From teaching English, I got a new desk job that I'm currently in training for. It's a call center job, as a customer/technical support agent. The job requires long hours sitting in front of a computer, with frequent idle times in between calls.

What does one do for fun in such a situation? Take up a hobby!

Behold, I've chosen Pen Spinning. Pen Spinning is a form of juggling, specifically designed for spinning a pen in and around your fingers and your hands. Not sure on the history (yet) but I it was likely to be some really bored dude (or his collective) at his desk sometime that invented it.

It's really fun, and shares many similarities to b-boying, which I'm obviously into. It can also be compared to BMX, skate boarding, and other such sports where you can freestyle, but in a pen-related way. There's a variety of tricks to learn, with either pre-created combos or combos you can create yourself (just like b-boying or any of the above listed sports). And it's a lot of fun. I literally spent all afternoon (from around 10 AM up to about 3 hours ago) spinning my pen. I'll get back into it a little later, after I finish this and some other things I need to do.

Lots of videos on YouTube and Pentrix.com that have been really helpful to me. I've got a few of the foundational moves down. I'm hoping to master them soon, and I'm starting learning some of the next-step type tricks.

When I'm ready to make a newbie video, I'll post it. :D

Aside from still playing Granado Espada, I recently acquired Koei's PC version of the game Warriors Orochi. Koei is responsible for the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors games. And guess what Warriors Orochi is! That's right, it's a crossover of the two games. So we're tossing logic and history out the window for this one, and just enjoying another thousands-of-enemies-against-you game.

It has many of the elements that made Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors successful, and a little more. The most prominent one is the tag team style system, where you can switch three characters around during the battle. It doesn't make any sense (I wish they jumped in instead of transforming into the other character), but hey, it's still fun. Makes interesting combos too. If you'd ever seen Tekken Tag or Capcom's VS games, it's similar in concept (except in Warriors Orochi the characters don't jump in, like I stated earlier).

There's also an elaborate weapon fusion system where you can empower your character's weapons with various extra abilities to make them more powerful. You can even give powerful weapons to characters you've never levelled up before, so that when you do finally decide to level them up, it'll be easier.

One thing this game lacks that I kinda miss from DW4, which I loved, is the officer creation system. :( Why can't we make our own officers anymore? That was really cool. Also you only get two costumes per character here (as opposed to DW4 six costumes). But oh well.

All in all, the game is still epic fun, and takes up a lot of my free time these days. I've finished all the stories and unlocked all the stages. I'm about to unlock the last 3 characters later today. We'll see how that turns out. :D