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07.03.03 :: 23:49
Hot weather can sometimes lead to interesting discoveries. Take for example the fact that I've been leaving windows around the house open as of late. I don't usually close them at night because the cool air is quite refreshing after 90+F temperatures all day. But, at 4 in the morning when I'm half asleep, a chilled toilet seat is not a pleasant thing. I must remind myself to close the bathroom window before I go to bed :P
I'm taking Elf home tomorrow. That'll be about a 3 hour drive each way. Kind of pleasant, it'll give me some time to think and I've borrowed my mom's CD player so that I have music to listen to during the drive :) I wish I'd been a better hostess while he was visiting, but I've been feeling all out of sorts lately. Kind of why I haven't been blogging much during the last week. Nothing's really wrong except that I'm frustrated and want to slink under my rock for a while. I know I'll feel better in a few days, so I'm just waiting it out.
I've been playing the heck out of Suikoden III lately. I'd forgotten how much I liked that game ^^; Plus it helps having a good strategy guide. I was frustrated with Thomas's first chapter and all the inane things you have to do to finish it. And the Rock Golem boss in Geddeo's second chapter kept owning me. With GameFAQ's help I've gotten past both of these problem areas and have happily continued on with my game :D
07.04.03 :: 20:56
I had an adventure today while taking Elf home. My car broke down right outside of his hometown o.O; I popped open the hood and the upper radiator hose was squirting coolant all over the battery. Oops, not a good thing, but fixable! He called his mom and his mom called around and found a parts store that was open today (thank God!). I called the parts store and ordered a new hose, a screwdriver, and some antifreeze and she went by and picked it up. I replaced the hose and tried to start the car and it still wasn't right =| It took about 5 minutes and a call to my dad before I found an air hose in a completely different area of the engine that'd popped off at some point --; I put that back on and the car ran like normal.
The conversation with my dad was not very helpful ^^; He suggested that I have one of the "guys" do the repair for me. The only guy around was Elf and he's the first to admit that he knows nothing about cars. If anyone was going to fix the problem it was going to be me :P (And I already knew what I needed to do). I'd called him after I fixed the hose but couldn't find the air leak. He was stunned that I'd fixed the hose and asked me what I used to fix it. "A screwdriver. What would *you* use?" ^^;
I'm going to see if my dad has time to give the car a good look over sometime next week. I know that what I've done works, but I'd rather a professional go over it y'know? ^^;
07.06.03 :: 00:19
After a month of dragging my feet on it (and 3 days shy of the sign up deadline) I signed up for the next Survivor tournament on Random Insanity. Last time I played Jayle from Valkyrie Profile. This time I'm playing Lebia Maverick from Silent Möbius. Once again I'm playing as a Sidekick (meaning I'm participating, but I can't win the tourney). That's okay. I don't feel confident enough in my skills, or grasp of the rules, and I'm afraid of offending someone... To play the tourney to win ^^; If nothing else, maybe someone will become interested in Lebia from my portrayal of her and check out Silent Möbius ;)
07.06.03 :: 22:40
Evil thought for the day: Chocobo nuggets in dinosaur shapes with BBQ dipping sauce. And y'know, it kind of makes me hungry...
I made myself an avy for the Survivor XI tourney. I'm not sure if I like it or not... Graphics manipulation type stuff just isn't my thing...
I picked up Jet Grind Radio for the Gameboy Advanced today. I really want to like this game but the controls are making it hard to. THQ did a pretty good job with the music and graphics (better than I'd expected in both areas) but the controls blow chunks. The skaters can't go in the straight line to save their lives and are fantastic at going in circles. It's annoying when trying to paint graffiti with the D-pad and your skater wanders away from the wall instead painting --; (They should have adopted JSRF's trigger painting controls and faithful porting be damned.)
I also bought Document of Metal Gear Solid 2 for $10 new. It's kind of interesting, even for a modest fan of the series like myself. I wish Square-Enix would do something like that for Final Fantasy X-2. I would be all over that (as I'm sure big MGS2 fans are over this). Throw us a cookie, Square-Enix!
(Which reminds me, my parents brought me back a gift from their coast trip: A shark cookie jar that plays the Jaws theme when you open the lid ^^; Mom was kind enough to fill it with cookies before giving it to me ;)
I traded vehicles with dad today 'cause he wanted to work on the car I was driving (I'm glad). He was impressed with my mad hose swapping skills, but was concerned about the vacuum hose I put back in place. Apparently it's an important one and shouldn't have the kink in it that it does o.O; Hehe... Yeah, he probably wanted to trade cars so that I'd fill this gas tank and get it washed :P
07.07.03 :: 21:43
I was wasting time tonight and made a friend's quiz. Otherwise I spent this evening trying to veg and not feel ill / depressed. My stomach spent most of today tied in a knot --; At least it's settled down some and I got a little bit done this evening. I wrote 2 emails (which is more than I've written in a month. I've gotten horrible about that :P )
07.08.03 :: 22:10
I'm still feeling crappy ._. I slept about 14 hours in few hour stints and had a lot of very odd dreams. I should have written them down when I woke up.
Listening to Ace of Base's "Cecilia" I'm reminded of a music video idea I had while driving back from LA last month. If I had even an ounce of video editing skill I might try to do it, but I don't, so whatever. The video would feature Sylia Stingray from Bubblegum Crisis 2040 and Ifurita from El Hazard: The Wanderers, mixing them up 'cause they look alike. Anyhow.. lines I think could play well with footage from those series: "This is a song about a well-known girl / Who was she? / We will never know the answer to that question" (This could have an outline cut out of one of them and as the song queues up it'll flip between Sylia and Ifurita stills back and forth several times). "Them, and make them go down on their knees / On and on again" (Oh, come on, this has Ifurita written all over it :P ) "Cecilia - you're gonna live forever" (Another Ifurita line). "Cecilia - did you come home and to whom?" (I can just see Mackie with Sylia catching him doing something he shouldn't be doing, happens often enough :P ) "Passion changes but they will still remember you / I say they loved you and they would do the same for you today" (A good Knight Sabers line, IMO). Ah well, it's a half baked idea at least ^^;
07.09.03 :: 21:56
Day 1 of the Random Insanity tournament has began. So far I'm pleased with how it's going (at least for my character). I'm kind of regretting signing up as a Sidekick instead of a Sponsor. Next time I'll do a full sponsorship.
I had a weird dream this morning that's still kind of reverberating in my mind. I'll skip the boring start of it... But I'd logged into an EQ-esque world where I was a mid-level Cleric aligned with the air diety. I shared my account with another person (DS, like I do IRL) and he'd left my Cleric camped on an island where an air god/diety spawned. Well, on this day there were six treasure chests there 'cause a new town was being formed for the worshippers of that diety and those chests contained money and items they were going to use to build their town. Then three thieves showed up and stole the chests. The thief who was aligned with the air diety came back and offered to take me off the island 'cause the diety was rampaging around and was about the squish me 'cause it thought I'd done it. We agreed upon a price (he wouldn't do it for free :P ) and he took me to their hideout.
It was safe there, so I started to take off some of my armor. (A well armored Cleric, go figure). I had a ton of headgear, and once I had it taken off and my head exposed I could tell that the air-thief was interested in me. I took off the breastplate and my gauntlets. The air-thief asked me some question and I answered like, "I shouldn't have logged in when I did. My father-in-law is the sheriff and will be upset when he sees what sort of trouble I've gotten in to."
Then my brain was like "WTF?! I'm not married!" and I looked down at my hand and there was a ring there. I could feel the air-thief's disappointment at my already being taken and my own brain wondering when that'd happened. I woke up before I could figure out who I was married too... but the reason the dream stuck with me is because... The thought of being married wasn't an unpleasant one, at least through the fog of the dream. It was like "huh, well, that's cool, I guess." [shrugs]
07.10.03 :: 21:16
I'm blogging real quick before both Nightbreak and Helen beat me unconscious. Why would they want to do that? Because I didn't sleep at all last night and I'm currently on hour 31 of being awake o.o; I think I've gotten my third wind (or so). I'm awake though I shouldn't be. Maybe it's the fact that it's freaking 85F in my bedroom currently, not so pleasant sleeping conditions.
The tourney is going well. Lebia is causing much mischief and I'm pleased ^^ I know I've written her terribly out of character this afternoon / evening, I blame it on the lack of sleep. (Do you really think she'd go out of her way to tell Winnie the Pooh ghost stories? ^^; ) Erm... Yeah, sleep, good thought. I'll go do that now.
07.11.03 :: 23:44
Photoshop is not my friend [gnaws on it]. My brain's so scattered tonight. I keep forgetting what I was going to blog when I look at this window to write it down, but when I go to another program I remember again, switch back, forget, repeat :P Media player continues to fascinate me. I tried the "play favorites" option tonight and it coughed up a lot of songs that (surprise surprise) I like. For those curious it's well padded with FFX-2 and Ace of Base songs.
07.12.03 :: 02:16
I remember what I was going to blog about: the neighbors! Yes, the neighbors caught me before I got inside the house this evening and started asking me a bunch of questions. 'Had I see the new calves in the field across the street?' 'No...' 'Did I see the skunk that was on their porch the other night?' 'No, but I smelled it...' 'Did I hear the coyotes the other night? They killed one of the calves being born in the backfield the other night!' 'o.O; I'm glad I stay in the house at night then...' It was all the neighborhood gossip that I'm sure city-type folk don't have the pleasure of experiencing ^^;
I posted the last 2 parts of Sowing and an Omake tonight. Yay! I'm done! Here are the final stats: Length (pages): 627, (words): 493,373, (kb): 2672, (novel lengths): 8.22, (time to write): 45 months. Woooooo!
07.12.03 :: 10:22
I was having a very nice dream about chocolate chip and sugar cookies and my bro called and woke me up ;_; I want a cookie.
07.13.03 :: 00:11
I just finished binging on Silent Mobius. I watched episodes 1 - 18 looking for a gag and couldn't find it, gyah --; Oh well, at least it's a good series, though it's given me a headache. I read through all the Viz trade paperbacks last week and the story in the manga and anime are so mish-mashed --; Things keep happening that I'm like "that's not supposed to happen yet" or "didn't that happen a while ago?" or "why are you even in this story arc?" It's all very confusing x.x;
Ah well, here are my new avy's for the tourney. The chibi one was used today because it's mid-tourney Omake day. The other avy and banner I'm going to use for the rest of the tourney. They were made by my co-worker who had mercy on me and my lackluster graphics skills ^^;
  
07.13.03 :: 22:15
I'm sad, I think my tourney writing is going downhill rapidly --; The only good thing that came from the last round was the Grunty Food Poem I came up with. (I posted it to Write or Die as well 'cause I might polish it and post it with my other fics). Today's round is in the world of FFX. You'd figure that'd be right up my alley, but I'm uninspired, bah =/
07.14.03 :: 22:02
I had a couple unbelievable calls today! The first was from a man who personally disliked the layout of the web mail interface for the mail server and wanted me to uninstall it. Um... No... I'm not uninstalling the *web server* because you don't like what it looks like :P Not to be outdone, a woman called me shortly afterwards pissed that we couldn't provide DSL to her CAMPSITE! I kid you not. I just about fell out of my chair when she got all pissy about that on me. Oh man!
Today the writing tournament is in the world of Metal Gear Solid 2. I'm lucky that the backdrops keep being places that I'm familiar with ^^; This round, I have Lebia being fed up with being pulled along from world to world and so she gets herself a gun and swears to shoot anyone who doesn't answer her questions :P (I know, rather OOC for her, but, shhh, I think I'm the only one in the tourney who's really familiar with SMob so they won't know the difference ;)
I'm kind of intrigued about trying to do an in character story with her in it. I've been all over the place with not-Lebia. I need to prove that I can actually write her the correct way :P
07.15.03 :: 00:26
Gyah, I can't sleep. I'm so wired. I spend the evening doing a round robbin' writing session with writers from Brazil, Singapore, and Australia XD I'm so thrilled. I'm really excited to see where the story we're working on goes, but my turn is over and I should be in bed asleep. Ahh! Okay, to briefly explain the new avy. It's to represent Lebia cutting her hair ('cause it got in the way) and being hurt while fighting a prototype Metal Gear RAY. I'll go back to the 'default' one tomorrow when the characters are reset. Hehe.
07.15.03 :: 23:24
This tourney is so rocking my world right now! XD To read the semi-finals round for yourself go here. Here is the summary: First, the rules for this round: Sidekicks (like Lebia) are like ghosts this round. They can become solid if they concentrate, but they're just kind of whisping around. The location for this round is a generic high school in Tokyo.
After discovering that she's a ghost Lebia went to the cafeteria for some food. (Yeah, she'll make herself solid long enough to eat it :P ) In the cafeteria she came across Ed (from Cowboy Bebop) who was demanding tacos. Then Dias (from Star Ocean 2) showed up and Yura (from InuYasha) arrived in the cafeteria after killing many students in the hallways ^^; Dias told Ed that Yura had tacos and Ed tackled Yura and started biting her ^^; Lebia beat Ed off and they started to leave when Dias and Yura started to dueling. Garland (from FF1) with Hachi (from InuYasha) in tow watched the duel. Yura strung Ed and Lebia up 'cause she's just cruel that way and Ash (from Pokemon) showed up. [Get the feeling that this cafeteria is getting a bit full of plot?]
Okay, then I had to go and make things worse because in another thread Kirby (from Kirby ^^; ) absorbed Agent Smith (from Matrix) and was now Agent Kirby and I wanted Lebia to duel him. (More specifically, I wanted Ed and Lebia vs. Agent Kirby 'cause it'd be a battle of hackers vs. program). I PM'ed Kirby's author and he was cool with having a battle. So with all those people in the cafeteria already, enter a boatload of Agent Kirbys! Ryu (from Street Fighter) followed the bodies Yura left behind and is on his way to the cafeteria currently.
So... That's Agent Kirbies vs. Dias / Garland / Hachi / Ed / Ryu / Lebia / Ash / Charizard / Bulbasaur / Squirtle / Pikachu vs. Yura. That's one hell of a battle to be sychronizing between 9 authors, but we're getting it done taking turns writing. Kirby's author has been a real sport about it all since this isn't the only Agent Kirby battle going on in the storyline either! (There's another one that started on the 3rd floor of the school).
Yeah, I'm glad for Lebia at least holding her own so far. It's taking some creative thinking to keep her from getting completely owned (and making liberal use of the fact that she can go solid and not-solid). She's also making use of the gravitron pistol, which is *not* in character for her (usually the kick would pull her arms out of their sockets, but if she's not solid enough for it to do that... o.o ) I'm having a blast, oh yes I am :D
07.16.03 :: 20:11
I found out this evening that my brother is going to be visiting me this weekend. Gotta love unplanned house guests ^^; I'm so not ready to host anyone --; The tourney is into the final round (which has been extended an extra day 'cause one of the finalist is having computer problems). The Kirby fight was a blast. That has to be one of my favorite parts of the tourney ^_^
07.19.03 :: 00:48
Finally finished rewatching Silent Mobius today. I'd forgotten how lame the ending was ^^; Tomorrow I'm going to rewatch Read or Die and some Battle Athletes. There is another tourney in 3 months and I need to do research for it ;) (It's a team tourney. I've got a partner, but we're trying to figure out who to play as. The characters have to be rivals). We're thinking about doing Yumiko and Nancy from Read or Die (cutting off after the first episode). I'd like to do Nancy vs. Nenene, but the chances of that flying are less than sliding through on the Yumiko vs. Nancy :P
I also beat FF8 again tonight (I keep a save file ready for anytime the urge hits me ;) I have to work tomorrow. I have the feeling it's going to be a wasted day (well, I can hope at least). Been rolling some writing ideas around in my head. I need to start working on those more seriously...
07.20.03 :: 22:27
I had a pretty productive Sunday, though it was blasted hot. I'm mostly ready for my bro to visit (he'll be arriving in the wee hours of the morning). If something isn't to his liking he can do something about it. He used to live here, he knows where things are :P
I played a few rounds of Hot Shots Golf 3 today. I hate to think that real golf is this frustrating plus. I think if I get the ball within a foot of the cup it should count ¬.¬ Too bad golf isn't horseshoes or involves hand grenades :P
07.21.03 :: 06:54
Amazon.com is not a safe place for beans to play...
* gbeans looks up Anne McCaffrey...
* gbeans finds a book she hasn't read!
* gbeans finds another book coming out in November!
* gbeans idly looks up the CD Matt told her about Friday.
* gbeans sees it's part of a package deal with another tempting CD.
* gbeans' credit card weeps.
The End.
07.22.03 :: 20:26
I added a weather bug thing to my page so y'all can see how much I'm suffering :P (If anyone knows of a *smaller* one that's free and is less than 200px wide, drop me an email please ^^; )
Anyhow, exciting news! My brother is in an episode of "I'm with Busey" that's airing next week. I'm under strict orders by my non-cable subscribing parents to record it for them. (I would anyways, I want blackmail material for when he's rich and famous ;) The reason I even found out about this is because the show's producers called him today and wanted him back for another episode. He's leaving tomorrow morning so that he'll be back for filming on Thursday. Go Nanki (even if you did nearly fry my Xbox yesterday :P ) He was planning on leaving Friday, so we have less time to get on each other's nerves, but an opportunity like this is worth returning early for.
I ordered 4 items from Amazon on Sunday and they've split them up into 3 shipments, thus maximizing the S&H they've charged me :P The reason I bring it up is because 3 of the 4 items shipped today in 2 different boxes. They were shipped to my mom's business (safer than the packages sitting on my porch). I've already warned her to not return them to sender, give them to the theatre across the street (looks at Nightbreak :P ), or open them (though I know she will anyways 'cause she's curious like that :P ) I'm just worried that she'll see the artists on the CDs and wonder, "I didn't order these Japanese CDs!" and send them back. She nearly did that to my P:IS discs, but called me first to be sure :P
07.23.03 :: 18:23
First off, many thanks to Lauren for finding me a weather bug that doesn't take up quite so much real estate in the side bar! ^_^
I broke down and bought Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO today. The price finally dipped into the "games I kind of want but not for $50" range. (It was $30). This'll be fun ^^ I loved Capcom vs. SNK on the Dreamcast. I still want to cosplay as King sometime. The costume wouldn't be hard. The hardest part would be her fedora or shoes if I went to that much detail ^^
I picked up a fountain soda from the market on the way home today. It tastes like Pepsi and Nerds o.O; It's an interesting flavor, not entirely unpleasant, but a bit... sugary.
07.23.03 :: 21:02
I can safely say after two hours of reacquainting myself with Capcom vs. SNK that I haven't forgotten how to kick ass with King or Chun Li ;) Once I'm finished refreshing myself with Sakura and Yuri I'll be ready to take on Xbox LIVE. (And probably get my butt kicked, but that's half the fun!)
07.24.03 :: 20:00
I discovered this morning that there are two Silent Mobius books out there I don't have o.o! Amazon.com to the rescue again ^^; The first batch of goodies I ordered from them arrived today (the two CDs). I'm listening to Yuki Kajiura's Fiction right now. First impressions are that it kicks ass, but what did you expect? I like the revised version of "Key of the Twilight".
I also blocked an AIM lamer from my contact list today. So, if you're reading this, Mr. Lamer, a bit of friendly advice. 1) Grow up. 2) Invest in a dictionary. 3) Get a life.
07.25.03 :: 22:30
Well, it's been a hell of a day for me --; Not a horrible day, but one of those "Why do I bother?" type days. I got in a row with a co-worker this morning. I won't go into the details here, but let me say that I don't dislike people just to dislike them: something has to drive me to it. I've held my tongue for *months* and today I couldn't hold it any longer. The most frustrating part of the entire affair is that he *still* doesn't understand why I'm upset. He's focused on one occurrence (that I snapped at) instead of seeing the larger picture of a *pattern*. His one act isn't worth noting. His entire week is worth mention --; It was also a very busy day today =| I took a lot of calls (fortunately all of them were fairly quick / simple things, no problem children today). Definitely earned my keep today, even if I was playing in the mud some.
This evening I found out my dad gave out my cell phone number. This is upsetting since I guard one of the few "reliable" ways to get a hold of me zealously. (Ha, this American dictionary has the definition of zeal as ardor and the definition of ardor as zeal. I love when they do that). Regardless, I'm sure you get the point. I've gone to some length to cut off other means of communicating with me, so I don't want the ways I've left open freely given out --;
The Pern book I ordered from Amazon came in today. I was all happy until I read the table of contents and realized there was only one short story in this book I hadn't already read (doh). I have "Get off the Unicorn" and "The Girl Who Heard Dragons" in which 'The Smallest Dragonboy' and 'The Girl Who Heard Dragons' were previously published. (I was only able to read through the book "The Girl Who Heard Dragons" once 'cause 'Velvet Fields' scared the crap outta me o.O)
On the bright side, I'm *really* happy with Yuki Kajiura's 'Fiction' CD. If you're a fan of her work (and if you aren't already, you should be) it's a steal at $15. "Key of the Twilight" is still my favorite track, though "Salva Nos" is growing on me. The one is like, opera techno o.O; It's weird, but good. Usually my co-workers dread whatever new CD I bring into work, but our head technician was really digging the CD when I had him listen to it ^^
07.26.03 :: 21:43
Helen arrived safely this morning, then I dragged her to GP to see my workplace and pick up the Silent Mobius DVDs I'd forgot there ^^; We've been watching that and Yawara! this afternoon / evening :) I successfully made us tuna casserole for dinner tonight (and neither of us died, yay!)
07.27.03 :: 10:13
I had so many weird / vivid dreams last night. I'm just going to blog the last one I had... Imagine Pikmin, you're on the little guy's level. They're spread throughout the level (started that way, you didn't have to grow them and take them places with you). The music is forebearing. And whenever a lil guy gets into trouble he squeals "tasuke!" (help!) before a bug comes along and eats him. That was my dream. Going around watching pikmin-like creatures being eaten and listening to them squeal for help.
I know I had other dreams, but I can't remember them as well. I kept waking up all night going "Man, that was odd." Wait, a fragment from another one was that I was in a conflict with some one / thing and a swarm of bees attacked me on the back of the neck. I jolted awake from that dream 'cause I'd scrunched my shoulders and put my head back to protect my neck from the bees.
I finished "Gift of Dragons" last night. It was an okay book. (I reread the runner story and the one story that was new to the book). In retrospect, I probably should have just gone to the library and borrowed the book if I was going to be able to read it in a day, but oh well :P My Pern collection wouldn't be complete without it :P
07.28.03 :: 22:22
It was a way busy day at work. Probably the busiest ever excluding a time when a server was down (which none were today, that's why having so many calls was odd -- even for a Monday). None of them really stood out as remarkable. Maybe I was too busy to notice.
Helen finished watching Silent Mobius while I was at work and didn't care for it ^^; (Okay, I admit that the anime has a cop out ending, but the story wasn't finished yet in the manga!) We've been watching more Yawara!. We're up to episode 21 now of that. I have up to episode 41 on tape and the special. I need the rest of the series =| Someone smart go out there and license it so I can buy it on DVD.
We're nearly finished with the evil puzzle Helen brought with her. It's FFX, which makes it automatically cool until you take into account that it's mostly black ¬.¬; I insisted that we try to put it together the 'right' way for about an hour before I gave up and we flipped the pieces over and started putting it together using the numbers on the back. (Do all Japanese puzzles have numbers on the back? The one she got has numbers on the back too...)
In the next couple days we're gonna go see Tomb Raider 2 (probably tomorrow or Thursday) and we're going to Shoji's for dinner with my folks on Wednesday. (Japanese food :)~~~~ ) Plus the lavabed on Saturday! Yay :D
07.30.03 :: 22:10
I'm such a bad bean ^^; Mom, dad, Helen, and I went to Shoji's tonight and I insisted that Helen try a harakiri (a drink with 7 different liquors in it) ^^; She said it was more potent than the sake she drank at AN ^^;
Yesterday we went to see Tomb Raider 2 (the air conditioning was worth the price of admission). I liked the first movie better, but it wasn't bad. I still want to see Pirates and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I better do that soon before the movies are out of the theatre.
I was the death of countless (okay, maybe 10) flies this evening. The little buggers kept landing on the TV while we were watching Yawara! ¬.¬ That is so not going to fly, yo. (Haha, get it, fly? Okay, maybe not...)
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