MILES to GO || before I sleep

A little over an hour (and a half?) ago, my uncle Neal, Baba, Grandpa and I got back from UCLA, where we attended my cousin Erin's double-graduation. Double because she got two bachelors degrees: one in design, and another in anthropology, with a minor in urban planning. The first one was big and huge, but we cut out as soon as Erin got her name called-- the second dragged on despite it being "smaller" --they started late, and the speakers all just kept GOING AND GOING. Erin even had time to pass back a note to her mom (my aunt Joyce) that said "I thought I graduated already, so why am I getting lectured!?" when the dean just kept going and going and going...

And I still like all the excitement of graduation, even if the prospect of paying off student loans, finding a "real" job and moving out on my own (really, for the first time) is a bit daunting. I wonder if keeping my Japanese minor just to put that off for a bit longer is a good idea... I'm still undecided on whether I want to keep it as a minor.

Before the graduation, we went to my grandparents' cousin's 90th and 94th (!!) birthday celebration at this fancy restaurant in Westwood called Lawry's. It was very dark and wooden, though I think some rather rich kids (perhaps Beverly Hills ilk?) were having a party in one half of the restaurant, while various branches of the Sweet/Goldberg families filled up several tables in the other room.

Baba had chicken, Grandpa had fish, and I had this massive steak the size of my head that was so overdone (I asked for well-done, not BURNT TO A CRISP) that it was dry, and I ended up eating more creamed corn and mashed potatoes than I did steak. There was also a ton of fat on the steak, which... well, looks like white jelly, and is not appetizing to eat. So I tried to cut some of it off. I gave some steak to both Baba and Grandpa (because they asked), but even then, I got so filled up off everything else-- salad, a bread roll, and what little steak I could eat. Then I had to try and eat some dessert, but by then, we were running late to meet Erin for her graduation, which began at 4pm.

All in all, it was a very filled day-- fun, but filled. Toward the end, I was so cold and hungry, it made me irritable and a bit more complaining than I usually am (or would like to be). What's frustrating is how UCLA, quite unlike CSUN, is very wide and spread out, and not the least bit flat. It's all over hills, with major thoroughfares passing through it. They have traffic lights WITHIN the campus! CSUN just has a million stop signs. So it took a while for Neal to get the car after the second graduation (because Erin had to show him how to get to where he'd parked), and then he drove RIGHT BY US when he finally DID come and find the place. >_< We had to call to get him to turn back around and find us.

When we got home, I made myself a yummy nectarine-and-raisin bowl of Cream of Wheat and watched "Legally Blonde" with my aunt Joyce and my uncles Neal, Fred, and Dan. It was kind of fun, though IMDB.com says that the sequel wasn't all that great. ;_; Too bad.

Other cool stuff:
* Working on customizing more skins for Epiphany (which I *MUST* get up by the end of the summer) and Dragonfayth, including all new ones, like WritingPlus3, a new version of Safari, and maybe more!

* Fixed Epiphany's "elegance" skin using the oh-I-can't-believe-I-forgot-that CSS Box Model. Okay, so it still needs a bit of work. Can anyone on a PC with IE6 (*not 7* as I can test for that on my end) test for me? Let me know if you can check for me, please... :)

* Managed to convert (using CrossFont, a shareware program for Windows) HUNDREDS of Windows-only fonts into Mac-readable ones, which I immediately imported using the super-nifty FontExplorerX, which even detected duplicate fonts for me! Because I managed to actually USE said fonts and delete the duplicates, I saved some disk space.

* Talked to Scott (aka fountain_the) today-- it was nice hearing from him again! Plus he sent (in an email) photos of his tiny (looks like a loft) apartment. Cooking is apparently impossible there... which I can't blame him for thinking. It took me a while to get used to the tiny fridge, itty-bitty cabinet space, and minuscule cooking area myself. I told Fred that Scott missed his old job with SDMM, and Fred smiled (in that Fred way...) and said he would tell the gang at SDMM that Scott said hi, and YES, they did get his postcard, which everyone read. :)

Not-so-cool stuff:
* I've been trying to install more games on my Windows side, since I upgraded to Parallels 3. I managed to get the Doom Collector's Edition working well (in fact, I spent most of Friday at work blasting Imps and Demons), but when it came to one of my favorite simulator games, "Pharaoh" with the Cleopatra expansion, I couldn't do it. The first attempt stalled at 37%, the second at 80%. I read a tech support tip on the Sierra forums that said to try copying the CD contents to the HD and installing from there, but it tripped up on the LAST, most important file, data2.cab. :( I guess I could try finding the game again (my CD is somewhat scratched up), but I'm hoping there's another way to get this ONE stupid file. No one on this FL happens to have that game, do they?

* Room is a horrid mess. Haven't had the motivation to clean it, assemble my bookcase, put my clothes away... it's funny, because I have motivation for coding, but little else. And I *NEED* to have that motivation, because there's a lot to be done (Semester at Sea app, preparing for Philly, among other things).

* I tried selling my Hot Gimmick set on eBay and there were a bunch of problems-- I thought it was because of seller fees owed to eBay, an old B&N order where PayPal saw the authorization as still pending... but in the end, I think it was because eBay saved my old Yahoo! address under the listing. After finally figuring this out, I notified the seller with step-by-step instructions on how to pay to my PROPER PayPal address, but she said it still didn't work and she wasn't interested in buying them anymore. :( I hate to think if she'll negatively feedback me, but I can understand her frustration. The problem is, I relisted the item for Second Chance, and I had no opportunity to indicate my proper email. If the runner-up wants it, they might have the same problem unless I can notify them where to send the payment! Stupid eBay... they should change email addresses EVEN ON ACTIVE OR CLOSED LISTINGS the minute a user changes it in their profile. Or I could blame PayPal, for not catching the payment even though the Yahoo! address is listed as an alternate email on my account now. Of course, the user didn't say she GOT the same error, and she wouldn't say what she did get... methinks she was just so frustrated, she didn't bother with it. Shame.

Silver lining:

* Got Dad a killer trio of Father's Day/birthday presents. Can't wait to call him tomorrow and hear his reaction. I just hope he doesn't bring up some of the drama that's plagued us earlier this week... which I suppose I'll get into in another entry, when I figure out just what to DO about it. Have to talk to Joyce.

So I called Amtrak today, and indeed, the North American Rail Pass (the one that's good for 30 days and has unlimited travel) is $899.10 student discounted (that's as low as it can get). The easiest way to buy it is over the phone, but you have to have AT LEAST the first segment of the trip planned. And for me, that means knowing I have the money available, places where I can stay (and reservations, if necessary), and so on. I've got a lot more planning to do, and I've got to see if I get that NSCS credit card-- if not, I might end up getting a WaMu one. I don't LIKE the idea of being in debt -I mean, moreso than I already am just for being a college student with loans- but I don't want to just shove this great idea aside. I can and I will make it possible-- somehow.

In the meantime, I got my ticket to Philadelphia with the rest of the NSCS; the unfortunate thing is that they didn't have enough Rewards Points to cover my hotel/convention registration. I'm hoping I win this Geico essay competition that will pay for it. Even those that are getting some portion reimbursed are only getting $50 out of the $314 round trip tickets. It's on Delta, which is "meh" in terms of airlines in my book, but we could have taken a cheaper flight if only everyone's schedules weren't so restrictive. Unlike a lot of other members, I'm not taking summer school, and my work's fairly flexible about taking time off.

...Still haven't heard from Apple one way or another, which frankly doesn't surprise me. It's kind of sad that it worked out that way, though...

Ooh, and Erin said she's getting my CS3 *today*! I hope I see her soon so I can get it. That would be cause for much yayness.

In the meantime, I've got enough to keep me occupied, so I'm glad for that.

( ETA: Just one teeny tiny software/journaling question )

(1) Went to Jon's, the local marketplace that's a knockoff of Von's (which is the SoCal equivalent of Safeway). Grandpa and I bought so many fruits, it's amazing we don't make a salad. But I took a peach, a few strawberries, and some blueberries and put them in my Cream of Wheat. It tasted DELICIOUS! I think that's one of the few ways I ever get my daily serving of fruit.

(2) Created Mer's Ultimate Guide on How to Use LiveJournal. It covers the super-basics, so I probably wouldn't recommend it for anyone that's been around, but if you have friends that are thinking about joining LJ, or who already have and aren't very well acquainted, maybe point them in the direction of my guide? I'd like to know what people think!

(3) Throat's feeling a bit better. I've been guzzling a lot of water and milk today. And I bought chocolate chip and walnut cookie mix, so I'll make the cookies and drink MORE MILK! Bwahaha. (I love milk so much, so one of the most terrifying things for me would be me becoming lactose intolerant. It's one thing if you were BORN that way and just got used to it, but my palate tends to revolve heavily around dairy, and I like it that way. I guess that's why I'm not scared of the prospect of getting skin cancer... it's not on top of my list of "health scares." Haha!)

(4) Need CS3. Hope Erin gets back to me soon (she ordered it for me from UCLA). I can't believe I'm saying this, but Dreamweaver's errors lately are making me fed up. I hate how it's not rendering WDKY10 when I need to edit it, and how it pops up with these weird menu/Java errors every now and again. CS3 CS3 CS3... need CS3...

And now I think I'll start the cookies and finish off my Oversoul list in FFX-2. Huzzah!

Uno - I have another mysterious mark on me that I don't know where it's from. This time it's a quarter-sized red welt on my left leg, just below my knee. WTF, mate?

Dos - Okay, so Adobe CS3 is out. Looks like I need the "Design Premium" package, which is $600 for InDesign, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Acrobat Professional, Bridge, Version Cue, Connect, Stock Photos, and Flash. Considering that's a savings of $1200, I guess it's not too bad, but thankfully I'm not in a rush to get it. If it goes on sale this summer, all the better-- because it's not #1 on my list of priorities. It's just up there.

Tres - Speaking of "lists," I want to add Office 2007 for Mac on my list, even though it's so much weirder looking than Office 2003 or any of the previous versions of Office:MAC. I just want legit, up-to-date software. Thankfully it looks to only be about $80 with tax. But, like CS3, it can wait.

Quatre (I mean QUATTRO! Damn you, Gundam Senshi!) - Today there's a guy from the LA Times coming to speak after Media Law class... then Thursday there's the last NSCS meeting, where I'll find out if I got an officer position and what we're all going to do for the NSCS Convention airfare. Then from THERE I can figure out where my summer travel plans stand. I need more ideas for locations to visit. So far I've only got:
* New York, NY - visit family/be a dumb tourist/go crazy shopping/visit my favorite magazines?
* Washington, D.C. - It's the Capitol. Do I need to say more?
* New Orleans area - guardian_kysra and good food!
* Somewhere in the Mid-West - The place where Bobby Flay went to challenge the owner of the Paradise Cafe? They sound like they have good breakfasts! :D~~
* Somewhere in Canada - mklutz? (There's someone else, and I am ashamed to admit I think I have forgotten. escaperoot? Was it you?) Or the giant mall? Or the pretty park? Or, or, or...?
* Tuscon, AZ - atlantian_magic, possibly my cousin David if he's not off fraternizing like the frat boy he is, and maybe the Grand Canyon and that overpriced scary escalator?
* Portland, OR? - Heard it's pretty and they have good food.

Cinco - Got my bookcase yesterday. There's parts on the larger sideboards that have patches of holes-- like, pin-hole size, but a lot of them (and they're in no particular pattern or shape). Grandpa said it was probably from their lifting tools in the factory. It bothers me because the holes are pretty prominent (they're black on finished pine) and they're on the OUTSIDE of what is going to be my bookcase. I don't know, should I be bothered? I can always call Dad and ask what he thinks.

Seis - Went to Physical Therapy again today for my shoulder-- can't wait to get my wheeled leather bag now, because my backpack + purse (even though I don't feel like they're that heavy) are completely pwning me. The place was abandoned except for me and the woman, who it turns out is the Physical Therapy professor, and the students (including Jeff) that I saw last week are GRAD students, and they got excused from work today because they have their major exam this Thursday and Friday, and then they GRADUATE. >_< I have all the luck, don't I? Ah well. :P

My right eye hurts (good god I hope I don't have another eye infection. The last thing I need is to miss school/work from being legitimately sick), but AT LAST! I am done... not with WDKY25, sadly, but with my Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon VHS/DVD Inventory. It's as done as it's going to get-- I couldn't find images for 10 volumes of VHS tapes (mostly the Edited versions) in the Sailor Moon SuperS series, and I have yet to add images for the boxed sets for S and SuperS, or the "Dream Set" for the movies. And I wanted to edit the info so that the "volumes" also mentioned which episodes were on which volume, because there's almost always a difference from VHS to DVD.

Maybe I'll get around to posting the new page up on Epiphany/Mare Serenitatis whenever I get around to working on that again. :P

I didn't get to go shoe shopping with Adrianna today. ;_; She never called. I wanted to call her early this afternoon, but to my dismay, I discovered I didn't have her phone number! I swore I did before, so something must have happened and I deleted it. :( Alas, no double-points at DSW for me.

I did go out to dinner at Mimi's Cafe with Baba, Grandpa, Elliot, and Erin. The service wasn't all that great, but the food (Jumbo Spinach Tortellini with artichoke hearts) was pretty tasty. Elliot and I had fun trying to remember the 14 Leadership Traits. Apparently there's an acronym for it I never learned in ROTC: JJ DID TIE BUCKLE. See if you can figure out the Leadership Traits from that (no Googling, now!).

Also, I spent a while listening to akavertigo's awesome awesome ideas for "Reconstruction." I tell you, it shall be a KILLER story! I can't wait to actually read all of it. When all of it gets written. :D

AND I got up to the Watchtowers in Bevelle in my new FFX-2 game... damn watchtowers NEVER rotate the way the guide says they should! I must have done this at least a hundred times, but I can never get the platforms to go the way I need them to! And the dumb guidebook "names" the towers, instead of using the Glyphs to identify them, which would be LOADS easier. Can anyone help? I already have 3 Ribbons, but... I WANT ANOTHER ONE! :P

For the record: LJ Phoenix gives me a RealBasic NilObjectException error that prevents me from opening the program 5/6 of the time. I'm pretty much back to using the Web Update form of LJ because the error annoys me so much. *sigh* To find a client that does what I want *AND* works on a Mac... why can't someone just make Semagic for the Mac!? >_> Or maybe I should download it for the Windows VM and try and force myself to use it more often (lately I only use it for "The Ultimate Guide to Sphere Break"), so I don't become such a bitch about Windows (which I have been, lately. But seriously, Apple's commercials trump Microsoft's new "WOW" Vista CMs ANY DAY OF THE WEEK).

So I think I'll go to bed now and pray my eye doesn't become some sort of snot ball in the night.

P.S. Today Daylight Savings Time starts. Did you set your clocks forward? (Except you Arizona-people. Weirdoes.)

Okay, so in trying to clear off some space off my HD, I've burned a few CDs and DVDs. One of them was of NANA the anime, episodes 1-10. I was downloading a batch download (all that was available) of episodes 1-13 using Tomato Torrent for Mac. But apparently Tomato doesn't allow one to pick and choose the files WITHIN a torrent to download, which bothers me (now). So I heard Java-based Azureus could do what I needed.

I tried to download the *.jar from their site, and nothing happened when I clicked on the finished download. I read their FAQ on their Wiki, made sure I had the latest Java for the Intel Mac platform, and clicked again. Nothing, even after I'd installed it. Then I went hunting around and found a link to an older (by maybe one minor release) download of Azureus, using a DMG. I opened that and dragged the install file to the Applications folder, like I do with every other application, BUT NOTHING HAPPENED. I tried dragging a torrent onto the program icon... I tried double-clicking a *.torrent associated with Azureus. NOTHING.

GAAAH! Help! What the heck do I do? What am I doing WRONG?

ETA: Okay, so I managed to find a DMG binary for the latest version of Azureus, which I downloaded and have been happily using. I trashed Tomato Torrent. I can't risk having what happened with NANA 1-10 (all the Ureshii files were corrupt, likely because Tomato & Finder both told me they were complete, but they were not) happening again. So now I'm downloading 1-6 again from IY&oki fansubs -AND THEY ARE DAMN GOOD FANSUBBERS- using Azureus, and all is well. But I need more DVDs, because... my HD is getting all filled up again. :P Bad Mer. I'm just glad deleting stuff on the Mac is *SO* easy! None of that horrid "Add/Remove Programs" bunk as on the Windows. Speaking of which, I do have a host of torrents on my Windows half that need to be completed... alas, I don't think I have the room to even try and start them (as starting torrents often tells your computer 'hey, reserve this space for these files,' and that's why Finder told me the NANA episodes were big enough to be complete). So I have some drive cleaning to do.

Maybe I *WILL* just end up getting another external drive. I can't believe I'm saying this, but 80 GB really isn't a lot. I mean, with all my full-sized photos and music, it adds up. And I'm starting to really LIKE the way everything's organized (when initially, it scared the crap out of me because I couldn't find anything, and it made no sense). It's not perfect, but it's suitable. And Spotlight usually finds anything I need. Of course, programs take up their share of space on the Mac too, and the way the OSX envrionment is designed, sometimes it's hard to tell just how much space one program is taking up. But since they don't have a Universal Binary of Photoshop yet, I deleted the trial; if I need it DESPERATELY, I can use it on my Windows VM. In the meantime, I'll wait until CS2 comes out for Intel Macs, and then get rid of the one on my Windows side.

I ended up talking more about Halloween than I actually DID on Halloween. I made pumpkin pies from scratch though, and they turned out well.

My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul
the_sweet goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as A She-Devil.
a_white_rain tricks you! You get a scratched CD.
atlantian_magic gives you 9 yellow vanilla-flavoured gummy bats.
baine gives you 1 purple vanilla-flavoured gummy worms.
cutieme4u tricks you! You lose 4 pieces of candy!
dqbunny gives you 18 softly glowing coconut-flavoured gummy bats.
guardian_kysra tricks you! You get a block of wood.
kitesareevil tricks you! You get a used tissue.
lazzchan gives you 6 orange grapefruit-flavoured gummy bats.
mklutz gives you 6 milky white apple-flavoured gummy bats.
rhapsody_dragon gives you 1 mottled green strawberry-flavoured wafers.
the_sweet ends up with 37 pieces of candy, a scratched CD, a block of wood, and a used tissue.
Go trick-or-treating! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

:( When I tried to include more people after S, it just gave me the first 10 anyway. Bah, people were mean to me this year! No postcards for you!

Speaking of postcards, I'm sending out a batch tomorrow (though they may not actually do anything but languish there, because tomorrow's a national holiday). I'm sending to:
-The Walk-in Center at school
-The Call Center at school x2
-Jimbo
-Katia
-Stephanie
-Neko
-Kysra

I want to send something(s) to Mamono, Ely, Megs, and Stef, but I don't think I have your addresses, guys! If you're okay with me having it, please drop me a comment!

If there's anyone I've forgotten, or you haven't given me your address up to this point, let me know! Comments are screened by default.

Also, if I mentioned that I did send something to you, did you get it yet? I'm looking at you atlantian_magic...

Edit: I posted new pictures up on MySpace (just a few). Next up is my LiveJournal scrapbook, though I have yet to find any sort of functional exporting utility that works with iPhoto. I like uploading mass amounts of pictures at once, not clicking, searching, lather, rinse repeat. If anyone knows of one (that works with iPhoto 6), let me know. The only two I found don't work with the newest iPhoto, and the support people never got back to me. :P

I also wanted to upload my journal/photos from before I had 'Net, but I still have some configuring to do. iWeb doesn't come with a built-in FTP for anything other than .Mac, which I don't really need considering I have my own domain and such. So I have to use Dreamweaver (since I published the iWeb site to a folder within my Sites hierarchy)or Transmit, an FTP client for the Mac. I also need to edit some photos, because some are still the placeholder images.

I was going to upload some videos, but a) it looks like I didn't actually take videos of something I thought I took a video of; b) the videos I DO have are quite small and facing the wrong direction... maybe I can edit them in iMovie? and c) are too big for MySpace, so I'd have to post them elsewhere.

If you weren't aware, I'm a huge fan of Tsugumi Ohba's "Death Note" manga series. I knew there was a movie out, but it wasn't until tonight that I realized it was being done "Kill Bill" style, divided into 2 parts. The first part came out on June 17th, and it apparently isn't out on DVD yet (they're probably waiting for the second part to come out, so they can span it all together... unlike "Kill Bill"), but the second part is set to premiere November 3rd.

My roommate Midori professed to liking it, and after seeing the latest trailer on YouTube, I am all for having a Death Note Party and seeing the second part when it comes out in theatres. I got spoiled by the Wikipedia article regarding the fact that the manga has ended in Japan (and will soon in the States, too; I know they were up to at least Volume 7 when I left) and how it ends... sort of. But of course, movie directors can always monkey-wrench things. I don't know if they'll introduce Mello and Near into the movie, but if they don't, the movie will be a drastic departure from the manga.

And then there's the ANIME, which just started 2 weeks ago, and the next episode airs TOMORROW NIGHT (I wish I knew what channel!). Toriyama's World has done a fabulous job of subtitling them thus far, and I'm totally addicted to the opening song, "the WORLD," by Nightmare. I was amazed at how fast I downloaded the torrents from TW/AnimeSuki; less than 10 minutes for 2 episodes!

And then there's Yu-Gi-Oh. I can get the Japanese dubbed version of the movie (Hikari no PYRAMID) *AND* the legendary novelization that gave "facts" and descriptions lacking. Point in fact, they're never going to do a novelization in English; the best we get is the ANI-MANGA, and that's purely based off the (original) English dub. The movie isn't exactly cheap, but it's worth it to see the differences; if there were a group out there willing to subtitle it, I would be happy to rip the raw for them (not that I've ever done anything like that before, but it would be cool to get it going). Of course, if I wanted to be a yen-pincher, translating the movie novelization would be the best thing-- it's also cheaper, from Amazon.co.jp.

But seriously, I'm being smart by not buying all these things like crazy- I already had a way-expensive grocery bill with Costco/TheFlyingPig due this Thursday, my Internet's going to be pretty pricey once the bill kicks in two months from now, and to top it all off, I keep seeing things I want (for once)! There are all these CDs on cdjapan.co.jp, the Yu-Gi-Oh movie, the novelization, a possibly-unnecessary-but-still-useful electronic dictionary, new boots, new Converse, Photoshop CS2 for my Mac (because waiting 4 months until I can "sneak" into the Art Department and yoink it off their computers? Yeah, right. $300 for the full version of the latest, though I don't know if it comes with ImageReady. It better! But I don't really need any of the other parts of the CS), Quicktime Pro (maybe), possibly Microsoft Office for the Mac (Student Edition, of course-- still $149), and who the hell knows what else. I already spent $12 on the new Skype number, and any money I *THINK* I have will disappear quickly upon my return to the States-- that damn phone bill MUST be paid back (to Mom). Though, it has yet to show up on my T-Mobile account, so that kind of bothers me...

I have yet to be reimbursed for the whole medical fiasco for my tonsils, either. They said "two weeks," because they sent the reimbursement by mail to my bank, and who knows how they handle international deposits.

I feel like I'm forgetting something... (like maybe the weirdoes that keep calling/IMing me on Skype? I've set it to only let people I authorize contact me, so if you want to be on that list, better let me know! I don't know how those people know my Skype number or name though-- that bothers me. I set the Privacy options to not show my web presence, but obviously it makes no damn difference. One weirdo left me a voicemail, but I could hardly make it out, and apparently, I can't call my Voicemail again to see what he said. So Skype's far from perfect. It has NO Voicemail options for saving, replaying, etc.)

I can laugh at the funny on GaijinSmash (thanks Jimbo for the link), but it hurts. As does eating, talking, and anything involving the slightest bit of jaw movement. And I probably shouldn't be here in the International Center right now; I should be heading to the Suzuki Hospital to get checked out and see if I'm going deaf or need my teeth removed. But Maeda-san took my laptop away again, claiming yesterday's technology dude misunderstood the system I have set up. The concept of Networked adapters confuses me too, but once I get NTT, ALL WILL BE WELL (or it damn well better be).

In the meantime, can someone be a saint and email me TTFs of Digital Strip, Wild Words, Anime Ace, and all them other comic-book style fonts? I know I could download them now, but I can't save them to the desktop here and email them to myself to smehow get on my laptop whenever it DOES get hooked up, but if someone emails them to me, I can save them to my Flash drive and transfer them that way. I do still need Matrix Book and Suburban (Bold and Light), but those are paid fonts on my computer back in LA, and I don't think Grandpa will have the slightest clue how to get them off and email them to me, even if I instruct him step by step. -_- If there were another way to get them, I would take advantage of it, but...

Also, does anyone know why ZSNES (my favorite emulator) does not want to work on my prettyful Intel-based Mac? SNES9x does, but I can't open up ROMs from the dialog menu, because the Network drive doesn't show up in the list of places to search, so to open games I have to drag them onto the 9x icon. What a pain in the ass.

And tomorrow I have to be up by 6am so I can go to Tokyo. Yay pictures.

Oh, and THERE IS A TOTAL AZURESHIPPING MOMENT IN YU-GI-OH R VOLUME 3 WHICH I BOUGHT NEW HERE IN JAPAN YAY YAY YAY I AM NOT TEH SHITTING YOU!!!!! Whee. It's short, but oh-so-very WUNDERBAR!

Well, so we didn't have KFC like I was hoping for the ITR Helpdesk's end-of-summer/goodbye (to me for now) party, but the pizza isn't bad. It's veggie from Costco, and at least we have some cans of Coke. :) I wasn't really in the mood for pizza, so I'm just nibbling on it slowly.

I "won" a prize from a raffle we had-- I got a 2006 calendar of kittens... I guess I'll use it up, and then use the earlier months for posters or something. Maybe I can scrapbook with them, since they're a bit small.

PLUS... ^_^ One of my wonderfully nice co-workers hooked me up with Windows XP Pro with the staff/faculty discount (only $12), but he gave it to me AS A GIFT. WHOO! Big with the yay. The only thing that can make today better is if I get my financial aid check. (Please Goddess, PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!)

Yesterday I got my Joytech 8" LCD Playstation 2 screen-- it mounted onto my slimline PS2 with ease (you only need a penny to screw the mounts into place). All you have to do is plug in the AC Adapter or included car adapter (alas! I probably won't be able to use it on a plane, unless there's a PS2 battery adapter or sockets on the plane), add your usual PS2 accessories (memory card, controller, game disk) and off you go! I played Katamari Damacy 2 (We <3 Katamari) for a few hours like that-- still a couple of "levels" I can't beat, but I'm having a blast trying.

I managed to get 2 boxes into my closet, and several of my books arranged on the top shelf, but they keep leaning on either side; I don't have bookends strong enough to support the weight of all my books. So pretty much, I've got to stack the shelf from end to end and find a way to make the left end not fall and cause a disaster. The rest of my room is still a mess, so I hope I can get that dealt with tonight. :D

For anyone curious or traveling soon, here's the complete list of things permitted and prohibited by the TSA on aircraft flying to/from the United States these days, regardless of origin/destination. The alert level from flights to/from the U.K. is still Severe/Red, but other flights are at High/Orange, and the general country alert remains at Elevated/Yellow.

Since I'm online, I wanna deal with as many mod-hand overs as I can; I'll be changing over the I Give Up!/I'm Finished page to the new 30kisses_mod account, emailing Svelte and DQBunny re: the Hall of Fame access, and any other similar things I can think of.

*yawn* So much to do... At least I finished WDKY24; it's up for beta-editing over at betasquad. Please give it a look see, or email me if you're interested. Super-major-gigante thanks to winterwing3000 for all the help with it; thanks to her brainstorm sessions with me, I was able to breeze through the missing scenes, and I got some great ideas for WDKY25, as well. :)

Well, so Scott's okay (duh?). Turned out he just had some really bad indigestion that carried over from last night. On top of that, something I should have seen coming... he's dropping Japanese. Truth is, the classroom environment never suited him, but I didn't want to see him quit and give up (he knows and I know that he NEEDS to understand Japanese before he moves out there, no matter what the people at NOVA/GEOS/whatever say). I felt a bit selfish, as he was my only friend in the class, and my excuse for not reaching out to other people. If we ever HAD to do pairs work that I couldn't do alone (which is what I have been doing lately), I would work with him. Why? Because I'm comfortable with him, and I feel like I can help him. He knows me, he knows my attitude and my style, and he's accepted me for who I am. I like that.

But now I'm thrust into this not-so-comfortable position where I should and "have" to make friends, not just because it's what's better for me in the long-run (than waiting until Scott's actually gone, wherever he may end up), but also because Scott and I both know he can't be there for me 24-7 (or whatever else I might want) anyway, even if we did share a class together. So far, two weeks into the school year, we do spend time together and hang out, without the pretense of Japanese. But I want to feel useful, I want to feel like I've helped him out some before I throw everything that's meant anything to me this past year completely out the window.

So anyway, tomorrow I'll (hopefully) be doing my skit alone. It's something simple; a 6-line self-introduction including my name, what I like, what I'm bad at, and what I'm good at, plus your standard "It's nice to meet you!" greeting. Hopefully the sensei will be okay with me doing it alone, given my knowledge of the language and the fact that Scott is dropping the class, and I didn't want him to show up to be in a skit with me, to get a grade that wouldn't matter to him, or worse, to embarrass himself for no reason. If I miss out on 5 points, so what?

Scott came over tonight to tell me this (when I originally thought we were going to study), and that he's also enrolling in a course which I would like and maybe can help him with-- Modern Japanese Culture (I'll need to take it next semester to be applicable for Study Abroad in Japan in Fa/06). One of the textbooks is all about anime, and the class schedule has them watching anime and various Japanese movies practically every week. Nonetheless, learning the language isn't a prerequisite; I suppose Scott's right; he could learn at his own pace with a tutor, or like I did, from reading and watching things and picking up on the nuances of speech and writing. No grade to worry about. :P

I'm pretty bummed that I won't get to see Scott every morning, or that I won't have the excuse of studying with him to spend more time with him. I don't know if the rest of the semester is going to continue at this pace for me, or for him. Scott said something about not having his homework done for Japanese anyway (he always works late nights Sundays; can't do anything about it because of his other classes and his on-campus job working as photo lab tech), so he just stayed in the new Photo Lab with his phone off.

I was so worried (see previous entry), thinking stupid things like what if he'd gotten in an accident, what if he was hurt, what if... and I had no way of knowing for sure or even asking anyone as the hours went by, because I don't have Brett (his friend), Marlene (his roommate) or his mom's phone number(s). If I did and I'd called them before Scott reached me around 1:30pm, I might have blown the whole thing out of proportion and worried many more people than necessary. He did stop by Jamba Juice and reassure me, so when I finally got off work (and admittedly, K wasn't as bad today, but she's still a condescending snot) I called him to let him know I was heading home.

But Grandpa and I had to do some shopping first, and Scott was already there when I got there. Joyce and Neal, who came last night, still weren't back from their deposition regarding their trial against their insurance company (their house was one of the many burned down in the San Diego fires 2 years back). I later found out it was because they were picking up Erin from the airport; she's back from South America and is going to move before she starts school at UCLA next week or so.

Aaand... we come full circle. Now I'm the only one up, my homework's mostly done (minus some reactions for Creative Writing, which I'll do tomorrow in the gap between my classes), and I'm tired and a bit hungry... but I won't eat, because I shouldn't eat after 10pm or whatever. :P I've gotten a few more good reviews for WDKY, and assorted other reviews for other fics... o_O People are strange, I'll say that much. Someone said my story (particularly, "I Know That You Know") was horny. Gwuh? I always thought my most innuendo-laced fic was TJOY!

*yawn* G'night. (I hope I get my Home XP CD tomorrow so I can get my damn laptop working! Oh yeah, when is Studio 8 coming? :O)