Occasionally Pointless Rants of an Authoress

I have returned from the beach~ ♥

It was absolutely fantastic out there. The weather was wonderful - there were thunderstorms yesterday afternoon and evening, but besides that the skies were clear and it was warm without being scorching hot. Didn't do all too much besides relax, but that's the whole point of going to the beach, right? To relax.

We actually wound up leaving for there a day late, incidentally, because there was too much laundry and other stuff to take care of at home. But because the puppy was actually (gasp) being good out there, we stayed there an extra day, which is why I'm back tonight and not last night.

I didn't get any fanfic writing done while I was out there, surprise surprise. But I did manage to plan a few things out for later in For Good, so I did get something done kind of. Also, I drew a fanart! It's... kind of crappy, compared to what other people can do, but I don't think it's half bad considering my lacking abilities in drawing, so if I can find my colored pencils, I'd kind of like to put it up online some time soon.

I kind of wish we could have stayed out longer. But then, I always do, when it comes to being out there...

...Also, I finally managed to actually finish the Adstring application that I've been promising and intending to get done. I just hope I do Asuka justice. OU and AU are very different, after all.

I want to app someone to Domino RPG, too. I'm just not sure who. I mean, I'm kind of leaning toward Yusuke (from For Good-verse), but I'm not sure if I'd rather try someone new, plus there's the question of the policy on duel spirits... I should probably ask about that, shouldn't I. ^^

So, I think I've mentioned that my grandmother owns a beach house, and during the summer my family sometimes goes out there.

As it's Fourth of July weekend, and as it's kind of the only weekend we really can this year, we're going out there this weekend, leaving tomorrow. The current plan is to stay out until Tuesday, though we could leave earlier or later depending on how much of an insane pill our puppy is.

Personally, I'm hoping for as long a time we're staying as possible, because I love it out there. But knowing that poodle... but I digress.

The thing about my grandmother's beach house is that even if we have internet out there (and that's about... a fifty fifty chance, depending on what my parents want to do), it's the beach. I don't get to go out there often, and I'd rather do stuff beach and relaxation (and occasionally family) related while I'm out there. Which means that if we do have internet, I might be popping onto AIM (well, scratch that, I will if we do), but it'll only be for an hour or two at most, and it'll be very late at night, as opposed to the all-afternoon-and-night stuff that I've been doing. Tags, therefore, would also be only during that time frame. And this is assuming that there is internet, which there might not be.

So yeah. Calling a hiatus that may or may not actually be a full hiatus in the end but is a hiatus nonetheless.

See you next week! ^^ And Happy (early) Fourth of July, to those in the United States~

Had a rather odd dream last night.

( Cut for TL;DR )

I don't quite get it, but I suppose it's better than the one about the eels...

So, I was on WoW today. (Surprise, surprise.) I've been slowly but surely raising my Tailoring profession - my main, the 80 night elf priestess, is a Mooncloth Tailor/Herbalist - and have gotten to the point where I can make Moonshroud, Ebonweave, and Spellweave, aka the Special Cloths of the latest expansion.

In order to make said cloths, I need to obtain eternals - two eternal lives, two eternal fires, two eternals shadows. And in general, this means elemental farming, which means going to Wintergrasp, the PvP zone that I hate. Thankfully, of course, I only need to go there for the shadows, really - I have tons of lives from farming herbs, and I found a good place for fires.

That place for farming fire elementals is the discussion topic du jour - that is, something I found there.

Failbot.

There was this level 73 hunter who was just standing there, doing nothing, occasionally going AFK. Which is fine - anyone can go AFK, after all. Real life is more important than the internet. What was odd about him, however, was that when a fire elemental would attack him (because it would wander into range), he would start calling for his pet over and over and over again at every opportunity (like, twice a second) while auto attacking. His pet wouldn't come, no matter how many times he would call, and he would die. And then immediately, he would release his spirit and run back to his corpse, only to whistle (without success) to his pet again upon respawning. And I was watching this happen for at least half an hour, I swear.

My feeling? It was probably a bot, and a pathetically written one at that. I've never seen a bot before today, but I guess now I have.

Of course, when I came back a couple hours later, he was running around and didn't look like he was being a bot anymore, but still.

...Oh, and I have my epic flying carpet now. ^^

In terms of real life: Not all that much interesting.

In terms of roleplaying: THERE IS A FUBUKI AT CRUCIBLE NOW OH DEAR FISHSTICKS!!! And it's the mun of the Manjoume from Adstring, which I am still working on the Asuka application for. But even still, I have a canonmate now~ ♥

Also, it looks like something exploded at the DR again. Why do things keep exploding there? It just makes me glad that I'm relatively inactive. (Though, I kind of want to bring someone out tomorrow. Either the Cubes or Hope-chan... though I also want to do something with Sunstone at some point.)

In terms of World of Warcraft: I hit several milestones today. First and foremost, I got to level 80! And Kira farmed the Eye of Shadow for me, so I have Benediction* too (because I got the Eye of Divinity from a Molten Core run that I went to a few nights ago). Plus, she, her friend S. and I went and three-manned Onyxia and Zul'Gurub - neither of which I'd ever been to, so. I also solo'ed Dire Maul - just Scholo and Strat left until I accomplish Classic Dungeonmaster.

(Though, I really should try to suppress the hyper-obsessed GX nerd in me while playing sometimes. When questing in Icecrown, I keep snickering whenever I pass by the area labeled as the Cathedral of Darkness, and whenever anyone talks about the Light, my mind immediately thinks of how it could be twisted to have an evil meaning.)

...Yeah. None of it's really useful in terms of the things that I really should be doing, like writing, but you only ding to level 80 the first time once, so.

*Benediction, as well as its alter-ego Anathema, is an epic priest-only staff that was the best staff for priests in the game before the first expansion came out. Incidentally, Manjoume's staff in the Crucible event is modeled after Anathema. ^^

In terms of this post: Sorry for it being disjointed. It's late, but I wanted to get this down, so yeah.

Been kind of feeling sick today. I woke up and had a horrible stomach ache - I didn't throw up or anything, but it hurt a lot, and I was nauseous for a while. Then it got better mid-afternoon-ish, but it came back for a little while when I went upstairs. I'm feeling all right right now though, so hopefully it won't come back when I finally try to get to sleep, hahaha...

...Nyan. I haven't gotten anything useful done at all recently. I have the Adstring app sitting there partially filled out - I am working on it, Qu, and it will get done, but I don't know when to expect it. Part of the problem, I think, is that I'm indecisive as to whether I want to pull Asuka from the beginning of season 3 or when she sparklepoofs, or somewhere in between. (No earlier because I want to have season 2 be there without her being stuck in there, no later because I really don't know what to do with season 4's canon anymore.)

I haven't worked on any of my fanfics in fishsticks know how long. I'm still working on the oneshot with mini!Manjoume and the kitten, but I can't bring myself to actually work on it, and I want to get that one done before I work on For Good or restart Lost Heaven/Heaven's Charge/whatever it's going to be called when I finally finalize its title.

My RP is suffering, too. I know it is. I've been procrastinating every single one of my tags for Manjoume at Crucible horribly. Like, I'll let one sit there for several hours on end with only a tiny hint in my mind as to how the heck I'm going to proceed with my response, that's how bad it is sometimes. It's not that his muse is weak - far from it. He's my strongest, has been ever since I picked him up at Econtra. I've just been procrastinating.

The only thing that I can say that I have done is level my priest on WoW to level 78 (as of tonight). But that's not an accomplishment. The speed at which I've been doing this only goes to prove that I have no life and have been spending far too much of my time on the game when I could have been doing things that are actually useful. Like writing.

...And I don't know what it is that's shot my motivation so critically. If I knew what it was, maybe I could fix it...

Headline on Yahoo's front page news blurb thingie: US wants to paint the world white to save energy

Just. I understand their reasoning, but. Just. I am in hysterics.

TL;DR for those who don't want to click or if it becomes outdated in the future: they're discussing how the current administration wants people to paint their rooftops white so that they don't absorb as much heat and they save on cooling bills and reflect some heat away from the Earth and stuff. (Apparently, according to this article, this has been required for new buildings in California for years now.)

I understand their reasoning and stuff, and it's actually not that bad reasoning. But. Just. I am a GX nerd who pays far more attention to season 2 than I should, so. Yeah.

...I should actually get to bed now, probably.

The How's My Driving? Meme

Besides this... Things have been kind of boring. Been playing World of Warcraft a lot recently, now that I can (while the sisters are at school). I should do more RP stuff, but I haven't been.

My Night Elf Priest is level 71 now. Just a few experience away from 72, even. Okay, scratch that. She's level 72 now. ^^ And I have the material I need so that, once I get two more points in tailoring (which will come after I go hunt some humanoids for Frostweave), I can make a Primal Mooncloth Robe, which will complete my Primal Mooncloth set. My first set of epic gear~~~ (even if it's 70 stuff that's kind of... somewhat outdated now, hehe...)

...Yeah. Mostly posting to give the link to the HMD.

Exams are OVER! As is my freshling year in college. It's... kind of scary, in a way. I mean, time's been going so fast... It doesn't feel like it's been a whole semester since winter break, much less that all that much time has passed since last September.

Of course, that doesn't mean that a lot hasn't happened... It just feels like it flew by so fast. You blink and it's gone.

I pass Physics though! Got 25/30 on the final~ I'm not sure exactly what grade that gets me for the semester - probably somewhere in the B range, I think - but I never have to take it again~~~~ ^^

Let's see... Tomorrow I'm moving back home - I got most of my stuff packed already, so that just leaves a few things that I can take care of when I get up tomorrow. Then Thursday I'm probably going to sleep, though this could change, in theory. I don't know.

Some time this weekend, I'm going to get started on an application, though - yes, Qu, I'm going to app Asuka over at Adstringendum. Not sure how long the app will take to write, because I want to make sure I have her right (and AU does have her differences in personality). But it will get done. :)

...Also, I'm considering trying Maes again somewhere. Not sure where (if I do though it'll be at an apped game, possibly Crucible), not sure whether OU or AU (probably OU because Maes!Pride won't make sense until the end of the manga when I can give that universe some semblence of sense again), but I'm considering doing so.

(...Aaaaaaaalso I'm very very very very very happy with what happened in the latest chapter~~~ but don't mind me...)

All right, I'll admit it, I check Serebii.net several times every day. I haven't watched the Pokemon anime regularly in years (partially because of lack of time, partially because I have trouble listening to the new voice actors, partially because it's just a liiiittle too repetitive - though I did watch the subtitled versions of the last two movies when they were available, and they were really good), but I'm still a fan of the games, and I like to check the news even if there's little going on.

After all, Serebii is the place to go for Pokemon news if you want it in English, and you never know when Nintendo is going to announce a new game in the franchise, whether in the main line of RPGs or in the side branches of Ranger (which is very very very ♥ and I am so very very looking forward to the next installment if/when it comes out) or Mystery Dungeon (which I've never played but it looks interesting at least).

...Which they did. Like, this morning or so, according to Serebii. And I am spazzing.

THEY'RE REMAKING GOLD AND SILVER!!!!! As "Heart Gold" and "Soul Silver". And they'll be coming out in Japan in Fall of this year - probably have to wait until next Spring/Summer-ish in America, but.

I've been hearing rumors about this for a couple of weeks now, admittedly, and there's been a ton of speculation around, but there's confirmation, and even though more details won't be coming until probably Sunday...

...I'm just floating here happily. I can't say which installment of the main line of Pokemon games is my favorite, because they all have their charms, but I'm really glad they're remaking Gold and Silver. And the new names are so pretty...

...Yeah. I should be studying for my Japanese final, but I want to put this down now.

( Giant Spoilers for 5Ds episode 57 ahoy. Also TL;DR, surprise surprise. )

Guess who got an A in Expos? ^^ Also, apparently, the only A in the class, but I'm not going to think too deeply into that...

That's the only grade I know yet, seeing as finals start on Thursday for my other classes, but. I really should be studying for Japanese (which is Thursday at 8 AM on the central campus, meaning I should probably get up at 6:30 in the morning, uuuuugh...) and Differential Equations (Friday at 8 AM, but on the campus I live on, so not quite as bad, but still uuuugh...), but I don't really feel like studying at the moment...

I need to actually sit down and watch the entirety of GX all the way through some time this summer. I mean, I've read all the summaries and seen a grand majority of the episodes (and all of the plot relevant things) in one form or another, but I haven't seen all of them (especially filler) in the original Japanese, and as I realized last night thanks to Cyn in chat, I've missed out on a lot of stuff. I finally watched episode 69 through, actually, earlier - much as I despise White Thunder, I have to say, there are definitely some very funny parts in there...

I also intend to finish watching Kamen Rider Ryuuki all the way through. Finished episode 10 (out of 50) today, and next episode... well, I'm facepalming a little. Ren (he's kind of the rival, sort of like the Manjoume to Shinji (the protagonist)'s Judai, to use a handy, mostly accurte comparison - Ren even wears a black coat and Shinji wears red, so make of that what you will) gets to have Plot Relevant Amnesia next episode so that we can have some EXPOSITION about his past and stuff.

But then, this is Power Rangers essentially meets Card Games on Motorbikes, so.

...Speaking of which, apparently we get to find out who has the Head Signer mark in tomorrow's episode of 5Ds. That mystery may or may not finally be solved! If it's Godwin, then the writers are being far too obvious. If it's Rudger, that begs several more questions. If it's someone we've never met before, that would be kind of cheap, in some ways...

So, it's that time of year again - registering for classes and stuff. I'm technically able to register tonight, seeing as how I have X amount of AP credit and Y amount of credit from last semester which all added up is greater than Z that's allowed to register tonight. But anyway.

I haven't yet, and there's a very good reason for this - I don't know what I'm supposed to take, exactly.

See, I have the handbook for my selected major (received it in a shiny e-mail and downloaded it so that I don't lose it), and there's a page that outlines exactly what everyone's supposed to take each semester and stuff. I was looking it over - next semester, I should technically be taking Principles of Electrical Engineering, Digital Logic Design, Multivariable, and Physics II - that's 16 credits total, so I think I'd probably be able to fit in another semester of Japanese as well, given just this basic structure to work with.

Now. I took Multivariable in the fall, and am currently in the middle of Differential Equations, which is what would come next. I'm looking the list over and I'm not sure if I need to take another math course after that, assuming I don't fail that class and need to take it over or something, though I doubt I will. But that was expected.

I was looking over my AP credits again, though, in order to check some things. I scored a 4 on the electrical part of the Physics AP exam at the end of my senior year. Only a 3 on the mechanical part, so I didn't get credit for that, but I knew I had gotten at least some credit for E&M, because this college gives credit for scores of 4 and 5.

Turns out, they gave me 4 credits in total, not just the 1 I thought they did. And all 4 of those credits count toward that Physics class that would be next semester.

そうだよ～ (That's right~)

I NEVER HAVE TO TAKE PHYSICS AGAIN AFTER THIS SEMESTER!!!!!! ♥

...assuming, of course, that I don't fail this semester, but I think I'm getting Thermodynamics more or less?

Needless to say, I'm very happy with this development. Of course, I'm... also not quite sure what to do in terms of classes for next year. ^^; So I'm probably going to e-mail the head of the department in order to ask them - my situation is rather rare, after all.

Or I can look over the other electives that I want/need to take and see if they'll take up that space that I've freed, too... Maybe it would be good to take Econ now. And I can always change my mind later.

But nya. Also, incidentally, inquiring minds (ie. at least I do) want to know why they were digging into the main street of the central campus today, and why they had the fire hydrant gushing water while they were doing so. It was rather odd. Edited in the morning: the paper says it was a water main break that they were fixing. Makes sense. Water mains seem to break often around here, don't they.

P.S. Sparkle text is from here, so that I site my sources.

Once again, inquiring minds want to know (and I know it's more than just me this time, because there were at least 20 people who this affected...): Why did the fire alarm go off about 20 minutes before the end of English today?

And I know it wasn't a regularly scheduled fire drill, if those happen here outside the dorms. First of all, it was pouring outside when it happened - no one wants to be stuck out in the rain. And second, if it was planned, there wouldn't have been several police cars and a fire truck that arrived.

It can't have been something major, though. It took a little while, but everyone was eventually allowed to go back inside without much fuss. Which means someone either pulled it or accidentally activated it by smoking in the bathroom or something stupid like that. I often wonder about my peers... (Also, they were activating fireworks outside the dorm last night - I saw the spark, I know that's what they were doing. Aren't those illegal without proper permits or something where I live?)

So. Someday I do intend to actually write "For Good", instead of just saying that I'm going to. And I do intend to, probably really starting this summer (when hopefully there will be less schoolwork and stuff). I even have the basic layout of the story plotted out, even if not everything is specific yet - it'll be divided into unequal parts, essentially, at least in my head, one covering pre-series, one covering what Yusuke's doing during seasons 1-3, and one covering what is essentially my rewrite of season 4 in this AU.

But because I want to be as detailed and specific about stuff in it as I possibly can, I've been trying to work out the pre-series timeline. Specifically, when Fujiwara does his ritual thing, when Daitoukuji does his thing, and when Fubuki/Darkness gets the amulet half. It's easy to assume that it was all in their first year, but then you get the question of why Hayato is in that one screenshot.

So, I could write pages of TL;DR on this subject, probably, and if you want me to do so to explain my opinion I will, but I've come up with the following timeline:

( Cut to shorten this post at least a little )

Am I making any sense? Are there any glaring holes? Need more explanation? Please tell me.

...Also, if I'm grumpy tomorrow, it's because I'll have an essay draft to write and a physics midterm to take. Joooooooy. -_-

I got accepted to crucible_rpg! ...Teeeechnically yesterday, but. So far it's quite fun - Manjoume's being distant, but he's always distant with everyone, so.

I also have the first tags I've had in a week. I prefer to go to bed with an empty inbox, yes, but coming home to one is just sad, in my opinion, so I'm very happy about that. :) Yahoo seems to have added some kind of new feature that automatically refreshes the inbox page when you have a new e-mail - I'm not sure exactly how well it works yet, but it seems to work at least somewhat, so.

I'll admit, I'm a little nervous about joining a new game, but I'm sure it'll be fine. It's just typical new place jitters, I think.

Econtra, meanwhile, ends in less than a week. ...Yeah. I'm going to be really sad to see that game go, but with everything that's happened in the last few months, even if the mods changed their minds now, it's probably for the best that it go out now. I'll never forget it, though - some of those epic threads were amazingly epic.

(I'm going to spend about a week or so after it ends writing out final Econtra summaries for all of my characters there, and epilogues and stuff for my GX people there. I know exactly what's going to happen to them when they go home (assuming nothing surprising happens that would make me change my mind), and exactly how I want to display it. Jounouchi might or might not get one, seeing as he's essentially going to stick to canon except for one small detail, and Larka... I'm sending her somewhere after all of this, so she won't get an epilogue probably. At least, not yet.)

...Also, before I forget, I figured I'd put up the answers to that meme that I put up in my last entry. Was I really that not-so-obvious?

( Cut because I'm long-winded as usual )

Meme from... well, various at this point (because I'm slooooow), though it started with elemental_shark who got it from divinewhite.

► Pick up to 15 OTPs.
► Describe them in less than (or equal to) 15 words.
► Have your flist guess the OTP.
► ????
► PROFIT.

1. She still keeps his blood-stained photograph.
2. Only those two know of that kiss, both too stubborn to accept its meaning.
3. The snow had to tell of his departure - seeing him again would bloom unnecessary hesitation.
4. She entered the world years before he taught her about it.
5. If she could, she'd be his umbrella; as it is, she'll be his keeper.
6. And in that moment, their thoughts touched, and he truly understood how wonderful she was. Manjoume and Asuka (GX) - cynthia_harrell
7. She keeps hurting him because he keeps getting himself hurt.
8. Shadows are carried by that which awaits at the end of the storm.
9. Neither will allow the other's sacrifices to be in vain.
10. With her wings to protect him, he attains power and wisdom. Judai and Yubel (GX) - cynthia_harrell

*is probably being quite obvious but*

...I am far too amused by this.

When we went to Mitsua (Mittsua? I can't spell.) back in December (...-ish, I think...), among other things, I bought a calendar. A simple calendar, long and skinny, with what I thiiink are either woodprints or paintings or something.

I turned the page, earlier, to the one for March, because it's March now. And what do I find as the picture for March?

There are five reeds, on the bottom, the second from the right colored red, the rest colored orange. They're growing out of the water, and at the top there's a meadow...

...with a sheep sitting in the meadow.

I am far, far more amused than I should be about this.

(I'm probably not making sense, am I. If I give you the hint that this has something to do with Econtra, though, does it make any more sense?)

Inquiring minds want to know (or at least, I do anyway): why was the stairwell in the dorm on the one side closed off around lunch time? I mean, yeah, there are two of them, but it's more convenient in order to get to my room to go to that one (seeing as my room is right by it), not to mention less disorienting.

I haven't heard a word about what closed it off, though - only that it was, and then when I got back after Japanese, it was open again.

It was probably nothing, of course - probably something as mundane as someone getting sick there and it needing to be cleaned up, at the worst. Or it could have just been that the lights were out and they didn't want to let anyone up there while there was nothing to see by - would make sense. But it's still something I'd like to know, just to know.

Because I obviously don't complain about it enough.

So. Not only is my current Physics professor a guy who can't teach in a way that's understandable, always rushes, and has horribly unorganized powerpoints, but he absolutely fails when it comes to exams.

Tonight was the first midterm. I get there, there's about two minutes until it's supposed to start, no one's gone in the room. Ten minutes later, we're all still standing out there, and the professor shows up with the tests, late. Forgivable - things happen, and there are two rooms where the exam was being held, and humans can't be in two places at once (at least physically).

The failure? He puts out the exams and announces that, apparently, he only has about 150 of them labeled, while there are just over 200 students in this particular examination room (give or take), and anyone who can't find their exam should just come up to the front and unlabeled ones will be passed out.

Except that some of the labeled ones were wrong, too, apparently.

So guess what? I got to take an exam that was labeled for a random person I've never heard of, instead of one labeled for me. It was essentially a matter of crossing out a name, labeling it with one's own name, and just using the number to indicate exactly which test was being taken, but still.

One would think that a professor wouldn't make that kind of mistake.

Maybe I'm overreacting slightly. But you know what? On top of everything else, and the fact that I dislike Physics to begin with? Straw that's breaking this camel's back.

Fail, Professor G. Give back Professor B now, please.