Talking Soup

There's an interesting little phenomenon that happens at Ithaca and probably at most other East coast colleges. We have this long long long winter and then, just when you think you're going to just die from all the freaking clouds and snow and cold...spring arrives!

However, spring doesn't present itself here the way it does everywhere else in the world. It's not the little green shoots you see in the dirt, or spotting the first robin, or even the increasing temperature.

It's the return of that strange little thing called a Frisbee.

They hibernate in basements and inside drawers and closets all winter, but once it gets warm enough they wake up and take flight and probably make little Frisbees when we're not looking, since you see more of them every year.

And that's how you know spring has come to a college campus.

In short, HOORAY, SPRING! FINALLY!

Wow, I haven't updated in forever, huh? At least not with anything important. Three weeks of school left, I've registered for classes next semester (it's looking ugly, but after this year I think I can handle anything), and I've got an incredible amount of work coming up. The past weekend was kind of nightmarish. Julie and I went to Tammy's place to generally hang out and say hello to the kitties (they caught one of the ferals, a pretty one named Butch), but I had a hell of a lot of work to do this weekend as well, so it wasn't as relaxing as it could have been. Did manage to see an intriguing episode of Torchwood.

Got back middle of Sunday, wrote an entire paper, then pulled an all nighter Monday night reading a book and doing work. /wrists

Still working on getting the money together for the apartment. We still need to pay off the last month's rent, and Kate's going to cover the security.

I'm going to adopt a kitty! He's eight (six?) months old and he's a gray tabby named Grigio, but I'm going to rename him Elwood. Need to fill out the application and gather $65. Julie's adopting one as well, a girl named Ace who she's going to rename Nephry.

Also need to fill out an application to work at Brotchen, since I'm going to need a job this summer, and working at Brotchen sounds awesome. Though I should also start searching for other work, just in case.

I have concluded that EVERYONE likes Journey. People who say they don't are just in denial.

Oh, and, in another example of how the muse desires my death, I've come up with yet another over-elaborate idea for a story, which I'll talk about in an up-coming friends-locked post. (Paranoid? Whut?)

Showed Julie all of Dennou Coil and she died a little over it. Showed her episode 26 of Darker than Black, and she also died a little over it. Also, Mushishi is as awesome as ever in ASIC, and Baccano! is beginning to make some more sense. Persona 3 has gotten intense, Julie and I have set aside Tales of the Abyss until summer, and the RP continues to be abso-fucking-lutely awesome. Julie's going to app Kirihara (fuck yeah!)

There are two characters in Persona 3--Akihiko and Shinjiro--who remind me of Boone and Scryes, which kind of kills my heart a little.

Life is generally okay :)

Tales of the Abyss has pretty much slayed Julie and I. It started out as this campy and kind of whatev game. Then it started getting all political and the storyline got a shitload more complex. And now it's become this emotionally-charged, super-complicated game full of questionable ethics and moral dilemmas and oh-my-God-awesomeness. I never expected it to get so intense. And I like the main character a lot more now.

The RP has likewise gotten crazy-intense and awesome.

Also, finally managed to read Tammy's "Terrier," since we had it for ARF (my independent study, in which we read sci-fi/fantasy all. the. time). It's definitely my favorite of Tammy's books (though I think I still like the Emelan world better). Beka is awesome. The language is awesome (I still find myself thinking in the slang). It was somewhat trying since I ended up staying up till 4:30 to finish it. But it was so worth it. Brilliant on all accounts.

CNS has apparently been repaired, maybe? ASIC is back there, though there's been no word about my classes.

Also, Mot is going swimmingly.

More TotA now, kthxbye.

1.
I'm a birder.

Yeah, I know! Actually, I have been all my life, but it only really dawned on me this week. My mom's been getting me up bright and early some mornings since I was probably seven or eight to take me on bird walks to look for birds. And now, I guess, I'm officially a birder. There are a couple reasons for this:
a). Every time I hear "Sora", my first thought isn't this guy. It's this guy. It's a wee little bird sort of like a sandpiper. Hangs around in wetlands and is pretty rarely seen since it's really shy.
b). I've started keeping lists, which is automatic entry into the ranks of geeky birders.
c). I make snap judgments about people based on whether they can tell what certain birds are. I automatically dislike you if you point at an egret and say "look at the pelican!" or can't tell that a moorhen is a moorhen and not a freaking duck. Alternately, I have a good deal of respect for you if you look up at the raptor soaring overhead and can automatically tell what it is (or can tell birds by their songs. That's a talent I wouldn't mind having). I'm kind of a bitch when it comes to people's knowledge or lack thereof about birds, I suppose. In short, know your egrets, dammit.
d). I can tell a palm warbler from...well, the other warblers.

So! Florida, as most know, is a hotspot for birding, and my grandparents are moving away in January, so this was pretty much our last chance for some great birding before then. My mom and I went birding at least once every day, usually twice (morning and evening are the best times), and my dad came along each time since he's been camera-happy for the past few years. We saw the usual array of great blue herons, egrets, purple gallinules, ibises, moorhens and alligators (not a bird). But we also saw some rare ones--a snail kite, a least bittern, dozens of limpkins, about as many soras (remember him?), and monk parakeets (holy shit! not native of course, but they're counted now since the escapees have colonies all over the south).

I also spotted a painted bunting. Which means I can die now. This has been my grail bird since I first saw a picture of one in my mom's bird book. I was probably eight.

And, today, the day after we got back from Florida, my mom and I found a calliope hummingbird at our feeder. Also rare and never seen at this elevation.

It's been a good week.

2.
My family is actually weirder than I initially thought. Not in any particularly big way. No divorces even. But still. Weird.

3.
Christmas lists are pointless.

4.
It is indeed possible to get a sunburn. In December. In the Northern Hemisphere.

5.
The snake-head fish is actually not as much of a threat as everyone thought. It's rather like the killer bee that way (if you don't know what I'm talking about, never mind. Or google it).

6.
My grandfather served under General Patton (!)

7.
I actually don't really like turkey. I know, blasphemy. I mean, I don't like it alone--it needs gravy or cranberry sauce or some such. So maybe that's not so weird? I dunno.

8.
The Circle of Magic books are probably my favorite series of Tammy's. Fucking. Brilliant. I love the characters, each and every one, even the not-so-nice ones. (Except Aymery. Bastard).

9.
It is apparently virtually impossible to find Phoenix Wright games, especially the first two. I got hooked a week or so ago at the Grants after party when a girl there lent me her DS for a half an hour or so and decided I wanted one. Got Final Fantasy XII (I think? It's hard to keep track) for the DS instead, which is good and fine since it's really enjoyable. The lack of Phoenix Wright-ness was remedied today (the third one. Anyone know whether it's any good? It was the only one available). As well as my lack of Doctor Who, Karas and Phoenix (Osamu Tezuka. I'll find out soon enough whether he deserves the title of God of Anime).

10.
I will not be finishing Motley Crew before the year's end like I predicted. Though I hope to get it done before I get back to Ithaca...probably won't happen, though.

11.
Absinthe is legal in the United States as of recently.


That's about it, I think. At least, I can't remember anything else right now.

Christmas was nice. I got a bottle of Absinthe, two books (*sigh*) and various and sundry other nice things. The food was great. I made brown bread. A bag of delicious snacks that consisted of chocolate-covered graham cracker bits vanished from the face of the earth (no, really, we searched everywhere). My brother and I didn't get into any fights. When I wasn't birding, I was reading, or lying around, since aside from birds Florida is really quite boring. Got home yesterday.

I still don't know when I'm going back to Ithaca since my Dad's being lazy. I'm trying to get in touch with Blockbuster so I can get a few hours while I can.

Shadow's ashes are in a cedar box. It's weird being able to throw things like orange peels into trashcans without worrying about him getting into it. It's weird not finding dog hair everywhere, and being able to leave a plate of Cornish hen bones on a plate on the floor for an hour without him coming to eat them. Apparently we're getting a new dog sometime soon.

I dunno.

Well. New Year's is almost here. Hope everyone had a good holiday already.

Whut? WHUT? What's this I hear about Jerry Spinelli releasing a sequel to Stargirl? Holy crap, MUST HAVE! Stargirl was one of the most amazing books when I was younger and it's still pretty high on my favorites list. Now after all this time, a sequel?? I guess it's not coming out for awhile, but still!

So yeah, I notice I haven't had a real update in awhile. Let's see.

Well, I did end up seeing Hairspray (like, two weeks ago, lol) and it was quite excellent, quite charming, and I've already ordered the soundtrack. Haven't seen any movies since, though.

I also got my hands on The Mirador, though I haven't really started it yet (XOMG *squee!!* Mildmay! Felix! And now even Mehitabel gets some airtime!!). I also grabbed a copy of some H.P. Lovecraft story collection. I figure, considering I'm sort of kind of part of the fantasy writers crowd, I should go find out what's the deal with this Cthulhu guy. Cthulhu fhtagn?

I've also gotten the latest of all my manga, and hopefully no more will come out between now and the end of August, since I'm already shipping quite a few books to Ithaca (not nearly as many as last time, though).

And, in my neverending pursuit of new anime to watch, I've stumbled across yet another incredibly obscure show called Black Blood Brothers. I've only yet seen the first episode, since the second episode doesn't want to work for some reason, but boy did it snag me. It's an actual Aftermath series! I might not have explained it here, but I love stories about aftermath--you know, what happens after the journey is over, after the world has been saved, after the hero's triumphant return, because the story never really ends at "happily ever after." So in this series, near as I can figure, Jirou is some kind of vampire (so cliche, but I do love me a vampire) who has already lost everything important to him and is now trying to make his own way. Great fight scenes and great animation all around. Plus Jirou has a pretty freaking awesome hat. In fact the only complaint I have with the first episode is that they have a timeskip, but they don't really specify how much time has passed. But that's nitpicky. Pretty good so far, though of course I'll need to see more to make a sound judgment. And Sousei no Aquarion continues to thoroughly entertain.

Jobbage has slowed considerably since they cut hours all around, so I'm only working two days this week, tomorrow and Saturday. Not that long, either. I suppose it doesn't matter much since I'm leaving in about a week anyway. Gotta talk to my boss about that one. I'm leaving the 18th to go hang out with Julie for a few days before the lot of us drive back to Ithaca. Yay, I get to see a Minnesota State Fair for the first time! I hear it's quite an experience.

And after an entire summer of not writing, I'm actually writing again! I've finished the next chapter for my fanfic, finally and it's posted if anyone wants to go read it. I'm also writing some scenes for North--I finally got to introduce Rain and Chia! I've also got some pretty sick ideas for what happens next in Mot, so I think I might gravitate in that direction once the Rain and Chia scene is over. And I've been giving more thought to that idea I mentioned, the one that involves dreams. I still need to get a handle on the characters over there, though.

As for the 100 Situations, well, I still haven't heard back from the site mod, so I have no idea what's happening with that. I do want to start it, but I can't actually post anything until my claim has been confirmed. *shrug* I've even left comments asking what's up, but no one has replied.

And an XBox 360 has randomly come to live at our house. My brother can't possibly have any money left over. And the poor PS2 is so neglected. Did I mention that I also bought my own PS2? I just have to steal some of Ben's controllers and I'll be set. Man, that's a lot of stuff I'll need to ship, though fortunately all my books fit into one box this time.

Ooh, also got the latest volume of Digger, Ursula Vernon's awesome webcomic. You can get to her site on the links in the sidebar. Go support her, she's awesome!

And, holy shit, Blue Planet is going to be on the Discovery Channel starting Sunday! HO-SHIT. I'm excited!

Think that's about all there is. Summer's winding down, can you feel it?

One more thing. Withing Temptation=FTW.

First, some freaking amazing shit for your daily dose of awesome. Found through Ursula Vernon's blog.

So I got a job, whooo!! The Blockbuster guy is apparently just a little absent minded, because he finally got back to me, and I went in today to fill out paperwork and such. Got paid for two hours, too! Though I was an idiot and left my employee handbook there. Gah. Ah well, hopefully I can get a second copy.

So tomorrow I need to go to the DMV and the mall. I don't think I mentioned this, but apparently I lost my license during the Farallones trip, I think when I dropped my stuff on the dock. So I haven't been able to drive for about a week, which kind of sucks. So I need to go get a replacement license, and I need to buy khaki pants at the mall because none of mine fit anymore. I need 'em for the job.

Of course my allergies which don't exist anywhere but California chose this week to kick in as well. I've had a sore throat for a week or so but now it's all settled in my sinuses. Geh. I think I'm officially a mouth breather. It's really attractive. And the fake Sudafed isn't really helping much. So I'm tired and clogged and can't breathe all that much.

But it's okay, because I have my DS, Ezili Dantor, who has pretty much owned my soul the past while. And I also have cookies, which I baked tonight on a whim. Chocolate chip cookies, naturally, except I decided to experiment with the recipe and added honey to it. They will KILL YOU with their goodness. Though they're probably that much more fattening.

Fortunately I've been going to the gym pretty regularly and we'll be going tomorrow too. Liz has been in a good mood lately because she's gotten near-constant letters from Steve at boot camp, and he seems to be doing okay.

You know what's strange? You know how an animal will go off to find a place to die? How does it know where to go? What is it about "that spot" that makes it appropriate for death? A lot of animals return to the place of their birth, which is kind of like "the circle closes" or whatever, but what about those that don't? Huh.

Random musing for the day.

Got my second cavity filled today too, fortunately without Novocaine so I didn't go around talking like a dumbass.

I discovered a whole bunch of really, really, really good songs that you should all hunt down and listen to:

I'm Still Here - Johnny Rzeznik
Cells - The Servant (apparently from Sin City, though it's not on the OST)
Nemo - Nightwish (shoulda listened to you a long time ago, Christina!)
Center of the Sun - Conjure One, featuring Poe (XOMG Poe song!)
Ain't No Reason - Brett Dennan

And yes, I've mostly gotten over that angstiness from the other day. I've been writing again, and it's not so much that I'm bored with Mot I've realized--it's just that when I write, it feels so lifeless. Which should be remedied by taking a break from it, like Julie suggested. I really, really want to start getting into the 100 Theme Challenge, so I think I'm gonna start planning that tomorrow. I have to decide which of the 100 Theme sets to do, which characters, and so on. Right now I'm thinking Kai and Jae from North, who you guys met earlier on that character meme, but they get a lot of airtime. I wouldn't mind doing lesser-known characters, like maybe Kajendri, Sita Vey, Dagget, Ilena, Rain, Finn, Chia...people you probably haven't heard of. Maybe I could even formally introduce you all to Skye and Ramsey.

Or maybe Gecko and Khrys--they'd do well. That's something I've forgotten to report--I've found the main character for the book that Gecko, if you remember her, is going to be in (which actually has a formal title, "You Are Here") Khrystof Prochazka has an unfortunately difficult name, but you can just call him Khrys (Chris, in other words). He's Czech/Rom and his father spared no expense in naming him. Anyway, whereas Gecko is the observee, Khrys is the observer, and I mean that in an entirely un-voyeuristic way. Khrys is the one who will carry the book, and it'll be one of my very, very few first-person endeavors. There's a lot more to it but there's no room for it here.

Oh, and once I get this 100 thing underway, I think I'll post the bits here. You're technically supposed to, anyway.

Ooh, allergies just hit with fatigue. Gonna go die now. *dies*

I've been thinking about getting some kind of Gameboy. Apparently there are about forty different kinds out now. My brother just brought one home from Walmart for about fifty bucks, loathe though I am to shop at Walmart. Anyway, I've wanted one for awhile now, but never really had the motivation to get one.

Lol, I'm so lame. Ah well.

Anyone have any ideas?

So I got a job.

At a totally random company, too.

See I got this letter--it was sent pretty much all over town--asking for people to apply to a company called Vector. I called in, figuring what the hell, and got an automatic interview. Turns out the company is a branch of a major cutlery (knives) distributor, Cutco. I filled out an application, stayed an hour for a group interview, and scored the job.

So pretty much, I'll be going to people's homes--on an appointment basis--and selling knives. Uber speshul knives, too (they're actually pretty sweet). Kinda like Ginsu knives, except you wouldn't want to cut cans with them. They're pretty much just really nice kitchen knives.

I'm actually kind of looking forward to it, though I'm nervous. This is a very direct-to-person thing since I'm going to people's homes and convincing them to buy knives, and I get shy around new people. But the training is supposed to be pretty intensive and should teach me how to handle it, so it should be okay.

It's also $17.70 per appointment, so I'm not really complaining. I'm just wondering what the rate of getting appointments is.

Anyway.

Yesterday and the day before the fam and I went to the Red Sox-A's games. Sox lost both times, though they played a much better game on the second day. Ortiz and Ramirez weren't hitting for shit the first game. And I've become quite intrigued by two of the Sox pitchers, Okajima and Papelbon. Okajima is from Japan, obviously, and doesn't even look at the plate when he throws the pitch. And Papelbon has a death glare rivaled only by Samuel L. Jackson.

I love my Beantown homeboys.

Today I baked a cake for my Dad's birthday, which was a few days ago, and for Father's Day pretty much. Oh my god, I spent hours making this utterly beautiful black forest cake with raspberries instead of cherries (we all hate cherries). It was a very pretty cake when I was done, though Kate's cake with marzipan apples takes the...the cake. Or something. But I spent a lot of time on the cake and decorated the top with rings of strawberries and freaking shaved bits of chocolate, and I made the whole goddamn thing myself, and it is delicious, if I do say so. So much for dieting, lol. Also made couscous for dinner and tried to replicate the really nice Campus Center recipe, with apples, cinnamon and raisins. It would have been better if the couscous hadn't come out so pasty.

Yay food.

Meanwhile, Steve, Liz's boyfriend, has officially left for boot camp (he's a Marine), so Liz has been in quite a funk. Nothing I can do can cheer her up, and I think the only thing that will help her is time. By the time he gets back, in 13 weeks I think, I think she'll be okay. And she'll probably be a lot better with his future absences. See, this isn't just a relationship, it's a Relationship. I didn't used to like Steve, but they're really in love with each other. I can't dislike him. He makes Liz happy.

^_^

I'm almost done with Okami and I've started KH again because I'm just crazy like that.

Quite the double-post, innit? I hadn't realized I hadn't updated at all in two weeks.

Anyway, continuing in the amazing story of my life...

So yeah, the last half of break we spent doing the book thing and hanging with my people. I think it was Friday night we went to Caleb and Asher's (the cousins) school to hear a jazz and poetry thing--Caleb plays guitar, Asher plays drums. The only way I can really describe it is that it was very, very New York. It was interesting the way the poems and the music melted together, though I don't know if I actually liked it or not. Though some of the poems were pretty awesome. One was a poem about being in the primordial soup and amoeba love, haha. Brilliant.

Speaking of primordial soup, holy FUCK, Spore is coming out this fall apparently. What is Spore? Spore is only the most awesome computer game probably to ever grace geekdom. Pretty much, in the game you start out as a one-celled organism, and then you evolve. You choose what lines you want to evolve along, giving yourself X number appendages and so on. And according to their new video
you can do a lot more than that. *squee!* I've been anticipating this game ever since I heard about it about two years ago.

The only problem being that I'll need a new laptop to handle this game. Septimus is getting up there, but he still works and he's still mostly reliable, like an old dog. I don't want to get rid of him yet. I'm one of those people who keeps using my things until they fall apart ^.^

Had a bit of a surreal moment when we drove by the World Trade Center. I'm still sort of torn about visiting places like that. It was the same when we went to Dachau in Germany--just the idea of a place of such suffering becoming a tourist attraction. But I did tell myself this time that I wanted to go there, because 9/11 I think played a major role in my anxiety disorder, and I need to start facing that. We never actually made it to the WTC, but we did drive past it, and it was just like, "wow...there used to be towers there. There used to be people there." Ah, man. I dunno.

But, enough with the depressing. I can't be entirely depressed right now because there's an icicle hanging outside my window that looks like an alien's hand, no joke.

Last day spent in NYC we went to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, kind of like a smaller version of the Met, though it was still all kinds of brilliant. We only had time for two floors (there were five), so we checked out the floor with American art (woot) and the floor with the Egyptian stuff (holy crap, Batman!). No mummies, but it was all very awesome.

And now we're back in good old Ithaca and it's cold and wet and there are classes to attend and Julie and I are still sick. *sigh*

And now the requisite reports on the various and sundry things that came out in the past week. Though first, another book I read.

Have I mentioned the Retriever's Series here? The series is about Wren, a Retriever living in NYC. A Retriever is like a Get Backer (lol) in that she "retrieves" things for people, which usually means steals them. Except that in this world there is magic, and it takes a very interesting form. In any case, Wren has gotten up to some shit in the last two books, but the most recent one out, the third, is definitely my favorite. At this point, it looks like war's about to break out between the Mage Council (the organized group of magic users), the lonejacks (the live-free-or-die types of magic users) and the fatae (the non-human people living in the city). It's gotten very awesome, and it's an excellent example of modern urban fantasy. If you like Dresden, you'll probably like Wren, though this series falls a bit more on the female side of things, though not to a chick-lit degree. Wren is an awesome character, and the book has its own voice that is a blatantly New York voice. Love it.

So what have we? No House on Tuesday due to March Madness, but Crossing Jordan and Lost were both on Wednesday, of course, and they were both ALL KINDS of awesome. I'm really impressed with this season of Jordan so far, since it's really branching out and doing some interesting things. And Lost is no longer sucking! It's getting back into the mysterious and strange that made the first season and the first part of the second season so brilliant.

However, there are things I must report and speculate on. For instance, in ( Crossing Jordan...*spoilers alert* )

As if that wasn't intense enough, we follow it up immediately with...

( Lost )

And of course, of course, there were the Narutos that came out, being the latest manga chapter and the latest Shippuden episode.

( Chapter spoilers )

As for the episode, well, it's following the manga, and it continues to be brilliant, although it was lacking on the crazy music front.

Back in my world, in terms of writing, I didn't get half as much done of the rewrite over break as I wanted. Between being sick and hitting a snag that Pat pointed out, it just kind of came to a standstill. But I'm going to get back in it now, and keep thinking about that snag. Mostly the thing is, do I want to overhaul the beginning in order to get things moving faster, or draw it out so things are more dramatic? I'm long-winded, in case you couldn't tell, but that's something I'm trying to fix. So I dunno. There are a few things I'm going to extend because they kind of have to be.

Also, a lot's been coming together for some of my other projects. Mot has been niggling me again. The thing with Ramsey--my white haired, cloak-wielding heroine--is taking shape in my head. Have I mentioned Skye? Skye is the main character of Ramsey's story--I don't know her last name, but she's a snarky tattoo artist in Berkely who was diagnosed with schizophrenia some years ago. This was because she could see the things that Ramsey fights--critters I have dubbed darksouls for now, who are kind of shadow creatures that haunt people at their best and kill them at their worst. Anyway, Skye could see those things, and ghosts and stuff, but it made her a strange kid and she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She believes now that all the things she saw when she was younger were hallucinations, but when she meets Ramsey she realizes she's been sane all along. Should be fun.

Things are also really coming together for North, though I'm still not sure how far I am from actually starting it. I've got a better sense of what's going on in the Whodden--where the Folk, the spirits and non-humans live--and what's going on in North's own life. I just need to figure out certain things about the beginning of the story.


And now I have to get some things done before Women and Writing. Another long post! Lol, and these two were supposed to be all one. Nya-ha.

So I finally did it. I got my tattoo.

It's a black infinity symbol on my ankle, about two inches long I think. I really like it. And yeah, it hurt, because when people stick you with a blunt, vibrating needle it tends to hurt, but it was bearable. And it was worth it. I went with Liz to the place she's gone to to get all her piercings (10) and the people there were really awesome. The guy who did my tat was great. It still aches a little, though not too bad.

As of today, Steve, Liz's boyfriend, is a Marine. He's going away to boot camp in June for 5 months. Liz is kind of depressed.

Also, Honeymae, Liz's dog, was put to sleep today. I guess she had cancer. That's two dogs I've known who have died within the past few weeks. Jeez. Liz called me crying at about 9:30, and after that I couldn't go back to sleep, so I went downstairs and hung around with my own dog and got even more depressed.

I haven't done all that much writing lately. I guess I'm taking a bit of a break from the 33 fricking pages done in, what, 3 days? Ugh. I do know where I'm going, so hopefully I'll get back in it soon. The muse is whispering tonight.

So I have seen two episodes of GetBackers and have fallen in love, and am now downloading the series, alongside Trinity Blood and Ergo Proxy. Trinity Blood is pretty damn sweet too. I watched the English dub on Adult Swim last Saturday and was kind of "eh" because it's in the middle of the series, I guess, so I had no idea what was going on. Seeing the first episode helped--a lot. Me likey. I was also starting to watch Chrno Crusade, and I kind of liked it, but I dunno--it just didn't pull me in. Even with a cute demon with an angsty past running around.

Oh, and Julie, I've seen the recent Busou Renkins, and I'll tell you this at least--the twins aren't incestuous!!

...

I can't believe I even had to write that...

Anyway. Because I'm crazy and it's not like I have enough video games to play, I went out and bought Final Fantasy X on a total whim. Even though I'm not done with VIII yet (I'm on the second disk). I like X. They have voices! Not...the best done voices, but it's a start. I like it so far.

Not much else has been happening, except that people tried to recruit us the other day when we were waiting in the Marine office for Steve. They had a quote from MacArthur on the wall...not...the best endorsement for joining the military, but oh well.

I love my tattoo. It's all puffy and achy but it looks really nice. <3

The title? I mean that literally.

So, like. Video games. I was feeling impulsive yesterday when I went to use my B&N gift card. And since I didn't get much in the way of books (I had to order The Virtu since it wasn't in-store) I decided, "Hey, I've got something like sixty bucks in my wallet, might as well spend it. At Best Buy." And I went with the full intention of buying DVDs or CDs or something, but on the way over I remembered, "Gee, weren't there two games I was thinking of playing? Yeah, Shadow of the Colossus and Okami."

So I bought them.

And. Dude. Okami. It's like. Pretty much the best game ever. In fact the only complaint I have is that the voices get hella annoying, since it's all "mmbmbmmbmbmmbmmbmbbbmbmbbbmbmbmbb!! mmbbmbmbb? Mmmbmbmbmbbbbbmmbmbmg!" Though I've gotten used to it, so really. Oh my god it's so much fun. You run around as a freaking wolf god and you can make trees come back to life and kill people with rosary beads and feed animals and piss on your enemies. Piss on your enemies! How wonderful is that? Zaugh! I love this game. I love the graphics. The gameplay is supposed to mimic traditional Japanese art, so it's not meant to be particularly realistic. I've spent pretty much all day today and yesterday playing it because it's just that addictively fun.

Shadow of the Colossus is awesome as well, and the only reason I haven't been playing it is because I'm too into Okami. And the controls are different, so it gets disorienting. I have a hard time playing more than one game at once, at least when controls change. So Colossus will have to wait until I'm done playing God. *snicker* It's still pretty sweet though, I mean, the enemies fill the entire screen. That's the whole point, pretty much. There isn't much in the way of plot, but the giganormous enemies make up for that. They're fun to kill.

That being said, I haven't gotten much done in the way of...well anything in the past two days. Though I'm this close to finishing the next chapter of my fic. I fully intend to finish it tonight.

Meanwhile, The Virtu is on its way, so I also have that to look forward to.

And on the homefront, my brother has started repainting the van, which has pissed off my dad, but oh well. Ben is spontaneous like that. Also, Ipswich gets back today, sorta, and Honeymae, Ipswich's dog who has been living with us while she's in Minnesota, has taken a dump on the rug downstairs. Woot. She's a sweet dog, except for when she forgets that the same rules apply to our house as her own house. As in, no crapping on the rugs. And my uncle has determined where our distant, distant, 1000+ years ago ancestors have come from--somewhere above the Middle East.

And apparently Saddam Hussein is dead. Finally.

I bought Serenity. Did I mention that? I can't help myself. Sometimes I'm thrifty, sometimes I'm just pathetic. Did I mention that I spent $60 on games? Without a steady income? At least they're brilliant games.

Anyway. Back to writing. Chapter 10 will be done before I go to sleep. I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep!