24/31 Mar 02

I opened a text file to write a journal entry, decided not to write a journal entry, closed it, then decided to write one after all and opened another one.

Since the server crash, I'd never re-uploaded Mojolicious Swaile-Threepwood Superlativity because it wasn't in my main Photic folder on the HD and it also wasn't linked from the main site, so I kind of forgot about it. However, that time is over! I have re-uploaded and even added a NEW photo comparison... of course, the entire thing would be new to most of you since, like I said, I never did link it from the main site ;o I probably mentioned it in my journal at some point, but I can't remember... anyway, it's linked on the main site now and it's also mentioned here! Yaaaay!

...I forgot all the stuff I was going to write about in a journal entry, so I'm gonna just save here and finish this up tomorrow. Well, I do have some new webcam pictures. It always looks like there's no light in this room, but I think it's some sort of problem with the webcam... I tried adjusting the brightness in PSP, but I couldn't get it to look right.

+Me and Happiness

+Me from a somewhat innovative angle

+The curtain things that mum worked hard to make.

+I recently got my hair trimmed. You can kinda see.

+Me from another innovative angle

+Dad at his computer

I'm talking to this guy right now and he's so annoying. I mean, he's my friend but he's annoying. He has this habit of just making statements that there isn't really anything you can say to, but he won't go on until you respond, so whenever I talk to him I end up with a lot of "Oh?" and "Ah?" and "I see," and "Is that so?" GAAAH ANNOYING. I just had to get that out. Anyway, it's been a week since I started writing this and six days since I was supposed to have continued it, but LAH. Hurray! Easter! I love Easter.

Uhhh.. great, both scribble.nu and the Slime Mansion aren't up/working right while I write this. BAH! Well, since I am talking to the aforementioned annoying guy, I can't just go play video games, so I'll write it now. Speaking of video games, I got... FF2! Whee! Even though the graphics and technology for FF2 are exactly the same as FF1.... it's amazing how much better it is XD() Anyway, I've gotten pretty far in it, since I think I'd already had it and been playing it since before I even started this entry last week. I just got the White Mask and am going to be on my way to Mysidia once I steroidally enhance everyone's HP and MP. Is steroidally a word? I could look it up, but I don't want to. ANYWAY. I named Frioniel (I only know their real names from this walkthrough site I went to... the game itself gives no indication XP) "Jackie." Obviously, I had to, since he's the hero of an FF game and there were more than four spaces [as well as an obvious main character] given for naming, setting this apart from FF1. Maria is "Rinn," which I remembered a few days ago was the last name of the student teacher in choir last semester, but I only named her that cos I thought it sounded cool. =D Guy is "Theo." I either don't know or don't remember the fourth guy's real name, but I called him "Simeon." That game is bizarre, though. I mean, I thought it was weird enough that Red Mage's battle sprite had white hair whereas his world map sprite had black hair (in FF1), but MAN! Maria's got lavender hair in her character shot, red hair in battle, and BLOND hair on the world map. Then there's Layla, who has blue hair when you meet her, red hair in her character shot, brown hair in battle, and blond hair on the world map. BIZARRE GAME. But fun, and thirteen hundred times better than the first FF, which wasn't actually any fun at all but I couldn't stop playing it. XD() Although, I've taken some screen shots from the game of scenes which-- just maybe-- made the whole thing worthwhile. Check 'em out. ****...insert long pause while Silla opens all the screen shots she took, decreases the colour depth and saves them in .gif format in a separate directory*** All right! Now we're cooking! Some of these are so great, I know they've been posted at other sites, and there are other great moments I missed, but if you look at all of these and then hit your head against a solid wall for thirty hours, you'll pretty much have experienced the game.

Well, that was sure fun and interesting. ....

***this paragraph not written in order*** By the way, I finished FF1. Wa ha. Also, the first FF2 ROM I got was in English, but downloaded from an Italian site... and it seems it was translated from Japanese to Italian to English. Plus the coding was messed up and half of the text was gibberish. o_o Then I got a better ROM. And now life is happy. And there have also been some great moments in FF2, so once I finish it, I'll post those for viewer enjoyment as well. In addition, don't you love how I made an HTML list for the FF1 pics but didn't for the webcam pics? That's because I don't want a hobgoblin for my little mind! (Transcendentalism can bugger off, incidentally)

Last Monday, we didn't have choir rehearsal because we only had one piece of music at that point and working it for an hour and a half would have made everyone unhappy. But it goes to show that you just ought to keep some people off the streets, because Greg and them came over x_x At first, I was just talking to Jamie on AIM and she happened to say "Are you near a window?" Then the phone rang and it was for me. And it was Greg trying to do a stalker voice and I was able to spot his ghetto crudmobile from the window. Then I closed the shades and they got upset. (It was Greg, Stanton, and Chris Q) So I went downstairs to make sure the front door was locked... then I closed the garage door, but Greg ran in before it closed all the way so it went back up. But I did lock the door from the garage to the house. Then Dad came down with his shotgun and "took care" of it. No, really, even though it was retarded that they just "dropped by," an excellent time was had by all. Chris bet Greg $20 he couldn't stay serious for an hour, and I personally would have staked my own cash on that claim since I'd never seen Greg serious in my entire life up to that point. However, his need for cash shocked everyone and Chris's gambling problem has left him with one fewer Andrew Jackson portrait-- good riddance, I'd say (JACKSON SUCKS), but I'm sure he feels differently. We drank Dr Pepper, ate cinnamon rolls, and played SSB Melee. Laaaaaa. And like. Yeah.

I've been on kind of a reading kick lately o_o() I'd forgotten how much I really do like to read since I just haven't really had anything to read in a really long time... within the past couple of weeks, I've read all the Redwall books I hadn't previously (Lord Brocktree, The Legend of Luke, The Long Patrol), The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Douglas Adams), The Scarlet Letter [that one was for English, but I read it in a day anyway], and Dune Messiah (second in Frank Herbert's excellent Dune series, the first of which I read just long enough ago that rereading the whole thing at this point would be annoying because I'd remember pretty much everything but haven't read recently enough that I didn't get confused at some stuff in the sequel). I'm currently about a quarter through Winds of Fate by Mercedes Lackey, as well. Yaaay. I'm going to feel all empty inside when I don't have a book I'm reading anymore, so I'm gonna have to start going to the library again o_o I mean, it's not like I bought all those books or read them all in the bookstore, so I DID go to the library, but I was only there because I had to be since mum was doing something or other and happened to pick some things. But now, what I'm saying is, I'll have to initiate trips to the library for picking things. AnJa hates libraries. Just thought I would mention that. Also, I love my totally inconsistent use of capitalisation and parentheses regarding books, authors and comments in this paragraph.

Anyway. Wednesday late night and Thursday were not happy. There's a certain person who happened to make me upset even though I tried over and over again to explain to myself why there was no reason for me to be upset about the thing which made me upset, however, I was still upset. So that's the summary for Wednesday and Thursday. Upset for maybe not a good reason. But then Greg, Chris, and Jamie forced me to go over to Chris's house so I would feel better and we played Capcom vs. SNK and DDR and watched stuff, so then I felt better. T_T (note: if you're reading this, and you aren't the person, don't waste your precious typing-energy to ask about it because you'll get no information)

I've been trying to take better care of myself lately. Since I got my sinus infection, I haven't been playing DDR (I used to play one Nonstop game mode and one or two 34-minute workouts [34 minutes is how long it takes to play all songs in DDR USA PS] every other day), and then I just didn't get back into it after all that time of illness. Also, I was trying to reconcile my body image with itself, being that reliable sources and guy friends [who should know] didn't think losing 10-20 lbs. would really make me "prettier" and that I looked good how I was. But even if I look fine to everyone else, I want to be happy with myself, too. That so, I've been getting some sort of exercise every day/night (except on Wednesday), either DDR or Tae-Bo which tape I found that I got before 9th grade and I thought I'd die trying to do it now but I actually made it all the way through which surprised me because I'm not in as bad shape as I thought even though I'm still not in good shape. I'm also trying to drink more water and eat fewer bad for me things [eating less won't help since I barely eat as it is-- it's just that what I DO eat is generally so not healthy that the whole calorie thing ends up balancing out], as well as making very nebulous efforts in the general direction of drinking less Dr Pepper. Anyway, even if I don't lose weight or miraculously look just the way I've always wanted to, sticking to this WILL be healthier for me, so I'm gonna go with it.

I wish to recant a statement made in a previous journal entry that Jinjo had been "disappointed" with me. It's not that she was unhappy with what I was, I was just not exactly what she expected. Or something. But anyway she wasn't disappointed. =D

Last night we rented America's Sweethearts and watched it. It was better than I remembered it being. .-. Anyway, everyone (everyone in this case = mum dad AnJa) liked it, so I was glad. Because there's nothing more awkward than when you say a movie is good or that you liked it, and then you watch it again with other people and there's all sorts of bad stuff in it you forgot about or it's not as funny as you remembered or whatever and then you feel like everyone's looking at you like "and you RECOMMENDED this?"

I saw the last episodes of Kenshin available to me at this time... it just HAD to be a cliffhanger, didn't it? Argh, they need to hurry up and finish releasing the rest of the DVDs / Chris needs to hurry up and buy the rest of the DVDs. The final scene really gave me the creeps. o_o If you don't want spoilers for Rurouni Kenshin ep. 57 (or really for just about the whole Kyoto arc), do not highlight the following paragraph. I know it's a drag with the scrollers, but someone just needs to make a better script for customising scroll bars, so bother someone who knows how to do that instead of me.

Kenshin and Shishio are having this big duel to determine the fate of Japan because Shishio wants to take over and militarise and bring back the chaos of the Revolution and Kenshin wants everyone to be able to live peaceful lives, and Kenshin just realised that Shishio is able to set his sword on fire because it's soaked through with human oils (because the sword is very slightly serrated to absorb them, and because he's killed so many people). And everyone is like, GROSS! And Kenshin is like "This guy is going down!" So he does a technique which name of I forgot, but Shishio catches the blade in two fingers and says like "You've shown that technique to me before; it won't work on me!" and Kenshin is like "5uxX0r!" and then [this is the creepy part] Shishio drops his sword [it sticks point down in the ground], grabs Kenshin's face in one hand and his shoulder in the other, pulls him close, shoves his head to one side, and BITES him on the shoulder really hard. And then after a few seconds of that, he shoves Kenshin away [and Kenshin is like all in shock and freaked out] and just stands there kind of chewing while the other people all stare like o_o. And when I saw that scene, I seriously had to go back and watch it again, because I was like "... no way that just happened." And it's not just that he bit Kenshin, it's the way the whole thing was done that just really, really gave me the creeps. Anyway, I was shaken enough by that, and then I watched the English dub outtakes, and at the point where Kenshin shouts "It's human oils!" (in reference to the stuff all over Shishio's sword-- after which the camera cuts to Sano covering his hand with his mouth like he's throwing up), Richard Hayworth [Kenshin's dub VA] had yelled "It's Soylent Green!" and the camera shows Sano doing the throw-up thing so not only was I deeply upset by the climactic scene of the final episode, I was also hysterically amused by this. So for the rest of that day I didn't function very well.

Now, wasn't that a fun Blank Paragraph in which only people who've seen Kenshin or don't care about spoilers were able to discern Secret Messages! By the way, I really, really, really like Kenshin. His seiyuu, Mayo Suzukaze, even though she doesn't try very hard to not sound like a woman it seems, is really great. And Kenshin's. Pretty. XD() I wanna be Kenshin when I grow up...

Last Wednesday, in English, we took a "Transcendentalist Field Trip." I poked an ant-hill and beat up a cactus. Patrick and Darren found a disembodied antler. Bugger off, Thoreau. At least I think that was Thoreau... all those transcendentalists are the same to me, and really annoying to boot. Going away from my surface dislike of them, I truly disagree with a lot of their major arguments. I mean... I tend to think that people are getting to be less like each other in several important ways, not growing towards unity. The stuff that makes us all human, most of it unpleasant, is all still there... but in the ways that affect whether or not people can agree and live in harmony, I think we're just going further away. Bleah.

Easter = treasure hunt for daughters! ^_^ I got a cute soft nightgown with frogs and a precious stuffed lamb. I have like five stuffed lambs now, because I love them so much x_x AnJa got Super Mario Kart Advance or whatever it's called, because she recently sold her GBC to buy a GBA. AnJa and I also made a treasure hunt for mom and dad this year XD All the clues were Bible verses (the treasure hunt traditionally has Bible verses as part of the clues... stuff like, 'Over Edom will I cast my shoe' for a clue leading to the shoe-closet, but usually not that simple) and it was sooo retarded but we had fun. Also, they didn't tell us they wanted us to do a treasure hunt for them until last night, so we couldn't go out and pick treasures for them. That being so, instead we just hid some stuff of theirs they like XD() A silk palm tree and a painting mum just bought (her suggestions), and some candy Dad bought himself at the store the other night as well as... his wallet! (also mum's suggestion.) WA HA. It was kind of funny because this morning we ran a little late and decided mum and dad would do THEIR treasure hunt AFTER church (we actually went to church today... for the first time in a long time; since leaving our old one because of some friction and displeasure with worship and its leader, we've been having some difficulty choosing other ones to visit)... only we forgot Dad didn't have his wallet (he hadn't realised it yet at that point), and we went to Taco Cabana for breakfast and he was like "o_o Uhh... I don't have my wallet... I'm serious..." so then we were like =D()()()() but it was all good cos mum had money. The church we visited was kind of... weird. It was really, really small (like, 100 people), which I'm not used to, and we were the only visitors there, so everyone was like =D and we were like =D(). That, and it was kind of weird anyway. o_o The sermon itself made some pretty good points, but everything preceding and following it was just... weird... to me, so I couldn't be like "I like this church!" o_o Then we went home and mum and dad treasure hunted. By the way, dad's wallet was hidden in the box where we keep the feminine supplies XD The clue? Genesis 31:35. Look it up!! After which we went to lunch at Ming Court and ate food. And. Lah. Then AnJa had to leave cos she has a job now (it's SWEET too, she gets paid $8.50/hr for sitting at a desk drinking Diet Coke and doing her homework, very occasionally checking someone out), and I was just like Blah and I was on the computer and this kid from across the street had to come over and use mum's computer to do research because their computer wasn't working and I think my music disturbed him plus I think he hates me (no reason, I just get this vibe). Then AnJa called and she was like "You want to know what sucks?" and I said "Yes." And she said "I just got in an accident." And I said "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" and she said "Yes" and I said "ARE YOU OKAY??!" and she said "Yes" and I said "WHAT HAPPENED" and I got up and paced and then went downstairs and mum and dad talked to her. Turns out some jerk hit her and then drove off, and she didn't get the license plate number and the car's dented, but she's not at all hurt and the car is still drive-able, so it's okay, but it still sucks and there's a very bad moment that happens right after someone says "I just got in an accident". =|

As thanks for us letting the kid (his name's Caleb) use our computer, that family invited us for supper. I didn't want to go because I'm not social but I went anyway and I had fun enough. I mean, not like "WHEE, FUN" but I wasn't sitting there wishing I could leave the whole time, so that's a success.

Maybe it's just me. But I think this journal entry is really chuffing long.

(x-1, x) (-infinity, infinity) (x, x+1)