So I finally finished reading Shinshi Doumei Cross, officially Arinacchi's longest and most convoluted work to date. What I'm always impressed with in all of her works is that she is somehow able to make really complicated systems and ideas fit within their respective stories. (For example, the whole tenshi storyline in KKJ weaves a complicated story about how the tenshi and Kami-sama are connected, and how they in turn relate to Maron and the rest, but somehow it all seems to fit together.)

Part of me is a little cynical when it comes to her "plot twists", actually. Somehow they're so outlandish and so surprising that I fail to be shocked by them. She's fairly predictable in that what may seem straightforward actually isn't. Much of the time, it tugs at the heartstrings, but sometimes it feels like she's just postponing the inevitable. But hey, it pushes the story along, so I guess it's okay.

As far as SDC goes, I'd say that it didn't touch me as much as KKJ or FMoS did, but it was still fun to read. Stupidly, I can't talk too much about my favorite character because it's one of the fifty major spoilers in the series, but if you've read the series, you'd know who my favorite character is based on this comment. :3

As far as her other recent works go, part of me wishes that Mistress Fortune was a larger affair than it turned out to be, but I guess it was nice to have light-and-fluffy superficial shoujo after SDC. I'm looking forward to another dark, long series, though. And this time, I want to cry.

Who knew that worrying over and drilling and filing and polishing metal for about 7 hours straight could be so tiring? Anyway, the pieces to be anodised have been done and finished as much as they can. It's a tad frustrating that aluminium can't polish all that well (and I know I wasn't the only one annoyed about this) but what's done is done.

... Haha, and when we get it back in two weeks - during the critique lesson, not less - watch me fret about something having gone wrong at the anodisers. orz

Also I kept telling myself on the way home to just sit and watch TV or something, but I still managed to play my DS for about 6 hours straight. I'm going to fuck up my fingers really badly one of these days.

I have no idea what I want to do tomorrow. I could actually stay home. Could. Or spend a bit on Ceramics in the morning and then come back early but I still don't know what I'm doing, so what's the point, really.

I'm always so damn tired on Mondays.

To do this week: plan Exalted oneshot, plot evil for a Demon chron, and oh yeah, there are some areyougame fics I should probably write. Ought to keep me entertained.

I finished the second Phoenix Wright game last week. My hatred for the fourth case is epic. such stupid crap to expand a game that already seemed twice as long as its predecessor. Also magatama death was INFURIATING! However, I now have a girl/girl pairing to go with SLASHIEST GAY LAWYERS EVER (and by that I mean Franziska/Adrian, omg hot.) Ahem.

That being said, anybody want the first two PW games? Price is negotiable. I have the case for the first but not the second, as I bought that one used. I'll not play them again because it's too frustrating when I know what happened and can't TELL the game because it wants me to march down its predetermined path. (And on that note, anybody want to loan me #3? I hear it's less ARGH OMG HAET U than 2.)

My cat is in a shopping bag. it is adorable.

Good things about today: Despite missing an entire class last week becuase I was too stupid and brain-dead to go, I am caught up to the rest of the class. (I apparently picked the easiest pattern ever.) My side-seams and hems are zigzag stitched so they won't fray, and I've sewn one side-seam. Then I will need to do the zipper thing, sew up the other side, add a hook-and-eye, hem it, and sew a ribbon to the top. I'm excited. Skirt! My very own skirt that I made! Yay.

Also, I had sushi for dinner.

Also, when I stopped by 7-11 to pick up caffeinated beverage for tomorrow morning (because I did not do grocery store things this weekend and am out of caffeinated soda, except for Diet Coke which I hate and only keep around for friends who drink it), the guy gave me a random Jones Soda Co. T-shirt. I have no idea why. But hey, free T-shirt. Not arguing.

Cranky things: Splashed boiling water on my hand while trying to make pierogies for lunch tomorrow. It still hurts. POUT.

Additionally, my back is killing me from sewing class.

I think I'm going to pop into a nice, hot shower to try and loosen up my back, and then go fall into bed. There will be moar Mass Effect tomorrow! Also Mike has made mention of cooking me dinner. ♥

	The Graduate lil geri's graduating today. sheena is just tagging along.
	lil geri getting ready to recieve her diploma Geri is getting ready to go on stage to recieve her diploma
	We pledge allegiance these were the colour gaurds notice only females are on stage.0.0
	looking at me Geri is approaching the stage to recieve her diploma.
	getting on to the commencement getting ready to be honored for their accomplishments.
	Ready to throw up their caps getting ready to throw up their caps.
	First one at the school We were the first one's to enter the school before the ceremony.
	sheena rocking geri's graduating gear sheena rocking lil geri's graduation attire.
	Heavenly and geri chilling lil geri getting ready to go to her prom at hostos community college.
	lil geri and her god brother ron lil geri hanging with her godbrother before leaving for her prom.
	lil geri's graduating today This is after the commencement ceremony. sheena and geri styling and profiling for me.
	geri and malachi miracle My baby malachi cheering his big sister on for graduating.
	geri and har school partner lil geri and her school buddy after the ceremony.
	we are family
	we are family keith lil geri and me big geri after the ceremony. As you can see i now use a cane to get around.
	chilling finaly lil geri can now relax after a tedious year of studying, ah the angst of 8th graders.
	freedom at long last Freedom at long last. NOW ONTO HIGH SCHOOL.
	lil geri and sheena showing the victory sign for finaly getting out of 8th grade.
	sheena holding lil geri up before her prom sheena's showing off that she can pick up lil geri.
	ali and lil geri Ah my cross to bear this is my oldest son ali and lil geri goofing around before she left for her prom.
	My miracle This is my youngest he was still born,but i ask the dr not to play god just do whatever he had too. And he gave me my miracle hence the name miracle.I was 7 months when i had him. In this picture he was 1 week old.
	Aaliyah This is aaliyah's prom day.
	Miracle and aaliyah miracle cheering for aaliyah's prom day to forth.
	aaliyah and her crew aaliyah and her crew chilling at their prom.
	aaliyah aaliyah getting ready to go up on stage for her diploma.
	getting the finishing touches in place aaliyah is all resdy to go get her diploma. The angst of 5th graders.Yikes.
	Aaliyah is waiting Aaliyah's all set to go get em.
	waving to me and keith aaliyah's waving at me for i didn't even see her,keith did.
	After the ceremony aaliyah and friend after the ceremony was completed.
	Aaliyah and her friend alison Hard to believe it was raining on this day. But all's well ends well.
	shakeitha shakeitha recieving her commencement award.
	we are family these are keith first 2 children ,he was 47 when i had shakeitha and 49 when i had tamina. Talk about waiting.>.<

I fucking hate Powerpoint presentations, and I really fucking hate making them.

Double that sentiment when it's supposed to be in Spanish. And I cannot find many decent pictures to put in it. I would sell my soul right now for a nice chart of colonial-era racial gradients that I didn't have to make myself.

>:E

No quiero presentar!

The only fun I've had all damn day today was editing my LJ interests. And tomorrow is not going to be any better.

[edit]Done! Crappy but done.

I am now off to get six hours of sleep.[/edit]

( cut for sensitive(?!) issues )

Anyway, I had yet another talk about my future plans or lack thereof and the pile of insecurities that come with them with my parents yesterday or the day before. I do focus a lot more on what I can't do than what I can. It's something that's been pointed out to me several times in the last couple of months, so it IS an actual problem, and actually one that has to be pointed out to be every now and then because I forget it. A lot. It's just so hard to shut up the inner critic, especially when it's been going on and on in the back of my head for such a long time.

Jax, WTF?! Your defense is supposed to be your strength! What the fuck? Sack Waffleburger, for fuck's sake. ARGH RAR SNARL SNAP.

p.s. Dear Green Bay, way to lose it at the end.

Dear Redskins, ILU. ♥ Lovely job. Carry on.

Dear Carolina: Ok, ok, so KC isn't exactly what one might call a challenge. But the shutout was still beautiful to see. Kitty approves 110%.

It's been a good weekend. Saturday I went to do the bridesmaid fitting for sabrielrose and calhin's wedding - sabrielrose's wedding dress is beautiful. Oh, my goodness, yes. ♥ Saturday night was Newbie Game for Dead City. We got a fair crop of fresh meat newbies; hopefully they stick around. Michael Downey encouraged me to make an epically fail Praxis bid, but who cares, it was a oneshot.

I finished my DCP character for the year. I've been wanting to play this character for years. Kitty is pleased to finally get the opportunity.

In other news, I watched Secretary tonight. Props to celeloriel, first_seventhe, mithrigil and puella_nerdii for the rec. Shiny. ♥

Also randomly, wrenbow and mrsteninch make me feel old. I make references to things that happened when I was in high school and they're like "Um, I was 8 then." and I"m just like *headdesk* I love them anyway though. ♥

and now...I must decide if I am going to read, play Persona 3, or go to sleep. That last one sounds awfully appealing.

Oh yes! Mike and I started playing Mass Effect today. I cannot believe the number of achievements that are predicated on multiple play-throughs. although I am frustrated that now Mass Effect shows on my gamertag, even though we didn't START it on my gamertag, and shows 0 achievements and my OCD is Extremely Displeased by this fact. Kind of like how I'm really bothered by Blue Dragon still sitting there smirking at me because I never actually started it, and yet it shows on my card. My OCD, I will show you it.

But yes, Mass Effect. Seems to be...much like any other Bioware game. We're going the Paragon path, because it's always less fun to go back to the Light side after you've been a Sith Lord...wait, sorry, this is Mass Effect, not KOTOR. Um. Anyway, we are being nice. And our guy has the prettiest green eyes ever. I have such a weakness for green eyes. Woe. We're on the Citadel immediately following the Eden Prime thing, and doing the traditional "I am playing a Bioware RPG! Let me see how many sidequests may be located in this finite area!" deal. I, uh, might have made really dorky squeaky noises every time we found a Keeper to scan. Mike was laughing at me and saying "You're having too much fun with that" and I was like "Well, it's like Pokémon. You gotta catch 'em all. And you know me and collectibles in RPGs." Which at least made him laugh.

Overall, it's been a good weekend. and now I am tired and will go to bed instead of doing the dishes. Ha.

Every so often, I take this world out of its little compartment in the back of my mind and add to it a bit.

( If I could draw, I would draw the ships and platforms I envision people using in this world. But, alas, I cannot draw. )

---
It just would not end properly for me. Sorry.

Sorry, no drabble night tonight.

Anyway, I've been wanting to do this meme for a while, so:

Name a character and I'll tell you three (or more) facts about them from my own personal headcanon.

. . . So Tegaki's giving me this "come back later" message, and I just remembered that I haven't saved a single picture I've drawn there. It could seriously be nothing, but if it results in me losing my pictures, I will be very cross and unhappy because that would really suck. Note to self to get into the habit of saving pictures again.

In better news, I had no idea that Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise was out already and OH MY GOD, I WANT but if I get much more distracted in the next month or so, I am going to die a horrible, horrible death, or something like it.

I am taking a break from reading difficult or challenging books for a while, because man...

Things RotK taught me:

-if your government goes wrong, blame it on the Eunuchs, not the idiots who followed their advice.

-if your a woman and want to make your son/husband/brother do something/punish them for something, commit suicide, because that is the most love and totally not emotionally abusive thing you can do.

-The oldest son should always be promoted over the youngest, no matter how unfit they really are.

-If you keep failing in a war that is draining your lands resources, don't back out, but try try again.

-Taoists are made of awesome.

-Unintential yaoi subtext is centuries old.

I'm stealing the 28 fics meme off vani_nessa, because I need something to keep me busy while I pretend that Descartes' Error doesn't exist and I don't need to be starting a book report about it. This one's for Scourge, because mustasched individuals seem to be in my head right now and he's the most popular one on my flist.

Here's the twist: they're AUs. You can suggest any AU you want of any flavor (yes, even the dreaded high school AU) from either ones I've written before or ones you came up with off the top of your head. Just pick a theme and give me something to work with.

( The prompts. )

So I'm looking through the sound effects of MGS1.

There's some weird things.

LIST OF ODD THINGS

- There's lots of characters getting hurt which wasn't used. Liquid, in particular, has a lot more yells of pain than he gets to use in the game. The ninja gets more innuendos than he got to use, as well. Snake gets more yelps - basically, if you want to listen to non-canon grunting and groaning, there's a ton.

- There's sound effects for Otacon being beaten up, including his neck being snapped.

- Snake gets LOADS more protests than he uses in game during the not-shooting-no-matter-how-hard-you-mash-◘-you-sadist bit:
-- "Damn - ! I can't do it!"
-- "I can't do it."
-- "I can't shoot!"
-- "No! I can't do it!"
-- "There's no missiles!"
-- "It's no good! I'm out of missiles!"
....etc.
I feel all the worse for him now.

- One folder has little in it except a strange musical noise. It sounds a little like some of Mantis's Hymn, or the disc change chord, but it isn't.

- Ocelot's got some good grunting and a loud cackle of "Hahahahaha! Nice going, hero!" Ocelot = GLaDOS. He also says "What are you aiming at?" and "I can't see!"

- MGS still has the honour of being the only worksafe game ever to force you to punch a ninja to orgasm in order to continue the plot. The Ninja gets a lot more lines that accommodate this.

- Mantis has a lot more than he says in game. "I cannot think!"

- Meryl has soundfiles for comments on Snake's mine evasion skills (or lack of them).

- Raven gets more lines, too.

I should upload the deleted soundfiles somewhere.

Whee lamia_forte came over and stayed the night. Since I'm afraid of driving the highway alone we don't see each other oft.

She kept me up all night with funny Youtube videos.

Today we're going to ARCHON. My friends are apalled that I dare shop at Walgreens for batteries in costume but I like to get dressed and ready at home.

Here's the list of things we need this weekend (yes, this is an actual list in my house):

http://pics.livejournal.com/rhap_chan/pic/000236cq

DAMMIT CLAMP

MUST YOU ALWAYS BE SO CONFUSING

DDD8

IT'S HEEEREEE

B-but I must be strong and wait until it's been fully subtitled. I mean I could just watch it for the animation at the moment, but. Well.

Nice to know that I still haven't got over the tendency to fangirl things I know nothing about but omg eeeeee ♥

I have to remember to edit my resume and go job-hunting in the next couple of weeks or they'll all be gone before uni ends, as usual. Then maybe I can get a credit card. That'd make things a bit easier.

... God I have no room left on my shelves for manga. I really wish I was kidding. And my room is a pigsty. Too much arts and crafts stuff and newspapers and everything lying all over the place. Not that I use my desk much anymore anyway. :|

I don't want to go back to uniii orz

* Can't stand the weather right now. It's not just the fact that it's been blazing hot for the past two days - it's that it keeps changing so drastically. I'd be wearing my winter PJs one night and summer ones the next.

* Someone scanlated the Violinist of Hameln sequel, and I'm basically happiest over the fact that the mangaka's art style's improved a lot. As in, A LOT, because his eyes aren't freaking me out anymore. XD But it does remind me that the original series hasn't been completely scanlated yet. (Just two volumes left!)

* Wooooh long weekend! And I can only hope that what little I managed to do this week will make things alright for next week. Anyway, things I need to do over the next few days:

- measure kitchen and two adjacent rooms and everything in it (sob)
- fix up CFUD network
- RP...? I'd like to
- graphics exercises
- ?? think of more in the morning

Poll #1271668 tell meeee
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

MY FOX-HOUND AND FOX UNIT PATCHES CAME IN THE MAIL TODAY. WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH THEM?

If other, please specify. (If not other, you can leave this blank or write me a very short fanfic, whichever you feel is better)

Shiny! But the DSi doesn't seem different enough from the DS Lite to make me want to buy it. Shocker, I know! I do find this fixation for turning any handheld gadget into a minature, portable computer - a small laptop, essentially - kind of interesting and a bit funny, for some reason.

Anyway, regarding uni work, I seem up to date with Jewellery, except for the research/critical analysis due in about 10 days. At least the domes are finished, that's the most important part. May have to go buy another drill bit though, since I can't decide on how thick the wire I want to use is going to be.

Now I just need to decide on what to do for Ceramics today, do it, go buy the silicone kit from an art store and then go home. If I can't figure out what to do for Ceramics in another hour or so, I might just up and leave and get home early for once... hopefully before this storm we're supposed to get today hits.

Also I finally scanned everything from the last month last night, and compiled everything I did in this list here. Now see if I start thinking about NaNoWriMo next month.

P.S.: perfectdays IF YOU'RE READING THIS, WHY AREN'T YOU PAINTING?