infinity zone

Let's see... Well, we held a wedding shower for my brother and his fiancee this Memorial Day weekend. It was lovely, and the games were a lot more fun than just talking them over with my older brother and a friend (one of the other bridesmaids). It was nice to be social and talk with people I know, even if we had a ton of food leftovers and my mom had to throw away some foods that would spoil quickly. Palabok, pancit molo, all the melon fruits... Gonna have to get through the pancit canton today. :|

Still need to shop for my silver shoes for the wedding. And get my dress and see how much it needs to be altered (probably a lot).

On the RP front, there's another draft that's gonna go down in Luceti. I need to write up my stuff for Albert's plans, but I've got plots/ideas for Albert, Leon, and Terra. Now it's just a matter of getting all of that out in a timely fashion.

My siblings and I went to the Pacific Science Center today because my little sister told us there was a Harry Potter exhibition going on. Unfortunately, the exhibit had a huge queue when we arrived, so there was a four-hour wait until we could line up to go into the exhibit.

So we spent the time spending too much money on parking and lunch ... and hanging out in the insect exhibit. We looked at all the beetle models and insect zoos. The hissing cockroaches still creep me out. We also spent a good amount of time in the tropical butterfly room with these owl morpho butterflies ... and atlas moths. 8| So huge, even if they weren't flying around when we were inside. I think I'd freak a little if they were flying around. They were easily twice as large as the butterflies in there.

The Harry Potter exhibit itself was very neat. They had many of the costumes from the various movies, along with main characters' wands and small accessories -- like Hermione's time turner and Ron's broken wand, along with the Marauder's Map and Lupin, Snape, and McGonagall's wands. My brothers were amused by the fine print on Umbridge's decrees, which literally had "Blah blah blah blah b-lah blah" at the very bottom. It was also really neat seeing Dumbledore's wand up close after seeing the emphasis on the Elder Wand's shape in the Deathly Hallows movie (which I saw ... uh, last weekend with my cousins).

Seeing Hermione's costumes up close made me realize just how short Emma Watson is. It was kinda funny. The beds in the Gryffindor dormitory looked much bigger in the films than they were in the exhibit, too. Kreecher and Dobby's models were smaller than I expected, and Fawkes' much bigger than I thought he looked in the films. Hagrid's entire hut was huge, too -- very cool seeing how large his armchair was.

Despite how much I enjoyed the HP exhibit, I restrained myself in the gift store -- I only got a Slytherin beanie. >> My brother asked why I got it, and I told him that Slytherin got no love. :| All the kids who were picked to try on the Sorting Hat (at the very beginning of the exhibit) picked Gryffindor as their favorite house.

Soooo... I've been back since Wednesday, but I've been putting off replying. First it was because I was feeling lazy, and then I kinda forgot, and then it just started feeling overwhelming trying to write down everything that's been going on. So I'll skip the finer details and just focus on some broad summaries.

Hawaii was fantastic. Apparently we missed a heat wave in the area by going on vacation, so I think we lucked out in that sense, too. We went snorkeling at three different locations, looking down at the coral and all of the tropical fish. We also walked through a lava tube (read: lava-created cave) and did long-exposure light writing in a pitch-dark section of the tube. Very, very cool. We also ate ... expensively. Hahaha. And visited three candy factories. The big island is apparently big on chocolate and macadamia nuts. :| I'm almost out of my chocolate-dipped macadamia shortbread cookies. I'm already debating ordering more and having them shipped.

On Saturday, I attended a Lady Gaga concert with my brother and his fiancee. It's the first concert any of us have attended, and it was amazing. Bright lights, smoke, rising platforms, a burning piano, springboards, a fame monster, a disco stick, and lots of crotch-grabbing. The song "Boys, Boys, Boys" featured a lot of crotch-grabbing. :| I also found myself preferring how she sang Paparazzi live versus the album. We had good seats for paying the cheapest price for the three sections; I think it's because the seating was reserved for Citi card users.

Aaaand the Luceti events. Holy crap. So much stuff going on to get back into. And there's applications just around the corner, too. So excited about a lot of the reserves by returning players and characters.

Then over at Damned, my hiatus ends-- er, like, tomorrow. Ahahaha. I have no plans for the nightshift, so this will be interesting. Huzzah for Yukari and Mitsuru apps, though! ...Minato's going to have all the girls except Fuuka there. Oh boy.

And on top of all this... We're moving into a house soon. I need to start packing stuff. My new bedroom set will be delivered sometime in the first week or so of September. I'm so excited about that; I've never bought my own furniture set before. So much to do ... and I haven't really started at all.

First off... *kicks internet* I swear, it cuts out at the weirdest times.

Let's see... Not getting as many projects at work as I would like (for the money), but it's nice to have the free time. My manager tries to keep me busy by having me do scheduling and little note-taking jobs, but it doesn't add up to an eight-hour day or anything. Ah well. As long as I have enough hours per month.

Yesterday, I went to the gym by myself for the first time in months. It was nice. I need to get back in the habit of kicking myself into going every other day or so. Wasting that gym membership needs to stop.

Also went back to the university campus for the first time in ... geez, a year or so? It's weird going back as a visitor. I think it'd be even weirder to go back to high school as a visitor, but you need to do all that stupid security (checking in with the front desk, etc.) to go onto high school campus. No thanks.

I got to see my cousin's design show while on campus, and it was nice to analyze his work and offer him compliments on a critique level. Our majors shared some visual design elements, so I enjoyed hearing him explain his typography and design formatting choices. It also gave me some affirmation that I still recall my major well enough to talk about it, which is ... well, comforting after being away from school for three years. (Geez, three years already.)

Hopefully going out to karaoke tomorrow night. Being stuck in my car on the freeway for an hour gave me a good excuse to belt out songs. ...Even if things like Simple Plan and Bowling for Soup aren't doing anything for my tone. Pfft.

On the RP front, tags have slowed down to a crawl while I've been doing other things offline. I really need to backthread some things, but my interest comes in small bursts lately. At least I have an idea of all the things I need to do with my characters.

Currently playing Disgaea Infinite, which I oddly enough found out about only yesterday (the day after it was released) while shopping for other things on Amazon. It's a nice change of pace from Record of Agarest War, which I've been taking a "forced" break from while my brother plays catch-up to me. (Record of Agarest War is super long and much more of a day-killer, just because of how long a single battle can take.) The time loop function of Disgaea Infinite was just getting to me when I finally made headway with the storyline, so I can safely say that I'm still enjoying it. And it's longer than I thought, which is a pleasant surprise.

...But that means I won't be able to finish it tonight. Which means I'll have to somehow force myself to turn it off. Dang.

edit: As suspected, I couldn't turn it off. ( Mild spoilers )

It's a lot of fan service, and I enjoy it greatly. The database and character profiles are neat, and it actually makes me a little interested in Disgaea 3.

I've been spending a lot of money so far this month. Fees for getting my driver's license, various expensive dinners and lunches in celebration (my brother also proposed to his girlfriend, so it's really been a busy weekend), buying Final Fantasy Dissidia...

Oh. And I bought my first car.




8)

I'm stoked, even if I can't drive it by myself until I've got car insurance.

And Dissidia is both amusing and complicated. This will take some getting used to. :|;

Open a new comment or post right now and hit ctrl+v.

You can explain what shows up or not, your choice. Mine is:

I guess I'll be trying Persona 3 over there.

---

In explanation? Going to my parents' house for the week; got a doctor's appointment in the middle of next week. I won't have access to a 360 over there, so I'll probably end up on the PS2 at some point. It'll either being Persona 3, replaying Suikoden III, or [kinda unlikely] re:Chain of Memories.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I was running around most of yesterday getting things ready for our annual family Christmas party. I like how the parties have slowly become less of a glamorous affair each year; no Chinese-dressed theme or anything silly like that this year.

I'll make a list of things I received this Christmas and add it to this entry later on. I've just got a few things, but I'm happy with them. ♥

For our secret Santa gift exchange, I got my cousin Nintendo T-shirts and a Prinny. You know you got them something good when they're already joking about scenarios where they can show off the T-shirt (it's a black shirt with a purple poison mushroom and the words Game Over on it).

I'm worried about the weather, though. We've thankfully had clear weather for the last three days, but it's currently snowing outside. And my parents and sister have to head home today, since my mom has to work on Friday. I hope they'll figure something out...

And now I'm going back to bed. Need more sleep.

( The list of presents )

So I went to my cousin's 21st birthday yesterday.

That was the most alcohol I've had in two years. :| Best liquor I've had, too. I guess I've just never had "the good stuff" before.

That is all for now. I'll probably edit this later.

Looks like I needed that nap. I think my headache's gone, but I haven't walked around enough yet to judge. At least I'm not congested at the moment. I'd hate to be sick when my brother gets back on Friday.

In other news, despite having lost, John McCain is still my personal hero. I've admired the man for many years, and I'm disappointed that he lost (not surprised, though). But I'm glad it's over, because all that campaigning and posturing must have been suffocating for a man like him.

Congratulations, America. I really hope Obama brings about the change he's become known for representing. God knows the entire world has tremendous expectations of him.

...Instead, I'll post this meme ganked from gamera.

The Hypothetical AU Meme: Take any one of the fandoms you know I write in (or think I should), and give me a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, Ancient Rome, cop AU, etc). I will then explain what story from your chosen fandom I would write for your chosen type of AU.

Repeats of fandoms are fine. Maybe this'll help me finish writing another drabble.

In other news... I bought more Suikoden III doujinshi. Yes, I'm stupid and still grabbing any and all doujinshi (with good art) I can find starring Albert and Caesar. One of these days, I may even scan that stuff. I think I've only given (traded, really) a story or two to Miri.

My little brother's leaving for a month starting Monday; has training for his job in Oklahoma. It's kinda surreal to think about, considering he's always been around. The only significant time apart we've had was when I went to college and he was still in high school (and then community college -- he got into UW with us for the last two years). It's strange to think we're all basically professionals now, and his job's requiring 60-70% travel out of the year.

Meanwhile, I telecommute on a contractual basis. The two extremes of the working life!