Current Ramblings
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Rub it!
I know that last post kind of left people hanging, but I've had a lot on my hands since I got back home, and by that I specifically mean my DS and four new games (if you're including new GBA games), so I haven't really gotten a chance to post again. Sorry about that. I'll give some quick recapping now, because the New Year's party starts starting tomorrow. The flight home was blissfully uneventful, plus we got to fly out of a terminal in an excitingly Godforsaken part of Dulles. We also had to get a tow truck to yank my car out of the long-term lot with chains, since neither the weather nor the level of maintenance seemed to have improved since we left. I made a joke at work before I left about getting a bond referrendum on the ballot next fall to buy Columbus a fucking snowplow, but now that they've had a few days it seems less like a joke and more like something they might want to actually consider. Though to be fair it seems like specifically the neighborhood of Grandview here is the worst offender. Also, I haven't been actively sick (read: I haven't vomited) since I got back home, so I guess that could be considered "better", though my appetite still hasn't recovered and to be frank, my sense of smell suggests that my digestive system as a whole isn't quite at 100%. I don't really want to do a straight run-down of presents like a lot of my blogging friends have, especially since some of those gift-givers read my blog and I feel like the very order of the list will be analyzed as proof for or against my friendship, so I will touch on a couple major highlights and hope nobody is offended. There's the DS, of course, and Mario 64 DS and Megaman Zero 3 to go with it. I spent some Christmas money to add Feel the Magic and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories to that roster. It has a bit of a dead pixel, by which I mean it has a dead pixel, but it's only visible when the screen behind it is black, so I think I'm going to see if I can live with it. It's only noticable at all in Feel the Magic. Graham got me a new record player, a fancy actually new one that plays 78s and has a CD player and comes in a very tasteful wood cabinet. The old barely-functional $10 flea-market one is in the trash already. Graham's parents got me the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack from the UK, which is really neat in a way which I think deserves its own post, since it also brings up a lot of things I don't like about soundtrack albums in general these days that this one is absolutely the opposite of. For now I will just say it connects the music with the movie itself to a degree that is the antithesis of today's "inspired by" soundtracks. Also from them and from the UK was the Transformers: RiD DVD set, so I can finally see those episodes that were never shown in the States post-9/11 because Fox got sorta squeamish about massive property damage all of a sudden. One of the episode descriptions actually mentions that it was never aired in the US, which seems like an odd thing to bother mentioning on a UK release. Oh, and they also got me a nifty Invader Zim tee with long sleeves and a hood and GIR on the front, which I mostly mention in this brief recap because it looks unbearably good on me. And my parents did get me lots of nice things in addition to the DS, including the absolute coziest winter boots imaginable. And I got some yummy soaps from Windy, and a nice sweater with a matching hat from my sister, and that Dashboard Confessional CD a woman my age really shouldn't want from Walky, and Pokemon Box (OMG POKEMON BOX!) from Steve-o, and an Invader Zim picture-disk record and matching pen for the #wiigii! mailing list Secret Santa from Phil, and I think that about covers people who read this regularly. ;) Now I go try to get this girl in Feel the Magic to like me some more.
posted@1:56 AM by:Trixter: 0 comments
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Well, fuck.
How has your Christmas trip gone, Jenni? Well, let me tell you...
Thursday we were up at 6AM, knowing that the horrible snow and ice storm in Ohio meant we were going to want extra time to get to the airport for our 10:30 flight. As it turned out, it took an hour and fifteen minutes just to get the car drivable and out of the parking lot, not including my trek to Kroger on foot to get spray de-icer and cat food, not taking into account the real posibility that Kroger would be closed. Stupid weather. The trip to the airport itself was blissfully uneventful, since I'm well-versed in driving in several inches of snow and the main highway across town was somewhat well-plowed. We got there, found a spot left in the long-term lot, and took a shuttle to the terminal. We got to the gate without much incident and settled in for the hour or so before our flight.
And that was about when things went all to hell.
When we got there, there were already several people from a previous flight to Dulles that had been cancelled due to mechanical problems who were getting on our flight instead. And then it turned out the plane for our flight wasn't going to show up, so they were going to fix the previous plane and use that for our flight, which would delay things for about four hours. Yay. We hung around a bit longer, went to have lunch around 12:30, and by the time we got back the unofficial word was the flight - in fact, all of United's flights to Dulles for the day - was now cancelled. We stood in line for probably well over an hour at the counter while they tried to work people onto other flights. At that point I decided that I was going to talk to my mom about renting a car and driving rather than going home and waiting for a flight the next day, since I had extremely little confidence in the airline's ability to get us out the next day any more than that day. But we got up to the front of the line and the guy at the desk found us seats on a flight to National on Delta leaving at 5. Woo! So we got our tickets, picked up our bags downstairs, checked in at the Delta counter, and once again settled in for a couple hours waiting for our plane to leave. But before long, of course, that flight was delayed, until 7PM, because of problems with the arriving plane. Around 4:30 I decided to go poke around the book shops to kill time, and I only got as far as the nearest one when Graham came up to me and said the flight had been cancelled, and that there were no more flights heading anywhere near DC for the rest of the day. Well, fuck.
So I got on the phone with my mom, talked to her, had Graham talk to her because I was really upset, checked rates at the Budget rental counter, and by 5:30 we were on our way out of Columbus in a nice new Chevy Classic. (Why didn't I just take my own car? Well, we still ideally have a return flight, my car's had a bad case of belt-squealy lately, and my parents paid for the rental.) We stopped in a small but nice EconoLodge in Morgantown, West Virginia, about halfway into the trip, and got a good night's sleep before setting off at 7 Christmas Eve morning. The drive went pretty well, and we finally made it to my parents' house around 11:30 - long after we should have been there, but still sooner than if we had placed our faith in the airlines for another day.
But that's not all!
On the way here I stopped at a gas station and got a ham sandwich for "breakfast" around 9AM, just wanting something in my stomach to tide me over until we got there and had lunch with my family. And I think that's the most likely cause of the violent food poisoning that hit me around 12:30 Christmas Eve night, waking me up hourly in a horrible chain of vomiting and diarrhea that cleaned me out pretty thoroughly by the time the rest of the family was ready to open presents. It more or less subsided once I didn't have anything left in me, but I'll just say I still had to get up in the middle of typing this to throw up again. I think I'm gonna try to stick to Gatorade for the rest of the day, and maybe if we actually get home tonight I'll be able to work tomorrow. With the time off I'm taking for the New Year's party later this week, I don't want to have to take sick days, too. Though if we don't actually get home tonight it's kind of a moot point.
But I'm still glad to have been able to spend Christmas with my family, even if fate has been determined to make it as painful as possible.
posted@12:10 PM by:Trixter: 0 comments
Monday, December 20, 2004
Stuff.
So, it looks like Hasbro's finally shipping out those damned plates from the 2003 dinner. I welcome any plates people wish to donate to me for...well, we'll call it "performance art". I am so sick of those plates.
I found Alternators Grimlock the other day, and he's quite nice in an Alternators kind of way. His sword is kinda stumpy, admittedly, but otherwise he's good. But it leaves me with a delimma: Who does he stand near in my display? Jazz's fondness for stupid Earth noise would work Grimlock's nerves right quick. And you know he's always got his radio on. Zoom-Zoom is every bit as bad, plus he's not even technically sentient, and while that doesn't hurt Sludge (I know, cheap shot), I don't see that working out. While Hound's embracing of Earth doesn't take such an actively annoying form, he's still a dirty hippie. There was a whole UK story about how much Grimlock hates Tracks. And Silverstreak...I'd give him about five minutes before Grimlock tears his vocal processor out. Smokescreen and Sideswipe seem the best bets, but they're on opposite sides of my display. Ah well, just have to rearrange...
I'm pretty much done with my Christmas shopping, which is nice. Work's been predictably insane, and it would help if people realized that five days before Christmas is not the time to expect a used book shop to have the DaVinci Code or Series of Unfortunate Events. And everybody's nerves are just frazzled right now. Two customers got really pissy at me at the buy counter today, one because we wouldn't buy her hand-labelled, home-recorded VHS movies. It's really a good lead-up to returning to school (which I do the first week of January), since Christmas serves to remind me how much I need to work hard to get out of retail after all these years. But I'll survive just as I have every year. And then I'll have a DS.
posted@10:35 PM by:Trixter: 0 comments
Friday, December 17, 2004
Life is Pretty Good.
I feel good today. I don't know why. Work wasn't especially good and I got a pitiful night's sleep last night, but I think the prospect of seeing some of my friends tomorrow night, getting to go to GameWorks with other friends and play DDR on an unlimited 3-hour game card for $20 on Sunday, being a week away from Christmas (and my DS), and having even more friends in town for amazing awesomeness in about two weeks is just enough to make me vaguely giddy. There'll be Pokemon Dash to be played, and DDR Home Version, and more awesome people than I even want to think about. Also, I've been doing pretty well with my money lately, with the assistance of a couple bonuses and some retro-pay from work, and it turns out Graham's Christmas present is going to cost less than I anticipated, so I went over to Child's Play and bought Pokemon Sapphire for the DC hospital that's participating. FireRed and LeafGreen may be newer, but Sapphire is more involved and it has Absol, the Best Pokemon Ever. So I'm just about done with my holiday spending. These next couple weeks are gonna be awesome, and it'll be nice not to have to pinch pennies while my friends are in town for once.
posted@10:47 PM by:Trixter: 0 comments
Monday, December 13, 2004
SO TIRED...
We had the Columbus area Half-Price Christmas Party tonight. Awesome stuff. Walky went with, since Graham's not all that thrilled with big social groups of people he doesn't know. Like the last two years I've been there, we had it at Dave and Buster's. There was catering and free drinks (which I didn't partake in, being the driver), game cards, and a big heaping pile of door prizes. They had everything from T-shirts to gift cards (for other stores) to...well, I won a night out, with a $50 gift certificate to Outback and (*drum roll*) tickets to the opening night of Riverdance here in Columbus in April. Graham is less than amused, sadly, but I hope he'll be a good sport about it. We'll get to dress up! And then...I played DDR. Well, not DDR actually, but a game called Excess, which is basically DDR with five panels instead of four, at the corners and in the middle. And I rocked. I discovered my latent talent for DDR when Walky, Maggie, Steve-o and I went to GameWorks a couple months ago. I clearly had rhythm in abundance, but I still needed - and even now I would say I still need, though I have improved even more - to improve my ability to interpret the arrows on the screen into commands to my body. I spent something close to two hours working on this skill, intermittently at first, then with not only dedication but also an audience of coworkers, friends of coworkers, and even our district manager, all of whom were quite impressed with the madness of my skillz by the end of the night. I broke quite a sweat, drenching the knit cap I was using to keep my newly shortened hair out of my face. I can certainly see how people lose a lot of weight doing this. And it's always a huge thrill finding something new you're good at. I'm still not nearly as good as that guy at GameWorks that night, whose feet barely touched the ground, but maybe someday I can be. You just watch.
posted@1:47 AM by:Trixter: 0 comments
Addendum.
I'm sorry, the game was actually "Pump It Up Exceed". I just remembered the big X. And apparently I could own one for a mere $4,995.
Also, Windy sent me some wonderful Christmas greetings which she said I could share with all of you. Not work-inappropriate per se, but it will hurt your brain a lot, so you might not want to click on it if you have other things to concentrate on. I have the best friends ever. ^.^
Also also, I just ordered the Japanese release of Pokemon Dash for those of us who will have Nintendo DSes at the Big Columbus New Year's Shindig. We will have some multiplayer action going, I swear it. I also ordered a case from them I rather liked, since I find the US cases kind of boring. I paid for the good shipping so I'll definitely have it before the party. And, erm, before the end of the week, for that matter. Too bad I won't have my DS until Christmas...
posted@1:07 AM by:Trixter: 0 comments
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Damn you, UPS!
So I ordered some sneakers the other day, a nice pair of Converse One-Stars from a web site called American Athletics that not only carried them (they're really hard to find) but also had them on sale for $35. They're exactly like the shoes I had my last year of high school, except navy instead of black and not completely worn through. I knew the sneakers I wear all the time now were falling apart, and that's why I went through with ordering these new ones, but now that I have more on order I find myself scrutinizing my current ones and finding more holes and seperating rubber than I realized. So naturally, with my eagerness to get my shiny new One-Stars, UPS came today while I was out engaging in our traditional Wednesday geekery, and Graham and I will be out most of the day tomorrow. DAMN YOU, UPS!
I know there's been a lot involving me going on elsewhere on the internet this week, but I think all that really needs to be said has been said on Walky's LiveJournal, so you can read about it there. Apparently I ruined some guy's life by not dating his friend 8 years ago, and his life still revolves around it. To the point where he and some friends harassed some poor girl on the highway in Baltimore a couple months ago because they thought she was me, which mostly creeps me out because the story implies that they know when my birthday is. Psycho stalkers are apparently the price of being a not-unattractive girl in a geekdom. He is also obsessed with Walky, but A) not for the hyper-sexist serial killer reason he hates me, and B) I haven't seen any sign that he's gone so far as to memorize his birthday.
I've also been busily working on my web site, which is part of why I haven't been more involved in the online discussion of my pet lunatic. I realized a couple weeks ago that the only part of my web site that was actually updated at all anymore was this, the blog, so I decided it only made sense to just move the darn thing to the main page and get rid of the quasi-psuedo-news section. To do this, though, I also have to incorporate Blogger's code into the site and make it into a template, and I sorta want to spiff up the main page a little, so I've been doing a lot of messing around with HTML and figuring out more advanced code than the basics I used for my current main page. You can see progress at trixter.fateback.com/newblog.html, and of course I'm updating it as I go. As of now, I'm just using the old header graphic as a fill-in for the one I'll be making incorporating some art from my awesome friend Jake, and I realize the color for the right sidebar needs to be scooted over a little. Other than that...I'm just hemming and hawing on the colors a lot. It's getting close to done, I just have to make some actual decisions.
posted@8:10 PM by:Trixter: 0 comments
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Squeak.
Night before last, Graham and I had a visitor - a visitor of the tiny furry variety. We first noticed it as it was poking around a display of Graham's toys on a shelf close to the ground, making some of the toys clatter and scrape slightly as it walked across their feet. It was in the shadows, and at first Graham thought, with some alarm, that it was an impressively large roach. But once it scurried out into the light (and then straight under the couch) we realized it was actually a mouse, a little brown mouse with a big head and cute little beady eyes. Graham decided to try to catch it, while I suggested that one of those live traps would save a lot of frustration. For those who have not actually been here, our apartment is still a mess of boxes, and there were numerous places for a mouse to hide beyond our reach. The cat watched disinterestedly as the mouse ran out from under the couch into the maze of boxes under the table, letting the mouse run not two feet behind her while she stared off into space. Eventually it found its way into the kitchen and then the bathroom, where the only escape was the doorway. Graham tried catching it with his hands (and a pair of leather gloves), but thoughts of being bitten by vermin made him too squeamish, so he caught it under one of those disposable Ziplock containers and we escorted it outside. I wanted to keep it. :(
posted@9:11 PM by:Trixter: 0 comments
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Avast, ye so last year dogs!
I had been really well-behaved, turning away from all the impressive sales on Bratz dolls on Black Friday, telling myself I didn't need any more right now. But today I came across a new one so awesome, she became the first Bratz doll cool enough for me to buy on first sight:
Why is she a pirate? I have no idea! But it's awesome! You can see the back of her package here, I won't torture you with another inlined pic. I don't know who at MGA came up with this idea, but they're both completely batty adn my new favorite person.
posted@4:28 PM by:Trixter: 0 comments