Ice Crystals

Final Post

2009-05-05T01:10:07Z

This has been coming for some time; since Dreamwidth became a reality, honestly.

There aren't really people here that I am not following on DW or LJ; at least not people who are posting here. That being said, I'll stick around for the current round of no_true_pair, and then I think I'm done with IJ pretty much forever.

The fic will stay; the journal will stay. If you want to find me on Dreamwidth, I'm at Lassarina; and by the same name on LJ.

Drop me a line if I don't have your DW or LJ contact info and you want me to have it.

And thanks for the fun in the last couple years, y'all. :)

Goals goals goals

2009-05-05T01:04:24Z

So, I did a little better on goals in April than I had done in March.

I didn't write 3500 words per week, not by a long shot, but after I took requests at the end of the month I did start actually writing, so that was pretty awesome. (I'm still working on those requests, by the way; it's just slow going.) Which means I'm still behind on my goal of writing 200,000 in the year, but I'll get there. *determined face*

Since I didn't post any fic, it wasn't a question of whether it also got to my ficjournal.

I started working out again about halfway through the month, which was great. I'm not back up to 5 times a week, yet, but I've managed 3 pretty consistently. Going for walks instead of driving somewhere helps a lot with that!

I don't think I managed to try anything totally new in April, so that was unfortunate, but I did get some things done on time for once, thus handling the reduce-procrastination goal.

And I did make progress on paying down debts, though of course not as much as I'd have liked.

I definitely did not beat more games than I bought - I picked up a total of 5, and only beat 1 (Digital Devil Saga.) Oops. Oh well.

~*~

So, much better than March, overall! And now that it is spring again, I seem to be facing things far more cheerily. There are tulips and they are blooming. And there is sunlight and it's over 60 degrees consistently. happy cat, I say.

I spent about 3 hours today importing a pile of fics into my DW fic comm; I'm now 25% through the total number of posts on athyn and hopefully I can finish all of those off this week. Tedious work, though.

And now, I am off to play some FFTA2, which I would beat much faster if I were not addicted to sidequests.

Well, oops.

2009-05-04T03:51:33Z

Well, I have managed to die Game 9 in Dead City. Fucking Flaws I took for backstory reasons that I didn't even get any points for. XD It's okay, though, because Mike and I came up with a concept that would never ever be permitted if we hadn't died halfway through game 9. Lasombra powerhouses who are also twins who are lovers. night_eidolon informed me that she wasn't sure if she should applaud us, or vomit. Therefore, I consider the concept a rousing success. And we will be set for Easter Game forever. *evilgrin*

That aside, it's been a good weekend. It was glorious outside today, so we took a half-hour walk to Ted's Montana Grill, this place that serves bison. They also have onion rings to die for. The bison meatloaf is fabulous. And they have delicious chocolate-chip cookies.

We walked back to Mike's place, and I played some more of Final Fantasy XII for him. We have just left Bhujerba and are on our way to the Ogir-Yensa. I--there was a bit, in Leviathan, where I just gawked at Vossler and died by irony cudgel. Mike correctly interpreted my squeaking, so he has guessed at least part of what lies ahead (by which I mean Shiva) but we are having a grand time.

I've been advancing madly in FF Tactics Advance 2 also; I've cleared "Making Music" and omfg bards rule, so much more than they did in Tactics: War of the Lions. 158 missions cleared and still having fun, so that's good! However my clan is mostly full; I can handle one more member but any more than that and there wouldn't be room for [insert four hidden characters here.] The rest of the clan is filled out with three Viera, three Bangaa (counting Cid), two Nu Mou, two moogles, one seeq, two Gria, and 5 humes.

Basically everyone is level 38, and I have a pretty solid job spread:
Luso: Fighter mastered, some Parivir, currently doing the Paladin thing.
Adelle: Ninja ownage, a ton of Fighter, going to do the Parivir thing pretty soon.
Cid: Master Monk/White Monk combo FTW.
Hurdy: Bards own.
Hume #3: Tons of fighter, a bit of Hunter, gone back to Archer now.
Hume #4: Paladin/Thief
Hume #5: Seer (no Magick Frenzy yet, sadly)/going up Illusionist path
Nu Mou #1: Illusionist/Sage
Nu Mou #2: Arcanist/Time Mage
Moogle #1: Juggler/Mog Knight
Moogle #2: Fusilier/Animist
Viera #1: Mastered Elementalist plus Summoner/Red Mage/Green Mage, swap as needed
Viera #2: Sniper heading for Assassin
Viera #3: Fencer heading for Spellblade
Bangaa #1: Mastered Dragoon with Gladiator skills
Bangaa #2: A bit of Bishop, a bit of Templar, and now doing the Dragoon thing
Seeq: Berserker with a bit of Ranger, gonna get some Viking soon
Gria #1: Raptor, will be a Ravager as soon as I unlock it
Gria #2: Hunter, going to get some Geomancer when I unlock it.

Having two of the Ninja sword that teaches you Dual-Wield, btw? ACE. Also great for mastering Fighter in an eyeblink.

And now, I am off to read the reading pages, and then either go to sleep (sensible) or play FFTA2 some more (not sensible but more likely)

Icon meme

2009-05-02T18:39:10Z

I asked celeloriel to choose 5 of my icons, and she gave me these.

The Rules:
1. Reply to this post with 'Icons!', and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will - allegedly - create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

Cel picked these five.
Pentacle Evanescence - I made this one a long time ago - when Fallen first came out, in fact, so around 2003, which helps explain the fact that it exists. The text, of course, is from Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life," and I went hunting until I found a pentacle image I liked to go with it. This icon is one I use for Pagan-related topics, with the idea being awakening one's inner power/self.

Shiva - So, Shiva has always been my favourite summon, ever since I started playing Final Fantasy. Possibly the nearly-naked has something to do with this, and also the pretty, because I am shallow and also like naked girls. I think I also like her because I associate her with Celes, and because the association of Shiva in my head is balanced between the three aspects of defense, attack, and healing (especially given her FF6 incarnation.) This is just a really cool image of her, and I like it a lot. Also, Shiva rather inspired the theme for my journal (Ice Crystals), and I used to have a Shiva-themed layout that I really liked, back when I was not too lazy to spend 3 hours tweaking an LJ layout.

Saffron: A Special Circle of Hell - My favourite Firefly episode, hands down. I just love that line, in the first place, and I wanted an icon of it. This one goes with fannish posts, a lot of the time - the ones where I'm being a terrible person and/or the idea I just had is definitely going to send me to that very special circle of hell. (However, most of my friends will be there right along with me, so it can't be that bad, right?)

bloody rose - so, back when I worked at ~~hell~~ Hewitt, I wanted images for my writing journal - you might have noticed, if you've paid attention to the titles/custom text of my journal and my writing journal, that they both have significant winter imagery. Which is interesting to me because I hate winter, actually; I'm a spring child, or failing that summer. (Despite being born in the fall. What? No one said I had to be internally consistent.) I happened to be talking to asoniel about the image I wanted for my base icon on athyn, nad I said I wanted a rose in winter. Traditionally, finding a rose blooming in the middle of winter indicates that you'll soon find true love; when I was a younger and sillier Rina, the idea appealed to me immensely. (Of course that was before I figured out that real love takes real work.)

It's also reminiscent to me of Vienna Teng's "The Tower" - "I need not to need/Or else a love with intuition/Someone who reaches out to my weakness, and won't let go/I need not to need/I've always been the Tower/and now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow." Which is Celes's song in my head (funny how celeloriel picked a lot of Celes-related things, directly or indirectly!) I like the idea of beauty flourishing in a hostile environment, and succeeding against the odds; it implies strength. asoniel drew me two roses in winter; the one I use for athyn which is just a rose and the text "Rose in Winter" in Vivaldi script (because I'm critically weak vs. that font), and then this one, which is bleeding. This one to me implies defeat, having been crushed. I don't use it often, because, well, I don't feel that way *all* that often these days.

Yuna Wedding Dress - This one's just pretty. I found it on my recent icon hunt (in pursuit of Lost Odyssey pretties and also Shin Megami Tensei stuff). I really like the white swirls around Yuna, and how the flowers are a point of startling colour in the center that give it focus. To me, the swirling bits imply both magic and hope, and I like this icon because it just makes me smile.

Haha, teal deer.

Alright, off to read the Internets.

So, 0tp prompts!

2009-04-28T22:40:16Z

This round is the "kink" round; I've italicized the prompts that I just find hilarious, and bolded the ones that I am probably/definitely doing. not worksafe for kink listings.

May Eighteenth through Twenty-fourth
Locke Cole and Celes Chere: double penetration
Mitsuru Kirijo disciplines/spanks Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca during sex
Kain Highwind and Kanji Tatsumi: sex within a time limit (before discovery/fuck or die)
Balthier Bunansa is bound and blinded -- does Yukiko Amagi try to help, or take advantage of the situation?
Celes Chere and Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca are captives that turn to each other for comfort
Mitsuru Kirijo and Kanji Tatsumi are in a marriage of convenience ahahahaha roflcopter I am dying over here.
Kain Highwind and Yukiko Amagi: body worship/fetishizing a body par

May Twenty-fifth through Thirty-first
Celes Chere and Kanji Tatsumi: handcuffs/prison scenario
Yukiko Amagi is rimming or tongue fucking Mitsuru Kirijo
Kain Highwind and Balthier Bunansa enjoy morning wakeup sex
Mitsuru Kirijo is trying to be silent, but Locke Cole is shameless
Kain Highwind and Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca: leaving visible marks of ownership/dominance - started this one this afternoon and it is already going places that are Really Not Okay.
Balthier Bunansa and Kanji Tatsumi are stranded together with no hope for survival
Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca and Locke Cole: their sexual rivalry for the same woman is actually desire for each other

June First through Seventh
Kain Highwind is begging to suck Locke Cole's cock/strap-on
Balthier Bunansa woke up gay today, and Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca isn't sure what to do
Yukiko Amagi and Kanji Tatsumi are warriors blessed with a military/edged-weapon fetish
Celes Chere and Yukiko Amagi: necrophilia
Mitsuru Kirijo and Balthier Bunansa, insertion toys, dildos, buttplugs - maybe combine with last round's prompt that I never did wherein they are ETERNAL RIVALS OMG.
Balthier Bunansa and Locke Cole share a bed out of necessity
Yukiko Amagi and Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca: mutual masturbation

June Eighth through Fourteenth
Yukiko Amagi begins the process of Locke Cole's seduction - This just. It's so cute in my head. And really flaily. BUT SO CUTE MOSTLY.
Kanji Tatsumi and Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca: age kink/experience differences
Celes Chere versus Balthier Bunansa, orgasm denial - ooooookay "Knowing When to Fold" definitely just added itself a nice porn scene, thanks.
Mitsuru Kirijo owes Kain Highwind, and uses sex as an alternative form of payment
Celes Chere discovers Kain Highwind's chastity device - I can see two ways this goes, either hilarious, or incredibly hot.
Kanji Tatsumi and Locke Cole, transformation into a furry being/s
Celes Chere and Mitsuru Kirijo: aphrodisiacs/pollen/aliens made them do it - because what better reason to do pwp for these two?

twitching violently

2009-04-28T21:32:22Z

So, I got my 0tp prompts today. I like a lot of them and some of them are just hilarity-inducing; I'll post them up later (not appropriate for posting from work.)

However. There is a Kain/Ashe prompt. And while it is flowing very nicely, it is also CREEPING ME OUT.

Apparently BrokenWings!Kain has decided to show up for this one, too.

*squirms, not in a fun way*

"And, Judge Highwind," the Consul says, "I would consider it a great favour if you could convince the Princess to divulge any information she has regarding the insurgency. You may use whatever means you deem necessary or useful."

Kain salutes the Consul, and turns toward the door. He knows why he has been selected for this assignment; the Consul thinks that his shared heritage with the deposed Princess might put her at ease. He has not been so long in the Ninth that he thinks the Consul's assessment accurate, for even as a small child Princess Ashelia was willful and stubborn, but he will do as he has been ordered and make the Princess more amenable to the Consul's suggestions.

She would have done better to take up another life, to pretend to be another. Yet Raminas's youngest had never been inclined to take the easy path, according to his long observations over the years and his reports to Judge Magister Gabranth. The Lord Consul knows this, yet has sent him on this mission regardless.

His sources indicate that she took the betrayal of Captain fon Ronsenburg very hard. This, Kain knows, is why the Consul has dispatched him in particular for this task; how much more painful, the betrayal of a countryman? Even if Kain himself does not obtain the information that the Consul desires, he lays the groundwork for later questioning.

A tool does not question its master's hand.

Thanks, I think...

2009-04-27T20:18:16Z

The good news: The Persona 3 muses want to play. In fact, Mitsuru won't shut up. (600 words and counting.)

The bad news: Uh, Mitsuru, these aren't drabbles we're writing here. In fact, the current one threatens to become an actual fic.

Net Result: .....words words words? *meeps*

I feel accomplishful.

2009-04-27T04:28:08Z

I managed about 660 words of Every Light, and about 225 of a Persona 3 ficbit. I'm not sure I like either of them, really; both feel forced, stilted, and clichéd, but hey, they're words. I can always fix them later.

I'm debating whether I really want to finish all 300 missions in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2; on the one hand, my internal completionist is shrieking in dismay at the idea that I might not complete everything, but on the other, alsdkfjalsdkfj do not want to waste time catching Chocobos for the stupid Rancher requests. I think I might just clear the game and beat everything that looks interesting, and then move on.

Sleep time now. More writing tomorrow, I hope.

Just another Sunday night

2009-04-27T01:06:09Z

It's been a reasonably productive weekend. I started a game of Final Fantasy XII Friday night so that Mike could watch all the plots, which has been going well so far. I'm in Bhujerba, and abusing the Shunia Twinspan in the Lhusu Mines for all it is worth. (I saved the levelgrinding to do when he was not here. It sure made some of the boss fights, uh, entertaining, given that I've been racing breakneck through the plot until now.) laylah piqued my interest in Last Remnant on Friday with fic things that I bookmarked for later, and so I'm thinking I might start that up. Maybe not tonight. Maybe I'll work on FFTA2 tonight. (the latter is less likely to make the cat try to use me as a chew toy, anyway.)

DCP last night was fun; we did a very Lovecraftian Easter Game, where most of the eggs gave us derangements for using them. I tried to diablerize Emery, and succeeded, but because of a quirk of an egg that I had, we ended up sharing my body. So we walked around together all night, held internal arguments about what we were going to do, and generally had a grand time. My first character lived until 9:30 (Puissance + Black Met = never having to say I'm sorry, or really say much of anything other than "Give me that or die"), and at that point I figured it wasn't really worth getting back in, so I read until the end of game and then headed out to Chili's as per usual.

Today has been fairly quiet; I've done my grocery shopping, and not much else. I've spent the last few hours alternating between boring chores: importing my fic to the closed comm I made on Dreamwidth (trust me, you don't want to subscribe to it yet, you'll just get flooded with 150+ fic posts of old stuff) and sort of breaking the cross-poster in the process, and also grinding for loot and levels in the Shunia Twinspan. I am bored now of things that should be fun being a chore, so I'm going to go find something more fun to do instead. :D

sdkljadslfj

2009-04-23T20:37:52Z

This is shanaqui's fault completely. It is.

I really kind of want to write Heat/Mitsuru.

I HAVE NO EXCUSE, OKAY, I KNOW IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE

but it would be awesome

omg

~~maybe after the Seifer/Kain up against a wall and snarling at each other~~

testing out this-here crossposter widget thing

2009-04-23T03:35:02Z

by which I mean, playing with shiny new toys.

I am starting to feel vaguely creative again. This is awesome. Accordingly, I went hunting for DDS, P3, and P4 icons, with much delight.

I also got to have dinner with uncle_hyena and that was delicious and fun. Many discussions were had! Good shinies.

Now, I am very tired, and my mango tea has had the intended effect of also making me sleepy. Maybe I'll actually sleep enough for once tonight? *toddles off with cat*

I declare shenanigans on this weather business.

2009-04-21T04:06:14Z

The forecast is calling for snow. SNOW. In April. It is very nearly May, in fact. I declare shenanigans. (Especially since they also claim it will be 80 on Friday!)

Other than that, I am a giant nerd. I have set up a Final Fantasy Archive comm on Dreamwidth, to give FF fandom a place to start off at. (omg, guys, BUNDLED TAGS. BUNDLED TAGS. My squeaking, it is EPIC EPIC EPIC.)

I kind of hit a wall in DDS2 yesterday - the Jailer gig.

An Open Letter to All Game Companies

Dear Game Companies,

Look, I'm sure that you thought that putting a random ninja stealth and/or action level in the middle of your turn-based RPG was a fantastic idea. I'm sure it seemed absolutely wonderful at the time.

However. If I want to play Splinter Cell, I will go buy Splinter Cell. If I want to play Metal Gear Solid, then I will go buy MGS. I DO NOT WANT TO PLAY THESE THINGS. Please stop making me do so just to have pretty shiny plots. Please, please, please. Please.

Love,
Rina

*coughs* That being said, DDS2 is rather epically on my shit list until I am better able to deal with that kind of b.s. In the meantime, I'm focusing on FFTA2, which I am just...really loving. Raptors. Raptors are awesome. ♥ And I have a mastered Elementalist who's just turned herself into a summoner. And I have the katana for dual wield. HELL YEAH.

Oh, and incidentally, here's something of interest to herod_the_nut and oberndorf - the Lions think that a new, fiercer kittycat will help them overcome that little problem where they suck. Good luck with that, y'all. Why don't you hire some players to go with your graphic designers? (Actually, at this point, the graphic designers might be better on the field than the players....)

*ahem* Okay, I'm done being snarky. Mostly. A little. ....bwahahahaha.

Anyway, off to bed - Exalted tomorrow!

asdlfkjasdlfj

2009-04-20T07:23:57Z

Why am I awake

WHY

it is 2:20 in the morning

I must be up for work tomorrow

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY

*headdesks repeatedly*

okay. Sorry. Going to go try to sleep again. Just. Frustrated. Rar.

So hey.

2009-04-19T20:01:14Z

Is there anyone actually reading here who does not read/post or plan to read/post either on LJ or DW? Basically, is there any point to me keeping this place open after open beta?

Okay, triple crossposting starts now...

2009-04-19T19:58:34Z

The weather today is incredibly disappointing. But that's another matter.

It's been a good weekend so far. I accomplished fairly little this week apart from an epically awesome session of Exalted on Thursday (and really that wasn't me so much as Kevin running a fantastic game, but I had a grand time. I'll try and assemble my notes sometime this week to talk about it, because that game has been hardcore awesome sauce.) I'm 85 missions into Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, and I'm enjoying it far, far more than I enjoyed FFTA. The laws are much less obnoxious and the characters are more endearing to me. Also, I have a Juggler. He has Ring Toss and Dagger Toss. If I can just get Smile Toss it will be perfect and he can go back to being a Mog Knight of awesome.

Friday night, we had people over - teki, sabrielrose, calhin, wrenbow, and bobbler - because Mike had a bunch of liquor he'd acquired in Japan (to the tune of 2 bottles of sake and a bottle of shochu) that he wanted people to help him drink. We picked up a party tray of sushi, and he made a vegetable stir-fry and some broiled salmon and a salad. There was also strawberry cheesecake. We introduced everyone to Torchwood, which I am still squeeful about - we watched "Random Shoes" this morning and oh, so sad. :(

Saturday we woke up early and headed over to a local pancake house for breakfast - it was an absolutely glorious day, sunny, and 75 or so, and breakfast was wonderful - mine was a skillet of hash browns, ham, mushrooms, and Monterey Jack cheese topped with two eggs over-medium, and it was amazing. I only managed to eat half and took the rest home.

As we were walking back, we passed the Catholic church in town just at noon, and their bells were playing first "Jesus Christ Has Risen Today" and then "Onward, Christian Soldiers," neither of which I have sung since eighth grade but both of which I promptly remembered the words for. XD We curled up on the couch while Mike played some Dead Rising (p.s. DO NOT WANT the psychopath fight with the cop lady; I had to leave the room because it was very much not okay.) Then we curled up and had a nap, and then there was DCP.

DCP was crazyawesomefun; herod_the_nut more or less single-handedly resolved my plot and my ST Special flaws, and then I made the best use of University influence ever, and then there was a combat. In which everyone got 2 agg. But it was worth it. Improvised weaponry is the best kind.

We got up relatively early this morning and reheated yesterday's breakfast leftovers, which were just as delicious the second time around, and watched a bit of Torchwood and played some Rock Band. We finally cleared all the Seattle gigs, which is exciting.

Now I am debating what to do with the rest of my Sunday; I really should be writing, because I haven't done that at all this week, but I also kind of want to try to progress in Digital Devil Saga 2, mostly because I know that I really want to re-play Skies of Arcadia Legends, which is intorporeal's fault completely, and I'm not letting myself re-play games until I've beaten at least 3 new ones. So, DDS it might be. Maybe I'll be less irritated at the Hekatonkhire boss this time.

I HAZ A DREAMWIDTH

2009-04-14T22:57:27Z

I'm lassarina over there, too. Thank you ever, ever so much to sister_coyote for the invite!

(This is all so exciting!)

I'm not leaving LJ/IJ completely, I promise. There are still communities I participate in, people I want to talk to, etc. What I will probably do is continue what I've been doing with LJ/IJ, and just crosspost.

Eeeeee, this is so EXCITING!

By the way, since I'm curious, a poll. (As a point of clarification, "cross-linking" in the below means that, say, when I post fic to my ficjournal, I also put a link to the fic in my personal journal.)

View Poll: Fic Locations

ahhhhh, lazy weekends

2009-04-13T04:52:10Z

Lazy weekends are the best.

I got the curtains hemmed and Mike helped me hang them last night, and they are really really effective. As a result, I slept in a bit too late this morning. However, the first time I woke up, I was snuggled against my boyfriend and the cat had taken it upon himself to snuggle right against my back, so I was trapped. By snuggles. What a fabulous way to wake up.

I dozed offagain, and Mike got up and went to do stuff. Then the phone rang at 10:30 and I went flailing out of bed and racing for the receiver. It could only be either a charity or my mother, and given the time, I bet the latter. So I pick up the receiver and hear my mother singing, "Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail! Hoppity Hoppity Hoppity Hoppity Easter Day is here!" and I'm just like "....Hi, Mom."

x_x;

It's been a really productive weekend overall - I did laundry, picked up my room a bit, completely cleaned the common room and the kitchen and bathroom (okay, I have to wash towels, whatever.) I threw out a few boxes' worth of stuff, so my living room is abruptly less cluttered. I also re-arranged the gaming bookshelf so that the books for games I am currently playing or running or planning to play/run (i.e. Scion, Vampire: the Requiem, Changeling: the Lost, Exalted 2nd Edition, and Demon: the Fallen) are all on the eye-level shelf. Exalted first edition lost shelf space, because with so many books out for 2E I don't really need the 1E books as reference anymore.

My apartment is so clean and nice. omg. Now if I can just keep it this way.

spreadnparanoia and Kevin came over tonight and we watched Fullmetal Alchemist. We're halfway through the first season - well, halfway plus 5 episodes, whatever that works out to be - and holy crap it is so intense. Also I blame fandom by which I mean laylah for the fact that I am fangirl-squeeing at Kimblee. GIMME. NOW.

I've also been watching Torchwood first series with the boy (thank you, pooka_madness, for the suggestion!) It's really intense, and as a result we can really only watch one episode at a time, and then we have to go do something else. We're done through episode 7 now. I basically ship everyone/everyone like burning except that I can't quite picture Gwen/Ianto but that might just need some more time.

Spoilers be here, through "They Keep Killing Suzie."

Um. So. Uh. That part at the end of the episode? Where Ianto and Jack were flirting? Um. I. Hi. YES. omg. gimme gimme gimme so pretty WANT.

(I'm terrified of the fandom. But I want really good Jack/Ianto. woez.)

The faerie episode scared me shitless and also made me desperately want to play Changeling. And I am loving the Gwen/Owen dynamic. I like that she's conflicted, and I...okay, I don't really see how she could stay with Reese when she's doing this. I get why she wants to, I'm just not sure she can. Then again sleeping with Owen or Jack is not exactly a great path to stability. But whatever.

God help me this show might make me seriously fic for a TV show. I haven't done that ever. Even if Avatar made me want to.

In other watching news I think I am picking up more of Babylon 5 on Tuesday, probably - we saw the two Talia episodes in season 2 and oh my God "Soul Mates" almost killed me laughing. I ♥ Londo's wives.

Alright. Done babbling about TV now. (note to self: remember to start watching Fringe again.) And now I am going to sleep.

p.s. note to self 2.0: Get Jack icon. ♥

p.p.s. note to self 3.0: Run Scion campaign based around Torchwood, only actually do it this time, and don't let it fall by the wayside like the Technocracy campaign you had planned around Alias. ♥ ♥

should not be permitted near machinery. Or craft stores.

2009-04-11T19:15:01Z

I managed to only buy the things I was at Jo-Ann for (three spools of thread, in three different colours, which I will BARELY USE ANY OF - one to hem the curtains, one to fix the rip in the green sheets, and one to fix the rip in the blue sheets). This is probably largely due to the fact that they did not have any pre-printed/pre-packaged kits of cross-stitch or canvas-stitch things for me to buy. I am telling myself, very firmly, that I am not at all disappointed. Really.

(I still have like 6 such projects to finish. I am not disappointed. I'm not.)

So now I am finishing the morning's LJ read, and then I am going to go finish pinning the curtains so I can sew them. Sulk, sulk, sulk. Pinning is the most annoying part of sewing, to me, because it's finicky. Running fabric through a machine? Awesome. Simple. DONE. Pinning? alsdkfjlaskjd why am I doing this aaaaargh.

Oh well. It will be worth it tomorrow when I actually get enough sleep because the curtains kept out the OMG SUNLIGHT (I am totally a vampire.)

Okay. Enough now.

wheeee

2009-04-11T16:20:41Z

have just discovered that I can delete "empty" games off my gamer history! this is awesome! This means Mass Effect will no longer taunt me with my 0 achievements! ACE.

ahhhh how is it 3 already?!

2009-04-10T20:05:58Z

I don't know where my day went >_>; Actually I do; I slept too late. I got up around 10:30, and then did my usual morning Internets check, and then I went to JC Penney, where I acquired curtains. I have to hack them off and hem them (I deliberately did not get the weirdly folded kind) because otherwise I'd have to wait till May 10 for them to be ordered, and I really would like to get them up before then. So. Sewing machine gets a workout!

I grabbed lunch at Panera, and then hit the grocery store. My apartment is about....ten percent tidied, it wants some more picking up and a dusting before I vacuum it, and then I can get started on the sewing, after I work out.

My head hurts like crazy. I kind of want to go lie down a bit, but then I'm pretty sure I won't sleep well tonight. Ugh.

accomplishment, I has it

2009-04-10T05:29:22Z

Well, at least I got something done with the rest of my evening.

I did finish tidying up the dishes (goal for tomorrow: clean kitchen) AND I sorted one of the boxes that has been standing in my living room since I moved. (Before that, it sat in the basement. For three years. Yeah, this box last saw active investigation two apartments ago....Unsurprisingly, I ended up throwing out almost everything in it. Although I have just remembered that I probably need to rescue the electronics and recycle them instead of junking them.)

Other than that I have been...not terribly useful at all. I read through about half my backlog of Game Informer, and have determined that I really miss EGM. (And yes, I know, I can access all the content online...but for some reason, I really liked having the physical magazine.)

I also played a little bit of Zuma. I am so freaking stuck on the ninth level. The Codex of Mixtec levels are bad enough, but the one afterward just asldkjfalskjdlksajdf. aaaargh.

So, minor accomplishments, but nothing too super.

I think I'm going to go read a bit of Scion: Demigod, and then sleep. (If nothing else, reading the lists of Boons will very quickly make me cross-eyed and ready for sleep!)

Easter/Goals/Fic/Blather

2009-04-09T23:24:47Z

I've been enjoying the heck out of FF Tactics Advance 2 - Luso annoys me ever so much less than Marche, I think because he doesn't whine. I need another viera member (must have Elementalist/Summoner and Sniper/Assassin, please.) I got a second Bangaa, so I can have a Dragoon/Warrior and a Gladiator/Master Monk, which is good. I think I can probably get by with just one Nu Mou, and I have four Humes so I can have a Parivir/Soldier, a Ninja/Thief, an Archer/Hunter, and a Fighter/Paladin. Meanwhile, I think I can probably get by with just one Moogle (Fusilier/Juggler), but omg I want a Gria. Best jobs ever awesome.

I have really not been doing well at goals lately; I feel like I rather fell apart in March. Goals under the cut.

Write at least 3500 words per week
March 1-7: 920
March 8-14: 1649
March 15-21: 2972
March 22-28: 6066
March 29-31: 0

.....that's a lot of fail, right there. I started the month about 1000 words up because I did awesomely at the end of February, and ended about 1000 words down. And have continued to be failtastic this month. *sigh* I'll get caught up. I will. It's largely a matter of finding something I really want to natter about.

Write a total of 200,000 words in the year, counting NaNo
I'm 4,000 words behind, but I think I can catch up easily by the end of the month, particularly if I am productive tomorrow.

Make sure that each fic I post also gets cross-posted to my fic journal
Done!

Work out 5 days a week
....I failed so much at this I cannot even express. But I am going to do better.

Procrastinate less.
...I didn't do great at this one, either.

Once a month, go somewhere I've never been or try something new. Restaurant, museum, park, recipe, whatever: do something I haven't done before.
Done! Experiments with recipes ahoy!

Make progress on paying off my debts
=/ I slipped backwards in March, partly due to taxes being due and partly due to various expenses and also to the car's maintenance. asdlkfjalsdf.

Beat more games than I buy.
I only bought one - Puzzle Quest: Galactrix - and I beat it, so I met this. However, I already know I am going to fail at this for April. I've bought three games so far and only beaten one, and I'm getting 2 more next week. woeeeeez.

Fail Rina is fail.

Discovered today that the office is closed tomorrow (glad someone mentioned it; otherwise I'd have shown up at 9 am and been like "omg where is everyone?!"), so I'm thinking I'll make some progress on writing, cleaning, and gaming, in some order. I hope. I also need to go grocery shopping to get the things for Easter dinner, and work out.

Speaking of working out, it's yoga time. Seriously getting back into working out a lot. Right now.

argh

2009-04-08T01:43:35Z

I have figured out why I am really really bad at writing Persona 4 fanfic.

My ship is Yukiko/Souji (well one of them, we'll stick with that one for now) and I have no canon references for Souji! I just have how i played him! This does not combine well with the parts of my brain that insist we can't write someone without cross-checking canon at least 4 times!

am so behind on GYWO orz

*sigh* Okay. I wasn't completely useless today. I cleaned the bathroom and caught up on the dishes. I need to stop thinking I automatically failed. I didn't.

I'm going to see if Kain feels like talking. If not....maybe I'll play some FFTA2.

oh fuck you and your snow Chicago

2009-04-05T23:33:29Z

why is it snowing it is fucking April what the fuck why is it SNOWING aldkfjalskjdfsadf.

Other than completely inappropriate weather, it's been a good weekend. Hung out with a lot of people; there was Piper's birthday celebration Friday night, and then yesterday I took a_leprechaun with me up to sabrielrose's bridal shower, which was lovely. The food was super delicious and her family did such a nice job planning it and making it all very pretty and nice.

a_leprechaun and I skedaddled back, stopping at the grocery store on the way, and then there was hanging out; herod_the_nut joined us and there was lots of Smash Brawl and Rock Band. I made stuffed portobello mushrooms, the recipe for which follows:

So, the first time you make it, it'll probably take you a little bit longer, but it really only takes about 30-45 minutes total (depending how fast you chop things; Celes is a maniac with the chef's knife and I probably shouldn't have shown her how but she's so cute when she's super-focused on making all the chopped bits even.)

4 large portobello mushrooms
Extra virgin olive oil (maybe 4 tbsp total?)
1 lb. pork sausage (the roll that you're meant to slice into patties works great)
1/4 c. finely chopped green bell pepper
1/2 c. finely chopped onion (White is good, yellow works too; probably don't want red or Vidalia but they'll work if that's what you have)
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 c. Italian breadcrumbs, divided
1/2 c. fresh grated Parmesan, divided (NOT the green-bottle Kraft kind, REAL Parmesan)
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 slices mozzarella, or else a bunch of shredded mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 400F.

First, wash the mushrooms. Pull out the stems and chop them (you probably want about 3/4 of a cup or so. If it's less, don't panic. If it's more, consider how much you like mushrooms.) Use a spoon or a knife and rip all the gills out of the mushrooms. Pour a little bit of olive oil on your hands and rub it over the mushroom caps. Put them former-stem-side-up on a baking dish.

Open the package of sausage, and try and tear it up as best you can (so it's not one giant lump.) Put it in a 12" skillet over high heat, and cook it (stirring frequently and attempting to break up the larger pieces) until it's all nicely brown. Throw in the chopped mushroom stems, the green pepper, and the onion; mix it up and cook it about 3 minutes or until the veggies start to soften. Throw in the garlic and cook it about 30-60 seconds or until it smells awesome. Take it off the heat and put it in a nice big bowl. Add 1/4 c. breadcrumbs, 1/4 c. Parmesan, a generous glug of olive oil, and the egg. You might want to throw in some salt and pepper here, too, or maybe Cajun seasoning if you want (Celes objects, and to be honest it's not really my thing either, but let me tell you the first time I made this for Sabin I put in like a tablespoon of it and his face turned the funniest shade of red.) Mix it all up until it's well combined. Divide it among the mushroom caps.

Mix the remaining 1/4 c. breadcrumbs and 1/4 c. parmesan; use to top the mushrooms. Throw them in the oven for about 15 minutes.

After they've cooked (mostly), top them with some mozzarella and throw them back in for another 2-3 minutes until it's melty.

Suggested side dishes: Boil up some spaghetti and toss it with garlic powder, salt, butter, and some of the leftover Parmesan. Add some steamed green beans. Dinner! And you know what makes a great and easy dessert for this, is if you slice up some pound cake and put some vanilla ice cream and strawberries on top. It's worth it to watch Celes's face when she eats it but seriously don't tell her I said that, okay, I want to live!

Today was a nice lazy Sunday; there was lots of snuggling, and we played some Rock Band. I am apparently not as bad at vocals as I assumed I would be (based on the commentary I get when I try to sing in general); granted I played on easy but almost all my songs were perfect ♥

Mike finished beating Donkey Kong Country, and I spent some quality time with Digital Devil Saga, which has now been defeated. All except the Demi-Fiend and methinks I just do not need that headache. I ended up getting too impatient for the grind and did not opt for the "clear all mantras" thing. Cleared the Four Guardian Beasts plus Metatron and Huang Long, though. (And that on the first try, despite my accidentally using Bufudyne when he was in Ice-absorbing form alskdjflasjdf.) The end boss was a freaking joke and more of a formality than anything else. So, now it will be on to DDS2!

In other news I ordered a copy of Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria from eBay, only to realize that thanks to PayPal's archaic and arcane and idiotic address system it is going to my old place. Even though I changd my address on PayPal, but apparently it saved it weirdly. SO CRANKY OH MY GOD. I wrote to the seller, who to hir great credit did try to get it back from the post office, but to no avail. I'll call the PO on Monday and see if they can at least notify me or hold it or something like that; I do still have mail forwarding from that address. aaaaaagh. deaaaath.

Okay. Time to decide what to do with the rest of my evening. Tempted to start DDS2, but also tempted to give Last Remnant a go,or even play something *gasp* actually on the Wii, which has been sadly neglected for a while. I don't know. We shall have to see. I don't think I'll play more of FFTA2 right now, though (by the way, it's vastly superior to its predecessor); I want to save that for times when I need to be mobile. Plus playing on the consoles is far more comfortable.

Fantastic evening, successive night of dubious quality

2009-03-29T16:24:06Z

So yesterday was bobbler's wedding. The ceremony itself was short, but lovely. We had some truly fabulous food, and the DJ had a pretty good setlist. I have to say that one of the highlights of the evening was Jeremy and intorporeal deciding to sexy-dance all the way through Madonna's "Like A Prayer." After a while, herod_the_nut and Mike joined in, and then bobbler came over and joined in. Mike, before he started dancing, got a fantastic picture that definitely looks like Jeremy and intorporeal are kissing. We will hold this fact over their heads if ever they wish to run for public office. :D

At any rate, it was a really awesome time; I got to see a ton of people that I don't normally get to see, and did a lot of dancing. For some reason I wasn't feeling very good all day, but that didn't interfere overly much.

Unfortunately, I had some really awful dreams last night - one involved spiders the size of my hand, and the other was some bizarre combination of Persona 4 and my general arachnophobia. Not good times.

However, Mike made fantastic French toast this morning (with nutmeg, and cinnamon, and mmmmmmmmm.) Now he is playing Donkey Kong Country on VC, and I am fiddling around on the Internets. I have been promised roasted chicken for dinner later, and we'll end up at his place with me playing DDS while he cooks and reads and such, I suspect.

Lazy weekends are all for the win. However, snow when it's practically April is not win, at all.