rulihe.com

LOL, Or: O HOD, why don’t she write?

And it’s not because I don’t care. It’s just that I don’t think about really sitting down to write anything wherein involves a life that’s not too terribly fascinating. So, at the very least, let me slap down everything that has happened recently.

First and foremost, I finished my first quarter of college and managed to keep my GPA over a 3.4, which is good enough in my book. Apparently, it’s also good enough by the school’s book because they sent me an honor’s ist certificate, kind of like getting the honor roll in 3rd grade. :3 This was both embaressing and yet strangely gratifying.

Secondly, my roommate has recently become acquainted with a fellow who’s supposedly a black-belt in Shotokan. Last weekend, he proceeded to come over and started to show her some of the beginning moves of it. Thus, she’s learning how to do this. On top of that, her other friend(Hi, Gelf!) is taking her to the gym 3 times a week now, because said friend has a membership there and can bring one friend for free.

Which is all well and good, of course, but it also means that one friend is one friend and I obviously can’t go to the gym with them. Let’s back up a bit and point out that a few weeks ago, my roommate also managed to buy one of those Gazelle machines. Yanno, Tony Little? Yea, one of those things. So I figure if her ass is going to go to the gym three times a week then, by God, while she’s gone, I’ll work out on the Gazelle.

First night I tried it, I did 2 miles in 40mins. Last night, they went again, so I did it again. 2 miles in 35mins. Tonight, they’re going again, so I suppose I’ll be doing another two miles. Now, she said that her and Gelf are going to be going Mon., Wed., and Fri., but this week they can’t go Fri., so they’ll be going tonight instead.

We’ll see how this pans out. I don’t know how long the Shotokan thing will go on, but hopefully, the gym thing will be a very constant staple.

Let’s see, what else..? Oh, oh. So a few weeks ago, I’m on the phone with my mother and she’s like, “:D We’re going to Alaska!” Apparently, that’s been my stepdad’s dream trip for ages now. He’d planned on doing it once that he retired – which he did a few years ago.

:3 Apparently, it’s now time to go to Alaska!

V.A.S.T. – Visual Audio Sensory Theatre

Last night, I had the distinct pleasure of going to the 8×10 and seeing Vast play. They were heralded by two other bands. The first one, The Electricites..eh. I was not impressed. After that was Into the Presence which, I have to say, was a damned good band. They’ve got a myspace here, and I highly recommend you listen to them. There was kind of a Plant feeling to them, but not in a bad way.  I was really impressed with them. Apparently, they’re from somewhere out west and the lead singer/guitarist is a child prodigy. Which explains a lot, let me tell you. The guy can play like no one’s business.

And then, there was VAST. The first licks started playing and I started crying. Nothing can prepare your for it, really.

I understand that I take listening to music to a very extreme level; music is crucial to my happiness. You know that question, “If you had to pick between going deaf or blind, which would you choose?”, the answer is very, very easy for me. Blind. No hesitation. I can’t imagine not being abot to listen to music anymore. I’d be absolutely devistated.

So to be able to see and hear, in person, a band that I’ve been in love with for nearly a decade, it was very powerful. Combine that with how moving and powerful Vast’s music is? Yea. I was in tears pretty much the whole performance, but it was awesome. Vast sounds amazing live. I don’t have any other personal references to go by, but I’ve heard live performances before and some of them sound atrocious – G’n'R comes instantly to mind.

Not Vast. Jon sounds amazing, has a great stage presence, knows what he wants out of his music, and played pretty much every song I wanted to hear including Pretty When You Cry and Touched(the latter being the very first Vast song I heard, and still gives me goosebumps). They played a lot of the older Vast stuff, which made me really happy; it was nice to hear it. I was worried they’d play all new stuff – which isn’t bad, don’t get me wrong! – but I didn’t want to hear just that.

I do believe that was the best $60 bucks ever spent. Ever.

Personal Problems

Not that I have any. None. Not really. I mean, sure, I still haven’t gone to the school to sort out my financial aid shit, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

Today, one of my best friends got on a bus to ride across the country, from Florida to Canada to deal with an issue that she should have been able to take care of from her own state, her own living room, maybe a trip to the post office and, for good measure, perhaps the DMV and MAYBE the courthouse. I won’t get into too many details because it’s not my place to, but chances are, you can read about it  here.

The point of this post, for me, is to talk about how I’ve come to discover and understand the impact of people’s lives, how they change, and how they effect mine.

I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing Mel for many, many years now. We met on the internet, as it seems to be case with nearly all of my friends, and at first, we sort of just passed each other by, role-played together briefly, then went on with our lives.

Years later, we stumbled across one another’s path again, shared a few giggles, but then parted again. I went on a bit of a sabbatical, if I recall correctly.  Then one day, we connected. Big time. And ever since then, we’ve pretty much kept in contact nonstop. I went on a brief forray into MMO land, but we’ve kept in contact. We have constantly RPed. We have gotten along and we’ve wanted to swat one another.

Aside from my roommate, she is my best friend. I have confided a lot of things to her – and vice versa.

She is now going to be gone for a month. A month of no hysterical giggling. A month of no horrid jokes or huge capital letters. A month of no drooling over terribly hot men, or sharing suddenly found pictures on Deviant Art.

I know and understand she had to go, I really do. This isn’t some jaunt across the country. It’s important – very important – but that doesn’t make it any less pleasant. When your best friend has to go away, with very, very little contact, for a yet undetermined amount of time? A friend like Mel? Your life suddenly seems less interesting.

HAIR or: O HOD, this is not a musical.

So, with a little of this, this weekend my hair got deliciously red. We wound up getting the stuff for long hair–1000g for 45$. J also got one of the bars for shampoo and holy shit is it awesome. First of all, the henna alone makes my hair smell wonderful, like fresh hay, but the bar on top of it? Glorious. It’s got a very pine smell to it and I love it.

Though, when I talk to The Fu about this, she brought up a good point: If your hair is rather dry, I wouldn’t recommend the bar. I have very, very oily hair that requires frequent washing. Otherwise, I have enough oil on my head to power a small car. The bar really cleans hair and strips away most of the oil. So while it leaves my hair feeling gloriously clean, someone with dryer hair might come away with hair like straw and that would be bad.

The 1000g came split into two 500g, which is great because 500g is pretty much how much it takes to do both mine and J’s hair.  The last time we’ve done this, the mixture hasn’t quite been thin enough, but this time, it was just right. It didn’t take me too terribly long to do her’s – I did her’s first and then she tackled mine. It took quite a while to do mine because I just have so much hair and it’s ridiculously thick. I am, however, terribly pleased with the results, even if the arms on my glasses are now stained sort of red. :3

I’m not asking for a miracle, or: O Hod, why can’t it just be right?

So, I’m going to talk about school a little because I just finished doing my Med Term homework(Yea. At 1.30 in the morning). First of all, I like this class, I really, really do. Hell, I’m loving all of my courses, quite frankly.

I mean, it’s a force of will that I don’t post the first written assignment I did for my Psych class. It’s the first report I’ve written in oh, over ten years, and I got a perfect score on it, which makes me feel so fucking insanely proud. Then there were the two quizzes after that that I did, that I got perfect scores on as well.

But one of the small issues I’m having in my Med Term class is that our homework online is frequently riddled with mis-spellings. Here’s an example:

Build a medical term that means enlargement of the spleen.
The proper answer for this is: splenomegaly. That term comes straight from our textbook. The answers for the homework, however, says the answer is : spleenomegaly, so according to the computer, I got the answer wrong. Now, mind you, the teacher for the course goes in and double checks our work by hand, but still. It also did this for splenectomy and hematopoiesis(it gives the answer as hemtopoeisis, which is another incorrect spelling on it’s part).

It will also do this if you don’t give it the answer to a question EXACTLY the way it wants it, such as:

Shcool!

First of all, let me thank the Fu for helping me with my WP Dashboard because I’m obviously a fucking idiot. No, that’s not being sarcastic and snarky. God, how I wish.

Moving along!

So classes started Wednesday, officially. I’m taking 3 classes, which I’ve mentioned, but not gone into detail about. Lemme do that now.

ACA – Student Success. It’s basically a class on how to be a good student. Big whoop. Mickey Mouse course and I’m not worried, here.
MDA – Medical Terminology, fucking HOORAY. I’m so excited about taking this, I really am.
PSY – Psych! Literally. I’m not sure how I feel about this one, I’m really not, even though I know I have to take it.

So I spent yesterday doing the ACA homework, and then today doing most of the MDA stuff. All I have to do is do my quiz in that, and I’ll be finished with that. The Psych class doesn’t have any ‘homework’, per se. Quizzes and written assignments. I was ridiculously pleased to do it though, especially the MDA stuff. It was daunting, don’t get me wrong–I’m just in the first chapter, and there are so manny word roots and prefixes and suffixes to learn, but it was a lot of fun. J happens to be taking anatomy intro, so we’re actually sort of bouncing off one another. I will probably have to take the class she’s taking now soon myself, I would think, though I may be wrong about that.

I never thought this would be the career path I’d take, to be honest, but I can’t say I’m not interested/excited all to hell about it.

alksdfalkdsjf INTERNETS, WAT?

I don’t even know where to start with this, I really don’t. I’ll let you people read it and go ‘BWA?’ and then handle it.

______________________________________

mars:  very original
Kenpachi:  :D Wasn’t meant to be!
mars:  lol you could’ve done what i did
and just base the char off of him but still
make your own backstory, personality
twists, likes/dislikes, etc. :P
Kenpachi:  :D But I didn’t want to. I
wanted to play *Kenpachi*.
mars:  hence why i said original, if you
wanted to play kenpa you could’ve gone
to devart and gone to one of the rp chats
and said , “hey, bleach rp please!”
Kenpachi:  :D Yes, but that would
mean that I’d be dealing with a bunch of
idiot down’s babies that don’t know how
to RP. Hence, why I came here. I know
people here. I know they know how to
RP.
mars:  lol not everyone’s a downs baby
there’s quite a few good rp’ers
Kenpachi:  ::Shrug.:: I’m here. I’m
enjoying myself. ‘SAll that matters.
mars:  lol kk
mars:  wonder what would happen if our
two met O.o mine don’t have the bells
and has a dif sword and is shorter but
otherwise they’re the same
Kenpachi:  Nothing.
mars:  lol there’d be that moment they’d
think they’re looking at a mirror though
Kenpachi:  No, not really.
mars:  -.- you’re no fun
Kenpachi:  Nope!
mars:  i knew it!
Kenpachi:  It’s pretty obvious after the
first two minutes or so. I’m terrible and
horrible and no one likes me. :3
mars:  course not :P
Kenpachi:  ^_^ I can live with that,
though.
mars:  lies! the guilt will eat at your soul
XD
Kenpachi:  I don’t have anything to feel
guilty about, though.
mars:  yes you do, for being unloved
and alone in your moms basment with
your pants down eating cheetos, just
don’t watch porn or you’ll turn your
wankee orange
mars:  6.6
Kenpachi:  fffft
mars:  ^.^*
Kenpachi:  :D First: I’m a girl. Second:
I’m 26, in college, living several states
away from my mother. :3 However:
HOORAY FOR INTERNET ASSUMPT
IONS, WHOOPEE!
Kenpachi:  Third: :D well done on
getting yourself reported to the admins,
several of which I am friends with. ^_^!
Bye!
mars:  o.o
mars:  but but but, i was joking!
Kenpachi:  :3 Maybe you should think
about what you say, before you insult
people on a forum where both the chats
AND the IMs are all logged. Harassment
in any form is an offense here.
mars:  you people have no sense of
humor -.-;
Kenpachi:  Insulting people is funny?
What are you, 15? Grow up. There’s
nothing amusing about blantantly
smearing someone’s name, someone
who you know NOTHING about.
Kenpachi:  This isn’t high school.
There’s nothing funny about picking on
people, trust me. Maybe when you grow
up some, you’ll come to realize that.
Adults don’t take too kindly to it, and
trust me, all of the Admins of this place?
They’re ALL adults.
mars:  it’s just a joke, jeeze, you should
try laughing it off and ignoring it or
something, banning people just gets
people pissed, and just so you know i’m
18 so pretty close, also just cause the
jokes are based on assumptions and
immature doesn’t mean they’re meant to
insult you, if i wanted to insult you i’d do
so literally rather than joking, anyways if
you report me i’ll just tell them the truth,
i was just trying to be funny and failed
miserably cause the person didn’t see
the humor
Kenpachi:  Okay, let me run this by
you: The admins will be getting a copy
of everything you’ve said in this IM,
including the part about me ‘living in my
mom’s basement with my pants down’.
Now, which do you think they’re going to
believe, you telling them you didn’t
mean, it, or them READING WHAT YOU
TYPED? Think about this, okay? I’ll even
give you a few minutes to debate it over
in your mind.
Kenpachi:  On the internet, there are no
facial expressions. There are no tones of
voice. All I have is what you typed, what
I read. What I read CERTAINLY sounded
like an insult, and I promise you, it
would read that way for just about
anyone.
mars:  just cause i typed it didn’t mean i
meant it, jeeze, sarcasm is a lost art in
the net
mars:  plus that’s why I add smilies to
what i type ^^
Kenpachi:  Yes, well, as the saying
goes, “If you don’t have anything nice to
say, maybe you shouldn’t say anything
at all.’
Kenpachi:  Smilies don’t make things
seem any less insulting.
mars:  i was trying to e friendly by
joking around, and no they don’t but they
do help translate the sarcasm meant
behind it
Kenpachi:  Psst: Sarcasm is
INSULTING.
Kenpachi:  It’s NOT meant to be a good
thing.
mars:  sarcasm is also used to say
things you don’t actually mean in a
joking manner, as in ha ha, sarcasm
isn’t used to insult people unless you
says something like way to go genius
after the person just screwed up
Kenpachi:  Okay, the definition of
Sarcasm, from dictionary.com:

1.     harsh or bitter derision or irony.
2.     a sharply ironical taunt; sneering
or cutting remark: a review full of
sarcasms.
Kenpachi:  So…I think, after what you
typed, saying you were being sarcastic?
NOT a good thing.
Kenpachi:  You make yourself out to
look remarkably small-minded. You
insulted me, blantantly, making
assumptions about me based on nothing
at all.
Kenpachi:  If you were me, would YOU
have been insulted?
Kenpachi:  And you can say no all you
want, blahblahblah, I can take a joke.
Whatever. You’ve made your bed, now
you get to lay in it. Way to go.
mars:  -.- that’s no defintion of sarcasm
I’ve ever heard, sure it’s irony and all but
still i’m just trying to joke around, light
hearted fun, hee hee ho ho ha ha stuff, i
don’t aim to piss people off on purpose
so if what i said offended you i’m sorry, i
don’t get insulted at anything so no I
wouldn’t off i would’ve laughed it off and
joked right back, but that’s just how I
am, i take nothing seriously and laugh at
everything
mars:  damn to long
Kenpachi:  Yea, well, not everyone is
you. You can’t just go out into public
and say things like that to people YOU
DON’T KNOW. You don’t get to
blantantly talk like that to strangers. If
you walked up to some random person
on the street and said that, chances are,
you’d get decked.
Kenpachi:  Consider this your internet
decking.
Kenpachi:  Remember this: Don’t do it
again.
mars:  actually i have said that to
people i’ve just met, they tend to laugh it
off, no one’s decked me yet so up until
now i have, and still will, go with the
assumption people can take anything as
a joke, it’s better to ask forgiveness than
permission
Kenpachi:  laksdjfasdf NO, ACTUALLY.
It’s better to ask for permission and
maybe get told no before you insult
someone and then maybe deeply offend
someone, making them never want to
talk to you again, and they’ll tell you
where you can stick that forgiveness.
Also: It’s better to just quit while you’re
ahead. Just go away, dude. You’ve
made me angry enough as it is.
______________________________________

This actually happened. I don’t know what else to say outside of, “…..wat?”

Insert insanely exasperated, angry, tired sigh here.

It’s sort of funny, when I think about it. There are few things in this world that really get under my skin like lying. Anyone who knows me intimately will find the hypocrisy in that. I’ve lied a lot in my life, I really have.

So let me rephrase that, so that I don’t sound like such a douche myself(don’t give me that look. We all rephrase shit, let’s face it).

I hate people that lie blatantly and then do absolutely nothing to cover up their lie later. Because see, when people do that, it makes me think that they think that I’m a fucking idiot, and that they’re slick as snot when in fact, they’re not slick at all. Let’s give a little example, shall we?

Both D and J are smokers. I quit last year, but I was never addicted to begin with, so I don’t have to worry about cravings from watching/smelling them smoke. While I wish they would quit(as it would save us so much fucking money that we don’t have), I’ve long since given up trying to talk them into quitting; It’s a waste of my breath and their time. However, an exception has been made that they can smoke two fucking packs a day, as long as they do it outside. That’s the rule in the house and the only one I care about. I cannot stand for my clothes to smell like cigarettes. I cannot stand for the air that I regularly breath to smell like cigarettes. If I go outside with them, I can always stand upwind. I don’t have to smell it. It works out great.

Well, D used to be a big time WoW player and while raiding, stepping out for a smoke just wasn’t convenient. …I have mixed feelings about that, quite frankly. Part of me is like, “Suck it the fuck up, buttercup. Quit and then you can play WoW as much as you damn well please.” On the other hand, I do understand that having to stop in the middle of doing something, no matter what that something is, or what the reason you have to stop is, it sucks. I get that. Now, what D would do was actually open the window in the office, stand on the chair, and hang out the window. According to his twisted logic, he was outside. Right. I was willing to let that go. Because you couldn’t convince him to do anything else anyway, so you might as well put up with it.

Now that the winter has come, it gets very cold outside and I can also understand where no one wants to go stand out in the cold. You have to understand, however, that it was D and J’s agreement on the ‘No Smoking In The House’ rule.  During one of their attempts to quit, they agreed that not smoking inside would make them less inclined to smoke all together, thus cutting back severely on their cigarette intake–and let me tell you, it fucking works. Which would you rather do, go outside in the freezing cold for a smoke, or suck it up and stay inside where it’s warm?

Yea.

So when D took it upon himself to start smoking in the office, while J and I were pretty annoyed, we kinda/sorta let it slide, on the agreement that if he wanted to hang out of the window and look like a moron, that was his red wagon.

However, it has come to our attention that he is no longer hanging out the window. How do we know this? Because we, like most people, have central heating/air. When he hangs out the window, we don’t smell anything, because the smoke isn’t in the house, technically speaking. On the other hand, when he’s NOT hanging out the window, the cigarette smoke goes into the vent and is redistributed throughout the house, making the whole house smell like cigarettes.

This..does not make us happy. This morning, when J came upstairs, she smelled it immediately. She and D then proceeded to have a little ‘chat’. She reminded him the reasons WHY they stopped smoking inside–not only because it helps cut down, but also because they have a 10 year old daughter, and J doesn’t want her exposed to that. D agreed with her, and said he’d start smoking outside again. She said that he went out at around 10 for a smoke, and she hasn’t seen him go outside since. At about…1:45? I was in the kitchen, making something to eat, when I heard his lighter scratch–twice, thanks–and then about 3 minutes later, I smelled cigarette smoke.

Now…please, correct me if I’m wrong, but I kinda throw that under the ‘He lied to us’ category. I guess the part that just pisses me off is that he lied, and then continues to lie by default of continuing the action, as if J and I were idiots, as if we’re not smart enough to realize that he’s doing it right under our noses. As if he thinks he’s slick and we’re just two bumbling idiots.  I’m not going to pretend to know what he’s thinking. I’m not going to come out and say that that is what he thinks about us, because I’m no genius. But I do know that I’m not an idiot, either. I do know that if he really fucking cared, he wouldn’t fucking do it. That is what pisses me off. That he just has no concern at all for anyone else except him.

In Which I Feel the Urge To Hit Someone

First of all, let me apologize–I’d meant to put a post up about Windows 7, but instead, it went on my Livejournal, as I accidentally(and inadvertently), broke Rulihe the other day. Oops!

But that’s not what this post is about. This post is going to start out about college and then work it’s way towards my family. Stick with me.

I woke up today because Orientation for both New Students and Medical students to AACC was today. Medical was at 10, so I woke up at 8:30, got up, had breakfast, got dressed, and went to college. After that, I went to Testing to take my placement tests, both English/Reading and Arithmetic. Passed the English, but I failed the Arithmetic by 4 questions. :( So I’ve got to go back and retake it, but it’s not an emergency. That done, I went to Financial Aid, spoke with them, had to run back over to Registration, where I got told I needed to fill out some paperwork to switch around my class schedule.

So I got started on that only to realize it was nearly 2, panic, and run over to the other orientation, which was pretty long in and of itself. Once that was through, I went back to registration, finished filling out the paperwork, then went BACK to Financial Aid, where I got my book voucher and got my books foooooor:

Student Success(Actually, I didn’t get this book. Roommate has it, hooray!)
Intro to Psychology($75, USED, good grief!)
Medical Terminology($60, and I can’t wait to actually sit down and start reading it. *-*)

So…that done, I treated me and the roommate with Taco Bell with the last of my Christmas money, which I probably shouldn’t've done, but I wanted to. We came home and after eating, I called my mother.

I told you all of that so I could tell you this:
While on the phone with my mother I discovered that Travis, the brother that I rarely get to talk to, was there, so I asked to speak with them. At one point, the conversation went like this:

Me: So I’m basically going to become a Medical Assistant.
Travis: Why don’t you just go ahead and go for the whole thing and become a nurse?
Me: Because I don’t want to be a nurse. They’re on their feet all day and–
Travis: God, you are so lazy.
Me: ….Fuck you.
Travis: Well you are!
Me: Well you know, at least I’m trying to go to school and get a real fucking job.
Travis: I’ve had a real job since I was 17.
Me: Just give the phone back to Mom.

….Travis’ ‘real’ jobs have included working for a grocery store and basically doing hard, thankless, boring labor all of his life. Now, I understand that we need hard labor workers in this country and I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, but let me put it this way: Would you continue working hard, thankless labor if someone offered to PAY FOR YOUR COLLEGE?

FUCK. NO. When we moved to GA and I started going back to college, Mom begged Travis to go back to school, telling him that she’d pay for it and everything. Did he? Nope. I think he might’ve tried a course or two, but failed it because he just wasn’t interested in it.

Every time I talk to Travis, he always tells me how I need to get out into the real world and everything, but apparently, I’m fucking lazy for deciding to spend the next at least two years, probably, in school. :D Thanks, Travis. Fucker.

To Do List: Or, O Hod, I just want to take the apron off.

So last night’s sleep was something akin to an exersize in futility, even though I went to bed remarkably early. On the other hand, I think it was my body’s way of making sure I didn’t sleep late. I had to get up early this morning to go cash the money order my mom sent me-…

Let’s back up for a moment here: Every year, when my mother sends me my Christmas, she’ll send treats. Fudge, haystacks, whatever. Well, this year she decided she wouldn’t because she knew that if she cooked all this stuff, she’d want to eat it, and she’s trying to shed a few pounds. As a result, she sent me a money order in advance so that I could go out, by the stuff I needed, and make it myself. Which is totally cool, I don’t mind that.

So I cashed the money order and we went shopping for groceries for the stuff I needed, along with whatever we needed for the house. We left at 9:30, got back at about 10:45, which was good time in my book. Groceries put away, a brief bit of holiday cheer, and then it was time for cooking. I made 7 Layer bars first, then shredded up a mess of chocolate and almond bark. Did Ritz PB crackers dipped in the chocolate bark.

Tomorrow I’ll do the almond bark, make the Muddy Buddies, then onto the peanut butter fudge. We might be getting a ham and if we do, I’ll probably cook that too if we can get a decent cut. Christmas, I’ll also be making the Broccoli Casserole because if I do not, my life will probably be forfeit.

Well, it’s official:

I am now, technically speaking, a college student.

Today, the roommate and I went up to AACC where I filled out my application and put forth my classes. I spoke with financial aid and now I just have to wait for FAFSA to send the school my info.  I’ve also called ECTC(my old college, East Central Technical College) and left a message with a registrar to get in contact with me, so I can see about getting a copy of my transcript mailed up here. I’ll also have to go back later this week and take my placement/evaluation test.

I have plenty of time, however. Classes for spring don’t start until January 21st, so I basically get to play the waiting game until then.

In Retrospect:

I wish that I could write as well as I used to be able to, with the frequency that I have now. Some people might be shocked to know that, to know that I write often. I do, constantly, it seems. It’s just that I don’t write anything that I deem worthy of putting here.

The truth of the matter is that for as much as I love to write, I’m remarkably wary of doing so in a public venue. I mean, no, blogging is one thing. I’m talking about stories, snippets of ideas that float through my head. I’ll have to sit down however, and see if I can’t either put up old stories that used to be on Rulihe…or write a few new ones. The idea of the latter scares me a bit.

WHARRGARBL

I have spent the past hour or so over at the garden of eden, backreading all of Eve’s posts.

Now, there are several reasons for this.

1. I’m always looking for dirt in which I can use to traumatize Eve with. It’s a hobby.
2. It was pointed out to me earlier that I don’t keep up with my reading. This is a true statement, and I need to get into the habit of keeping up better with my blogroll and who’s on it.
3. Eve is a fascinating person, albeit a tad bit disturbing. Then again, so am I. I don’t have a lot of room to talk.

It’s funny because even though I have technically known Eve for many years now, I really don’t know her very well. We’ve always touched base shortly and then gone our seperate ways–either I’ve left AOL or she’s found some MMO to bury herself into. Mind you, it hasn’t been until recently that I’ve had the intelligence to, yanno, put her on my BL on aim. We don’t like me for my intelligence though, now do we?

Over the past couple of weeks, however, I’ve had the distinct pleasure in mindfucking her so badly that I thoroughly expect to get smacked just for making this post.

On the other hand, I know that Eve is one of those people I can always torm–I mean, commiserate..with, when it comes to shitty RPers and horrendously made profiles in DM.

I mean, isn’t that what friends are for?

A Brief Post About Games.

So, outside of replaying Chrono Trigger, the past few weeks have found me playing a few games online. While I generally get bored and tired with stupid little web-based games, I’ve found these to be charming and endearing and definitely interesting.

Funny Farm is an awesome word association, leap-of-logic sort of game that took my roommates and I quite a few days to finally finish. Expect it to take time–you will NOT finish it in a day unless you cheat.

Auditorium is a game I Stumbled onto this morning that instantly delighted me. It’s challenging and music based, which kept me playing it a while. While it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how to play, it is rather difficult.

notpr0n is not a game I’ve been playing recently, but is a game I have played. While some people might argue that notpr0n isn’t a game at all, I disagree, and list it here because it does deserve recognition. If you have played it and enjoyed it, you might want to look into getting a copy of Missing: Since January and it’s sequel, Evidence: The Last Ritual. They’re like notpr0n in that you often have to look things up on Google, but are, in fact, a cohesive game. Very awesome.

Hark. I think I just heard a 9 1/2 inch homicidal dick just land on my doorstep. <3

Edit: I was wrong. ;_;

An Exchange:

Me:

Hi Mom,

You know how we were talking on the phone the other day and I said that I really didn’t have much I wanted for Christmas? And how a few weeks ago you mentioned how I hadn’t asked for anything really ‘cooky’(your words, there)for a while? Well, I’m about to ask for something.

A long time ago when I was rather young, I, like most young girls my age, saw David Bowie prance around in tight pants and big hair whilest watching Labyrinth. Thankfully, I was young enough to not pay attention to the tight pants part but I did pay attention to something Jareth(the character, that is), did.

Contact juggling. You know, the part where he does the really neat stuff with the clear sphere? That’s contact juggling and it’s something I’ve been interested in ever since. Apparently, with practice, it’s not too hard to learn, is great for hand-eye coordination, and most of all, it’s good exercise for those of us suffering from Carpal Tunnel syndrome, something I occasionally see signs of.

So here’s that one amazingly insane, cooky gift request from me for Christmas.

http://www.sparklingcitymagicshop.com/shop/product.php?productid=16612&cat=389&page=1

Yep. You got it. I want a 3.5inch sphere of acrylic that costs $35.00.

Amazingly, this is one of the cheapest one’s I’ve found. Some of them can get as pricy as $50, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me quite frankly; Technically speaking I could just melt down a lot of press on nails, what with them being acrylic and all. For that matter, did you know that apparently, you can make a shiny ball out of mud? Mud, can you believe that? Where was this information when I was a kid? :( I feel as if I’ve been severely robbed of what could have been potential awesome at a remarkably young age.

Mud.

Ahem. I digress. So yea. That’s my one insanely bizarre Christmas request. I’ve obviously been slacking in this department, allowing you to fall into a strange sort of holiday ennui. Ennui. Just sort of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Love,
Lauren

Also: If you noticed the timestamp of this email, it’s correct. 4:26 a.m. Good grief.

My Mother:

That's what I get for asking....OH WELL!
I know that I am going to HATE myself for this...but...technically...
to juggle...won't that require two of them?

I could only giggle at her, honestly. She’s so hysterically funny, even when she’s not trying.

Et tu, Brutus?

This isn’t about betrayel or assassination though. This is about language. I was stumbling around on the internet today and I came across www.lang-8.com. If this is something that everyone already knows about and I’m just hopping on the bandwagon, sue me. Otherwise, this is fascinating.

The premise is simple. People trying to learn a new language write journal entries(or whatever they want, really) and people who are strong in that language come along and correct you. See? Simple. But it’s remarkably interesting and to be 100% honest, hysterically funny at times.

It’s also provided me with hours of entertainment so far and a sense of awesomeness. I’ve been helping people with English. That’s cool. Go check it out.

A Few Notes:

First of all, it’s far, far too late for me to be awake. As my roommate has recently lost her job, she is no longer sticking quite so strenuously to her previous sleep schedule. What this means is that she just went to bed less than an hour ago. I have a gut feeling this may not end well for her or for me, for that matter.

I said that so I could say this: Today I was Stumbling on the internet and I came across a really awesome article about polyphasic sleeping. This is something that I’d never heard of before and I have to say, it makes for a very interesting read.

The concept is that instead of sleeping 6+ hours a night, you begin sleeping in short, 15-20 minute bursts about six times a day, resulting in around 2 hours of sleep per day. By doing this, you force your body into inducing REM sleep the second you fall asleep. Medically speaking, REM sleep is the only required phase of sleep the human body needs, and you get about an hour and a half of it per night.

Few people have successfully managed to do this for any extended period of time, due to a lack of personal discipline but I have to admit, it’s really, really fascinating, medically speaking.

I told you that so I could tell you this: I sat down today with my roommate and her mother and we looked over the course book for the college, discussing what I would take and how. I’m pretty excited about this, I have to say. My decision to go into medical transcription and/or coding is based around the fact that it’s work I could do from home and it’s also something I just find fascinating. I love the medical field but I don’t think I could really bring myself to actually be a nurse–I’m just not social enough for that. Whereas medical transcription is something I could do from my own home, on my own time.

Prior to moving, my mom tried to push me towards the path of a similiar career, court reporting. At the time, it just wasn’t something I was interested in. To be honest, I’m glad I stuck to that decision. Medical transcription is definitely the choice I’d rather take. Today, as we were talking, my roommate asked me if I was sure this is what I wanted to do and I said yes. This is not a decision I’m making based on the fact that, “Oh, I can work from home.” This is something I really have an interest in, as I find the medical field amazing, but know that actually as a nurse is something I would be incapable of handling from a mental standpoint.

Some time next week, she has to go to the college and I’ll be going with her to register and speak with financial aid, along with seeing that I have to do to get my transcript from my previous school. Several of the courses, I can take online, which is a nice bonus. Others, I can either take at the high-school, local campus, or up at Arundel Mills.

I’m really pretty excited about this and when I told Mom, she was very happy for me. I’m getting to that point where I want to do something for me, not for others. It’s taken a while for me to get to this point, but I’m glad that I have.

A Revolution in Gaming: Chrono Trigger

Eleven years ago, I was living in South Carolina.

It’s a good way to start this post. I was young and smart, but not very popular. I didn’t have many friends, but that was alright by me. Savvy with a computer, I spent more time online than anything else, more interested in chat rooms than boys and sleep overs.

My mother and I were living with her boyfriend at that time; He was an older man, who already had two grown sons. He also was in the possession of a big screen television. His youngest son had a Super Nintendo hooked up to that television and it was through this machine that my life was changed irrevocably.

I recall, with great distinction, that one night we went to Blockbuster Video to find some movies to rent and I browsed the video game section as I often did. That particular evening, something caught my eye. It was a box with an image on it, and two words that, from that point forward. were forever etched into my being:

Chrono Trigger.

Blockbuster rented games for five days and for the next five days, I was incapable of sleeping. I stayed up until five in the morning, playing this game. Never, in the whole of my life, had I been so taken in by a game. Sure, I had played Mario and Zelda plenty of times. I was no stranger to video games. But nothing could have prepared me for the magnificent story that Chrono Trigger unfolded into.

That’s what I was a sucker for. A book could have the most unappealing cover in the world, but as long as the story was good, I was ready to give it a shot. Chrono Trigger was the most engrossing story I had ever seen and to be honest, still to this day, it ranks as still one of the best stories ever. Of all the movies I’ve seen, of all of the books that I have read, of all the games I have played, few have captured me in a way that Chrono Trigger did–and still does.

In this day and age, there are few people, especially young ones, that can say that have read a book or seen a movie that really changed who they are and it might sound ridiculous to admit it, but Chrono Trigger defined the person I would become. It was the first RPG that I played. Playing Chrono Trigger set in me not only a standard for future games that I would play, but RPGs in general. I really began to take a deep interest in gaming after it because prior to playing it, I had never really considered video games as anything driven by a story. It’d always been: Kill enemies, rescue princess. To me, there was no hook, no bait for playing a video game for any extended period of time. Suddenly, I became aware that it was possible for games to tell a story. I played a lot of RPGs after that, though few did to me what Chrono Trigger did.

Chrono Trigger also made me get into online role-playing. It was because of one game that I met tons of people, many of which I still know, two of which I now live with. I would never have met them, I would never have moved. I would probably never have started to write as vigorously as I do now. I would never have grasped that good stories can come from so many difference places, some of which you least expect.

While many people tout Final Fantasy III and VII as the best RPGs of all time, I disagree. Nay.

Today, as I booted up my freshly downloaded rom-copy of Chrono Trigger and as Crono put on Marle’s pendant to follow her and the game’s main theme started up, I got goosebumps and I started to cry.  I suddenly felt not only 15 again, but capable of doing anything. The shit with school, the shit with no one in the house having a job, none of that mattered.

For the next few days, I’m going to get help from a Frog, save the princess, lose her again, race wth a sentient motorcycle named Johnny, butt heads with a handsome, brilliantly scathing Magus, run around with a scantily-clad cavegirl, kill dinosaurs, fly on an airship, only to wreck it, turn it into a time traveling airship named Epoch, destroy the world, die, come back to life from the awesomeness of time travel, taunt some would-be nuns, save the world, save my Mom…and still have time to get the girl.

This is what gaming should be. Gaming should not be frustrating, gaming should not be chore. Gaming should be about not giving a shit to what’s going on around you, so engrossed in a story that you can’t put the controller down–not in fear that you’ll get headshotted, but because if you do, you’ll miss a line. You’ll miss a note in Magus’ theme and that might stop your skin from getting goosebumps(Mine does. Every time I hear Magus’ Battle Theme, my skin just tries to crawl off me).

This is Chrono Trigger.

An Update of Not-So-Massive Proportions.

The past few days have changed a lot of things around the house, and while I will not get into the massively minute details, I will try to fill in what I can.

Late last week, my roommate found out that she was getting laid off. Now, we knew it was going to happen by the end of the year, but she did not quite anticipate it happening this early; She’d hoped to at least last until the rest of the year. Her last day of work is technically today, and while she’s glad that it’s over with, she’s surprisingly nonchalant about the rest of it. She’s not worried about money; I don’t quite understand it, but there you go.

She also got her new laptop late last week, something she’s been wanting a while. It’s probably the last big purchase that’s going to be made for quite a while.

We sat down this weekend and hashed out my financial aid whatnots, for going back to school. I still have every intention of going and I’m still looking forward to it. If all goes well, I won’t have to pay for anything and may, in fact, have a little money left over; The roommate’s recent check from FA was for about 500$ and it’d be nice to have another one, should we need it.

Thanksgiving is Thursday and I’m going a surprising amount of cooking this year–Devilled eggs, broccoli casserole and homemade mashed potatoes–I may even make them garlic. The roommate’s mother is coming over to make stuffing and yams(bleh) and, of course, turkey. Oh, and fudge was made too. I’m tempted to beg for a jar of marshmellow cream, so I can make peanut butter fudge too; Lord knows we’ve got enough peanut butter.

Critical Error:

I have made a decision, one that I haven’t talked about with anyone but my mother and my roommate, and one that I certainly haven’t written about, so here goes:

I’m going back to school.

That wasn’t so bad! But…yes. I have decided that it’s high time I got my ass in gear, where my life is involved. Seeing as I’m currently non-income, getting financial aid shouldn’t be a problem, and several of the classes, I can take online.

I’ve decided to go with Medical Transcription, for the time being. There are several reasons for this, first and foremost being that I can do this from home. That’s a big clincher for me. When you tack on my quick typing skills, I’m a shoe-in for this. Thankfully, it’s also something that I’m actually interested in–have been interested in for quite a while. I’ve always wanted to either do Medical or maybe Insurance claims-style transcription work.  Every time I look for jobs in the area, the local hospital is looking for transcription workers, so…I have a feeling that this will pan out rather well.