infinity zone

My little brother's dwarf hamster, Ellorie (Elly), died just a short while ago. It's really a shame since she was birthday present from his girlfriend. We were all with her when she died--it was pretty sudden.

We think she died because an ant bit her. There have been ants getting into her cage recently, and my brother found ants in her lettuce and food bowl shortly after she passed away. She was just running and climbing around yesterday, too. So strange.

Time together: July 8, 2006 - November 9, 2006

My brother already asked his girlfriend if they could get another hamster. I told them to clean out Elly's cage and put it elsewhere so that, if the ants are the problem, they won't be attracted to the cage right away.

Elly was a cute hamster. They really adored her. I can't help but wonder where they intend to bury her. We live in an apartment and it's gonna be hard to find a place that's fairly memorable, but I also know they won't just throw her body out. She was a shared pet, after all.

Edit (5 AM): Throwing this onto here so I can have access to it later during school...

( The Queen's Knights fanlyrics )

This has been one of the nicest Fridays I've had in awhile. I finished my Stat homework in class and got some tips for my History midterm, then I went to pick up [another] audio recorder for my interview with Professor Farkas. It was pretty good; 40 minutes, plus a MB of resources for my article.

He called me a real professional and said he was impressed with my thoroughness. Hee. Hopefully that'll follow through when I take classes with him.

I'll be volunteering for the engineering open house tomorrow... Basically elementary through high school kids come to the campus to look at the different engineering departments. It looked pretty chaotic today, and Farkas said we're expecting the "more interested" kids to show up tomorrow. 'Makes sense, since they're visiting a university on a Saturday...

Played some more Suikoden V. I'm enjoying choosing the ruder/meaner/indecisive choices, such as teasing Lym and not jumping to Belcoot's defense. I wrote down the Gizel-Sialeeds exchange in Stormfist for my own reference, too.

And something confuses me -- why do both Gizel and Euram refer to the Prince as "big brother" when they talk about winning Lym's hand? Gizel is easily in his late twenties, and I always assumed Euram was the same age as or older than the Prince. Is it a sign of respect or something?

I also found the first Within Temptation I got (from Ames). I guess I lost/possibly deleted the mp3, so I had to rip it off a CD I had burned it to last year or so. Still love it.

Things to do:
-- No homework for Stat this next week
-- Read project guidelines for QMeth
-- Do CDF graph (and optional object coding) for work
-- Study for History midterm (read Schwantes, class reader, review Kip)

Crossposted to 108_sugarcubes

Title: Losing Love
Fandom: Suikoden V
Characters: Gizel Godwin
Word Count: 548
Rating: 10+
Author's Notes: Gizel/Sialeeds. Spoilers up through ... well, endgame. Major spoilers through at least the final siege of Sol-Falena.

( Losing Love )

( Suikoden V spoilers ... up to the final return to Sol-Falena )

Quotes from the game (non-spoilers):
"Let our mercy, as deep as the Feitas, and our authority, as powerful as the sun, be revealed to the entire world!"

"I will now exact swift and final retribution, then deposit your loathsome corpse in the nearest river."

I ended up loving a lot more characters in this game than I thought I would. So many of them have personalities and quirks that make you want to learn more about them; even the shopkeepers and generals. I also ended up actually hating the enemies, which is a great thing in that I don't feel bad killing them like Seed or Culgan in II.

Might add some more later on. Corrupt political intrigue rocks!

Hmm... Guess I should mention some of my nitpicks about Suikoden V thus far.

-- ALL OF THE NPCS STAND STILL. Why? Because of the sheer amount of people in towns? Women, men, kids... They all stand still. I don't remember about animals, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't move, either.

-- The camera is panned back incredibly far. During small scenes, you can't see the small things, such as the hero turning his head to confer with Lyon before "talking," because the camera is zoomed out. I feel like I'm watching ants at times.

-- There is no world map. At least, not yet (as of heading to Beaver Lodge). The "map" at the corner of the overworld view has nothing on it except blips for towns. It doesn't even show boundaries you can't cross, like the rivers.

-- The skill system is disappointing. I really enjoyed the skill system in III because all of the training sessions immediately affected the characters. On this one, you equip your skills. And not even all of them. Just two at a time.

Cool things thus far...

-- The story. Things just continue to get better, even after 13 hours.

-- The music. Theme of a Moonlit Night, anyone? Even the overworld and battle victory music are reminiscent of the first two games. There are some repetitive songs, but I enjoy the music a lot overall.

-- Dwarves are so awesome. I'm glad they're back.

-- I love Sialeeds. And Lucerina. And Ferid and Galleon.

-- Toma is adorable.


And now to bed...

Got myself Suikoden V at the mall ... uh, "today." Just finished playing it for the "night," so ... yeah. It's a good game. There are a few things I don't like as far as gameplay, but the storyline's much more interesting than IV's ever was. I actually give a damn about the hero this time around. *laughs*

And that's all I've got to say about that.

Spring break's coming to a close now. *sighs* Come Monday, school starts again. Work meeting on Tuesday, magazine meeting on Wednesday... Blah. This'll be frustrating indeed. Hopefully the first week is slow.

*goes to sleep for eight hours so a certain weirdo doesn't chide*