Happy Lunar New Year!  Year of the Dragon~  Hopefully this will be a good year for everyone, myself and other dragons in particular

Let’s see, I got my computer early, but the enclosure just came Wednesday.  I’ve been off and on transferring files to my new compy but there’s so much that I haven’t decided what I want on this hard drive.  Then again it really doesn’t matter, it isn’t like I could take a desktop on vacation  At least I have my pictures, save data and other files back~ Not to mention another external!

I broke down and bought the monitor

I’m loving this computer ♥ (I can do alt characters now!) Started a new game for DA2 and it’s sooo nice!  I’ll have to see how high I can set the graphics quality and have it run smoothly.  Wish I could afford Skyrim, but it can wait.  Been obsessing over Beat Hazard anyway.  Oh and Amnesia is so scary!  I made it to the desk with the note and had to take a break.  Haven’t touched it since…  Maybe tonight?  But it reminds me of a horror-based Myst, it seems like the player will have to make a decision at the end but there won’t be a “green book” to pick. Anyway, I have to keep a lamp on or else I can’t see the keyboard.

Ohkay. Classes.  Art, I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing.  Just turned in our first project yesterday (we haven’t gotten the first assignment back yet) and did a class critique.  Apparently no one had anything they would change about mine, or criticism for that matter. But I probably looked terrified so maybe no one wanted to say that it needs work.  I dunno, just gonna try to make it through the semester. Math isn’t too much better, I understand the concepts, I can do the homework, but for the take home quiz I had to look everything up.  It seems like I can’t remember what I learned, maybe that’s what studying is for…

Now site related stuff.  I was going to make a new layout, but I think I’ll wait.  Seeing that the art class I’m taking it the pre-req for graphic design classes, maybe I’ll learn some stuff I can apply to a layout.  I’m not procrastinating updating the coding I swear!  But one thing math is doing for me is re-kindiling my desire to learn a web programming language.  Still have no idea what I’d use it for, but Javascript and PHP (and MySQL) are sure to come in handy.  Just need to decide which one to learn first and find some good tutorials.  Also gonna try and get that Sozai site up next month, I wanted to get it up before Chinese New Year and have some dragon stuff, but with my laptop dying and just getting my files back that didn’t happen.  Just need to figure out some Valentines Day (and SAD ) stuff.  I have the layout ready to go, but I really want to make it in frames.  It makes more sense to me, but professionally it’s a big no-no.  Not that I’m professional to begin with, but I should try to be.  Maybe that’ll be my pet project, where I can break as many rules as I want!

Long post is long. And my server time is 5 minutes slow >:(

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So, I got sick.  Very unhappy about that.  I’m starting to get over it now, thankfully, but yesterday was torture.  I’ll spare you the deatails.  But there is a silver lining for me, re-discovering Hawaiian style food.  Slightly tarnished just because someone can’t bring home plate lunch for me.  I mixed up something simlilar to guri guri (goodie goodie) last night and am enjoying it today.  I used to eat it when I was sick as a kid.  Also am craving Kal Bi, Mochiko chicken, unagi don, and a plethora of other dishes I can’t seem to find here.  Must mean I’m getting better ^_^

The day before I got sick, I found out about Rainmeter.  It’s something similar to the Windows sidebar except you can arange it however you’d like and it has some different features.  Started messing around with it but didn’t get that far…  Also am learning more about PHP and MySQL.  For some reason the commands for MySQL make a lot more sense to me than PHP…  I’m still rather confused as to how everything needs to be set up for it to work.

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I’ve actually been keeping myself kinda busy.  Played Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening & Dragon Age 2, started on Professor Layton and the Curious Village, and went out with a friend!  I got out of the house with someone who isn’t family!  Big step for me.  We had dinner at Granite City, which was delicious by the way, and he needed to pick up stuff for school so I went with him to Best Buy.  Apparently, I need to watch a bunch of movies -.-

Speaking of watching, I’m almost done with the second season of The Mentalist and am making my way through Axis Powers Hetalia!  Can’t bring myself past episode 45, love Iggy’s ending song!  For whatever reason, I love it when they have a different country featured~  I may just have to invest in the manga too, been on a manga kick lately.  Though I am very near being broke.  *sigh*

Had a few very wierd dreams last night.  2 really stuck with me, the first was that I caught a shiny koffing on VDex.  Which I ended up doing earlier today, a pleasant surprise.  The second dream made me sad, Fenris somehow went crazy and I had to kill him.  But the sad thing was, near the end of the dream he started to be “concious” of what he was doing and wanted me to kill him.  Thankfully, I woke up before he died.  He’s one of my favorite characters…

Lets see what else…  I’m dreading this weekend.  And Monday for that matter.  I’m just really anxious, work, meeting new people, and manning a booth (probably by myself) on a topic I know nothing about.  How’d I get myself roped into that…  I’m a push-over, that’s how…

Oh, I need to mow the lawn.  *flails*

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It’s summer now and I’m trying to lose weight, seeing that it has been accumulating more than I’d like it to,  so checking nutrition labels sounds like a good idea.  Pulled a cup of greek yogurt out of the fridge, as it has a lot of protein for yogurt, and checked the rest of the facts.  I was stunned.  100 calories, no fat at all, low sodium and sugar content, and 20% of the recommended amount of calcium.  Granted, I always get the unflavored “skim” version.  Comparing it to another 6 oz yogurt makes me wonder why I ate those before.

If you’ve never had greek yogurt, it’s thicker and more sour than regular yogurt, a bit drier too.  It lacks the odd sweetness regular flavored yogurt has, which I am glad for.  Instead, I add about one and a half tablespoons of honey while I’m eating.  I like the contrast so I don’t mix it in.

Anywho, no art stuffs.  Too lazy to scan, maybe I’ll put 2 up this Saturday.  Working tomorrow though (wo-hoo!) and am a bit apprehensive, it’s been 2 weeks since I’ve gone in.  What else…  Oh!  I kinda tore a tendon, it hurts.  My dad gave me exercises to help heal it, but I haven’t been doing it…  Not much other than that!

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So I completely forgot to post this yesterday:

Omnomnom

Kakigori on the left, Hawaiian style on the right.  Really craving good shave ice T_T

Anyway, not much has been happening.  RNGed another vulpix because I forgot to nickname the first one and already sent it to Black >.<  But I traded it for a Zekrom (it passed a legit checker online so hopefully it’s all good), one less thing to trade for.  Still need to evolve the new one and send it, but it’s nicknamed!  Also RNGed a shiny Sandshrew, next up, Ponyta.

Been listening to twewy soundtrack, I dunno why, just in that sort of mood I suppose.  Makes me want to play the game again but I think you can only have one save file…  Also want to replay Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky, but I don’t wanna delete my Eevee!  *sigh*  Is it worth buying Darkness or Time?  Probably not XD

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First things first though, my art project for the week:

Lookie what I drew! *bricked*

So I can’t use colored pencil well.  Oh well, I tried.  That and a chibi style, which didn’t go as bad as I thought.  Moving on…

Yesterday~  I finaly RNGed a shiny on HeartGold!  <3  It was a vulpix that I need to train and evolve before sending it over to Black due to a lack of Fire Stones.  I feel proud of myself! *bricked again*  Gonna try for… not sure, maybe sandshrew next?

Well this is probably the shortest entry (word wise) I’ve ever done.  Oh, but I got my glasses back~  Ok, now I’m done.

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Really, I think I am.  Most people I know of are stress bakers, but I can’t seem to bake very well so I cook other things.  It’s really strange for me, always hearing people complain about making dinner and realizing that I would rather make it than order a pizza.  So right now I’m waiting for creme brulee to get out of the oven.  I’m really unorthodox when it comes to custards.  Whenever I add hot milk to eggs, the eggs cook on contact.  Maybe the milk is too hot, but I use a work around.  Pretty much (for this recipe) I add the yolk mixture to the heavy cream and let it cook on the stove, stirring it constantly.  When the ripples start to get larger (thicker, fewer, whatever you’d like to call it)  and it feels thicker, I remove it from the heat and call it good.  Not sure how bad this is or how it changes the flavor/consistency, but it works a lot better for me.

Anyway, on Mother’s Day I attempted macarons.  They failed epically.  They were the wrong shape and over cooked to burnt.  Come to find out, I didn’t mix the meringue enough and the temp was too high.  And they were in there longer than they should have been.  So I picked up a book in the bargain section at B&N that I hope to try out later this week.  But I found out just how expensive almond meal/flour is…  $12 for 1 pound.  Guess who’s not getting anything else till she gets paid.  But I think they’ll turn out better this time, I know what I did wrong and have a very good idea as to how to fix it.

In other, non-cooking news, I’m trying out contacts.  I still have issues getting them in, but I don’t think I’ll have a choice come tomorrow.  I need new lenses and really love my frames so I’ll need to send in the frames for the lenses to be made.  I wonder how I’ll feel about contacts after wearing them exclusivly for a couple weeks!

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I think so!  Well, more like mood deterioration.  I wake up, ready to cope and by the end of the day I want to yell till I’m blue in the face.  So I end up stewing in my room at night.  Thankfuly, my dad took grandma and cousin up to visit people in Michigan today through part of tomorrow.  And they leave Friday morning so less than a day left to deal with them.  *sigh*  Hopefully I won’t do something stupid or rash tomorrow.  Just a little longer…

I finally beat Black!  It was soooo goooood~  Makes me wanna hug N.  But I totally didn’t expect to fight Ghetsis after N!  And for their pokemon to be at such high levels!  A walkthrough said lvl 45 minimum, for the elite four and mine were 46-48.  Used almost all my max revives, too bad you can’t buy them.  But I really am surprised that I didn’t lose.  Oh, another thing that surprised me (more like downright shocked), that Rashiram/Zerkrom and Victini aren’t “auto-catches” if you will.  One being an intrical part of the story and the other being an event.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.  It’s just that for both Rashiram and Victini I threw 1 ultra ball and it caught.  I figured it was part of the story/event but I’m reading that you should load up on ultra and dusk balls before the elite four.  For Cobalion and the grass one (forgot its name…) I had to keep chucking ultra balls.  Weird.  Maybe fire types like me…?

In the same vein, transferred a couple dittos over and got my Rotom (Eeks?  What kind of nickname is that?) and bred a female dratini with extreme speed.  Yay?  Got a lot of breeding to do.  And transferring so I can breed.

And I’m realizing just how bad I am at graphic design.  I knew I wasn’t good, but now I know I need to read some books or something.  In addition to tutorials, but knowledge before application.  It depresses me, but at least I have a better idea of how far I need to go.

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About trying to get back into polymer clay, not sure if that’s gonna happen anymore.  I’m finding that it’s more difficult and frustrating than I remember.  I may give something easy a go before quitting, but I’m doubting that right now.  Made a better Bulbasaur, first one wasn’t that easy on the eyes.

The better Bulbasaur with 2 Pokeballs

I really want to make a Charmander, but I don’t want to get really frustrated.  *sigh*  I’ll figure it out.

Trying to teach my mom how to crochet did not work out.  She got frustrated, I got frustrated so we called it quits.She can chain just fine but for whatever reason her stitches get messed up.

On the topic of making things, I attempted a fruit tart last week.  I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out and how easy it was.  The only thing I’d change is how the custard is made.  I’d combine the yolk mixture and milk earlier because I found that the yolk cooks too quickly with simmering milk.  Kinda how creme brulee is made.

It was yummy!

Worked a fair amount last week, 3 hours Thursday and 7 on Saturday.  I know, I need another job.  Usually I’ll get 4 hours a week.

Ok, I just need to mention this: I swear there’s a ghost in the house today.  Been hearing noises at the back door, metal clanging in the kitchen (and nothing moved), and various small noises everywhere else.  No, it’s not the cat.  It’s been freaking me out and the fact that I’m by myself doesn’t help.

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More like a random series of thoughts that may or may not have anything to do with each other.   I.e. rambling.

Speaking of ie, some add on was causing it to crash every time I tried to open any site.  Still not sure exactly which add on it was, probably a Norton one, but it’s working again.  Yes, ie isn’t the best of browsers, but I’m used to it and am not a fan of how Chrome displays favorites, because I bookmark everything, and Firefox is a bit “heavy” if you know what I mean.

I just pre-ordered Pokemon Black.  Honestly I was waiting for the price to drop after it’s release, but Amazon has an offer I couldn’t pass up.  A $10 Amazon credit, so, in a way, the game’s $25.  There’s always something I could put a $10 credit towards, plus free shipping.

It’s so depressing that Borders is closing!  I’m not sure why, but I’ve always preferred Borders to Barnes & Noble.  A small part is that for B&N you have to pay to be a part of their rewards program, but even before that I remember liking Borders more.  *sigh*  I did take advantage of their store closing sale though.  Bought 3 more manga (which brings the total of unread volumes to 10), a “teach yourself French” book, and 2 cook books.  Oh, and a bar of Lindt chocolate :3  I know it’s stupid and irrational, but I feel bad taking advantage of the sale.  I’m profiting from someone’s misfortune.  They’re trying to save money by having this sale, I know, but I can’t shake the feeling.

Been playing Dragon Age Origins practically non-stop these past 3 weeks, I think I built my character wrong and/or have horrible tactics settings because I find that I have to load a lot due to dying.  Currently around Landsmeet and romancing Alistair, not really sure how that’s gonna go…  Horribly enough, I don’t want to put him on the throne.  Maybe I won’t, seeing that I’m having a difficult time with my character anyway.  Hopefully my next play through will be better.

Just noticed that I need to adjust the time zone…  Anyway, Happy Early Girl’s Day!

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