Early Mornings

I went to bed at 11-ish. For those of you who have been keeping up with my weird insomnia-thingy, what time did I wake up? Four. Four AM. Two hours before the alarm. Knowing that fighting it was a waste of time, I got up and stole into the living room with my laptop. I wound up spending all that time on YouTube.

Last night, while in Promy-Holla, I was listening to S-I, again. And "Caramelldansen" came on. So naturally, that's what I looked for on YT. I saw quite a few versions, many of them quite good. I found some that make the "dance" easier to figure out. Guess all that line-dancing is gonna come in handy if I plan to cosplay-dansen someday!

I also watched a number of Evanescence vids. While I /love/ Ev and Amy Lee's divine singing, their videomaking is not quite to my liking. Too many cuts and not enough focus on events. The style is wonderful but it's hard to take it all in when they keep bouncing around.

Also in the playlist was "My Immortal", live, from the Anywhere but Home concert. I've always had a soft spot for this song (and its later twin "Good Enough") because they're vocal and piano only, and the lyrics are powerful. Lately, in the car while driving to work, I lip-sync most of the songs from Fallen and The Open Door. Including this one.

Well, during the live version, Amy called for the audience to sing along. Which many were doing anyway. Several shots showed many many in the crowd singing or mouthing the words. It's clear this music is personal for a great many people.

Also, under the vids were a slew of comments. A number of them echoed my opinions of Amy's artistry. Some called her fat. You have got to be frigging kidding me. /sigh. May I remind those people that I have a link to Dove's Campaign for Real Women over to the right? Use it. Nao.

Oh, also, I read that Pepsi (maker of AMP) has pulled their iPhone app called "AMP up Before You Score". I won't go into it but let's just say it contained crib notes for scoring with two dozen female stereotypes. I have a sense of humor and I can see some lols here. But the app further included a brag wall feature. During whatever meeting this thing was pitched in, was there someone from AMP's corporate parent Pepsi present to say, "Are you out of your mind?!" Guess not...

Other vids I saw included a weird Xenosaga cutscene redone using FFXI models. But someone had fully rendered a few characters in a real studio. The motion and texturing was extremely well done and the actual scene, titled something like "A Dynamis Nobody Wants to Enter" was creepily atmospheric - just in time for my fave holiday, Halloween!

Work went well, with much progress made, so Saturday was mine. I left work on time and met Ape at Clone the Younger's Fall Festival. He was scheduled to go in the dunking booth and Ape and I each had a shift taking tickets. This turned out to be a lot of fun because when throwers failed to dunk someone, either the ball-boy (or girl) would hit the trigger, or the thrower would run up and smack it themselves. We ate some carny food and walked around a bit, then went to Target prior to dropping the kids off at my parents'. I spent some time looking for new glasses. My current pair is literally nearly 20 years old. And not stylish.

After dropping off the boys, Ape wanted to go home. She's been feeling really lousy this week. But her friend called and she wanted to at least eat dinner with her and her hubby. Which was fine by me - we're all good friends and they're fun to hang out with too. We opted for Chili's, which was having their 2 for 20 food orgy. We got an app, two full dinners, plus dessert (Vanilla Lava cake!). I wound up taking nearly all my dinner home as I was pretty full from the carnival fare, and I wanted room for cake ^^

After, we stopped by Books-a-Million for a quick browse. I couldn't find *any* Tanith Lee books and I couldn't remember most of the other titles I was looking for. I really need to finish that booklist so I can go shopping!

At home, I spent a lot of time watching TV with Ape. A lot of Somer news :( but we also watched the second half of The Negotiator. I massaged her back and legs and played with her hair, plus juiced her up with Bio-Freeze to help her fall asleep.

Which she did just after midnight. So I ran out and spent about 90 minutes in Vana'diel selling off last night's memories and my Mercenary Captain's Headgear. I've been dragging this stupid thing around for my melees even after getting my Empress pin, but now I have no use for it. Also, turns out Somber memories are worth 10k! Yaaay!

I chatted with Deej and Kep while moving around to sort my house and complete my sales. Deej didn't get that animal care job, due to an administrative screwup :( Kep's been keeping busy too. I joked about Carmelldansen overload and no sleep and I was told to go to bed ^^ I actually dragged up more vids, but this time I was looking for live-action where I could see how humans dance it. I'm still trying to get the knack of the hip-swing.

One vid I found was from AnthroCon. A fursuited wolf was dansen and doing a very good job of it. There was something sublime about seeing that much quirkiness wrapped up in one vid... And before anyone takes exception to my use of the work quirky to describe a dancing wolf, please remember Aer's not that far from that. I also found a great group performance from AnimeEx 2008. I picked Captain Jack Sparrow as the most interesting participant.

At about 1:30 I packed it in, having obtained my Tactics Pearl reward before shutting down.

The Other Side

Tonight I was on a tighter schedule. And forgetting Survivor was almost on didn't help. This week at work our team was on "forced march" to complete a webservice project needed by another team's project. Due dates are getting close and my manager said if we didn't deliver enough code by tomorrow, we'd be coming in Saturday. Heck no!

Also, tonight's episode was supposed to be a thriller, with Russell almost dying or something. Well, during the reward challenge, he passed out, numerous times. He was dehydrated and over-extended. He couldn't get up and his heart rate was all over the place. Needless to say, he left with the medics. And that basically ended the episode. No reward, no Tribal. What? Booooring.

I arrived in Vana'diel at about 10 after nine. Fhox and Bene were already in Promy-Holla and waiting on me. Kush was waiting for Sky to start so we didn't get to chat much besides greets and occasional status updates on our respective runs.

I rode to Windy and changed to DNC/NIN, my personal fave for promies. Fhox needed heal support anyway so it would be perfect. But on DNC I'd have to find another way to the crag. I was considering OPing to Valkurm and then running but then I searched for tele-capable WHMs in Windy. I found one and offered 3k for the ride and she happened to be on and ready to take me. I finished my prep and met her, and threw in a 1k tip too. I don't require too many teles myself so I like to be generous, hopefully encouraging tele-taxi operators to continue.

On zoning in, I activated the Tactics Pearl quest and that would be a good thing as Sufhi helped out and ultimately scored 2k XP too. We quickly found Fhox and Bene and I took up my role as tanking healer. Aside from amateuring it up on DNC (forgetting steps and drain) nobody died and we didn't have to stop much for rest. I held hate pretty well with cures and alternating Quick Steps and Vokes.

We wrapped up close to 10:30, my announced exit time. But it took us 10 minutes to find the exit lol. Fhox and Bene were stacking the recollections. But I wound up with one Pain, in addition to three varied memories.

Sleepy Favors

(I love helping - I hope you all know that!)

Came on close to 8 expecting to find Fhox rallying RDB in a Promy memory run, for a later assault on the tower. Well, he wasn't on yet and most of my other friends were absent. Raki was on, and in the Tree. I guessed correctly that he was skilling and offered my assistance.

I sorted some personal stuff first then made my there. He was in an alliance, 3 + 3, and Kuse (I think) was dead. I took care of the raise and there was some discussion of unifying the party. Or going after some NM. Ultimately, Moonflowyr and Kuse took off. I think their third did too (sorry, I didn't get your name). So Raki, Balun and I worked on crabs. We were later joined by a THF and we actually made progress on our skills. I got some club, divine, enhance and heal. And shield lol.

Deej saw me on and asked what I was doing. I explained and he said he was wondering because he wanted to work on his SAM's AF1. I told him I'd bow out of the SU at 10 and meet him downstairs, as his quest was in Zi'tah. And it turns out I had the trigger for the NM pop - a sack of fish bait. I was hopeful this would go well and quick as I wanted some sleep.

Wel~l~l, as usual, Vana'diel had other plans. As I was preparing to leave, the other three wanted to relocate. I escorted, and somehow Raki got lost. Tracking him down and getting him safely to the others, caming near the waterfall up top, took close to 15 minutes...

I left as soon as I could and rushed home to get the fish paste. I expected I could use it since we'd be partied up. This would save the time of farming one, having no idea what kind of drop rate we were in for. I met Deej at the OP, but took a quick break to press Ape's back - she's pulled something or other back there and needs adjusting ^^

We made quick work of the trip to the small pond where the pug was waiting. I snuck Deej most of the way to avoid aggro delays. On arriving, I cleared the area with his help and then traded the fish bait. And nothing. I tried and tried, and I guess I can't do it without flagging the quest. And my SAM is far too low to qualify. So we farmed. It only took like 8 gobs and then Deej had his own trigger. Which didn't work. I love ya, you tall Elvaan, but next time check your quest log :3

I opted to continue helping, teleporting us to Yhoat and leading the way to Norg. The flag-up didn't take too long, and he also picked up a replacement Mumeito. From there, we warped to Mea and rode birds back to the sanctuary. Where, according to Deej, his brother was waiting. On zoning in, he told me to invite Sanwa. What? The same Sanwa I PLed along with Deej and Kush? Yep - somehow he neglected to make the complete intro last time lol.

The three of us made a winding walking trip to the pond from the zone, and on arriving, found someone there skilling on the coeurls. Yay - no CC for me! We buffed up, popped the NM and took care of business. I left them there and tele'd myself to Mea, where I rested for the night.

Monsters

(Sadly the monsters are on *this* side of the screen too...)

There are days I would trade my humanity for Mithra life, and I don't mean in the furry sense. Some days I'm ashamed to be the same kind of creature that did what we now expect - abducted and killed Somer Thompson.

I don't normally get into these tragedies, but this one happened not far from our house. We were able to drive out to the first vigil yesterday and saw hundreds of people walking, searching, praying. And this was getting close to 9pm, past dark. These people were here as friends and community, trying to find a lost little girl.

Well, today at work I saw the news we'd all been dreading but half-expecting. A "female child" turned up at the dump used by Somer's neighborhood... It's only a matter of time before confirmation. Or not - and then if it turns out to be someone else's precious child, then we have TWO mysteries... But most likely IMO, it'll be Somer.

Ape's been hard-hit by this too - there's something about personally seeing the pain and wretched hope on people's faces. I came home from work and gave her a big hug.

Reading back, I'm thinking I may have been too hasty about Humanity - I *did* see dozens upon dozens of people doing their best to make a miracle.

But to whoever did this, and I can't believe it was any kind of accident. Whoever did this?

I hate you.

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?