Thursgiving in the Wild

Happy Thursday! I was promised a rain storm today, but it never came. How sad is that! It's going to be all sunny and stuff for the next while, and the storm would have been a nice seasonal reminder.

How was your Thanksgivings? Mine was pretty different. They just ripped out our kitchen this week, so it was going to be different no matter what. This morning the dining room was all plasticked off like a quarantine zone and we had McDonalds for breakfast!

After work I had to park like three houses down across the street, but I got home just in time to help my folks bring in groceries--Turkey breast, mashed potatoes, mashed yams, scalloped potatoes, corn, corn bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, olives, cheesy broccoli, rolls, um. All microwaved one at a time, but it was pretty legit. Why don't we do this every year? So hassle free.

There's still a pie left down there, and "Christmas Snack Cakes" which are just hexagonal Fancy Cakes. Oh my gosh where am I going to put it all.

But now we can really turn towards Christmas, now that these lesser holidays are finally out of the way. Now I know the consumer world has been playing Christmas music for a few weeks already by now, but I try my best to put it off until its time.

On the other hand, all that stuff I ordered off Amazon has already started coming in, so maybe I think ahead at least a little bit. :3

Stay warm everybody! Happy Thursgiving Day!

-Steph

Star Dazzle

Happy Thursday! Today I saw my good friend Orion again, which was a fun surprise. When I was little, my dad took me outside and showed me Orion and Taurus and the Pleiades and Cassiopeia, but we never got around to going out in any other season and learning any of the others. Sirius is my star, so I know Canis Major, but if it's not falltime I can't tell you what's up there at all.

Just now me and Beth went out there with my glow in the dark book and we found Auriga, Gemini and possibly Cepheus. Opinions differ on whether we found Pisces. Now my neck hurts, and it's cold out there, bro!

(speaking of, Happy Thursday Birthday!)

Well today I got to drive some work peeps down to a work meeting, so that was a pretty jolly road trip. We all arrived alive, too, so that's a plus. It was a nice change of pace, in terms of what they pay me to do.

Yesterday was baking day because next week they're ripping out my kitchen. :< I dashed out a pumpkin pie and a half dozen lil' pumpkin pies. I also made a "soup" which was made out of mashed potatoes, mashed yams, the rest of the canned pumpkin, and half and half. Quite nice! Seasoned with a dash each of the same spices I put in the pie, that's something I'll be making again.

Carolyn came over, too, to pick up some stuff, so it was like a weird watch-Stephanie-make-a-mess party. We had some leftover pumpkin pie filling, so the three of us cooperatively created a monster: pumpkin pie filling, marshmallows, oats, chocolate chips. The oats absorbed the filling, so it really ended up like gross chocolate spice oatmeal. Live and learn.

I just found out that BSG has been on Hulu for like ever, so I'm spontaneously doing a re-watch. I'm on episode eight with Leoben. :3

Speaking of watching things again, I showed Beth Dylan Dog and Superman Returns, and we also smashed out Twilight Eclipse while smashed. How many of you are going to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn today? I'm not.

-Steph

Raffle Thursday

Happy Thursday! Today me and Beth won the Rocket Fizz raffle! That is, we each got a ticket from when we were there last week, and one of them was a winning number. $10 to burn, and we spent it all on candy and pop. Pretty exciting, winning a raffle!

This week has gone a little like this: wake up, go to work, come home, watch a movie, go to sleep, wake up, go to work, come home, watch a movie, go to sleep, wake up, go to work....

We watched Superman I and II, Twilight New Moon, about 12 episodes of Chuck, and HSM 1 and 2 (we watched those last two just now). Waiting on the table to be watched are Eclipse, The Terminator, The Big Lebowski, Superman Returns, and Dylan Dog.

Kind of a good mix.

Today was a pretty good Thursday as it was a day off, and we won a raffle and got to watch some silly movies. I also made some matzo ball soup and some cranberry walnut white chocolate chip cookies. Beth made grilled cheese sandwiches. Today was good weather for it.

Been writing a tad, mostly on my lunches when there's nothing else to do. It's pretty lame stuff, but at least once it's written it's editable. You can't do much to it if it's only in your head. I just typed it up and it doubled my wordcount for the month, bringing us to... 1,271 words. Yaaaay. Hey, I wasn't working eight hour days last year, now was I.

Eek, I gotta go get some laundries started. Then probs a bit more writey write. Peace out, yous.

-Steph

NaNo Thursday

Happy Thursday! I spent my time actually trying to write some words, so as it nears midnight, I'll treat you to some unedited, unexplained prose. The way I see it, it's probably the prologue to an Epoch side-story/flashback called

The Chaos Gauntlet

Almost there.

With another ringing crash, Huxley parried a strike that made her teeth rattle, the exertion causing every muscle in her body to scream back at her as she met blade with blade. She twisted and the blow scraped off her sword and bounced up against the armor protecting her shoulder, punching her backwards amid a flare of sparks.

Under the echo of steel on steel, Huxley faintly heard her name shouted out. Her only response was a grunt when the momentum smashed her into the damp cavern wall behind her. She was already bracing to intercept another strike.

It met her like a hammer, forcing the air from her lungs. The swordsman behind this flashing blade was bigger, stronger, and tireless. While she fought for her breath and struggled to push him off, he effortlessly leaned in, using his greater mass to pin her.

Huxley growled ferociously, sweat stinging her eyes under the cover of her helm. Shoulders pressed tight to the wall, she was literally using every last ounce of strength just to keep his blade from dipping closer. It wasn’t working.

Her growl ripped out of her and shattered off the uneven tunnel walls, a command:

“NOW!!”

She dared glance up into the shadowed eyes of her opponent, seeking them out through the visor. Just as she dreaded, they rolled wildly in his head, certainly unseeing. The irises glimmered an eerie crimson as they flashed from side to side. Chaotic. Huxley shuddered, her grip slipping.

Then to her eternal relief, the cursed soldier removed himself from her personal space, leaving her to haphazardly slide to the rocky ground. She hastily clawed at her helm one handed, practically shoving it off her head so she could get in a proper lungful of air. Her opponent howled as he was dragged off, giving one last swipe before his arm was bound as well. She knocked it aside with a steel boot and sighed.

“You’re bleeding,” Bentley snapped, picking his way in between her and the man in the blood red armor. He grunted as he went, struggling to hold the dimly glowing lines that held the man at bay. One glance over his shoulder at Huxley had one of the threads of the net dissolve as he lost his concentration, causing an uproar from their teammates as the sword again crashed free.

“You gonna focus or what?” Huxley grumbled back, lashing a hand towards the captive. She pushed back against the floor to rise but her elbow gave out and she slipped back down.

“Huxley,” Bentley warned, concerned, even as he turned back and cast another spell to fill out the net.

“I’m fine,” she allowed, gratefully taking the arm of another armored figure who reached down to assist her. Faris pulled her to her feet and retrieved her helm without a word. “I just bit my tongue,” Huxley told him.

“Put your helmet back on,” he instructed. Then he turned back to his team, Rydia and Jeffrey, who formed the other two points of the triangular net that bound the red swordsman. “How many more times can you cast this?”

“Not enough,” Rydia gritted, flipping her light hair out of her face. Her twin, Jeffrey, slipped as the net was jerked from one of his hands, and the other two fought with their captive for a few moments until he could cast it again.
Huxley threw her helm to the floor.

“What are you doing,” Bentley all but growled at her, barely giving her the slightest of glances this time.

“We’re almost there, right?” she shrugged. “I say let’s book it.” And without waiting for any corroboration, she took off at a flat sprint for the pinpoint of light that marked the way out.


----
-Steph

Kicking Down Shelves

Happy Thursday! It's like, really super cold, hold on let me close a window.

Okay that'll be better. It was FREEZING in my house this morning, and then I open the door and it's absolutely 75 degrees outside. Pretty wonky. And as soon as the sun goes down, it's back to freezing. Booooo winter.

Been showing Beth around town. This morning we walked to K.D Donuts which is the best donut shop in town. Right on Telegraph near the YMCA. I haven't been there in forever. I always get a chocolate cake donut with chocolate frosting and chocolate jimmies because nowhere else makes 'em as good. I made Beth get a maple bar because I guess they don't have them on the East coast? And when she was there she couldn't find any, so she had to try ours.

Yesterday we went to the Maharaja, for the buffet. That place is so awkward, but the korma is sooo good it's totes worth it. And the buffet is only $7.95!!! Ugh you guys we have to go there all the time.

Um we window shopped downtown and went thrifting and had lunch at the Nature's Grill which is a cute little organic/vegetarian type place. I had a falafel pita which was actually in a pita pocket and had like three scoops of sprouts in it. Actually it was pretty good. I gotta try more of those downtown eateries.

Let's see, last...weekend I guess, we watched the first Star War with Carolyn because she's never seen the originals. Ugh, what, I know. And they're all out on Blu-Ray now, so now's as good a time as any. Before they come out in 3-D, right? lol. Gotta find time for the other two.

Still pretty busy at work, but that's good I guess. So I can afford things like a new fluorescent light hood for my fish tank. IT'S SO BRIGHT IN THERE NOW.

Um, Halloween is Monday, but what worries me is that November is Tuesday. I don't think I can muster up a novella this year for NaNoWriMo, guys. I'm just not prepared and I won't have half the free time that I did in years previous. I might give it a shot, or at least look back and do some editing, but there's no way I'm pulling out a whole 50k words this time around. I might just try to get some work done on finishing what I've started, though, how's that sound?

Well, best of luck all around~

-Steph

ps
oh yeah at work today I kicked down some shelves. Because it's time to get new shelves.

Typhlosion

Happy Thursday! I forgot that my keyboard's wireless, so I don't have to clear off my desk in order to use it!! Yaaaay.

Yesterday me and Beth explored downtown. I got this "pumpkin patch" soda from Rocket Fizz that tastes like Sunkist with some cinnamon Altoids thrown in. But we also got Jaffa Cakes from the British import store by the library, but the lady there is not too friendly. And I don't know what the consistency of Jaffa Cakes is supposed to be, but these were kinda crunchy.

We also went into that pawn shop by Rocket Fizz because it always has like banjos and mandolins in the window. But the window has all the cool stuff, and the rest is all, like, giant amps and surf equipment.

Um, and then Beth drove my car up to the cross and back, because I'm too afraids to drive up that road myself. It was foggy in the morning, but it had cleared up nice by then, so it was a pretty good view of everything. I was like that building is that and that over there is this. It was like Google Earth.

OH AND my sister just had a birthday! Now she supa old. Congrats!

Some bad movies I saw were Green Lantern and Perfect Score. I also watched Scott Pilgrim, for like the sixth time. It was very good.

I was about so say I've only had one day off since I last saw you, and that's why I don't have too many interesting stories, but that's not true. I had last Friday off, too, and me and Carolyn went to the Thai place by my work and had some good soup because I was still sick.

Speaking of, there's like a million Thai places in town. And I've only been to... four of them. There's also the new one downtown, and the Thai/Peru place and at least another on Main St. that we walked by. Yesterday I stir fried some spaghetti with some coconut milk/peanut butter for dinner just because of the over exposure.

Yep. Well that's about it! I'll see you again later.

-Steph

Summertime at last

Happy Thursday! This morning it was like 85 degrees at 10 o'clock! FINALLY. I don't know about you guys, but I basically live my life for summer -- not for the school's out yay feeling of yesteryear, but for the weather. I can't stand this cold stuff, I need it to be hot out all day. But you may have noticed (probably because I keep telling you) that the summers here have been less than cooperative. But it's hot this week, so what more can I ask.

And you know what's a good summer time activity? Road trips. You know what the weather was like on ours? Pretty cold. So whatever. So what if we decided not to see the Grand Canyon because it was snowing and the low was going to be 19 degrees that night. Or that we didn't get to go into Joshua Tree because the roads were "flooded." :<

The funny thing is, though, that we survived the whole thing, and I got back to work on time and all that, but then we both got sick right after and we're still recovering from that. So much for coming back from vacation all refreshed.

Here's the highlights from my bank statement:
10/04 - Falafel King Boulder CO - $7.05
10/04 - Culver's Colorado Springs CO - $5.89
10/05 - Safeway Store Trinidad CO - $29.93
10/06 - Chevron Seligman AZ - $1.69
10/06 - Juanhijos Burit (the burrito counter next to the subway counter in the Chevron gift shop) Seligman AZ - $6.97
10/07 - Legends Classic Diner Glendora CA - $5.71

Why was a falafel pita so much!! Is my first response, actually. At the Safeway I bought a fruit bowl and a yogurt for breakfast, and some jerky and cheez-it for the road, and some pop tarts and some apples. They didn't confiscate my last apple at the border, but we did have to hand over the bag of bruised oranges the lady at Meteor City sent with us.

Well it sure was fun seeing the northern part of the southwest. Not quite as deserty as I had imagined. New Mexico started out positively Great Plainsy, that was definitely a place where the deer and the antelope play. Arizona had just as much non-desert, especially around Flagstaff where the mountains came down and there was just pine forest on either side of the highway for miles and miles and miles. California looked like California. There were Joshua trees everywhere except for Joshua Tree.

Driving through the major towns, though, was an experience. Here in SoCal, it's so normal to drive for two or three hours straight through city after suburb after city. When we first got into NM, we drove that long without seeing so much as a gas station. Santa Fe was a gift shop, and Albuquerquer came and went without much fuss. The towns in the desert are really more like hubs that the roads connect. Once we got into CA, it was almost obvious, it was just plain populated. Why is that? Literally one side of the Colorado River is a trailer park, and the other is a full fledged town.

It all seems like so long ago. I guess that's what 8 hour work days will do to ya. I wish I had better pictures, but when I pulled out my camera in Golden, CO, the battery was nearly dead. :< It must have turned itself on on the plane or something, so I ended up just using my camera phone. Which was alright, but rather limited. I just put some pics up on Facebook, you can see a lot of the same picture over and over. Road, a low row of mountains to the north, desert to the south, clouds straight ahead but never above. It was like we never moved at all.

-Steph

Two Hours There, Four Days Back

Happy Thursday! I'm typing on my phone, so even though there's plenty to tell you about, this is probably going to be a little short.

Right now me and Beth are sitting in a motel in Needles, California. This morning we left a motel 6 in Winslow, Arizona, and the morning before that we were in an RV park in Trinidad, Colorado. And that day we started out up around Denver. Tomorrow we'll be home in Ventura.

Weather's been crazy. Most of the places we've been, it's been sunny and hot, but then it'll have a freezing wind. Up in Boulder it rained in the sun, which was awesome. But after that, it's just been raining everywhere except where we are. Like if we're on Tue highway, the clouds are all stuck up in the mountains all around, but above us is all clear.

But there was definitely snow up on the mountain leading to the Grand Canyon, so unfortunately we decided to skip it this time. :<

So on Tuesday we saw my brother and the kids, who are super tall. Yesterday we drove through the prairie and saw antelope. Today we stopped at Meteor City, looked at the grand canyon caverns gift shop, drove up a mountain to see a ghost town, saw some coyote, and I fed a wild burro ice cream.

We also watched an episode of Smallvile this morning. Oops.

So it's an adventure! I'll show you the pictures next time.

-Steph

Ps
Albuquracker Tracker. Oakaykes. What the helk. Antelope! Gusting winds may exist.

Adventure On

HAPPY THURSDAY. Things are pretty different these days, who knows what's going to happen next. But totally cool for next week, though. !! I finally get some time offffff and you know what I'm going to do with it!!!!!

Just bought a ticket to fly out to Denver, where I'mma pick up Beth, swing by say hello to my bro, and see the Grand Canyon for the first time in my adult life! AKA, Beth is moving in! And then we can work out real life from there.

I've just begun a very informal, from scratch education in the field of information technology. I'm thinking, if I put the time in, and focus, I could probably do that. I mean, career-wise. I just have to learn it all first. And I can do that, right?

So has anyone seen any new show they like this season so far? I watched the pilots of New Girl and Person of Interest, and while the first one was rather expectation-fulfilling, the second was pretty underwhelming. I really want to see Michael Emerson in something again, but it's certainly not this. Oh, I also skimmed through Playboy Club for Sean Maher, but that was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper boring and I won't be back.

HIMYM is still making me believe that Robin is the bride. I won't be persuaded otherwise. And the OFFICE, Andy is manager, just like I thought! At least, I think that's what I thought. You'll have to go back a few months to quote me. But he's doing a great job and that's all I needed to see.

Um yesterday me and Carolyn discovered a real cute part of Oxnard where there was a theater and, like, civilization, and we saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I guess it was pretty good, but the best part was the theater. It was the middle of the day, but the ticket was only a buck 25 more than the early bird price at the regular theater, there was NOBODY there, and we thought we were going to have the theater to ourselves until one guy walked in right before the previews started. The seating was pretty intense stadium, and the seats were all very plush and newish feeling. It was sort of surreal. I'll show you some time.

I also saw this today, and I laughed so much.

-Steph

Goin to the fair

Happy Thursday! I'm sooo tired. Ready to go to sleep like, this very moment. Just watch me.

I've never been to the LA County Fair, but for some reason I thought, this year is the year. Then I thought I wouldn't have time, but then Carolyn asked when my next day off was and if I wanted to go?

So that was our today. Geez, that place is huge. Probably could fit our fair in there like three times. They had way more places to buy stuff, but it was mostly the same stuff over and over again. They didn't seem to have any community stuff, like stuff you get ribbons for, but they did have dinosaurs.

I pet like more goats than I ever dreamed I would pet. I didn't get to pet the donkey or the mule, which was sad. We didn't pay the one dollar to see the "is this the world's smallest horse (not a pony)" because the space was so small it probably was fake or dead. There was an albino wallaby, WHERE'S MY ALBINO WALLABY, VENTURA COUNTY FAIR?? just hanging out in a fenced off area. There were sharks.

Ummmm we each bought a fifteen dollar chicken kabob+fries+drink. The only other fair thing I ate was a strawberry/banana/nutella crepe. $8.50.

The kids building was also a science building, and had the only things that got ribbons, which was kids' art. There was some funny stuff like ours, like a MSPaint dog in a vortex; some great stuff like Batman Beyond Batman and Jim Morrison; some inexplicable stuff like a display case labeled "Scientists" full of sock people dressed up with badly cut felt pieces and yarn to look like Benjamin Franklin, Mrs. Frizzle, and a "Mars Robot Princess" which looked much more like Stephen Hawking.

But the best part of the science room was when Carolyn did a double take and said, "that cake is a lie." And sure enough, in the "science kitchen" there was a chocolate-flaked cake with cherries on top. We were torn as to whether it was on purpose, or, perhaps, maybe that's just what cakes look like? Until we made it to the other side of the room, where, right in front of our eyes, was a wall with an orange portal cut into the side, a Companion Cube sitting nearby. So that was pretty awesome.

The other cool thing was a Native American hoop dance that we saw in a "wild west show." Oh, here he is on the internet. Probably worth the price of sitting through the rest of the show.

So let's see, Pros: accessibility of goats. Cons: Huge. I think I just need to go to more fairs and see what they're really all about.

Since I actually had two days off this week, I spent the other one watch Lion King in theaters. I don't think I actually saw it on the big screen the first time, so it was very exciting. There were only like, ten other people in there, maybe half of that was kids. The colors were very sharp and the lions were very big. It's still one of my favorite movies of all time.

It was also my dad's birthday on Tuesday! Happy birthday, buddy! We went to Outback and it smells real good in there. I downloaded this whole program, The Mechanical Universe, which I watched on laserdisc back in high school physics. My dad really likes all that stuff, and I'm more than a little interested in it, so that's gonna be something we can watch together some time. It's from 1985, though, so it's also pretty funny.

Well I'm going to go never walk again for a little while. See you next time!

-Steph

Routine

Happy Thursday! Are you ready for falltime? Because it's really here. It even rained for a moment over the weekend.

I tried the salted caramel mocha at Starbucks today, and it was pretty good. I don't know what I was expecting, but it didn't taste caramelly like I was thinking it would. It was more complex than that. It did have a few bits of what seemed to be straight up salt, but I dig that in my sweet things, so over all I quite liked it.

Things at work are still pretty crazy busy, I'm in the middle of another six-day week. I achieved greatness on Monday, which was intense, but the rest of the week has not been as spectacular. Gonna keep trying.

Got a haircut today. It's still a little too long so I don't know what I'm going to do about that. The place I go to is "under new management," they've still got the sign up since the last time I went, which was probably like six months ago. The girl who cut mine today was new to me, and she didn't seem to grasp what I meant when I said my motto was "it can't be short enough." At least it looks decent and well behaved now.

I still feel like all I've been doing is working and sleeping. Maybe next week you'll get a more interesting update.

-Steph

Terra

Happy Thursday! I could have sworn I had a snappy title for this one, but I forgotted it. Whoops.

So, to emphasize my weather/weather response dilemma, today was like the third or fourth day in the high 70s/80s, and I got a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks. I remembered today that when I was working at Vons, I had to crank up the AC right away just to be able to touch the steering wheel without burning my finger prints off. These last three summers, including this one, I don't think that's ever been necessary.

Global warming is somehow to blame, I'm sure of it.

I haven't been able to fully enjoy this late blooming summer because I've been cooped up at work all day. Which isn't actually too bad, because this is a crazy good amount of hours. But it's really hectic and bizarre, we're having to think about a million new things at once. When I'm done I just sort of want to huddle in a corner by myself for a while.

I mean, drop by! We'd love to see you.

So you may have heard about my disk errors? Fixed it by going to Fry's and picking up at 2TB Barracuda for like 70 bucks. Got it running Windows 7 -- goodbyyyyyye Vista! Also picked up a wireless keyboard that has a trackpad, which is pretty sweet. Just noticed today, though, that there's no light for capslock, which is sort of inexplicable. Trial and error, then.

Thanks, Dad, for my new set up!

I've been eating home made falafel pitas all week. Over the weekend I made some hummus, and then on Monday I think I had a go at falafels. They turned out pretty good. In the pita with the hummus and tzatziki and tahini and all that they were kinda overpowered, but the combined flavor attack was spectacular. Have I ever told you how easy tzatziki is to make? Here it is:

Two cup jug of Greek yogurt
three cloves garlic, minced
half an English cucumber, peeled, minced
squeezings from half a lemon
1 TB olive oil

stir. eat that now. it's so good. put it on everything. I mean, I did it like that just from memory, and it's just, exactly right. Try it and see. I recommend a slap chop or similar device for the garlic and cucumber.

The hummus and falafel need a little perfecting, but these are things I'm perfectly willing to make over and over. Like cakes.

Speaking of, almost, we've got a pumpkin growing in the backyard. It was a mystery vine, but now it is oh-so definitely a pump-pumpking. Still green, just a dusting of yellow across the top. I can't wait until I get to rip him open and turn his insides into good eats. There don't seem to be any others growing on that vine, but it keeps putting out flowers so hopefully some more will take. At the rate they grow, it'll keep me in pumpkins through the holiday season. There's also two or three more sproutlings coming up where we dumped the compost out, so maybe those will turn out to be pumpkins, too.

Well, I'm off to watch a movie and/or youtube. Peace off!

-Steph

PS my "new" computer's name is Terra. For terabyte.

Cold Calling

Happy Thursday! Summer is over -- when did it ever start? -- now that September is here with its fog and its school and its falltime colors. I feel like I've been waiting for a real summer for three years, and now that it's September, I'm going to have wait out yet another. But remember how November was the hottest month of the year in 2010? Maybe we'll get a repeat of that.

But it's a sad thing when the weather does get really hot, and I'm just reminded of spiced things and lemon things and Thanksgiving and pies and stuff. That's not how it should be.

In unrelated news, it's amazing how dirty your hands DON'T get at work when instead of handling movies you sit around and try to figure out how to sell Dish Network to folks. Do you want to see a demo? You should come in the store. Get some satellite tv up in your place.

I cold called about three dozen people, which I was not initially very excited about doing. But it turned out I liked talking to the actual people much more than leaving a message. Talking to the people made sense and wasn't stressful. So that was new.

Yesterday me and Carolyn had an adventure. There's a botanical garden up in Montecito called LotusLand, which is like a poor man's Huntington. It was pretty cool, though, we got in for free as the tour coordinator's guests, because Carolyn has connections. We toured with four or five little old ladies and an almost little old man. It was nice to wander around and look at gardens and strange trees and stuff, and there was a huge cactus bowl garden where all you could see was cactus alllll around.

We also finished another anime! It's called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and it's crazy. I guess you could see it if you have the time, since it does have some interesting stuff I've never seen an anime do before. But it was also pretty weird and sometimes dumb.

I need to buy a new hard drive for my computer. Although I just looked and none of the "your disk has an error!!" windows is up right now. But I guess I'll just get a new one anyway 'cause you can get a huge drive for a reasonable price, and then basically I could just use that forever or until it fails, and just keep upgrading the computer components instead of getting a new one ever. Yeah?

Well. I'm going to go do something brainless. That sounds good right about now.

-Steph

300

Happy Thursday! Blogger is telling me this is my 300th post. Congrats, I guess! That's ridic.

So we still have like a whole bag of baos in the fridge. It's kind of crazy. But I got distracted from eating them because I made dinner on Monday, so we've been working through that, too.

I'll make it for you sometime, it's just a sweet potato and a package of squash and some mushrooms and craisins and apples and cashews all cooked together with some cinnamon and stuff like that. I really liked it, haha.

Finished my castle boat, named her Olivia Victoria. The ship motto is "Semper Est Victoria In Pace." On one of the days when I was mad at wall-building, I swam ashore and constructed a covered wagon. So now I'm putting in a little trading camp next to it, like a place for people to trade with the ship. Minecraft can be so cute sometimes.

Facebook informed me that Rocket Fizz had a new flavor of soda called "sweet corn," so I took Carolyn down there to get one today. It tasted remarkably like corn! Like if you opened a can of corn and started eating it, except it was a soda. I do love me some sweet corn, so it was pretty amazing.

We also went to Green Forest and I had some pretty amazing strawberry yogurt, and later we went to Toki and I had a pretty good ramen salad. It was just a good food type day, I guess.

Weather, too, it was at least 70 before the breezes started up. I forgot that the real nice weather starts up again with the school year. Because basically I was waiting all summer for a nice week like this. Yesterday I was laying out with Donnie, but I was too busy reading to pet him so he bit me for my negligence.

Happy 300, peeps.

-Steph

A Million Baos

Happy Thursday! Gotta be at work in an hour so I'mma shoot this out there.

Fair's over! I just got my check today for my winnings-- five WHOLE dollars. That was for a second and third place poems. I didn't get to pick up my ribbons because the pick up times matched my shift that day exactly. I don't know what to do with ribbons, anyhow.

I think next year I'll be happy going just the once. I ate all the fair food, which was not as dream-fulfilling as it promised. The Beach Boys was fun, though, so I'll probably pick a day when someone cool is playing, and maybe go opening day when it's a dollar.

On Tuesday morning me and my dad went to go see Captain America finally. I lost my ticket stub, though :< It was pretty good. I like the sets and the scenery, and Chris Evans lived up to expectations. Gonna have to see him in the Avengers though, to get the whole picture.

Yesterday Steven, Carolyn, and Austin came over and we cooked for a forever. Coconut milk waffles, which we made once prior...maybe over the weekend that I forgot already? And then regular baos and curry baos that we could only steam five at a time. After we were done eating all we could eat, and plates were sent home with people, there were still 30 left. Come over and try one! They're good!

We watched Hairspray, which I haven't seen in a while, and it was a good laugh for everyone. But on Batman (1966) right after, but then people started leaving. I need to own more comedies. Do you know where I can find Scott Pilgrim on blu-ray for under $20?

(It's funny to me that Chris Evans and Brandon Routh are in Scott Pilgrim, and they are also Captain America and Superman.)

Oh yeah we also watched Orphan on the first waffle day -- it must have been Friday -- which was pretty good and weird. Me and my folks watched The Conspirator, and it was like watching an essay.

I'm nearly finished with my boat castle in Minecraft. Working on the wall now, and it's turning out like I expected. That's one of the things I'm consistently amazed by, in this game, is when you think of something, and then build it, and when you're done it's exactly what you had in mind. I guess I mean as opposed to, say, painting, where maybe you're not exactly able to get the image from your brain onto paper.

Alrighty, off I go.

-Steph

Episodes

Happy Thursday! Another early one this week because closing on Thursdays seems to be my shift now. So exciting.

I did end up getting the "season pass" to the fair, so I've been four times now. For $30, it ended up paying for itself right there. BUT I also went to see the Beach Boys on Tuesday night. Thirty bucks for a concert is also a good deal. Any way you want to look at it, I think I won this year.

Except for I had plenty of opportunities to eat the fair foods I'd never gotten around to, so you might want to count that as a loss. :< so much funnel cake.

The Beach Boys! Two of them are still the same, and one of the others I saw in person at a pirate bar when I saw fake the Beatles. They were pretty awesome, especially since they sounded like the Beach Boys. And Mike Love, after like fifteen minutes, was all "we're going to take an intermission...followed by a nap." lol oldies.

This week I randomly caught up on the new Starz season of Torchwood. Since the last season had a special name (Children of Earth) and this one does (Miracle Day), I thought it was going to be a six episode thing, too. But it's a full season! There's a new episode tomorrow, but I'll probably just wait a few more weeks and watch them all at once again. I've been spoiled by the internet and dvds, I don't want to bother with real-time tv anymore.

Case in point, I watched season...five? of Dexter yesterday. It's coming out on dvd next week and we got it in yesterday. Luckily I'd already seen the first three, but the other 9 I smashed out over the afternoon. I liked the season end, but the first half of the season seemed a little lackluster. But that's another one under my belt.

I actually turned on the tv the other day, just out of curiosity. But it was like 8 on a Sunday or something, so I flipped through the guide and then turned it back off. I'm definitely not someone who just watches tv for tvs sake. That's what Youtube is for.

Although if I do find myself with a spare half hour in the mornings, I do usually end up watching Supernatural. :/ It's dumb, but I feel like I need to know what I'm missing. I know I'm not missing, well, anything... but I still have to know, you know?

Caught the first showing of Harry Potter today, just to have something to do. It was pretty dark and enough like the book as I remember. So that's all over. How sad.

Well I guess I better go find some noms and then it's off to work for me. Catch ya next week.

-Steph

Pepito: A Remembrance

Happy Thursday! The fair's on! I won a second and a third for two poems, but nothing for the lemon. :< The one that won "funny shaped" was just a huge monster that wasn't funnier shaped than the other entries. Just larger. There goes my winning streak.

So remember September 09 when I got a fish tank and then one of this fish I bought had fish babies? Remember how one of them survived by hiding in the fake plant? Remember how there were like five more living in the filter? Remember how I took out the tank divider too early and all the filter fish got eaten? And Pepito the plant-lurker was the only one who made it?

Well he got sick and died. He was a bad hat, but he will be missed.

But me and Carolyn went to the fair yesterday and looked at evvvverything. We spent like five hours there. I had udon and a corndog and spiral fries and a gingerbread cake and kettle corn. Laughed at all the kids art, tried to pet a donkey, wandered through the gardens, looked at all the collections of rocks and pokemon cards. It was super full of people, but seemed less full of exhibits.

The rabbits cages were full of chickens and/or empty. There was a butterfly cage instead of kaleidoscopes. The giant model train town was only a half a track.

But it was cool. Full of sawdust and children's screams. OH we looked at giant snakes!

It was Beth's birthday on Monday! Happy birthday, buddy! I got her Minecraft and then we built a giant guitar for her to live in. :>

-Steph

Bassy McBasserton

Happy Thursday! Weather's been nice here, how's yours? I wish I would have spent more time outside, though. Went for a bit of a walk today, but that's the first time in ever. I'll try harder.

Hung out at Green Forest today with Jacqi, having blended drinks and looking at craigslist. Should probably be doing that more often, too. Hanging out with Jacqi, I mean.

I told you I rewatched Scott Pilgrim a couple weeks ago. Since then I've jumped back into bass quite enthusiastically. Learned the bass part to that Metric song that the Clash at Demonhead plays in the movie. Gonna work on a Doors song next. It's a little tough because I haven't played in so long, and my hands are unstretchy and weak right now. But we're working on it.

Been playing guitar regularly for a couple weeks now, too, and my callouses are just about to come in properly. I got my basic chords down almost perfect, but we're working on that, too. My strategy is to learn specific songs rather than just chords out of the blue, because then if they have a chord I don't know, I'll have to learn it in context with other chords and I think that will help me better in the long run rather than just trying to get them down by rote.

It's amazing how much muscle memory plays into this. That's how I learn, too. Hand-learning, not head-learning. So the key is practice, practice, practice.

Started a workout regimen that I've followed the entirety of this week. Two miles in a half an hour and then some free weights. Gonna be Clark Kent for Halloween, so I gotta get ready.

Got a couple hours added onto work this week, so that's nice. Gotta get ready to go pretty soon. Decided I'd bang this out now instead of when I get back just in case I go on another adventure like that one time. Turns out they're just paving the shoulders?? I don't know if that means they'll be doing the actual lanes coming up, or if they're just going to leave it at that.

Oh yeah, I also entered some stuff in the fair. Same 77 year old guy as last time. So look out for those, they're all poems this year. Thinking about entering a pie or something, and of course a funny shaped lemon. Also thinking about getting a "season pass" which is only $30, less than the price of three individual days. And I love the fair, so I think that'll turn out to be a mighty fine deal.

See you guys later.

-Steph

Geek

Happy Thursday! Do you know what kind of Thursday it is? It's a BLACKJACK THURSDAY. I don't think we've had one of those in years. And I wouldn't have noticed except for I was looking up movie times yesterday. What did you do to celebrate Thursday the 21st? I didn't do much, I only got dressed to walk to CVS, and then I put pajamas back on. =/

Since last week, I tracked down and subsequently watched Superman III, Superman IV, Superman Returns, and Superman: Brainiac Attacks!. From best to worst they were: Superman Returns, Superman IV, um, and the other two tie for worst ever.

I guess I'll have to go back to Salzer's and rent the Donner cut of II, though, and then I can tell you which one's my favorite. (But it's going to be I or II).

But then I also watched Megamind, which is about superheroes/villains, and then Dylan Dog and Scott Pilgrim, which are both comic book movies. (You may also notice the Brandon Routh theme in the last two as well) Well I guess I just like comic book movies.

But I still need to see Thor and the Green Lantern and Captain America's coming out tonight. Not enough time for all this. Too busy Minecrafting.

I mean working. Today is my only day off this week! $$

Been listening to a lot of John Williams and Mumford & Sons. Played some guitar today. I even tuned up the ol' bass and tried to remember what to do with it after that. I forgot there was a bass battle in Scott Pilgrim, and that was cool. I want to say "I forgot how much I love bass," but that's something that's impossible to forget so I'll skip it.

I guess Comic Con's going on right now. Maybe one day I'll make it down there. =/

Earlier this week it was very warm and sunny and almost very much like summer, but now it's gone all misty and gray again. I just...what is this I don't even

Well. I've rambled on enough. Not really feeling it today. Maybe something cool will happen this week.

-Steph

Late oClock

Happy Thursday! I would have been here like fifteen minutes ago, but it seems like they're paving the whole world these days, and my exit was closed off and I had to go halfway to downtown and then circle back on surface streets. I was in so much of a hurry once I got here that I almost didn't stop to wash my hands--but then I noticed that they were literally streaked with a blue-black...ness, so sanitation won out in the end.

Speaking of, I got some new wart removy pads for my mystery wart (for those of you who don't know, I started the summer after high school with at least three on each hand, which is like, I don't even know how that happened) and they're very much more effective than the ones from six years ago. That is to say, I've put two on, about 30 hours each with a day in between, and now I have to wait for my disc of skin around the wart to grow back before I can put on another.

Don't be ashamed of warts, just informed! They are spreadable! So don't go touching people with it if they're not okay with that! I broke out with them due to stress, since I'd had the first one as long as I could remember (no one ever told me it was a wart). But if you pick at them and medicate them, your immune system will kick in and get rid of it for you. They're sorta gross, but they have no nerve endings on the surface so they're not too much of a bother if you don't care either way.

That's my public service announcement for the day.

Gee. Now I don't know what else to say, with this deadline of about thirteen minutes and all. I picked up the first two original Superman movies the other day on a whim, and aren't they just the cutest. Nobody in town has III, which is evidently because it's the best and I shouldn't bother with the fourth. But I will, because I'm a dork like that.

OH Sorry, Facebook, for spamming these over the last week. For some reason a backlog of about a month and a half of blogs were never imported. And I wanted to tag everybody in the AX review, so I had to get all the others in first. Hopefully this will import quickly, or at least ever. If not, I'll just have to do it myself in a couple of days.

Speaking of hooray!technology, Windows update restarted my computer in the middle of the night again and BROKE everything. Firefox, MSN messenger, Hamachi, WMP. It deleted some .dll that is normally in some specific folder AND and less specific folder, so it took like two hours of more and more furious google searches (in IE) to find the fix. And even then Hamachi wouldn't work, so that had to be deleted and reinstalled. Before I could start up my Minecraft server and see if that had been broken...which it wasn't! And then me and Carolyn went exploring and found all the secrets.

Ok, have a lovely.

-Steph

Oh, and I sat through Transformers 3, and was terribly terribly bored.

AX 2011: a look back

Happy Thursday! Before we get into the good stuff, happy Thursday birthday to Ringo! 71 today! Here's to 71 more!

So this Anime Expo was full of ups and downs. Some would say it evened out, but it's the AX so it still was amazing. Let's start.

Early Friday morning I arrived at Carolyn's to help finish the costumes! They'd been up most of the night working on them... and we mostly got them done before we headed off to Rina's. Steven's a better driver than last year! Then we headed down to LA.

We got there quick enough, and got into our room rather more quickly.... but it wasn't the upper floor room that has access to the free food! Seems as though the AX is still as unorganized as ever, and out of the three different prices they quoted to Carolyn, what they ended up charging was something else entirely! But it was a junior suite and we had two bathrooms, and there was still plenty of room for the eleven of us. ^_~

Carolyn got to work hot-gluing the last of it together, while me, Steven, and Rina wandered around downtown looking for more glue sticks and a box. We went to Ralph's, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and a mini Staples, and we did find a box.

When Minecraft happened, I had the crazy idea that I wanted to be a Creeper for the AX. That faded, but after a while we did find some Creeper cosplayers and said, well, it can't be that hard. THEN Pokemon came along, and everything went crazy. So my cosplay was as Red, the original trainer from the first series games. With a Creeper head. Carolyn and Steven went full-box cosplay, dressing up their characters like Team Rocket, which is something you can actually do in Minecraft. Steven got a Creeper head, and Carolyn used Israphel from the Yogscast youtube videos, so she's actually got three cosplays in one. Rina put together a Professor Oak costume together, and her sister grabbed a Charmander. The last box we found was for Rina, so she could fit in to our Creeper family.

What I liked the most about mine was that I had the box head on -- which was great on its own, having a masked costume really frees you up -- but I could leave it at the hotel and still have a complete cosplay. Secondarily, I loved having a backpack full of supplies, and I never had to take it off, just order people to get this out or put that in. :3 Thirdly, I loved having regular clothes, so I could wander around downtown or even back and forth from the hotel without being too hot or uncomfortable.

What I liked the most about our group cosplay was the smiles we brought to the faces of those who recognized it instantly. Pokemon AND Minecraft. One one else but us! Plenty of people in box heads, and plenty of both Pokemon and Ashes running around, but we had this complete anomaly thing going on, drawing in stares from everyone, whether they recognized one, or the other, or both, or none. (Believe it or not, but there was a guy who recognized the Minecraft side, but didn't know what the Pokeball was). We got to hiss at a lot of folks, stare at them as they passed, and everyone wanted a picture WITH us, which hardly ever happens.

Since the boxes proved to be rather impossible to travel in, our game plan was to pack up the legs and stuff into the main box, walk it all down to the expo, assemble, and then traverse down the hallway to the exhibit hall in costume. I generally wore my head there and back because it was easier than carrying it. Then just to get across the convention center, it probably took half an hour each time. Shuffling along and then stopping for pictures every three feet. That's my favorite. ^^

So we cosplayed down to the exhibit hall lobby and back (except for that one time where it was blocked off at the end for the "bomb threat"), because it would have been impossible to get those costumes through the exhibit hall aisles and crowds. So that's another trip to the hotel and back each day. Exhibit hall was super crowded the first day, and carpeted, which was new. I haven't really seen any new anime in a couple of years, so it was hard to be super interested in the wares. But I did finally buy the Cactuar plushie I've had my eye on for a while. In years past, its always either been like 40 bucks or sold out. I got mine for $20.

But the exhibit hall hasn't been my focus since we started cosplaying seriously and going for more than one day at a time. I love cosplayers! But again, since I haven't been keeping up on anything other than Naruto, I didn't see too many people who wowed me. It was more like there was just the same cosplays as ever, and I didn't need their picture because there were fifteen more of them around every corner. So I ended up mainly taking pictures of Pokemon, because, hey, I gotta catch 'em all.

We forgot to watch any new anime, too. Last year we watched ICE, which was horrendous, and Ninja Nonsense, which was amazing. (But I made up for that this week, because I just watched all of Durarara!! in the last two days. WATCH IT IT'S SO AMAZING WHY DIDN'T I WATCH IT A YEAR AGO) We saw some of the AMVs, but some of those were the same as last year, and the rest weren't outstanding. We waited in the standby line for the Masquerade, so at least it was free, but the cosplay and the skits were pretty bad here, too. So those are a couple of the "downs" of this year.

Oh, we also managed to get into the Hatsune Miku concert, who is a computer-based pop star I'd never heard of before. The singing is all this software, and she was a hologram prancing around on stage. The audience was IN LOVE. I.... liked the glow sticks.

The funniest thing that happened was this little boy who asked me if I had a knife. His mom had told him that we were Team Rocket Minecraft, and so I told him that they were, but I was a good guy. This was in the street, so Steven and Carolyn weren't even in their costumes. But I was. He said "do you have a knife?" and I put my face closer to see if I could hear him correctly, and he backed up a step lol. No, did I have a bat? I thought he said "hat," so I said "...yes?!"

"What can I use to fight those bad evil people?!" he asked with much seven year old angst. Apparently he'd been raised in a household were it was common -- nay, expected that upon meeting Team Rocket, for one to knife them.

I told him not to attack bad people, but to report them to his local police officer. "Nurse-- Officer Jenny" I managed at last.

His mom finally coaxed him away, and I said, "Have fun!"

And as he skipped away, towards the convention center, he said in quite a gleeful voice, "What a FRIENDLY Creeper!!"

XD

My other favorite quotes of the AX:

*Steven and I are sitting there with our Creeper heads on*
Steven: You're quite handsome.

*Alex asks if the ground is sloping, which it is*
Rina: I don't know. I don't have a level.

*The morning is bright so Carolyn asks Steven to punch the sun. He tries and fails*
Steven: I can't reach.

*Some cosplayer at the Masquerade is taking off parts of his/her costume*
Me: Oh no, your hat! Oh no, your...thing!

Kid on the street: Do you have a knife?

And our collective motto: ADVENTURE ON, (name here)!!!

Oh, another high point was during the intermission of the Masquerade, things were so disorganized that we all ended up watching Youtube on the MC's iPhone.

Oh, they also tore out our food court, which was the source of equal joy and despair in years previous. It was a creepy three stories into the ground, the bottom level hosting a semi-deserted food court with three or four intermittently shut down eateries. All gone, our beloved AX hangout. Shocking.

So we spent a lot of time walking back and forth, walking to find new foods, sitting in lines, and sitting in event rooms. Seems that between all this, somehow, we hardly spent any time at either the convention or the hotel room. But we were always back so late, and woke up rather early (for us) so I don't know where the time went. It was also a shortish AX altogether, since on the last day we just packed up and went home, instead of scouring the exhibit hall for last minute deals like we regularly do.

So that was my... 11th Anime Expo, twelve years since my first time. Hahaha, that's half my life so far. I was a tiny 12 year old, between 7th and 8th grade, and I cut my hair short to cosplay as Omi from Weiss Kreuz. I know it was that year because our 8th grade graduation/dance photo has me with the longest hair I've had since I cut it short the first time, and every summer after that it's been as short as it is now. That was so long ago--I remember searching fansites on my dad's computer for Weiss songs, and letting them load in the browser-based WMP for like two hours just for one four minute song. Those were the DAYS.

Oh man, I found it on Youtube, and just listening to it reminds me of all the stuff I was into back then, like reading those FFVIII fanfics that don't exist anymore. And if you ever wondered why I go by "Aya" or Ayan on the internet, you have Weiss to thank for that.

It's good, getting back to ones roots. Another year, another experience. How different will next year be!

-Steph