Aerin's Adventures

Social Integration

2011-11-12T00:10:00.001-05:00

As many of my Dear Readers know, I have a few social media accounts. Since I don't play online regularly any longer, I haven't felt compelled to maintain this blog much. But I don't want to stop journaling my life. So, I've been using Twitter a lot recently, for book and movie reviews as well as #CuriousMithra musings.

I finally got my business trip pics uploaded to Facebook as well, but I'm such an FB noob that I really don't know how to tie it all together. I'd like this blog and Facebook to be the authoritative records of my digital life, but I don't know how to integrate them, if that's realistically possible.

LordKaosu seems to have tweets going to his LJ, but I don't know if that's an app or manual copypasta. I know there's a way to get this blog to tweet new posts, but as it requires trusting a third party with my Google account, no thanks. What I really want is a safe and sane way for FB and blog updates to tweet, and for tweets to archive somewhere simple for archiving.

Until that day comes, I'll have to make do.

So, partly for completeness and partly for a starting point, here's where I keep a lot of my stuff:

* This blog
* Twitter (AerinRavage)
* Facebook (Aerin Ravage)
* Flickr (AerinOfSiren)
* GMail (AerinRavage)
* LiveJournal (aerinravage)
* No Google+ yet, despite the ending of the Real names policy

I also have Skype, AIM, Yahoo accounts (and even a DeviantArt profile) but those are just gathering dust. I suppose if I ever get back into an MMO I'll use those for party/shell coordination and join the 21st century gamers.

Home Is Where the Trolls Are

2011-11-11T23:56:00.001-05:00

(placeholder alert - I want to get these and some other thoughts down before I forget, but this post may change)

Since I've not been on any MMO's in ages, I've given PlayStation Home a serious shot. As with most things, I'm AerinRavage there too. And after many hours logged, here's what I think:

* It's a decent social platform, but it needs improved communication tools
* As a marketing platform, it's really hit-or-miss. Some promotions work well (Dead Island, Uncharted) and others are turn-offs (Resistance, X-Men)
* The "games" are a mixed bag as well, though the Home 2.0 update has at least improved things. Lag ruins the fun in many games, especially DDR ><
* Trolls, trolls, trolls. You all know how much I enjoy the psychology of trolling and being trolled, so I get a tickle from it all. Even had an epic night where I tanked four or five hardcore trolls for 15 minutes or so
* USB keyboards. Less than 10 bucks. Please don't consume my evening with 7 wpm chats...
* Avatar customisation is a treat, but as long as I maintain my Sony boycott, I can't get the more stylish or fun items
* I think Home wants to be a true social hub for PS3 users but comes off like a poor IMVU clone

I've made a few good friends and have had a number of really fun and interesting conversations. People like Dubbs, FFXIHealer, CherryHeartsMatt, MullacAbu, Femaelstrom, AJillSandwich, Tomaisin, and DonandGert have given me a reason to stop by Home but truly, there's just not that much there to hold my interest.

There's a screenshot function and I managed to get a few snaps of the Cantina mosh pit. I'll grab those when I can and add them here.

Business Trip Part 2 - The Businessing

2011-09-16T12:01:00.000-04:00

[And here's the second part. Still tl;dr but whatever]

From there, we stopped in Estes Park and Boulder, Colorado. Estes Park was recommended by Ape's dad, and the easiest way to describe it would be to compare it to Gatlinburg, TN of 10 years ago. Lots and lots of t-shirt shops selling the same captioned tees, plus local and chain restaurants. There was a nice river running alongside the main drag, and we were a few days too early for the moose migration. But I just didn't like it much.

Boulder was just because. We stopped at their version of an outdoor mall and walked around with Creature. It was sundown and more of a romantic time than commerce-oriented. At 9pm, 12 hours after leaving Nebraska, we arrived at our Embassy Suites hotel in Denver.

Once again, we found ourselves in an Embassy Suites, which always reminds me wistfully of AWA. We got this one on a typical Ape steal-o'-a-deal, and aside from being in a kind of gritty location, the hotel itself was as nice as always. We watched more TV and then crashed. Why is it that it seems the nicer hotels have a more limited channel selection than budget places? Same for Internet - most resorty places charge for it whilst most lower-end stops offer it for free. Ape said it prolly had to do with each kind's target demographic - business travelers staying in the nicer places could fork out for better amenities. Still cheesy...

Saturday was a typical whirlwind of activity. After enjoying a wonderful Embassy breakfast, we went back up, got ready and headed out to Cherry Creek to meet a friend of Ape's. She met us at the nicer mall there with her two young daughters, so of course there were many girly pictures taken. We looked around for a bit and ate lunch in their food court.

Aside from a number of uppity stores, there were two highlights: a Lego kiosk, where a guy was selling mostly individual minifigs. LOTS of minifigs. Each side of his cart was lined with a wall of 'figs. It sure looked like he had representatives from every series. I wound up taking pics of all of them and sending them to Younger, assuming he'd want something here as his souvenir. I let him review those while I moved on.

The other "event" store was a Sony boutique. It wasn't so much the room full of tech toys that interested me here. It was the live-fire exercise in restraint, as I successfully maintained my composure and didn't grief the help. I'm not normally a grudge-holder but the multiple indignities heaped upon me by Sony, or one of its tentacular arms, have put me off them. But I smiled and spoke politely with ever-helpful salesfolk. And they did have a few games on sale.

Before leaving, Younger called me back and told me what he wanted, so I ran back to the Lego vendor and picked up an Admiral Ackbar (nope, not gonna!) and a Green Dragon. We headed back to the garage, drove a short distance to a Whole Foods where we rejoined Ape's friend, and headed to Littleton.

Yes, /that/ Littleton. We pulled into the Columbine High School grounds, not sure what to expect. I know I *didn't* expect a festival and car show. Our only goal had been to visit the memorial commemorating the terrible events and amazing heroism of that day. Turns out the school was going to make us work for it. The path we started on took us behind the memorial plaza, but there was no connection. We did get a great walking tour of the sports field, the running track, and the nice kiddie park.

So, with two loaded strollers, our procession made a u-turn and eventually picked up the right path. I must say, the design of the memorial is very tranquil. I promise I'll get the albums and vids of this trip up soon! ^^ In any case, we all spent quiet time reading the plaques for the fallen students and teacher, as well as a rotunda-style assemblage of quotes spoken by various people during and after the tragedy.

After we took in the memorial, we went back to the grounds and took in the festival for about 45 minutes before we needed to leave for dinner. Most of what was there (and there was a LOT there) was pretty standard festival/bazaar stuff. A section of business representatives from the area and from larger outfits. Food and craft tents. Merchants of all kinds. But one tent stood out as offering one of the neatest things I'd seen ages. A vertical chessboard.

Imagine a frame with 64 small cubbies in it, arranged 8x8. The chess pieces go in as you'd expect, but the twist is a "button" that marks that last move. I chatted up the seller and he explained the idea was to allow games between people who can't always play face-to-face. Think chess by mail, except both players visit the same space. Each moves when they can and the board can be hung out of the way so that it doesn't take up unnecessary space and the board isn't likely to be disturbed mid-game.

Also, a woman looking at boards was doing so with an albino bearded dragon curled upon her shoulder.

Did I mention Colorado is a very liberal place?

Our last stop on our jam-packed weekend was an Italian restaurant called Cinzzetti's to meet with my first-ever boss and her husband. However, "restaurant" as a description is totally inadequate. Our friends got in ahead of us and were able to secure a table a bit before we arrived. This struck us as unusual, because many places won't seat a party unless most of it is present, and, y'know, Saturday night. So when we walked in the lobby and met my one-time boss, we had to thread our way through dozens of people. I was trying to figure out what favor they called in to hold a half-full table so long.

Then we made it into the restaurant. Or at least part of it. The place was gargantuan. They could hold a partial table because the place holds 600 people. Not a typo. I found a newspaper article in the back explaining that the location was originally a movie theater and office supply warehouse. They specifically cater to groups, boasting "2 or 200, come on in!" For once, I don't think it's advertising hyperbole!

So anyways, we all sat and spent a good while catching up. Like 30 minutes catching up. We haven't seen our friends since they moved out here though Ape's kept up via Facebook. Finally, it was time to eat! In addition to being ridiculously scaled, Cinzzetti's is a buffet and features five main "food bars" - soups, pastas, meats, breads and desserts. And it was really really tasty! So we spent a long evening eating and talking, until we just *had* to go.

It really was nice catching up with them, and getting to see recent pics of our respective kids, and hearing some interesting stories about college-bound teen parenting! They are a really lovely couple, and like us, aren't afraid to be affectionate in public. Ape and I would have done so as well, but Creature was sat between us /sigh Oh, one other thing - normally, I feel reasonably clever, world-aware, and well-spoken. Being with these two though makes me feel like a chronic underachiever. Never mind a pair of Master's degrees - they're the most ambitious all-conquering people I know. I really should seek inspiration, but, lazy Mithra.

We make a latish return to the hotel with plans of a little wind-down time before beginning the airport process early in the morning. Two things stood in our way: a young lady was having her quinceañera and the parking lot was overfull. So was the lobby. I sent Ape and the baby up while I camped for an in-lot spot. I got lucky pretty quickly and headed up, hoping the revelry wouldn't keep us or Creature up.

My other challenge was to get all our junk to fit our meager bag space. Ape told me what was clean and what wasn't, and I set to work folding and stuffing. It took an hour but I got all the bags sorted and ready. Next time I vote for FedExing our dirty laundry back and using the new space for souvenirs.

The morning's drive to the airport and processing therein went much better than when we left home. We had our "Amazing Race" moment as we went the wrong way out of the hotel and lost a little time getting turned around. And dropping off the rental was interesting as there was no one to check us in and we were worried about a pre-existing rock chip that they covered in blue painter's tape. All would be well though.

And our run through the airport was much much smoother. This time, we got the scanner loaded like pros and I didn't get so much as felt up. The flight out from Denver was uneventful but we had no time to eat. So we'd planned to grab food in Houston and eat on that plane. Do you remember the Amazing Race ep where one team just misses a flight, causing those on the just-rolled-back jet to cheer? And then they went back to the gate? Yeah, we very nearly had one of those.

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. (Princess Bride!) Our flight into Houston arrived on time, but for reasons that were never explained to us, our aisle passenger had MS and needed boarding assistance. No worries there, as we have an aunt with MS and know how awful it is. BUT...they unloaded all the other passengers first, then her, before us. So we lost about 25 minutes of our layover/run to gate time.

So, on finally reaching the terminal, riding the tram and reaching the departing terminal, we looked for our gate. B84 it said. And look, the 80s are just over here. At the end of a football field long hall. Ok, ok, we're here. No we're not. Another hall, to just 80-84. One more field later, we're in an elevated tower with our gate marked. But there's no one there. Ape stayed back to get breakfast so I looked around and eventually got in a customer service line. The friendly girl told me 84 was downstairs. O-kay.

I walk down the stairs and find myself in another terminal, with its own gate numbers! Aaargh! So I find ours and lo and behold, it leaves in 5 minutes. There's a guy there trying to get a standby seat and it doesn't take a high MND stat to realise he's about to get our seats. The gate agent keeps asking me if I'm going to board and I keep telling her not without Ape. We both watch the stairs for signs of her, and the agent continues to make final call announcements on her mic.

When Ape appears with literally seconds to spare, I frantically signal she needs to bolt, which she does as best she can with the stroller. We get checked in and hustle with Creature plus all our junk to the gate. Which is at the end of ANOTHER long hallway. I was really getting aggravated by this point. I mean, really, we had to be in Dallas by this point! So we make it to the plane, which is on the tarmac with a rolly ladder next to it. We quickly break down the stroller and bags and leave them and board. I think one person got on after us but all eyes were on the disheveled couple with the wee one.

To make matters worse, I really need to go to the bathroom, having had no time since leaving the hotel some 4 hours earlier. So the flight attendant graciously let me run back to the minuscule lavatory where I hoped they'd let me leave prior to takeoff.

After that near-miss, we had no further trouble with our return. Ape's sis met us at our airport with the Clones and her mom. Elder very nearly knocked me over, blindsiding me with a surprise bear-hug ^^ From there, it was lunch with most of our extended fam at Red Lobster, then home to recover and sleep.

Business Trip Part 1

2011-09-12T12:01:00.000-04:00

[This is part one of a seriously tl;dr post]

Sometime early on Thursday the 8th, I was told one member of my team (and there are only two of us) was going on Monday to a client site in Nebraska. My boss said he didn't care who went, and even offered to let us duke it out. Was he kidding? Iunno. We had to sort it out quickly because we had to book travel departing just three days' hence. Ultimately, it came down to a coin flip, literally. Which I lost.

I had warned Ape this was a possibility and once I was the designated flyer, we tried to work out a way for her to come with. We are rarely apart and to make matters worse, she was dealing with an arm injury which made it much harder to take care of Creature. A day of frantic fare-searching later, we had our plan. Unlike the five others (!) going from other teams, we would fly to Denver, rent a car, and drive the 5-odd hours into the client site. With Creature.

So, Monday rolls around, and since our flight wasn't leaving until early evening, I went into work to try catching up on stuff for my other client, expecting the week in Nebraska to be focused on that one exclusively. Leaving at noon-ish, I got home and Ape and I tried to get some rest before the evening journey. 7+ hours in the air plus 5 on the ground, not including moving through the airports and a layover in Houston.

Our plan to travel as light as possible and avoid checking bags meant cramming three people's things into two carryons, plus a backback filled mainly with our electronics, and a large baby bag. You'd think we could get through the security line pretty easily. Nope - despite Ape having traveled with the baby only three weeks ago, we looked like a couple of noobs, trying to get each other, the baby and all our crap onto the conveyor belt. A very nice woman behind us, whom I suspect was in First Class, actually began hucking our stuff onto the belt! It was exceedingly nice of her but dang did I feel like a useless Mithra!

To make matters worse, I got to visit the Nudie Scanner 2000. Also, nobody told me that you were supposed to empty your pockets for that, as well as be beltless. A TSA guy followed me in, asked for the contents of my pockets and my belt, then made me parade in front of the "backscatter X-ray imager." Yeah, I don't /care/ what their official position is, they get to play with a nudie scanner all day. /grumble

From this inauspicious beginning, we had a nice flight on a small plane into Houston. We ate during our layover, then boarded a much larger plane for the leg to Denver. This flight, being an evening flight, was about 20% empty, giving us plenty of room. Things were great, until final descent.

In my four decades on this planet, I think I've only experienced mortal terror once. That was on the back of a motorcycle hoping like heck my friend wasn't going to do something boneheaded and dump us. He didn't, but that was really scary. That was also like 10 years ago. The descent into Denver? Thought we were going to die.

I'm no amateur in flight, just in white magery. I've flown transcon, short flights and long, and been in all manner of planes including tiny turboprops. As much as certain rollercoasters unsettle my stomach, airplane turbulence doesn't really bother me. I'd just as soon not have it, but it doesn't usually freak me out. Plus, I have a trick: During shaky flight, look at the crew and other passengers. I'd wager on any given flight around half of the passengers are regular fliers. So if most (or all) of the plane is calm, then the rough air must be OK, right?

Also, most of the turbulence I've been in is when the plane is climbing or dropping through clouds, or passing through a storm. Landing at Denver was different! Because most of this turbulence was much closer to ground level. I'd testify that a lot of the rolling and juking was happening under 200 feet. Close to the ground. Within view of the airport. I didn't like it one bit! Nope! I was too scared to notice that the rest of the plane was pretty sedate...

By the time we got off the plane and to the rental car, it was about 11:30pm, Mountain time. Our poor terrified bodies thought it was approaching 2am, and we still had more than five hours in a car! In which half our stuff didn't fit in the trunk >< The girl at the counter tried to upsell us but all we wanted to spring for was a compact. So we wound up in a 2012 Ford Focus. Nice car but not for suitcases and a stroller.

I'll spare you the details of our drive, because it was dark and the surroundings mostly featureless plains (which we couldn't see anyway). I pretty much gave out at about 3am and Ape had to get us the rest of the way. I was so proud of her, because she hates night driving and she was as bushed as I was. But we made it to the hotel safely.

Despite checking in at about 5 in the morning, we were greeted warmly and were told we had no room, as one of my colleagues told the front desk we weren't coming. Um, what? Also, the hotel was pretty full. Uhh... The girl told us we were getting the last room and so we hoped for the best. I think we were expecting a closet or something, but we somehow wound up in a large room with two queen beds. And a whole 'nother room next to it! And an amazingly comfy bed ^^

So, after getting settled in, I got to sleep for like three hours before meeting the rest of the client strike force in the lobby for the ride to the hospital. I'm gonna skip ahead a lot now, because my days were pretty boring. But I managed to get a couple of lunches with Ape, and after dealing with a work-only mixer for the client and a "team dinner" where Ape was invited, we had a couple of quiet us-only dinners too.

We also got to watch the finale of America's Got Talent (but no sense), in which Team iLuminate lost, placing third or fourth. The finale was between Silhouettes and Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. He won, and deservedly so, as I thought Silhouettes kinda peaked after their "monument" performance.

Ape spent her days killing time, as this place had Walmart as their big thing. Really. Lots of local shops, a couple chain restaurants, and agriculture. But, she found a library and some nice parks to occupy herself and Creature with.

Eventually, Friday morning came, and with it, our return to Denver. The rest of my colleagues were flying home, wherever that was for each of them, but we had two more days. The drive back to Denver was much, much better than the drive from. We took our time, making a number of stops along the way. Also, we had fantastic weather and could see many interesting sights near and far.

Some rather charming things about our visit: The hospital itself was new and decorated in a definite midwest/Native American style, but aside from that, it reminded me a lot of the hospital I first worked in. I often wish I could return to a clinical setting. And the people in it wore more than just medical hats-most also ran family farms or did other agricultural or hunting related activities. Very self-sufficient types.

An aside: Since a frank chat with Ape a few weeks ago, we've worked out a few things, and I've been able to move myself out of the funk I was in. Being given hope for my dreams really helped stop the nulling. And on this trip, through some surprisingly beautiful (for its simplicity) landscape, I really felt much better emotionally. To the point I wanted to take lots of pictures, which I did. But I'm still physically exhausted, and as some of you know, I'm also a pretty lazy Mithra ^^

A lot of the pics are of various farming scenes - fields, equipment, houses and barns. And some animals: Mooo! There's a bunch of landscape imagery too, with the flatness giving way to hills and rockier terrain as we moved from Nebraska to Wyoming. I kid you not, there were a few times I was wistfully reminded of Meriphataud Mountains.

Cheyenne, Wyoming was very nice after the "quietness" of Nebraska. Although, we passed a number of towns which were a /fraction/ the size of the 5k populace of our original target city. One was under 400 people! And we stopped at a remote outpost for a potty break wherein we were obligated to buy snacks. Which we kinda wanted anyway.

So, Cheyenne... Our target here was a Mexican restaurant called Guadalajara. It was very festively decorated and I have some pics. I also have memories of eating an awesome thing called a tortas. It was a meat-filled sandwich but between the fresh-made bread and the seasoning on the meat, it was amazing!

...つづく (tsuzuku)

September 11

2011-09-11T23:01:00.000-04:00

10 Years of Heartache

10 Years of Heroes

10 Years of Healing

10 Years of Hope

------------------------------

It's been a weird ten years, hasn't it? Today, Ape and I watched a lot of the Memorial coverage, after having gone to bed watching some of the documentaries Saturday night. It's still surreal remembering how I found out.

Driving to work at about 9am, in the rain. Cars pulled over left and right. me, wondering what was wrong with the road to take so many off the highway - oil? spilled nails? Finally, I turned on the radio and heard the news. At work, we all watched around a TV, and I was on the phone with Ape most of the day.

I still couldn't believe both towers fell. I knew they took a hell of a beating from the impacts, but I figured the tops might collapse around the lower undamaged sections. But they fell, two massive giants felled by human intolerance.

For me, one of the hardest things about all the coverage that followed, aside from grasping the sheer scale of the human tragedy and the physical destruction, was some of the imagery of the planes' impacts and the jumpers. Knowing that I was watching human beings die right *then* was and is hard for me. I know that Death is a part of life, and if you've been keeping up, you know our clan has been visited by the "natural" kind as well as the death that follows an accident.

I'm not a White Mage and healer by coincidence. I've long been one who attempts to heal all, any way I can. And images of actual deaths bother me. News accounts of a gunned-down drug lord, or a school massacre, or a car wreck. They all bother me, because I feel it in some way, knowing that what was lost is not just an animated collection of organic chemistry and fancy nerves.

People are the most amazing things God made and all of us are worthy of existing. All life is precious, but, for the most part, it's only humans that seek out to hurt others by killing innocents.

I don't think I mentioned this part, but maybe I did. Days after 9/11, I wanted bin Laden caught, caged, and paraded through every town in America, beginning with New York. Whether he cared or not (and one assumes he didn't), I wanted our survivors to let him know how they felt. It wouldn't necessarily bring closure, but at least it would de-anonymise the attacks.

Of course, the end of the tour would have been the end of the line for him.

Then, a couple months ago, when the news came that he was dead, I saw Facebook posts, tweets, news blurbs and more where many people were celebrating his end, and there was a definite undercurrent of relief and gladness at his execution. I will not blame anyone for feeling this way - for feeling *any* way really, regarding this monster and his monstrous acts.

But for me, there was a numbness. I wasn't sure what I felt. And then, after a time, came a feeling of finality. Yes, I know there are more monsters out there, but THIS monster was no more. Next came sadness, at seeing how people were celebrating the ending of a life. I do not doubt that he, as well as many sociopaths/psychopaths simply need to go away. But it did sadden me a little to see so much apparent joy in it.

Again, I do not blame. But as a healer, it made me sad. This was probably one of the most extreme cases of human wrongness since Hitler and Saddam tried their hands at genocide. But there are many who die as villains and criminals for much lesser things and even still, there is a loss there that can never be recovered.

We shouldn't build bigger jails, though there is sometimes need.
We shouldn't torture and make to suffer those who have done wrong, though there is sometimes need.
We shouldn't seek to end lives, nor harm life for any reason, though there is sometimes need.

We need a way to heal. To heal all wounds. Those of the victims and those of the perpetrators of wrongdoing and in some cases, evil. We need to heal /before/ there is a change in course to wrongness.

We should strive to build a world where no one feels harming others is the best way to meet their own physical and psychological needs. Everyone was a child once. Everyone was new, innocent, and amoral once. We need to build a world where working together and preventing hate, intolerance and malicious greed is a common goal.

Am I an idealist? Yes. Am I floating in the clouds? Most likely. Am I wrong to want such a world?

I hope not. But somebody has to believe we can all find a way to make everyone's dreams come true.

Sold!

2011-08-21T12:01:00.002-04:00

Whilst perusing B&N for some new fantasy, I saw a book called Tattoo, by Kirsten Imani Kasai. The cover photo, of the book's title inked onto the back of a dark-haired woman, seemed interesting.

But it was this jacket blurb that sold me: ""I'm loving it - it's like furry sexy biopunk arctic witchery. Really." Annalee Newitz, Ed. in Chief i09.com

Then again, with glowing praise like that, this thing must be chockablock* full of thematic goodness!

*I almost wrote chocobo

What is this I don't even

2011-08-21T12:01:00.001-04:00

Found this spam comment on my last post. I think I know why I have it, but I'm at a loss to figure out why it's on this post and not one of the Shiroma ones...

Links removed to deny spamming scumbags any joy. Also, I don't want my friends clicking on something called a vag tacho. /gigglesnort

"The [link]vag tacho[/link] that enables plug-in to OBD scan gadgets could be the same an individual as used by the dealership technicians as well. The number of examining offered for you is dependent upon the [link]Galletto 1260[/link]"

The uncertain optimism of the pitch (this /could/ be the same as a dealership's tool) makes me want to give them my credit card info, address, and BLIND FAITH.

Need To Update

2011-07-29T12:01:00.000-04:00

Friday, 7/15: Did I really not post any post-HP thoughts here?!

From about a week ago: I think I truly now understand why cutters cut. No worries; I don't expect to do anything more than empathise. Also, turns out I'm a bonehead. Made a major miscalculation with regard to the family budget.

Wednesday 7/27: I took the plunge and rooted Mjollnir using adb on Linux. Couldn't have been easier and I love having total control. Between downloads of roms and explots, setting up adb itself and running the marathon of CL steps, I was at it for about 4 hours.

But I never had any problems and it was really easy. The actual terminal work was pretty painless, and as a bit of a shell scripter I can see how "one click" scripts could really do the job if coded right.

Spent maybe 2 more hours playing with settings, cleaning up bloat, looking for apps like a startup manager and BT keyboard interface. I grabbed three ROMs but I haven't tried them out yet.

Notes: Backup Master doesn't back up contacts (aaargh) and MMS restore doesn't seem to work. SMS to Gmail works great though, so I have all my pics there. Lost Llama's settings (double-aaargh) because I didn't know it saved its settings internally.

Friday, 7/29: Ape is *really* struggling with the finances (as drained by the addition) and possibly having to leave Katie and go back to work. I'm trying so hard to sympathize but it's not easy for me in the sense that I told her this was a likely outcome and that it was her idea in the first place! I *definitely* understand her not wanting to leave Kate. I don't want her working at all if possible.

Aerin the Plumber

2011-07-10T12:02:00.000-04:00

Our house phone rang just after 11pm. It was a friend of ours calling frantically for help with a leaking icemaker water supply. A little unexpected ^^

So I grabbed a few tools, ran over to her place, got the supply knob unfrozen using a pair of pliers and asked her if she had a wet-dry vac to clean up the pool developing in her kitchen. I suspect that supply knob hadn't been turned since the fridge was installed who knows how many years ago. She could have fixed it herself but the little enclosure they put it in didn't really have room for a hand to grip the entire knob.

Hopefully she can get all the water up and avoid damage to her cabinets or floor.

Stop the Insanity

2011-07-08T12:01:00.000-04:00

I can't beieve Sony is trying something so bone-headed so soon after the PSN hackathon.

Their PSN Pass is primed to kill the PS3 rental market and stop legitimate game sharing (think multi-gamer household to see why I'm so irate!) with a one-time code that links the disc to a single PSN account. Future users (through sale, trade or share) have to pony up an unspecified amount to gain access to PSN.

Whether Sony will bend a little and allow single PS3-sharing or x number of activations the way they do now for downloads is unclear.

This just days after I found out I lost all my "Welcome Back" goodies because I was too busy to free up 10 gigs of space prior to getting Infamous and Dead Nation and the two PSP titles. Bite me!

I am so ready to grab a used backwards-compatible PS3, the Cobra USB dongle, and a huge drive and:

* Recreate "The Fun Machine", with access to PS1, PS2 and PS3 titles, plus possibly DVDs if there's room
* Pirate at least the 4 titles I am entitled to. Maybe more. They just keep ticking me off!

Pink Floyd the Droid

2011-07-01T12:01:00.001-04:00

50 points to whoever gets /that/ reference!

Tonight was Date Night plus Family Movie Night. This doesn't normally happen this way, but Transformers 3 was out and we all wanted to see it. Grandma was going to take the boys but a late plan change meant that we dropped the three kids off as normal and ate by ourselves, then picked the boys up for the movie, then dropped them back off again for the night. Confused yet?

About the movie. As I recall, 2 sucked. So badly that the head writers *apologized* for it. I think even Michael Bay (action auteur and Kyle's nemesis) apologized for it. And 3's trailers seemed good but inconclusive.

Go. See. It.

It's 2 and a half hours long, and after it ends, you'll feel like you've been riding thrill rides for that long. It's well-paced, often funny, and full of great action set-pieces that (with one exception) don't frustrate.

Also, Buzz Aldrin.

Buzz Freaking Aldrin.

You may not know this, but this Mithran is old enough to remember the end of the Space Race as recent history, and also to have lived through every moment of the Shuttle program, including the Enterprise. I even have an ancient NASA Shuttle t-shirt from waaay back. Elder has it now ^^

I don't normally go in for the "real men" thing, but the astronauts were indeed /real/ men (and later women) who braved the unknown, dodgy tech, and physics to go someplace I'd nearly kill to see firsthand. T3 opens with an awful lot of actual (and some doctored) space program footage and Kennedy/Nixon bits too. Later, Buzz himself makes a great cameo. I had to resist the urge to cheer!

But that was just the first bit of awesome. I won't spoil Number 2 outright. But he gets a "double" cameo and one of the best lines in the whole thing.

Also, Patrick Dempsey. As a high-powered playboy exec who just happens to be a pro racer. In real life, Mr. Dempsey has been racing in the Rolex GT series for three or four years now, in an RX-8. Yup. *My* car.

Also also, Datsun 510 aka Bluebird. I wouldn't mind having one of these in RHD trim if I couldn't collect an AE86 Trueno...

All four of us really really enjoyed it. Heck, Soundwave's in it, although they changed his voice too much for my liking, and Ravage doesn't appear. I'm pretty sure his Ravage is where I got my last name from.

Also, I spent most of the movie thinking of Shockwave's "worm-bot" as a hydra when I should have just called it a shai-hulud. But more cybery.

Oh, that one disappointing set-piece? The building that shai-hulud bends in half. When will movies stop showing ordinary humans stopping a free-fall by grabbing onto something one-handed, or catching another falling human, without including dislocated shoulders?

Yes, I'm nitpicking human abilities in a movie quite literally crawling with intelligent, shapeshifting robots.

Panama City Beach

2011-06-30T12:01:00.001-04:00

Do the local bands do a cover of GNR's "Paradise City" with the town's name instead?

For our first summer event, we went to PCB for 6 days and 5 nights. Ape got us a great deal on a townhome rental walking-distance close to the beach and big enough for the five of us. So, Saturday afternoon, we packed the van full of people and luggage and drove the five-odd hours there. Before I go too far, during this trip I used the heck out of Mjollnir's GPS, and it was awesome, except for finding a Dunkin' Donuts.

Highlights for now, details later maybe?

Saturday: Creature slept almost the ENTIRE way here. We got into town in time for dinner and met SIL and her crew at a place called Pineapple Willy's. Meh. While it *was* on the beach, there wasn't anything special about the food or the service.

Sunday: I had to work so Ape took the kids to Sis's place (a 14th-floor condo on the beach) to hang out and to meet some friends of ours from Alabama. They used to live close by and Ape watched their kids often, but promotions in the husband's job meant a relocation to 'Bama. I was supposed to meet them later on but timing got messed up and they had to leave.

Dinner at Red Robin and shopping at a place called Pier Park - think Town Center but super-close to the beach. Met a FFXIV player at GameStop when I asked the girl at the counter about the collector's edition. She was a font of info about 14 - maybe it's not so broken at this point.

Monday: Most of the day was spent in Destin and Fort Walton. Found another Town Center shopping area and had a nice time looking around, although Elder managed to slice his toe open whilst texting and walking >< Dinner later then a nice fishing village/shops area with a great feel to it. Open air movies playing (Wall-E), fishing boats coming in, a "large bird" photo stand, and more.

Tuesday: I need to check my notes, but I think today was go-carts for the boys, a trip to an arcade, and one of the worst dining experiences ever, at a place called Dirty Dick's. Supposed to be good steak and BBQ but it was anything but. SIL and Bro's steaks were overcooked, and too thin for their tastes. Ape and Younger's food arrived after everyone else had eaten (and Younger's order was wrong on top of everything else). Service was poor as well.

I called for the manager who was not very helpful and we left very dissatisfied, though I wisely passed on the food. I wound up with Zaxby's most delicious Sweet & Sour chicken sandwich. Later, when I went looking for their entry on Google Maps to put in my review, I couldn't find one. Younger was quick to theorize they deleted it to hide their lousy reputation.

Wednesday: The boys met SIL & Co. for a day at the water park. Ape, Katie and I went to Panama City proper and its mall for more shopping and walking about. Later, we had professional beach pics taken. Then, I finally got to see their condo - *amazing* place! I'd have left the front door and patio open most of the time just for the breeze and the waves! Elder and I watched an ep of South Park, a pretty good one wherein Mr. Mackey directs a kindergarten play.

Oh, the Dunkin' Donuts thing. On the map, I could see where I needed to go but was unsure of the street names. So Ape and I punched up Sally, my GPS friend and proceeded to drive in a large circle, ending up at a construction site next door to SIL's condo. To Sally's credit, the satellite never locked in for some reason, so I can forgive her. And other than that, directions to several places around PCB and Panama City were spot-on!

Thursday: Before leaving, we finally stopped by the dune buggy place to see if it was worth my time. The track layout was very well done, and long. But the cars were anemic power-wise. I was roped into taking Younger around so with two of us on board it wasn't much of a driving challenge. Solo, or with proper power, their place would rock!

On the way home, we stopped in Tallahassee for dinner and, you guessed it, more shopping. Din was Longhorn. We'd had enough of local fare after Pineapple Willy's and Dirty Dick's. And it was /excellent/. Shopping was a mall that time forgot, with many shuttered storefronts, but somehow featuring TWO places offering tabletop gaming. Dessert was DQ.

I had to work Friday, and since we got in so late. I was bushed. But it went pretty well and led into a three-day weekend!

Our trip was fantastic and Creature traveled very easily. We had a great time, for the most part with few problems. We'd definitely go back, but we'll need a good local fixer to connect us with decent local restaurants!

...And Small Furry Creatures From Alpha Centauri...

2011-06-24T12:01:00.001-04:00

Courtesy of IMAlive's Twitter feed, this nugget of wisdom. Whatever my thoughts were on the subject, I'm willing to consider that I may have been wrong, or expressing them poorly.

To wit: Real Women, written by Hanne Blank.

Father's Day

2011-06-19T12:01:00.000-04:00

Wouldn't have been a sweet surprise to get a trip to a salon for a mani-pedi and some much-needed hair styling? Even if only for the day? /sigh

Rumbling Hearts, Concluded

2011-06-14T12:01:00.000-04:00

After RH disc 2 went back, I got Ghost In the Shell: The Music Videos.

Point. Less.

I was hoping for something AMV-styled from the great Studio I.G. and instead I got 5 songs set to three vids. More or less. And I'm sorry, but the songs were just not working for me. So off it went, to make way for...

Rumbling Hearts, the Conclusion!

I finally got around to watching it, having planned to watch it over the weekend and trade notes with LK. I was tardy watching, and even tardier with my write-up here. I can only assume he's already seen it.

So. I'm conflicted. And a little confused. I /think/ I know what happened but I'm not sure. And if I'm correct, I'm not sure I like the outcome.

Even still, it was one of the best stories I've ever seen, and a great find. As I mentioned before, I love the J-drama, especially school or work life drama. Those settings seem to really focus on character development and interaction, rather than using magic, tech, aliens, what-have-you to advance the story. Not saying any of those things is wrong, but when all you have is yourself...

I Need A New Prescription

2011-06-11T10:04:00.001-04:00

I try so hard to empathise with people just trying to do their jobs. I just wish the fine folks at my CVS would try a /little/ harder. To wit:

Last night, we dropped off Elder's ADHD scrip. At 9:57, we pulled away with a 15 minute ETA. Not wanting to go all the way home and back, we pulled into a nearby parking spot. Creature began chatting up a cutestorm ^^ Just over 15 minutes later, we drove back to the pharmacy window.

We had to wait behind another car so by the time our turn came, it was 15 minutes *past* the ETA. And by the time someone came to the window it was a few minutes later. And surprise, surprise. Our order wasn't ready on time. Or at all.

Without exaggeration, I think they blow their estimates by a material amount 3 out of 4 visits. Most of the time, we come back a little after the specified time, only to wait some more whilst they fill it from scratch. This waiting in line for a time to wait in line sounds familiar... Ah yes, Fastpass! But without a cool ride at the end ><

We were handed our prescription 38 minutes after we had left the window. More than once I've lamented to Ape about going there at all. Publix and Target are much better about delivery times.

Busy Busy Weekend!

2011-06-04T12:01:00.000-04:00

Saturday: Racing in Ocala

What a difference a bit of weight loss makes! Today actually marked Day 3 of Silly Aunt & Catch's visit. The plan was for half of us to go racing and the rest to go shopping. With the Springfield Connection stuck working to restore his Joplin datacentre post-tornadoes (it was /really/ bad!) we were one short, but for the first time, one of the Clones joined us. Elder came with while Younger declined.

To make this shorter, aside from 4 hours on the road and some well-earned Subway, we had almost two hours of racing excitez (please don't sue me LK ^^). Catch and I ran 3 races and Dad and Elder took two trips. Having my own helmet was nice, but next time I need to bring a hairband to control my mane.

My dad and I are ridiculously competitive when it comes to motorsport. Ask him about the Mercedes Invitational smart car race he owned, and the almost-bigger than a smart car trophy he got -.-

This time however, I was 20% lighter. Making me a leaner, meaner Mithran racing machine. I won all three of my races, against our group as well as the others filling out the grid. Only Catch and Dad were able to give me what-for, but not for long!

Also, my dad is Alan-oblivious when it comes to anything not in front of his car. Course marshals, flags, track markers, nada...

Sunday: Creature's Christening

Ape's been working herself up over this and today she gets the payoff! We got to church on time (for once) and had good seats. I think we had at least 20 people in our party. The service was a usual one, and I missed a lot of it having to comfort Creature outside. But then it was showtime. Joining us on the altar were my sis and, filling in for the Springfield Connection (stuck in Joplin rebuilding his datacenter), my BIL.

Also up there were two other families and their little ones. Father did an awesome job, and we even got a great pic of him holding Creature ^^ She didn't scream or anything when she got dipped. I think when it came my turn to apply the chrism on her forehead that I Crossed her upside down...

From there we all caravaned to a new spot for us, a local diner that has been getting rave reviews (and a little national attention) for its breakfasts. We had a bit of a wait, there still being close to 20 of us. But we got in before the heat claimed any of us. Did I mention it was hot? Really, really hot? I was glad to have brought a change of clothes, which went on after church.

Shortening this story: Some "relative" stress at the noise and tight confines, but I thoroughly enjoyed my noms. And I wound up getting some pancakes from one of the kids (my meal had biscuits instead) and they were fabulous. *Everything* was fabulous! I had enough left over for later that night. Which was another family game night, as is our usual thing.

Monday: First Class and Last Pass

I went straight from work to meet Ape, mom, Sis, Catch and the boys for X-Men: First Class. "Firstly", this movie rocked. From start to end. But I'm not sure why they keep calling it a reboot. I'm no comic book nerd, so maybe I'm ignorant of the backstory subtleties here, but I didn't see anything that would prevent X1, X2 and X3 continuing the story arc. No matter, it was awesome!

From there, we went to Chick-Fil-A for dessert and goodbyes. Sis and Catch had to leave early Tuesday to return home. It sucked not having SC here but we're just glad none of our relations was killed or injured in the tornado rampage that nearly decimated Joplin. His on-site pics are bizarre and disconcerting. Without sarcasm or mockery, it was a lot like going into Promyvion for the first time. The /wrongness/ of it all...

Rumbling Hearts, Cont.

2011-05-31T12:01:00.000-04:00

I LOVE THIS ANIME!

No, seriously, I love it! I just finished disc 2, and the story is flat-out heart-wrenching! I can't wait for / dread reaching the end of this one. It's been a looong time since I've experienced storytelling like this. Last Herald Mage comes to mind...

Also, just when I wanted to write off A Little Snow Fairy Sugar (somehow wound up starting this series on season 2...) the last ep on the disc got me. Overall, what I've seen (7 eps) is light, comedic anime candy. But two of the stories were deeper than expected, and the last one, about Saga's mother's piano, was surprisingly tender. I almost (almost) want to get the next disc to see what happens!

Also also, I wonder if "Sugar Baby Love" is available somewhere...

Whoops!

2011-05-30T12:01:00.000-04:00

I decided to forgo shopping for the PS2 net adapter and just swiped mine back from the Clones. I fired up TFM and to my surprise, it logged in. I had expected my account to be inactive, but I guess my master account stayed and just the FFXI-related service accounts dropped.

Anyway, I went through the reactivation screens, and just when I thought I was going to get confirmation Aerin was still in there, I got billed! Aaargh! It never asked for payment, and I don't know if the card I last used was even good, but I cancelled immediately and emailed customer support. Still waiting to hear back.

Also, in account news, I called Xbox support about the troll that used my email to register a Live trial. Oddly, their recommendation is the first thing I thought of, and the last thing I expected to hear: Seize the account through a password reset. No prob, Bob!

Also, also: I'm feeling "nulled" again. My emotions are a mess and I really wish I could find a therapist...

Siren Shout-Outs

2011-05-29T12:02:00.000-04:00

In checking my blog for TK references, I found *her* blog:

TigerKirara's Journey

I looked for a cheap PS2 net adapter so I could get my TFM running (to later log in to POL for character reactivation), but we ran out of time. It's been over 5 months and I don't know if Aer's still available to "raise" but if so, I may just do it.

Yes yes, I know I keep going back and forth! I never said I was a terribly decisive Mithra!

{Gather Together}

2011-05-29T12:01:00.000-04:00

Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for 1987.

If you'll allow me, I'd like to relive the past for a bit. I know I'm going to get a few minor details wrong, but nothing materially significant. And, as is my normal M.O., it'll make sense in a bit.

1987 should have been the third year of my online life, and Aerin would have been about a year or so old. The Eighties were a great time to be into computers, as the BBS scene was thriving. I had already been to a "board party" or two, where one or more sysops would throw a bash for their users. Often, in addition to barbecue, snacks, drinks and the like, there were often some computers and consoles set up.

This party would be different, in that (I hope my memory is not betraying me) tonight's main attraction was the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Not everyone watched, but many of us crowded around a TV on one room whilst others continued their merriment*.

There is something to be said about large-scale shared experiences: The Kennedy Assassination, Elvis's farewell, a midnight movie premiere or product launch, Oprah's last show and so on. You may personally only be doing something with a handful to a few hundred people. But you know that elsewhere, there are perhaps thousands more going through the same experiences.

These board parties were kind of like that for me, since online was usually one or two people concurrently, versus 50 of us around a pool. Add to it something as geekily important as ST:TNG (go Wil!) and you have a shared experience to remember.

As I've said before, XI is like that for lots of people. But through all of the online fun I've had since the BBS days (PS2/PS3/PC gaming), it's been over 20 years since I've been able to meet up with others sharing my experiences. Well, to be fair, I did meet a few XI players at AWA, but not from my server.

Today, I got to meet LordKaosu, and TigerKirara! A few weeks ago, I found out that LK was planning a Florida trip, and after some juggling, Ape and I were able to meet up with LK and TK for an afternoon of fun and food. And some Pokemon shopping.

I want to thank both of them for putting up with our tardiness. I know you said it was no big deal but my WHM guilt is ever-present ^^ 30-odd late minutes notwithstanding, we had fun walking around a mall, then had a fantastic lunch at a brewhouse. Fantastic, I said! And for us, a mind-blowing dessert. There was chocolate. Fudgie stuff. Dark Chocolate. Some chips. Maybe some more chocolate. Ghirardelli (wow, I got that right the first time ^.~) may have been involved.

All joking aside, we all had a great time talking about all sorts of stuff, very little of it being XI-related. Though I finally learned what TK stands for and recall seeing her from time to time :3 I hope the two of them had as much fun as we did, and Kat did her best to steal the show. TK seemed totally smitten with her, and so I've found someone else who is as weak to a baby's charms as I am!

I wish we'd had more time to actually *do* something (we had thrown up Ocala Grand Prix as a possibility) but we made the absolute most of the time we did have. They're scooting back north tomorrow afternoon, so I'm just thankful they were able to take the time from visiting fam to meet up with a nostalgic Mithra and family!

I suspect we could have chatted on for hours, as there's a lot of fun stuff mixed across us with our jobs, our backgrounds and our likes & dislikes. If we ever get New York planned out right we'll have to try connecting with them on their turf.

Side note - I got a kick when I realized *both* LK and I wore con shirts ^^

* My mom informed me that some of the /other/ merriments included heroin, which led to a police raid sometime after she retrieved me - O.O

Apple Sauce

2011-05-28T12:01:00.000-04:00

We went to my favorite mall for a little fun, lunch with friends and maybe a PS2 net adapter for me.

While at the Apple Store, the clones and I were messing about with some MacBook Pros hooked up to speakers. And the internet. Where Nyan Cat lives. I don't know who started it, but we had three lappys with speakers cranked queued to the original Nyan Cat vid. We counted down and simultaneously clicked "play". We laughed!

I don't know if anyone else did. And I caved about 29 seconds in and paused the vids. But hey, bonding with the Clones - priceless!

Also, as part of searches for Nyan Cat remixes, I found DJEphixa and GoingQuantum. Both seem to focus on dubstep and hardstyle, though DJEphixa's got some nice surprises in his setlist. Some Zelda, Portal and Donkey Kong Country remixes. And a couple of amazing tracks with a singer called Veela. That are so good I'm gonna buy them shortly.

I also ran across another XI remixer: UnrealNero, who had a few mixes up on Newgrounds. Including a Gustaberg remix! I positively *detest* Gistaberg the zone, but Gustaberg the song is among my faves, after Zitah and some of the battle music.

Tactile Sensations

2011-05-16T12:01:00.000-04:00

I've been listening to book 6 in Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series. This of course after doing 7, then 5, so I'm a bit out of sorts. Anyway, this early recommendation from a good friend has turned out to be a delight, and I'm glad to see by way of Facebook updates that Ms. Hamilton is at work on the beginnings of the next volume.

So, as I was listening yesterday, something dawned on me that I don't think had ever dawned before. If you're not familiar with the series, please allow me to set the stage so that my dawning will make sense.

Merry is a princess of Faerie, specifically in the Unseelie Court. For reasons that are made clear earlier in the series, she and a number of guards and support staff choose exile from their faerie sithen to escape the cruelty and/or machinations of Merry's aunt (Unseelie queen), cousin (prince), and the mad king of the Seelie.

She works in Los Angeles, as a detective. Neat, huh?

Anyway, Merry has what amounts to a harem or men (and some women), as part of the goal of her exile is to become pregnant and extend the bloodline. Childbirth among the sidhe has been basically nonexistent for centuries. So there's quite a crowd.

Before one gets the wrong idea, it's important to note that, for most of the sidhe, intimacy and physical contact are as natural as shaking hands or having an intense conversation. They almost universally take pleasure and comfort in gentle contact (soft caresses, hair twirling, resting hands or arms on shoulders or backs, etc.), even whilst conducting business in Faerie or in our world. To the uninitiated, it looks quite orgiastic. And it often goes there.

But many times, the physical contact is used more to "buffer" one another from some emotional or physical stress. And while reading the descriptions of how some of Merry's men would stroke an arm or thigh, bury a face in her hair, and so on (all while she was sorting out some new political intrigue and doing much the same to them as well), the Dawning occurred.

Ape and I do pretty much the exact same thing. If we're within arm's reach of each other, one or both of us is holding or pressing something. Hair and feet most often, with arms and backs thrown in. It can be very pleasing while being platonic, and it is indeed *very* comforting and relaxing and reassuring to have the touch of our beloved so close.

Also, as it happens, I play with her hair often while driving. And *that* drives Ape's sister mental. It's quite funny, really!

An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

2011-05-15T12:02:00.001-04:00

(I'll try to limit the "don" jokes)

After a full afternoon of yardwork, Elder and I met with the rest of the weekend crew for pizza. On arriving, my nephew (the one who had First Communion with the Clones yesterday) came up to me. A little sheepishly, he asked if I'd be his godfather. While the adults had talked about this for some time, I was a bit surprised, but accepted his honor graciously.

I'll leave the northern family drama for another time, but basically, for reasons that are meaningful only to him, the original godfather has chosen to stop associating with the southern families. His loss!

So that means I'll get to be involved in his Confirmation as well as that for the Clones - neat!

Now, to get my cut of his car wash business... (oops! Sorry!)

Weird Feelings

2011-05-15T12:01:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure why, but it seems that I'm more sensitive to others' emotional spikes lately. Meaning, if someone near me is expressing intense emotion, I feel it more strongly than normal. I've always felt others' emotional states but this is different. I can't help but wonder if it's tied to the fact I'm not using my healing gifts much...

Actually, that would make sense, and would also explain why things like the restaurant service Friday night got to me so quickly...

/sigh

First Communions

2011-05-14T12:01:00.001-04:00

Today was a long day, capping off a longer journey. Today, both Clones (and their cousin) had their sacraments of First Communion! They had to wear white suits (which we rented) and we were all at the church for close to 3 hours, between pre-show, the procession, the regular service (including Communion for all, beginning with the 50 or so kids) and the post-service pictures with our collective 20-odd guests.

This was followed by dinner with just about everyone who came to see them. It was all very nice!

Also, prior to leaving for the afternoon, I saw two more episodes of Rumbling Hearts. I really *really* love this show. I can't wait to find out what Takayumi does about his new predicament...

Service, Anyone?

2011-05-13T12:02:00.000-04:00

I try so hard to be understanding and empathic with restaurant waitstaff. I know they have a hard job, and I've known many folks who put in their time in the salt mines.

But, I do have a couple of pet peeves with regard to table service. Foremost, if I have to stop eating because my drink's run out, that is a problem to me. And having to wait to pay, to the point of making smalltalk waiting for the check or our change is tiring.

Furthermore, if I have to get up and track down my server or another staffer, it puts me off a generous tip. And it likely makes them feel uncomfortable or harassed.

Last night, I had to get up *twice* for help and when I went to the restroom, I actually recalled my "Centering Myself" post in an attempt to remain calm... Lame!

Two Tiny Updates

2011-05-13T12:01:00.000-04:00

* Power Gig went back without a hitch. I explained that the box was misleading and that it seemed a pointless product if it couldn't be used as a real guitar in the game.

* Netflix has added support for 6 existing Android phones, including the HTC Incredible. But not the Thunderbolt as yet. C'mon guys! Please? Pretty please?

Power Gig: Rise of the SixString

2011-05-12T12:01:00.000-04:00

Why didn't someone tell me sooner that I was wasting my time? When this was announced, all the press suggested it was a "real guitar game", and a path to beginning real guitar proficiency. When it hit retail, the box didn't really say much one way or the other, other than the axe itself boldly claiming that real rockers use strings.

So, I watched my usual haunts for signs of clearance-binning and yesterday I finally scored. I got the PS3 guitar bundle for 25 bucks. Took it home, set it up, and realized I'd basically been had.

Yes, the included guitar (plasticky, three-quarter scale but very solid-feeling) is a real electric. It plugs into any standard amp. But to use it with the included game (whose plot made me think of Rock 'n Rule) you basically neuter it into a standard five-button controller.

Really?

All that potential and it doesn't even include a tuner? Wow.

To top *that*, it seems the guitar has no MIDI capability and cannot be used as a real guitar with any software or system.

So what the heck was the point of this thing supposed to be? And how could I have been so naive?

It's going back to Best Buy if they'll have it. I guess I'll have to wait for the Rock Band Squier electric to get binned if I want to play guitar like an actual guitarist.

Whiling and Filing

2011-05-11T12:01:00.000-04:00

'Member when I said I gave up cosplay planning for Lent this year? I also gave up my nails.

This (these?) may sound like trivial and odd Lent sacrifices. You'd be right, except for the fact that not having my nails done in my usual claw-point style has really been, uhhh..., clawing at me.

Today, I fixed that. Whilst kicking off Rumbling Hearts, I filed my nails. Soooo much better!

PSN Network... "It Only Doesn't"

2011-05-10T12:01:00.001-04:00

I am one of the 100 million. I haven't seen any evidence of funny business on any of my credit cards. And since I have no clue which one I used ages ago to buy Penny Arcade's game (I can't even log in to check!), I don't know where to focus.

Honestly, I'm not overly concerned yet. I'm betting they didn't get full CC details, and spammy card offers get ignored all the time.

What ticks me off is that I haven't been able to play GT5 or GTA online in weeks. Nor to check out the new GT TV content. Also, I kinda miss PSN Home. I didn't use it much but it gave me a chance to hang out virtually.

But all those things are free, and so I'll fume over /here/ for a bit and get on with my life.

Oops - forgot Netflix. That *ISN'T* free and not only can I not watch on my PS3 (Why? Really?) Netflix seems content to ignore Android devices for now. It certainly seems that once they do support Android it'll be on a go-forward basis, tied to some form of TPM chip or somesuch nonsense. All indications are that there will be no streaming love for current devices.

And *THAT* my friends is a real problem for me, as I traded my iPod when I got Mjollnir. So, for like a month now, I've been mostly stream-free. The DVDs I get are nice of course, but my "sit down and focus on subbed anime" time is rather limited these days.

If I'm up and about the house, I like to stream to the big TV, as do (did?) the Clones. When I'm resting before bed and the lights are out and Ape's watching whatever on TV, I liked to stream eps of South Park, Xena, whatever.

And now I can't do either, thanks to boneheadedness.

I'll reserve judgment on Sony pending their wrap-up of their mess and their actual compensation package for members. -Psst- Vouchers for downloaded games are no good, Sony - I have no room on my HDD as it is, with GT5, GTAIV, Fallout 3 and a couple others eating up multiple-gig chunks apiece.

Netflix is easier. I'm cancelling at the end of the month and if I can actually speak to a human I'll tell them why.

Trying to Return to Vana'Diel

2011-05-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

Yes kids, I'm that cuckoo for Square's cocoa puffs. If I can get a sense that Aerin is still reviveable I may rejoin Siren. I can't take it anymore. I spend waaay too much time reminiscing and missing the fun. I know it won't be 100% roses and sunshine if I do make it back. But I think I need to do it for my sanity.

For Lent this year, I gave up my cosplay plans (for Lent's duration, not forever). Actually, up to now, I haven't sewn or sketched anything. I had sort of hoped by shutting down that particular dream that it (and Vana) would leave my system. A sort of fantasy detox.

It didn't work... I'm thinking of cosplaying more and more and as I try to remember why I want to slog through the muck that is XI, I'm remembering many touchstone moments with my shells and some random folks. It also doesn't help me forget when I get blog posts out of the blue from other players (Hi Imma!). I *love* these - don't get me wrong. It just means I go back and relive more memories.

Killing one's internal identity is harder than it seems...

More Me

2011-04-23T18:40:00.001-04:00

Ok, I succumbed. I have a Facebook account and I activated my Flickr one off my extant Yahoo account, all because of Mjollnir.

Also... *squee* I found Pharaoh Atem's site with 80 remixed FFXI tunes! And apparently he cosplayed a Mithra - I think he stole my "ear" notes, but they look fantastic!

Musical Memories

2011-04-13T01:14:00.001-04:00

On Monday, I discovered that Mjollnir* can stream net radio. Then I made myself sad.

I found Psycho White Mage Radio. And four years of memories came flooding back. /sadmithra

I do so miss Vana'diel - I sometimes wonder if I should stop torturing myself and drop the Twitter XI feeds...

*This is a temporary name on the assumption I find something more suited to my personality. Doesn't help that I just listened to "And Another Thing" which has more than a few thunderbolt courtesy of Thor.

Testing Thor's phone

2011-04-05T14:46:00.001-04:00

I'm dictating this to my phone I don't really have much of the status point of this is pretty cool.

okay no that's pretty close I have to edit a little bit later.

bye bye

After The Dream Ends...

2011-01-31T12:01:00.000-05:00

...there is often another...

Hello all. I think I have a problem. I've noticed in the past several weeks that I feel less "Aerinny" than before. I know part of it is that I'm not expressing my personality as a goofy WHM Mithra. But a lot of it is the loss of having a use for my gifts.

OK, that's a little over the top. But, honestly, I haven't found another outlet for my gifts and I think lack of "spiritual exercise" is affecting me negatively. I'm grumpier than usual and have less patience. Some of that may be due to lack of sleep caused by a pregna-momma sleeping fitfully next to me ^^

While playing Portal and Fallout 3 recently (don't laugh - I have a four-year backlog of PS3 and PSP classics) I have tried to follow the path of light. In Portal, that pretty much meant not killing a single turret. I took great pains to evade and avoid them using cubes to block them or in many cases, jumping behind or beside them with careful portal placement. Once there I could safely turn them around (despite their cute protests) and walk away safely.

Overall, not a very good WHM outlet.

Fallout 3 is better, in that it has a very clear karma system with costs and benefits of playing well with others or laying waste to anything in your path. Up until the Garden of Eden mission, I had not killed a single human. I achieved this by tanking escort missions and disarming enemies when possible. A3-21's Plasma Rifle with a few VATS perks makes that pretty easy. Also, there was much running like mad and eating lots of found food.

Oh, I'm also on a med-and stim free run. 3 meds (2 by accident) and 12 stims only.

So, Garden of Eden. Of course, I rescue Fawkes. And since anything that aggroes me sets *him* off, he winds up doing a lot of killing. I'd rather he didn't but in only two cases did I actually instigate a Super Mutant Gatling Laser Roast-a-Thon. Both times involved slavers. RIP Eulogy Jones... I'm on the final mission and only have like 3 side-quests left so I think I did OK.

My kids still don't get why I'm trying to avoid killing, even in self defence. At this point I have a few groups out to kill me on sight: Raiders, Talon Company, and the Enclave. If they'd just ignore me, I'd turn Fawkes to melee and keep him close. But they don't and, conflicted as he is, he seems to really like mowing down smoothskins.

But even with all that (and yes, the Clones have called me out on my Fawkesian hypocrisy), I *still* don't feel right.

And GT5? There's not much use for a WHM there.

So, what to do? I've thought long and hard about TWLOHA's ImAlive project. If I thought I could do that without drowning in the pain of others, or becoming overly concerned about individuals, I'd do it. But it's a big commitment and Kat's due in 6 short weeks ^^ If I do go for it, I'll let you all know.

Oh, almost forgot - I must announce that I'm extremely proud of Elder. He has taken up my calling in his MMO of choice. Seriously! He spends about as much time talking and listening as he does questing. I've given him some gentle advice but otherwise I want to see where it goes. After going through his pre-teen and early teen years wondering if he cared about anything outside of himself, I'm so happy to see what he's been up to in there!

Also, now that I have a paycheck again, I'm thinking about grabbing that sewing machine and seeing what I can come up with in a month and a half. Ape got many wonderful and adorable outfits at Kat's shower and I think there's some I could ape (ha!) pretty closely with time and practice.

And I *still* want to cosplay this September. I saw some screenshots from one of the recent XI updates of new gear that looked A LOT like my plans for my Druid ensemble. Weir-r-rd.

With all my hopes and dreams,

Aerin

Final Farewells

2010-12-10T12:01:00.002-05:00

Hello all.

For a number of reasons, this may be the end of my time in Vana'diel. I will continue to love all and serve all as a White Mage, gifted with a healing touch, a perceiving ear, and the Well of Sorrows. But I doubt I'll be doing any of that in Vana'diel anytime soon.

I've been working on my departure for some time, but with the latest S-E screwup, I may be denied even that. The December 6 update doesn't work on my PS3 and I'm not about to attempt their /workaround/ of reinstalling everything.

Hold on - I think I need to set the table.

I've long lamented that in the past 6 months or so I've gotten nowhere. My shell has (once again) basically fallen apart. I don't have any regular people to play with, and no organized group to assist me with the hard stuff. I don't necessarily mean endgame, but just Abyssea and AF3, Trials, new Rare/Ex gear, and so on. My last Party Log entry was on 9/25 and that was a shell thing. Other than that, I've had maybe one undocumented Dancer party and four trips into Abyssea. That's it. I'm tired of LFG for hours on end, and I suspect my gimpiness isn't helping.

So be it.

Furthermore, I just don't have the time I used to. Before last month, I was pulling back because of Ape. Her issues with online time haven't gone away and I got tired of fighting them. And then a few weeks ago I got kicked from the job that I loved dearly. So money goes away and so do indulgences like XI.

My plan was to see if I could cancel but rejoin after things sorted themselves out - maybe a month or two God willing! But then the December update broke PS2 play and things aren't looking positive for a simple fix. Plus, my plans to go to XIV seem to be pointless as word from Eorzea is that it's still broken (bazaar, quests, walkathons, etc.).

It doesn't help that I'm under a lot of stress and pressure. My gifts mean I'll survive but sometimes it just sucks having to be string enough for two people. Well, five, really (: I don't have anyone I can talk with about stuff because Ape and I just can't agree on how to handle stress in and of itself (causing her *more* stress) and I just can't find it in me to burden others. I know of several people who'd hang with me in a heartbeat, and I love them for it. But it's just not what I really need.

There's also some extra pressure to not be myself, so much. I'm not sure I like that. I am who I am, after all!

So, in summation, don't expect to see much more here. Even if by some miracle the stars align and I get back on, find a group on my schedule and get into all sorts of adventures, I just don't know if I can deal with the drama of The Real that surrounds Vana'diel for me.

If there's anyone still in Vana'diel that was hoping I'd come back and amateur up my WHM (lol Fhox) or finish out my Dancer, I'm sorry.

Missing you all,

Aerin

P.S. I've essentially moved away from Yahoo mail to GMail because a) Google is awesome, and b) I can access my Google accounts using a standard IMAP/POP3 client like Evolution. I'm at first name dot last name at gmail dot com.

Hi, Loreal Customer Service?

2010-09-25T12:01:00.000-04:00

Um, what is the expected lifespan of your crystal file? As a White Mage, the notion of a light crystal anything is appealing. I've been looking for something better than the paper emery boards I've been using to do my nails and someone recommended ceramics.

While CVS has ceramics, Target does not. But as I was there for other things I looked and found your crystal file. Eight dollars. I figured it should be at least comparable to a paper emery that costs about 25 cents.

The next day I had time to try it out. I started on my thumbnail and lines of the abrasive began coming off, revealing smooth glass beneath. I moved on to the others and before I'd finished my left hand more than half the material was gone on both sides.

The next day I returned it. I'll have to see if the LaCross ceramics at CVS work any better. They're the same price after all.

If it matters, the reason I'm looking for something different is that the paper emerys take too long. They last quite awhile and allow me to shape my nails as I please but they just take too long. I'm looking for something that can get the job done quicker.

Any ideas?

Fun With Politics

2010-09-19T12:02:00.000-04:00

I had this idea over the weekend after seeing so much campaigning for midterm candidates recently. The Tea party and the Republicans seem to be counting on a backlash against Democrats and/or Obama. The first two years of Obama's presidency haven't been the best.

But don't we do this with almost EVERY president? Few have been so skilled, lucky and supported to have a significant popular sentiment halfway in.

Anyway, I really wish I knew if what's going on was really Obama's fault. Of course, what part does Congress play? And slowly-unfolding events that began well before Barack said "I do". And random events and accidents that would have snookered any sitting leader?

I'm not a "party line voter" though most of my votes go in a Democrat-oriented direction. I can't help it - as a body of beliefs, the Dems are more desireable to me than the other choices. I don't like everything they stand for - but I still honestly believe that a sincere effort to improve everyone's lives and keep poverty, ignorance and suffering to a minimum benefit all of us.

It's the whole Ubuntu thing - I am who I am because of what we all are.

In any case, I'm really curious how many people will make informed, honest choices over the next few weeks. I don't begrudge anyone who sticks to their guns and continues to back a seemingly-doomed candidate. Nor do I object to someone crossing party lines for a person they honestly believe will make their lives better.

But how many won't? I'm already sick of the attack ads and political spew filling the airwaves...

Party Weekend!

2010-09-19T12:01:00.001-04:00

Sunday:

Almost slept right through my hair appointment! I made it there two minutes late but my stylist wasn't done anyway and I had to wait. She actually remembered (more or less) why I'm growing my hair out. She offered all kinds of advice and sold me some Redken mousse. It wound up a bit shorter but

From there, it was T's birthday at Adventure Landing. Pretty fun time although I didn't get to dance. I did get to play Juke Box Hero (on hard, not expert this time) and later I helped D with it. I also walked up to an abandoned game of Deal Or No Deal and although I didn't get to pick the initial case, I made it to the final offer (4 versus 70) and took the offer of 53. Good choice, too, as the personal case has the 4.

Most of us went on to the Loop for dinner. Mom shared some shake with me too. Oh - it would seem that splitting a shake does not reduce the amount they serve. Good to know!

-=-=-=-

Saturday:

Garage sale! We made 60 whole dollars and still have piles of crap. But it was kinda fun and we made a few people very happy with deals we didn't think too hard on before making. Mostly my fault - I just want this stuff gone!

Then we went to B&D's new house for a combined housewarming and first birthday for their youngest daughter. Their new place is way nicer than their townhome and it has a lovely yard too. Also, watching their wee one dig into the "baby cake" was precious! She was eating icing and some cake and when she dug down to the custard layer she seemed surprised ^^

That night, we saw "Easy A". Easily one of the best movies of the year. I loved the whole thing, especially their take on teen torments and feeling like an outcast.

-=-=-=-

Friday late-night

Super short party with Hermes

Started to solo FoV in Behemoth's when Vante called - asked for help in Citadel with THF AF. He was kind enough to allow me to finish my page and then I met him and his friends - they were 80+ so it was just dead-weight they needed for the switches.

He had to hit all the ??? in two areas to get Chandelier (a bomb NM) to spawn. They must not have seen the wiki because not only did they let him self-destruct on the pop, they didn't realize he could be easily respawned after just 10 minutes. The second pop was easy win.

Then he lent me his Velvet Robe! On his way to Ifrit's with one of his buddies we swung through Jeuno and he lent it to me saying he wanted it back for use by his family. Super nice of him! I used my Bastok medallion for a quick warp to Brygid and closed it out. I warped back and sent the robe back to his DB. Then I dressed out in my new gear and went looking for more 50+ gear.

I don't like how I look like I'm wearing a goth corset and not much else. Maybe I can learn to like it. I definitely love the stats!

In general, this caps a week of lots of soloing on SAM, to 28.

Blah

2010-09-15T12:01:00.000-04:00

Wednesday:

First was Survivor Premiere party at my parents'. Great food and an OK show. Young versus Old. Jimmie Johnson (Cowboys/Dolphins ex-coach, not the NASCAR champ) is on the oldster's team. I wonder if someone cautioned the others to not say the name of the "male enhancement" pill Johnson (ha!) shills for. I won't either. But I'm waiting for some good jokes. After, we raced home for the AGT results. Aaaand...

Boo~o~o! Oh well. I can't say I was totally surprised that Prince P. didn't take the crown. But I *was* surprised that Michael Grimm won, leaving Jackie Evancho as first runner up. Honestly, I think it's the right call based on talent, appeal and general showmanship.

BUT. Someone find me a still of Jackie's performance with Sarah Brightman. You know, the one where, just as they finish in triumphant fashion, we, the audience realize Jackie's was better. And a second after us, Jackie appears to as well because the look they catch on her face as she looks up to Sarah is just ~perfect~!

-=-=-=-

Tuesday:

Relived the past by listening to Star Trek 2 and 4 at work. Read Denshi Otoko while waiting for AGT. Interesting premise if true...

AGT thoughts: Prince Poppycock goes for a purer operatic performance, to his detriment I think. Fighting Gravity wasn't bad (better than last week, not as good as before). Michael and Jackie were both excellent. Poppycock is still my hero (does his own cosplay, sings, can set up a whole show etc.) and he clearly has a performing range that neither Michael nor Jackie have matched. FG had a shot to really dazzle and I think they were close...

-=-=-=-

Monday:

At work, I found out, totally by accident, that I have "Group 7" access. Hey Flynn!

Took Elder to the Library, then Gamestop and Target. I reloaded my queue (Black Jewels 2, Denshi Otoko 1, Enduring Flame 1 on CD)

While at GS, I preordered GT5 for my anniversary gift and Super Scribblenauts for Younger.

Beach Bums

2010-09-12T12:01:00.001-04:00

Since we planned to leave from my work, all four of us rode together in the morning, with a pre-packed van. We dropped the Clones off first, followed by a short run to Ape's work. Then I was off.

At about 5:30, I left to gas up and waited at the station for Mom & Dad to deliver the crew. They were coming too, as was Sis & Co. Of course... ^.~ We all met near the Speedway for a barbeque dinner which for me was -meh-. But from there it was maybe 30 more minutes to our hotel. And we had an even nicer room this time than last!

* Fri - Theological Debates with Ape, watched half of Beck, grocery shopping at 7-11.

* Sat - Breakfast in bed followed by lunch at Aunt Catfish's (BK for me). Then we went to a family fun center and the kids got two-hour unlimited armbands and I got a few dollars of tokens for DDR - they had 4th Mix and SuperNova2 and both worked great! I nearly killed myself dancing my pants off in their oven of a back room.

I rode Ty on the karts and picked the winning case in Ape's game of Deal or No Deal. I had the 200-ticket case picked but the final offer of 120 came with only 40 and 200 on the board and we played it safe.

Poolside lounging and a beachfront walk and photoshoot ^^

Din was a joke as it took us 30 minutes and lots of aimless wandering to find a pizza place - we wound up at Pizza Hut after all but it was very good.

I've decided I just don't like this area. Right on the beach is nice but just off the main roads it gets scary. And it's crawling with pedestrians at all hours, most of whom look like they're deep into a pub crawl... Clearwater is so much nicer!

Sunday - I grabbed ham croissants for all of us while listening to classic rock (go Juke Box Hero!) Then we sat around deciding what to do. We had the day to ourselves for once. We settled on hitting the Port Orange area to see what kind of shopping and eating were to be had. Ape's dad recommended this area and it turned out to be a good call.

Since we'd eaten breakfast not long ago, we needed to kill time before the promised Red Robin. Kirkland's had some nice stuff, and we heard a minor parking lot fender bender. But soon enough, it was time to eat. And while I never did try one of their famous burgers, the teriyaki chicken sandwich I had was really good. And Elder and I had an actual conversation (granted, it was FF-related as we traded notes between FFT and XI, but still).

From there, it was mall time. We hit the Daytona mall for a bit and had a nice time. And then we headed home. Once there, Ape followed me to the gas station. I'd parked Shiroma Thursday with fumes in the tank and after filling up it looks like I had about 7 miles to empty. Close call!

I went grocery shopping with Younger then I think I went to bed after messing about in XI.

RE: The "Burn a Qu'ran Day" Lunacy

2010-09-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

Scourging all of Islam because of a relative handful of extremists, like the WTC attackers, is no better than scourging all of Christianity for a relative handful of extremists, like abortion clinic bombers.

This is the crux of my point to Ape. See, we'd been discussing the whole Qu'ran burning-thing in Gainesville and ultimately, I landed there. I'm Christian, but I'm not really opposed to other faiths. We can debate that later, if you like. But put another way, I'm likely to get one of those "Coexist" stickers for my car...

So, my position is based on the notion that Islam, at its heart and as practiced by the vast majority of its followers is not too different from other commonly accepted faiths. I'm not aware of anything in the Qu'ran that says Muslims must actually attack nonbelievers, in a literal physically-violent sense.

I think most religions teach conversion, with a wink and a nod to the idea that theirs is the "correct" one. But I'm not aware of a main-line faith that says that conversion is supposed to come at sword or gunpoint.

So, if in fact the Qu'ran does teach that, my argument falls to pieces. Maybe I should find the Islamic equivalent to "Why do Catholics Do That?" and see if I've got it right.

By the way, Ape didn't like my argument above and didn't take to kindly to it. Ah, what a way to start a weekend!

Ramblings

2010-09-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

This has been a pretty good week:

* At work, I'm doing much more coding. There's still some firedrill fun but that's OK. I capped off the week finally working on some automated testing on my big project.

* In XI, I literally spent three hours plus fixing up my inventory, as I realized with a /facepalm that I've had the means to expand my locker this whole time. Argh. I prioritized my WHM, DNC and SAM gear and threw my RNG and BST far back in the closet. I have most of the others close at hand just in case of a shell or PUG invitation. I realized as well that I could sell my Eisenschaller as my Empress Pin beats it solidly.

* It only took about 80% completion, but I FINALLY got into my book. I think I finally understand all the action and "spell technology" at play. And on Thursday I finished it in my usual breathless rush because I figured out I wasn't going to get a clean ending. Or a particularly happy one at that. So now I have nothing in my library queue and I need to refill it, starting with book 2 of this series. I also need a new audiobook or two. Local radio still makes me ragey and I do enjoy being read to. Thank you Fourth Grade teacher whose name escapes me presently!

* Speaking of audio, the latest book was "Ruler of the Realm". I didn't realize it was actually #3 in a series but it was easy enough to get into. I enjoyed it and tried to listen with the Clones on the way to school. But the extra hour per day I got without them in the car eventually wrecked that notion. My biggest problem with the audiobooks is that I somehow keep finding "teen" books without meaning to.

* Also on the audio front, I got Beck, disk two, from Netflix. Just haven't had time to watch.

* Because of stuff like the AGT finals - Wow! The Grand Finals are going to be nuts. Go Team Poppycock!

* Friday, we're leaving directly after work to Daytona Beach, for the second weekend on our "bargain radio" coupons. More to come!

Marathons Are Long! (Teal Deer Warning)

2010-09-06T12:01:00.001-04:00

Monday:

No XI today. I was on a "no complaining of lack of sleep" warning from Ape after yesterday's bender. The big Labor Day plans were for us to meet my folks at the mall for a little shopping after we ate breakfast. Then, quick shopping for the party at Sis's.

At the mall, I wound up running around for the others as much as I got to shop myself, but I did get some new stuff at B&BW. This was after a salesgirl offered me a sample of the new flavor and before I could grab a tester to smell, she put a bit of the lotion in my hand.

We all grabbed snacks later in the afternoon and Dad and I ran into his old friend and we chatted a bit.

I picked Ape up when it was time to go - she'd made it to the other end of the mall but started feeling lousy again - and then I did the shopping for dinner. We stopped back at the house to grab the Clones then off to the party.

Dinner grilling was underway quickly so we got to the food pretty quickly, and as usual, it was very tasty. Afterwards, it was time to play Apples to Apples. I won ^^

Back home, there wasn't much time left so we just got the kids settled and wound down.

Sunday:

...And here I was telling Ape I didn't play that much per session! I started up a bit after Ape and the boys went off to Fernandina with Sis & Co. I was off the hook because BIL didn't go but I *did* offer. Ape said I could have the day for me. And *this* time, she delivered!

I resumed my lumber fishing in the Canal and on my last trip of my multipass (it was an ordinary multipass, not a Leeloo Dallas Multipass) I scored a drop! I continued the back-and-to to close that one out, then Hyper Active, then The Naming Game. This one also involved farming, but I got luckier with the Cryptonberries in Pso'xja. And my chosen airship name? "Eternal Celestial Mystic". Surprised?

Somewhere in here, I helped Snouzer, Zeb's boy, with the BST unlock in Qufim. We both showed up as WHMs although I think he was 54 to my 75. Still, plenty capable. The Kraken fight was cake but the NM above wasn't - I picked on a new high-level beastie and got pounded. Oh well! Big buffer!

I then finished off 5-1 and proceeded into 5-2 - Promy-Vahzl. I'm supposed to be able to solo this now that the level cap was off. I really didn't have any trouble climbing the first 4 floors and took time to try obtaining a White Memosphere for the map. But the Memory Receptacle leading to 5 was a pain. I had to Benediction but I made it up.

By now, it had been like 5 hours of running all over Vana'diel, plus I knew I wanted Benediction for the final Spire fight. So I took a break to drive another load to the storage unit. I had taped up the boxes during some airship delays and such. And I wanted to eat too. Ape was supposedly still in Fernandina but as I was leaving the storage facility and headed to find food Ape called and said she was home and wanted to go with.

I headed back, grabbed her and we were off to Wendy's, the crew's unanimous pick. We grabbed some grub, then I offered to grab a Redbox and watch something with Ape. We settled on "Book of Eli". Back home, we ate and then started the movie. Younger actually stuck around, despite warnings of violent and bloody content. He's squeamish. He actually watched more than Ape did :3

The Review: Pretty interesting premise... Strangely-driven man called Eli (Washington) journeys West, protecting what turns out to be the last surviving Bible, post holocaust. Seems 30 years ago something laid waste to at least America, if not the planet. All the scenery looks like the aftermath of a nuke war. Very "Road Warrior" - including the roving bands of thugs in hand-armored vehicles. Eli isn't just a vagabond - think Transporter, complete with insane levels of bad-assery. He dispatches goons and hairless cats with aplomb.

So, Eli. He winds up in a small town run by Carnegie (Oldman) who just happens to be searching for a Bible, believing that with the power of dogma, he can influence a larger number of people and expand his control. Yada yada yada Eli escapes just as Carnegie figures out what he's sought for so long is staying in one of his hotel rooms. Eli "emptied" Carnegie's bar when one of the Brute Squad muscled in on him. Carnegie wants a new Enforcer. Eli wants to turn him down so Carnegie puts him up for the night to try to change his mind.

By sending his girlfriend's daughter Solara (Kunis) to seduce him. Doesn't really work. But soon after the two of them find themselves reluctant traveling companions. After a quick bite at a remote farmhouse (great scene BTW), Carlisle and Co. arrive and level the place, recovering the Bible. And the heretofore unassailable Eli gets gut-shot and left to die.

This is when the audience wonders what kind of Divine intervention will save the day for our devout hero. Nothing terribly dramatic. Just a good memory and a Heavenly sense of irony. See, the Bible he's been toting across the wastes is a *Braille* edition, and Carlisle's conveniently-blind consort refuses to read it to him. Meanwhile, his minions sense Carlisle's slipping power and bolt.

Eli and Solara on the other hand, find themselves in San Fran, rowing a small boat to Alcatraz Island. There's a growing library there curated by Malcolm McDowell. Eli reads the Bible while the Curator transcribes. He's gonna print new ones on a press he's almost got working. Movie wraps with a dead but content Eli being laid to rest on the Island while new Bibles get printed. Solara takes up Eli's gear if not his mantle and heads back home, presumably to get her mom.

I loved the ending, especially Carlisle's expression of bewilderment when he realizes he got what he wanted and still lost. I'd spend time in later days trying to figure out if Eli was in fact meant to be blind. There's evidence in the film for both possibilities (and I have to believe he was at least partially sighted) but the screenwriter gave an interview saying, Nope, he's blind. Whatever. Still cool.

Oh, and the Curator? The man lives on a green island, WITH electricity and a printing press, and he can't come up with a ratty manual typewriter? Or even a Selectric? Really?

So, after more family time, I picked back up with XI. I resumed my assault on the fifth floor of Promy-Vahzl. Turns out the level 80 baddies they added when the level cap was removed were no problem. And I never had to worry about links because the only things I attacked were the memosphere holders and they were unique enough. So, I finish off the fifth web and head to the Spire. I had to choose - fight the buff-eater first or last? I opted for first and I think it was the right choice.

I engaged him and totally forgot the second boss wanders in at about 20%. So I found myself getting beaten senseless by two angry monsters while low on mana but I managed to finish off the first before I died. Benecide helped keep me kicking just long enough. The second retreated to the center and I reraised, hoping not to get hate as soon as I did. Nope, Number 2 stayed put and healed. I was then worried the first would respawn but it didn't. *Phew!* I could rest, buff and fight on a more even footing with food and buffs.

And that's what I did. The next two battles were much like the web battles from earlier and I won. With less than 4 minutes to spare! Yikes! Warped outside I slogged my way to the other tower for the last little cutscene and planned to go to bed as it was now 2:30am.

That's when Soulshear asked for partiers at level 40-odd. I said all I had was my Sam at 20 and he jumped at it. So I wound up in a Qufim party. Until 5:30am. But man, what a party! Soul and I skillchained Scissions all night long while our BLM bursted off them. We never really had trouble once we all got our rhythm down. It was really fun and I wound up gaining 4 levels too!

As I made ready to leave, I thought Soul wanted me to find a rep, and I did, but then two or three of the others wanted to knock off too and so the party broke. Just as my rep arrived, too >< I felt bad but there was nothing for it but to apologise. And /yawn!

More Hard Work, Followed By Treats

2010-09-04T12:01:00.002-04:00

Saturday:

Spent about 7 hours working in the garage, and the defrag is slowly taking hold. If we have any measure of success with the "sell/giveaway/donate/toss" pile, we may yet get a car into the garage!

All four of us worked in there this time, even grumpy Elder. Pregna-momma finally went through a number of her boxes and we threw out about 3 full cans' worth. Some of that was junk I fished out of the back corner, further clearing off the workbench I hope to move into the storage unit. The final two hours was spent by the Clones and I as we trucked two loads of stuff to the unit, settled a dispute with the library, got gas for Ape, and dropped off two bags to Goodwill.

Back home, it was 6:30 and we all got cleaned up. Then we went to the Loop, where I got a cajun chicken sandwich and an Oreo shake. Mmmm! We ate with Sis & Hubby and stopped at the mall on the way home. Sis was looking for a shower curtain and I wanted to browse a bit.

At Gamestop with Younger (what do I call him when Creature debuts?) the clerk turned on high-pressure mode when I mentioned reserving the GT5 SE and Younger asked about Super Scribblenauts. We'll reserve all right, but at OUR Gamestop. We both like their people! Much cooler!

Ape and I watched a little TV and I also tried to continue "Daughter of the Blood". I have no idea why but I just cannot get into a rhythm with this one. I like the setting and I can see a lot of potential. But when I'm not reading it, I don't spare it a second thought, unlike a lot of my other recent titles. It really reminds me of Burning Alive like that - I had a hard time getting through that one too, until near the end. Its sequel was MUCH more interesting, perhaps because of the foundation set by the first. I do so hope Daughter does the same.

In XI events, I resumed by hunt for a sheep liver, and after another dozen or so sheepies, got one off an orc. /sigh. With that quest done, I headed to Sandy to get the wood piece I need for the first of Cid's three quests. Oh crap. It only drops on the Carpenter's Landing barge, and each leg only spawns two monsters - three if I'm lucky. To make matters worse, this ferry eats up time and I'm soooo bored.

Friday:

Work is getting better. My boss is making headway in moving daily support tasks off the devs, and I've actually spent a fair amount of time this week coding. I have a new validator I can use with the major enterprise project, and my big web project is making steady and on-time progress!

After work, we met C&R at Red Elephant. We had free apps and they had a free dessert. I enjoyed two BBQ chicken quesadillas and ordered a pizza deal as my meal. They have an unusual sauce, but I like it. We followed that with group-shopping at Target then home

After chilling with Ape, I jumped on XI and decided to continue on with my questing and CoP soloing. After finishing the cutscenes for the Slanderous Utterings mission, I started "X Marks the Spot". More like, "Have fun slaughtering sheep and orcs for a shot at a 2% drop needed to trigger a fetch-quest". I fell asleep in Lufaise Meadows after killing about 20 sheep and avoiding Flockbock's random wanderings.

Thursday:

We had an early-morning appointment for Creature's three-month check. This time, the images were much clearer and she (being optimistic here) was very wriggly at first, and she even waved at us! Then she stopped all movement and wouldn't face the way the tech needed her to. It was cute watching the tech prod Ape's belly trying to move Creature!

Watched Haruhi #2 - This is definitely a goofy show, but it's that good warm-n-fuzzy kind of goofy. I also watched some of the extras, including a couple of the live-action ASOS Brigade vids. Cute and cheesy, like great cosplay theater should be. I think - I don't have a lot of XP there yet ^^

Monday:

Watched Claymore #2. The conclusion of the Teresa backstory was surprisingly touching. Teresa seemed so cold but came to really care for little Clare. THe look of surprise on her face (and Clare's too I suppose) when the Awakened Yoma finished her in a surprise attack was shocking. Now I really want to see how Clare ascends the Claymore ranks. Number 47 lol.

Hard Work Followed by Awesome Treat

2010-08-29T12:01:00.000-04:00

Sunday

We went to a morning service today, which meant a traditional Mass, dropping Elder's guest off on the way. The "normal service was nice, and I like SH's sanctuary better than SC's. Here's the "but"... I couldn't really understand what the priest was saying. /sigh I did get a giggle when I patted Ape's belly and wished "peace be with you" to Creature ^^

Afterwards, I took my clones, Younger's guest and Sis's duo off so the girls + Mimi could go visit a friend and then househunting. My plans were to stop at Best Buy, McD's, then home to make ready our first shipment to the storage unit. Sis met me at BB with her kids' food and I grabbed mine some dollar menu treats. Back home, I gave Ape most of her much-delayed present from last year - her car cleaned out. Well, aside from needing a vacuum, it is EMPTY!

Then I filled it, twice. On my first trip, I got hopelessly lost (and a little nervous! ~.~) because our unit is an "inside" unit. Imagine a series of random hallways, metal doors, and automatic lights, all in an enclosed structure. Yeah. Anyway, I got myself sorted and unloaded a bunch of stuff and then neatened it up. The second trip was for shelves and some more garage stuff (rather than house stuff) because we're trying to "lighten" the clutter level everywhere.

Returning home, I had to put the seats back in the van and do some more clean-up, then a shower and dinner. Sammies on Hawaiian rolls - とても美味しいですよ！(totemo oishii desu yo!) I flopped into bed with Ape. We caught the opening of the Emmys, then I returned to DramaCon. Oh my! Volume 3 was so sweet! I don't know why I didn't catch it from my reading of #1, but this turned out to be a very romantic and funny series. I do hope there are more!

Now it's lights-out... YouTube's cranking out some nice trance, nightcore and dance music for me. This has been a good weekend for online entertainments. If I had *real* internet, I think I could make do with streamed TV, YT, and Netflix...

Oh, on an XI note, I looked into more of the soloable CoPs and a few quests too. I wonder what Soho's been up to, lol :3

Soho's So Helpful!

2010-08-28T12:01:00.000-04:00

Saturday 8/28

Ape's snoring woke me at 8:30 and I gave up trying to sleep at 8:50 or so. Went into the LR with plans to mess around and maybe party a bit when Soho got ahold of me again. I was actually working on the Brygid quest for my Rapparee Harness when he rang. He wanted to go out to the Sacrarium for my Swift Belt.

* Farmed Fomor Codex, Sealion and Coral Keys
* Did the "Secrets of Worship" CoP, fun with Keremet when we forgot to clear the skeleton guards. 12 of them stormed in and we were toast
* Got Swift Belt on first try
* Total time on - 4.5 hours

Later, Ape and I got the rental unit and will begin packing Sunday. Lunch at Steak & Shake, then grocery shopping then back home. Ape off at 7 for her friend's b-day. Each clone has a friend spending the night. Pizza and junk food ahoy!

Back on XI to solo Beryl Memo map, War Hoop DNC AF and a Velvet Robe hunt

Reading DramaCon vol 2 now

Decided to see if our router's options would allow me to blacklist the kids' net toys leaving us online. See, I have static IPs set up and each member of the household gets a range. Not as good as MAC mapping but until one of the clones really gets into IP security and the like... Anyhoo, it worked. The laptop and iPod lost connection. This way they won't be tempted to stay up late playing online.

-----

Friday

Din with C&R - they got their house! - ate at Longhorn, then we went on by ourselves to Scott Pilgrim. I really really liked it. Maybe 15 minutes too long, but the overall vibe was awesomely awesome! I don't think Ape was as amused as I, but she was game enough. Ha! See what I did there?

Another Week...

2010-07-25T12:01:00.001-04:00

7/25 Busy day: Woke up and after a small breakfast, spent about two hours in the garage looking for junk to toss. This meant opening boxes and sifting the contents. A lot of what remains from the move and fire packing is paper and little bits of stuff. Most of the bulk stuff was unpacked right after the fire. So anyways, I got to relive old memories as I found all kinds of whatnot. I also found the missing hard drive! If it still works, I can rescue all my great college papers! Here's hoping! I *also* found my long-missing Korn CD in one of my two ancient Sony portable CD players. Think late 80's vintage. Wonder if there's a market for these on eBay...

After burning out in the garage, I got cleaned up. While I was outside, Ape was inside cleaning the kitchen. We're doing what we can to get ready to move. The big shift will happen when we get a storage unit for the volumes of clothes piled everywhere. Some of the garage will go as well, but my belief is that most of our clutter is stuff normal people would keep in closets. Because normal people *have* closets. We have nooks...

We left the house at 3-ish and headed to the Town Center. Everybody was hungry except Ape, and Ape's sis's brood was due to meet us as well. So when we got to Whisky River (think Hooters with more of a C/W flair) at 3:45 with no wait, I was stoked. But Sis needed to stop as her check oil light came on and so we killed about 45 minutes looking for new flip-flops for me since my Sketchers broke and my OPs are just too hard and uncomfortable. Back at the restaurant, we were seated quickly and Ape and I opted to split a beef brisket sandwich and chicken sandwich. We liked our food and I think the other 7 did as well. Decor-wise I was unimpressed, but then, we weren't there at party-time. Half the place is set up as a dance floor, with dedicated bar. I suppose at night it's more lively.

Before we left I got to do something I've kinda always wanted to try but never wanted to pay for. Ride a mechanical bull. I think I did well, and despite /already/ having a hurt back I didn't tear myself up too badly. But the surprise of the day was Elder - he stayed on the longest of all! Even longer than the three presumably-drunk ladies who went before us ^^

From there was a bit more shopping then Wal-Mart for groceries, then home. Ape asked me to put up the freezer stuff and I decided to blitz the unit, trying to make sense of what was in there. I got a little mad, too, because once again, I had to throw out several unopened items including raw meat and packaged meals. I think I made my point with Ape when I told her that the chicken breasts she'd bought would have company - we had FOUR more already in there she didn't know about.

We spent the rest of the night chilling. I finished Azumanga Daioh then handed the lappy off. That left me with an hour or so to redo Phantasy Star Portable. I decided to reroll my character as I'd somehow really messed up her proportions... Seriously - I couldn't take watching her anymore. I'm pretty much back to where I was though, as I hadn't gotten far in the first time.

7/24 Family day: Mall-time, Steak & Shake, then Salt. Ape, Mimi and I watched that whilst the boys went to Sorcerer's Apprentice. Salt was quite good and I was caught out by the ending. Normally, I can guess the major plotlines early on so the fun for me is the implementation. This time I was off-base and enjoyed being surprised.

7/23 Finished the Merry Gentry audiobook, and also finished Kiki's Delivery Service. This is easily a candidate for "subs rule" as the English version carries a more comedic tone than the original. This is meant to be a serious coming-of-age story, not Disney Channel lulz. Later, had some quiet time as Ape had a bachelorette party after work for an old friend. I used the time to play DDR. Late night PC-building chat with Keps; LK away.

7/22 At lunch today, I finished Elantra 4 literally seconds before having to rush upstairs for our daily meeting.

7/21 crappy day at work. Feeling sicker as well. Fell asleep whilst Ape went off with work friends.

7/20 doc confirms - ETA march 13, 2011. 8-week visit on Aug 3, a month later is the sex-guess. Ape surprised Mimi and Aunt El - watch the vid. Finished Beck - oddish story but love the sound design. And the Japanese speaking heavily-accented swears ^^

New Beginnings

2010-07-17T12:01:00.000-04:00

Creature confirmation

Ape's pregnant!

Daytona Reunion

2010-07-11T12:01:00.003-04:00

Sunday, 7/11

We got up at 9 for breakfast, as apparently all food must be eaten in the lobby. So all of us shuffled down and got in the "rofl-waffle" line. There wasn't much else, but we enjoyed the company: My sis, Ape's sis, us and all the boys.

They made ready to hit the beach and I stayed in the room. My plans were to find something good on TV, to read, and to update the much-neglected blog. I got to watch the last 30 minutes of Germany's win over Uruguay for the third place game (finals on soon). I got a kick (no, not a pun) out of a kick in the 83rd minute when the ball bounced off a prostrate Uruguay player, who'd fallen moments before in a contest for possession. I still love the vuvuzelas.

Next up was the GP2 race from Silverstone. I don't follow GP2 but I do like racing. Right after this the F1 race is supposed to be on, and near the end of that should be the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands. Plans changed slightly when Elder came up from their outing early with a tummyache. And he wasn't interested in F1, which was about to start. I managed to keep him into it long enough to see the start and I explained some stuff to him. It wasn't working. So I relinquished the remote and he found Mythbusters. We have like 20 channels, mostly the basics but oddly we have three Showtimes. Also the Cooking Channel ^^

We watched that until the rest of the crew came up and then we got ready for lunch, at the seafood place we had to pass on yesterday, Aunt Catfish. It was all hands on deck but I didn't see anything I wanted. SO I went looking for Catch, who was at the bar watching the World Cup final. I sat with him for 20-odd minutes, up to the scoreless half. He gave me his cinnamon roll (one comes on every plate) and it was quite good.

It took some time for the rest to eat, so I checked in on the game from time to time. We also had a great time talking and reminiscing. After that I convinced Ape's sis to drive through BK so I could get lunch for me. I got an Eclipse-themed chicken sandwich meal - I wound up eating with Jasper staring at me from the cupholder. I tried my luck with the gamepiece but lost. So much for Team Edward, lol. The prize would have been a Whopper. Not bad, but I'd have liked the Vespa. I asked Ape if I'd get to ride it if I won and she said I would...

From there we stopped by "north Florida's tallest" lighthouse but couldn't go up owing to the storm. Back in town, we tried some surf shops and then the Boardwalk but the rains began to threaten again. Somewhere in all that, I managed to cut my ear. See, Sis needed her big honking SUV parallel parked and wanted me to do it. As I climbed in I somehow struck the side of my head with the top of the door just at the bottom of my earlobe. It hurt, a lot, and began to bleed. Not finding a DDR machine on the Boardwalk didn't help any, heehee!

After dinner at Pizza Hut we packed the van so I could take most of our stuff with me in the morning. I was heading directly to work from the hotel and Sis didn't have enough room to carry much of our stuff in addition to her family's.

-~-~-~-

Saturday, 7/10

Up at 7:15 to take Younger to a swim meet at Eagle Harbor. This particular neighborhood is one Ape's mentioned wanting to move to many times. It's /very/ nice, but very expensive too... Anyways, I took him to give Ape a chance to sleep as she's been feeling lousy lately. And I'm trying to make solid progress into Sevenwaters 4.

If I failed to mention it before, swim meets are brutal affairs. Your child is actually in the water for *maybe* 10 minutes. For the remaining 3 hours 50+ minutes, it's hot. This time though, I had some distractions. After dropping the Clone off I grabbed breakfast and returned to the parking lot. I trimmed my nails and ate, and then went in. As it happened, Mom, Dad, Sis, Springfield Connection and Catch showed up.

We'd missed Younger's first swim, and there were 20 events before his next. Most of the crew left to find their own breakfast, but all made it back in time for the second event. Ape arrived minutes before Younger's swim too, so we all got to watch. After his third, everybody left but us, to get ready for Phase II of Vacation III. Seriously. We're all off to Daytona Beach. I'm on 'til Monday, leaving for work from the hotel, and the rest are returning Tuesday I think.

I took Ape to find food for Younger and her, and we stopped at some garage sales too. We returned for Younger's last event, grabbed him, and we were off. Back at home, we had the usual drama getting final packing done. Ape lost her "beach shoes", an old pair she didn't care about getting dirty. All she had left were brand new shoes she wanted to return so she was upset about that. We guessed, after turning the car and house over, that the shoes would appear in Daytona.

I got Ape to drive so I could read more, and made it a little past a third of the way in. The drive is pretty short and we got to the hotel without incident. I went to find parking in the very crowded lot whilst Ape and the rest went to see what kind of room we got. See, we're all here on "bargain radio" coupons and we were told we got what we got and the upgraded rooms were all taken. So I was surprised to come up from the parking lot to a very nice room. We thought the front desk may have given us Mom & Dad's room, but they checked in just after us and got the room they expected. So the room is very nice, even if the hotel, a decades-old beachfront, is a bit dodgy.

Ape's sis arrived soon after, with boys and Mimi, but sans hubby. He stayed behind to attend some car shows. So now there's 13 of us here. The main thing we did after relaxing and cleaning up was to hunt down dinner. We had coupons for a place called Aunt Catfish's and drove the few miles to it. And were told the wait was about 2 hours... Frenzied coupon-diving and phone calls ensued and we wound up putting our name in at Sloppy Joe's and drove around some. We had a wait for it too but I expect it'd be worth it as it's likely a much better restaurant than a tourist dive.

Ape sent me to get the boys a snack as they hadn't eaten since noonish and it was after 7pm. I went to Quiznos to get Elder a Toasty Torpedo and while in line, Younger comes up and says they're giving away free kid's meals. Assuming there's a catch, I left Elder in line and read the sign Younger pointed out. "Buy an entree, get a kid's meal." And a four-dollar Torpedo counts. So we got Younger a turkey & cheese meal and Elder got a beef, bacon & cheddar Torpedo. And better still, it was time to sit down at Sloppy's.

I won't go into the food much, although Catch let me sample his Cuban rice (tastes like soft cheesy tortilla bits) and I think pretty much everyone enjoyed their meals. The service was fantastic as well. And the boys all got blinky glasses to keep with their meals. And, just as we finished up, the beach fireworks started! So we got to watch that too! From there, I was left with 3/4 of the boys back at the hotel whilst everyone else went searching for ice cream. We spent our time on the shuffleboard court - I helped with scoring and the boys took turns. They all had fun and truthfully, all of them were quite good at it.

Eventually, our ice cream patrol returned (mint chip - nom!) and we basically called it as night after a little TV.

Oh, internet note. We dragged our Clearwire gear with us because, A) Clearwire has covrage in Daytona, and B) we had no idea what kind of access we'd have. Clearwire sucks just as bad in Daytona as in our house. Definitely thinking long and hard about a switch. Comcast's "upgrade to HD triple-play, get an iPod Touch" is looking better all the time!

Good and Bad

2010-07-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

Friday 7/9

Work continues to drag. I got called to the principal's office but it turns out it was about next week's roll, not yesterday's mixup. Even still, my day was nearly all support. Until lunch, that is! Our planned lunch at J. Alexander's was still on, which I didn't know. I had actually eaten just before Mom called to ask about timing. I wasn't about to pass up a meal there! So at the planned time, I hustled there, and we all ate. I enjoyed the French dip, split with Ape's burger. I also compared Catch's 3G speeds on his Droid with the iPhone's - both are pretty sucky.

I finished the day at work with more support, and left at 6:30. From there, it was a small dinner then "The Last Airbender". My fam went, plus my sis's crew. Overall opinions were positive. I may have been the most disappointed. Let me explain... I never watched the series regularly, but I saw a selection of eps. I know the general storyline, and I caught a lot of the end of Book 1. See, Younger was kind of into it, and it's a pretty good show. But my disappointments really weren't based on screenplay adaptations. Nope, I had other beefs. First off, the acting. All three leads irritated me. But I couldn't decide if Aang or Kitara was worse. Second, the casting. I haven't read a lot about the racial implications of how our heroes became non-Asian/Indian. Third, the actual bending was mostly a letdown. But at the same time, the practicing of the forms (for want of a better term) was beautiful. Very Tai-Chi like. I didn't hate the movie - overall, I had a nice time, and I'll likely see the expected sequel. But it's no Eclipse.

Speaking of which, I snuck into a showing just at the end of the "tent scene" and stayed to catch the beginning of the battle. From there, we met my parents at our house. There was a Krystal Kraving going on so I went with my dad, Catch and SC. I let Catch drive and he had a lot of fun stretching Shiroma's legs. We returned with the food and then the two of us went out again so I could drop off the DVDs I checked out from our library. Have I repped our library yet? We have a truly great library system in town. I took the helm at the library and showed off a bit, taking a hard loop around a roundabout and other fun stuff. I should teach him how to heel & toe and double-clutch!

-------------------

Thursday 7/8

My big problem today was Shiroma. The Wednesday night battery issue turned into a four-hour wrench-a-thon. I had already written the team to let them know I was having trouble, and when the Sev1 page came in I was on VPN an on the phone in less than 5 minutes. Later, when I found out I wasn't going to make my original ETA, I called in and let our support guy know, and asked him to let anyone else know if they came calling on me. I also checked my email a few times and didn't see anything urgent.

The fix involved lots of cleaning corrosion, charging the battery, jump-starting, and other tests. I ultimately wound up replacing the battery. The parts store guy tested the original battery and said it was good, but I wasn't convinced. That battery was very "corrosive", eating up *two* battery tiedown brackets. I do suspect the tray cover may have something to do with it, confining any corrosive outgassing, but still. I didn't make it to work until a little after 2 and had to take a half-day as my regular boss was out on vacation and she'd have let me make up the time. Our temp boss asked for my PTO as I walked in...

Anyway, the Sev1 wasn't a Sev1 at all, just a confused user. Our director had sent out an email earlier about key staff and unreported absences
but I didn't feel like arguing the point that I had notified the team twice - I just didn't include her because we normally don't. The rest of the day was ~meh~ as well. More support and no code...

Backlogged

2010-07-04T12:01:00.001-04:00

I owe you all a full accounting of our D.C. trip, don't I?

I have most of it written up and I'm gonna feed it in here soon.

-----

Post-D.C., I've been just wiped out. A near-solid week of dawn-to-dusk days at full throttle, in 100-degree+ temps, plus little sleep = tired me. Work's also been kind of a downer, with almost nothing but lots of putting out of fires, aka issue support.

I finally got to see code Friday but otherwise, blecch.

Oh, almost forgot. ECLIPSE! Saw it Wednesday at 12:01, then still went to work ^.~ I really liked it, and I think Ape and Younger enjoyed it as well. I *still* don't get all the Twilight-hate.

Friday was a calm day, then Saturday we headed to Orlando. Didn't do much besides dinner at Logan's with E & N and their cutey Alex. Food was meh but we had a nice time.

Sunday, Mom & Dad checked into their place, a recently-renovated hotel with a pretty nice waterpark. Dad and I went to his room to watch the Indy race while the girls and boys got wet. From there, we went to Uno's. where I tried Tandoori chicken and some of Ape's stiffed chicken (feta, spinach, broccoli, etc.). Pretty good, actually!

Back to our place for fireworks-watching from the top floor balcony, then chill-time.

Capital Hill - Day 6

2010-06-25T12:01:00.000-04:00

Day 6 - The Return

Put notes here. Ride back was pretty pleasant and I got more reading and vid-watching in. Got back at what, 5-ish and Sis picked us up and we went to dinner.

Capital Hill - Day 5

2010-06-24T12:01:00.000-04:00

Day 5 - Busch Gardens

We left our place at about 8 and arrived at BG at just after 10. After sternly-delivered directions to not get lost or be late, and a review of the meal coupons we were handed, we were set loose. It was Ape, Younger, K & K, and A in our group. Thankfully, all members of our group wanted to ride rides, so there wasn't a lot of "sitting out". Except for me on water rides. I'm not fond of water rides, /especially/ flume-style rides with no seatbelts.

SO, I'll skip a lot of the walking around bits and cut to the fun. First up was the Loch Ness Monster. It was a pretty neat ride except for one thing - as with Space Mountain and a number of older coasters, the headrests are too low for my head, locating closer to my neck just above my back. And on one of the quick drop/climb sections, I got whiplashed and my neck actually *snapped* - chiropractor snapped. It hurt, it was unpleasant, and I was afraid I'd pass out. And this was the first ride!

After that I wasn't so sure about the rest of the day's activities. I was *already* hurting from load/unload duty and not enough sleep. So it was with unease and a growing headache that I approached the next ride, the Griffon. You may remember that I've mentioned my dislike for "negative-G" rides, right? Guess what Griffon is? Not only does it feature a LOT of negative-Gs, it also starts with a literal straight-down drop. A lot of people describe drops on some coasters as "straight down" but unless it's 90', it isn't. This one is. And it goes on from there!
The ride itself was very smooth and other than the loopy stomach, I enjoyed it. Enough to go again with the whole crew. I kept myself calm by playing the "Zi'Tah" music in my head. I noted that some of the "drop towers" resembled Rock-It's towers, and figure maybe I can handle that one now...

Did we have lunch here? The food coupon covered pretty sizable meal options, and we chose the Canadian BBQ joint to use the first one. I picked the hot-dog kid's meal and added a large slice of lemon cake for dessert. It was surprisingly good. Everyone else grabbed big BBQ platters and I wound up with some leftovers ^^ I also got a "thing" which I want to send to LK for a housewarming present when he moves in a month.

Next up was Alpengeist. It looks a lot like Ice. It rode a lot like Ice too, but it was rougher than Griffon. Honestly, I gave it a ~meh~. I think the gang went on some water stuff at this time.

Then, the highlight and disappointment of the day. Apollo's Chariot. A ride that pretty much answers the question, "How much negative-G can we expose riders to?" It's a deceptively simple layout with two long "vomit comet" sections with a fast twisty bit in between. It's also two minutes long!

In keeping with the G-force application, AC uses "thigh t-bars", meaning a thick padded bar comes between your legs resting on your upper thighs. Pulled tight, you can get it almost to your hips, locking you in tightly. Ape tried the "test seat" and made it, but when we got on board, she was bumped because her bar wouldn't click three times. The test seat didn't say anything about minimum clicks ><:

I wound up riding three times with the rest of the group. I even threw my arms up at one point, which is really out of character for me. But I did feel horrible for Ape. She would have loved it I think!

Most of the rest of the day was spent on simpler pursuits, some basketball for A, and an attempt on their "4D" ride a'la Spiderman. We got on line despite the ride being down. We waited but I saw that time was nearly out if I was to make it to Celtic Fyre. So I bolted and hustled to Ireland and walked into the theater with literally like 2 minutes to spare.

CF was pretty good, and the lead sure did look like Seth McFarlane. From there, I went shopping in the Irish store, and found a neat cross to use with my cosplay. I walked out of that store just as the rest of the gang caught up with me. They reported that the 4D ride was pretty lame, with too many gratuitous 3D scenes. I reported I had a great time at the show q:

We all looked in the "magic" shop and there were some pretty interesting witchy/goth statuettes and they were reasonably priced too. From there, we dashed to England to eat. And found a monstrous line. I waited for probably 30 minutes and wound up snapping at several kids who seemed to be cutting in. I later apologized to two of the group moms (not from our group) but dang...

Anyways, our food wait was seemingly lengthened by the fact the buffet pipeline would snag or fill at bad places, especially the salad pick-up, causing the cashiers to be either flooded or idle... But we got the food. And it was really good! We had to take ours with us because we were too close to deadline. Ape didn't get to eat at the park at all - she went to a souvenir shop to grab a shirt.

On the ride back, I finished Cast in Secret, book 3 of Michelle Sagara's Elantra series. I had read #2 on the way up and look forward to the next volumes. Also on the way back, we got word that they were ordering pizzas for our last night. By the time we got in, packed and settled, it was pretty late for pizza, but I partook anyway. It was good, too!

Capital Hill - Days 3 & 4 Placeholder

2010-06-23T12:01:00.001-04:00

Day 3 - DC B-Day

Day 4 - DC C-Day

I have some handwritten notes plus Ape's photolog to go by...

Capital Hill - Day 2

2010-06-21T12:01:00.000-04:00

Day 2 - DC A-Day

(confirm sched with pic timeline and itinerary)

Our four-day forced-march adventure begins today. For the next four days we will be up at dawn and on the move until dusk. We will eat mostly buffets and food court meals. We will have little time to actually enjoy things because we (the adults) are supposed to be chaperoning, not sightseeing. Do not worry, Dear Reader. We managed to take in quite a bit...

Our first stop in Washington was near the Pentagon Mall to collect our tour guide. This lovely woman called Dale, who reminded me greatly of my beloved former boss, got on and took charge. She had three days of adventure planned out for us and she wasn't going to waste time. Unfortunately, the kids did, and our schedule got pretty messed up. But more on that later.

Our first stop was the Capitol Building and a walk around it. I'm not going to include much of Dale's commentary here because honestly, I couldn't remember it all if I tried. The woman was a walking factbook on D.C. During her time with us, she'd be feeding us an awful lot of history and trivia about the places we were going. I kept wandering around behind the throng of children to get close enough to hear her. This of course, meant I wound up in a *lot* of the "official" trip pics ^^ It seemed I was one of the few adults who really wanted to listen in. I do know that a number of our group has previously visited D.C., so, maybe they knew this stuff.

There was a classic VW coupe (Karmann-Ghia?) on the grounds and one of the tour medics went to take pics. A guard came up swiftly but after some chat about VW fandom, he relaxed. Before we made our way towards the Supreme Court, we were passed by a rather large Amish group. I mean no disrespect here, but just how did they get here? I am under the impression that there are differing levels of "observance" in the Amish faith, much as there are in others. Was this group OK with motorized transport? To Ape and Younger I mused: If I was going to board a motorized conveyance for the first (and possibly last) time. I'd be in a Hummer limo.

We didn't actually go into the SC. In fact, there was no getting near it. Also, some journalists were camped out on the lower steps. When asked, one gent said they were waiting for Sonia Sotomayor news. Oh! Well, it didn't happen whilst we were walking by. DJ climbed the stairs and *immediately* one of the three visible armed guards walked down from his post at the top. DJ got the pic he wanted and scooted, the guard walking through his just-vacated position moments later. The guard continued past, to the journo area. But it sure seemed to me he was making a subtle point.

Late in the morning, all 11 buses in our armada assembled for a group shot. We hope to get a copy soon. While assembling, a man was "escorted" out of the shot by two of the photographer's assistants and I heard him protesting that he wanted some notice in writing while apparently complaining about not being allowed to be there. I never did ask if it was a real incident or if he was friends with the crew.

We got to take a quick tour of the Library of Congress. Remember me saying how my two years with the local library system was my fave job (well, before my present one)? Imagine going to the "mother library"... It really was incredible. I had no idea the place was so ornately decorated! The roof mosaics, the frescoes, the statuary, all of it breathtaking!

Capital Hill - Day 1

2010-06-20T12:01:00.000-04:00

Day 1 - The Departure

Today's plan? 14-odd hours on a bus. With 32 kids, 12 parents, plus Al the driver and police officer. Dear Lord, please give me the strength...

Up at 4:15am, at the Stadium at 5:30, helping another dad (let's call him DJ) load the holds with luggage, chairs and sundries. Actually, this Dad Duo would be a pretty constant thing on this trip. More on that later. On the road at 6am.

We were on the hook for breakfast and lunch today, then all other meals would be provided. Last night, Ape packed our bag with snacks, fruit, and, for me, four sammies. Two deli meat standards, paired with PB&J. Shortly after our departure, I ate my breakfast pair, while Ape commented on the coffee fashionistas. I read for much of the first leg, digging into Cast in Courtlight. I think I'm going to really like this series, provided it doesn't go off the rails in the later volumes, the way Piers Anthony's seem to.

Lunch was at a South Carolina rest stop. As one of only two dads on the trip, restroom security fell to DJ and me. Yay. It didn't help my mood that this particular facility smelled and I inadvertently stood watch long after our patrols had finished, as other busloads of patrols had been filing in the whole time. And many of the kids (of all groups) were fond of shaking water off their hands and much of it landed on me. If you don't know my feelings for being sticky or dirty, guess.

About an hour before dinner. Bus Seven decided it didn't like its transmission and Al stopped us at a rest area. When Bus Seven the Second arrived, we piled on without the items in the holds. Later at dinner (Country Buffet) we had to wait while Bus Seven the Second returned to the rest area for our things, and then back to us. All told it wasn't a big wait, as the dining progress was slowed by the fact the building was prolly full to Fire Marshall capacity of 510. My dinner? I did a sampler: bourbon chicken & rice, a chicken nugget, pizza slice, corn, mac & cheese, and a roll. Plus ice cream and lots of mini orange slice candies - nom!

Arrival at the Best Western was at 9-ish, and after unloading, check-in, long elevator lines and settling the boys (Younger, a friend we'll call K, and another boy whose parents were unable to travel with us, A) it was just after 10 when Ape and I finally had time to breathe. I really don't remember what we did, besides maybe some TV and web surfing... Bed by midnight.

The Calm Before The Storm(ing of the Capitol)

2010-06-19T12:01:00.000-04:00

Sat: Up earlier than normal to pick Younger and bro up from TKD. Then the three of us went to Toys R Us for what we thought was a Family challenge aimed at FD. Nope - some sort of demo. No obvious competition and Younger wasn't that interested in waiting for a turn. SO we browsed a bit then went home.

We picked Ape up and headed towards the theater, as it was almost time for TOY STORY 3!!! Three! And in 3D too ^^ We grabbed CFA and scarfed it down then went in. Oh my Lord - this was easily one of the best movies I've seen in a long while. Everything I was hoping for and nothing I wasn't. And the endgame left me & Ape crying for quite awhile - it was really touching. First KK, now TS3.

Somehow, no Tron preview...

Back home, more room work, then off to FD din for me and Dad at J. Alexanders. Still one of my fave restaurants, although I picked the wrong kind of sandwich. Still good. On the way out, we got a treat - there was a red Ferrari 360 Spyder right out front. It was beautiful, with "Italia" racing stripes and unbelievable lines.

We weren't planning on going back home, as the car was packed for Sunday's early morning journey. We were supposed to be going to mom & dad's so they can drop us off. Nope - Younger forgot shoes so Ape decided to grab some foodstuffs to make Sunday's lunch & snacks with. Some came from our house and the rest from Publix.

We didn't get to my parents' until almost 10, and after settling in and a half-dozen trips to the car for stuff, Ape didn't go to bed until 11:30. I'm still up at 1:15 updating this and taking care of last-minute cosplay details.

Sunday is going to be brutal. We're going to see amazing, powerful sites, and sights. But I may not be able to keep up with it all... And we'll likely be so wiped from the tour grind I may not be able to log in for note-taking. I might see if I can get a small notepad and jot important things down.

P.S. I am apparently 1/8th Irish! So my fascination with it vis-a-vis Sevenwaters and the like is legitimate ^^

-=-=-=-

Fri: Met Ape and the Clones at European Street for FD din with her dad & pat. Got hot ham & swiss and it was awesome! Had a nice time too as we managed to have a whole meal with the man and not break out into ideological combat. Then dropped the boys off at my parents' and headed home

Worked on Elder's room for a couple hours then cleaned up, chilled and hit XI. Ran into Fhox after an unsuccessful LFG. He was farming RDM tests in Beadeaux. I was marginally able to help as I was desperately underleveled for the test mobs. I even died once on a nasty hit followed by a Firaga III. I did get like 6 dagger levels though.

-=-=-=-

Thurs:
Good chats with the crew. Details?

Busy Busy Bee

2010-06-16T12:01:00.000-04:00

Wed Morning:

Quick note: Both of us feel the foam topper is helping us with our sleep-aches. But dang, that thing STILL stinks, after three days in the garage and three more on the bed!

-=-=-=-

Tue:

7am dentist appointment. /Yawn Despite being held up a bit by Ape ^.~, I made it to the appointment on time, and I didn't even get fussed at for not flossing. Maybe because I have been, once a week or so anyway.

On my lunch break, I looked into volunteering for "IMAlive", TWLOHA's summer project for suicide prevention. It seems pretty intense and I'm not sure I could handle that much pain. But I'd love to help somehow!

After work, met fam in Sawgrass for Younger's first swim meet. Versus the Sawgrass Sharks. Elder got a chuckle when the wind blew part of their team banner down, leaving only the last three letters visible q:

Younger did his best but he's having a little trouble with his entry and his turns. Poor kid keeps belly-flopping which not only stings, it knocks his goggles off too.

The meet started at about 4:30, and we didn't leave until nearly *8:00*! Mind you, none of us had eaten dinner yet! And the place Ape wanted to try was about 30 minutes away.

But, we made it, and after a slow start, got some really delicious food. I indulged, having a burger, fries and Coke Classic. It was worth it ^^ We didn't leave until 10 and home was another 40-odd minues away so I didn't see the inside of my house until close to 11. And this was after leaving at like 6:30...

In any case, Ape and I watched a little South Park and had a talk about my cosplay. If you're ever interested in studying causality, look at me. One little decision almost a year ago and the ripples are still being felt now.

I don't think I quite have a /green/ light but I'm close. My plan is to solidify things with her tomorrow and then put in the request Thursday. Assuming tomorrow goes well!

I actually fell asleep putting more movies on T-Dub. Ape had to wake me so I could put everything up and go to sleep properly.

-=-=-=-

Mon:
up early to drop younger off for swim practice. Pretty down about the whole cosplay thing.

At lunch, a chance tweet on Twitter's homepage caught my eye, just as I was logging out: TWLOHA has a twitter. And a benefit update tweet is what rolled up the "top tweets" scroll just as I was closing the window. Which meant I had to log back in, find them, and follow them.

Then I started poking around their website looking at merch (some great shirts await!) and then I saw a blurb about "I'm Alive", a volunteer effort they're trying to launch to combat suicide attempts. They want to train and staff a line (site?) with 1,000 people, each giving 4 hours a week for a year.

I find their ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to their newsletter...

-=-=-=-

Sun:
Ape's can opener warning
Huggies jean diaper lines (The coolest you'll look pooping your pants)
thrift store template search
grocery shopping
yardwork
city cruise listening to RB 2nd gear
death of dreams redux?
put stinky foam topper on the bed
bed early, awakened 2:47am, terrible sleep after ><

-=-=-=-

Sat:
nice breakfast, then chores
off with Bonnie & Mimi - dinner at Mikes
saw the duckies
Late party on DNC, to 54.7

Too Much LFG

2010-06-12T12:01:00.001-04:00

Saturday

Today's been very quiet. While Ape and Younger were at his swim meet, I slept in, then woke up and ate the sammy she made for me while watching whatever I could find.

Then I jumped on XI and flagged up on Dancer and soloed two pages in the Sanctuary. This put me 2.5k into 51, so I'm almost ready to start my AF properly. I'm also high enough now to consider gear upgrades where my AF won't do. I really need new knives soon!

Now we're chilling and getting ready to head out for family time.

-=-=-=-

Friday - Continuing from yesterday...

Younger's too-long graduation ceremony was too long, but it was nice. They did a pretty good job with awards and different segments to break up the time. There were choral performances, a slideshow, farewells from the teachers and more. Younger looked so professional in his suit! And I think he might have been as surprised as we were at some of the awards he got!

Our very-late breakfast at Bob Evans was nice, but hectic with 13 of us. Sis bought the boys (minus Elder) Silly Bandz. Wow - the controversial rubber bands shaped like stuff! I happen to think they're neat, but I also see how they're absolutely awful in a classroom.

I didn't make it to work until 1:30 and wound up just taking the full day off in the T&A system. This squares me up for the time I've had to miss for Elder's conference and other errands. I left at about 5:30 after a decent day. But I didn't care about that - we were about to see The Karate Kid with Sis's family and Mimi!

We would have gone at 6:45 but AMC pulled a stupid (as is their way) in putting that showing of a brand new movie in a smaller theatre. We bumped our tickets to 7:15 and got the second largest house. Prolly appropriate because this movie is LONG!

Too long, in fact. I don't think I'm giving away spoilers here, as the formula is pretty close to the original's. But it took far too long to get from "bullied kid finds unlikely teacher and begins to learn self defense and self confidence" to the actual training and the tournament.

Don't get me wrong - I think we all loved it, but it's just too long! There's an easy 20 minutes that can be lost somewhere. Other than that, it's fantastically acted and a lot of fun. The kung fu is exciting, and there's a part that made us weepy. Well, me and Ape - not sure of the others. There's a /very/ touching scene just before the tourney!

After that it was just after 10 and bro's brood was hungry. Sis had to dash right at the end to go to work so we took them through Taco Bell and then home. I got one of the 2-buck meals and it was pretty good. Doritos + taco = nom.

Ape and I hung out some with the clones and then when we finally got them sorted and I pressed Ape's back and feet I gave Dancer a shot. About 2 hours LFG later I gave up. I managed to get some of my stuff sold and the rest put back up.

Perfect Attendance

2010-06-11T12:01:00.000-04:00

This morning was Younger's Fifth Grade Graduation exercise at his school. We were there for over 2 hours, largely due to the sheer number of awards given. Granted, the school is an academic center of excellence in our county school system, and most of the 73 fifth graders excel academically and in athletic and civic pursuits.

There *were* a number of awards that seemed like maybe the criteria is set low enough that everybody has a shot, so as not to leave kids out. I'm not going to stand here and say I oppose this, though I think initiatives like this, "scoreless Little League" games and the like are more harmful than helpful.

No, what I want to talk about is one very specific award that raises the hackles on my neck. Am I the only person who thinks recognizing Perfect Attendance is both unrealistic and unfair? The kids who go on to get this year after year must really miss out on stuff. Or maybe their folks don't ever do fun stuff during the year.

Let me rephrase - I'd be OK with PA awards (No, not *those* PA awards) if they didn't hold parentally-excused absences against the kids. Pretty much from the time I hit middle school on, my parents had a rule. We got "vacation days" every grading period, so long as we kept our grade up and didn't use a vaycay day to blow off anything important. Otherwise, it was pretty much our choice.

So, once a month or so I'd just stay home. I'd veg out on the couch watching TV and eating junk food. Or I'd play games or read. Or whatever. And it was great!

Other times, they'd pack us in the car and we go out of town. They're the ones who instilled this sense of adventure and family fun in us - we didn't always go to exciting places but we had fun together.

Now, as parents, Ape and I do the same thing. We're always on the go and we take the Clones with us. I don't think it's for the school to punish my kids if I take them out. So long as the absence doesn't interfere with classroom activities and such, of course.

Another prob I have with PA - does that mean these kids never get sick? Or are they at school, infestulating* my kids because they or their parents want some piece of shiny at the end of the year?

* Infestulating - v. - I have no idea where we came up with this. I thought it was a portmanteau of infest and something else, but now I can't remember what the something else is.

Slow Week

2010-06-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

Besides being bummed at work, I haven't done anything much related to XI. I spent both Tuesday and Wednesday with Ape, reading, surfing the net, and watching TV. Last night was "Sleepless in Seattle", after Ape realized she'd stalled on the Stanley Cup finals.

Wednesday I chatted with LK and managed to get in our first game of chess. Not much of a game, really. I'm not that good. I fail to properly analyze all threats and opportunities and make boneheaded moves. Still, it was fun finally trying that out with him! Also, he's going to be moving to NY soon - here's hoping things work out for him there!

Tonight, I finished Eclipse (all 629 pages) after less than a week. Now I totally can't wait until the 30th! Later, it was family dinner with Mimi and our aunt, who finally made it over. Very yummy, as always, Ape!

Took a little time to update XI and put my junk back up on the AH. I also ripped some more games to TFM, including Falling Stars. It's...interesting. I have a feeling the reviews are going to be dead on with this one. But the worn gear=NPC charisma is interesting.

Later, I brought up the source of this week's malaise - my cosplay. I only have until the 20th to commit and I'm having a hard time working out how to balance the pain it causes her if I do it, versus not and hurting myself, which would hurt her too. Can I win here?

When we talked about it she basically told me to do it anyway and that what bothers her is the girlishness of the costume. -.-

Before bed, Ape quizzed me on past spelling bee winning words. I got 4 of 5!

Mandy Monday

2010-06-07T12:01:00.001-04:00

(Did I do that one already?)

Spent almost all day at work doing support - AKA putting out fires. I got a lot of them put out, but it was tiring grinding through all those issues.

With lunchtime and TKD time, I got through 20% of Eclipse and I'm getting into it.

At home, I ate and soon got on XI. After checking on the shell meeting (cancelled) I planned to pick up where I left off with last night's soloing and try flagging up near the end of the page. I got the invite, from Steelcyclone, for the jungles of Elshimo.

I had a little time as the roster wasn't full, so I finished off my page and went back to Windy to dump meds, gear and junk. Then I picked up a pumpkin and OPed my way to the group.

Initially his plan was for me to voke off him so he could cast shadows. Which would have been fine had I been able to hit squat with my Quicksteps. Eventually I was able to build up both TP and steps and between curagas to wake us from the mandies, I did my best to voke off Steel.

Things went pretty well too, and between two anni bands and one regular band charge, the two-plus hours netted me over 16k XP, and more than halfway to 51! Also, Countjethuth was my rep, so that was nice too.

Oh, I saw this at work today - what a quote! On the Today show, Obama was talking with Matt Lauer about his administration's response to BP's befouling of our Gulf waters. Lauer needled him a bit but Obama's response needs to be shortened and plastered on a t-shirt:

"I don't sit around talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."

That is pure Presidential awesome-sauce!

Slow, Soggy Sunday

2010-06-06T12:01:00.000-04:00

I woke latish after my long XI night. Ape was up already cleaning in anticipation of her aunt's visit from TN, who hasn't visited us here in ages. This is the aunt we usually see in the mountains at Thanksgiving. It was well that we were getting indoor stuff done as it was a pretty rainy day. Nice to have it though! And I like how Younger likes storms and cloudy skies as I do ^^

I helped with the cleaning where I could but I think Ape sees how much of the clutter is hers. Prolly doesn't get me off the hook tho ^.~ She's been making a lot of headway though and there is a definite feeling of openness building. It's very nice!

Younger spent most of his day on TFM, making up for all the lost time. Maybe I should see about digging up my disc binders and loading up some of the stuff I've bought since TFM bit the dust...

Later, I stayed at Sis's with all the boys save Younger, so he mom and Mimi could do some graduation-day clothes shopping. I read the first 55 pages of Eclipse to pass the time.

Dinner was The Loop and later at home we tried to endure the MTV Movie Awards. What we saw was awful. Kate Plus Eight was better. And I mean that seriously. I enjoyed Kate over MTV. Viacom? Taking notes?

During this time I soloed in Zi'tah. Why it took me so long to find the wiki page with all the field manuals, page specs and the level ranges. Much easier to plan solo days! I got 48 this way, but it's slow work...

Mission Marathon

2010-06-05T12:02:00.000-04:00

While I was finishing my latest book, Ape was off at the pool with the boys. When she got back (just as I finished the Epilogue), we prepped for a group departure.

We rounded up Mimi and then went to our mall. I dropped the girls off at Kohl's and I took all 4 boys to GameStop to see about a used phat PS2. It was time to revive The Fun Machine. While I was being helped, some young girls were making cracks about "he's so hot! - No, the other one". Assuming they were talking about the staffers, I looked at them and they started giggling, embarrassed. The one turned to the other and told her I'd heard. Well, duh, they weren't very quiet about it!

So, I was able to source a re-manned PS2, with a 1-year warranty, for 55 bucks. It actually came with a Sony DS2 as well, rather than some third-party crap. Younger was excited by the Ocean Blue controller and the prospect of playing the dozens of faves from my hard drive. We had some other stops before that happened, but it wasn't long before we were at home and I was setting everything up.

Aside from losing the "trigger" memory card, and accidentally using my XI drive once, setup was easy and it booted to the HD right away. In fact, we got a surprise when I loaded Tony Hawk for PS1 and out popped Tiger Woods 2007 for PS2. Lol. I joked it wasn't the good version as seen on South Park ^^

The rest of the night was light cleaning, then I logged into XI. I had hoped to hit 50 on DNC, but Lees had other plans. Old, Lees and Zelia were attempting ZM6, Through the Quicksand Caves. I jumped at the chance and we left pretty quickly, attempting the tricky Antican NM fight with just the 4 of us. Lees and Old on DD, Zel on BLM and me on WHM.

The fight went well, with Zel taking care of most of the sleeping so we could focus all efforts on the PLD ant. I got some Reposes off and used my favorite enfeeb, Paralyze often, with many sticks. Once the PLD fell, the rest was cake. Old was surprised at not dying with our small band. I didn't say much, knowing that Zel is often WHM but not knowing if she WHMs for their fights when I'm not around.

The gang decided to forge ahead, to the second fight, ZM8. Archduke Kam'lanaut is a tough little bugger, being a Zilart and all. But our merry band did well. Until my stupid net decided at the WORST POSSIBLE TIME to R0. Old was hit into the orance and I fired my C5 twice with no result. Then I saw R0. Then he died. Then it reconnected. Geez.

I apologized for Old's second death at my hand, although this one wasn't like the first when I wasn't paying close enough attention. He shrugged it off graciously though :3

After beating Kam'lanaut, Lees wanted to go to bed but asked the rest of us to get our cutscenes. Which I did over the next hour. I'd like to see this set from start to finish as these are pretty well done and I like the story.

After one last Norg-Ninjutsu scroll run I headed out. I spent the rest of the night ripping more movies to my PSP (Geez but Liam Neeson is a hard man in Taken!) and chatting a bit - Kep was finally back on, enjoying a new(er) PC and LK is working through his situation and upcoming move.

Book Review: Child of the Prophecy

2010-06-05T12:01:00.000-04:00

~Whew~

I read the second half of "Child" in a breathless rush. The misgivings I had about the story changed at about the halfway point when Fainne found her center. And I liked the ending. Pretty much anyway. Oddly, there are some parallels in the ending here and in the resolution of Phèdre's story with regard to Hyacinthe. In fact, Darragh and Hyacinthe seem to be men of a similar wanderlust.

One thing I've enjoyed in the Sevenwaters series is the regard for earth and nature. I'm not heeding the call to a druidic life, but the view Marillier gives of that life, plus the mysticism of Irish/Celtic lore is fascinating and appealing. I am considering integrating natural symbolism into my Noble's. You'll just have to wait on that though!

I've also enjoyed that the series focused on strong female leads, as Kushiel's was. And as in that, these ladies are often flawed and conflicted but still strong of will. Well, sometimes ^^ But they carry on until the end. There's a good deal of romance in these books as well, although not so much in the traditional sense. It's more like the pages are filled with love, and only some of it romantic. A lot of it is familial bonding, and love of kin for kin.

Now I have to get Eclipse out of the way to make room for Heir. Not like Eclipse is going to be some great chore. The passion in Twilight is palpable and fun and I'm looking forward to being ready for the movie.

Funny Friday

2010-06-04T12:01:00.000-04:00

* Pretty good day at work
* Tried to stop at two stores near work on the way home. One's phone is disconnected and the other is mostly upholstery fabrics. Went back to JoAnn's to look for a bulletin board - commissions list. None... Also looked in Michael's but nothing doing.
* Pizza Hut
* Went to see "The Killers" but because AMC is stupid they put a brand new movie in their smallest theater. So we jumped over to "Get Him to the Greek". Did I mention my parents were with us? And that the movie is pretty raunchy? A tiny bit awkward...

Movie's actually pretty good but it's strangely lacking in soundtrack for a rocker flick.

Came home to the end of Princess and the Frog (pass...) and Younger showed me a couple vids: The Obama Llama song (Did I really make it almost 2 years without seeing this?) and its predecessor, the Green Llama (Bunchie?) song.

Thursday

2010-06-03T12:01:00.001-04:00

Kind of a meh day... Good progress at work but oh so tired! At home it was a nice dinner followed by TKD. This time I got a good spot and was able to read quite a bit of "Child of the Prophecy". This is book 3 of the Sevenwaters series. I'm hustling to finish it because it's due back in 5 days and I want to finish it with enough time for Eclipse.

See, Eclipse (the movie, not the lunar event, or the sporty car) comes out on the 30th and I'm determined to read the book prior to seeing the movie.

Back home after TKD I got on XI long enough to solo to 48 on DNC. I'd love to be 50 by the weekend.

Also, we had a family movie night, watching AMC's (channel, not theatre) 25th anniversary airing of The Goonies. I confessed to Ape that I've prolly only seen the entire thing twice. Not bad, after all these years. Managed to get the boys to watch most of it at least!

Wednesday Comes After Tuesday

2010-06-02T12:01:00.001-04:00

Wednesday: Pretty good day at work followed by a tasty dinner! Wound up just chilling with Ape, reading some more, and watching TV. Ape was thinking about going to see "Sex and the City 2" with friends and maybe me, but the plans fell through. She could have gone to one of her friends' to hang out but she decided to stay home.

-=-=-=-

Tuesday: Awful! I was super tired and thought a lunchtime nap would help. But I underestimated the heat. Even with windows and roof opened and the sunshade up, I baked in there. I made it to the end of the day and left a touch early headed for a nearby fabric store.

A bad time with the map meant I missed my turn and didn't have enough time to go back. So I went by the JoAnn's near our house and checked out different colors, patterns and fabrics. I'm getting some new ideas I think will come out nicely if I ever get this thing together!

I made it home just in time to grab Younger and my Subway dinner. At TKD, I parked in the first spot I found and ate. And wound up sweating to death again. It was /way/ too hot (again). But the sandwich was really good!

And then my night got worser. I thought it'd be a good idea to park closer to the TKD dojo and moved. And then spent 20 minutes circling and 20 double parked, stuck in the car! I think the dance studio next door was having a recital because people were lined up in front of the large window...

Back home, I jumped on XI whilst we watched America's Got Talent. I soon got a jungle party with Vourant and made nearly a level and a half! When it was time to leave I got lucky with my rep and went to bed soon after.

Oh, PS (not PCL): I feel horrible LK! Next time let me know what's going on... Please?

Memorial Monday

2010-05-31T12:01:00.000-04:00

Today's big plan was a beach trip. Sis took the usual epoch to get her and her brood ready and we left close to 2. Vilano beach was nice, and not too hot. We didn't stay very long - I wound up passing on trying to read (glare was bothering me), laying out instead and then Ape and I walked up and down the beach a bit.

From there we went to Caddyshack's where I had a nice lunch and possibly the best sundae ever. Also lousy service... Note to waitstaff: When a customer asks you about your special, or about what kind of sundaes you have, or anything menu-related, saying "I don't know" is pretty much a guarantee I'm going to be unhappy. And when you try to stick me with a forced 18% gratuity after bungling both the order and the checks after failing to know your menu? Lousy Waiter, I'd like to introduce you to your boss. You two have fun now!

But the lousy waiting wasn't the only unpleasantness at our luncheon. Once again, Ape decided to make a thing out of my ordering Diet Coke. See, last night at my parents', she made a crack at dinner about the Coke Zero in front of the whole group. Tired of her bitterness, I shot back, "Jealous much?" She let it go after some generic "What's wrong with trying to be healthier?" exchange. This time she dug in her heels and we had a brief head-to-head. My favorite line from her? "I don't think I can be with someone obsessed about their weight."

Wow. Just... wow. I ordered a Diet Coke to go with my: Regular dog, chili dog, fries, and sundae. I'm a fanatic! ^.~

Did I mention how good the sundae was? I'm not big on ice cream, and even less so on sundaes. To me, hot fudge is usually too rich on the ice cream. Not this time. There was a nigh-unto-perfection synthesis of the ice cream, fudge and whipped cream. It was really really good! This was CamiCakes good! ~nom~

And poor Bro! He had no idea about Sis's desire to go to the mall after lunch, actually stating quite loudly, "Bull----!" when I mentioned it. I do worry about those two and how in sync they are... So after eating he took his boys home and Sis and Mimi rode with us.

We decided on the Town Center for shopping. Ape, Sis and Mimi went one way. I had a nice time with Younger, checking out both game stores, Target, Staples, and Movie Stop. Witch Hunter Robin is now 35 bucks but I'm thinking I'd be better served NetFlixing these things... I have a free month's pass; I should just do it.

Something cool happened at Target. While passing the Garden section on the way to Electronics with Younger, I got called out for my TWLOHA shirt. There were four teens lounging casually on a set of yard furniture and one of them saw my shirt. I thanked them and then something weird happened - they /complimented/ my hair. Again, I thanked them, slightly embarrassed. I mentioned I was actually trying for something like what one of their number was sporting and had a severe stylist issue instead...

Met my parents at Carvel so the rest of the crew could get dessert. Then home, where I worked on Ubuntu some more and caught this up ^^

{Config}ulating

2010-05-30T12:01:00.000-04:00

Sun: Slow cleaning day. Worked on Ubuntu some more, trying to get XI running on Wine. The installer fires but the game crashes. I think this box is graphically challenged because most of its issues seem to be caused with graphics-intensive operations. Need to find a crash log.

Off to din and game night at my parents'. Met by Sis & Bro and their boys. Got to see my dad's new work truck. Played Imaginiff and had the usual good time, especially trying to explain certain choices by certain people. After an hour+ of playing, all of us were in a close pack at the end. Having more trouble with her eldest and our boys.

Spent way too long trying to install Skype for Mom so she can talk to Catch in Mexico. Her net's acting up and I think I know why - she seems to be sending hits to a Russian search engine even in regular surfing - yikes!

Soloed a bit more on DNC but got bored. Jumped on Skype at Cold's insistence and he played more GH and then showed me the opening to Alan Wake. It *is* pretty creepy and atmospheric. He sent a great Gabriel Iglesias comedy skit amongst some older stuff. Very lol-worthy, literally!

-=-=-=-

Sat: Prince of Persia - Um, can I borrow that time-dagger and get my 2 hours back? If you ever need an example of what deus ex machina means, watch this movie. /sigh

It's not a bad movie, mind. The parkour is /very/ well done and it's a lot of fun in the best traditions of a Saturday popcorn flick. It's just the end that stinks.

Worked some more on Ubuntu, adding apps and configuring my preferences. Spent time chatting and Skyping with some old friends and some new.

Couldn't get a party on DNC and soloed a third of a level to 46 and then crashed.

-=-=-=-

Fri: Left work a bit late and then got into a thing with Ape about our timing for her work party. Nearly 4 hours at party, some funny stories and pretty good food but not much else. Thought about going to see a movie but Ape decided not to. We wound up renting "Everybody's Fine". Another nothing-like-the-trailers film...

Basically, DeNiro plays a recently-widowed father of 4 whose kids don't come round often. After bailing on his holiday get-together, he decides to pay each a visit at their respective homes. Here's where the movie gets neat - his travel scenes are punctuated by tense phone calls amongst the sibs. Something's up with David and they don't want to worry Dad. Who is more peeved than worried just now since David's not answering his New York apartment door.

As he visits, he learns his kids have pretty much hidden everything from him - grandkids' bad grades, actual job versus described job, etc. And the truth of David's absence becomes clearer. After his final visit, DeNiro flies home, despite massive aviophobia (Hi Bones!) and has a heart attack when the plane flies into turbulence and his nitrate bottle is empty.

On awaking in the hospital, three of four sibs are waiting for him and they finally own up - David's not there because David died in Mexico from a drug OD. Movie ends back at DeNiro's, as all remaining sibs (plus some SOs) prepare for the next holiday.

Wow - good drama but NOTHING like it was pitched!

A Different Kind of Roll

2010-05-27T12:01:00.001-04:00

5/27

I woke up in the middle of the night practically choking on phlegm. I'm finally succumbing to Elder's bugs... When I got up for real not long after, I seriously considered bailing on work. I decided to stay in my PJs, take Elder to school. and see how it goes on my way back home.

Honestly, I hope what happened at Chick-fil-a isn't a sign - Somehow my order got mangled, so that I did not receive my hash browns, and I got Coke instead of Coke Zero. I went inside and got the tots and declined to swap drinks as I'd already started drinking. The cashier was ever gracious, not accepting payment for the tots. I tried to insist and was rebuffed.

Back home, I still felt ill but decided to go in - I really want my time off for the summer. So I got ready and headed to work, about an hour behind schedule. Work was
uneventful and I struggled to find stuff to do prior to leaving. The small roll loomed ahead however.

And it almost didn't happen - Ape wanted a neck rub and I wound up falling asleep. She tucked me in later, thinking I'd already done my work. And she left Friday morning without realizing I'd never set my alarm. Thankfully, I woke up on my own before 8, checked the roll (all good), sent my notifications and got myself to work.

Wound up having a great convo with several people about lots of topics: Political ideologies, IP, tech, music, more IP, and stuff.

-=-=-=-

5/26

This morning was much smoother. Not blissful or perfect, but smoother. And pretty good, considering we're still talking abut a teenager. Work was total meh. I'm between major projects and don't have anything meatier than custom rules in Outlook VBA to keep me challenged. I did get some good feedback on my cosplay from one of the crafters. I need to get that page up and running soon.

The plan after work was for Arby's - as much for Elder as it was for me. I like their dollar menu. But Ape asked me to come directly home instead of meeting up. She had a bad day at work when a mom yelled at her without justification. Thankfully there were witnesses and they know of this mother's history so there's no doubt who stands where.

So, I dashed home and we chilled for about 20 minutes as she retold the day's events before we headed out. At Arby's, two interesting things happened: I tried lettuce on my chicken sandwich, and, we played with the "drive-thru duck". There's a duck there that seems to live next to the restaurant mooching off drive-through delights. He's extremely docile and ate out of Younger's hand even. We pondered relocating him to Mimi's (as she has a number of "yard ducks") but didn't.

From there, it was a "clearance check" at Toys R Us, and both Clones found something to buy cheaply. After that, gas, and a quick stop at the site of yesterday's bus crash. There were flowers up and a sign, apparently posted by her co-workers, praying for safe driving in her memory. Back home just after 8, I did a quick check for hours on a nearby men's suit store and headed back out. Ape didn't believe me but I need the measurements soon. I don't think she was too happy.

At the tailors', I got a quick set of measurements and tried to tip the girl who took them but she wouldn't have it. I think there was a general bemusement among the staff when I told them why I needed measurements. One fellow seemed nonplussed, thinking I was getting fitted to then buy a regular suit elsewhere. He relaxed when I told him what I was really afer.

From there, I made YET ANOTHER trip to Target, as Ape needed a couple of things. I also grabbed a cute card with a hedgehog on the front, to commemorate "Half My Life Day". This little-known holiday is celebrated at different times by people, depending on when their spouses/partners have known them half their lives. I knew Ape for half hers on her 34th birthday, as we met on her 17th. My day was a little harder to calculate but thankfully I was bored Tuesday because I would have missed it! I thought I needed to get to 40 but nope. Today's it!

Back home, I kicked off the Ubuntu install on my unused PC. This one will replace the laptop on my gaming table so I can have a proper monitor and get familiar with a modern Linux desktop at the same time. I'm also going to see if XI will run on it!

Somewhere in all this, we heard the announcement that Lee DeWyze had won Idol - I knew it was going to happen, although I find Mamasox more appealing as a person. I expect both will do well, given their talent and appeal.

We also saw news of the BP "top-kill" attempt to staunch the oily flow in the Gulf. Immediately I thought of that "un tss un tss un tss" "club sound" as the mud-clouds pushed up by the pumps looked for all the world like dancing coral or algae. I'm weird, I know!

From there it was chill out time and a quick chore run before bed.

-=-=-=-

5/25

Had a rough morning with Elder, who had disobeyed and stayed up late playing games after lights-out. He was completely unprepared for school despite his claim to the contrary last night before bed. Plus, his attitude was horrible. He keeps saying he mouths off as he does because that's how they all talk in school.

I keep reminding him his mother is not school and he isn't to talk to her (or me) that way. And to highlight my point, I did something I'd hoped never to do. I deleted a game save from his PSP. Dissidia, in fact. A game he was enjoying greatly. I didn't say anything in the morning, knowing he'd act out at school. The plan is to chat after work.

Also, after dropping him off, I checked the air pressure in my new tires. Once again, the shop did not set them all the same. About a four-pound variance across the set... So I fixed them prior to leaving, setting all to 35. The tires are still clearly not as grippy and stiff as the BFG's but airing them to the same pressure helped quite a bit.

At work I looked into them and most opinions were along the lines of "cheap Chinese crap". Cheap?! Depends on your definition, I s'pose. They were the cheapest I could find, but cheap they were not. They'd better last at least as long as the BFG's!

Had a pretty interesting convo about Twilight and romance in the afternoon with my "nemesis", our other dev, and another team's analyst. Apparently I'm alone in appreciating Bella's desperate and reckless love for Edward... But the analyst and the dev mentioned "The Host", also by Meyer, recommending it highly.

I was able to leave work on time and just before arriving I passed what looked like an interesting accident. A car had rear-ended a city bus. Things on the scene looked calm so I hoped nobody was seriously hurt.

Got home and thought I'd have extra Vana time as Ape was off to her school's 8th grade graduation. Nope - Younger still had to get to TKD. So I ate (waffles for dessert - yum!), had my chat with Elder, and then we headed off. I ground XP in FF1 whilst Younger did his thing.

Back home, I jumped on XI and checked in. The Diabolos fight was still on but we had to wait for folks to arrive. Younger and I checked on DWTS and found out the first hour (of 3) was a repeat of last night. He called Ape to let her know not to rush but she wound up home almost in time anyway.

As Holy and Kym went to eat, I decided to run to Target for blank CDs. I'm going to toss the laptop and put the desktop at my gaming table. But I'm going to run Ubuntu on it rather than Windows. I'm going to try for fun to see if XI will run under Wine on that box. Plus I've been wanting to get used to a proper Linux desktop for some time and that PC's just sitting there. Aaand, it has a 19" monitor!

Anyway, I got back just after 9 and we began to gear up and move out. I outposted once word came down and was killed by a nearby Evil Eye. I don't remember the last time I got aggro at an outpost. Thankfully, Safira was right behind me and I got a raise. Ktulu joined us and the three of us waited by the Pso'xja tower for Nut, killing things to pass the time.

Inside, things went smoothly, except for my DC on zoning one time. It took too long to get back on but they waited for me :3 Soon, we were at the overlook, targeting Diabolos. The plan was for lots of stunning while I tanked. Saf was on nukes and Kym on heals.

The fight started out well and was progressing smoothly until about the 20% left mark. Diabolos knocked me off the rutting platform! I didn't even know he did that! Of course, the load of diremites below ate me alive. Thankfully, Nut and the others were able to hang on and we got the win! And none of them died!

After the lengthy cutscene I bailed as it was now 11. During the fight, Ape graded and made end-of-year certificates for her students. DWTS was on and we both kept tabs on it. Erin was out first (sad but expected) and the showdown between Nicole and Evan was fantastic. Nicole won, but honestly, it could have gone either way.

At one point, some of the others who were eliminated got to strut their stuff one last time. Buzz danced to the Star Wars theme. Poor Buzz. He still can't really dance. And in an illustrative moment, Kate danced to "Paparazzi" again. Her lack of skill progression versus the finalists' was super-evident. I feel for Kate, who really seemed to be trying to enjoy herself. But she can't really dance either. Would that she stayed the full length, who knows what her steps would be like.

During all of this, Ape was also checking FB and news. That bus crash I saw earlier? The driver, a young woman, died. /sorrow They said she completely failed to react to the stopped bus and plowed into it. The damage to the bus seemed minor, although her car's front end was toast...

Thought before bed: How the heck does my sis-in-law get away with almost never wearing her seatbelt? Rarely, when her kids choose to needle her about it, she will. But not for long. Year after year we hear the "Click It or Ticket" message, yet she never gets fined. I don't really want her to have to pay a big fine, or worse, get hurt, but it's so aggravating!

-=-=-=-

5/24

Not much going on... This week's code was done last week and my pet project is on hold pending formal scheduling of the work. About the only thing interesting from today was my trip to the tire store. Shiroma's been riding on the carcasses of the rears. Not good! And rain was forecast for the afternoon, meaning if I was unable to get the tires done, I'd have a handful getting back to work.

Things went well, if a bit slowly at the shop. I was able to read quite a bit of "Child of the Prophecy", book 3 of the Sevenwaters series. Yes, I picked it up again last week and want to get on with it. I'm annoyed with the story though - watching Fainne insinuate herself into the Sevenwaters estate on Granny's orders is maddening. She feels compelled to act because her father is held hostage by that same Granny. But the things she does in her desperation make me nuts.

Tires and alignment finally done, I returned to work. First impressions? The tires are softer and give more, affecting handling. Shiroma's more darty and floaty and I expect these tires will give up earlier in hard cornering and braking. /sigh

Later, at home, it was chicken and rice and DWTS and blogging. Not much else...

-=-=-=-

5/13 Addendum

Forgot about this stunning blog post.

Why My Skinny Jeans Don't Give You the Right to Rape Me

Great Weekend!

2010-05-23T12:01:00.001-04:00

Sunday

The big event today was Shrek 4. I think all of us loved it. Bring hankies for the end! Late lunch/dinner was at Red Lobster, also good. We weren't officially celebrating, but C had very good news that will be finalized in a couple days! In fact, after eating we ran by C&R's new apartment for a quick tour. Very cute place, and the hardwood floors and kitchen counters/cabs are great.

Rushed home for 6pm ZM5 run that didn't start until after 7, but it's done! Ran until about 10, hitting all 4 battles. Got Opo-Opo necklace from last fight in Ifrit's, with plans to sell for money. Didn't know fight was in Gemini...

Also watched Celeb Apprentice finale - Bret took the win, although there was a lot of thought that Holly deserved it just as much, if not a bit more.

-=-=-=-

Saturday

Out all day from 1-7. We ran around all day, taking care of gas, birthday stuff, two kid dropoffs for parties, Home Depot stuff and more. Then yardwork til 8, cleaning up the flowerbed and trimming and cleaning up around the yard. On XI until 3-ish. Eye Farming KRT with Ktulu, then Holla with KRT and Fhox. Spent time selling and sorting inventory.

Star Wars night, waiting for Ape! Saw end of Jedi, all of Hope, and most of Empire with the boys. Explained the 30th anniversary of Empire and the travesties in Hope's "special" edition.

-=-=-=-

Friday

Carabba's with Ape, sis/bro & Bran. Tried pollo rosa maria and it was pretty good but a little rich. Bed early.

Two Worlds

2010-05-20T12:01:00.000-04:00

5/20/2010

All but Elder went to CFA for dinner and we got a bunch of coupon-powered freebies. I ate too much >< From there, we grabbed some cleaning supplies from Target and headed home. We pretty much watched TV while surfing and playing PSP. The Gray's finale was really really good!

-=-=-=-

5/19/2010

Fantastic chicken dinner - Chad booted from DWTS. Casey booted from Idol.

General puttering around in XI. Brief chats with Fhox and Soho. Tried Campaign on DNC45 for a lark - total fail. Went looking for Hakutaku trigger eyes and wound up lost and dead in KRT.

-=-=-=-

5/18/2010

DWTS is getting really good - the remaining 4 are excellent. I still favor Nicole and Evan.

Not much in XI besides two weaponskill NM kills with Srkon and Ktulu (?). Maharajah was cake but the scorp was very tough. Great lol when someone mentioned max eva and died immediately after.

Oops!

2010-05-17T12:02:00.002-04:00

All this time I thought his name was Aaron. Sorry Evan (Lysacec)! /bows

Monday

2010-05-17T12:01:00.000-04:00

Ahh... Back to work... More cleanup, believe it or not. But more progress on my pet project. It's really coming along well at this point!

After work, I headed home to one of my favorite dinners. Don't laugh - I'm a simple Mithra. Hot dogs, mac & cheese and brown sugar baked beans. But this time, Ape added a twist (Shyamalan style?) with chili for the dogs. Omnomnom!

Not much else, besides family Simpsons time, dishes, and then DWTS. I remarked that Bruno looks fit to jump out of his pants tonight - "Calm down, Bruno!" But to be fair, Erin and Nicole were amazing. Aaron too. I kinda checked out on Chad whilst blogging. Sorry 8-5!

I was also distracted by tweets from Tycho: his remarks on a capella Metallica courtesy of Van Canto led to a bunch of 8-bit tunage, and then to an odd Metallica fan dance by renowned theatre performer Taichi Saotome. I could kill so much time "free-linking" on YouTube. Maybe that's why they get 2 BILLION daily hits?!

Out of Town

2010-05-16T12:01:00.001-04:00

I left work early Friday and drove (admittedly sleepily) to Orlando. Ape left early this morning on the Safety Patrol bus bound for Universal. My job was to meet them close to dinnertime so that if need be, I could rescue her from the park. As luck would have it, she caught a shuttle to our hotel and I was able to met her there. At Embassy Suites! I was able to get a free Coke on arrival and I spent a lot of time over the next 3 days pretending I was at AWA. -crosses fingers-

After a surprisingly-deep chat about stuff, we met up with her sis's brood who was just arriving. We ate a pretty good dinner at Uno's and then went back to the room to chill. Well, I chilled - the others went swimming. We were both exhausted (her from a full park day and me from the previous night's CoP) and we basically crashed. Well, I had a work-leftover to handle but it was quick.

Saturday was Magic Kingdom day. Of course, we took advantage of the free breakfast - I must learn to *stop* eating their omelettes. They give me tummyaches. Leaving the hotel, we parked at LBV and rode the bus in to avoid the 14-dollar parking fee. It took longer to get in than expected, but we still had plenty of time for fun. Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain, Stitch, Thunder Mountain... From there we all headed to dinner at Lone*Star. It was pretty good, aside from a bit of unpleasantness with Bro and his oldest. Their Younger keeps egging him on and then the older one catches dad's ire... I finally said something to Sis about it.

Back at the hotel it was more pool time, some 'Net time and then bedtime. We worked hard to stay hydrated in the heat, buying a drink or two and grabbing the free icewater they offer. Oh yeah - silly Space Mountain line wrangler: Telling me "no" is pretty much inviting me to find a way. It's basically what I get paid for. Granted, taking drinks past a checkpoint (into a 70-minute wait!) isn't quite in the spirit, but /come on/!

Oh - near the end of the day, at Mickey's PhilharMagic!, my "Poke Me" shirt got me a poke finally. One of the staff girls poked my chest as she came into the waiting area from the auditorium. I gave her a "whoo-hoo~" and quickly realized the Doughboy sounds more like "tee-hee!". Oh well, it was silly fun!

Sunday was another day in Mickey's World. After the ob:breakfast, we packed our cars and headed to Animal Kingdom. I'll be honest. Up to now, I've never considered myself an AK person. But as I age (hopefully gracefully), I'm finding that I appreciate things more openly. So it was with a mostly-open mind that we drove in, eschewing the free-but-slow bus thing so as not to be late for the Survivor finale.

In line to pay for parking, Sis was ahead trying to get us a deal. When she moved up, I took my turn and the drone in the booth took my card. "(giggly) So, sob story didn't work?" "(emotionless) 14 dollars Sir." "(a little catty) Why not take that money and buy a personality?" Moments later, a scooter drone would fuss at me because I slowed to check on Sis's parking - I thought they were holding a spot for me. /sigh At least the rest of the day would be great!

I marched ahead to get the full crew fast passes for Expedition Everest, which we missed last time. Then we did Finding Nemo: The Musical. Think elaborate puppetry, following the movie's plot. But the human performers are actually performing visibly themselves - they're clearly meant to be seen dancing, singing and emoting. The puppetry was fantastic and despite the oddness of basically two entities in each role, it was one of the best stage shows I've ever seen.

So I made darn sure I got into The Lion King. Oops. Not as good. Not only was it not the story of Mustafa and Simba, Father and Son, it was a bit too Cirque de Soleil for me. I can't appreciate everything! Please don't misunderstand - it was very well done, with most of the good songs and lots of audience participation. Hakuna Matata comes to mind here. But the story, such as it was, stunk. And some of the songs simply didn't fit. Also, unlike the actual Lion King musical (as I recall), the dancers were more akin to cosplayers than puppeteers. Although there were 4 nice sets with animatronic animals representing the 4 "cheering sections". I was appropriately enough in the lion section.

I was alone at The Lion King - the others took in the bird show and some kids' carnival games. Then it was time to head to base camp. Returning to "Asia" I slowed down to take in the atmosphere. I'd really like to learn more about this part of the world and it culture. And I felt Disney's Imagineers did a solid job with the theming. I met the crew with about 10 minutes before our FP window opened and so we chilled and exchanged show stories.

Then it was time to climb. We got to the boarding platform very quickly and, for our first-ever ride, scored front-row! Elder and I took it, and Ape and Younger were just behind. Once it started I did my usual "pretend it's a motorcycle" and actually posted in my seat and leaned all over the place. When the g-forces weren't kicking my tail! And I'll say this - the extended backwards-in-pitch-blackness section owns. For having zero loops or rolls this thing is wicked fun! So naturally we checked with Sis, whose boys wouldn't touch a coaster if it were made of chocolate and whose husband is kinda iffy on such rides. She told us to use her passes and so we did! In a span of less than 10 minutes we rocked that mountain! Elder even found a goofy cain wallet in the seat pocket (which we turned in of course!).

Oh yeah - aside from several "Epic!"s at getting a front-row seat, Elder screamed "This...is...Spartaaaa!!!" at the top of the big drop. When asked why he delivers the line in a crappy English accent, he shrugs. lol

From there, we stopped to let Younger grab a Lego set, and I looked for the Medieval Market Village. I want my cosplay gear something fierce, but I really like that set too. And it's back in stock online... After that, it was gas & go, headed to Red Brick for our customary "headed home" dinner. It was good as usual but I think next time I'm going to try something else. Sis wanted dessert (of course! But no Cold Stone Creamery please!) and it was clear we were going to be late for Survivor.

So I told Ape to call Mom and have her put the phone near the TV. This wasn't optimal, but it was good enough that we could keep tabs on the first challenge. Bye~e Colby! We got home in time for the second and final elimination. When it turned out that Russell won it, I assumed Parvati was homeward bound. But the moment they tossed Jerri, I congratulated Sandra. And left. I cannot stand the "jury phase" and actually check out at this point. It stops being "Outwit - outplay - outlast" and becomes "who ticked off the fewest jury members?"

I did laundry and straightened up. Found out that Sandra *did* win. Her big claim to fame? TWO titles, and not a single challenge win! The ultimate stealth player, right? The exchange betwixt Russell and Boston Rob was priceless and led me to suggest an upcoming season to Jeff: Those two, picking their tribes schoolyard-style. Slightly-altered rules to encompass a true team concept for some of the time. Captains are vulnerable after the merge but not before - better lock in support early, boys! Nicaragua looks fun though!

Just before bed, I sent out my 4th cosplay RFQ, the first three being busts... ><

Rolling Past Bedtime!

2010-05-13T12:01:00.003-04:00

Tonight I will have two rolls, both of which should be fast. But Friday morning is going to be torture. Up at 4:30? Early to work then off to Orlando...

Also, Ape's mad at me for not putting her to bed - her back was hurting and she fell out at 11:15. Or so I thought. She said she was up when I came to bed but faked sleep because she was mad. Not nice!

...later that day...

Work's frustrating me this week. Problems have been dragging me down and eating up my coding time. Thankfully the problems aren't of my doing but it's still a pain being in "crisis mode" for an extended period.

Afterwards, came home to a nice dinner then took Younger to TKD. Played more FF1 there and realized I'd missed a good opportunity to grab higher-tier black magic to speed up battles. I've basically been grinding XP, in no particular hurry for the next quest-point. So I was actually two tiers behind and actually missed the shops on an earlier visit to the Elven castle. "Here lies Link" :3

Back home, I was going to jump on XI immediately but Ape needed help with her resume. I asked her to write the job update blurbs whilst I was at work but when I opened Word I found bare bulleted lists. Between converting three years' worth of bullets to narrative text, mysterious Word disappearances, and formatting the text in my goofy (but cool IMHO) resume format, I was at it for 2 solid hours. I was afraid I'd missed the climb and I still had oodles of cutscenes to plow through.

Thankfully, the crew waited on me and I hustled as fast as I could. I'm skipping through the story pretty quickly, to my likely regret later on... Anyway, I finally met them in Attowha Chasm for the climb. Which is pretty cake with a controller and careful camera rotation ^^ But we weren't done. The crew, minus Med but plus another, wanted to soldier on to the Diabolos fight! It was already close to midnight but I figured what the hey - I had to be up for work until about 1 anyway.

We-e-ell, the pre-req work, and the actual journey to the BC, and the fight put us 3 hours past that. And we lost too. For some reason, Itomaru and I were the only ones to 2-hour and I *think* we had Diabolos down to about 25% at the wipe. In any case, it was interesting and we had fun. And getting back will be much quicker. Ktulu and I are both out of town for the weekend so who knows what will happen...

In Ape-news, she woke up at 3, and pitched a fit. I mean, she was mad. She said some mean stuff and stormed off back to bed. 45 minutes later she repeated this exercise. /sigh I've all but lost my AIM friends and cosplay plans aren't working out so well. Will she not be satisfied until she takes away everything Not-Ape from me?

Mammet Matters

2010-05-12T12:01:00.002-04:00

I logged in just before 8 with plans to party on DNC until 11-ish but Lees had other plans. There'd already been work by the shell to get to 3-3, The Climb. I was still on 2-3's end. Lees asked if I'd do my CS work and the 2-5 Mammet fight and then stick around for 3-3 with the whole crew. This was a great surprise but, as with all things XI, it took close to 90 minutes just to flag everything, prep, and meet up at the 2-5 zone-in. From there, it was over an hour bouncing Gauntlet-warp style from distortion to distortion until we found the right 2. Then the fight itself was over 20 minutes. We employed the usual strategy - 1 tank + 1 healer per Mammet.

I paired with Balin, Lees with Budeko and Oddball with Zelia (I think). I did OK as PLD but it got dicey when I ran out of MP and realized Lees and I never got off a trade for meds. But Balin kept me alive and eventually, we won. It was close - when my Mammet went after Balin (I hadn't been doing a lot of voking) I pulled it back and wound up using Vince at 9 HP - and hoping like mad there wasn't going to be a nuke. Oddball finished hers and then we teamed up to polish off mine and Lees'. Tomorrow night's plan is to go CS-crazy and be ready for the climb. I have a Nexus Cape so I'm hoping it will speed things. I have a roll then so I'll be on longer than usual anyway but sometimes I hate all the time-killing busywork...

As it was, I didn't log out until about 11:45 then cleaned up a bit before shutting down the house and going to bed.

Moody Monday

2010-05-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

Spent most of the day cleaning up Friday's mess. Also got to work some on my pet project, which is now nearly "function-complete". I have one major function to polish off, plus GUI cleanup and lots of little tweaks to enhance the reliability or smoothness of the app.

At home, it was lasagna night, followed by DWTS. Once again, Nicole and Aaron prove why they're the best. Only got to see the first 30 minutes or so because Ape got spazzy with the remote. /sigh

Started FF 1 on PSP in the meantime. It took me a bit but I realized I already started this on GBA awhile back. No matter ^^

Packed Weekend

2010-05-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

Mother's Day!

I awoke early and picked up breakfast for the brood and after big hugs from Ape on the sweet card, we slowly made ready to head out for the day's festivities. We stopped at our shopping center so Ape could get some gifts for the other moms who would be joining us for dinner later. I went to get my hair fixed. Remember the hair sorceress who did my first 'do? She was there and fixed me. I think she was genuinely disappointed in what the other stylist had done. I have her card now and will make sure to always have an appointment with her!

Then it was time for the movie. Which was /incredible/! I won't go into specifics, but whoever said this one was all flash and no soul was watching something else. My one nitpick was the Monaco Historique GP. Go watch and see if you see what I didn't like to see ^.~

From there we went to a great restaurant in a historic part of town. Most of us really enjoyed our food although Sis wound up giving me more than half her French dip. Two of the boys colored their menus and I took them for my wall at work. After a quick ice cream cone stop and a pit stop at home to get the kids ready for bed we headed to Sis' for the Amazing Race finale.

After a cheesy move at the airport by Jordan, the Brothers never lost the lead. At ILM, the Cowboys had a pretty good chance to gain ground but played fair and waited their turn, refusing to stoop to Dan & Jordan's level. Well, maybe a little. At the ILM challenge, Cord tried to goof Dan's directions up a bit by yelling randomly over the cube wall dividing them. See, Jet and Jordan were wearing mocap suits and Cord and Dan were watching their virtual siblings (cyber-cowboy hat FTW!) and directing them through Star-Wars themed levels. One misstep would "reset" them so careful coordination was key.

Anyway, after a surprisingly-boneheaded move by Cord, it was too late to catch the Brothers who would go on to win. Extra fun at the finish line courtesy of Caite and Brandy!

I was very disappointed but I loved how Jet summed up their run: "There are things that are more important than money. The experience of being able to travel all the way around the world with my best friend and my brother and then in the end having our character and integrity intact. We can walk out of here with our heads held high and look people straight in the face and tell 'em we won second."

DH is so-so (getting a little dramatic, and yes, I know it's a soap), B&S ended with a very touching solo by Scotty - He sang "The Parting Glass", originally by the Pogues. Anyone who says music isn't powerful isn't listening right...

-=-=-=-

Saturday

When we woke up, the plans were for hair appointments, Iron Man 2, and Daytona for the speedpark pass and then maybe dinner in Daytona. However, when we started getting ready, Elder was not up to it. He was very nauseous and so we had to make a call. Ultimately we chose to save Iron Man for Momma's Day, but continue with the hair and Daytona plans, sans Elder. Maybe I should have skipped the hair appointment too.

Basically, I wound up with a wreck. I specifically asked for a cut that would compliment long hair without looking like a mullet. So when I wound up with a mullet I was pretty torn up over it. And then the extended fam made fun of me. And then I realized what I should have asked for. The "Casey James". So now I have to see if it can get fixed and find out how far back this puts me. It was after 3:30 before we left, stopping for McD's before hitting the highway.

From there, we headed to Daytona and made it in at close to 5. We found the speedpark quickly and braced ourselves, hoping the gift card would get us something fun. Did it ever - we thought we had to pick and choose a couple of things off the list but it turns out we got it all! So we took the freebies (two tickets for the dragsters and two unlimited go-kart armbands) and got to the fun.

Ape declined, leaving the adrenaline to Younger and me. And we had a riot of a good time! On the dragstrip, I took Heat 1 when he red-lighted. He took Heat 2 by .027 seconds, and I bested him on the third by nearly 2.5 seconds. From there, it was a couple of long stretches on two of the three go-kart tracks with the usual putt-putt slow cruise. In fact, the dragster operator jokingly warned us to do the karts first or have our expectations dashed. I basically told him that happened when I walked in the door. I've raced real karts. I've done SCCA and a Skip Barber school. I was there mostly for Younger and for what adrenaline I could get from the sensations of motorsport.

I didn't realize it then, but I wound up with a pretty large burn on my back, plus gasoline on me from one of the karts. Remember this point as it will be back later.

Feeling the heat, we cooled off inside and I took a turn at DDR. I hadn't played in a couple months but muscle memory is a persistent thing. Even on new songs, and being a little achy from the track, I surprised myself. I think a lot of it is the fact I'm continuing to lose weight and found it easier to move quickly.

Anyway, we left and found a mall (of course!) and spent a little time there. I wound up buying new shorts and a "Poke Me" Pillsbury Doughboy shirt. I shucked my gassy clothes and washed up and felt *much* better. The rest of the shopping was pretty standard stuff. So then it was time for dinner. Which was Outback and a fantastic dinner!

We headed home after 10 and I thought I was on the way to another Valor Knights Dynamis run. Nope - after leaving Ape watching SNL I found out they ran at 8. But Med was on again and was hankering for more CoP fun. I joined a Minotaur run and we took a light beating but made it. I left with Med's orders to work out the next set of cutscenes prior to the next run.

-=-=-=-

Friday

Aerin is no longer a Holla-back girl. Or maybe she is. I dunno. Does anyone know what the heck Stefani means in that song? But I'm getting ahead of myself...

After my marathon roll, ending at 3:45am, I (sort of) slept in until about noon. I didn't have any messages, so I wasn't expecting there to be any fallout from the roll. After all, everything looked good. But when I walked in close to 1, our BSA was looking really stressed... Turns out the biggest piece of the roll was nonfunctional outside of Jax. Oh boy... I didn't leave until after 6...

Anyway, it'd turn into a lazy night as Ape wasn't up to much and we knew Iron Man 2 wasn't going to be a night-movie due to the cost. We wound up renting Sherlock Holmes and ate chicken and noodles. Well, we didn't get to the movie until close to 10. And Ape kept leaving for phone calls and Bran fell asleep. I watched to the end and was pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure I'd have wanted to spend the dough for all 4 of us to see it in theatre.

What I liked was the way they'd stop from time to time for Holmes to recount all the steps used in his inductive reasoning. And the story was a pleasant surprise. Action was fun too. Downey is really growing on me with this and Iron Man. And other stuff.

Ape crashed early so I wound up logging into XI and very quickly was presented with a Holla run by Med. Budeko, Ktulu, Safira and Kiosuke joined us. I've been on 10 of these before, and many of them featured looong pre-fight preps like Med's tonight, but even so, none went so perfectly as this one. Super-cake. I wound up in Lufaise Meadow with Ktulu and we made our way to the Tavnazian Safehold.

Very quickly, we wound up doing Dem as well, which closed out Kiosuke and Safira. I was beat but I was so happy to finally be done I didn't care. I didn't care I missed the map quest either ^^ But now it was bedtime. Past, even.

Mad Stepping

2010-05-06T12:01:00.000-04:00

Thurs - Mega-Roll

* At school once more for a tag forgotten in the trunk... Told Elder later he'd owe me five bucks for my time and trouble...
* Continued work on my pet project - I'll be doing lots of cool stuff in this one. Production JUnit, Swing GUI, and all manner of filesystem and hardware access.
* Tonight is the Three-Fer, three rolls going at once. I'll be up for who knows how long and I plan to be on AIM if that works with Ape.
* Thankfully, I don't have to take Elder in the morning so I can sleep in, and have a shorter Friday!

Wed - Cinco de Mayo / No Net Day
* Back at school for a lunch forgotten in the trunk. 20 minutes' delay!
* Started work on my pet project in earnest (details to follow). Otherwise, it was a long day.
* Went to Firehouse for a delicious dinner and then picked up all the boys from CCD.
* Something was not well with our ISP and so net access was sporadic and even then, not available on all machines. I couldn't get onto XI until after 9:30 and by then it was too late to party. SO I retired with Ape to the back and messed about with my cosplay page. Also watched a very informative vid courtesy of LK's LJ.
* Because of major homework isues with Elder, I only had time in XI to say hi to Soho and Deej. Soho was his usual non-talkative self and Deej was waiting for Kush to come on after work.
* Aaron Kelly eliminated from Idol, meaning Bowersox, James, Mike and what's-his-face are all that's left.
* SVU was really good - the Bulgarian baby broker was a perfect "untouchable cocky" until he got hosed.

Tues - Dancing With the Stars?
* Bye Pam!
* Built Cosplay page. Check date. Sent RFQ to that Mandarin costume store. Will send to GSTQ once I get basic measurements... Would love to see their take on things given the almost cross-play nature of my outfit and their specialty! :3

Mon - Dancing With the Stars?
* Went into Elder's school to look for his missing camera - no luck. Also picked up (most of) his History Fair project board.
* DWTS was pretty good - the team dance was good and "Team GaGa" owned. I think Nicole's the best but I doubt she'll win. Aaron's really good too though.
* Got a party on DNC with Maddog. Pretty routine birds-in-the-past party. I got stuck pulling and was fussed at repeatedly for not pulling fast enough. I was trying to avoid two birds at once and maybe my timing was slow. But still... Maddog would occasionally pull for me and we nearly double-pulled a few times and once, in his eagerness, he pulled way too soon and two of us died. In any event, I made it to 45! Haste Samba - {Do you need it?}

1-3 Day

2010-05-02T12:01:00.000-04:00

Sun

Ape brought me Bojangles breakfast after First Communion - yummy! Thankfully, she let me sleep in. I was still very beat after all the work and heat of yesterday's garage time. It's nice though, being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel in there!

Soon, it was time to head to Elder's bowling party! We stopped to get the cake on the way to alley, and still managed to get to the lanes a little early. The bowling party was great - most kids came, Elder liked his stuff, and some of his friends thought it was cool I played YuGiOh and video games! I wound up dueling two of them but, as I noted to them at the time, my deck is ancient and lacks any of the newer "gambit" systems.

Went to The Loop after with Sis and her boys - had to get Mac & Cheese kids meal 'cos I'm still feeling icky. It hit the spot though! Back home for TV time and the penultimate Amazing Race. It was pretty good, except for the "speedbump" facing the cops. Lamish. But my 'boys finished a solid second, dealing with their tasks in the usual efficient manner. Brent and Caite continue to annoy. Cops eliminated.

Otherwise, DH is getting needlessly complicated and B&S I'm not so sure of right now.

-=-=-=-

Sat

* Ape and I enjoyed a childless morning by going to Bob Evans for a very nice breakfast
* Worked like a dog from 2-6 re-orging garage and oil changes on both cars
* Because of a mixup (Ape called someone else) I didn't know she was going to be gone until nearly 7 instead of the expected 4-ish. I nearly passed out twice from the heat and the exhaustion of all the work I did
* Finally got to eat, at like 7:30. Steak & Shake - great, plus I got a kid's Grape Kool-Aid shake. Aside from the bits of unmixed powder q: it was tasty
* Quick run to the mall and managed to get Elder a pay-as-you-go phone with a Texting Only kind of plan
* Early night for Ape -First Communion at her school in the morning

-=-=-=-

Fri

Umm... Ape and I worked on some relationship stuff after dropping off the boys.

Then saw Kick-Ass. Fantastically fun movie. Hit-Girl reminds me of Bayonetta in terms of the gunplay. No, I didn't play anything of Bayonetta besides the demo.

Some more talking followed...

Code Promotions, Rank Promotions

2010-04-29T12:01:00.001-04:00

Thurs:

Looong day at work - That tiny code problem from yesterday got fixed, but not without a bit of grumbling from the other team. Took some break time to do the first draft of my "Hope" sketch. Later, we began moving to a nearby set of cubes. I stayed as long as I could then begged off to meet the crew at Pizza Hut for Elder's birthday dinner.

I now have a teenager.

After that, it was off to Tae Kwon Do to see if Younger could pass the test for his purple belt. One poor kid tried for nearly 10 minutes to do a pair of breaks but wound up smashing Mr. Drew's fingers instead. I dunno if he made it eventually. Younger got his though!

Once home it was time for Survivor (on tape) and Private Practice. Survivor is really getting good - Parvati versus Russell is as good as Boston Rob's turn.

-=-=-=-

Wed:

Work's been work :3 Rolled code but had some issues with the other team waiting on it. Sort of a mutual problem caused by both sides assuming little details. Otherwise it was a slooow day. Which continued at home - we lazed about prior to meeting Sis at CCD to get the boys. From there it was a family din at McD's - Ape's still really sick and doesn't feel up to cooking or elaborate or expensive meals that might not stay down.

Later I jumped on XI, but had a spot of trouble with a Farozan assist. He was trying to help a new sheller called Ivy with some NM fight. I offered to help since it was just three at that point. I slogged my way out to Cape Terrigan and got lost looking for Gustav Tunnel since nobody in the party would answer me.

Then she jumped the NM start and won before I made it in and I was out 1.5k without so much as an acknowledgment from her >< Wound up soloing with Fhox in the Dunes. Got only 1.5k xp but it was nice to be on DNC for a change.

Angry Aerin

2010-04-27T12:01:00.000-04:00

While work was pretty good, things after with the A/C guy were very bad. Very very bad. But I'm not going to comment publicly yet until I have a chance to talk to someone at the company.

In any case, work was a pair of trials. Some of my code packages refused to deploy correctly until I worked with the server team. Once straightened out, my new code is tested and working. But it won't roll Thursday. Both of my updates are going next Thursday so that will be a late night. I hope I can get someone to take Elder to school so I can sleep in.

Tonight is a ValorKnightsDynamis run in Jeuno. At midnight. I need sleep but I'd love to go!

Story Time

2010-04-26T12:01:00.000-04:00

Mon

Ape's still miserable and will be going back to the doc after work, assuming she makes it through the day. I really didn't feel like being at work either but I have two major rolls coming up and very little time to test and prepare. Otherwise, work's going well and I'm definitely skilling up, not just in Java but in a number of the associated developer tools as well.

Ape called after lunch saying the A/C guys were going to try again this afternoon, close to 6:30. I didn't get to leave work until after 5:30, but I got home before they showed up. Which, actually, they never did. I stopped waiting at just after 7 and took Elder to get Ape's new meds (turns out she has a massive sinus infection, leading Doc to incredulously wonder how she's still functional) and dinner at Chick-Fil-A. CFA was hosting a "Spirit Night", wherein a cut of the proceeds goes to fund a local church. The place was almost certainly at fire marshal capacity.

Back home, we all ate and then it was time for DWTS. The skill level is definitely increasing. Pretty much everyone looked great, although I somehow missed the "dance marathon". Nicole and Derek took top nods for both that and their individual dance. During all this, Ape and I fought over the lappy and I eventually got it back. I jumped on AIM and found LK online.

He's pondering a move, to either Washington State or NYC. Both have good things to recommend them but I joked how he'd make it on his lil' scoot in either environment. One leads to a pretty ready-made house with roommates and the other might offer other possibilities. His most recent LJ post had to do with how he was "drawn in" to various fandoms, including games, anime and furry. We chatted Sailor Moon and sentai shows. We also talked about other fun stuff, including Ape's seeming disdain for furry adventures. She's becoming positively fixated on my conversations with LK. Which, to be honest, are quite normal. Compared to Cleric, that is.

He got in close to bedtime and we spent most of the hour discussing a number of his characters, most of whom are crew on the Guardian in a sci-fi story he's fleshing out. It sounds like the Guardian is a massive carrier-class ship, perhaps run like a "generation ship" and crewed by a rag-tag bunch under Allester's command. And ownership. After pasting a number of character descriptions at me, he sought my opinion. I think he's got a fantastic way of describing things in a very sensory manner. It's very easy to visualize everything he describes, even with my limited "mental model-set" with regard to anthro characters.

However, he...ummm... uses a fairly specific template for most of his characters. Very Frank Frazetta. Very. I told him I just wasn't into that particular style although I think he uses it well. All sincere appreciation intended, as he's describing the Guardian and its crew, I could think of little else besides Heavy Metal. I wonder if he knows of that or Frazetta's designs...

After working on two loads of folding it was time for bed.

Building Dreams And Culinary Nightmares

2010-04-25T12:01:00.002-04:00

Sun

Worked on Younger's science project most of the afternoon, right up 'til AR time. Got it done though! The gist of the project was measuring the effect on reaction times of either a hand-held cell or a headset. Turns out, based on our very-unscientific sampling of 6 people, headsets are worse!

Just after AR started, got onto what would be my final BST party, led by Soho! Seeing him again was a treat and Thisbe was a bubbly spaz. Ended with BST21 and a great sense of accomplishment! I just now wish I'd gone to 21 on all the other melees for use of the Beetle +1 set to rep my worn Bone gear.

Riaukai chatted briefly with me, mentioning he started his own shell, HerpTheDerp. Seems a very friendly sort :3

AR was great (Go 'Boys!), DH was pretty interesting, and B&S is getting intriguing. Bed after.

-=-=-=-

Sat

Today was an early start for all of us. Today was the first-ever HabiJax Lego Blitz Build, an event to bring awareness of HabiJax's activities and to get kids involved since they can't go to the actual home sites. The gist of the event is to put together a team of 4 builders, obtain sponsor funding, and compete in a timed building challenge. So, not long after Younger's best friend AJ's mom dropped him off, we piled in Kuroma, grabbed Meme and picked up the fourth team member then rushed to the mall. Ape as always, was stressing with regard to timing, but we needn't have worried. While check-in began at 10, the building didn't start until 11.

Until then, we got breakfast, and enjoyed the MC talents of a local radio host and got to meet one of the Jaguars, Montell Owens. Quite a cool guy - I got to speak with him ever so briefly about his vast Lego collection. As time got closer (and the boys got stuck at CFA, nearly missing kickoff!) I scouted out the building sets. We knew that building a house was the design theme, and Ape insisted I coach the kids ahead of time but I and the boys disagreed. Without knowledge of the pieces available, or the number, it would be of limited value to pre-plan. But, at the actual event is another story! I peeked at the pre-sorted bags and realized there was a pretty diverse mix of the basic elements and reported back to the kids. And I had a design too - I voted for building a treehouse since I expected everyone else to go with a regular house.

My idea was shot down by the boys as being too difficult and impractical. And with the just-announced rules stating I couldn't do anything once building began other than rule enforcement, there was nothing for me to do. So I promoted Ape to Team Captain and went on a mission of my own. I found one of the event organizers and asked her if I could use one of the untaken sets to try out my idea. She agreed and even gave me one of the large baseplates. So I found a corner away from the event - since I didn't want anyone thinking I was providing ideas to any team - and got to work soloing a challenge meant for a four-man team.

Have I ever mentioned I'm really good with Lego? That I've been at it since around 1977 or so? That I have sets older than most of you? Well, I went to work. I separated all the 2-by-x bricks from the 1-bys and then roughed out my design. I built up a tree trunk facade and then tried a treehouse design. About 30 minutes in I realized I wasn't consuming nearly enough pieces, so I smashed the house and redid it. I wound up with a 12x8 house, with an additional 4x6 "deck" off one end. I set in lots of windows and built up a peaked roof over the main house and the deck. I included an arm off the deck where the rope swing would have gone, had I any rope ^^ Once done, I consumed most of the remaining pieces by building a stepladdder leading to the hole in the floor, and a fence decorating the base.

I ended construction about 5 minutes early, having started 5 late. With the extra 10 I think I could have managed to consume them all.

But that's not the best part. While squirreled away some distance from the event, I was approached by a half-dozen people who were intrigued by my efforts. Most took pics with their cameras or cells. The newspaper crew came by. I got interviewed and snapped by their team! I also had two elderly gentlemen separately approach me. One wanted to talk about his Lego train collection and bemoan the end of the electric train and track parts. The other wanted to talk to me about Jesus, but I assured him we were already on the same page there :3

Near the end of the timed event, I took my treehouse to our team table and set it down away from the official constructs. And even *more* people came to gawk. Other teams' kids and their parents - Montell Owens - the radio guy - and more! Let's just say I'm turning into a total attention whore and cosplaying is going to so-o-o stroke my ego!

When it came time for the judging, we all got up on stage and our guys found out they finished 6th of 7. Pity too, because their house was actually quite well executed. They built a large multi-room house and went so far to include built-up furniture appropriate to each room. They even had greenery outside and a grill. ther teams had good stuff too though. All in all, the boys had a blast and I got to be weird in public.

By the time it was all over, Cousin had been picked up and I took the remaining boys to the game stores where one bought a new DS title. Eventually we left the mall and did stuff at home. Ape was still feeling super-lousy so we lay down until close to 6. We had dinner plans at the new Bahama Breeze and were expecting to hear from Ape's BFF on the estimated wait time. Soon we found out we weren't due to eat until 9! So I snacked up while Ape continued to rest and we left at maybe 7:30 to pick up Meme and then head to Sis's house. Meme was going to watch all the boys (including AJ) and we all rode together. Aside from getting to mess around with Sis's new iPhone (Hi LK!) I really really wished I'd stuck with my original plan to drive us. Ape didn't want to ride in Shiroma because of her nausea and didn't want to ride with Sis without me. /sigh

Aaaanyway... We got to the mall at jus after 8, checked our timing (still due at 9-ish) and went shopping. Bro and I went to Best Buy and Toys 'R Us while the girls went to Express. We regathered at close to 9, meeting Sis's good friends S and E and heading to Bahama Breeze. For a dining *ordeal* I don't look to repeat.

I'll try to keep it civil... We were told right after 9 that our table was being bussed, but it disappeared. We weren't seated until 9:45-ish. The manager (owner maybe?) offered us drinks, apps and dessert on them. So, once we sat down, I chose meat pies as my app and grilled chicken on focaccia as my entree. The food was OK but not nearly as good as J Alexanders. *That's* worth a long wait!

Along the way, we had more fun:
- E's salad-as-a-meal came out early not once, or twice. After the third delivery attempt, E kept it but was displeased. The waitress didn't know how it had gotten mixed up.
- Bro initially chose not to order but after seeing my sammy he asked for one *exactly* (his emphasis) like mine. When it came, it was on an odd hamburger bun with the wrong cheese. Neither the manager nor waitress knew where the bun came from as they don't have that style!
- While I was done drinking, I lost my Coke glass when the waitress filled it with tea, unbidden.

Oh well. The pineapple-chocolate cake was really good!

We didn't leave the restaurant until after 11 and Bro and Ape were really fretting about the boys being stuck there so late and Meme's not used to staying up so late. Once home I got to drive Shiroma after all because I needed to head back out, to Wal-Mart. We needed breakfast stuffs for the boys and I grabbed lunchy stuff for me.

So I didn't really get settled in until after 2, at which time I got the most awesome surprise! Two, really. I jumped on XI with plans to finish BST and instead was tapped by Fhox to join him. In Dynamis. Of course, being Fhox it was *Bastok*... There was a frenzy of chat activity as I confirmed details with Fhox (Do they know I'm a Dyna-nub? Are they OK with me on WHM? etc.) and orders with Lordgrim (organizer) and Ktulu, holder of the glass and devourer of worlds :3

I jumped in as soon as I arrived and found about 14 dead people. They had just wiped and were basically regrouping. I was put with a team of 4, meaning my party was the smallest. But I had watch over the puller (Fritz) and Riaukai was a very appreciative sort! Oh, Sortir and Med were in here too!

Battle seemed to consist of puling one really pissed off Quadav escorted by two statue-like creatures. We worked to keep magical enemies silenced or slept because the statues were easy pickings. We got pretty far too (I think) but a bad pull led to a second wipe. We also lost a tank early and a key melee late.

It was still prolly the best 17k I ever spent. I had a blast and got to show of my White Magery. Riaukai was especially appreciative of my efforts. I really really love WHM/SCH!

Ended with late chats with Keps and Cleric. Kep and I talked about random stuff, but a lot of it was about Ragnarok Online, the free-to-play MMO he (and I think a number of the others) frequent now. He shared some of his screenshots with me showing both of his characters, Dhimiter and Kozlov. RO has a great art style that would totally suck me in if I had the fortitude for a second MMO. Which I don't. I also spent a lot of time on YouTube searching for Killer Instinct vids. Found a lot of long combo demos and some fake KI3 teaser trailers.

-=-=-=-

Fri

Wow... Bad bad morning. Elder has been having sleeping issues, leading I suspect to a lot of his attitude issues. Well, today took the cake. He was mouthy and surly and I came out to the car to find him kicking my floorboards. I snapped and yanked him inside. I didn't completely lose my cool but I was angry with him. I told him I don't care what his sleep issues are, or whatever's bugging him. He doesn't get to treat Mom and Dad that way.

So I made a decision. He had a presentation due that he was working on late last night and would never make a good show of it in his state. So I told him to go to bed. And then I went to bed. We got 3 hours' sleep and as hard as it was to wake him up it's clear he needs much more. But, he's just like me and Ape - we all seem to get much better sleep in the daytime!

Work was OK, but near the end Ape called after the funeral. If I didn't say before, her Vice-principal's hubby died over the weekend. They were close like Ape and I were and the funeral made Ape really sad.

Still sick, we did a stay-at-home night with basic foods... Later I jumped on XI and got BST to 18. Cousin stayed the night.

Back to Work

2010-04-22T12:01:00.002-04:00

Thurs

Ape's miserable-sick again... Met her at Zaxby's, where an Ortega Elementary fundraiser was going on. With all the families eating we thought it was a kids eat free promotion ):

Mom and I went to Verizon next door to see about getting Elder a cellphone for his big 1-3 birthday. Everything was good until the guy said adding the third line would break the existing, pre-Verizon plan Mom has and would up her fee. Have I ever said how much I hate cellphones?

Survivor was a real treat as the two tribes merged today. There was only an immunity challenge, which Danielle won. Leading up to Tribal, there was a lot of scheming going on, with J.T. thinking he had a buddy in Russell and Parvati making moves of her own.

If J.T. giving his idol to Russell pre-merge was dumb, Russell then giving it to Parvati was colossally moronic. Of course, Rus didn't know she had her own. At Tribal, she played BOTH, neither for herself. She shielded Sandra and Jerri, who had had 5 votes, leaving only J.T.'s 5 votes in effect. Wow! Oh yeah, Russell is unhappy with Parv - heehee! Maybe I can get some old fashioned villainy if the two of them go at each other.

Due to some schedule change, PP was on instead of Grey's, and I just couldn't get into it. I left about halfway in and headed onto XI. The main event was a fantastic BLU party in Qufim. Note to self - get to 18 then stop, as Qufim invites are easier to come by! The party rocked because I had two band charges, we had a PL in Sublimescout, and everyone clicked well. I think we were at it just over 2 hours and I ended at 22 - yey!

In annoying news, the A/C drain is backing up again. Apparently has been for some time as the corner in Younger's room is wet. /sigh. It was too late to work on it so it'd have to wait until tomorrow.

-=-=-=-

Wednesday

Decent day at work but oh so sleepy. At home we got to chill out - Sis took all the boys to CCD. Ape and I lay down for a bit, almost falling asleep, when we heard boys. Twice as many as expected, in fact. Sis was outside on her phone and all the boys were inside. Younger was showing off his just-purchased Lego "Lava Dragon" game. It's a little goofy but there's a decent playsystem behind it.

Anyway, Sis came in finally. And showed off her new iPhone. She has a new plan now, with her new phone, hubby's and now her oldest inherited an old phone. All together she thinks it'll be $150 per month, before a job-based discount of 25%. I all but guarantee she'll stay at $150 after taxes and fees for both lines. And she's not very good at staying under her minutes - she goes over all the time already... And, I cautioned her to find out the rules of her data plan before rampant FaceBooking gets her a massive over-byte. OK, that was bad.

Not much on TV after pizza dinner but we did watch an ep of "The Middle". It took me 10 minutes to realize that was Patricia Heaton as the mom. Remember her from "Everybody Loves Raymond?" Yeah. Well, it seems time has not been terribly kind to her in the 5 years since Raymond wrapped. Not that she's gotten all hideous, but she just looks more wan and aged than I'd have expected.

The show, the show... Not too bad. I don't think I could get into it, as the actors in the 5 main roles just don't grab me. And the similarities to Malcolm (one of my all-time faves) is a bit much. So after the 10pm show I split.

I did better this time in the Dunes, managing not to die and getting maybe 3k XP off book pages. I even learned "Foot Kick"! My BLU is very behind the times... I even got shell invite which I had to pass on. Like last night's blind invite... I hope the weekend works out so well - I'd love to finish off both BLU and BST and return to DNC and PLD, and even SMN, believe it or not. Well, at least get SMN to 30 lol.

On Sufhi's last fight, with an aggroed Butcher, I had to zone with barely 20hp left. I made it and was able to get the lone bunny I needed for my current page with Sortir's help. He'd arrived for the shell party I had to pass on and buffed me for the kill. I said my goodnights and good lucks after reserving another page at the OP.

Spent more time with Cleric's stories and chatting with LK.

-=-=-=-

Tuesday:

Not sure why, but Ape had picked up some Lean Cuisine pizzas for my lunches. I took one today, along with toaster strudels (breakfast) and a Betty Crocker Molten Delights cake (snack). Good thing too, because the pizza was prolly the third-worst thing I've *ever* stomached.

It wasn't that it was a diet chicken pizza. No, it was the oodles of garlic and onion. I spent 10 minutes picking pieces off and it STILL reeked. And it tasted awful. I already knew I didn't like either, so this isn't a matter of not trying things. Garlic has to be in sparing quantities and onions in ground, powdered form only.

Even with the cake AND teeth brushed AND Scoped, my breath was less than pleasant. Urk. I called Ape later to tell her she had a big kiss coming her way - I wanted her to enjoy what I'd been enjoying since lunch lol.

I sleepily made it home, just before Ape did. She brought Bojangles - yum! So I ate that and then took Younger to TKD. Whilst there, I read "The Pirate and the Princess", an English adaptation of a manga series of some sort. It was cute and interesting but very juvenile. Still a fun way to spend the hour while Younger kicked stuff.

Once back, Ape and I lay down in bed to watch DWTS. And I fell asleep. She left me that way until 11. I never got to see Kate voted off! Which I'm a /little/ sad over. Not much. Just a little.

After clearing the cobwebs and watching a bit of news with Ape, I headed back out for Round 2 of my roll. This time there were no issues and everything checked out fine.

In chat-news, Cleric and I had a nice time talking about FA and reviewing some Avatar spoofs. He really is a nutter! At his insistence, I took an FA account and used it to begin reading his 5-chapter story posted there. I only got about halfway through chapter 1 but I'm definitely intrigued - I really wanna know what happens to Allester and Jiva.

Keps and I chatted as well. I managed to make him sad by mentioning something in passing. I think the moment had passed by the time I crashed but I still felt really bad about it.

-=-=-=-

Monday

Not much - stuck at work late waiting for my code package approval. Once home, had din (sliders & mac and cheese!) and then went to pick up Elder's meds. Of course, Walgreens blew it again. We can't ever seem to pick up meds in the timeframe promised... So, we missed a bit of DWTS but we saw fantastic performances from Jake and Nicole, and I think Chad's was good although we walked in as he received his scores. Kate OTOH looked like she was sleepwalking. Poor girl tried to blame her exhaustion on her kids. Priority clue maybe?

I almost got Ape to watch Castle but she wound up flipping around. At 11-ish I headed out to play XI some and prepare for the night's roll. I was going to solo on BLU but I was too distracted by AIM and by goings-on in the Dunes. Met a very friendly person called Petesache who wanted to show off his BLU22 and was killed by the second gob he saw.

Turns out I'd do little better as I was offed by a lizard when I missed the Petrifying Gaze text - it had just used it unsuccessfully and I was getting ready with a much needed WS (I was in the red and so was he) and while I watched TP climb he tricked me.

I HPed, grabbed my Signal Pearl (why the heck was it in Storage anyway?) and returned to the Dunes, logging out in Selbina after checking for VE.

Aequilus (Zyg's alt) asked for a pearl but none of the sacks were around or responding.

LK sent me a picture of what I think is going to be called Aerinette. She doesn't look Mithran at all but that's OK. She's about 20 inches tall and dressed right, she'd make a great cosplay partner. I told LK I'd only request her delivery if I had the money left over for clothing in her size.

Cleric had a spot of trouble and wants me to let Potyhoty know he won't be on for the foreseeable future - Awr!

By 1:30 it was clear the roll wasn't happening and I packed it in.

They Say It's Your Birthday~!

2010-04-18T12:01:00.002-04:00

Sunday:

Plans are Ikea and Red Brick Pizza. Dunno what else.
(post-unpacking update) That was about it. But some details! Sis is an easily-frustrated woman. Ikea is the most deviously-designed store in the universe. We suspected putting the two of them together would result in a perfect storm of aggravation.

We were correct.

And she only walked past the restaurant and down to the exit! We tried to convince her there was more store, but she wasn't buying. So while she stayed pretty much in one spot we spent our time checking out the desk and shelf unit we're planning to pick up for Elder's room remodel. We're going to have to work out how to get it home when we don't have so many passengers since we'll lose most of the van seating to the three boxes it comes in.

From there was a short drive to Red Brick (I took a quick detour to the Best Buy next door) and as usual it was good. We wound up with breadsticks in lieu of the kids' meals' ice creams, and so we were quite full. But somehow we were craving sweets afterwards, and so we asked where we could get something sweet to eat. Horrible mistake...

We were directed to a nearby Cold Stone Creamery, and after trying a sample of "Oreo Cream" I settled on Sweet Vanilla. Ape placed the order and the girl asked us if we wanted a topping. *This* time I could hear a certain Mon Calamari warning me off but I asked her directly if it was included. She said we could get a topping. Then I saw the total on the register and wondered how ten bucks of kid's cups wound up costing $12.80.

I jumped back in line to ask if we were charged for toppings and was basically told, "Of course!" So, I got a little mad. I asked why and she said the "Kid's Create Sundae" is $2.99 and includes a topping. However, we specifically ordered kid's sized cups, which are on the sign for $2.50. We never said anything about a sundae. I basically got in the girl's face and told her the next time someone asks whether a topping is included in the thing they ordered, she'd better answer correctly because her bad information cost me two bucks and honestly, I didn't really want the candy.

Next on my list was the acting manager, and I basically told her the story and she gave me the "We're so sorry, but we can't refund your money." What? If I didn't think it would have earned me a trip to a county lockup, I'd have deducted my refund from their tip jar... We got the owner's phone number and I'm going to call her tomorrow and offer her one chance to make it right or I'll execute a chargeback on my card since I was *fraudulently* charged.

Angry snacking aside, the drive home proved uneventful although we got home a bit before 9. But then it didn't matter so much because Amazing Race wasn't even on.

Oh, one neat thing... While nearing home, Ape mentioned wondering what I'd look like with straight hair. I told her in all seriousness not to tease me, because I'd jump at the chance. She said she'd get Mom's flat iron and maybe give it a go. Yay!!! I also mentioned wanting to dye my hair the rest of the way black. I know it looks pretty black in pictures but in good lighting you can tell it's a deep brown.

Oh, one /more/ thing! I decided to write the email with details and pics for our friend. I opted to go with a technical explanation of my goals because I think she's going to shop it around. And because I added wigmaking and makeup to the list of needed deliverables. I was cobbling it all together during DH and B&S. We've missed a couple episodes but I think we're OK.

It took time because I had to shrink the AV pics down to fit the attachment size limit. So ny the time I clicked Send it was just after 11. And lo and behold, I got an email from her a minute or so later. However, she was responding to my first email, not the second, complete one I sent to her personal account. So I gave her the heads up and now we wait...

I'm thinking of setting up a cosplay-specific journal page on my Google site.

-=-=-=-

Saturday:

* Left at noon for Disney's Hollywood studios.
* Checked in, then stuffed selves into Sis's Sequoia (I was the designated trunk-monkey)
* Started with Jedi Training Academy - really cute and great to hear the best musical themes!
* All but Ty and I headed for the Lights! Motors! Action stunt show so he could see the end of the Academy show. Made it to the stunt show in time and it was as fun as before.
* Took in American Idol Experience. Mom & Dad made it in just in time! I greatly dislike the show (until pretty much the end of the finals) but I couldn't believe how *fun* this was! And we got to be on the DIamondVision screen too! Second-place and my contestant sang Sunshine of My Like crooner style, *to his wife* - freakin' awesome! Winner was a vocal student in a huge group presumably from his school. He was really good though!
* Getting late and the usual Ape-can't-fit-it-all stress
* Toy Story 3-D is pretty fun, and where M&D left us. They're off to AK tomorrow. Got second highest score (132,300) and third accuracy (33%) in our group of 8.
* Had time to squeeze in Star Tours (Oh for the love of God please update the film on this ride! Please? Pretty please? Although, there's a still I need to see if Ape can grab. A Mon Calamari raises his pimp hand when someone disobeys the "No Flash Photos" rule. THAT would make an awesome "I told you it was a trap!" lol.
* Off to Aerosmith for the boys' first time. Decent line and the ride was great. Boys *loved* it. Was the only thing that made Elder smile the whole freaking trip. Maybe I'll write about that...
* Ended the night at WDW with the Fantasmic show. It's a trip through Mickey's imagination where a Heroes vs. Villains showdown takes place, featuring the usual suspects from the past and present of Disney hand-drawn animation.
* Late late late dinner at Friendly's, which was really good if not slow. Had a long talk with Elder about his crappy attitude when things don't go his way. Bro even commented to him... /sigh I feel for the kid I do. But he really needs an attitude adjustment.
* Tossed plans to chat up the crew when we didn't get settled in until 2am. Had a long stop at Walgreen's for morning provisions and it took time to get everyone in their jammies with teeth brushed, etc. Also, I had to make a run for the freebie toothbrushes ans three of us (across both groups) forgot to bring ours.

-=-=-=-

Friday:

Today is Ape's *actual* birthday. At lunch, I ran to the mall to grab a card and hopefully a small gift. She already got her big present, the clothes-shopping trip from a few weeks ago. But there's no way I'm going to her huge party tonight with just a card. I've done some really dumb things in my time but I know better than that! ^^

My trip got extended by the fact I couldn't find the Hallmark. I wound up walking both floors end-to-end. It wasn't where I remembered it in this mall, and where it actually was basically blocked it from view unless you walked all the way to the end of the floor. Argh. Anyway, I found a nice Snoopy card and the perfectest Precious Moment, so with that handled, I ran to grab lunch and then headed back to work.

Later, on arriving home from work, I had just climbed out of Shiroma when she ordered me into the van. Turns out we had to beat feet to Mikado (yey!) to claim a reservation for 18. We made it in time too, and the rest of our group did as well. So, we were seated quickly, in the back room with just two grill-tables.

This would turn out very nice, as we could relax and not feel like we were bothering anyone. Plus the personal service made us feel special. Specialer. And the food was quite good, with many "thumbs-up" from the Rogue's gallery we'd assembled. And I spent a bit of the night on Alex duty, keeping him entertained until it was time to eat, and also calming him when he was upset by the fireworks.

I also got to spend some time with our friend the crafter, daughter of my intended seamstress. Turns out she hadn't gotten my email yet because the account I used is one she only checks occasionally for business. No worries - I was able to give her the rundown and she gave me a better account to use. But get this - she knows a theater major (I think that's it) who may be able to help with getting my wig made! Also, although I didn't mention it there, I expect he may be able to help with my makeup plans too!

By the time we said all the goodbyes, it was pretty late, and we had no way to see Kick-Ass. So instead we popped by Redbox and got Astro Boy and Ponyo. We watched Astro Boy after getting settled in. We didn't end until just after midnight. My take? Meh. It was actually a fairly emotional story (Tenma's kid is /vaporized/? And he rejects Astro quite harshly.) but it just didn't grab me overall. I think what killed it for me was the acting - the story and action were good but the acting was flattish. I did like Nathan Lane's gearbox gladiator character - a bit unexpected.

I wound up falling asleep with Ape watching news of Hayleigh Cummings. I'm sorry guys!

-=-=-=-

Thursday

A bit of chaos on this, the first day of Ape's birthday celebration. I met Ape, Sis and Granddad at Cracker Barrel for his dinner for her. I selected "Momma's Pancake Breakfast" with a nod to Kio. I also bested Ty at checkers (for once!). We enjoyed ourselves and I think this marks the first gathering at which Granddad didn't go all political!

From here, I had to jet Younger to TKD and we were already way behind schedule. But we got there and eventually home. For Survivor. Yep - last week's teaser came to be. J.T. and the other Heroes decided it'd be smart to "protect" Russell from the "all-female alliance" threatening him. So they cooked up this plan wherin J.T. would slip Rus the Immunity Idol they held. Along with a note.

At the challenge, which the Heroes managed to win, there were congratulatory hugs and high-fives. And one small package being handed off in a shoe. Later, back at Villainy H.Q., Rus and Parvati (how the heck is this pronounced "poverty" anyway?) read J.T.'s letter. Well, Parv read it, in a mocking tone suggesting a mash note rather than a conspiracy plan. Because, in all honesty, the actual letter read like hero-worship on J.T.'s part. Too bad that Rus didn't need the help and will likely make you eat your note when the Merge goes down next week!

Oh yeah, Parv has an idol too because she and Danielle found the idol from the clue Parv got at the Villains' reward feast at Outback Samoa. Can't remember if Rus knows about this idol but geez - that's a lot of immunity floating around!

And I Thought I Hated Summoner!

2010-04-11T12:01:00.001-04:00

Today, I finished off RNG. Ape and the boys were off with her sis' brood playing mini-golf and I had most of the day to myself.

Both Soho and Kush asked why I was even on RNG, and my party asked me, after we were done, why I was glad to be rid of it.

I think of all the recent jobs I've messed with, I felt the least helpful on RNG. My damage output was subpar except in the cases where I landed my Flaming Arrows or solid regular shots. I pulled, and in the Oasis, it stunk. I don't mind pulling in many zones, but two days in the Dunes cured me.

And to be honest, my run on SMN from 18 to nearly 22 was much more fun.

All I have left of my lowbies is BLU17 and BST17. Then I plan to focus heavily on DNC and possibly PLD. I think I want to work on my DNC AF assuming I can shed my Linen gear entirely.

In lolnews, Kingbobby asked my gender, saying I type like a girl. Heh. Also, Soho stopped by for a quick hi-and-a-poke before retiring. He was dressed up nicely in PLD whites.

Meanwhile, on AR, my 'boys wound up third and there was a LOT of heat between Brent and Caite and the girls. Also, the cops tried a punk move, attempting to steal the girls' cab but their cabbie wouldn't sell them out.

Hopefully before I go to bed tonight, I hope I had the time to finish my nails...

Super Busy Fun Time Party Family

2010-04-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

Sat:

Chore-day. Ape said if I did a "few" things I'd get the rest of the day to myself prior to her sis' 40th birthday bash. Well, after getting Ape to actually make a list, I realized there was no way I'd get it done before we left for the party. So I dug in and got most of the list done (the big stuff anyway) and planned to jump on after the party.

On the list? Trim the bushes (as Bro had just cut the yard - yeah, it's time for regular yard maintenance...), install new exterior lighting sconces (as the original ones were shot), finish removing the broken glass from the front window and clean it, mount the new flagpole, and put up new shutters to replace the old ones.

I completed the first three tasks, and made progress on the flagpole. However, Home Depot doesn't carry shutters in-store and I wasn't going to special order them.

Soon it was 7 and party-time. One of the kids joked we'd be there 'til midnight, something I didn't see as all that far-fetched. Turns out we missed that time by maybe 15 minutes. The first couple of hours was munch-and-mingle, then cake and presents, LOTS of pictures and then some goodbyes as many of her guests couldn't stay too late. Once the crowd (and seriously, there must have been 40 people there!) thinned out, the "core group" took up Guesstures. My team won, but not by much. Ape got some truly ridiculous pics of us flailing about...

By the time we wrapped up and dropped of Mimi it was very close to midnight. I spent some time with Ape anyway, then jetted off to Vana'diel once more, for yet another shell party. I swear, Cleric and Sortir are leveling machines! But it meant starting on RNG, which was the lowest of my lowbies at 16. Dear God I hate this job. I'd gladly take Summoner to 30 if it meant never touching Ranger again...

-=-=-=-

Fri:

Our Date Night plans were to eat at Zaxbys after dropping off the kids and then to see "Date Night". Ape was feeling super lousy but she insisted we go out anyway. I swear, that girl will be off to the movies even on her deathbed! Dinner was quite nice, being just the two of us. Then we met the in-laws for the movie. It was really quite good! Back home I jumped on to a SMN party and got almost 3 levels, ending just shy of 22. Maybe I'll go ahead and keep plugging away ay SMN to 30...

Midweek Madness (Again?)

2010-04-08T12:01:00.000-04:00

Thurs:

During lunch I took TheImmortal down to the car to try AV, post-update. Sure enough, AV was ok and it was awesome! I used it to get several screens.

Later in the day I stumbled onto a followup to a story I linked here on March 10th. The intolerant nubs who tried to cancel prom because of one girl's love wound up having a fake prom for her and some other unfortunate kids, and hosted a private bash at a parent's house.

I just don't get people...

-=-=-=-

Wed:

Worked late then went to see "The Last Song" with Ape, Sis, MIL, and Younger + Sis' oldest. It was good, touching, and had nice piano music, which I love but don't get enough of.

Back home, I researched the AV issue, posted on a KI forum where King Mort maintains the viewers, and started an update just to see what-if. It went 5-ish hours, pulling down 11k+ files!

Easter Vacation!

2010-04-06T12:01:00.001-04:00

Tuesday: Our original plan for today was to check out late, then head home via Orlando so we could stop at Ikea.

We grabbed breakfast at Perkins (Tampa's, not Orlando's) then stopped at Target for last-minute stuff for the week so we wouldn't have to stop for groceries at home. As we got out of Kuroma, an elderly man stopped us. Seems an Altima was left running with nobody inside. I took down the plate so I could give it to Guest Services to announce. I also asked the trunk if anyone was locked inside. That car had the push-button start meaning if the key was taken far enough away (presumably in the driver's pocket) the car should cut off. Weird. We gave the message once inside and then Younger and I waited to see if anyone came up. Nope. By the time we had our stuff, maybe 20 minutes, the car was STILL there, running. Weirder...

We jumped on I-4 and had an uneventful drive into Orly. We stopped first at the Mall at Millenia and had a good time at Urban Outfitters looking at the weird stuff. I wound up picking up XI again (for the third time) when Elder wanted to get Yu-Gi-Oh Tag Force so I grabbed both together. Nobody wanted to go to Ikea so we left the mall, with plans to go to Sanford for a bookstore and Red Brick pizza. We barely got out of the lot when I saw a bunch of Lotus Elises at a high-end dealer. I had to make a u-ie and park at the neighboring Mercedes dealer and walk across the divider with the boys. I found a sales guy and asked him point blank if we could get in an Elise and take pics. He reluctantly agreed but we had a pleasant, if brief, chat about Lotus' racing heritage. The pics came out nice and I do so love those runabouts! An Elise is for you if you think an RX-8 is just too big.

Once we got to Sanford, I started the install at Books-A-Million thinking I needed net access, but I never could get on. Thankfully the install started anyway. While waiting, I browsed the manga but couldn't find what I was looking for. I continued it at RB and was able to get on, grabbing a current version of Altana View. Just as the battery died ^^.
On the way home, I powered up the black box and finished the install, as well as AV, but for some reason an awful lot of gear wouldn't show. However, AV also has maps! Yay!

-=-=-=-

Monday: Today's big plan was a trip to the mall, "Clash of the Titans" and go-karting at Tampa GP.

We had about 90 minutes to kill at the mall so we had a nice lunch and then split up to shop. At GameStop, I was looking at the XI Ultimate Collection. I'm ready to move forward with my cosplaying plans and I need to get to work with a model viewer. However, I didn't care for the attitude one GS employee gave me about not wanting to buy a gut. Eventually, it was time for the movie. It wasn't bad, and there was a nice nod to the original (see if you can spot Bubo) but for some reason I just didn't get the same thrill that the others did. A later reflection I had was that it seemed to be more spectacle than story. Not sure if this is endemic to 3-D flicks or not...

As we were leaving, we called Tampa GP to get directions. As Ape was getting a Clinique gift set thing, I messed with the Skin Type Analyzer thingy. You answer 8 questions about your skin by moving the sliders. When you're done, you look for the one type (of 4) that came up the most and /that's/ your type. Wouldn't you know it - I had two of each and therefore *no* dominant type. -lolly sigh- Getting to the track would prove to be harder than it should have been as I misheard the first exit and they happened to have moved since our last outing. We wound up looping over the Seven-Mile bridge twice and made a number of "Marco, Polo" phone calls but we eventually found it.

They moved to an indoor facility, shortening the track. On the flip side, they hadn't jacked the rates due to the new (and very nicely appointed digs - go Schumi!) and the simpler track was pretty fast. The Clones and I were the only ones in our heat and I had fun lapping them. Both drive well but I suspect they simply lack the seat time and knowledge of racecraft. Nothing that wouldn't be hurt by more seat time! At one point, Elder and I were dicing on the way off the final hairpin to Start/Finish and he wound up T-boning me smartly, knocking me into my seat bolster hard enough to bruise. Neither of us lost control however and I thought it was an awesome bit oof driving on his part. I think he got flagged for it though!

On the way back, we stopped at Five Guys for dinner, which we planned to eat poolside. Something wonderful happened while I waited in line. Please recall that some time back I bought a gray "To Write Love on Her Arms" shirt. In months of wearing it, I've not gotten one comment on it. At Five Guys, I got *two*, from the cashier who passionately supports them, and from the guy who handed us our bag 'o food. Nice!

By the time we got back to the condo it was quite close to 8, and DWTS. SO we ate and watched the first hour (God bless you Buzz - you're trying so hard!) and then Ape took the boys to the pool. I joined them closer to 10 and then we all went back up when the pool closed.

-=-=-=-

Sunday

Got up at 10 for Easter Mass. We wound up at Light of Christ Catholic in Clearwater. It was a very nice mass but I didn't agree with MIL who thought this church was as pretty as our St. Matthew's or St. Paul's. The service was very nice and the priest was jovial. From there, we found a park for the combined family Easter egg hunt, which went nicely - once we sorted out each family's Golden Egg deal lol. Then we were off to Clearwater Beach and Gondolier restaurant.

This restaurant is owned by the same family that owns the one we love in Sevierville, TN. From there we thought we'd walk to the beach, leaving the cars at Gondolier. We abandoned that notion when a tow truck pulled up to a Lexus SUV at a store two drives from us. Yep, the driver and his partner made short work of rolling the Lexus back on dollies, then grabbing it with the lift. While I understand why towing happens (a combination of city revenue sharing with tow companies mixed with businesses wanting spaces used by presumably paying customers) it still means someone's vacation was ruined. Not only that, but when the Lex started to roll down the drive, the tow driver was yanking on the side mirrors to stop it! I'd have been furious if that had been my very expensive vehicle being handled that way...

Fears of roving bands of wreckers fresh in our mind, we moved! It took a little patience and a little luck, but we found spots for both of us. I walked the crew to the beach, then walked Sis back because she never paid for her spot /facepalm I stayed back at the van and waited for the others - my legs were killing me from the jet ski action. We ended the night by driving back towards our place near the causeway and stopping at one of the waterfront pullouts to say our goodbyes to Sis & Co. as they were out of time. We're staying through Tuesday :3

Instead of a last-chance beach fling, we wound up rescuing a stingray. For some unknown reason, a ray was swimming along the coast and constantly skimming the water's edge. As he crept along the coast he finally got stuck and began to flap about, clearly in distress. Sis tried to move him, then gave up and handed me the stick, after petting him. I tried too and this hapless creature, dubbed "Stingy" by the kids, just could not fathom why he kept getting stuck. I stooped to pet him too, then kept shoving him out only to have him come back. Eventually, he took off away from the coast, in what seemed a purposeful manner. We left quickly then, not certain if he was at the coastline to play, or to check out the funny humans, or what. Also, I didn't want to see him smacked by any of a half-dozen rental skis also on the water...

Back at our place, it was AR time. And dang it, my cowboys went from last to first! Speedbump or no, they dominated the flagpole balance thing and the roadblock, leaving them plenty of time for the silly speedbump. Due to some major cab miscues, Steve and Allie wound up trading places, finishing last and being eliminated. Now? Watching Celeb Apprentice to get a peek at the new HP world at Universal! -squee!-

-=-=-=-

Saturday

Today was... Interesting. The main event for today was another jet ski run at John's Pass. It took forever to get into Clearwater because of the traffic. Once there, we couldn't get to the parking garage because of bridge construction. So we found meters, and rounded up all the quarters we could. I wound up on meter feeding duty ^^

Even though we were on time, it took a bit to get signed in because a previous group roughed up their skis and the staff was trying to process the $800 damage fee - yikes! We eventually got on the water, with Bro and I on brand new skis, which meant the clocks actually worked. Just in case, I had the BK/SpongeBob watch on :3 All four of us opted for the Gulf and soon we were having a blast racing, chasing, and trying to jump wakes. The first big moment of the day happened when Ape cut left sharply and threw herself and Younger. I had been chasing their wake and turned forward just in time to see them bobbing in the water.

Bro and I had to work together to get Ape back up as she wound up having a full-blown panic attack when her vest rode up, covering her face. That, with the cold water sent her into an attack. It literally took almost 20 minutes to get her calmed down and back on. It didn't help that she still has a bad rotator cuff, making it hard to pull up. Eventually all of us were back on (I had to take three dips, between rescuing Ape and being thrown twice from Ape's ski). In addition to losing a third of our time, the SpongeBob watch was ruined...

From there we had some stress figuring out what to do next as some of us were hungry and some of us wanted to shop in John's Pass. We opted to hit a handful of stores (found some great-smelling lotion but didn't buy), and check the local restaurants at the same time. We didn't find anything to our liking food-wise, so we wound up looking farther afield. Based on recommendations from our previous condo front desk (Ape wanted Sis to see it), we wound up at Sloppy Joe's. Yes, same family. We had a long wait but it was well worth it! The food was really good and Sis preferred the Key Lime pie birthday snack here versus Bahama's.

By the time we left it was late but we stopped at a shaved-ice place and got some really good ices. The second drama-bit happened when we stopped at Target looking for Easter Egg stuff. Bran came to get me saying Ape needed me. Turns out Ape gashed her left foot on the bottom of her buggy as she was waiting for us. I wound up doing the cleanup while concerned Target folk looked on. She got quite a nasty gash and it took some doing to get it all up. I even had to wash her shoe as it had a lot of blood on it, which thankfully came off. Hopefully Easter will go better!

-=-=-=-

Friday

Got up at around 10:30 and we took a bit of time getting out the door. The drive to Tampa was uneventful, other than seeing way too many disabled vehicles and crashes. Not sure why traffic was so confounded, but. Anyway, we suffered through and made it to Sailport. Sis & Co. were not far behind and we freshened up and headed to Bahama Breeze for Sis's 40th birthday din. I tried something new - Jamaican grilled chicken breast. It wasn't bad but the mango salsa was not to my liking.

From here, we needed to go to WalMart to get Easter morn' supplies, but we didn't know how to get there. Sis asked a fellow who was leaving as well, and not only did he give us great directions and offer to lead us (Hey! We had an AR-style fern!), he paid our tolls! It wasn't a terrible distance but it was far more than many would have ever done for a motley crew of strangers! We said profuse thanks and he left us at the entrance.

Ape grabbed some essentials for the week as well as Easter treats.

Lent is Almost Over

2010-04-01T12:01:00.000-04:00

Thurs - After work and dinner (hot dogs, mac & cheese and brown-sugar-glazed beans *nomnom*) Ape all but crashed. She's been feeling worse and worse lately. So much so she went to the doctor Wednesday. Anyway, Younger was also pooped and Elder was at Sis', so I grabbed him and dessert on the way back.

We did watch Survivor - Russell wins AGAIN! - and I logged in. I stumbled into a party courtesy of Sortir and after 6 hours (with some breaks), MNK was up 3 and done, and SAM was up 2 and almost done. Formally met Cleric, the WHM10 who was shouting Tuesday. He's quite the character, and aside from some interesting comments on my Mithran anatomy, we struck up a very interesting conversation (notes to follow).

-=-=-=-

Wednesday - I had a long but good day at work but I was wiped from having to get up so early yesterday for the field trip. I fell asleep at 7:30 and didn't get back up again for 12 hours. I didn't get to sleep the whole time - the call of nature got me once and the call of Ape's snoring roused me once or twice... But I still felt better when I got up Thursday.

-=-=-=-

Tuesday - After dinner, I jumped on XI and was able to get a party with Whiteonion and Sortir and took Monk all the way to 20!

-=-=-=-

Monday: No FFXI tonight. Watched the first DWTS results show and nearly got a welcome gift. Pam Anderson was in the bottom two. Either she or Shannon Doherty was about to go home. Unfortunately, my joy was short-lived. Shannon went home instead. Ape thinks Pam's low vote is because more women watch and do not share the judges' high opinion of Ms. Anderson. I just have never gotten the attraction. Her face isn't that attractive to me and all her curves are tied up in her upper reaches. Oh well.

Also, the Buzz Aldrin Memorial Tour continues. At least Buzz is man enough to realize he's only here because he's a national hero (said sincerely as a wannabe astronaut).

Updartes are in Draft, I Promise

2010-03-29T12:01:00.000-04:00

Hi all! I have pretty much everything written for the last two weeks but I haven't been on to parse the notepads into posts. That will change soon, and then you can read all about our exciting trip to Tampa :3

Shopping

2010-03-28T12:02:00.000-04:00

(I always did like the Pet Shop Boys)

As I said earlier, we went shopping today. Ape had a Lane Bryant coupon and planned to use it. I like most of LB's styles but their prices are nuts. Anyhoo, we spent quite a lot of time and as her selections became more numerous, she said something interesting: Whatever she spent (after the coupon of course) she would match towards my cosplay gear.

The final total? $170. So now, my official warchest stands at $420. And that does *not* count the money I earned last year working part-time. We haven't totally settled it but my plan is to split those earnings down the middle. That would boost my Kitty kitty significantly.

So, why have I not yet started with the commission? Two reasons. I still can't find my stupid PC discs and I really don't want to buy the game a third time... Second, I'm really fearful of the reactions I'm going to get.

Comments Younger's been making lead me to think he'd not support such an endeavor. Also, I've been trying to explain other modes of expression, specifically the furry life to Ape. Not because I intend to go that route, but to frame my discussions regarding LK's recent trip.

Ape just can't seem to comprehend or accept it. /sigh I knew she was closed-minded but not *that* closed minded.

What to do, what to do...

(Face)Palm Sunday

2010-03-28T12:01:00.002-04:00

Today, the plan was to do some shopping, eat with the combined families and friends, and then go to Palm Sunday Mass. Well, the shopping worked out really well, as did a late lunch at Mellow Mushroom pizza. But clock-watching wasn't on the menu. Nor was knowing which church had what mass when.

Because when we left, we were going to be late, and when we actually arrived, it didn't matter. No mass. Ape and her sis rang up a number of area churches and the only thing left was a Spanish mass. I felt bad for the girls because they really felt like they were disappointing God. I am of the opinion that, while church is good and a positive thing, worship /can/ be done elsewhere.

Notes of my own, I'm not usually a glutton. I've actually been working hard the last several years to mind my diet - and it's paying off. Besides the significant weight loss, I've been trying lots of new things (see earlier posts). But today, I had a CamiCake. Oh. My. God. I chose lemon-flavored, and it was positively *divine*. The shop alone smelled heavenly! I really need to avoid that place!

After that we stopped by Best Buy. They already had the 3-D TVs set up and I tried it out. I'd say it works as well as the theatrical system. But the lone demo movie, Monsters vs Aliens, was underwhelming for its 3-D originally. There must have been a better choice. Heck, I'd have ponied up for Avatar. *That* would have been a proper demo!

Back home, I duelled both Clones in Yu-Gi-Oh. My ancient, dusty deck, with none of the new card systems in play, beat both of them, Elder x2 and Younger x1. Then it was time for Ape and Bran to make cake. I ate too much raw batter. Yum~! I'm really hoping Ape sets us up soon for a family cooking class. We've done some dancing, and now I want to try being a culinarian!

Currently, we're watching AR, and as the ABC shows are repeats, we're going to go straight into Undercover Boss, from Silver Dollar City.

>< The cowboys blundered TWICE and are ripe for elimination. AAAARGH!

-=-=-=-

Earlier today, I watched the Australian Grand Prix, and played XI some. XI was almost nothing but soloing. I finished off THF (to 20) and switched to COR after a Jeuno detour for an appropriate sword. I didn't get any invites after over an hour flagged, and so I soloed a bit.

Some randoms I can't believe I didn't mention earlier!

* Somer Thompson's killer has confessed. That creepy monster caught in Mississippi on child porn charges copped to killing Somer. I only hope there's an airtight case on him because he's almost certainly going to lawyer up and recant his confession.

* Speaking of confessions, I was genuinely surprised when Pope Benedict (Sixteenth of the line) basically acknowledged the offenses, but denied direct knowledge of what had happened. It's not perfect but it's a darn good start. He's apparently been sending official apology letters to different countries' Catholic communities.

* I can't believe Mattel couldn't do a better job with the face molds on the new Twilight dolls...

Dragon Training

2010-03-27T12:01:00.000-04:00

Today, the big plan was to see "How to Train Your Dragon", something I've been waiting for since the original cuts came out. After breakfast and some cleaning, Ape took the boys to a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt thing, where she ran into several people we know.

I on the other hand, spent my time first fixing my image links (as you can see), and then messing about in XI. I actually got my second claim on LL (seems much easier than VE) but alas, no drop. From there, I spent close to an hour organizing all my junk (yet again) so that I could resume Dunes leveling. Dark was on (among others) and expressed an interest, so...

Once I'd dumped a lot of junk, sorted my gear, had animas made, and so on, I teleported to Holla for the run to the sands of Valkurm. I eventually made it to Selbina, and while futzing about with the Nomad Moogle, I was checked by Immadancerlol. Someone whose name has always made me giggle. She asked if I was bored, and, thus began a 90-minute duoing excursion.

We had the worst time getting to the Konschaht-side lizard camp. Near the crab ledge she pulled aggro just as she went out to let her dog in. I tried my best, two-houring and summoning Sufhi. I was trying to hold the fort when she returned and joined in. We wiped, and the gob was moments from death himself. She was kind enough to do the HP > job change > raise dance. We returned to Selbina, and this time we stopped off at the OP to grab a page, as it was close to midnight and this way we could do two in rapid succession, especially with me being close to out of time.

In the tunnel, we got more aggro but I survived. She HPed again and took a tele to Dem and ran to meet me at the zone. We gathered at the book, grabbed full buffs (lol), and finally got started. We actually did pretty well, duoing at sync 16. We plonked away and as we were finishing up our second page and looking for a bunny, I was jumped by a Butcher. There was no way I was going to make it unless he offed himself. Imma ran up and I suggested a retreat instead, but she stuck it out and we both died again ^^

We both had reraise up, popped it once the gob despawned and I said my goodbyes. Troubles aside, we actually did pretty well XP-wise, and party chatter was friendly and fun. She asked when I'd be on next but I knew it'd have to be late... We shall see :3

So, movie time! I'll skip some of the logistics, but we made it there (with Younger's best friend along for the night), got good seats and met up with Sis and her boys. And I'll say this: Dark, it was fantastic! It was quite charming actually. They even somehow managed to make a dragon adorable without being all childish-style.

From there, it was Chik-Fil-A, then home for Zombieland. I honestly thought this was more of a zombie-slaughter themepark. That is to say, I thought the gist of the movie was going to be in sweet zombie sport. Nah, there was a story, eerily similar to Carriers. Unlike Carriers, this *still* didn't suck. It had some great moments and was definitely worth a rental.

Now we're watching MTV's 16 and Pregnant. Ape is nuts for this show, and I like it too. But as someone who was actually looking to make permanent, family-oriented relationships at 16, my perspective is a /little/ different. Also, I do so hate all the drama.

My plans for the evening are to finish watching TV with Ape, and then spend more time in Vana'diel whilst watching the Aussie GP.

Random:
I still love the Old Navy Super-modelquins, and the new "reality competition" series of ads.

Trying New Noms

2010-03-26T12:01:00.002-04:00

Tonight, Ape planned on Japanese with us and her best friend + hubby. I normally don't do so well with Japanese since so much of the bounty is in the form of rice, veggies, soup and salad. But I voted Japanese as well and resolved to try /something/ new.

So, after getting stuck at work 'til after 6 on an urgent support call, I rushed home as fast as the Beast could take me. Which isn't very fast. I just know as soon as I get Shiroma back I'm going to get popped for speeding! o.o

After only a brief refresh/get changed time, we were off. We dropped the boys off, had a nice chat with my parents, then headed across town to the restaurant. We arrived just minutes before our friends and were then seated immediately. While I have historically avoided 90% of the food offerings, I have *always* enjoyed the show. Tonight was to be another fine performance.

Along the way to what would ultimately be an amazing meal, I tried the soup (much better than its Thai counterpart), the ginger salad dressing (Sorry Epcot, Mikada > Mitsukoshi), and I was able to get our chef to make my rice with just the rice, egg and soy. It would normally have had scallions in it...

In an attempt to 日本 (にほん) it up, I ate with 箸 (はし) for the entire meal, even going so far as to make a rest for them using the wrapper (ありがとう Wikipedia!). Well, not the soup, of course! ^^

Eating rice with chopsticks wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be, especially hot 'n fresh off the grill-table thingy. I'm definitely gonna try egg in my ramen next time!

Then my chicken and steak were ready. And Mikado has excellent ginger steak sauce! Yes! It was awesome-sauce! lol, see what I did there? Anyway, I ate about half of the plate and planned to have the rest later.

After dinner we went to Wal-Mart and grabbed a few things. Including the original Twilight's soundtrack. I like most of the bands on it, I really wanted Bella's Lullaby, and I need some new tunes. Ape's threatening to leave me if I don't change out the Evanescence...

We also rented Zombieland, but because we got home close to midnight we opted to wait until Saturday for it. We hung out for awhile though and then I left to camp LL some more and chat. Kush was on XI for once, hunting O. Kotes (or something) in Castle O. Deej was logged into POL, which was interesting. Is he coming back? LK's in Atlanta for a con and I was hoping he had news of interesting times, but not quite yet...