Life Speeds, Why Can't We?

Why does life just sort of move faster and faster?  Last week, I was driven almost insane by how much down-time I had but this week... I'm training at Target with only a day off for Thanksgiving.  Tuesday, I raced over to the other side of the island after I got off from Target to do my other job, then fought my way back through post-rush hour, pre-construction traffic.  I was exhausted, but I should have forced myself to make pie crusts anyway since Wednesday, I had less than four hours to come home, make a pie and then get over to church. ...I ended up using a store-bough pie because of that.

Other than that, my Thanksgiving was pretty good.  I woke up at 8, wandered downstairs and then put myself to work in the kitchen, cleaning up, mixing the guts for some more pies, peeling potatoes, pulling out dishes.  The end result, after a very good turkey dinner, I got to sit on the couch and reread Harry Potter while my dad and brother did the clean-up.  And then and then my sister's sister came over with her boyfriend and my nephew Jaiden and... well, I had a great Thanksgiving evening chasing the little 15-month-old around :)

I read a lot of British literature; my shelves are stuffed with books that originated there and my kindle is full of them.  I don't know if I can really blame that love for this habit, but I think I will: I notice I sometimes put unnecessary Us in words sometimes.  I don't know where else I would have gotten that from...

I've been mostly keeping up, but as I'm half asleep when I'm watching TV, I don't really remember what I'm seeing.  I have enough retention that I understand what people are talking about when the reference an event from that episode later, but thaaat's about it.

Watching a month of TV in three days...

Life has been SUPER crazy lately! I am almost a month behind on several TV shows (mostly Once Upon a Time, although I just caught up on SHIELD yesterday). Right now, however, I'm in a lull.

I just got a new job at Target. I was supposed to have me orientation yesterday so Saturday was my LAST DAY at Subway (WOOT WOOT!!!). But then my orientation was pushed back to Saturday because of a backlog (not Target's) due to all the seasonal hiring so this week, I'm only working one job, instead of the two or three I've been for the last few months. So I'm watching TV and playing a lot of Final Fantasy (logged almost 30 hours in the last few days alone).

Life Interfered

So... it's been a while.  In my defense, I haven't watched much of anything lately. If a number of shows hadn't taken a break for the week of Halloween, I would be hopelessly behind.

I've been watching some TV and on Halloween, I watched Halloween with my brother, Dad and sister (who is currently staying with us for a week or so). Which is part of the reason I haven't been watching TV.  I've been hanging with my sister and working and watching old episodes of Big Bang (her favorite).

And now it's November, National Novel Writing Month.  And my brother is all gung-ho to do it and is reminding me to do it as well.  And so I'm doing it. Kind of.  Last night I finally started and I'm at about 1200 words.  Yeah.  I'm going to work on that a bit after I work on a few other things.

I'm Wearing Purple (Which Is Totally Unrelated...)

Wednesday, I woke up super-early, drove all the way across the island in rush hour traffic and raced through work. Why? So I could go to the doctor's office. Okay, it wasn't for me. Lindsey had an appointment for herself and with Jaiden still sick, she wanted him to have a follow-up and since her doctor and his are in the same office... So I helped out. I took Jaiden so Linney could concentrate on herself but she was still able to talk to the pediatrician after her appointment was over. Afterwards, we went to California Pizza Kitchen and split a pepperoni and then down to DQ for Blizzards. I was reminded that Jaiden is not the main reason I love her; we talked about nothing for forever and I loved it! This is what girlfriends are for.

It's 11:30 on a Friday night and all I can think is that I wish I was already asleep. But I really, really wanted to watch the new episode of Grey's Anatomy before turning in, so guess what I did. I remember, once upon a time, not that long ago (before I got a Hulu account), I never watched TV. Ever. What happened to me? Oh, yeah, Hulu.

AH! The Zombeth is Loose!

I have an interesting new nickname: Zombeth.  I think my tenancy to monologue about anything forever may have something to do with it.  My co-worker has had to listen to me discuss my abhorrence of zombies more than once.  Then the other day, I got some immunizations and one text led to another and I told him that the flu shot killed me and the DTAP made me undead; and now I'm Zombeth.  Which I think is actually pretty clever.

Last Friday, my job kept me in a chair, waiting on something, with nothing to do.  So I watched a lot of Hulu.  And then at Subway, I wrote down all my impressions and the like.  And then it sat in my notebook all weekend. Now it's Tuesday and I am in a chair, waiting on a phone call, with nothing to do.  Oh, joy.  So I finally pulled out my notebook to get my thoughts online...

Suprise!

I randomly ended up having a surprise day off.  Yesterday, a coworker asked if I could switch my Thursday at Subway for another day, and after much feet-dragging, I did it.  Why not?  She's not one of the super unreliable girls and I know she's one of the few lunch people who would work a night for me if I had an emergency.  And then, my babysitting got canceled because the girl has a tummy ache. It's like, wow!  I don't know what to do with myself.

A Lot To Say (But Not About TV)

So, it's a Sunday and I am downstairs, reading comics and half-watching the football game.  Glad I'm not completely watching the game, as it seems to be a bit of a hard game to watch, if my parents are any indication.

For my birthday on Thursday, my brothers got me 3 months of Marvel Unlimited.  That's one of those things that I haven't gotten for myself because I was afraid I'd end up spending too much time reading (which I have).  But what's really scaring me is noticing all sorts of little things that the movies and getting all happy that I'm now in the know.  That, and the increased compulsion to do google searches for the latest news on Marvel movies...

As for TV, I still haven't gotten around to Sleepy Hollow or Once Upon a Time.  I'm considering just dropping Sleepy Hollow entirely and I have a feeling I'll end up letting the later pile up and then doing a marathon.  But even what I did watch, I don't have much to say about.  I've been very ... quiet lately and it seems to be affecting my writing as well as my speaking (I had to text one of my sisters last night to make sure she knew I wasn't quiet because I was mad at her).

Still Tired

Oh my goodness!  I can't believe how long it's taking me to recover from working those nights.  This morning, I woke up at 2:20 and couldn't fall back asleep.  I can't afford to do that tonight; I work two jobs tomorrow.  So, it's a "stay up as late as possible" game again.  Good thing I haven't watched any TV except New Girl this past week, so I have plenty to watch tonight.

A short story before I get into this week's TV.  The other night, I came home from work hungry and thirsty but didn't have any cold drinks.  I've learned that the plastic pink cups we keep on the top shelf are large enough to hold ice and an entire 12oz can of whatever I have, so I was up up up on tiptoes trying to knock one far enough forward to grab it when a heavy-duty plastic cut came careening off the shelf and landed right on my eye.  After the pain had cleared enough for my to think, my first thought was "Did I just give myself a black eye?"  The answer, thankfully, is no.  But I did give myself a rather large goose egg right above my eye, starting where my eyebrow starts and going halfway up my forehead.   If that wasn't bad enough, today, I swung open the car door and stepped out, right into the door that had started to swing right back.  I bruised right above the same eye, on the far side.  So now I have two different and distinct bruises over my right eye.

Stayin' Alive!

So, it seems to have been easier than I expected to switch from a morning schedule to a late-night schedule.  The only side-effect seems to be an obsession with my sleep schedule and an overwhelming urge to read simplistic, formulaic romance novels.  But since I'm actually being paid well for once (very well, in fact), I'm not going to be complaining at all.  And I don't really mind the hours too much.  Instead of the 5 I was supposed to be getting, I'm getting closer to 7 a night so far. 

A follow up on this huge fight my friends are having.  One of them has sent someone into Switzerland to try and quietly push the country to side; now I'm more pissed with her than the other (which could be seen as siding the other way).   The one sister felt the need to tell me that she had been considering coming over for the big dinner, and then found out the other sister blocked her of Facebook.  That was not something I needed to know and makes me feel like she's almost hinting that I should do something about it (like chose a side and say something to the other sister). AARGH! Alright, now that that's out, I feel so much better.

I also am all caught up on my TV!  Didn't expect that to happen...

Hell Hath No Fury... But Avenger's Does!

I have to get this out here since I really can't get it out anywhere else. So, my two best friends, who happen to be sisters, are having such a huge fight, they refuse to be in the same room together, even for my birthday party. It's like seriously? You guys can't deal with it for 2 hours? It's not like I was planning on having a lot of people over; basically it was a family-only party and they are my Hawaii family. It's like being stuck in the middle of a family feud. About the only thing I will say about this is that neither one is trying to drag me into it; they're respecting me like Switzerland.

On another note, starting tomorrow, I'll be working 4 of the next 5 nights and since I just got my body on a schedule that involves a 6am wake-up, this'll be interesting (read: hard).  So, after tonight's attempt to stay up as late as possible (in an effort to exhaust myself into taking a nap tomorrow afternoon), I doubt I'll be watching much TV until the middle of next week.

"Be... Our... Guest! Be our guest"

I need to go on a hike.  I haven't been on one in months.  Hopefully, now that my weekends should open up, I can get Amy out with me one day...

Today, I got to hang with the twins and then came home to an empty house.  I put some junk food in the oven and the curled up on the couch, a cat on each side, a dog at my feet, computer on my lap, and sat back to watch the season 3 premiere of Once Upon a Time... (fair warning, I have quite a lot to say about it)

There's a cat on my ankle... (which has nothing to do with anything else)

Yesterday was a long day.  I woke up at 6 to drive up North for my babysitting and then sent from there to Subway.  And then there was the big dilemma:  the mom for my babysitting decided she only needed me two days, instead of four.  So then, my first thought was to not quit Subway; and then, I found out I was working with Tia since one of the 19-year-olds played their usual "call in sick" card, so I thought "I need to quit this job!"  What I finally decided to do was to work all three jobs and just make sure I have the weekends off to relax and recover.  By the time I finally did head home, I was exhausted, yet knew I could not go to bed until I watched the season premiere of The Big Bang Theory.

Yes! New TV Galore!

So, there was this plan I had for yesterday.  I was going to wake up early and watch Sleepy Hollow and Castle on Hulu before I had to leave to go to the other side of the island (the south other side, not the north one).  But I would not wake up yesterday, and once I did, I would not start moving.  At all.  So the shows had to wait until after I got home from work and then I had to cut out and pick up my friend Amy from the airport.  So, I managed to watch Castle yesterday before dinner, Agents of SHIELD before the airport, New Girl before bed and I just finished watching Sleepy Hollow with my mom.

The order I saw them in:

When Did I Become Like This?

I know people talk about how loyal dogs are and how they run up and greet you and how great it is to have a dog, but cats can be just as welcoming and much more calming.  Take my cat, today for example.  She is very much *my* cat and today I was gone for a fair portion of the day.  When I got back from hanging out at the mall with my friend, she would have come directly to me had the dog not jumped in the way.  Even so, as soon as I was upstairs (where the dog's not allowed) and stopped moving, she wouldn't stop rubbing against my legs and purring non-stop.  A cat's purr is one of the single most calming sensations in the world, between the noise and the vibrations. Yes, I am a cat person.

Moving forward.  Today, I'm going to talk about my two new video games.

Beginning of "The Season"

So in a perfect world, I would have come home yesterday, watched Sleep Hollow and New Girl, wrote about them (while it was all fresh in my mind) and then gone on and done something else enjoyable.  Instead, I was a good friend and woke up to drive my friend to the airport to catch a morning flight to LA, and then worked both jobs back-to-back.  So, I woke up at 5, left my house at 5:30 and didn't get back home until 10.  Since I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, I turned into Zombie Beth around 4 and Crazy Beth around 6.  Apparently, Crazy Beth was fun for customers and co-workers alike and Crazy Beth got quite a bit of money in the tip jar, but she also gave her number to someone she shouldn't have so I think I'll avoid Crazy Beth whenever possible.

Now that that's over: TV!

Ah, Technology, I Name Thee Friend

I've said it before and this will most certainly not be the last time I say this, but I hate Honolulu traffic.  I was watching The Italian Job with my family the other day and during the sequence when they were timing a driving route in LA, all I could think about was this: Please Note #2.  So, to me, this means that Honolulu has some of worst traffic in the country.  And I get to drive that road when I work in Hawaii Kai.  I am not a patient person once I'm at the mercy of traffic; I get frustrated and yell at random drivers and have said more than once "I really like people in general, until they get behind the wheel of a car." Even though I'm not traveling that during rush hour, it's still a long nightmare.  And then I realized that the rare occasions I managed to catch someone on the phone, I barely noticed what was going on traffic-wise.  So I went on amazon (All hail the mighty Amazon!) and priced The Eye of the World audio book.  Apparently, by signing up for a free month-long trial of audible.com, I got a free book, plus another free book for my month of audible.  While I'm going to cancel after the first month and just buy the books instead of paying for a subscription, this is working really well.  I might actually finish The Wheel of Time if I can listen to the books I've already read instead of devoting a few months to reading them.  And this way, I don't mind the drive.  The other day, it was almost an hour and I barely noticed.  In fact, I've been looking for excuses to drive places so I can listen to the book more. So, that's working out well for me.

Today, I had a great trip to Wal-Mart.  I went there to pick up a copy of Star Trek: Into Darkness and then had the oddest compulsion to go down one of the aisles in the grocery department.  Do you know what I found?  Yes, okay, I did find Twinkies, but I was never much of a Twinkies person so, while I did pick up a box for my dad and brother, that was not what got me all excited.  No, it was the Hostess Cupcakes sitting proudly next to the Twinkies.  I snatched a box down and glanced at the bottom of the ingredients: "Contains wheat, eggs, milk and soy". No "May contain traces of peanuts" or "Processed in a facility that processes peanuts".  Unlike the knock-off from Little Debbie or whatever local company, I can still eat Hostess Cupcakes.  So I went, home, put on my new movie and ate a 2-pack of Hostess Cupcakes.

Major spoilers for Star Trek Into Darkness ahead.

Fall

Fall.  One of my favorite times of year.  In most places, there's a cooling in the air, a feeling of change, rest, a flavor to the wind that starts people to thinking about winter and the wonderful comfort of warmth.  Frost is found in the early mornings, football is on TV and long-sleeved shirts are pulled out of wherever they'd been hibernating for the last months.  But not here.  Here, in Hawaii, there is no weather.  And so, instead of enjoying fall for myself, I'm forced to remember seasons past and fantasize about living somewhere with four seasons sometime in the future.

Luckily, even without the change in weather, there are still plenty of things that accompany the "season" of fall, even out here in the middle of no where (seriously, find a place populated by more than crazy scientists and nature lovers that's more geographically isolated than the Hawaiian islands.  I dare you!)  Football is still on, even if it is absurdly early in the day (kick-off at 7 am?  Really?)  Thanksgiving is still approaching and plans start to get made.  And my entertainment gets a new vigour after the end-of-summer movie-drought.

The first of October, a few books come out that I've been half-waiting for and I'll finally be able to read Hero by Alethea Kontis.  The first book in this series, Enchanted, was amazing.  The style and mastery of the writing, the skilful weaving of various fairy tale fragments into a whole... I can't wait for the next book (fingers crossed my hunch about "Beauty and the Beast" is right!).  Actually, I think I may be looking forward to this more than the last Harry Potter book.  Just to put that in perspective, I did the midnight release of the last HP book, went home and then read it until I was done.  Finished it about 10 am or so (with a 2 hour nap at about the half-way point).  I can only hope I'm not still awake when the book is delivered to my kindle or I won't get any sleep and, chances are, I'll have work the next day.

Another sequel I'm looking forward to is Lightning's Return, more for another FF game than anything.  I'm sure I'll get more excited as November approaches and I doubt I'll wait and let someone buy it for me as a Christmas present, but right now, that's pretty low on my list of anticipation. 

And then there's TV.  Next week, I will finally get new episodes and new shows to watch.  First up, Sleepy Hollow on Monday.  I'm really torn about this show, actually.  While I do enjoy watching the way people retell and re-imagine old tales, the last version of Sleepy Hollow I was forced to endure was the Depp monstrosity.  Okay, I know lots of people like Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (or there wouldn't be so many movies) but their particular brand of "dark" I find revolting.  Though my brother might not want to admit it, I do have a skewered sense of taste and the new Sleepy Hollow might not fit it.  It also might be over-done, cheesy and have poor acting or writing.  But I'll try it anyway.

The next premiere on my schedule is New Girl on Tuesday.  Castle and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premiere the following week on Monday and Tuesday respectively, followed by The Big Bang Theory and Grey's Anatomy on Thursday.  Then, Once Upon a Time returns the following Sunday with it's new spin-off, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland premiering a week and a half later, on a Thursday. 

I'm actually looking forward to those two new series quite a bit.  Okay, so SHIELD seems like a no-brainer to me (I'll take my superheros just about any way I can get them, and I was so upset when they "killed" Coleson in The Avengers), but I'm actually kind of surprised by how much I'm looking forward to Wonderland.  Overall, I'm not a big fan of the "Alice in Wonderland" story.  The old Disney movie used to scare me so much so that I only watched it once every few years.  While I have of course read the book and Through the Looking Glass, I'm not overly fond of the story overall, and the way it's constantly redone makes me even less so.  But when I watched the trailer for it on Hulu, more to get an idea of what I would be watching than anything, I started to get pretty excited.

Alright, so I'm about done.  Partly because I've at least mentioned everything that comes out between now and the end of October and partly because it's after 11 and I'm still suffering the aftereffects of a migraine (yesterday, dinner was a battle) so I need to get some sleep. 

A Short Story from High School

My "superhero" kick has become a bit more focused, with a bit of a Superman obsession right about now... If superheroes really existed in this world, I would be such a hero groupie!  If I don't find something else to distract me soon, I might end up actually reading comics.

Since I'm not doing much by way of entertainment, I figured I'd tell one of my brother's school stories.

My brother Jake was always a quiet kid in high school, a teacher's pet, but he has a bit of a wicked sense of humor.  One day, in math class, he was arguing with his friends about the pointlessness of blogs.  In order to prove him point, he started what he called a "Calculator Blog" on the classroom's graphing calculators.  Every day, right before leaving, he'd write a sentence or two on the calculator he had that day, things like "I'm hungry" "It's rainy today" and "My butt hurts from sitting for so long." He and his friends were having fun with the Calculator Blog.
A few weeks later, his teacher went on a rant against his unruly class and once she's run through the class's misbehavior for that day, she started on a new topic: "And whoever is writing this 'calculator blog' I don't know who it is and I don't want to know, but that has to stop NOW!  Everyone in my next class keeps trying to get it and its causing a distraction and it has to end!" Jake and his friends stared straight to the front and forced their mouths into a straight line to keep from bursting into laughter. 

He has a few more stories, some even better, but I'll save them for another day.

Mostly Movies

Wow. It's been a while. Since I published anything at least. I had over half a dozen drafts that started to say something but never quite finished.

Anyway, I am done with college. I have a new job. TV stinks right now so I'm watching anything that looks remotely interesting on Hulu and Amazon. I go to the movie theater way too much. I'm still in the middle of a love affair with my kindle. Oh, and I'm going to Teddy's tonight.

Let's start with my life. I finally finished college and am now holding down two jobs. One is my ever-present part-time job as semi-management at Subway, where they currently have the best night crew since I started. The other is "office manager" at a very small furniture repair place. I love this job. But as of now, it's only part-time and so I am forced to hold on to my Subway job. Even so, I still have plenty of free time to pursue my many and varied interests...

Unfortunately, TV doesn't seem to be complying with my schedule.  After exams, it only took a week or two to catch up on all of my shows and then I had a horrible truth thrust upon me: all of my shows are over for the season, including the super-late-to-start Psych. Between my Amazon account and my Hulu Plus account, I've been trying to keep myself occupied with background noise. Some Warehouse 13, a kick with Eureka, some Star Trek, the last season and a half of Smallville and a few other episodes of this and that, mostly either sci-fi or superhero in nature.  Defiance is still on, but I've been less-than-thrilled with certain developments in that show.  I mean, they killed the Bio-man!

Thank god the movie theater is somewhat compensating me.  It helps that I enjoy rewatching movies while they're in the theater.  I love the movie theater experience and once a film makes its way to DVD (or Blu-Ray) it loses something.  A movie theater is a place where all sorts of different people come together, eating (overpriced or contraband) snacks and immersing themselves in a movie.  Most of the people there are watching the same movie with no distractions, experiencing similar feelings of exhilaration, fear and excitement.  The screen feels large enough to swallow the audience whole and the sound system further helps the viewer lose themselves in the movie.  So, yeah, I love to go back to watch movies I enjoyed more than once, and the theaters' recent introduction of a reward card has added serious incentive to this habit.  Aside from point accumulation (for free stuff), I also get certain (great) deals on Tuesdays.  That's why I went to see Man of Steel yesterday instead of either going opening weekend or waiting a few weeks.

Movies I've seen and my impression of them as I remember it now: 
I've watched Into Darkness three times.  Once with my family, where I was CRAZY into it: sitting on the edge of my seat, squealing, sighing, and hissing "Yes!  Klingons!  It's Khan!  Kill him! Khan's blood!"  The second time I watched it was with my friend Andrew.  I was still edge-of-the-seat cheering.  By the time I got there the third time (with my friend Amy who I am apparently turning into a geek), I was mouthing along with some of the monologues.  Three times is enough, though, and I will refrain from watching it again until I can get the movie on DVD. 
Of course, I went to see Iron Man 3 as well.  It as a good movie, a decent follow-up to The Avengers.  I would have only seen it once, but there were some politics involved and I ended up watching it a second time, which was not without its merits.  I took great pleasure in not telling Ashley anything when she asked, which I think annoyed her.  But then, she's so easy to annoy.  I especially like when a certain Dr. Banner appears. 
And then, of course, Man of Steel.  While I enjoyed the movie (and not only because I could feel Amy's geek-meter rising beside me), I felt the battle sequences were a little overdone.  I didn't think it necessary to destroy a town, a city AND a satellite.  Two of the three would have been sufficient.  But it was an enjoyable Superman movie and not what I expected from the commercials. 

Other movies I plan to see.
The Lone Ranger:  While I feel that the title character should be the focus of the movie whether or not Johnny Depp is trying to create Jack Sparrow: Indian Version, Amy claims that since she's going to all my geek movies, I should at least watching this with her, I will. 
Despicable Me 2: The minions return!
Maybes include The Wolverine and Elysium (Jake wants to watch this) and then there's nothing that looks interesting until the holiday movies start coming out in November (Thor 2!  I hope there's a longer shirtless scene in this one!)

A few final notes: Now that I am no longer in school, reading and writing for pleasure has become increasingly important to me (hence the breaking of the long silence here).  In less than 48 hours, I've worked two shifts, watched a movie in theaters and still found time to read two complete novels.  Yay for the kindle, which allows me to slip it into my purse and read a paragraph or two while I'm waiting in line at the grocery store. 

Tonight, Adam and I are going to the newly opened Ewa Beach Teddy's Bigger Burgers!  Yum, yum!  Can't wait for our ride to get home.

This and That

I gave up Amazon Instant purchases for Lent. That means no "leisure" books, no instant movie rentals, no TV shows. And I was standing by that, reading books I never got around to finishing (or even starting) and I've been rewatching Smallville. And then I turned around and decided to pay for a Hulu Plus account. I didn't even think about my Amazon-ban. It follows the letter of the law, but maybe not the spirit. Although, in my defense, I was mostly thinking about books when I made it. Tuesday, I woke up, took a shower, packed my bag for school and then decided "Screw it!" I was just way too drained to pull myself through a day at school. I invented an upset stomach and a headache and then hung out in bed, screwing around and watching Community on my newly "repaired" PS3. Now there's a story! Monday night, I get home from a late night at Subway and click the button on my PS3 controller to turn on the system. I did something fiddly like empty my pockets and realized my system hadn't actually turned on. I walked over and realized it wasn't plugged in. The RedBox DVD I had noticed downstairs came to mind and I grumbled a bit as I threaded the power cord back and plugged it in ("Why didn't they take the PS2. That wasn't plugged in. If they're going to use my stuff, plug it in again when you're done..."). I turned it on and realized it wasn't connected to the TV either. I ran around looking for the cord, even pulling my mom awake from the brink of sleep before I found it still plugged in to the TV. I hooked it up and sat back and watched nothing happen. I tried it on both TVs, turned everything on and off repeatedly, checked the cords using my PS2 and eventually just sat back and cried. "My family just broke my $250 PlayStation for want of a $50 DVD player! They will pay for this! I saved for this thing for four months and it's barely a year old."
I pulled Jacob out of bed the next morning and made him fix it. He had hooked it up using an HDMI cable instead of the standard one and so we had to reset the output settings. I admit, I gave him a few earfuls about what was allowed in regards to my PlayStations.

I had breakfast with Ashley this morning. I was 20 minutes late because of the buses and Ashley was sending me text messages trying to guilt and threaten me. All it did was piss me off. I am always to first one there when we meet up and, more often than not, she's late. I am late one time because the traffic was bad and the bus running late and she's giving me a hard time? And then she was obviously upset because I wouldn't commit to a 2015 move to Alaska with her and then because I said that I would not room with her there. I tried to explain that I wouldn't room with 90% of my friends due to several bad experiences in the dorms, but she was quite obviously offended. This is why she has no other friends; she takes everything super personal.

I've been catching up on some of my shows: Castle, New Girl, Arrow, Beauty and the Beast.
Castle: Damn two-part episode! But good work at some foreshadowing.
New Girl: Finally, a "Big Kiss" that is actually treated as one! Thank you for dwelling on this event for the two following episodes. Because Jess and Nick kissing IS a big deal and not something that can just be swept under the rug (like Gus finding an engagement ring in Shawn's gameboy [Psych]).
Arrow: Probably the least notable of all the shows I caught up in.
Beauty and the Beast: Was it really necessary to introduce a "First Love" for Vincent? I feel like this relationship is complicated enough; adding in another love interest for the hero almost feels like a "filler" so far. While it does create a bit of development for Vincent and JT, I feel like the main purpose was the undermine the budding relationship between Cat and Vincent and there are so many other ways to do this without throwing an obviously doomed romantic possibility in the mix. I hate obviously doomed relationships.

Mystery and Movies

So, today, I got a free game.  Yesterday, as I was cleaning out the car, I found a new-looking copy of Final Fantasy XIII-2 under the driver's seat and half under the carpet.  "Weird" I thought, before going upstairs and making sure my copy was in my bedroom.  But the more I asked around and thought about it, the stranger it got: no one I've given a ride to in the last year even owns a PS3 (trust me, I double checked), my family included and no one has any idea how the game ended up in the car.  I've asked everyone in my family, all my friends, and even called up my brother in Wisconsin.  It doesn't have an ugly "USED" price sticker on the case and somebody removed the shrink-wrap, but even the registration code, which has a tendency to fall out, is still in the case.  Well, if no one else claims it soon, I'll take it and sell it.

Tonight, I watched The Haunting (1999) with my dad and local brother.  The movie had me pretty tensed up until about halfway through.  Then the house started to move and any fear I felt petered out to nothing.  All the tension they'd built up disappeared with a few not-so-well-placed "hauntings."  While not as clearly defined, it was not unlike the moment in Jaws when you finally get to see the shark, although, even in Jaws there's still some sort of pull to keep watching and a sort of fascinated horror.  The Haunting hit a wall and lost interest halfway through, made for a second half that fluctuated between flat and just plain stupid.  I will admit, the caretakers driving up and talking to a completely unresponsive Doc and Theo was a pretty good closing scene.  Otherwise, "it had promise, but failed to deliver."  Once I lost interest, I wiki-ed the book; I would have probably enjoyed the more loyal version from the 60s more.

That's the third time I've yawned in 5 minutes.  I guess my body is telling me to put away the glowing object and go to bed.

I'm so busy, I need to sit down and write about it

Today, I'm using my Christmas present from "Santa": a cute black-and-white, green trimmed apron that proudly proclaims I am "Queen of Everything."  And I have to say, I certainly feel like I might be today.  Or, well, I did until I started pulling chocolate chip cookies out of the oven.  I don't know what it is, but I have not been able to make a decent batch of those in the last year and a half, since I moved out here!  I've been making good chocolate chip cookies by myself since I was in elementary school.  And then everything else turns out okay, even the stuff that should be harder to get right.  I know I have plenty of ginger snaps and oatmeal-cinnamon for the party, but my inability to make a good batch of chocolate chip frustrates me.  Although, something I tried this time must have worked, they do look better than they have on previous attempts.  And I'm sure (based on past experience) they'll taste fine...

I have a BBQ I'm going to out in Kaneohe tomorrow thrown by one of my friends at school.  When I asked if there was anything I could bring, he started bragging about his rice so I decided to show him what I can really do.  I think I went a little overboard.  When making the oatmeal, I accidentally put in double the sugar required so I thought "Heck with it!" and made a double batch: all 70+ cookies of it.  I forget how many more cookies I get out of a batch of dough when my mom's not here, eating it.  (Not that I don't sample a little of the dough, but my mom's in a league of her own!)  And then I made a batch of ginger snaps, which I knew made a lot of cookies, but decided to do anyway because I never did get around to making that second batch for my dad during Christmas.  And while I love ginger snaps and oatmeal cinnamon, I thought I should have at least a few chocolate chips, since everybody likes chocolate chip cookies.  188 cookies and 2 and a half hours later, the counters are covered in cookies and drying dishes.  No one'll be complaining that I left a mess in the kitchen today, just that there's no room for anything but sweets!

Other things I've been working on: re-learning how to make friendship bracelets.  Lindsey and I are doing a booth at a rummage sale next month.  It's a chance for us to try and sell our practice pieces that aren't as high a quality at a lower price then we'll be charging online and make a few bucks selling misc junk we have lying around (my mom, for one, wants us to successfully sell the extra microwave).  Well, since it's at an elementary school, Lindsey thought a few friendship bracelets might help attract customers.  There's really not much of a profit margin on them, but attracting customers is important.  And since we should be able to have out Etsy store actually running by that time, any customer who stops at the booth for any reason, well, we have an opportunity to let them know about our online options as well.  We might even make a few made-to-order while we're sitting there, if we can get a few orders.  And then there's the opportunity to check out other people's booths, maybe find some more necklaces to dissect or beads to grab... talk to people who may be able to help us establish our business or find supplies or even inspire us with new ideas of things to make.

Unfortunately, as productive as I've been, I have a heck of a lot more to do and a busy weekend to squeeze it into! I work tonight, have a supply-run with Lindsey tomorrow morning, a BBQ tomorrow afternoon, church and work on Sunday, and work again on Monday.  I have a car that needs to be cleaned inside and out by tomorrow morning, assignments in both history classes, a paper due Thursday, and a lot of reading for all my classes.  I somehow feel like I haven't a prayer of pulling it off, yet I know I can, as long as I work hard, budget my time, and don't get distracted too often by shiny objects or the call of the internet (like I am right now...In my defense, I was eating lunch with one hand and typing with the other).
Update:  The car's not perfect, but it'll do.  I'll make sure I leave a note to wake up Jake tomorrow if Dad decides it's not good enough.  He's at school right now and he's the one who parked in under a tree for two days to get covered in flowers and bird poop.

Neverending Life

My crazy life has just gotten crazier!  I just made another commitment.  Let's look at the ones I already have:
School - I'm a full-time student, attending classes three days a week, 12 credit hours, all in upper level English and History (which means a lot of reading and papers).  Furthermore, this also ties up hours three days a week just getting to and from school.
Work - Still working at Subway (about 20 hours a week) and as it's my last semester at school, I'm expected to find another job for the Spring, because heaven forbid I earn $8.50 after all the money spent on college tuition!
Social - Somehow, my circle of acquaintances and friends is growing.  There are more chances to socialize and, to be honest, I do want to go out and have fun.  The flip side of that is what I call "The Ashley Factor."  If it starts popping up on my Wall that I've been doing this or that with Amy or Lindsey, I need to make sure I at least try to hang out with Ashley or I will be subjected to her sulking (although, in her defense, Amy can get a bit upset when I know more about Lindsey's life than she does).  I love these girls, but any time you have multiple women in a group of some sort, there will be petty jealousies.
And now I'm adding Small Business Owner!  What the heck was I thinking?  It's an online business, selling homemade jewelry and the like with Lindsey.  So I can let it take over as much or as little of my time as I want.  And I'm very much enjoying it so far; I have excuses to play around with things I can call "Inventory" and crunch numbers to figure out the exact cost to make a bracelet and the profit margin after fees are removed.  Had I known myself in high school the way I know myself now, I'd have a business degree right now, instead of most of an English degree (although I absolutely love English... and History.  I guess I'm a woman of many interests).  It's also nice to be able to sit down and watch an episode of Big Bang Theory and finish with a necklace to sell. Speaking of... I have one I made at school today that I need to put the finishing touches on and then I really do need to go to bed.
Ciao!

The Hard Decision

So far, I have had Final Fantasy XIII-2 for 22 days; I've logged 85 hours and 49 minutes.  I have 158 out of 160 fragments, and have unlocked all but one ending.  I have one more enemy to defeat to complete my bestiary.  Despite school starting again tomorrow, I suspect I will have the game completed by the end of the week.  And no release date in sight for the sequel.  Darn it all.

I have a few options for what I can do next.  I could go backwards and finally finish FF XIII, which I have to admit is not very tempting.  I could work on Persona 3.  I bought that right after Christmas and probably would have gotten pretty into it if it hadn't been for my new Final Fantasy game.  I could steal the Wii my brother and I share and play Xenoblade, which I have gotten into, but it would also mean Jake has a right to come in my room and use the system.  Or I could switch my PS3 out with my PS2 (which is currently downstairs as the substitute DVD player as that is broken) and either replay FF XII (the game I not only accidentally beat, but also accidentally erased!) or try to finally beat FF X (I got held up at Sin).  ...or I could steal the Wii for my room and try out Jake's Last Story.  Decisions, decisions.  Would you believe that two years ago, the only game I had ever really played was Skies of Arcadia?

I planned on writing more, but it's late, I'm tired and I have stuff to do tomorrow (well, later today, technically) so I guess I'll end here.

A Day in the Life...

Yesterday was pretty close to a perfect day.  I accomplished a lot, geeked out, stayed in my pjs, and even got compliments rained on my from my testy mother.

It all started the night before when I had a "Eureka!" moment (at work) about how to fix my closet.  It would get my shirts out of cat hair range, allow for a huge bin of keepsake storage and it would actually work without being super-finicky.  So, yesterday, I fixed it.  And then, since my closet was fixed and my desk had already been organized, I was actually able to pick up everything in my room and put it away!  My room is the best it has looked since we moved into this house at the beginning of the month.

I then proceeded to play hours of Final Fantasy XIII-2, working on my self-given quest to capture every monster that's possible, while working on the second half on Smallville Season 8 on my computer.  The day ended with taking care of the dog (huge brownie points from the 'rents), doing a little bit of pick-up downstairs, reading manga and watching an anime from the 80s.  Yep.  I felt like I spent more than enough time in Geek Heaven while still accomplishing quite a lot.

Today is starting down a similar path.  I had to prep something for the crock-pot, but I also finally took care of last year's FAFSA and am now sitting down, FF on, computer on my knees, ready to go to my geek heaven again.  If only I didn't have to work today...

 I really think I need a bit more direction in here.  I pretty much come on here and write whatever the heck I feel like, which is fine, if I'm keeping a journal, but that really wasn't what this was supposed to be.

The Busier-Than-I-Thought Winter Break

There's really not much to talk about lately.  Little to no TV, haven't been to the movies, the weather has kept us mostly at home, and then out of the last three days, I've been stay-home-sick for two of them (one was a migraine and the other a stomach bug). 

We went up to the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens for a few hours yesterday, but the trails were poorly marked, the weather was rainy and none of the plants I usually see on my hikes were marked, so it was pretty much a bust.  A few days ago, my baby brother and I did the 'Aiea Loop Trail with our dog, who was pretty much exhausted by the 5-mile loop; it took our puppy two days to recover.  Whoops.

New Years Eve, my mom worked, so my Dad, brothers, Ashley and I went to Waikiki to hang out for a few hours.  We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, wandered around and then came home.  Ashley and I decided to have a "Superhero Movie Marathon" to welcome in the year that wasn't supposed to come, so we rented Kick-Ass and (for some odd reason) Despicable Me.  I'd never seen Kick-Ass before and I will probably never watch it again.  I can see where it could appeal to some people, but there was too much blood and guts and brains and cussing for me to enjoy the movie.  Which kind of pissed me off.  Ashley said that we had to watch it and it was a good movie and then when I pulled out my laptop for the last 30 min or so, she said "I'm surprised you lasted this long.  I didn't thing you'd like this movie."  Excuse me?  If I had thought she wouldn't like Despicable Me I'd have told her; I wouldn't convince her to get it instead.  But that's exactly what she did.  AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!! 
Sorry, but I kind of got an Ashley overdose. Our sleepover turned into a road trip up to North Shore to check out waves my Dad said were supposed to be amazingly high but which ended up not being all that impressive.  And then we went to Ala Moana to drop her off and grab a bite of lunch and she's all "We have to go to this shop; we have to come back and check this out after we leave; etc etc etc."  Meanwhile, it's three in the afternoon and my parents want us home.  So I ended it as quickly as I could, got home, and got a bad attitude from my dad who felt like we were gone too long.  And now she's texting me hard to decipher messages at 11pm when my stomach is finally allowing me to nod off!

Despite my parents insistence that we do something as a family every day, that (and a lunch at Dixie Grill) pretty much covers what I've been doing.  They've gone out today and two days ago, when I was home sick.  But, again, I was home sick.  So I played my video games (I am at the final boss point in FF XIII-2 already!) caught up on manga and have just had some super-lazy days.  Which I don't expect to continue into tomorrow, unfortunately, not unless I take a turn for the worse, which I REALLY don't want.  Last night and this morning were bad enough.

Wait, I also watched The Amazing Spider-Man the other day while writing a letter to my friend at boot-camp.  And then Top Gun with the family, and Megamind just cause I wanted to.  I guess I have been watching a lot of movies over bread.

My take on the new Spider Man:

The Toby McGuire ones were better, but I guess it’s not too bad.  But it is much too early for a mediocre reboot.  About the only thing that would save this would be a good sequel.  Cause, let’s face it, as good as the original Spider-Man movie was, it certainly lost something in the second, and especially the third movie.  And I should know, since I watched all three in a row flying from Atlanta to Honolulu this past Spring.  It was a Spider-Man or an X-Men marathon and Spider-Man won the coin toss (quite literally).  The one thing this movie really had going for it: an awesome Stan Lee cameo!  I called Jacob into the room and rewound so he would watch it, too.

Alright, I guess that's enough blabbing for now.  Until next time!