Random Thoughts

I had some stuff bouncing around in my furry brain - for your consideration, please enjoy the following random mini-rants:

"Finished product not tested on animals" - This has got to be one of the worst pieces of marketing sleight-of-hand ever. What difference does it make if a bottle of BBW Warm Vanilla Sugar wasn't drizzled over a bare-skinned rabbit? Unless combining the final ingredients does something unexpected to the chemical properties of the lotion (or any product for that matter), testing each of the constituent parts is enough to determine if Peter Cottontail will break out in a terminal rash or not. So, feel all warm and fuzzy buying that stuff thinking animal testing isn't involved...

Astro Boy - Gonna see it even though it will probably disappoint on some level. No, I never read or watched any of the originals. I just know how the Hollywood Movie Mines often refine older generations' childhood memories. That said, most of the buzz has been neutral to positive and much has meen made of the outstanding *non*-3D visuals.

Brothers & Sisters is really cry-worthy tonight. Cancer sucks enough as it is (God bless you Mom!) but they're really pulling out all the stops! But there's some good "grin and bear with it" humor from Kitty too. I do love the writing on this show.

I wish I could watch more "Castle" - it's a great show, I like crime dramas (could watch CSI Vegas all day) and besides, *squee!*

Bath and Body Works - I've become something of a total slut for BBW lotions. Yes, given what I said before, I still love them. During work I have to stick to Vanilla Noir (but it does smell sooo good). However, at home it's Warm Vanilla or Sensual Amber. And the Moonlight Path shower gel is very nice too. It's all Ape's fault really. It was her idea for me to try the different scents.

Vatican II - This one's an odd one. Relaying a conversation heard elsewhere, a priest told the other party that they do *not* support Vatican II's reforms and want to go back to the old ways, were it up to him. Do I need to find a copy of Martin Luther's history-changing Theses and nail them to the door?

Jackass kids on bikes - Believe it or not, this one's church-related too. Sort of. On the way to our favorite church for their annual Bazaar, five kids on bikes rode past, parallel to us. However, they crossed right in front of a line of cars that expected their green light to mean something. I checked - the crosswalk was firmly red before the kids crossed into it. I honked. The littlest kid, who may have been all of 8, turned, saw me, and flicked me off. Nice. Then he did it again.

And now, the best for last: Ape found this vid on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MatcQT3X1d4. It's called "Chinese explanation for a wedding ring's finger." Try it for yourself! Also, I love the explanations given for each finger's usage. See SIL, the Chinese agree with me! Any ideas why the robot voice?

Reader's Digest

Wed and Thurs: Fhox grabbed me for Bastok's 9-1 fight against a Gigaplasm. Puma and Dex were on hand, as were several others I met. Titta and Mosquitohawk... Hmm, memory failing. Seems like Titta was actually in charge of the runs. Despite tweaking the strategy several times, including NOT having me on /BLM (I suck) we failed hard three times each night. I think I died over 10 times total, taking my buffer down about 3k. Thankies for RR3!

Thursday we tried to do the fight Giga to the split, then sleep one of the two Micros, then beat that micro down all the way, sleeping what we can. And despite Titta's orders to turn off Autotarget, and to use /assist on, it sure seemed like there were multiple live targets. I don't get annoyed a lot, but Thursday kinda frosted me. Partly the XP loss, but mainly the sheer amount of time poured into two nights of work. It was a neat run and plenty exciting too. Just more frustrating than I'd like ^^

Also, Raki's back! I saw him a day or two earlier as he sorted stuff but he joined Thursday's run.

Friday: Date night with RS... Heavy support from 2-ish to SIX-FIFTEEN AM! Tried to help with an Ose run in the Lab. Kushi was there with Wildfoxxx and a Galka whose name I forgot (sorry). I had to split my attention between work and the hunt for Ose and thankfully nobody died. But after ages, we didn't seem any closer. Wild left, and later Kushi recruited Badcmpany (yes, there's an O missing) and MaryJanette.

Just as they walked in the door Ose popped. The three of us beat him down but the desired Assault Jerkin was not among the loot. >< Oh! Late late that morning, at about 5:20am, Titta ran past. I had already heard the good news from Fhox that they had succeeded earlier Friday. I congratulated her, saying something like "Good news on the run yesterday!" She laughed and said it was still today for her. I counted the hours and guessed correctly she lives in Hawaii! /jealous :3

Saturday: couldn't stay on nearly as long. Met Kushi and Malithor, and were joined by Corrupted. We did FoV pages in the Valley of Sorrows, behind Cape Terrigan. Raptors and giant dodos. With Mal on SAM tanking, we could smoke the raptors. But when Mal left sleepy, Corrupted (on PUP) couldn't hold hate as well (and that's to be expected ^^). I actually tanked one pull from start to finish, lol. Hate bounced around but it was OK.

Kushi and I broke out our NPCs, as Corrupted had his out already. Since we were only three in the party, it was possible to fill the three remaining slots with NPCs. Unfortunately, we realized this pretty late and only got them a handful of XP before we bowed out. I did replace my buffer lost on Bastok 9-1. We chatted for a bit before I fell out. The past two nights of really shortened sleep has beaten me down...

Aaaand, in the "Guess who's back today!" game, ALEU! Aleu's back! I haven't had a chance to say Hi yet but Isa said she was on her way back in. More sadly, Deej said something in shell about two months more of play time before his money ran out. What? Kep said something about leaving if Deej did and aside from saying how "saddy" all this sounded, I mentioned maybe setting up an IM client so we could continue chatting with the group outside of Vana'diel.

Scenery Chase

Logged on at about 8pm, and first ran into Fhox who was grabbing Dex and Puma for Bastok 6-2. Went well despite my death when I overdid the curing after the NM fight.

Then went to help Kushi, thinking she was looking for mission or quest help. But I didn't have the time so we opted to go to Saruta. First, I took us to the Ruins to show Kushi where I do my farming. She still can't get the Portal Charm despite being eligible and trying to trade the rolanberry to the Taru in the Tree.

After getting too many tests but not one Gravity(!) we left. We exited in West Saruta but instead of going into the city, Kushi started running southwest. I really needed to go but she dragged me along, and we wound up on a high rocky outcropping overlooking the water. It was quite peaceful and lovely.

She said she often sits here and turns the music up, so she can relax. I can see why, as Saruta's music is nice. But we need to look for a good vista in Zi'tah, since that's been my favorite soundtrack so far.

Weekend Update

(Had a great time in both worlds, but barely got time to just relax!)

Friday:

Dinner at WGV-Caddyshack. Food was good and service was great. 10% off for ExpCon visitors too!

Spent some time at ExpCon's Artist's Alley. Saw a *terrific* Ifrit (I hope it was Ifrit), and a few others. Couldn't get into any of the main rooms but ExpCon is clearly much smaller than AWA.

Saw "Couples Retreat" - fantastically funny and poignant at the same time. Slightly unexpected ending too - 3.5 crystals.

After some lame TV, got online and hung out in Qufim with Kushi, Deej and Sanwa. I PLed while they beat on stuff. Wonder if K took notes ^^ Had a really great time just hanging out. K did break out the "happy" topic.

Saturday:

Up at a decent time to do some house-stuff, then off to the mall. Met Mom, and later, Cari and the boys. I'm getting a little too hooked on BBW lotions :3 I and the boys ate lunch there.

Went to Best buy while the girls ate at Moe's. I got to try DJ hero - meh.

Followed that up with ice cream... The cake batter sample was much better than the whole cup ><

Home again, missing iCarly ONCE AGAIN. Must buy a DVR. Watched Cari's boys while they saw Couples Retreat (they liked it too). Boys didn't leave again until almost midnight.

Spent some of the babysitting time with Dark farming eyes for the O-hat trigger. Wasted over 2 hours 'cos we couldn't get to what we needed in SSG and I goofed in KRT after two *normal* eyes dropped. Ugh.

After some quiet time, went back on and got a bird party on WHM - Party went very well but ended far too soon when leader afk-ed and never came back.

Sunday:

Up early for church and "teacher commemoration" service at Ape's former school/church. Very nicely done, and the contemporary Presbyterian service sat better with me than comtemp Catholic.

Visited friends and their new baby - God do I love holding babies... Such precious little miracles of design and love! Could have stayed all day but their toddler needed a nap. Mom got to stop by too just in time.

From there, Wal-Mart and another of Ape's "just a few things" trips. One trunkful later... Back to home.

Where I did two oil changes and some other stuff, then,

Off to Mom's for Amazing Race and dinner. Spent close to 2 hours on the new desktop setup and relocating the older desktop into Dad's office, disposing of the 14-year old antique Packard-Bell.

Home after 10, and had to help Matt with sci-fair Procedures page. JC lappy didn't want to cooperate with the printer driver install so I wasted about 30 minutes getting it sorted.

In the meantime, jumped online. Found K and D engaged in an auto-trans battle that soon included me as a target. Played it safe tho', lol. Kep joined soon after and we had a great long chat. K was silent because once again, she did the "what do we have here?" dance.

I told her she knows what I can be and cannot be and I told her to make the call. She deferred, passing it back to me: "Do what you think's best."

Still, had a great time with Deej and Kep: Halloween, geekery, drugs, drug songs, tricks and treats, anime cons, cosplay, bunch of stuff.

At the end, I filed a GM call about the wedding app. Harquva answered and we had a really nice chat. All my GM chats have been nice, but to me it seemed he came out of "GM" mode a bit and just had fun chatting. Still to the point and professional but fun, and funny too.

But, despite a call to the helpdesk and the GM call, I have no choice but to wait on getting access to the lottery email. Oh boy - Time is really running out and I don't think I can take a fourth shot at it.

More Powerleveling

I woke up in Yhoator Jungle, where I'd exited after running a tele-passenger here. Nobody but Deej was on, so I popped back into TV. Friendly chatter, especially with Gaika.

While getting into the TV groove, I chatted briefly with Deej, who was partying in Qufim on SAM. I also made my way back to Windy, with a detour in the Ruins for some farming. I need the money for NIN, to get it to 37. And if I can't get the NM for Utsusemi: Ni I'll have to buy that too. Winjas need their shadows!

Eventually, I had a set of test answers, two Gravs and a dagger. On my way back to the city, I passed a BLM02 and buffed a bit. Then I bowed out asking him to {please} {Take care.} I caught the boat to Jeuno by maybe 30 seconds and took a quick break to rub Ape's feet. On returning, I saw a dyna run forming and stood amongst them, my blue pearl in stark contrast to the sea of red. I /smiled for fun then ran off.

After putting my junk up for sale I took the Wildcat warp to Whitegate but there wasn't a lot happening for a WHM75 to get excited about. I knew I wasn't going to party but I was hoping for Besieged or a Nyzul. Heck, I'd have pitched in on a mission. Actually, seeing the non-life in AU I offered my services to TV but nobody took me up on it. So, I grabbed a last-minute fare then made my way to Qufim to PL Deej.

Who took off as soon as I got there! O.o Actually, he was just job-changing, having gotten at least two levels on SAM. They must've been syncing on him because when he came back the fights suddenly got much harder.

In any case, Kuse was self-PLing and it took me a bit to find a rhythm that didn't waste either of our XP. Things went well and there were more dings. No deaths either, and I got to rescue someone when two wights decided to tag-team him. It took some doing with all the running around but I stuck a diaga on them then beat them to crumbly bits.

At 10:45 I bowed out with much appreciation from Deej and others. And of course, Fhox had just logged on 10 minutes prior...

So he and I played catch-up for 20 minutes or so. Poor guy seems to have forgotten where we left off. All of a sudden, I'm glad I have the blog because I could refer to it and replay the last two months of our time together if he needed ^^

In any case, I told him I was saddled with a new, earlier schedule but we might be able to work it out. I'm torn though - I just got going with TV, and if Kushi and Kep ever come back, I want to stay with Milk too. I've never run more than two shells at once and I don't plan to now unless there's a compelling reason...

----

OK, going back a bit... There's this guy I work with. He's on another team but he helps my group out a lot. He's a freakin' genius and I'm trying to copy his brain. He's got this great sarcastic, passive-aggressive, full-on New Yorker thing going. As you all may know, I love characters.

So anyway, personally-wise I don't expect there to be much in common between us other than the geekery things. Well, while working on my machine, he grabs my earphones and listens in. As it happens, Evanescence is on. Whom he claims to love. I thought he was joshing me but nope - he loves them like I do. He also likes Metallica, Rush and a couple others that I can't recall, but good taste.

It was during our "Why there won't be more albums from Ev" argument that I realized with a start that my three fave songs on "The Open Door" were all written solely by Amy. Lithium, Like You and Good Enough.

We even debated the point at which Metallica went off the tracks and when they really "clicked". I voted for Master of Puppets to start and Black to end. He went newer, to "Justice" but agreed with Black. He even saw 8 shows of the multi-year Black tour!

Turns out we're also the same age... Weirrrd.