Yes, yes, and yes. I'm not one totally content to remain single--I'd REALLY like a boyfriend--but letting us know that it's PERFECTLY FINE to be single might be nice. Valentine's Day is especially bad for single sufferers, and for me when I was depressed D: As for the whole children thing (and I don't really feel like having children as of yet), it's a little subtler, but yes, I feel like people make weird faces when a couple remains child-less. And there's definitely a subtle stigma against those cute couples who only have pets, like it means they're creepy, barren people who were too stingy to adopt XP

Eugh, not then! I hate Black Friday! Well, I hate any day the stores are congested like that. I'll start my shopping maybe the following Monday or something--I don't have work on Mondays. I don't know, I just start shopping whenever I feel like it, and it's usually just a chance find when my mom and I are shopping for decor for her office or something totally unrelated like that XD

Well, now that I'm pretty much done with school, I don't have much to worry about, but I still really don't enjoy Mondays. They just suck. Everyone else leaves for work or school, leaving me alone D:

...has now become the most depressing. For those who know me, they know costumes are a huge part of my life. That means that October is a crucial month for me--it's when all the costume shops open and I can get supplies more readily without having to order them off the internet. However, just recently I've also had some financial problems--a mess-up with the student loan company led to me making 3 monthly payments instead of one, so a manageable $50 payment has become a whopping $150 payment. It doesn't seem like much, but I have a very small job, with a small monthly paycheck, and so my spending money has been substantially reduced. I also have to pay my mom back for a couple of shirts I got at JCPenny's, and save up at least a tiny bit for taxes, as my boss doesn't deduct the amount before paying me. So I have maybe $30. Not much for costuming and fall clothing. Halloween's in a week... no, wait, 3 DAYS!!! and then it'll all be gone, and will I have taken eager advantage of it? No. Ugh.

On a side note, I'm now up-to-date with Rammstein, and let's just say it kicks some major ass! Their new album has a similar twisted sense of humor that Mein Teil has, and let's just say the music video won't be showed on MTV anytime soon. ...Not that MTV ever played Rammstein >.>

A very enjoyable surprise, considering I wasn't planning on attending until a week or so before. Cate, a good friend of mine, convinced me to go when she told me she was going as Pyro from TF2, and would love another cosplayer to go with. I decided to put together a Spy costume, since it's one of the simplest costumes (excluding Scout, as he's way too easy and thus overdone :P ) in the game.

( The low-down )

( Photos )

Lol! Oh man, that would be awesome! If I had a TV station, it'd be called "Nerd TV" or "Geek TV", and it'd play The Simpsons, Futurama, King of the Hill, Family Guy, Robot Chicken, Metalocalypse, Venture Brothers, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and various anime--only ones that I approve of, of course. Maybe various awesome movies on weekends/evenings. If I had a radio station, it'd be called *insert radio # here* R-E-A-L. "All real music, all the time". No pop, no rap, no country (except that handful of good songs not about cheating girls). Only good music that you actually wanna listen to. I can't even list all the stuff we'd play ^^;

Apparently I was due for some new glasses, and since my insurance covered it and my prescription had changed slightly, I went for it and got some new frames and everything. Man, once you get the first pair, it's really easy to get new ones--you already know the whole schpiel, so you just sit there and rattle off what you do and do not want, the assistants don't have to give you the whole tutorial, and you can just waltz off and enjoy your new pair :D My eyes kinda hurt now cuz my eyes aren't used to the new prescription. Blech :P

Alucard from Hellsing! Gah, I'd love to be his fledgling... *W*

The Spy from TF2! XD

Didn't have my comp with me most of the weekend--went to a friend's to celebrate and catch up with girls I haven't seen in a while. Got a few nice pictures of firecrackers with my camera, though none of any big fireworks--we didn't go to any shows because Sacramento is huge and crowded and it just wouldn't have been worth it. Watched a great British comedy called Black Books for the first time. Brilliant! I wish I had friends like that... only ones that didn't have to be drunk to be so funny XD I also watched the work of Lewis Black, who is like my mind in physical form. Sure, he's an old, cranky Jewish man and I'm a young, eccentric, Irish agnostic, but it's like we share the same brain! XD

In other news, my sister, her boyfriend, and my brother discovered a stray dog on the walk back home from the fireworks show in Davis--it's a lot easier than driving. Anyway, I'm so friggin' proud of them--they took him home and gave him food and water and a warm place to sleep. I got to see him today, and he's a real sweetie! I think he's a German Shepherd Akita mix, and has to be at least 9 years old, judging by his gums. He's a little out of shape, has 3 large benign tumors that are common in older dogs but obviously show that he's either been alone and neglected for a long time or his owner (possibly a homeless person) couldn't afford vetrenary care. Anyway, I'm super excited, because this is what I want to do with my life--this is why I enrolled at Animal Behavior College. I wanna rehabilitate dogs the ASPCA rescues and give them a second chance at a good home. And I am going to work super hard to make sure everything possible is done for him; that they don't put him down unless they can prove to me that he is suffering and all medical options have been exhausted. I know we can't afford his care, and that I may have to surrender him to someone else, but I'm not doing so unless I get that promise--may even get it in writing and get them to sign it.

Anyway, it's late, and I have a post-period shower to take and string lights to hang in my room before I turn in for the night, and it's already late ^^;

Got my grades for Chapter 3 of my dog training courses--90%! That means every chapter so far I've scored in the 90's, and hopefully I can keep it that way for the remaining chapters. Shouldn't be too hard--all the things I'm learning are all either super interesting or common sense. And then I can get to the apprenticeship part of the curriculum, which'll be tons of fun! Just today at Petco I saw the cutest puppy! Must've been one of those special training sessions they offer for free certain days of the week.

Speaking of Petco, I'm pretty sure they decided not to hire me. I had an interview with them 3 weeks ago, and haven't heard from them since, even when I called them at the 2 week mark to check in. One time I even got the manager, but it was the wrong one--the one who interviewed me wasn't there, and this guy told me I'd just have to call him when he comes in tomorrow. If I were going to be hired, they would've called me by now, or at least even that guy could've told me. I think he was just dodging me so I'd get the bad news from the other manager instead. Haven't heard from him, either. What the hell happened to professionalism? Where'd it go? What makes the bigger ups in the job industry think they can demand so much from their employees, but then turn to petty silent treatment, mind-games, and "he-said/she-said" when it's time for them to own up? I'm so sick and tired of not being called, even if it's only to tell me they hired someone else. And is it too much to ask they do within a week? Sitting around for 3 weeks waiting for some form of contact is just too long. God, I hate filling out applications and putting on an eager face for interviews. And for what? They never speak to me again! They even seem to get awkward around me if I come back; as if we were dating and they broke up with me via text message, which is probably the lamest thing in the world you could possibly do.

Decency, people!

Don't know what to do. No more sites in my bookmarks to check. No flash games to play. No vids to watch on Youtube. Can't watch TV cuz sister and her boyfriend have taken it over and are playing PSO, which is probably the most boring video game in the world to watch--not much better to play, either. I do have a little piece of art to finish, but I really don't want to do it because the next step is to finish the kanji of two characters' names, and one of them is complex as hell. Wish there were png's of fucking kanji around, but I'm afraid I'm out of luck. Can't really think of anything to draw... nothing all that interesting, anyway. My inspiration's been toying with the idea of coming up with another original story to float around in my subconscious, teasing me with a handful of exciting scenes before revealing that there are too many plot gaps to write it. How many is that, now? How many stories do I have up here in my noggin?

The sexually-tense one about a princess and a mer-prince and their failed romance

The steampunk one about a robotics student and a cute android chick flying around with a bunch of sky pirates

The dark one about this vampire chick trying to pretend she's human and the upperclass vampire dude who tries to show her how cool being a vampire is

The hot one about Wesker, his new pharmecutical company, and the hot chick he hires and screws senseless

The fun one about Barbossa's early pirate career and the hot Irish pirate chick and their odd, tense, sexy relationship

The epic one about Ashram and this girl he buys as a slave and their quest to bring order back to Marmo.

And now this creepy one about a chivalrous Ghost-Buster-like dude and a stubborn maiko he has a crush on putting souls to rest in 1920's AU Japan

Goddamn...

Nothing to do off the computer or couch, as it's now 1 in the morning and the insulation in our house is shit, so my sleeping parents can hear every last noise. I'm pretty sure they can hear me farting down here. Damn fiber. I'm glad my digestive system is healthier now, and believe me, no one wants my fissures gone more than I do, but does it have to make me so damn gassy? I don't wanna go to bed yet; not without watching today's episodes of King of the Hill and possibly Family Guy that the DVR recorded while I was at the dog park with Leila, working off a sudden bout of severe melancholy. God, but when you play PSO, you can go on forever, and I have a feeling my sister and her BF have forgotten that I'm still in the room. As usual. Sigh. I think they've gotten more clingy, if that's even possible. Seriously. Their 3 year relationship is devolving to that of two infatuated junior high kids who just got the OK to cuddle. Grow up. Could you maybe consider those around you and how they might feel about your love fest? Especially when they're single and dying for someone to make them feel special (and possibly stroke their fluctuating libido)? I'm beginning to agree that I was definitely a late-bloomer. Sudden undenyable urge to rebel against the status quo? Unpredictable surges in testosterone? Isn't that a thing you usually deal with in high school? I wonder if my life would've turned out different if these things had happened in high school. And perhaps if depression hadn't emotionally crippled me... Still cracks me up to this day that I had been in denial about being depressed. Good friend comes to me after a month of being sick without promise of recovery and says "It might be tied in with depression. Maybe you should see a counselor?" I laughed and said no way! My sister's depressed; I know what it's like to be depressed, and I sure ain't that bad! Oi. Still, I'm glad I've experienced what I have so far--helped me grow and become a lot more familiar with myself. I wouldn't be who I am now if those events hadn't shaped me. Can you tell I'm a supporter of the "nurture" side of the "nature vs. nurture" argument? Now as to which came first--the chicken or the egg--I have no idea. How the hell do you try to answer something like that when you take evolution into account? Suddenly becomes a whole new ballgame.

Hmm, I like these. I think I'll try to do these more often--I enjoy following my train of thought and seeing how I get from this topic to that. Well, like I said, I was hoping to watch my shows before I went to bed, but it's plainly apparent that it's not going to happen, so I shall retire defeated and hope to watch it tomorrow morning before that day's shows come on. Sigh... I hate having to manage my time :P

This one day somewhere in mid-December, I think. The night before I accidentally slept in until 5 PM. You can imagine my shock when I realized the sun had already set! So to make sure my sleeping schedule wouldn't be permanently screwed up, I decided to pull an all-nighter that evening. It got kinda boring half-way through, but with the help of an Assassin's Creed walkthrough on Youtube, I made it through the night, and slept fine the next night after a bit of manual labor for my sister's school theater in the morning, of course XD

You're gonna make me choose? Well... all puppies, kittens... baby penguins are pretty cute, and seal pups... There are too many to choose! TT_TT

Ok, I think I've recovered enough to give a good report on the con.

( So, Fanime... )

( Team Fortress 2 icons (2) )

Every now and then I have a couple of keepers. Last night I had one where I was something of a 10,000 BC variation of Qui-Gon; basically, I was a long-haired dude with a beard wearing several tunic layers. I think I was a well-off fisherman. Anyway, I was a member of several tribes scattered around this gorgeous coastline, ruled over by this one supreme emperor guy who we worshipped like a god. He was having some sort of celebration soon, and while some of us offered him various trinkets and valuables, it was understood that he enjoyed exotic pets, so some offered him various animals and half-breeds, such as nagas and mermaids, etc. A day before the celebration I mozied on over to the pens to see what the people had caught and were offering, as I didn't really approve and was going to try and buy any I felt needed help. I was considering helping this one aquatic naga girl who was really quite charismatic, but a little later I found a poor little duck halfling girl who was being disguised as a naga and sister of the aforementioned girl. Apparently her mother kidnapped her, and they were going to barter her off in exchange for her actual daughter. Appalled by the family's behavior, I decided to bribe the guards into turning a blind eye during the celebration so I could sweep her away. The night of the shin-dig, things didn't exactly turn out like I expected. The emperor shot an arrow into the crowd of followers to select one who would battle a wild animal for his amusement. The back of the arrow pointed to me, so I had to fight a huge shark on a slowly sinking ship. Managed to kill it, though only just. Almost got eaten. In reward for defeating the creature, the emperor allowed me anything I wanted. I said I wanted the girl, but he refused--said he had his eye on her since the beginning of the event. So instead I asked if I could at least enjoy her company for the final meal. He agreed, so I scooped her out of the pen, but instead of heading back to the dining commons, I headed the other way--toward a cliff. The girl shed her naga disguise and, while I held on tight to her, lept off the cliff. She flew us to safety, out of sight, and then we landed in the water and swam to my boat. Dream ends there. I assume we sailed somewhere else--to freedom, I suppose *shrug*

...from Fanime, that is. Just got back, and I'm really tired TT_TT

Still, it was loads of fun! Met some cool people, got some awesome stuff... Faith was insanely popular, while Optimus was barely recognized. It's ok though--Nora was glad I did it. I'm gonna take a nap. I'll expand on the subject when I can think rationally again XD

I was playing volleyball in gym class freshman year of high school. We have an old metal cart that we use to roll around the net equipment when we need to get it out of the way for basketball and whatnot, and it was chilling behind the court where we were playing. The ball flew to our side, one girl hits it to the other in an attempt to set up a set-spike maneuver, but the second girl sends it flying backwards. Being the desperate day-saver that I am, I whirled around and went for it. I hit it, trouble was a second later I hit the metal cart.

With my face

Needless to say, any momentum I had stopped dead, and after a moment for the realization to reach me, I curled into a little ball clutching my forehead. A lot of the girls said it made the scariest sound, and that it looked like I was definitely going to have a concussion, or possibly something even worse. The gym teacher got me some ice and after a little while I felt much better--though admittedly I had a pretty nasty headache, and a few red marks where a bolt and protrusion hit me on the bridge of my nose and temple.

However, contrary to the consensus of the ladies in the office who monitored me for the next half hour, I actually stayed at school. When my dad heard, he came rushing over to take me home, but I insisted on staying, pointing out that being absent at my high school was like a death sentence with all the make-up work you get stuck with. He was a little skeptical, but after giving me some Tylenol, he let me do as I pleased. My teachers were betting what color I'd be when the weekend was up, as this happened on a Friday. Funny thing is: I didn't bruise at all! My forehead swelled up to the point where I couldn't move my eyebrows without pain, but I looked almost completely normal.

The school has since gotten rid of that metal cart.

And I'm feeling pretty good considering. I've got my housing basically figured out, no thanks to my stupid sister and her boyfriend, who couldn't work up the courage to just tell me they're not going. I stalled figuring it out to give them time to make up their minds, in the hopes that they'd decide to come and we could reserve a hotel room, but no doing. Lucky for me I still have a few friends who are going, and they are willing to spare me some floor space XD

I put on my costumes today to make sure they're finished, and indeed they are! I'd prefer I have the bag and patch when I go, but it looks like that might not happen. Just my luck *sigh*

Here's Faith:



I wish I'd been able to lose the weight and get into shape like I had hoped, but about a week ago my period hit, so I couldn't bear to do the jogging, push-ups, and crunches I needed to do. Lame. Still, it looks pretty good. Obviously the tattoo and eye make-up aren't applied, but that's something to be done the day of, and I didn't feel like it :P

And here's Optimus:



Eee! Isn't that goatee wild?! I'm glad I decided to try it on, as it needed some trimming--it made me look Amish at first XD Those aren't the pants I'm going to be wearing--they're my brother's. I'm still going to be borrowing Dylan's pants, but I just wanted to see what I'd look like in costume and he had a pair of carpenter jeans lying around, so they came in handy. Hopefully Dylan's will fit me better. Damn, I really want the autobot patch, but maybe I'll be able to find one in the dealer's room. I'll be sure to bring a couple of safety pins.

Oh, did you notice my new haircut? I love it! All that crap is off the back of my neck, but we left the front long so it can grow out even longer into that A-line cut I love so much :3

Ooo, I'm getting so excited! I can't wait!

I'll be going Thursday evening hopefully to pick up my badge and sell my crap at the Swap Meet, which will basically provide all my funds for the whole weekend. I'm not too worried, as I don't buy as much from the dealer's room anymore. Everything's so overpriced and available elsewhere anyway.

Time for another costume & prop check!

Optimus Prime:
Red t-shirt
Denim flame vest
Carpenter's jeans--to be borrowed from Dylan
Autobot logo--ordered off ebay, waiting for arrival
Steel-toed boots
Watch-band
Dogtags
Goatee

Faith:
Black tanktop w/ white racing stripes
Cargo khakis
Red sneakers
Elbow-wrap
Red fingerless gloves
Black shoelaces
Runner's bag--ordered off ebay, waiting for arrival
Wig

I got a message from the guy who sold me the bag, saying that it was on the way, but I still haven't gotten either the bag or the patch. I'm beginning to worry. I could probably get an autobot patch in the dealer's room, so it's not the end of the world, but I ordered it with plenty of time, and figure if I paid for it, I should be able to take it to the con :P