once… lucky was that it landed right side up and besides the explosion debris there was still plenty to eat.

4. In case you aren’t a cook - Have you ever had a restaurant make a klutzy move that affected your meal? Tell us about it!

never on me thankfully, but I have seen a whole slab or ribs pored over someone extra sauce and all.

The rules are, there are no rules!!! All you need to do is copy and paste the above questions into your blog and add your responses. After you’ve finished, return here and leave us a comment so we’ll know you’ve humped. Be sure your hump is linked back to http://bdinsanity.blogdrive.com so others can hump too.

Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. If one of the questions doesn’t inspire you then simply “pass” it. Just use your imagination!

If you don’t have a blog or you’re an exhibitionist *woo hoo* feel free to hump right here in our comments section. There’s absolutely no pressure … although it’s called the Wednesday Mind Hump you can hump on any day.

“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

Activism and politics are complicated to discuss. I have always been too lazy to actually get too political beyond just your regular argument with a friend or coworker. I have never participated in anyone’s campaign and my time in student council did not change the school.

It is important to have views and ideals, but also dangerous to not be open minded. While we see vegetarians wearing leather and pro choice Christians (me being one of them) it seems like it is hard to take a stand. Surely a nun took a stance for her convictions, but do I really stand for anything?

I remember the sermon of the church that was cleared by two gunman coming in and telling everyone to get out unless you were ready to die for Jesus; only to be later revealed as church leaders trying to see who believe like them or not. Is that really something to be proud of? Would God be proud of I died a martyr?

I have heard plenty of people talk about that story or the one of the girl during the Columbine shootings (even though neither have ever been confirmed as factual) talk of them as true believers… then why is it that we look at terrorist and wonder how can people believe so blindly? Were the people entering the church to scare the congregation simply terrorists in the name of Christianity?

I understand terrorism because I know how it makes me feel and how much I despise it. However I can never explain it completely. I rationalize some actions by extremist because I know how an uneducated and hungry mind can easily corrupted by the thought of acceptance. Should we be concerned that some of our youth is not being taught to question authority?

I was very concerned the first time I heard a Pastor give me political advice. One of the things I learned in Colombia when I first learned about civics was the separation of Church and state… why is it that so many “church” people are trying to get into political offices? Does that concern you even a little bit? Do you feel safer if the person running your town is a member of your own congregation or denomination?

Last time I checked democracy was about standing up for the people and more and more I feel that politicians stand up for only their people. There is a air of backing up what label you have been giving by this society rather than the good of everyone. Be very careful when people tell you that you will be included in the majority that they are fighting for because you never know what little detail might put you on the other side of that fence. Someone fighting for most of the middle class is fighting for a smaller group of people than what it was 20 years ago.

When it comes to politics it is hard to take a stand, but then again that quote keeps resonating inside my head… “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

Every time I have moved to a new city I go on a quest to find good food. KC is a food town almost to the level of Chicago but of course it is not quite there yet! I have visited many cities in the US and I have never found a place with better food options than Chicago. However KC is slowly but surely giving Chicago a run for its money. KC has excellent BBQ, but I am not a huge BBQ eater. Chicago still has the best pizza in the world, Giordano’s or Nancy’s deep dish pizza is not in the same league as the one from Uno`s Pizzeria. However I have found the best think crust pizza I have ever tasted.

The place is called Pizza Shoppe and it is also famous the pink stuff… their salad dressing. I have to admit that the salad dressing is very good, but my favorite thing there is the pizza. They have awesome ingredients that taste very fresh and their dough is superior to anything else I have tasted elsewhere. The cheese is also plenty but the pizza is never greasy. It has always been hard for me to find good pizza and I am extremely pleased with what I have found so far. So if you are in KS, MO, OK or NB go check out one of their locations. You will not be disappointed.