The terrible thing about combining LJ RP and Plurk? All free time goes down the drain.

And when you are without RP drive for awhile? It seems like you have absolutely nothing to do. So, so terrible.

I've been wanting to color icons, write things, make little lists and such ... for a long time now. My current system with RPing has me feeling like there's always this cloud of Stuff to do that hovering over my head. I don't like that feeling; RP should be fun, not work.

I need to do something about that. Not sure what at this time.

I should do more reading, too. I can practically feel my vocabulary slipping away, and I need to sit down and just read something that'll hold my interest and still challenge my mind. I've got several books in my room, but little motivation to crack them open. Gotta work on that.

Gotta work on a lot of things. But I still want to watch things, play video games, chat... Auuuugh. :|

I've been wanting to write more Suikoden stuff lately. I have a crazy Suikoden-with-Tierkreis-elements plot developing in my head, but I'm so frustratingly busy that I haven't been able to do enough research to make the entire thing coherent. It's really weird how these plots develop, because I end up thinking about characters I usually have no interest in writing about. Like ... Sarah. I have no insight into her, but she'd be so integral to this plot that I'd have to write about her. So, so weird.

And I need to get back to work. Gotta finish at least one of these projects today.

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.

Thank you to everyone who offered their condolences. My older brother and I headed back to our parents' house last Tuesday evening to bury our guinea pig, then were back in our apartment by Wednesday evening since my brother started work on Thursday. I'm really grateful he drove me out at that time; I really needed the closure. Cindy was buried in the tulip patch, so hopefully the bulbs there will still grow despite being disturbed.

We've bought two new guinea pigs since then, both of which are male and not firmly named yet. The younger of the two, bought at the beginning of the week, is tentatively named Captain Ahab, since my older brother thought he looked like a pirate with one black leg and an eyepatch. The elder of the two was bought Thursday evening and was actually a cagemate to Ahab, but I was hesitant to get him at first because I wasn't sure the size of our cage was big enough for two guinea pigs. When my younger brother mentioned he was alone in the pet store now (the other guinea pig had also been bought), I caved and let him buy the other one. They're getting along for now, but I'll be keeping an eye out to see if they bite each other or anything.

My patience is still frayed from Cindy's death, and it's slow to return to normal with stress from work just getting worse. I keep saying it, but I really need a vacation -- and I should really mention it at my next one-on-one ... which has thankfully been rescheduled for tomorrow instead of Monday. The random template update requests today irritated and stressed the heck out of me, and then there's the added stress of knowing a new contractor needs to be onboarded and it'll likely be me doing the training. Ugh. Just ugh.

I need to do things on the RP front too. Luceti character relationship blurbs, informational posts, etc. I usually have fun doing those things, but work has me passing out before I ever get back to my personal laptop. Hopefully I'll be able to relax with the new event coming up.

...At least Minato has his sword now? I still need to finish that thread so I'm not wasting Leon's time. My castmates must think I'm full of fail with my slowness.

Currently playing Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. DQ5 has been interesting because of the conversational aspect, but my favorite thing so far is probably how it relates to DQ4 with the Zenithian legend. Very neat.

I still need to buy Ace Attorney Investigations and update my PSP to play Half-Minute Hero. Slowly but surely.

Ugh. Well, ending the weekend on a blah note is pretty telling for the upcoming week. I'm in charge of managerial duties while my manager is on PTO, and I received e-mails on Saturday from designers already requesting alerts when I'm finished editing files due this next Friday. Good grief. I've never flagged so many e-mails in my entire career as I have in the last two months.

Travian's s5 war wrapped up at long last. FUSE (Fully United SE quadrant, headed by the former PD meta) built their World Wonder to level 100 first. Everyone in the Outlaws started sending out their goodbyes and congratulations for making the full 300-day commitment. Thanks, Sapph, for dualing with me for the last ... how many months? Five? Nearly half the game, or maybe even longer. I ended with 20 villages, in the top 700 players on the server, and with over 57k troops left in reserve.

I was happy to get messages from other alliance-mates who knew I had been with the alliance since the beginning of the server. I'm so proud we finished third in the game, even if I was an overstressed diplomat and lousy leader.

I'm not playing Travian for a long, long time, though. Keeping up with it has burned me out continuously.

Except I can't blame it for this funk I've slipped in since Sunday. Travian goodbyes were actually the highlights of the day. The quietness led to me contemplating if I should spend less time online. Hrm...

*stares at the 7 AM reading on the clock*

...Geez, it's been months since I've had to do all-nighters this terrible. I'm glad I'll be moving on to a new project tomorrow.

I need to nap. Then pick up my package from the post office. And then go back to work. Sigh.

Weeks like this make me kinda wish I didn't work so I could indulge in all the little things I want to do, like do those voice recordings for that old meme, or work on icons or drabbles.

I'm really glad it's been awhile since I've had to do this.

...I am so glad they decided to put this game on the PSP. The gameplay looks awesome. Ven has some incredibly sweet-looking moves.

The close-up of Ienzo leaves no doubt in my mind that he's perfectly capable of doing what's necessary for Ansem's research. That expression is kinda scary on a kid that young. :|;

Still freaking busy. Niece's baptism on Saturday, shopping/hanging out on Sunday, and now project due dates today and tomorrow. Blah.

Gaaah, I hate these damn automatic updates on Vista. First it downloads the updates when I don't confirm the downloads, and then it restarts the damn computer when I'm asleep. I had been sitting on the fence about upgrading to Windows 7, but that ... that was the last straw. I lost all of those replies for the relationship meme. ~_~ *brb looking for checkbook*

Work has been hectic for the last week or so, and next week is gonna be equally bad because I have four projects to publish. And now I'm having trouble with FrameMaker files on SharePoint. Ugh. I've sent out an e-mail asking if others have the same issue, or however they get around it. This is why I prefer the internal content management system. That system has much better versioning control.

Hrm... Now I've forgotten why I made this entry in the first place. It had something to do with Kingdom Hearts 358/2, but ... uh. I've forgotten now. I know it had to be put under an LJ cut for spoilers, though.

...Oh. That's it.

( 358/2 Days -- Saix )

( The Enneagram Test /hi5 to Kukki )

It's pretty accurate, though some of the childhood things don't quite fit. And there's nothing about how much one can angst about being too logical. 8( *ANGSTS LIKE A HALF-VULCAN*

Still very busy. My manager should be coming back soon from PTO, and then I'll hopefully be free from all this extra work. And then I'll just be "busy" instead of "very busy." :|b

I'm very happy to be RPing with Caesar again. ♥ I just hope my RP canon isn't too fml for her. There didn't seem to be any issues with it, but I worry since Albert doesn't come across as an angstbucket. And he shouldn't, other than the whole thing about already establishing Caesar is his weakness. *headdesk* It's been so long that I've forgotten these things. I really need to write them down. So I'll try to make use of that long-ignored musebox.

I've been Damned. It's been pretty cool. tl;dr.

Going to the parents' house this weekend. Older brother's gonna go fishing, and it's ... just been a long time since I've been home. I think the last time I've been there was ... July 3. Wow.

Going river rafting today. Cursing at myself because I can't find one of my pairs of windbreakers. Where the hell could I have put them?

River rafting today, no rest tonight, little sister's ballet performance on Sunday. I always hate weekdays that devolve into going to work and then going to sleep; I hate weekends that follow that pattern even more.

Work contract extended into Q3. Don't want to review proofs on Tuesday, but will have to anyway. Ugh.