A music meme I ganked from raved. I'm cool.

( C'mere, iTunes. I'm gonna hurt you. )

I still need to do a for-real update, but for now, have a meme. :| No one will do this, though, lmao.

From deusredux ~

01. Who are you?
02. Are we friends?
03. When and how did we meet?
04. How have I affected you?
05. What do you think of me?
06. What's the fondest memory you have of me?
07. How long do you think we will be friends?
08. Do you love me?
09. Do you have a crush on me?
10. Would you kiss me?
11. Would you hug me?
12. Physically, what stands out?
13. Emotionally, what stands out?
14. Do you wish I was cooler?
15. On a scale of 1-10, how hot am I?
16. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
17. Am I lovable?
18. How long have you known me?
19. Describe me in one word.
20. What was your first impression?
21. Do you still think that way about me now?
22. What do you think my weakness is?
23. Do you think I'll get married?
24. What makes me happy?
25. What makes me sad?
26. What reminds you of me?
27. If you could give me anything what would it be?
28. How well do you know me?
29. When's the last time you saw me?
30. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
31. Do you think I could kill someone?
32. Are you going to put this on your LJ and see what I say about you?

WOWOWOW! I've been super duper busy lately. Sometimes busy with good stuff, other times with not-so-good stuff. In a nutshell,

- My classes are fun! Except macroeconomics. That is NOT fun. At all. It's kicking my ass all over the floor and I hate it with the burning heat of a thousand suns.
- I'm behind on my schoolwork ALREADY! GAHHHH but at least two of my classes will be ending (both phys. ed) within a week, so I will have more time for homework soon.
- I HAVE SO MANY PROJECTS I NEED TO START/FINISH/WORK ON! Some school related, some completely non-school-related! AAAAAAA maybe I'll make a list of them here tomorrow.
- I went to Nashville and it was absolutely amazing. The Protomen were a force of nature, and I hung out with super-great people. I really REALLY intend to write an entry about it... but I am so busyyy ;__;

Right now I need to go to bed, but it would be a good idea for me to attempt an entry tomorrow. Maybe. B|

I bought my bus ticket today. That is AWESOME.

However, I am also SICK. As in, running a fever sick. Even though I literally drank an entire half-gallon of orange juice today, wtf.

If I miss my third day of classes, I am gonna be so mad.

I haven't posted recently like I said I was gonna, not because I haven't made any progress on the Nashville thing, but because I've been so busy that I haven't had the chance, or I've just been forgetting. I ran into some pretty dense patches of self-doubt, but as of right now, I have in my bank and Paypal accounts a combined total of just over $80. Which is OVER HALF of what I need to get my ass to Nashville.

I spoke with my mom about the possibility of fronting me the rest of what I need, since I won't be able to make the remaining sum quickly enough to be able to get a 21-day advance Greyhound ticket (the price for a ticket ordered less than 21 days in advance is around eighty dollars more. So yeah.) She agreed to it, even though we are seriously strapped for cash right now, since she knows I've been working my ass off trying to make this thing happen. So... It looks like I'm going. I can't even express in words how excited I am over this, but I'm afraid if I flip out this early in the game, I'll be setting myself up for an even huger disappointment if something goes wrong.

I ordered my concert ticket tonight.

For now, that's enough to light a little flame in my heart. +u+

I got approved for a sales post on pkmncollectors! ;w; I. AM SO. HAPPY. Now let's see how long it takes me to start whining about how I don't know how to calculate shipping, lmao.

Today, I started working on a Poke-charm bracelet for Cy. So far I've only had the time to get Glaceon done, but hopefully I should be able to power through and finish the rest by tomorrow.

--

Two giant carrots, sliced; string beans; sauteed with garlic and rosemary in olive oil
One ice pop
Pasta with chicken and broccoli
One ice pop

I made myself lunch today, which was cool. Only thing is, I used fresh garlic to cook with, so now my hands will smell for a week, no matter how much I wash them. Oy.

Thinking about doing a new layout for my LJ. Same basic format, just mess with a new background or something. Hmm. B|

More later?

EDIT: Well. Just when I was beginning to think that this day would be a total waste in terms of me trying to raise funds, I was struck with the idea that perhaps I should try selling some of my Pokemon cards on eBay. So I went through my binders and picked out a few that I thought I would try selling. All in all, I came up with a little over fifty; I can probably scrounge up a bunch more that I'd be willing to sell, but those were the ones that leapt out at me. Ideally, I want to try to post at least a handful of them on eBay tomorrow.

On that note, I am going crazy waiting for a reply to my request for permission to make a sales post on pkmncollectors. It's not that I'm impatient with the mod I messaged- she must have so many messages to go through, and she was also unable to access LJ for a few says, so she's DEFINITELY not at fault- I'm just incredibly antsy because I hate not knowing whether I should expect a response back from someone, or whether I should assume that if I don't hear back, my request was denied. u_u Plus this whole concert endeavor is making me anxious beyond all belief. I'm going to give myself an ulcer by the time it's over.

... And, to be honest, I would much rather sell to people on pkmncollectors rather than some stranger on eBay. :< It's nice to know the person you're selling to, if only from having seen them around a community, and to build up trust with people. But I'll do what I have to do, I guess.

--

Lunch: Three carrots, chopped; a handful of string beans; sauteed/steamed lightly in olive oil/water (lol how do I cooked vegetables?) with a tiny hunk of turkey breast crumbled over top. The turkey breast was a last-minute addition, and if I made the same thing over again, I'd leave it out. But this is how you learn what's good and what isn't, I guess. B|
A small hunk of Italian bread dunked in tomato sauce
Cheese ravioli (5 or 6, I think) in tomato sauce with zucchini, topped with cheese
A slice of Italian bread

The Protomen are having a special concert for the release of their second album in a little over a month. And I DESPERATELY want to be there. D: So starting tomorrow, I'm going to try to be even more active in my efforts to get some money together and make this trip happen. I'll try to keep a daily record of what I'm doing, and how it will help me reach my goal. (I'm also going to start writing down what I eat again. It seemed to help the first time I did it, and I really need some extra motivation right now.)

Wish me luck.

POKEMANS COMIX by ~hypogermic on deviantART

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

9u6;;

This past Saturday, I got a nice, good-quality working scanner. At a yard sale. For $10.
I'm not sure if I can accurately express in words JUST HOW HAPPY that makes me. *∀* By my estimation, this will be the first time I've had access to a working scanner in around a year.

What does this mean? Certainly, it means more stupid drawing shit from me, which will probably start trickling onto my pathetic crapothon of a deviantART account sometime within the next couple of weeks. Right now I am working on coloring a sketch I did for my friend Cy god knows how long ago. It's taking a while! :| I'm trying to put a lot more thought into light-source and shading than I usually do, for this piece; I'm also using it as a way to get used to using GIMP for stuff other than resizing and shit. We still fight, but I'm getting to the point where I think I can actually start to... -use- it for shit, now. (One thing that openCanvas still has on GIMP is a watercolor blending feature that actually blends colors. I haven't discovered such a thing hidden away in GIMP's toolbox yet.)

... I know I said I'd write up entries for my con adventures, but does anybody really give a shit? :| I don't know if I should really bother. *shrug* It's been so long now that it almost seems pointless.

Yep, another meme, boy I am cool. Somebody had better do this or else I will cry. Probably. Maybe.

YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I want to know 28 things about you. I don't care if we've never talked, never really clicked, or if we already know everything about each other. I really don't. You are obviously on my flist, so let me know with whom I'm friends!


01. Your Middle Name, or explain your Chosen Name:
02. Mental Age:
03. Single or Taken:
04. Favorite Book:
05. Favorite Song or Album:
06. What do you believe is your calling in life? Your greatest passion?
07. What's your worst recurring nightmare/biggest fear?
08. Faith, has you any? And if so, what, and if not, why not?:
09. Do we know each other outside of LJ? Do we want to?
10. What's your philosophy on life?
11. Is the bottle half-full or half-empty?
12. Would you tell me something painful if it was in my best interest?
13. What is your favorite memory of us?
14. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
16. You can have three wishes what are they?
17. What is your favorite food?
18. Which country is your spiritual home?
19. What is your big weakness?
20. Do you think I'm a good person?
21. What was your best/favorite subject at school?
22. Describe your accent:
23. If you could change anything about me, would you?
24. What do you wear to sleep?
25. Gender identity?
26. Affectionate/sexual orientation?
27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together? (If you have no idea, just say something crazy, it'll entertain me!)
28. Will you repost this so I can fill it out for you?

Still haven't updated about Anime Boston yet. :| And I just got home from AnimeNEXT. The reason for this is mainly that I lost the draft of the entry I was writing for Boston, and I got so fed up with the whole thing that I just said FUCK IT and stopped working on it entirely. I should write SOMEthing, though, at least.

But first... desktop wallpaper meme.

(From deusredux, raved)

Rules—
01. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal.
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!



1. Saiyuki is the shit.
2. Kazuya Minekura is the shit.
3. This piece of art is the sh-- ... for real, I was browsing around the artbook scan gallery at aethereality.net and this image really stuck out to me.
4. It's clean and beautiful and I certainly do not mind seeing it when I start up my laptop.
5. It is a little weird that Son Goku isn't even my favorite Saiyuki character, yet my desktop AND Livejournal backgrounds both feature him... :V huh.

just got back from boston

woohooo 9w6

will post about it tomorrow

so tired

feels good man

bespa kumamero absolutely made my weekend and i can't wait to gush about them

good night \o/

I AM IN BOSTON YOU GUYS*

HOLY SHIT

That is right, I am currently in a hotel hogging the ethernet cord (no wifi, buuurgh) in BOSTON. :D I'm on a trip with my college's Anime Club to go to- what else?- Anime Boston. This is only the second anime convention I've ever been to in my life, so I'm very excited. <3

There was some drama before we left when we thought that Will wasn't going to make it to campus in time (since all fifteen of us were meeting up there and grouping up into three vehicles for the four- or five-hour ride.) He was half an hour late, but at least he made it there; any later (after 3:30PM) and we would have had to leave him. D: The ride itself was actually quite tolerable. I rode with Alison, Dan, Will and Kelly, with Kelly behind the wheel, so we chitchatted and listened to music while she drove. After we got here around eight o'clock, we parked in the multi-level garage and left all our stuff in the cars to hit the convention center and get our badges ahead of time. This was our reason for being in a rush; I think the deadline to get the badges ahead of time was nine, and if we'd missed it we would have had to wait on line tomorrow, possibly for hours.

Then we headed back to the garage, grabbed our stuff, and lugged it the block or so down to the hotel and down to our rooms (ours is so tinyyyy, and there's no refrigerator! I had to put my food in "the couples'" room, since THEY have a fridge... =A=). My roommates are Kaylei, Kat, Ryan, and Pam. Kat and Ryan are pretty chill, even though they can be kind of obnoxious, and Kaylei is practically my school waifu, but Pam... I just hope we don't have to deal with too much attention-whoring drama from her. Luckily, the musical guests at Anime Boston don't include any smokin' hot visual kei azn boytoys (Monkichi from BESPA KUMAMERO doesn't really seem to fit that bill) for her to "fall in love with" and weep and blubber over all day. =A= the less bullshit I have to put up with from her, the better... Though, she did go out DRINKING with some of the other club members tonight, so goodness knows what kind of fun we'll have to look forward to in the wee hours of the morning...

WELL. It's late and I want to shower now so I don't have to do it in the morning. I will either make daily updates each night or, more likely, I will chronicle my whole con experience on Sunday evening when I get home (or Monday, or Tuesday, or a week later...) So we'll see what happens! :D Wish me luck!




*who do I think is reading this?

MY. BACK. HURTS. LIKE A MOTHER. *tries vainly to stretch it* Dx gahahhh oww </3
Well! It certainly has been a while since I last posted. :| Let's see, what's happened in between...

At the end of February, my friend Kaylei and I joined Weight Watchers together. :DD It's going really well so far. In my first three weeks I lost a little over ten pounds; this past week, I gained around 0.8lbs, but that was due to my flagrant disregard for how much I was eating at parties over spring break. DD: I was actually expecting the results to be much worse. I'll be on my best behavior from now on! *muscle* ...Now excuse me while I demolish this plate of spaghetti and meatballs. *NOM NOM NOM*

As for those parties... I went to one party on Friday, which was held by Kaylei's boyfriend (and my regular-friend) Bram, staying over into Saturday afternoon, and then another party on Tuesday, held at Vanessa's house, after which I stayed at Kaylei's house into Wednesday afternoon. The first party was a lot of fun-- Bram has a really impressive rec. room in his basement with a widescreen TV, vidya gaemz, a pool table, and three incredibly comfortable couches (and an armchair.) There was also a large amount of booze present. I did get a little tipsy- the shame! D:- but certainly not drunk, and I probably won't do it again any time soon. I just wasn't impressed. *shrug* Several of my friends are weeeeird drunks, too.

I played Rock Band for the first time; I suck at playing guitar/bass, but I kicked ass on vocals! *played "Still Alive" like three times* I love that song. +_+ And I had to listen to DD butchering "Ballroom Blitz"... oh man, that was torture. I was all like "DAN. DUDE. Seriously. You are murdering it. Gimme the mic." And he was like "NO I ROCK AT THIS SONG." Ffff. Also, Lacey tried to teach me to play pool (despite DD's constant interference), and I spent a larger portion of time than I would have preferred cleaning up messes made by my drunken compatriots. Fucken boys don't know how to clean up after themselves, ughhh. Then as we all sort of decided we were going to settle in for the night, someone had the bright idea of putting on a movie. Well, okay, they can watch the movie while I go to sleep, right? Sure, if you ignore the fact that the SPEAKER WAS RIGHT IN MY EAR. (I was sleeping on an obscenely comfortable couch.) I dozed off while half-watching, then woke up pissed off during an especially loud part and bitched for someone to turn it down.

I woke up again early in the morning with my neck hurting like a bitch... it's very difficult to sleep on a couch without completely wrecking your neck, no matter how comfy the couch is. I adjusted myself a bit, fell back to sleep, and when I woke back up it felt fine. :D Yay! I ate some breakfast upstairs with the rest of the remaining guests, then played Left 4 Dead a bit with Kaylei downstairs, to the almost constant sound of the three or four guys in the room bitching and moaning about how poorly we were playing, how we were taking too long, how we weren't doing thus-and-such right, etc. I started getting really annoyed at them, after a while. Dx They KNEW that I had only played the game once before and wasn't very good at it, and Kaylei had never played before in her life. Besides, what business is it of theirs how I play? As far as I'm concerned, if I'm having fun, I'm playing the right way. HMPH. Anyway. Not too long after that, Kaylei and I headed home.

On Monday I went to the town park with Kaylei and her puppy-- we had so much fun! :3 We explored some trails, investigated the playground, and mucked around in the stream/waterfall area on the edge of the park; I did most of the mucking, really. Nearly fell on my ass a couple of times, too. Wet rocks are slippery. (I borrowed Kaylei's copy of a volume of FRUiTS, too. SO COOL.)

The party on Tuesday was a good deal less exciting. Kaylei drove me over with Bram, and we stayed until... I think around two o'clock in the morning, when we all went back to Kaylei's house to spend the night. We had planned on staying at Vanessa's house, but Bram's allergic to cats, and the hair from the two cats was bothering him. There were eight people at that party, including Vanessa's three year old son (not including myself), and of those eight, four were people who get on my nerves often. And none of them were the kid. D: It was a pretty subdued party; I played some SingStar, then me, Vanessa and Kaylei played Mall Madness (never played it before, lawl). Then we left. I actually had a better time at Kaylei's house xD;; I slept on the floor and woke up after Bram left; Kaylei and I made breakfast, then watched Death Proof and RENT. (I bawww'd.) I went home in the late afternoon.

We had our Weight Watchers meeting on Thursday; after that, I went home and played some Gitaroo Man. I just started playing that game this week, and HOLY CRAP it is hard! D: Makes me wanna cry. I'm determined to get good at it though! After playing for a bit, I decided to take a short walk-- which turned into a very, very long walk. I was sooo pooped by the time I got back, so I ended up sleeping for a while after that.

And... that's about it for this week, I think! :Y I should reeeeeally go to sleep, as I'm going yard saling in the morning. Good night, uhhh... imaginary reader. *WANGSTS THAT NO ONE READS MY LJ*

I feel like I should have something meaningful to post about, but I'm sick and I can't think of anything. So a meme is all you get.

This is a fun one, though; I highly recommend trying it. I forget where I found it originally, but I've seen a number of people's results, and they're unfailingly interesting.

Instructions:

1. The first article title on the Wikipedia Random Articles page is the name of your band.

2. The last four or five words of the very last quotation on the Random Quotations page is the title of your album.

3. The third picture in Flickr's Interesting Photos From The Last 7 Days will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result.



The original image wasn't upside-down. I just thought it was fitting, somehow. :|

*yaaawn* Goin' to bed.

HEY. HEY. YEAH, YOU. If anyone is ACTUALLY reading this, comment, you fag. D:< Or I'll be forced to come to the obvious conclusion that NO ONE, in fact, reads this journal.

--

Okay. So as of next Sunday... I'm gonna be out of work.

This isn't exactly unexpected, but it is still a little jarring; despite the fact that I loudly told myself (and others) "HAHAH I'M PROBABLY GOING TO BE FIRED SOON ANYWAY WOT EVAAA" every chance I got, it doesn't really do much to take the edge off. I have been very lucky to have had a job these past four months; having that much money at my disposal was very new to me, and also very intoxicating. I've been spending a lot on things that I want, but definitely don't need. So it's going to be difficult to readjust myself into penny-pinching mode, to say the least.

Beyond that, I'm deeply divided on whether I should feel upset, saddened, angry, panicked, or... relieved? I mean, I feel bummed out over this, absolutely, and I am having a hard time convincing myself that I am not going to cry no way no how. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a little jilted, a little cheated, a little bit used, even though I was NEVER under the impression that this would be a permanent position. I was hired for a seasonal position, I worked hard and did the best I could, I never goofed around on the job (even though my managers often treated me like I did,) and now I'm being let go. It's logical and makes good business sense, but it still stings a bit. FLIPPING THE FUCK OUT is a really attractive option to me right now, since I sort of feel like I'm hanging over the edge of a dark pit of no-food, no-shinies, no-projects, and no-AnimeBoston-trip-with-anime-club, and it's causing me to go OH MY GOD WHAT AM I GOING TO DO OH MY GODDDDDDD in my head.

But despite everything, some part of me is breathing a small sigh of relief. There were good days, sure, and I enjoyed parts of my time working there, but this job has not been all rainbows and sunshine and peaches and strawberries and happiness. It was damn stressful for me. I think I was justified in feeling miffed that a few of my friends reacted in surprise when I told them that working at a fabric store was not easy.

When you work at a fabric store, the customers expect you to KNOW about sewing, so if you do not sew often, as was the case with me, you need to pick up a lot of information from your environment, and pick it up quickly. You have to know where to find x, y, and z at any given time, and in a store with as many different sections and departments as ours, where stock is shifted around on a constant basis, that can be pretty damn difficult. You find the fabric the customer is looking for if they're new to the store or too lazy to do it themselves, you cut it to their specifications, you explain to n customers every single day that no, we CAN'T cut your fabric into two or more separate pieces for you because it is against our company policy to do so, and you struggle to keep yourself from sighing and/or rolling your eyes as they either bitch and fume over this or resolutely figure out a way to get around the rule.

You show customers how to read the back of a pattern to see how much yardage they need, you remind GROWN-ASS ADULTS that there are three feet/36 inches in a yard, and you shake your head tiredly as customers express frustration at the fact that you are not going to give them free fabric that they believe they are entitled to for whatever reason. You try your damnedest to herd the customers into a single line, and find yourself explaining, on several memorable occasions, the importance of standing on line, and why it is imperative that EVERYONE do it in order to be served, to customers (who are, I remind you, GROWN-ASS ADULTS.)

Once you are done cutting fabric, you get to put it away. If you don't stay caught up with putting away fabric, it piles up behind the cutting counter, and you are left with twenty, thirty, forty bolts of fabric or more to put away after the store closes. This includes the rolls of home dec fabric and vinyl, which are heavy, ponderous, and cause excruciating pain when dropped on your toe. As you put the fabric back on the shelf where it belongs, you are also expected to tuck, neaten and rearrange ("recover") the fabric that has been pulled, dropped, unraveled, left in the wrong place, and trampled on by customers. (I can only assume that these are the kind of people who visit someone else's house, use the bathroom, and do not flush the toilet afterward.)

You run errands, you do math, you advise and play yes-man. You enter special orders, answer the phone, and climb a step ladder to retrieve fabric from top-stock. You are berated by women who work in real estate, women who have a house in the Florida Keys where their good sewing machine is, men who are in a goddamn hurry and are not going to wait on line again, women who know how customer service is SUPPOSED to work and YOU sure aren't doing it right, and old ladies who will swear on their favorite Big Dog t-shirt that they always used to get the little bit on the end of the yard free when they shopped at the store years ago, and the girls over in Ramsey and Albany still do it that way, pointed look. You put away patterns, IN ORDER, in their assigned drawers, and you painstakingly shift those patterns around when they don't fit into the drawers the way they're supposed to. You run around with a disgusting old broom sweeping up lint, rubber bands, Cheerios, lint, Cheezits, candy, plastic fabric clips, lint, the world's most resilient dust bunnies, fabric samples, candy wrappers, lint, tacks, lint, pins, hair, glitter, fake berries, dust, dead leaves, coffee beans, lint, dead spiders, loose threads, and lint. If you refuse to leave the cutting counter to show a customer where something is, you are chided for failing to provide good customer service. If you lead a customer around practically by the hand and show them everything they need to complete their project, how to find out how much they'll need, what kind of fabric they can use, and try not to scream as they ask you a question that you cannot feasibly answer for what seems like the hundredth time, you will be chided for leaving your post and failing to provide good customer service to those who need fabric cut.

You cut fabric for quilters and seamstresses, high school fashion design students and 4H members, home decorators and guys who need lots and lots of clear plastic vinyl, expectant mothers and self-important mediocre crafters who seem to think that no-sew fleece throws are an extremely original and innovative creation of theirs. You work later than you're scheduled to without a word of thanks. Sometimes, you enjoy yourself.

And then you get fired! :O

Honestly, I'm almost glad not to be working there any more, since it'll give me the chance to look for a better job.

Almost.

Filling out job applications is going to suck.

--

Teriyaki chicken breast
Low-fat brownie
Microwaved popcorn (< 1 bag)
Candy cane (< 1)
Low-fat brownie
Carrot sticks
Pork with vegetables and carrots

(Yeah, I'm going to start trying to do this shit again.)