The Times They Are A-Changin'

So yeah. Assassin's Creed II is my new favorite thing. Ezio Auditore de Firenze has secured his place on the list of my favorite video game characters.



In other news...

Our grandma's birthday was yesterday, so that was cool. We got together at her place with mom, Randy and the boys and ate Chinese food and cake. 'Twas fun.

Larissa and I are working on building a website in Flash. I never really learned how to make a website in Flash during school (we learned CSS and HTML and that's about it...), so it's a real learning experience. It's fun, though~ I do love Flash!

Mom brought a bunch of decorative things from an office that was closing. So now we have a new little picture in our bathroom, a bunch of new (fake) greenery and a Christmas tree in need of decorations. We have no ornaments though... XD;; BUT YES. It feels less bare in here.

Bah, I never have much of anything to say in these journals... Which is why I never really post unless I have something to squeal about. ^^;; Ah, well. What can ya do.

Arrivederci!

Sooo~ Geek.kon is this weekend! It should be interesting now that it's in a hotel and not on campus. I'm not necessarily excited for it, but I'm looking forward to it. XD The only big thing that's happening is we have a friend who's gonna be staying with us for the weekend.

Those of you who went to ACen this last May might remember her. She dressed up as Kenshin. She's a real sweetheart (Nozomi-neko is her DA name) and I'm certainly looking forward to getting to know her a bit better. ^^ She should be arriving at around 6:00 or so this evening. I'm a bit nervous having her over because... well... I'm a horribly boring and indecisive person who has such a hard time socializing with new people without there being a buffer zone of having interesting people in the room (like... any one of my friends). But yeah~ Hopefully the weekend will go well and she'll enjoy her stay.

I'm pretty sure Larissa and I will have to go to Geek.kon all weekend, too. Nozomi has an art table there this year and will in all likelihood not have a car (I think she's carpooling down here, but only she's spending the weekend with us -- the rest of her party are staying in a hotel room... I think), so we'll have to drive her there everyday. It's cool, though~ I'm interested in how the con has grown this year. BUT, that being said, if there's anyone else who's gonna be there, let me know! I know that really only applies to Cris and Megzie, but MAYBE Chris and Emily will come up for one of the days? 8D;; Nah, I kid~ Though I really would love to see you guys again! I'll hold out for the weekend after this one. ^^

Duuuurrrr... Yeah, so I guess that's all. I'm gonna go putz around in Flash. I feel like doodling....

I feel productive~  I have no good reason to feel that way....  BUT I DO ANYWAY.

Larissa and I finished Romeo x Juliet tonight.  It was good~  It was pretty and heartfelt and sappy and had a nice bittersweet ending, much like the play it's based on.  I might have to marathon it again so that I get a better feel for it, but it was a lovely anime, if only just in appearance.

I do have some comments about it...  So...

( Here There Be SPOILARS... )

Now that we've finished that one, we still have a lot to see...  We still have yet to watch the last disc of so many things...  Mushi-shi, Trinity Blood, Darker Than Black, Ergo Proxy, Scrapped Princess...........  And more and more....  We've been slacking off....  Not sure what we'll watch next but after all that RxJ, I really want to marathon Gankutsuou with Emily again.  I need me some Gonzo awesomeness.  And I don't feel like I can fully appreciate it without Emily being present.  XD;  Soooo....  Emilyyyyyy?  *taps fingers together and smiles sweetly*  Besides, I miss watching anime with people~  I'm glad I have Larissa to watch everything with, but I miss our anime/pizza nights with friends.  *wistful sigh*  I'm still way too into anime...  I know...  I should just grow out of it...  ;.;.;  But I was a late bloomer!  I've got a good ten years in me!  lol~  Ah, me...

You know what else was awesome?  Baccano! was awesome.  I should re-watch that one too...  *shifty eyes*

Wheeeee~  Not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow.  Never am.  So I'll see you all later then!  Night all~

In everything that's going on...  In all of these super-charged emotional states...  In all of these crazy issues that are just surrounding us...  Can we please please please remember that everyone involved are human beings and are allowed their emotions, even if we assumed they were emotionally solid?  Can we please not accuse or over-react or give up on or attack each other?  Can we please not assume that we know everything that's going on?  Can we please understand that ALL parties ARE willing to fix this?  Why are we attacking one another, calling each other names and making the situation even worse?  Why do we insist on garnering support from people who aren't involved and just plain don't know because they like some of us aren't getting both sides and can't or aren't willing to see that there's two sides to this messy coin?  Can't we see that all that does is perpetuate things and make the other parties more and more calloused?  And rightfully so!  We are flawed creatures, all of us.  All of us are broken and blind, only really able to see what we want to see or what others tell us.  Can't we accept that?  Why all the name calling...  Why all the accusation...  We assume we know what was said, but how can we REALLY know when all we have is text on a screen -- text that can be so easily misinterpreted.  Are you really willing to give up?  Are you really aware of what's going on?  You're hurt.  Both parties have been hurt.  Understand that.  Don't make things worse.  Please don't.  And PLEASE don't give up.  This can be fixed.  If you feel that what you have is worth saving, then SAVE IT.  Don't point fingers and say, "I'll only work at this if the other person is willing and they're not."  You don't know if they've given up on you.  So if you want things to be better, don't be the one to call it quits.

Stop the name calling, please.  We don't know the whole story, none of us.  Distance keeps us from fully understanding.  We can make things right, but what's happening right now isn't helping.  So please...  PLEASE stop....  I'm sorry you're hurt.  I really am.  Please just stop attacking...

I know...  it's not my place to say anything.  You can take me or leave me.  But I hope you'll at least listen.  And please...  Please stop....

So my hands are still bad...

For those of you who may not know, I've got some kind of allergic reaction to something (the doctor thought it might be a bad reaction to a type of plant) going on on my hands.  Both of them...  And it's baaaaaaad...  I finally caved yesterday and went to the urgent care clinic.  I was putting it off because I'm not employed at the moment and I had hoped that it would just go away.  Instead, it started to spread...  So, yeah...  Now one of my feet and both of my hands are covered with a blistering rash.  My hands are swollen and covered in scaly, itchy, irritable blisters and I'm having a hard time doing anything.  I can really only type using two fingers.  Kinda blah.  I can't write very well and drawing is right out, it seems (which is a pain, because MAN do I wanna draw!).  Sooooo...  yeah.

I've got myself some medicine that will hopefully clear this up over the next twelve days.  I hope it won't take that long...  Because this is a pain...  I can lift things and I can't grip things making me an entirely useless lump.  I can't take a plate out of the cupboard, I can't take the milk out of the fridge, I can't drive, I can't sign a check well, I can't help with groceries, I can't open doors, I can't brush my hair, I can barely even dress myself.  I hate feeling helpless and useless like this...  But every time I try to do any of those things, my hands burn and sting.  I can't bend my fingers because of the swelling.  GAH.  I want my hands back please...  I feel so bad for making Larissa do so much simply because my hands are so swollen and irritated.  She's so so SO good and gracious about it though.  I love her...  *hugs Larri*

In other news...

I haven't left the house much because of my stupid hands and I haven't been able to play WoW or draw or hold a book very well.  So I've been watching WAAAAY too much TV.  XD  Monday's are A Haunting and Tuesdays are apparently UFOs.  Ah, daytime TV on Discovery.  ^^  Larissa and I have also been watching more anime.  We finished Kurau: Phantom Memory and it was good!  Bones is by far my favorite Japanese animation studio.  It's incredible.  After that we watched the second to last disc of Darker Than Black (again, YAY BONES).  We watched more of Shakugan no Shana and finished Lunar Legend Tsukihime.  We still have a lot we have to watch and finish, but YAY fun times.

Durr durr durr...  We need to go grocery shopping soon here...  We have no food.  XD;  So yeah, within the next couple days we need to do that.  Annnnddddd...  Little Big Planet has fun music and Metal Gear Solid was a fun game to watch (thank goodness for little brothers who can play games like that).

OKAY!  COME ON MEDICINE!  WORK!  WORK!  Stupid bumpy, ugly, scaly, dry, blistery, swollen hands....  *bangs head against wall*  *stumbles off to watch more TV*

Oh and good luck to everyone going off to school!  And, Cris, if you make Hetalia mochi.........  I WANT A COMPLETE SET.  I WILL PAY FOR A COMPLETE SET!  Complete with Canada and Sealand, please.  8D  I loved your list~~~  It made me all kinds of happy!

And I'm sorry I missed lunch with you guys!  ;.;.;  I miss you already Emily!  And I can't wait to visit you!  THAT GOES FOR YOU, TOO, LAURA!  <333

Okay, NOW I'm done.....

Because this made me cry from laughing so hard....

Just thought I'd share.


Have a good day, all!  ^^

I want this....

I really want this...

Don't worry, I'm not going to bid on it.

But that doesn't mean I can't really want it.  XDDD

*fangirls*

Geez, though...  1000 dollars?  GEEEEEZ.

JUST FOR FUN...... ^^;;;;;

( See them...? )

That's all for now....... ^^;;; I love this series... DON'T JUDGE ME!!

I'm in the process of uploading a zip pack of the first 15 episodes of Hetalia for your viewing pleasure.  As I told Emily, these are all .mkv files and will need specific software in order to play.  It's all free, though!  Here's some links for the software you'll need...

VLC Media Player
Core Media Player (we recommend this one)
The Combined Community Codec Pack

Got it all?  Good~  Here's a link to the goodies!  Let me know whether or not this works...

Hetalia Episode Pack 01 - Episodes 1-15

And, just so I have this straight, for our Geek.kon Hetalia cosplay, so far we've got the following (correct me if I'm wrong):

Larissa - America (Alfred Jones)
Corinne - Russia (Ivan Braginski)
Emily N - UK (Arthur Kirkland)
Emily T - France (Francis Bonnefoy)
Chris - China (Wang Yao)
Megzie - Hungary (Elizaveta Héderváry)
Cris - Austria (Roderich Edelstein)

Is that good?  If anyone else is going to be at Geek.kon and wants to be a part of this, feel free to jump in!  We've got all the Allies covered as well as a couple others~  Good times!

This has been an exhausting and exciting few weeks.  I didn't get as much done as I wanted to before ACen, but I hope I focused on what was most important.  With all the packing, moving and unpacking we've done (and we've still to do) I'm almost entirely worn out.  I'm so looking forward to ACen now and just having an opportunity to relax and surround myself with things and people I love.  That said...  I have a confession to make.

Larissa and I will most likely not be cosplaying this year after all.  The wigs didn't work out and we have had no time lately to buy the shirts and shoes we needed.  We have the jackets and ties, but I'd honestly feel wierd not having a complete costume with the wig and all.  I'm super SUPER bummed about it, but real life reared it's ugly head and my procrastination and ignorance about the processing time for wigs finally caught up with me.  And I ultimately fail yet again.  I certainly feel like I'm letting EVERYONE down by not following through with my end of the group, but there's not a whole lot I can do at this point accept apologize and beg for forgiveness.  The costumes WILL be completed, just probably not for this year's ACen.  I can promise that I have learned my lesson from this fiasco, though, and am already making preparations for my Russia cosplay (which I will hopefully wear at Geek.kon this year).  Ouran should be complete by then, too, so we could probably do that there as well.  The stars did not align for this year's ACen and I just didn't know what I was doing.  Too much going on in real life at the last minute.

I'm so sorry, everyone...

I'm still looking forward to ACen even if I'm not going to be cosplaying.  I'll just do my usual thing.  Follow the cosplayers around and hold their things and enjoy the convention and the time off from real life.  I think it'll be refreshing after all the chaos and change that's been going on lately!

Also, we're getting the Charter guy in today, so we should have internet this evening.  I make no promises, but I HOPE that everything works.  Our I-Pass is good to go as well, so no tolls for us!  We also got a new bed yesterday and it's pretty nice.  The mattress is a bit too firm, but I slept well on it and the price was definitely right, so I'll not complain.  The other mattress we were sleeping on has been moved upstairs to act as a guest bed.  It has brand new sheets on it, too.  The kitchen still needs work, not the least of which is that the fridge still looks super bare.  We need to go to Aldi...  The bathrooms are both pretty much set up now, as is the living room.  We still have a ton of DVDs to put away and not enough shelf space on which to put them.  So we need more shelves...  The boxes and bags need to be emptied and their contents placed where they need to go and the "library" needs to be re-alphabetized.  The Playstation needs to be hooked up to the TV and all our clothes need to be put on hangers.  Overall....  There's a ton of stuff we have left to do...  But things are taking shape and I love the apartment so far.

We killed our first spider roommate today, too.

Fun times....

Ugh...  Again, I'm sorry to everyone we're letting down with this cosplay business....  It was my fault for procrastinating like I did.  I'm sorry...