Currents of Time

I am so. Tired. Work is actually killing me. Also I have joined the ranks of my coworkers in possession of a doctor's note limiting what work I can do, though mine at least has nothing to do with lifting. My back hurts so much. I am having muscle spasms near the middle. They have been going on for a little over six weeks. I mentioned them in an earlier entry. Basically: pain. Pain forever. I do not want to talk about work, though. It makes me angry. Also I am an emo twit who hates herself.

I did a bunch of other stuff in XIII-2 and had some final thoughts but oh my god I cannot be bothered to dig out the word document. Also, I no longer have it. I sent it on to its owner. It was a very sad day. Also game related, I got to play a little of the Diablo III open beta last night, and now I am sad the game is expensive, 'cause I actually had a lot of fun, and now I kinda miss running around smacking hellspawn to death.


So. They put the first season of Prime up on Netflix, so what the hell, I went and watched the whole thing, and then found season 2 on youtube, so I am actually all caught up! Actually, it was really exciting. We decided to spring for television (we have not had it, obviously), and the local provider has updated their stations listing since last I checked, which means we now get The Hub in Vermont, and also that I now get it in my bedroom. Haha! So Saturday, it was super exciting. First, I woke up and watched Korra! (... is anyone else watching that? I have not seen one single mention of it, though I admit I've been missing a lot lately on account of EXHAUSTED AND SORE. If you are not watching Avatar: Legend of Korra, YOU SHOULD BE, because it is amazing and wonderful and Korra, herself, is fantastic and oh my gosh) And then I tottered around a while and then I got to watch My Little Pony! And it ended up being two episodes, but that was okay because I didn't have to work until 2:30, so I have just enough time to make it in on time. AND THEN I got a ride home, so I got to watch TF: Prime! So it was a very exciting television day for me. Three shows! In one day! I cannot remember the last time I ever did that.


ANYWAY, the real point of this entry, BotCon is in like three days somehow (oh god, I still need to arrange transport from/back to the airport and find a place to stay Sunday night), so on Thursday I will get on a plane and fly down to Texas to be murdered by a tornado. (Actually, death by tornado is unlikely, if only because it might be somewhat of a blessing at this point.) I know most people I know are not going this year, so does anyone want me to look for anything for them? I'm not really shopping for myself this year, anyway.

Also, does anyone have an interest in any of the box set figures (aside from Soundwave, who's spoken for)?

So, um, sorry about that hopelessly vague previous entry. This has been a long-running bit of drama, and now that we're so close to a potential end, I am more anxious than usual. I've tried to post about it before, but I've never actually managed to put an entry up. Maybe once a verdict comes down.

TODAY'S ENTRY features good things. FIRST: On Sunday, I was put in charge of decorating cupcakes! Which I always enjoy doing. We do seven packs of small cupcakes, which you can really go to town on, and then jumbo cupcakes, which can be a bit more tricky, but are still fun. And I made sixteen jumbos and three seven packs, and they got so many compliments. ("These cupcakes are badass" was probably my favourite, haha. Badass cupcakes, wtf.) eeee! And all sixteen jumbos were gone by the time I waltzed into work today – so less than 48 hours for them to fly off (which is pretty excellent). One of them never even made it to the floor. One of my coworkers walked past and was like, ohmygosh, that one is adorable and I must have it, so we left it on the back table and she bought it after she got out. The seven packs have moved slower – the Spiderman one sold, but then some jerkass dropped my space / moon and stars one!! I was able to fix it back up, since we still have some of the blue I'd custom mixed, but, man! I was so sad! But someone else ordered a cake with the same pattern as I'd put on another of them, which, yay. (It is a supercute pattern that only I do, and I like to make it on everything.)

Also, the pie I made is delicious. If you were wondering. And I am going blueberry picking (for the second time this month) tomorrow! So maybe I will make another pie once this one is gone! AND. One of my coworkers and I are engaged in a cookie trade-off, which is fun. I made her cookies as thanks for her staying late so many times to help me through the madness we've been seeing in the store lately, and now she is making me cookies for helping her out with some really tricky cake decorating and colour mixing. So. That'll probably keep going, just 'cause it's fun.

Also it is summerfest in Vana'diel yessssssssss video game world summer festivals you are the best thing.

AND. Since Mom's been out of town and remains out of town, I've been borrowing the Honda. Aaand, with reports of Masterpiece Rodimus showing up in Toys "R" Us stores, well… I knew it was silly, since we don't see store exclusives half the time, and Grimlock didn't turn up until months after release (and then I couldn't afford him, much to my sobbing dismay), but I had to check. Good thing I did, 'cause there were only two of him. But now he is mine! X3 Yaaay, Roddy! He is super pretty. I cannot wait to bust him out of his plastic and cardboard prison. (Just as soon as I get this entry up, ohohoho.)

But for now, oh, look! Distractions! Five question meme, questions from mininise28 and naboru_narluin

- Comment with "Hit me!"
- I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you.
- Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
- Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people.

( Go! )

I am thinking I might go see Captain America. Has anyone seen it (probably a stupid question)? Will I suffer horribly if I opt to see it in 2D, 'cause it costs less and I don't need to wear glasses over my glasses? Or would it be better to do the 3D?

aaargh lj. At least I've finally managed to log back in, even if I still can barely get anything else to load. Add me to the (probable) army of folks crying for them to fix it, already! (I wonder if I'll even be able to upload this entry, haha.)

It is still stupid hot here, so I have spent most of my free time continuing to avoid doing much of anything. At work, I am still frequently donning a parka before venturing into the vast and terrible wasteland that is the walk-in freezer. Ooh! But, also at work, I have been getting opportunities to decorate cakes! And it is a lot of fun. I am super proud of some of them. (One person even ordered one "exactly like [one I'd decorated] but gold cake instead of chocolate" because she has problems with chocolate. That was awesome.)

I have been having more weird dreams lately, but one was especially of note! I dreamt I was on a little boat with my brother and some friends and we were just puttering around through bits of a town that had been flooded over by the lake. One of them decided to hop out of the boat, but he didn't stop the motor, first (the boat was not moving fast at all), and then the propeller hit him and he started bleeding everywhere and we had to go back and take him to the emergency room for stitches. Aaand then the day after that, I was at work and one of my coworkers came in and she had a bandage on her foot, so I asked her, what happened? And she had gone out boating the day before with a friend and their family and they'd stopped to get out and swim a bit, and then when she went to get back in the boat she hit the propeller and split the top of her foot open and needed to go to the emergency room and get stitches. That was a bit odd.

(Have I ever told the story of the time I needed stitches? Man, that was a hell of a day...)

And on Tuesday, Final Fantasy was following me everywhere. (Well, for the first half of the day it was, anyway. It stopped when I went to work.)

I woke up to find myself staring down the Masamune. (Man, the sentences you never think you'll end up writing.) See, because, I have several of the Play Arts figures, and I've been rearranging my DVD and game shelves, so some of them are just hanging around while I figure out where to put them again. Most of them are perched on top of the video games. Sephiroth, however, kept falling (jumping?) off. I got sick of picking him up, so I moved him to the bookshelf. Aaand sometime in the night, he decided he didn't like that, either, and jumped from there, as well! And because it's been so damned hot out, I've removed my blanket and it's been sitting piled near the head of my bed / next to the bookshelf… And I guess dear ol' Sephy fell at an angle …sssssomehow(??) and landed on the blanket about a foot off from where he'd been and directly in front of me. So, yeah. Masamune in the face. Good morning!

(What a jerk. I knew I should never have let him in here, even if I did decree him a non-Genocidal Lunatic edition prior to opening the box. Not, of course, that deciding as much would make him not be a jerk, I mean.)

And you'd think that'd be the end of the Random Final Fantasy Encounters for the day, except then I went to meet with my therapist and, as I was checking in, I heard the victory fanfare, because someone in the waiting room (who'd decided to ignore the "please turn off your phones" signs) had it as his ringtone.


But then to make up for Tuesday being full of FF silliness and fun cake decorating, yesterday was some kind of hell. I ended up being 42 minutes late leaving work, and that is about all I am going to say about that!

The radio keeps blipping out because of all the storms we're having. It's kind of irritating and the here-gone of it is making me pay it more attention than usual. Background noise, you are supposed to only be background noise. You know, that stuff that keeps my brain just occupied enough for me to focus on things I want to focus on, ie, other things, ie, NOT YOU? Maybe it'll settle by the time I get to bed. For now? WINAMP.


I'm having a very, very hard time interpreting my own emotional state these days. It's very disconcerting and I don't like it a bit. I don't - I don't feel bad, or anything, I just - I do not know how I feel. Is this just an absence of angst? (If so, how sad that I don't know how to recognise such a thing.) Maybe I am not feeling at all. I don't know. I'm so confused. I feel like I need instructions, or a cheat sheet or something, which is ridiculous, because I shouldn't need a goddamn roadmap for my own brain.

(Possibly it is almost as disconcerting as the ending of tonight's episode of Doctor Who! Possibly. Maybe.)


I've been secretly learning how to decorate cakes. My manager is not aware of this. Nobody tell her! I've done a little bit of base-icing (not - not very good base-icing, erm), and I can make borders, and squiggles, and balloons, and rosebuds! And some other stuff, but nothing fancy, really. And the other night, I watched how to make a rose, but I did not actually make one, myself. But! hee! Tonight, while I was closing by myself, a guy came up, and he wanted to know if I could add a rose to a cake he wanted to buy, and he was nice about it, and I was actually running ahead of schedule (for once), so I said, um, if you really want, I can try! I have never actually made one before, but I have seen how it is done! And he was like, sure.

AND THEN I DID IT. SUCCESSSSS. And then I made another one, 'cause I could. I am so pleased. I mean, they were not, like, the best roses in the world, or anything, but they were roses and they were made by me, and I am kind of irrationally pleased with myself.


Man, this time next week, I'm going to be in Pasadena OD'ing on robots. Time flies. (In four weeks, I am going to be in CHICAGO. omg. So excited. Bummed that I'm going alone, too, but the excitement outweighs it by quite a lot.)


... Also I killed a huge spider with a DVD case the other night (I suspect the rain chased it - and the others I've encountered, though those weren't in my room - inside. TOO BAD. GET OUT), but I didn't smear it, just squashed it, and now I'm being too squeamish to pick up its nasty spider corpse, so the poor thing's body is just lying on the floor across my room waiting for me to, I don't know, fetch a vacuum or something and deal with it, already.

Actually, I bet the spider-grabber works just fine on spider corpses. Hmm.


Maybe I will go to bed early tonight. I'm tired. The heat and the rain conspire against me. (I had bizarre dreams last night. My normal dreams are usually pretty mundane, but the rare fandom-related ones I have are always really damned strange.)

So the light in the basement is motion detecting or something. Really precisely so, or something? I didn't know that, so going down these this morning to do my laundry was kinda trippy. I was like, wait, the light is on? It looked like it was off as I was coming down the stairs, but they are all full of corners, maybe I was wrong. Maybe whoever did laundry last night left it on... or maybe it is always supposed to be on?? No one else was home, so I could not ask. But then when I went down later to move things around, I was SLOW and CAREFUL and, yeah, hey, what the heck, the light is totally off now-- NO WAIT IT IS ON.

AND THAT IS HOW I DISCOVERED THE BASEMENT LIGHT TURNS ITSELF ON.

And now I shall forever be afraid of it turning itself off on me.

30 Days of Video Games

( Day 06 - Most annoying character )

My stomach's been bothering me today, so I had a third of a pint of ice cream after dinner. There are good decisions, and then there are the things I decide to do.

Whatever, it was delicious. I regret nothing.


Today at work I saw a woman wearing a tiger-stripe suit jacket and a leopard-spot suit skirt. Hilariously unfortunate. Fortunately, she did not linger in my department, so I did not have to bite my lip for too long. Also, I helped a tiny old lady pick out doughnuts and muffins. She couldn't read the labels or reach half of them, but didn't want to bother anyone asking for help, so she nearly killed herself accidentally pulling a doughnut tray out of the case. The noise attracted my attention. (And apparently I spent the entire day smirking, because people kept asking me what I was thinking of that was funny and then explaining to me that I was smirking when I confusedly replied, nothing, why do you ask?)

Today was a bad day for my department, but a good day for justice. /overly dramatic


I went in at 10:30 and we were just... behind. Already so far behind. And we never really caught up. Yesterday was actually much of the same, which is why we were so far behind this morning. (Cupcakes. Everyone wanted ALL OF THE CUPCAKES for St. Patrick's Day...) So when I arrived, my manager was trapped at the cake station trying to complete a bunch of orders for pick-up later that afternoon. Also, several people showed up to place orders for same-day pick-up, which she agreed to do despite our not really having time for it (argh). I did get to help fetch and put away the load, at least, which was new and exciting.

About 2:30ish, some guy came and got his cakes, and I thought nothing of it because I was busy making garlic bread so I could be done with packaging and go on my lunch break. But when I finished and looked up, my manager had disappeared! Odd, but stuff comes up and if she doesn't say she's going somewhere she usually isn't gone long, so I waited. And waited. And then ran dishwater and started doing some other stuff because she was taking for ever. She finally showed back up a little after 3 and gave me a quick summary of events: after she handed the guy his cakes, she noticed he didn't seem to be walking towards the registers but rather through produce. So she followed him. And - sure enough! He walked straight out the doors! So she... continued to follow him! She had a pencil with her, so she wrote down his license plate number, and then, with the order forms in hand (which had a name and phone number), went inside, told store management what was up, and then called the police on his sorry ass. And apparently his plate number was unregistered. (Haha, shit, dude, you're really in it now...)

They tracked him down via the phone number and hauled him back to the store (heee, can you imagine the look on his face when he answered the door and it's a cop with a You Didn't Pay For Those Cakes, Bucko message? You can bet he never saw that one coming), where he insisted he'd totally paid for them when he placed the order!

Store manager asked him how he did that. WITH HIS EBT CARD! No, doofus, wrong "how". See, we don't allow people to pay early. You buy the cake when you pick up the cake, to prevent situations like this one. So he finally agreed to "pay again" and apparently spent the entire time griping that "it cost less than this when I bought them the first time" - since I guess we can randomly assign new prices to things on a whim (the idiot tax? Oh, how I wish).


Anyway, that was an eventually happy thing and we all had a lot of laughs over it. (Makes me crack up, still. There he is, thinking he's so damn awesome and smart, getting his almost $50's worth of cake for free.

... and then the police show up at the door.)

A man called my department Friday evening! He wanted to speak to one of my coworkers! The "big, black, kinda muscular man". See, his wife had been in there the other day and met this nice man, and, while she hadn't caught his name, they wanted to take him out for drinks!

So, uh. The bakery staff? 100% white cis female. (The neighboring departments are not all white or all female, but there is still no one in either who even remotely resembles that description.) And he seemed to think he had the correct store.

I kind of began to wonder if he was speaking in some sort of code as the conversation went on. It was a little surreal.


AND NOW more Kingdom Hearts.

( Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days 149 through 224 )

So, we've had a little bit of a thaw. Warm weather is nice. (40 degrees is warm now?) BUT! This means the spiders are crawling out of their creepy spider-holes again. I've pulled a couple out of the bathroom and if I think of it tomorrow, I'm going to just spray the room down with the ANTI-SPIDER CHEMICALS, since that did wonders for my bedroom and the kitchen.

But, uh, I have at least had some revenge on the creepies? My cat apparently will eat them. HA! NOW YOU'RE CAT FOOD. Stay out of my home. >:|

Guys. Every single day, my work hits me with conflicting rules. No surprise, right? But! See, if you're on the clock, you must be wearing your nametag. You're not supposed to clock in without having it pinned on! In my department, we wear aprons over our red shirts. Our nametag must be pinned neatly through the little marks provided on the apron!

We are not allowed to wear our aprons outside of the department! The time clock is halfway across the store.


So, yes. My life are hard.



And apparently Final Fantasy XIV actually does have a Christmas-esque event. I am glad they thought to include that, but annoyed that you can only get materials to make the outfits and not the outfits themselves. Also, they're nowhere near as cute as the ones from XI, which is odd. They've gone out of their way to make XIV look better, and then their Smilebringer costume is... pathetic? Whatever. I'll log in and ring the bell, anyway, just to see. Also, SE released their "revised earnings forecast" and, wow, XIV's failure has really hurt them quite a bit.

Speaking of poor XIV's failures, here are two hilarious but depressing videos about some oddities in the terrain. (No wonder I get disoriented so easily. THAT FREAKING RIVER. Also, I like the song they play in the second video.)

(XIV, I WANTED TO LOVE YOU. WHY DO YOU MAKE THIS SO HARD.)

ANYWAY, also, here is a silly little FFXIV-related comic (originally found here). (THE JOKE IS, Nobuaki Komoto is the new lead game designer.)

Squeenix, wtf are you even doing to this poor game? I mean, good on them for admitting that Eorzea needs serious, serious work (they really released it entirely too early), and I am pleasantly surprised they are going so far as to continue to not charge people for it, but... come on, this is hilarious.


I went and saw Megamind earlier this week. It was so, so much better than I thought it was going to be! (It was more of a process of elimination than any of us wanting to see it. The planning went -> We're bored, so let's do something -> ooh, movie! -> what is showing -> those sound stupid -> Megamind it is!) So I was just like, oh, whee, another supervillain redemption-whatever movie, but then it was amazing and I loved it, and also the characters were great (and! I really liked how they handled the girl / designated damsel in distress, but explaining why is, you know, full of spoilers, so not now). Highly recommend seeing it, if you get a chance!



AND NOW WORK AGGRAVATION I was bothered by a rude old man at work and it was annoying. And then he ran crying to management before I could offer to figure something out for him. He wanted icing put on some doughnuts, which, uh. I've never seen icing on the type he wanting it put on, so after figuring out what it was he even wanted - BE CLEAR DAMN IT - I started to explain to him that I'd never heard of such a thing, and that while I in no way did not believe that he'd had it done before (he kept insisting that THEY DO IT FOR HIM ALL THE TIIIIME because, yeah, no one who says that is ever lying...), I couldn't just run off and do it, and I didn't even get that far, much less get into my offering to track down a manager and ask them about it. OH NO, WE NEED TO GO FILE A COMPLAINT. I think the person he dragged over understood that I wasn't trying to make a fuss, but, still. Unamused. And going to talk to my department manager tomorrow, just in case.



... huh. I've just gone through my list of tags (trying to remember how I phrased one, and I don't remember all of these. Are people actually creating/adding tags to some entries, or am I just loosing my mind?

So there was this woman at work today! ... Not a surprise, since I work retail and, you know, customers are kind of the norm, there. Except she had a pair of binoculars and was using them to intently study the ceiling above my department.

SO CONFUSED.


Anyway, I'm thinking it's time to wipe all the commentary off my map and start over! (Yeah, this? I did, in fact, get maps! They are laminated, so I mark all over them - well, mostly the USA map, since that's the one right by my desk, but the world map behind my bed isn't quite immune, either - in dry-erase markers. While pretending to be fictional characters.

It's fun!)

Really, the coasts are still mostly blank, but... It'd be more fun to have it cleaned again, even though the commentary at the top does still amuse me.

(Boredom meets head characters is also the reason the fire extinguisher has a note on it reading "For use in event of Decepticon attack"... Check here or, better, this clip from 3:00-3:25, if you're confused as to why I've done this.)

Also, I'd say I'm marathoning Avatar (the one with Aang, not the one with the blue aliens), but that implies some semblance of order. I'm watching a ridiculous amount of Avatar episodes with absolutely no regard for continuity!


Edit:
Whoooo, thunderstorm! Big one! Though I wanted to shower, alas...