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07.01.02 :: 11:01
Happy berfday Mike and Nick! Happy Canada day! The only disadvantage to the holiday is that some of the people I talk to while at work are off today ;) I hope they're enjoying the long weekend. ^_^ Next weekend I get 4 whole days off *_* No on call. No coming into the office. *_* I'm thinking about taking Vera and whoever else wants to come (probably Austin and Elf) up to Crater Lake. It's amazing what a deep blue color the water is *_*
I'm surprised, Bob noticed that my hair was highlighted ^^; Vera did it again last night like she had at Anime North, only it worked a lot better this time.
07.01.02 :: 13:51
Today's tech support....
- A customer "couldn't understand" why we would take noon off for lunch. There's a little thing called the law that say if you work x number of hours you get a half hour for lunch...
- A customer called up to inform me that our ISP's Exchange server was acting wonky. ... We don't *have* an Exchange server.
- Poor dad called 'cause he couldn't get the zip drive in his laptop to work. A few months ago his problem was that he kept accidentally hitting the switch to eject the drive. This time I discovered that he was trying to hot swap the drives (change them when the machine was still on) and the laptop doesn't support that ^^;
07.01.02 :: 22:42
Awww.. Vera and I were going to play Silent Hill 2 tonight and scare ourselves crapless, but didn't get around to it. Justin came over around 9pm and chatted for a while. Now I'm being an irresponsible bean and blogging instead of going to bed already ^^;
Our plans for the long weekend have changed. Austin's going to be dropped off here on Wednesday and on Thursday the 4 of us are going to take Elf home. Then we'll back track down south until we find ourselves some fireworks to watch. On the 5th there's going to be a Rockapella concert at the Britt Festival. Austin, Justin, and I are all Rockapella fans. I don't think Vera likes them, but has said she'd go to the concert to hang out with us ^^ I'm not sure what we'll do with the rest of the weekend b'sides that. Probably continue working on the house.
I have a weird... injury? on my foot right now. I was thinking that I've had an annoying sliver in my foot since AN and finally got around to doing something about it tonight. (It wasn't hurting *that* much, just more of an annoying twinge every once in a while). I poked at my foot with the tweezers and couldn't find anything to remove except some dead skin. Poked some more and I found a white hair o.O; Um.. hairs don't grow out of the bottom of one's foot normally from what I understand. Vera said it was some sort of wart and I'd found a root [gero gero] I'm still not sure what's up with it. I'm hoping that she's wrong though ^^;
I'm getting to that point in my game playing that I'm ready to move on to the next game. I've gotten my money's worth out of JSRF. Now I'm just searching for the next victim challenge :)
07.02.02 :: 08:43
Augh, the neighbor's dog, Taz, was barking endlessly this morning. I think he started around sunrise and was still going strong when I left for work. I was also a fool and left my bedroom window open when it's been chilly in the mornings the last couple days. It's really had to get out of bed when bed == warm out of bed != warm ^^;
I think I've come to the conclusion that my body's *never* going to break into the 6am thing and be happy about it. Reaching for a box of tissues first thing every morning doesn't help either, I suspect. Both of my parents have been nagging me lately, saying that I look run down. Vera (teasingly?) says that's normal for me. I look at my schedule (in general) and know that's where the problem is... but I'm not sure how to fix it. When I say that I have to go to bed at 10am, I'm teased. When I say I'm tired and want to rest, I'm teased. ("All you do is sleep?") But when I sit down and chart out how I've spent the hours in the day, sleep is the last thing on the list. I dunno... Maybe I'm just not a high energy person?
07.02.02 :: 13:04
Mom stopped by my office shortly before lunch and dropped off a bag of pastries *_* She then asked what my plans for the weekend were. When I got to the part about going to see Rockapella, she turned all Bambi-eyed and asked why I hadn't invited her along... ^^; So my parents are now going to the concert with us ^^;
The new battery I ordered for dad's laptop arrived this morning. It also came with a BIOS update that they hadn't told me about. Dad's gonna bring his machine over tonight and I'll take care of the repair then.
07.03.02 :: 08:40
I woke up this morning with a stream of watery snot down my face. Damn allergies!! It's a pain in the ass trying to brush my teeth while having to hold my breath (can't breathe through my nose) and trying to keep more dribble from escaping the tissue I have in place to catch it. I wish I could slap my nose with a cease and desist order :P
Ohhhhh.. Speaking of cease and desist, my mother got a letter from another company telling her to knock it off the other day. She's been battling the company she's leasing her photocopy machine from 'cause the POS has never worked right. Finally she put a sign up in her shop window telling people to not lease machines from that company. The company's lawyer sent her a letter warning her that what she was doing was slander (er.. liable for print media?) and that the logo from them she'd used in her sign was a copyrighted logo and she didn't have permission to use it. Well, she took the sign down, but that's hardly going to stop her from bad mouthing them up one side and down to other to anyone who will listen to her ^^;
And I don't think I've blogged all the ruckus she's caused on the MURA committee as of late ^^; She's caused so much trouble with the downtown association that they invited her to a committee meeting as a probationary member. At the meeting a proposal was brought up that would cost the city 3.3 million dollars and mom immediately began to poke holes in their plans. Little sensible things like "What are you going to do about flooding if you're going to build a park next to Bear Creek?" They hadn't even though about the consequences should it be washed away o.O; And Bear Creek floods every 5 - 10 years. [facefault]
Anyhow, the fools voted her onto their committee and her mischief causing hasn't been curbed in the slightest. [laughs] Many of the business owners around her have been taking their issues regarding parking and whatnot to her so that she can present them to the committee. I guess that's how the system's supposed to work and all. I just delight in the thought of her causing them hardships ^^;
Justin stopped by last night just as Vera and I were getting settled in to play Silent Hill 2. He dropped off the Rockapella tickets (and found out that we need a couple more. Devin's coming to the concert as well now ^^ ) I understand now why Justin volunteered to pick up the tickets, he gets a $2 discount on each one ^^v Woot! Discounted concert tickets!
Justin reminded me last night that the whole reason he was supposed to come over all those times ago was to play Dynasty Warriors 3. He liked all the butt-kicking involved in that game (a feeling I completely understand). There's no time like the present, and so I pulled out the game and a second controller and we went about stomping around ancient China.
It's neat seeing what kind of partners various people are when playing. Brian is *very* aggressive and is killed often ^^; Justin is probably the most compatible partner I've played with to date. He does get killed on occasion, but that's due to the fact that he's playing with a wimpy character not his play style. Helen's a pretty good partner too. It'll be fun to play with her when she comes to visit in a couple weeks ^^
I've been working on getting Da Qiao (aka "Fan girl") built up. While playing with Justin I got her to a 1 rank general with 8 elite bodyguards. Justin played with Lu Xun (aka "Two stick boy"), whom I haven't played with *at all*. So he was rank 16 with 2 peon bodyguards. And let me just say now, it's all about having bodyguards equipped with crossbows, especially when you have more of them. Imagine rampaging around with 8 peeps firing crossbows behind you. It's a beautiful thing ^^
07.04.02 :: 23:14
Happy 4th of July to everyone who celebrates it! Sorry I didn't get to speak much Pisces and Nightbreak, I was kind of up to my eyeballs and didn't have enough time for more than a berf ^^;
Last week Elf ordered a new burner online to give to me. He said he owed me for back Christmas and berfday presents that he never gave me ^^; It was very kind of him. It's a 24x to boot! *_* Anyhow, it arrived yesterday and I installed that bad boy into Yggy. In 4 hours I'd burned 20 CDs with no misburns =D That felt *very* good.
As usual, I was the first one to fall asleep last night and the first one up this morning. And I even slept in a couple hours! Elf had stayed up until 5am playing Final Fantasy Tactics, trying to complete the game in a single day. He did it in 13 hours. Not the fastest game time he's had, but it's still respectable. I was going to take Elf home today (he lives 3 hours north of here), but he stayed up way too late (early ^^; ) Around 10am he stumbled out and told me that he wasn't awake yet. I nudge him into the car around noon and we got underway.
Usually when I'm in a car I'm pretty quiet. I dunno, I just tend to zone out and watch the landscape go by... get lost in my own thoughts. Elf has been on enough road trips with me that he's come to expect this and doesn't plan on me being an interesting source of conversation along the way. That's why it came as a big surprise to me when we ended up talking the entire way there. We talked about some of the things that have been on my mind lately and *a lot* about Japan. (It's one of Elf's favorite subjects). I'd like to visit Japan someday. He speaks of it with such fondness... :)
Of course, there were more cops out than you could shake a stick at. The most interesting roadkill of the day was a cougar that was along the side of the road o.O; It's not unusual to see possums, skunks, and the occasional deer, but this was the first cougar I've seen. When I returned I discovered that I had a driver's sunburn --; Yep, nice white strip where my watch was and the rest of it is red. I'm soooooo looking forward to sitting out in the sun again for the Rockapella concert tomorrow at this rate :P
Since our plans had changed some (originally we were all going to accompany Elf when going back instead of just me) my parents invited us over for dinner. Spaghetti :)~~~ Vera made a Key Lime pie for dessert :)~~~ We watched Men In Black during and after dinner, then it was time to watch the fireworks. My parents had the good idea of going up onto the roof of the apartment building to watch 'em. I've never been on the roof of any of the downtown buildings, it was pretty neat ^^ The first thing I thought when I got up there was that I needed a can of spray paint so that I could make like a GG and tag it :P Still playing too much JSRF.
Austin is 6 JET challenges away from having the game completely finished. I'm so jealous ;_; I only have 2 special characters unlocked while he's almost there for getting them all unlocked. He unlocked Pots the dog this afternoon. It's hilarious watching this pooch skate around tagging things ^o^ And him woofing as he does tricks hehehehehe... =D
07.06.02 :: 04:35
Oi, today was a great day despite it being one allergy attack right after another. Austin finished off JSRF ^^ That was probably the most productive thing we did all day ^^; I did go to the post office to buy stamps and send off some packages; including reshipping the one to Nightbreak. [shakes fist at the post office for not shipping it the first time]
We packed up an ice chest and some blankets and went to get in line for the Rockapella concert. The plan was to get there at 4:30, the gates opened at 5:45, we'd rush the lawn to find a good place to plop our fannies, and we'd eat and chill until the concert at 7:30. That's more or less how it went. I snuck in a 45 minute nap while we waited (my allergies were hurting and sleeping allows me to ignore them ^^; ). My parents arrived shortly after 6pm and we all sat around and chatted.
The opening act for Rockapella was the comedic a capella group Da Vinci's Notebook. They're were a pleasant surprise ^^ We all really dug their music. Afterwards Vera and I went down to buy their CDs (all 3 of them). We then hunted down the members and had them autographed. Vera kept asking them if they signed body parts just to see what their reaction would be. One of them grabbed a hold of her arm, drew an arrow and wrote "This way to the booty" on it ^o^ Very funny!
I'm not sure why, but I didn't quite enjoy last night's Rockapella concert as much as I did seeing them the first time ^^; It could have been because I wasn't sitting as close as I was last time, or I didn't really identify with their song selection this time, I dunno. I kept hoping that they'd do songs from their Primer CD and they only did 1 or 2 =/
We're planning on going to see MIB 2 before Devin takes himself and Mare back south. We're also planning on seeing the Power Puff Girls movie ^^ (Okay, I'm the only really pushing for that, but no one else is offering much resistance).
Why am I up at 4:30 in the morning? I nearly sneezed my brains through my nose 15 minutes ago. It takes a little bit to recover after that and go back to sleep ^^;
07.07.02 :: 03:35
[This entry removed for personal reasons].
07.07.02 :: 14:41
I have a lot on my mind, but I won't discuss it with many people. So... My blogger entries for the next few days will probably be bland and superficial while I work my way through some problems.
I'm still searching for a game to satiate my gaming urges since finishing JSRF. I picked up Maximo and Breath of Fire III over the last couple days. (I love used game sales and having a 10% off card on top of that =D ) Though recently I've been playing more DW3. I finished off Di Qaio's quest and unlocked her sister Xaio. Woot! Another fan-girl that I can uberlevel :)
I'm having a hard time bringing myself to actually do my on call work this weekend. I've taken the messages off the machine... returned a few calls even... but I've been slacking it big time. I know it's not very responsible of me. I'll be sure to kick myself in the head for it at some point.
07.07.02 :: 20:45
I've played about an hour into Breath of Fire III and decided that it's mildly amusing (like BoF IV was ^^; ) Austin gave me a list of games that he wanted me to ferret out reviews for. I've already tracked down 3 reviews for each game on his list. I might track down some more later. If it's one thing I seem to know well, it's console video games...
07.08.02 :: 18:11
It was a pretty busy day at work without being insanely so. Calls just kept rolling in at a steady clip all day. No stupid callers either. It made the day go quicker, let me tell ya ^^ I'm about 3 hours into BoF III as of last night. No allergy attack today either. I'm on a roll ^^v It's supposed to be 100F tomorrow and 103F the following day. I expect to melt those days ;)
07.09.02 :: 07:30
I think I'm going to bow out of going to the OCF (Oregon Country Fair) this year even though Elf and I have been planning on it for months. Helen's arriving Saturday and the plan was to drive straight there from the airport. We're both agreeable to that plan, but I'm not in the mood to enjoy the Fair right now. I think I'd rather stick close (cling?) to a couple people right now rather than go to a fair where half the people will be jumping around buck nekkid. (Alright, not half, but a noticeable minority for sure! :P )
I rented Conker's Bad Fur Day yesterday after all the other games on my list were already checked out from Blockbuster. I know it seems like I'm going through a lot of games right now. Conker's was mostly for Vera (I'm content to veg in my room and play Breath of Fire III) though I am curious about it. It has a reputation for well earning its M-rating. Heh, from going only an hour or so into it, I can see why ^^;
07.09.02 :: 13:05
Oi... I'm eating like a 3 year old today. At some point during the morning I got some unidentified food substance on both my shirt and my pants. The pants isn't too noticeable. The shirt is because it's a streak going down the sleeve of a white t-shirt --;
And then there was lunch... --; I went out with mom today to an "Asian" restaurant that I usually avoided. I couldn't remember why I avoided it until I got there. Their "Asian" food isn't very authentic. That much was obvious by them handing me a pair of chopsticks, and a plate with two scoops of white rice and a kabob with two large pieces of chicken skewered on it. Yeah... So I ate lunch with a knife and fork. I couldn't get the chicken off of the skewer despite my best efforts to do it 'politely', so I just cut chunks off. Mom wanted the other piece of chicken. I succeeded in prying the chicken off the skewer only to have it go flying across the table and land on mom's plate o.O; It was almost as bad as that time I set my napkin on fire when I had Thai food for the first time --; She laughed at me then too :P
As Helen pointed out, a bib might not be big enough to avert my eating disasters today. She suggested wearing a painter's smock instead ^^;
07.09.02 :: 23:07
I managed to eat dinner without spilling anything on myself. Yay. On the bad side of things, I burned my right thumb when buckling my seat belt and I have a good sized blister there now. Vera gave me a Hello Kitty bandaid to put on it so that I'd stop playing with it. Blasted 100+F temperatures, and it's only supposed to get hotter -.-;
Justin was a gent and invited us over to play video games in his air conditioned apartment. We brought food with us as well, so it all worked out nicely. I hope he invites us over again tomorrow ^^;
07.10.02 :: 11:17
Today's been quiet, thank goodness. I didn't go to bed until after midnight and then I woke up at 4am with an allergy attack ^^; I don't take my first tech call until around 9am, in fact o.O; The morning was spent answering a few customer emails and then scanning a FF8 book. Now that I've finally got the scanner in my office hooked up again I can start doing that ^^v You still want FF8 book scans, Jackie?
Oh! I didn't blog yesterday's 'idiot' customer! Okay, there's this one lady with a cable modem who calls us fairly often with support issues. Most of her issues are non-issues and we just have to explain something to her to clarify it. But whenever she calls *someone* is to blame for her problem and it *isn't* her. I've gone around with her plenty of times in the past. Well, she called yesterday and Nick transferred her over to me...
Me: "This is Amanda, how may I help you?"
Her: "I want another tech."
Me: "Tough, what's your problem?"
Her: "I haven't received any email since the third."
Me: "Okay, let me take a look on the server and see what's going on."
She's called us enough times that I really didn't need her to give me her account info, I have it memorized by now :P Looking in the server logs I saw that the account had last been accessed on July 7th. There currently was no mail sitting on the server to be picked up.
Me: "You don't have any email on the server currently and logs show that the last time the account was accessed was on the seventh."
Her: "The last email I have is from the sixth!!"
Oh how quickly their stories change when you smack them with the server log...
Me: "That's entirely possible. The message could have been sent to you on the sixth and you didn't pick it up off of the server until the seventh."
Her: "Well, I *guess* I'll have to accept that!"
Me: "Yep!"
I love my job sometimes ^^;
07.10.02 :: 20:35
I gave Pepper a bath when I got home from work this evening. I was hoping it'd help cool her down since the temperature (according to dad and a couple bank signs) was 107F today o.O According to the weather channel it's currently 98F, so I can believe 107F --;
After the bath I pointed a fan at my bed and took a nap. I must have slept like a rock because I don't remember the phone ringing at all or my dad stopping by the house (events Vera told me happened). All I know is that I'm now awake, hot, and having an allergy attack. Maybe I should just go back to bed ^^;
07.11.02 :: 07:18
I didn't end up going back to bed. Vera was melting and wanted to find somewhere cool to be. I suggested hopping in the car and at least driving around some because I have air conditioning there. When we got to the car we discovered that just having the windows down was sufficient. I decided to go by Justin's and see if he wanted to go to Dairy Queen with us for something cool to eat. He tagged along even though he'd already eaten.
Oi... Let me stop for a moment and give you some sound financial advice: buy stock in Kleenex. Why? Because I'm sure that I've increased their profits for this quarter by at least 15% with all the boxes of tissues I've been buying :P Y'know it's bad when you keep two boxes of tissues in your car and you *ahem* blow through one of them in a night o.O;
My misery was the topic of discussion while we sucked down some much needed food. I kept sneezing and Vera advised Justin on her "bless you times infinity" to cover all the times I sneeze during the day. When I voiced my wish to place a restraining order on my allergies Justin took the idea and ran with it. Before long he was telling me that I couldn't do that because of a poor hay fever and her three little sniffles that needed a home. Odd leap in logic, but it was funny ^^;
After that we went back to Justin's place and played more DW3 until around 10:30. Vera and I went back home and it was somewhat cooler, but still uncomfortable. I took some Actifed 'cause I couldn't stand it anymore. That stuff always kicks my butt, which is what I was hoping for. I hoped it would knock me out and I could sleep peacefully until the morning. That didn't quite happen ^^; My allergies were putting up a fight and my nose didn't stop running entirely until, like, 2am or so. I kept rolling over and blowing my nose. The Actifed also failed to knock me out cold. I tossed and turned a lot and woke up this morning with achy muscles. Bah, bah I say! I don't care about the hay fever and her three sniffles, I want them out of my system!
07.11.02 :: 12:52
;_; I need a way to deliver food to my mouth without the interference of my hands, feet, or gravity. I just dropped my nachos on the floor and they went splat all over it ;_; That was my lunch!
Mom gave me some medicated bandaids yesterday to put on my blister. I took the medicated bandaid off this morning and the blister was gone O.O! I looked around for it and found where there was a bit of an outline, but for the most part it was gone. Color me impressed!
07.11.02 :: 14:16
I just read this article on CNN and I have to rant. Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle is proposing importing prescription drugs from Canada since they cost less there. It sounds like a great idea on the surface, but let's look at *why* they're cheaper in Canada. The government of Canada subsidizes the cost of medicine as part of its welfare system. So I have to ask why on God's green earth would the government of Canada even *consider* exporting drugs that they've subsidized to the US? To purposefully lose money? They're our neighbor and they're going to do us a favor?
If I were Canadian I'd be torn between laughter and wanting to throw eggs at the US government for their ignorance. If Daschle thinks the Canadian system is so great (and hey, he's a Democrat, he just might!) he needs to actually *take a look* at how it works. There's no such thing as a free lunch, Senator. It's "cheap" for a reason. It'd behoove you to find out why before proposing it as a solution.
07.12.02 :: 08:01
Okay, now I *know* I'm having bad luck with food. Austin, Justin, Vera, and I went to see the Power Puff Girls movie last night. While in line getting some drinks Austin accidently knocked Vera's cup, which sent it flying and hit Vera, Austin, and me with splash damage :P Even when it's not my food it attacks me!
PPG the movie was pretty good. As Justin noted, it's surprising how quickly it went. I felt like I was watching a half hour episode on a big screen and before I know it an hour and a half has passed and it was over. I don't think I'd go see it again (it's not *that* dazzling of a movie), but it was fun to see it once :)
After dinner we went to an Italian place in Ashland for dinner. I don't think I've been to a slower restaurant in quite a while ^^; We didn't get home until 10:30pm and the movie had gotten out at 8pm. We went through three baskets of bread if that's any indication ^^; We probably spent close to 2 hours at the restaurant.
It amuses me... No... Amuse isn't the word. Annoy is the word, but I'm not terribly annoyed by it... When people send me emails with quibbles in them trying to find errors in Sowing. For one thing, I don't think I'd ever write someone just to find fault with a minor point (at best). The second is that (if the Works Cited page didn't give it again) I've done my homework. I didn't just pull this fanfic out of my ass and post it on the net. I've spent a lot of time (and money, I had to special order many of those books ¬.¬ ) just so I could write a story that was as 'factually' correct as possible.
I have taken some liberties with the Final Fantasy 8 story, but it's in ways that most people won't even notice. The only person I can think of that would have me by the tail for changing things is Alessar (he has an understanding of FF8 that rivals my own). What did I change? Technically speaking, Alexander and *Doomtrain* are elemental opposites, not Alexander and Diablos. If you summon Doomtrain, your alignment with Alexander will take the greatest hit. Diablos is unaffected.
So why did I change it? A couple reasons, really. For one, it would be a pain to find a way for Enju to have possession of Doomtrain considering the antics Squall had to endure to get the GF to join him. Also, when setting up GF alignments in my own story, it was more 'logical' to tweak them a bit. Diablos is a very demonic looking GF and that played well into building up the conflict between Kei and Enju. It was a liberty I took in game statistics that I was pretty sure no one would notice unless they'd done their research to the depth I had... :) Of course, if they had, they'd find one other problem that's even bigger than the Alexander / Doomtrain one... Carbuncle is aligned against Alexander... ^o^
07.12.02 :: 21:23
I took Pepper to the vet today for a checkup (and because one of her eyes looked a bit cloudy). The vet confirmed that cataracts in one eye were forming but that's not unusual for a dog of her age. She also had another skin infection (she seems to be plagued by those like I am with allergies..). The vet gave her a shot and me some medication to give Pepper to get it cleared up. Other than that, Pepper's lost 4lbs (a good thing) and is in good health :)
Mom had one of those "you don't see that every day" type stories to tell me when I went by her apartment this evening. She was at Costco and a few check out lines down from her an old woman started coughing. It was a deep cough from the bottom of her guts. Some people tried to help her, but the old woman slumped to the floor and her bowels let go. When the paramedics passed my mother they were talking about how the woman didn't have a heart beat. Mom's pretty sure the woman died there =/
It's "play really cheesy video game" night at my house. Vera's in the living room with the PS2 playing this el cheapo PSX board game (isn't that a contradiction in terms?) called Top Shop. She's addicted to it ^^; Austin is in the master bedroom playing Mischief Maker on the N64. Since it didn't come with a manual we're still trying to figure out what the point of the game is. The simple enough fact that he gets to go around and shake things is amusing him to no end ^^;
We all watched Newsies after I got back with Pepper from the vet. Huh, well, uh, interesting movie. Now I'm curious to know why there's a Pulitzer Prize if the man was such a jerk in life ^^;
07.13.02 :: 10:19
I called a hotel that Mare recommended to make reservations yesterday (so I'd have a place to stay during her and Adam's wedding). When I rang them up I was told that they don't take reservations. I confirmed that I had indeed called a hotel and they said yes, but they don't take reservations. Completely baffled by such a policy, I got some more recommendations from Mare and made reservations at the next one on the list.
I had a migraine last night. Fortunately I only get them once in a blue moon. I should have recognized what was happening earlier. My vision was all weird (that's when I should have taken some Advil) then it cleared up and the headache hit me. I took 3 Advil at that point, put a cold compress on my face, and found a place to lay down.
I ended up sleeping nearly 12 hours last night o.O; I remember around 2am Austin coming in to ask if I wanted any munchies from the store. I scrubbed my head and said no, then went back to sleep. During the morning I had a dream. I'd wake up about every hour to check to clock, roll over, and continue with where I was in the dream. It was weird ^^;
Helen'll be here in an hour. I'm so not ready for her ^^; I'm sure she'll understand that the house is a disaster area right now (and isn't getting worked on lately because of the 100+ temperatures). It'll be good to see her ^_^ We have some massive gaming planned for this week :D
07.13.02 :: 23:02
Went to see The Crocodile Hunter this evening. It was funny ^^ Not that big on being a deep movie, but it did have it's humorous parts :) When we got back from the theatre the power went out. It was down for about a half hour before they got it back up again. It's not surprising considering that we were having a thunder storm at the time ^^;
Currently I'm showing Helen the greatness that is Jet Set Radio Future =D
07.14.02 :: 18:26
It's definitely Sunday; laundry, dishes, etc. Thankfully we've also gotten a break from the heat that's been melting us for the last week. Helen and I watched the first 10 episodes of Noir while Vera was taking Austin home. I think I'm enjoying Noir more the second time around than I did the first (mostly because it's not screwing with my brain this time :P ) After Noir I'm going to nudge her into watching Hellsing. That one's a must :D
07.15.02 :: 10:05
I'm writing! For the first time in *months* I'm feeling motivated to write more than crap. I've gotten a half page of Sowing written and it doesn't suck :D Heh, when I'm too tired / stressed I don't get any writing done. If I'm writing a lot that's usually a good indication that I'm happy and healthy. It feels good to finally get some done ^^ I think Helen being around has done a lot for improving that part of my spirit. I just feel more motivated right now :)
I took some Midol this morning. Gyah, I feel kinda loopy now. Usually Midol doesn't affect me in this way. I feel like I want to curl up and take a nap now. Maybe it's the relief from the pain that's making me want to rest ^^;
Most of the work I've done today has been dealing with the aftermath of the storm we had this weekend. After a thunder storm rolls through we always have a handful of people whose modem's are fried or computers are toasted 'cause they didn't have them on a surge protector. I do feel bad when I tell someone that I can't help them with their dead $150 cable modem. I can only hope they sent in the registration card and that Toshiba will be quick about getting it repaired =/
Intuition. Insight. Emotions. Feelings.
Take the quiz.
07.15.02 :: 19:30
I'm in a foul mood and on the prowl for an ass to kick. It'll probably be the next fucking telemarketer who calls my house at this rate ¬.¬ I've had to endure far too many 'idiot' calls today. The woman with the cable modem called back 4 hours later to see if my mind had changed about it being fried. ("Nope, I still can't get a response from it. Call Toshiba already!"). Among the more stupid things I've had to say today included telling a person to plug the phone line into the wall and being asked how to spell colon (like, http://) --;
Raugh! I went home and tried to take a nap. It was too hot in my room to sleep, so I went out to the couch. The damn phone kept ringing --; After I snapped at it a couple times and probably scared the living shit out of Vera and Helen they tried to find a way to silence it before I went berserk. I rested a bit, then Vera touched my hair and it startled me awake. I jumped and she jumped and she slid back to the kitchen while I laid on the couch panting. Helen brought the phone to me to see if I knew a way to silence it. Sure I do, popped the frickin' thing open and remove the battery pack ¬.¬
Justin's over for dinner right now. Have to get my temper in check before I go out to eat. Deep breath. Helen's watched 14 episodes of Noir today o.O; She only has 2 more left before she'll be finished.
07.16.02 :: 07:17
I woke up with the song 'elle g.' stuck in my head. I know that I've blogged about this song before. It's so sad, but I still find it comforting, y'know? o/~ Hear me out.. I have the floor.. I'll give you my tears.. I'll listen more.. o/~
I've been having a lot of weird dreams with my friends in them lately. A few nights ago I had a dream with Helen in it. We were kung fu fighting against government agents ^^; Last night I dreamt that Jeffy was my new roommate after four others had dumped me. The first thing he did was to replace the shower curtains with these short little things that only covered the top half of the body ^^; Weird, weird, dreams.
I got about 8k of fic written last night. I'm not sure how solid it all is. Some parts I'm proud of and know are rock solid. Other scenes are still in the 'clay' stage, I need to shape them more before I'll be satisfied.
Thanks for keeping me company while I was at work yesterday, Pisces ^^ And for listening to me rant ^^;;
07.16.02 :: 22:45
I didn't make as much progress on Sowing today as I would have liked. I have the right *idea* but my execution of it was lacking at best [sigh] Ah well, I'm getting used to having to write every scene in the chapter two or three times before I get it right :P
Justin came over for dinner again tonight. We had pronto puffs (aka pigs in blankets, though I tend to think of those as being sausages wrapped in pancakes instead of hot dogs wrapped in dough). Anyhow, after dinner we played some more Cel Damage. Justin is the only one of us (besides Austin, who isn't here) who doesn't suck at that game ^^; I just drive around and hit the weapon button a lot. I don't hit much except for rocks and the sides of buildings :P
Helen finished Noir and thought it was really cool. She also watched Read or Die. She's seen about half of the first season of Invader Zim, and the first episode of Hellsing. In short, she's getting a lot of anime watching in while I'm at work ^^
07.17.02 :: 13:46
I'm having one of those days where nothing goes right (which is kind of the story of my life :P ) I woke up this morning, went out to the living room, and stepped on Pepper puke. I recoiled back and landed the *other* foot in a different pile of puke --; She'd puked trails across the living room and had piles going in the corners. Damn mutt!
I was late to work because of cleaning up the puke. When I got there my computer was making a lot of noise. I tried to clean out the fans, but it didn't work. The processor fan failed at around 9am and I had to shut down the machine before the processor fried. Blech --; I couldn't get it repaired until Brian showed up shortly before lunch. I spent a couple hours working out of Nick's office (he's off today). I like his office chair a lot more than mine ^^;
On top of all of that I was having an allergy attack. Blech again! Some other things have happened that have upset me, but I won't put them here. At least Brian was able to bandaid my computer back together so that I could keep using it.
07.18.02 :: 07:48
A couple of people have asked if there are any wildfires around where I live right now. The answer is yes, there are. Here's a map of where the fires were located as of 10pm last night. I live between Medford and Jacksonville. The largest fire is the one that's closest to me, though I'm in no danger.
The valley is blanketed in smoke right now, but it wouldn't be summer if it wasn't ^^; It's normal, at some point during the summer, for the valley to be smokey and the moon to be a pumpkin orange color at night because of it. That's what the natural disaster of this region is. I still think it's a helluva lot better than hurricanes and tornados ^^;
07.19.02 :: 07:58
Oi oi, I'm surprised I didn't wake up anyone this morning when I scurried to get Pepper outside before she threw up on the carpet --; I'm not sure why she's been doing that lately. I'd taken her to the vet last week and she was mostly okay (except for the skin infection). I'm thinking about calling the vet to see if it could be a bad reaction to the skin medication or something. (That'd be weird too 'cause Pepper's been on this medication before...)
I made a pile of CDs for Helen last night =D I think we've also established without a shadow of a doubt that there isn't a good arcade in this town. The county fair started yesterday. I doubt I'll go out there. I'm not keen on the fair since there isn't much out there I'm interested in ^^;
Oh! I have to blog the latest city stupidities (and it's not even the city's fault this time!) Every few years the state comes through and repaves the main road through town since it's part of a interstate highway. So they came through last week and paved... Without any consideration for what they might *not* want to pave over, like the manholes and grating ^o^ The city is digging up the main road this week to unbury things :P Flippin' idiots, the lot of 'em!
07.20.02 :: 01:17
I'm tired but I can't sleep. I took a nap this afternoon, probably shouldn't have done that. I think I'm seeking out my bed so much lately 'cause I have to get away from all the people around me ^^; I love my friends, but I also need to be alone sometimes. It's a terribly conflict of needs vs. wants that leaves me feeling guilty sometimes. Oh well...
We watched the Utena movie tonight. It was my first time seeing it subtitled. Yes, I got the point and it made sense, but the movie is *still* screwed up :P
07.21.02 :: 00:27
Helen returned home yesterday afternoon. She'd kicked our butts in Scrabble, demonstrated that she played *way* more DW3 than me, and had a pile of CDs to enjoy. It was a pretty good visit, though we both wish it were longer. There just wasn't enough time with my work schedule and all the people hanging around right now for us to have much one on one time. Ah well, next time.
Justin picked up a PS2 yesterday and DW3 ^^; He's quite thoroughly hooked on that game. I offered to be his backup any time he wanted someone to keep the bosses off his tail ^_- Now Vera's sayin' that she wants the game 'cause of how fun it is to run around and beat up nameless bad guys. Hehehe! Gotta share the stress relief =]
Mike arrived yesterday evening 'cause he's Vera's ride home. They'll be returning home today. After that, I'll be on my own for a week or two before Adam and Mare's wedding. I think I'm mostly ready for that. I have a hotel room reserved, rented my tux, made arrangements for Pepper, going to borrow my dad's car for the drive there... Yeah, I'm just about set. I haven't bought their wedding gift yet. Adam told me what he wanted, but I'm not sure how serious he was about it ^^; If he was, okay, I'll get it for him. If he wasn't, then I need to think of something else ^^;;
I watched the 5th DVD of Princess Nine this evening. Gyah, what a romantic, emotional mess. [shakes head] Hit too close to home ^^; I also sort of watched The Thing with Mike and Vera. I don't have much interest in early 80's monster horror flicks... ^^; Vera's excited 'cause they're making a PS2 game based on the movie. IMO, there are other games to get excited about... Like Dynasty Warriors 4 =D
07.21.02 :: 14:37
Happy berfday Alessar! It sounds like you're having a great one despite the weather =D
Vera and Mike left around 11am today. It's back down to just Pepper and me. It's kind of an odd feeling after having people around for nearly 2 months, but I'm sure I'll slide right back into it. I spent a few hours this afternoon cleaning the house (just getting it back to how I like it, really). All the game systems are back in my bedroom. No reason for me to go out to the living room or master bedroom anymore ;)
I picked up some new shelving for my bedroom. The only problem is that I don't have room for it (yet). I'm going to either move a small table out, or my chest o' drawers. I don't use the chest o' drawers except for storing seasonal clothing. I could move that into the storage / workroom and put my shelves there. Then I'll have a place to put my games and DVDs so that they aren't in the workroom anymore :P I use my games a heckuva lot more than the chest o' drawers ^^;
07.21.02 :: 18:05
I just finished Dynasty Warriors 3 again. Man, I don't think I've ever sweated that much while playing a game before. The last level of Xu Huang's quest had me really going. Usually on levels that allow you 90 minutes to complete I'll get 300 - 400 kills. On that level I got 909 o.O; That's twice my average, and I wasn't going out of my way to up my score any. In fact, I missed a lot of things because I was wading through so many guys. I wonder if the difficulty of my save file was upped without me knowing it ^^; Nope, it's still set on easy. (Yes, I play DW3 on easy because I don't want to be challenged, I want stress relief!!)
07.21.02 :: 21:07
No, I won't shut up and stop blogging already :P hehe.. I didn't realize that it was 102F today o.O; And here I thought I was all uber-cool intensive gamer. No, I was melting and didn't realize it. At least I have my 909 kills to back up the cool part ^^v
07.22.02 :: 07:31
I'm surprised that I'm awake as I currently am ^^; I didn't end up falling asleep until around 1:30am and then I was up at 6am. I would have liked to sleep in, but darn work got in the way of that ^^; I was up that late because of the heat. When I got tired of laying there I pulled out my laptop and did some writing. That was probably a bad idea ^^; But on the good side, I did get a couple pages written. Again, I'm not sure how solid they are, but I'll be working on it. [nods]
07.22.02 :: 19:34
Well, I've been home for a little over 2 hours now and I've already told about 5 sales people to fuck off. I think the next one that calls me I'm going to ask them if they hate their job as much as I hate their job :P I know I shouldn't be mean, but sales calls just *really* irk me, especially when I'm in the middle of something.
I've drafted up a list of games I've got my eyeballs on for the next half year or so. On my current list is: Wild ARMs 3 (9.17.02), Kingdom Hearts (9.17.02), .hack (10.15.02), Shenmue II (10.29.02), Suikoden III (11.5.02), and Xenosaga (2.17.03). On the "too soon to have a release date or much info" list are: GTA: Vice City, Soul Calibur 2, and Dynasty Warriors 4 (3.17.03), and Final Fantasy XII.
You'll notice Final Fantasy XI is missing from the list. I've ranted about it on many message boards, but I won't waste my time with an online game. I don't care if it is my beloved Final Fantasy. I'm not going to spend the $150 it takes to get set up with the game and then spend another $10 a month just to keep playing it. That's complete bullshit in my opinion. I've already got a healthy list of RPG alternatives. I'll sit Final Fantasy XI out.
07.23.02 :: 13:29
I don't think you should worry about uninteresting blog entries, Jackie. As I see it, blogs are there for you to chatter about whatever's on your mind. It may not be of earth-stopping importance, but it still found it's way to being noted. That's gotta have some value, right? :)
I've gotten more writing done on the SeeDfic ^_^ Still rough, yeah, but I'm fleshing out the outline I have, so it's all good. I'm just really glad to even be writing again!
07.23.02 :: 19:01
I finally picked up Mare and Adam's wedding gifts. *Now* I'm ready to go to their wedding ^^ It's been another hot day (98F), so I'm going to go have dinner at my mom's place this evening. She has air conditioning *_* Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got more fic to write before I'm called ^^v
07.24.02 :: 07:51
It's hard not to think of the recording and movie industries as bad guys when they're trying to convince Congress to let them get away with hacking when not 2 weeks ago the House okayed life sentences for hackers. Do you see the double standard here? I'd encourage people to install a firewall; not to keep the script-kiddies out, but to keep the RIAA out ¬.¬
Speaking of deleting stuff, Tyrlen deleted my email last night --; I'd been keeping it on the server lately 'cause my Outlook wasn't working. I had 15 message stored up that I was going to respond to as soon as I figured out what Yggy's problem was, but that's not going to happen now. I hadn't even read it all yet. Blech --;
I'm having an allergy attack right now. And I have a customer to call back who I know is going to need a lot of hand holding. (She already told me that she needed help physically turn off her cable modem and turn it back on). We're going to have to do some more advanced things like reinstall her network card drivers. Fun, fun, let me tell you...
07.24.02 :: 19:27
I just woke up from a nap and had an IM waiting for me from a person I don't know complimenting me on my unique 'sleeping' away message ^^; Ysa-chan caught the reference right away. My usual away message consists of the first 14 lines or so of the Canterbury Tales Prologue in Middle English. I chose the tales for this line specifically, "That slepen al the night with open eye". I didn't think people would catch the reference from that one line alone, so I put the ones before it and a couple after it. Call it a weird quirk, but the Canterbury Tales was one of my favorite pieces of literature to study in high school and college ^^; (That and Dante's Inferno =D )
07.24.02 :: 21:52
I forgot that I was going to blog about the new cafe that opened a couple suites down from my office today. I've been eyeballing the place for a week now, ever since they posted their menu up in the window. It's a luncheon type place where you can get soup, salad, coffee, etc. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I do like sandwiches =] I figured they'd be pretty busy their first day, so I called them in the morning to place a to go order. Then at lunch today Jerry said he'd treat everyone to lunch there ^_^ It took everyone else about a half hour to order 'cause the line to the counter was out the door o.O;
Anyhow, the food was pretty good. My only complaint is that they put mustard and mayo on my sandwich when I'd asked three times for them to not do so ^^; I like dry sandwiches, what can I say? Oh well, they didn't drown the sandwich in it, so I just ate it. (I could still taste it though ^^; ) And their minestrone soup had mushrooms in it. I think that's the first time I've ever seen 'srooms in there. I was careful to flick them out before they made a break for my mouth. (Don't like mushrooms either ^^; )
I have yet to do any writing today. I should do that. Hmm.. writing or video games.. writing or video games.. okay, writing wins ^^
07.25.02 :: 07:59
I am so having my ass kicked by allergies right now --; They started last night and haven't given me much of a break yet (even though I took Actifed, which usually knocks me out). What little sleep I did get was restless and painful. (Ever felt like shoving a sharpened pencil up your nose just to relieve the sinus pressure?)
I spent a fair amount of time just puttering around online last night waiting for the Actifed to work (it never did..) I somehow ended up on a website that was selling modded Xboxes. My question was, why? For once the game system is domestically based. The US is getting games before Japan does. *This* is the market where Microsoft is going to make its money. There really isn't anything in the Japanese market that gives them an advantage.
I also looked to see if they had any Japanese PS2s. Yeah, I'm still looking at them even though I can't afford it right now ^^; But just think of all the trouble it'd spare me to have one! I could easily play my imported games and DVDs then without having to do stupid tricks to get it to work. Anyhow, the website didn't have any of the plain jane PS2s, only these limited edition ones that were considerably more expensive. My dream is to have a Japanese PS2 and Persona 2: Innocent Sin to play. That would be fun ^o^
Oh! Speaking of the Megumi Tensai series (Persona is a side series of games to it), Atlus Japan has announced that the newest game, Shin Megumi Tensai Nine is going to be split into two versions: online and offline =D The offline version is expected to be out at the end of this year with the online version following in 2003. The good news is, with a full offline version, the chances of Atlus USA localizing it go up significantly =D [dances] I'd love to get my paws on this game as well!
07.25.02 :: 15:38
Woo, I'm living by the skin of my teeth today, lemme tell you ^^; I got into an argument with a customer on the phone today. She used to be a co-worker of mine and I know how she is. She's one of those people who call two or three times a week to complain about one thing or another... and then after you've given her an answer she jabbers on for 5 - 10 minutes about nothing.
Well, I'm a busy bean, and I don't want to chew the fat with her. After giving her the answer to her question she wanted to go on to describe her problem for the third time and I cut her off. She then railed into me for being rude to her. I retorted that she was being rude to me by telling me the same thing multiple times. I *know* what her problem is. I've *told her* what our solution is. Why does she feel the need to tell me what the problem is again?
We went around for about 5 minutes trading barbs before she asked for the manager. "You damn well know I'm the manager!" I replied. So she asked to speak with the owner. I said fine and went off to get Bob. He took over the call from me and I went back to my office to vent for 10 minutes. Honestly, she does this to *everyone* at our office and it drives me nut. It's not like we don't want to talk to the customers, but we don't need to hear their life stories! She's thrown a lot of jabs at our techs that we've taken in good grace, but I wasn't going to back down today. (Right now, I have nothing to lose...)
So after Bob got off the phone with her I went to his office to accept my reprimand. I tried not to be flippant about it, though I realize I was. Honestly, I DON'T CARE if she cancels her account or even if Bob reprimanded me in some way. There comes a point where the consequences are worth it. My punishment? Bob wrote "Reprimanded" on a post-it note and stuck it to me ^^;
It was nice of my co-workers to go to Bob and explain that they all had the same problems with her that I have. I was just the first one to 'break'. Personally, I think they also took a small bit of joy in seeing someone take a bite out of her for a change ^^;
07.26.02 :: 09:21
I stumbled across an interesting link yesterday while putting around the net. It's a website that has a bunch of mini-articles about Japanese culture. They range from Sumo wrestlers, J-pop artists, the Tokyo Tower, authors, etc. It makes for some interesting reading :)
The sun was the most amazing color this morning when I went to work. It was a neon orange/red (I kid you not). A co-worker tells me that the moon was the same color last night. The wildfires put so much smoke up into the air that everything is cast in an orange hue right now. No wonder my allergies are driving me nuts ^^;
07.27.02 :: 17:05
I took Pepper to the groomers today. She's all clipped and good looking again :) My brother called a little while ago just to say hi. That's good, I like to know that he's still alive and kicking. I sent an email to Brain yesterday to see how he was doing on his deployment in Egypt. From his response I'd say everything going fine ^^
My allergies are still driving me nuts. I spoke with Mrs. Neufeld the other day and she said the hospital where she works has been at full capacity lately because of people with respiratory problems. That's not surprising. I've been keeping an eye on the air pollution index of the valley and it's bouncing between moderate to hazardous because of the smoke =/ Right now I have the house closed up even though that makes things significantly warmer in here. I'd rather bake than be miserable sniffling and sneezing. I've also been wearing a dust mask on occasion. I feel like a goober, but it seems to help some.
I've been talking to Adam a lot this weekend ^_^ That's nice, I haven't had the chance to jabber at him in a while. Yeah, we've talked about arrangements for his weekend (and who I'll help transport / lodge).. but we've also spent a lot of time talking about game music and games :)
I've been considering the idea of moving to Seattle. This isn't an unreasonable leap for me to make. I've already got a place to stay for a few months while I get settled. I've been researching jobs up in that area and the market isn't as dismal as one might think. I haven't fired off any resumes yet (I have to wait for some other things to happen first). Depending upon how things play out during the next month, we'll see where I'll end up :)
07.28.02 :: 16:30
Ahem, okay, this blog entry's going to be a bit of a geography / topography / weather lesson on the Rogue River valley (where I live). Mostly I just felt like explaining *why* the smoke in the valley is a Bad Thing and how it probably won't go away for a while, even if the fires are put out.
Well, it's a valley (duh ^^; ), which makes it a lot like a Tupperware bowl. Wind currents tend to go right over the top of the valley and not actually into it. For that reason, during the Cold War, if there was a nuclear fallout a lot of the west coast was going to be evacuated here. The experts guestimated that the fallout would skim right over the top of the valley and not get to the people within.
The theory also works in reverse, unfortunately ^^; With the mountains around the valley currently aflame the smoke is trapped in by the jet stream. The only thing that's going to clear out the valley a windstorm (which we have on occasion). The firefighters don't want a windstorm right now for obvious reasons, and there isn't one in the forecast anytime soon. So it's going to remain smokey here for a while still.
When I went out to my car this afternoon it was covered in the thin coat of ash. I could see the ash falling almost like it was snow. Ah.. I guess the best thing to pray for is rain. That would knock the particles out of the air *and* help the firefighters.
On to other things... Alessar's going to give me some of his better dex drive saves to post on my 'archive' =D I'm jazzed =D I also got my paws on a SharkPort 2, so I can back up my PS2 saves and post those on the web as well ^_^ I'll probably be making those updates tonight :)
07.29.02 :: 07:16
No shit! It's about time Qwest had their tail stepped on. I could have only wished that it happened sooner =/
The sun was orange this morning. Not quite to the caution cone orange, but still bright o.o; I admit that it looks pretty, but it's still a Bad Thing. It's a bad thing because my car is covered in ash and I haven't had a clear head in weeks. I'm also grumpy 'cause I didn't sleep much last night. Whenever I laid down my head would clog up and a sinus headache would come crashing down on my skull. Blasted allergies! Blasted smoke!
I couldn't get the SharkPort 2 working last night. I think I need a new / different driver disc for the PS2. I've already contacted Interact to see about getting one.
07.29.02 :: 20:43
All I need to know I learned from picking black berries
(Stop looking at me like that, Nightbreak, I am not off my rocker!)
- The best berries are the ones hidden by the thorny vines. It's worth the effort to carefully move the vines to get to them.
- Don't be greedy! There are plenty of berries on the bush for both you and the birds.
- The spiders laid claim to some of the berries first. Leave them be and find another patch to pick.
- While wearing gloves may protect you from the thorns, but you also run the risk of squishing the berry. Take the gloves off, accept what the nicks may come, and don't damage the berry.
- Don't plunge head long into the bush, you'll get countless scratches that way.
- Be patient! Not all of the berries are going to be ready on the day you decide to pick. Take the ones that are ready now and wait patiently for the rest to ripen.
- Black berries are best enjoyed when shared.
07.31.02 :: 13:58
I didn't have much to blog when I sat down to do it yesterday morning, then it got so busy that I didn't have a chance to do an evening entry ^^;
Ohhh.. funny thing just happened. A saleswoman Bob's been dodging called and I picked up. I offered to take a message and she gave me her info with "this *will* be my Final Call" tacked menacingly onto the end. I almost burst out laughing and was *so* tempted to ask her if she could tell the other telemarketers who call my house to make it their Final Call ^o^
I haven't heard anything back from the places I sent resumes to in Seattle a couple days ago, but I wasn't expecting to. They're too much 'dream jobs' to have 'em leaping at me y'know? (I applied for some technical writing (manual writing) jobs at Microsoft, and for a job as a copy editor at Nintendo Power magazine). Hey, it doesn't hurt to at least try for the dream jobs. *Someone*'s gotta fill the position!
The job interview I had yesterday went pretty well, IMO. I think they liked me, at least. There's going to be another interview later in the week to assess my technical knowledge. (This first one was just to see if they liked me or not, I guess ^^; ) I did find out that I may have to commute 30+ miles each way to the job if I got it. I used to do that when I went to RCC, so it doesn't bug me that much.
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