Sunday, July 23, 2006

Embarrassing Pictures HOOO~!
I said ages ago I would post party pictures, and now I'm finally going to get off my ass and do it, all to entertain my sparse readers. Yay! Warning: These pictures are indeed embarrassing, although I left out a few that were just inappropriate (but funny!). I think the most embarrassed person after all this will be Lisa; sorry, not my fault you make such weird faces.

So, here we go. I'm using links vs. inserting the pics themselves, because that would take up way too much room.

To begin with, we must all admire my totally awesome pirate outfit. First picture, I look pretty odd, because I was trying to look angry when I was really just excited out of my mind. Didn't really work. Second pic, Czar and I both had slight "wardrobe malfunctions". It was a sign of things to come, I suspect.

Now, onto the actual party. This is one of the coolest gift wrappings I have ever seen. Cathy, you rock.

Then we played party games, which included "Stab Jack Sparrow", a more violent and piratical take on Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey. Whoever's dagger was most humorously placed won. Here, Lisa is wandering off into the wall as someone tries to help from the sidelines (to no avail, unfortunately). This is the final result, including a wonderfully placed groin stab and my own dagger over the wrist. I made Johnny Depp emo, oh no!

After dark things began to digress and we all started lounging around on the porch, playing DDR, drinking various dangerous beverages (non-alcoholic brew, specially formulated pirate sodas, and anything containing caffeine), and taking strange pictures. Christina decided her calling in life was to be a model, and she posed for some fabulous pictures, most of which were on someone else's camera. However, I did manage a Marilyn-Monroe-esque picture of her skirt behaving strangely. Someone left their wooden sword in the room and we decided to have a rat roast, much to Christina's, the owner of the rat, dismay. To offer her some peace of mind, we held a brief funeral service.

As the number of sugary, caffeinated drinks consumed grew, so did our weirdness. Lisa demonstrates this well, here, here, and here.

We eventually migrated into the living room to play Twister, which broke up pretty quickly as we all realized it was difficult to play in skirts. It didn't help that Christina was viciously attacked by bilge rats, either. We were further interrupted by a seemingly innocent octopus suddenly taking up residence on Stephanie's head and causing Stephanie, Cathy, and Christina to strike anime-like victory poses with its psychadelic mind control powers.

Then came another round of goofing off, which included Nicole hiding in her shirt and Lisa having way too much fun with a pair of fishnet stockings.

The presence of a CD full of techno dance music and several interesting light-related objects scavenged from my office inspired us all to have a mini-rave. The main focus of attention was my blacklight lamp and what could be seen under it, which amazingly included my facepaint-induced tan in the shape of Al's blood seal. Also, Ed looked pretty damn cool under blacklight.

Finally, after hours of sitting around and talking about nothing in particular, we all fell asleep at about 8 AM. Here, witness the aftermath. Yes, that's me in the FMA blanket in the foreground.

And, to round it all off, here are some pictures of my awesome haircut as of last weekend--Front, and back. Because I like to show off.

That party was pure awesome in a can and I hope all my parties can be as much fun. Although getting to bed an hour or two earlier wouldn't have hurt.
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Thursday, July 13, 2006

Mood Swings and More
Happy fanart times, yay. I've got a potentially impressive original piece in the works too, and it's got me very excited. It'll be my first real work with perspective. Anyway, I even got a nice lil comment...although I have to ask who the hell puppy52 is and why he or she came up with such an unoriginal name. But should I be talking? I mean, I didn't even know I could properly capitalize my username at the time I registered, so I'm stuck with it in lower-case FOREVEROMG.

Mmkay, hold on a bit while I vent. Ahem. Our neighbors across the street are pretty good. It's the ones two houses down that I hate (they're very loud, frequent party-ers), but I got my revenge when a tree fell on their above-ground pool on the 4th of July. But the people across the sreet have been doing construction on that house for probably a year now. It's never been really bad, though there were a few afternoons when I wished they'd pack up and go home. But this morning, I was overcome with curiosity as to why they had to use a jackhammer at 7 AM. I tried everything to block the noise out, to no avail. Then the damn puppy came in and jumped up and down on my head so I was stuck awake.

So I knocked off work early today due to boredness, tiredness, and crampiness. Isn't "crampy" a funny word? It sounds like some sort of costumed mascot for Midol or something. "Hi, kids, I'm Crampy, your friendly menstrual symptom from Hell!" Usually I like being a woh-man, but once a month I think I wouldn't mind all that leg hair and booblessness. Hee, "booblessness". I could say that all day long. But I won't, because I don't feel like being smacked.

Oh yeah, nabbed me the last volume of Yellow last night. I might have enjoyed it more if I had been awake while reading it. Also got the second volume of One Thousand and One Nights...and I really wish they had shown more of the sex scene. I feel jipped, ya know? Pretty boy, sexy man, compromising situation, and then it's over in, like, half a page. Talk about premature ejaculation...

Wanna hear a funny story about laxatives? ...I didn't think so. This post is inappropriate enough as it is.
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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

All of My Favourite Things
So I did it. I submitted fanart. Let's see if it gets approved. :3
A very exciting thing happened yesterday. I got a box. There were things in it. I got my long-awaited P! mug, an adorable pen with Ed and Al on it, some more ink in case I run out *I may at this rate), and some new sketch pens by Neo Piko. Oh, yeah, and A LIGHT TABLE. It works wonderfully and I love it to death. No more desperately rubbing away at pencil lines that won't disappear. Now I can also trace other people's pictures onto decent paper so I can practice my marker skillz. It's a very happy thing.
My party, you ask? Good God Almighty. That thing left me so tired. It was a little awkward till the food came out but after that it was smooth sailing. We all chatted and hung out and ate and played DDR and drank soda that I swear was at least slightly alchoholic, and then we played games and then I opened gifts and I got some great stuff, including a Naruto neckace and a Thai fan from Hawaii from Jenny and a really cool FMA wallscroll from AMPs, on which we decided the kitty cat was break-dancing. THEN I shared some yaoi with Jenny and then some people left cuz they weren't sleeping over so we played more DDR and then played with cameras and had a mini-rave and played Twister and then we just sorta collapsed into talking until 8 AM when we went to sleep.
As you can see, we were very busy. And I have pictures which I'll post separately.
Thank you, everybody, for such a great birthday, on the actual day and at the party. *huggles Exo especially*
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Saturday, July 1, 2006

It's days like this I wish I had more visitors. I would like to post questions for the masses and stuff, but I have no masses. Booo. -_-

But I do have a sort of PSA for y'all (I can only just justify using that plural... I mean, Lisa does drop by once in a while...). I am now doing JDA data entry at work. Sounds weird, but it's not really. You know the little thing of text you see on the register when an item is scanned in? I do that for items. And enter their UPCs and prices and so forth so that the register knows how much something is. It sort of brings the industry of Whole Foods a little closer to home, doesn't it? I mean, now you know that when you buy a "9 cup espresso metro white" (whatever that is), the person who put that name on the computer screen was listening to Kaisei Joushou Hallelujiah and wearing an FMA sweatshirt at the time, with a picture of Ed and Ein on her cubicle wall. Even otaku get jobs sometimes! ^_^

I did another satisfactory piece of fanart recently that I may just submit, since it's not as likely to be offensive at neko-Ed. It's a picture of Gruk and Ulk from the GBC Magi Nation game. Something about their character designs and relationship struck me, and I had to do a drawing of them together in Chii-like pose. In the likely case that you have not played Magi Nation (shame on you!), Gruk and Ulk are sisters who live in the Underneath, a system of fungi-full tunnels and caverns underneath the ground. Their hair rather reflects the mushroomy theme, and I thought it to be quite cool-looking. I still have to ink it, which I'll do when I'm really happy with Gruk's legs. I've been on an art spree lately though so that may happen soon.

Otakon is getting closer and my pirate party is a week away. Excitement is in the air. If only Vic were coming to this year's Otakon...
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Sunday, June 25, 2006

Eeeehhhh
I've been feeling downright bizarre lately. Yesterday was okay, or at least started out that way. But by the time I went to bed I felt really out-of-sorts. I finally got tired of my goddamn arm hair, so I used a depilatory to get rid of it, and maybe it was the fumes or something but I had some really weird dreams last night. And somehow while de-hairing my arms I managed to knock a chunk out of my thumb, which stings a bit so I put a band-aid on it this morning. I wish I knew how i managed to do that without noticing. I had some sushi today, and it was my favorite kind, double salmon roll, but for some reason when I ate it I just felt sick. I don't think it was bad or anything, because Genji makes all their sushi that day and it wasn't too late, but all the same my stomach didn't like it. Then I got into a yelling match with my mom over endorsing some checks, and that put me in a bad mood, so I went back to watching Sukisho to try and cheer myself up. Unfortunately, these disks seem to have some major issues. First, the subtitles are automatic because it only comes in Japanese, but the nice DVD-player program that comes with Windows doesn't seem to want to show them. Second, last night it ran into some major skips, and I think that may have been due to a small scratch, although usually something as shallow and tiny as that wouldn't have made a difference. Third, the third disk developed some kind of invisible gash that makes it stop dead in the middle of a very tense episode. So I'm upset about that too.
Above all, though, what bothers me most is how vacant I feel today, maybe because of the dreams. I was so cheerful last night, but around the time I went to bed I just deflated. I'm blaming it on not taking my meds regularly, which doesn't really cheer me up much. Sure, I have medicine to fix my problems, but it'd be pretty damn nice if I didn't have to take 20mg of chemicals twice a day just to feel normal, because that sure doesn't feel normal at all.
And I've also come down with this random cough, and I was coughing so hard last night I thought I tasted blood. Ech. I'm a little worried because there's some pneumonia-related illness going around at work, and I really don't want to get sick, especially with so much to do. I have little enough time as it is.
Hugs and pats on the head are appreciated. Even if you don't mean them, I can always fool myself into thinking you do.
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Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Japanese Food = Alchemy?
So every day at work we get emails called "Media Monitoring" which list all of Whole Foods' appearances in written media across the nation. In this batch there was an article about Japanese food theory, washoku. It was a very interesting read, in my opinion, and you can find the whole thing here, probably at some point...after this post. Search for "Sushi USA" and choose the 6/19 article.

Anyway, while I gleaned a great deal of information from the article, the one thing that struck me most was one of the principles of washoku, based upon Buddhist practice. Washoku "suggests that each meal should contain five different colors, primary tastes (sweet, salty, etc.), textures and cooking preparations." Here's the bit that really intrigued me: "...washoku meals always display the five colors red, green, yellow, white and black."
If that doesn't mean anything to you, I shall quote another source. "Base metals were transformed in a series of stages, called operations, the last of which produced the Stone. ... Each operation led to a change, marked by an alteration in color, from black to white to yellow, and finally red. (Interim colors such as green or the transient hues symbolized by the peacock's tail were also sometimes present.)" Hmm. How odd. Red, yellow, black, white, green... Also, if you don't think the case for green is strong enough, it is the traditional color of the prima materia, the base substance of which all things are made. So how did this colorful connection likely come about?
My brief and simple hypothesis is that, since alchemy was developed in a number of different parts of the world, from Egypt to India to China, different concepts in the general conglomeration of alchemical facts, symbols, etc. today come from different cultures. For instance, the original god presiding over alchemy was Hermes (also Mercury, since the Romans stole their religion from the Greeks, and Egyptian Thoth is related to him as well); most words used in relation to alchemy are Latin (albido, opus magnum, prima materia); the Emerald Tablet is possibly based in an Arabic text called Kitab Sirr al-Asar. It is entirely possible, and in my opinion likely, that the five colors present in the creation of the Philosopher's Stone originated from the same source as Buddhism, which influenced Japanese food. Tadaa!
Any questions?
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006

I'm Old Now! *blows party horn thingy*
So yesterday was my birthday. Happy birthday times. The power went out randomly while my friends and I were out walking, and I heard the transformer blow but I didn't think it would be the one on our street. =_= It came back just before it got dark though. We stayed up very late playing DDR, watching Devil Hunter Yohko, and reminiscing. It was fun. Also while we were walking, we saw this absolutely gigantic beetle, probably about as big as my palm (granted, I have small hands, but not too small). It was scary-looking. >_<

So I feel a little bit stupid right now. I made a Borders run today and got Loveless and Earthian and the latest VHD novel. I'm already on the 2nd volume of Earthian, and I remember looking at the illustrations in the front and thinking, "That style reminds me of something..." And as I was reading the notes at the end of the book, the author mentioned writing Loveless. I practically bashed my head in for not even noticing they were the same artist. Kind of like how it took me over a year to realize "Krad" is "Dark" backwards. I guess there are just times I don't think, I just take in information. Oh well, I'm silly. : P

I hope Elgie gets her internet connection working again soon so she can sign on and we can talk. I miss talking to her already. Technology can be a pain, ugh. As they say about women, with which I also agree, "Can't live with'em, can't live without'em." Words of wisdom.
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Monday, June 12, 2006

Random grammar venting time!
Okay, so I'm watching an old CSI ep on Spike containing a serial killer who leaves a message at his/her crime scenes. The first one they find reads, and I quote, and sic, and all that good stuff, "Iv'e killed 5 women / Catch me if you can?"
The CSIs talk to the handwriting analyst and he points of various things like the crossing of the T, etc. including the fact that the writer was "uneducated" because of the misplaced apostrophe in the contraction "I've". Hrm, what about the even bigger error of the freaking question mark hanging out where it doesn't belong?! "Catch me if you can" is not a question but rather a command, and the "if" part isn't interrogative either because it's a subordinate clause. Subordinate clauses cannot be interrogative. also, I didn't even see the misplaced apostrophe right away, partly because of the horrible lighting on that show, but the question mark popped right out at me. And yet the analyst picks out the apostrophe. Weirdo. :P

Public Service Announcement: On forms of any kind, when there is a notice telling you to print clearly, PRINT CLEARLY, DAMMIT! People who have never met you or heard of you before have to read that name of yours, and if it happens to be something like "Anasdarylla Ghorajnikpoo" or whatever sort of strange ethnic name you may have acquired at birth, your unintelligible scrawl will not be enough to guess it. It's a sad fact of life that people tend to recognize names such as "Joe" or "Mary" better than "Tyreekqua" and "Smith" or "Brown" better than "Borascewski". So please, write neatly and legibly, for the sake of those who have to write down your name again.
And what's wrong with spelling it "Deborah"? Why always "Debra"? Strange, strange people.

Happy birthday to me, one day early. :3
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Saturday, June 10, 2006

It's been quite a while since I posted. Here's the news, as briefly as possible:
I'm not working steady hours at my job doing a "monster spreadsheet from HELL" and ruining my eyes with the cheap monitor. I am being paid very well however so I really can't complain. After my next paycheck I plan on going on an Akadot shopping spree. The big-ticket item will be a light table, something I've been wanting for a while.

Exams are over, school is over. Report cards come out next week. I'm worried about my grades, but we'll see. Things may turn out okay after all. I found out the summer reading day book duscussion of The Princess Bride will be led by my idiot of a lit. teacher, Mrs. Pullen. I hope she has another baby and can't come. -_- I counted 14 grammatical/typing errors on the lit. exam, which she wrote, two of which were in the grammar section. Just pathetic.

I got some new pen nibs yesterday and I am quite excited. It's weird how such little things cheer me up. I like pen nibs though. :3

My mom, my friend Ashley and I all went to my dad's performance of Princess Ida last night. It was quite hilarious. Clyde looked far too good in that dress of his, far more than a man should. >_> It was really nice seeing Ashley again. She's lots of fun.

My birthday is on Tuesday and I'm having a little get-together, me and Lisa and Ashley. We'll play DDR and order pizza and basically goof off in an unorganized manner. For my actual party, however, I will have a big pirate-themed sleepover in early July. I figured it should be something special since it will be my "sweet sixteen", and I've been in a piratical mood lately. It shall be great fun for all.

Last of all, I am still eagerly awaiting Otakon. It keeps sounding better and better. I'll have lots of money to spend by that point, Ashley will be coming, and possibly Exo and maybe even Elgie from California. I hope they can come. I need to get Exo some kitty ears. =^.^= Blue ones! And Ashley will be cosplaying as Kikyo if we can make the costume; we have a miko clothing pattern already and it shouldn't be too complicated. Elgie will cosplay as grown-up Al if she comes. With any luck I will be able to egg Exo into going as Daito. Hint hint! We shall be very mismatched: Furuba (me as Mine again), Inuyasha, YGO GX, and Hagaren (that's FMA to you English-speakers *show off*). Ah well, that will make it all the more fun.

That was pretty brief for several weeks' worth of news, right? I have high hopes for the summer. I need to brush up on my Japanese, or at least re-memorize hiragana. Sadly kana is not like riding a bike. You do forget if you don't practice. Bleh. SO! If anyone wants to say hi to Yukie, our exchange student coming in August, tell me. She's so cute. >.<

Time to go turn on my paging file again...
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Friday, May 26, 2006

I Like to Bitch!
All right, eeeverybody's talking about The Da Vinci Code right now. There's a ton of conflict over it, people love it, people hate it... I'm kind of in between. I haven't seen it, haven't read the book, but you barely need to when there's so much buzz about it.
What bugs me most about tThe Da Vinci Code is the hype. People are actually believing this stuff, and other people are saying it's blasphemy. What everyone seems to be missing is that The Da Vinci Code is a story. There's no real proof behind this stuff! And who the hell is Dan Brown anyway? He's a guy who wants to make a living off of a book, off of a fictional story. He is not a historian, or a member of the clergy. So what makes people these days think that Mr. Brown knows better than the guys who actually knew Jesus? I don't contest the New Testament (except maybe some of the letters and Revelations, but not the bit about Jesus) because these guys were there. They saw it all. Well, aside from Luke's little nativity story. Some dude 2000 years later with no credentials is not going to suddenly reveal the truth to us all. It's just a bunch of hype for selling books and tickets so Mr. Brown can live the life he's always dreamed of.
Also, what's with the name? The Da Vinci Code? Um, anyone realize that "Da Vinci" means "of Vinci"? It's not a last name. Leonardo didn't even know his father. As someone said (my dad mentioned it the other day), calling Leonardo Da Vinci "Da Vinci" is the same as calling Lawrence of Arabia "Of Arabia". That is my language-loving argument against this whole thing.

Oh yeah, the other day I got to start working in the office. I have my own cubicle and my own nametag that opens doors... WHOO! I'm so excited. I have no idea why, because it's a boring-as-hell job. But I get to decorate my cubicle! How cool is that?! And I'm making money! Awesomeness!
And, maybe maybe if God has nothing better to do at the time, we will go to NYC to see the Pillows. *crosses fingers*
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