the ambition to dream

12:00am: Visitor's Map! :)


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10:52pm: Help the South end
Auctions ended today. While I probably didn't measure up to some of the other hot offerings, I got at least one hit on each 3 posts I put up, so I'm glad. :)

Unless there were additional bids tagged onto other commentators (which wouldn't notify me), the scarf (still IP, but since the bid didn't top 25 I think it's safe to start mirroring the scarf end instead of the strip pattern in the middle-- meaning it'd end up being about 52 inches long once done) went for $21, I got one buy for a SoCal postcard, and (to my great surprise), ended up with a $20 bid on my penpal offer (I promised 3 months and to cover my prep for Comic-Con).

I think I won a BBC Sherlock fic (♥), but I forgot to try to bid on another offer thanks to this afternoon's incident. (The auctions ended about that time and they weren't on my mind.)


I put the scarf to auction since I didn't like on the slip stitch edge ended up at the beginning, but it actually looks good at this point. The strange slip stitch on the yarn change side seems unavoidable. It's taking a while since it's a 1x1 ribbed scarf so I have to change the yarn alignment every stitch. I'm thinking I should add a fringe but aside from the wrap-around-a-cardboard-and-cut, I don't know how to do one.... mini-icords might be fun to figure out though. I haven't done icords yet but I skimmed a tutorial and it seemed straightforward once I understand what it means. :)

The postcard I already sent, but I need to figure out the letter writing. I haven't written a proper letter in a long while. I think the last real letter was when I was writing Fukki two, three years back. If the last commentator notice I got is the winner, this should be fun though. Her profile locates her in England and she seems interesting and pleasant.

8:30pm: This month's monthly meltdown.
Flipped out at work.

In some ways, this is an improvement from breaking down and crying in frustration. Although I did a little of that too. However, I can't say screaming fuck at the top of my lungs and then kicking a hapless chair and then ranting furiously for about 15 minutes (out of range of the MegaDouche who set me off, e.g. Unc) is really an improvement.

( What the fuck. Seriously. )

5:41pm: Things at work.
( Work at Unc's place feels like a placeholder. )

5:18pm: The little things in life.
The first time I tried Siggi's yogurt was in the middle of an empty cafeteria at the back of some generic grocery store in the motionless depths in Bellevue, WA.

I didn't do it because I liked Icelandic food; I haven't even heard of the brand until JP bought it up when we met in person in WA and wanted to eat some.

I can't say I enjoyed it very much. In fact, the only thing I really remembered about it was "chalky."

Therefore, I am mystified why I bought another little cup of it when I spotted it at Henry's (grocery chain in CA) just now. Perhaps I thought I remembered wrong. Perhaps I thought I might like it better.

The truth is, I can't think of it as yogurt. It's not yogurt; it is paste. It's like condensed, dehydrated plain yogurt sprinkled with some flecks of fruit (ginger and dried orange in this case) in a feint at flavor.

Curiosity shot down.

---

If someone ran out of a building and dove into a conveniently waiting car next to the sidewalk which just happened to be unlocked with the keys inside during an action sequence in a movie, I (and I'm sure many other people) would write the film off as an unrealistic swing at fun.

Then you randomly walk by a running car left out at a sidewalk, its headlights on with the keys in the ignition and no driver in sight.

I had to stop and look twice at that one too.

The owner was inside the building at the retail window for tofu for at least 5 minutes. Anyone could have easy opened the door to his car and driven off with it.

Amazing.

3:50pm: A03
Signed up for an A03 account. :)

I'm currently stalling from eating lunch, but I'm feeling rather woozy now. I probably am going to run off in a few moments. ^^;; Come to think of it, I have 9 minutes until 4, and that's when "lunch" ends for Souplantation which is where I was hoping to eat.

It's more likely than not I won't make it. I should rethink where to obtain food from. :X

I'm currently of the opinion it's probably better to simply write than spend a long time considering what to write and end up writing nothing at all, as you can see. The hope this will cause my writing to naturally refine itself after a while is running undercurrent all the rambling.

Back to the AO3 account, I only ran into it after checking out the sample links listed in the Help-The-South offerings in the writing section. It seemed like a fairly nice site as opposed to FFN and more free-for-all, like IS is to LJ.

Since I watched the BBC Sherlock series a week or so back, I also became pretty interested in checking for fanfic; have thoroughly raided the Sherlock section at AO3. Mycroft/Sherlock is my winning ship preference.

In the end this lead to wondering if I should get an account. When I finally looked at the main page, I saw that free accounts where available per waitlist so I applied. It was a very fast waitlist, the invite popped into my inbox last night. I then spent then until now wondering what screen name I should sign up under. I've stuck with 'tdei' for years but somehow, since I've been more or less dead to the creative fan-world for a while, I wondered if picking something new would be fun.

The word "Specialist" has amused me since I fixated on it during a scene in Fullmetal Panic. After realizing Specialist T wouldn't work because of the space, I settled on just being 'Specialist.'

Funny thing, I was skimming over all the scribbled lines and plunnie skeletons in my writing folder from long, long ago and suddenly thought to myself "I miss writing." Maybe some writing will happen. :) I have my fingers crossed.

8:58am: Hello there. :)
I surprised myself when I looked over my last entries. I knew I haven't been here for a long while, but I actually had written more recently than I had thought.

I received a deactivation notice for my reviews journal and was prompted to come back to check what was on it. Not much was written since I've let my journals completely lapse! However, I reactivated it anyway. I want to pick it back up. Here's to hoping I will.

Things kind of went worse (recently a little better) since my last entry for me socially.

Still at the same job, contrary to initial posting, I've been downgraded to part-time (3 days of the week) since September due to lack of work to do. I find it a little funny but considering the work atmosphere and I'm still supported by my parents, I've just let it hang around. However, it's unsustainable, and such. I'll write more about it later I guess. I'm at work at the moment, although it's easygoing at the moment. (Unc is out for a few more days on a trip.)

7:01pm: Getting back into work.
Day 1:
What I'm supposed to do: Assemble your computer and convert the old server into a regular CPU for Uncle J. By assemble, we mean, figure out why Windows failed to install on your computer and borrow someone's monitor, keyboard, and mouse because we don't have one available for you.

Note: I can not actually help with any of the accounting stuff because a computer is required for those.
Note2: My major was International Studies-Economics and Philosophy. I have absolutely no background in Computer Science or Information Technology. I ended up asking the few people I know and dad about it. After work, at night.

Day 2: Get the 3rd degree from Unc over eating food and for not doing anything. Note, I could not do anything without a computer for J. There was nothing given to me to do at the time.

Figure out why the CPU is rebooting randomly, why Windows is only booting from the installation CD, and... well, actually, the first two problems precede everything else. Also talked to D, Jenn, and my dad about it not working. Could not actually do anything until noon, when Unc & Will picked up a large new monitor, because person I borrowed the other equipment from needed it. End up following Unc's advice of taking out a hard drive from the server CPU (after asking him and Will how to remove a hard drive) and reformatting it (after asking my dad how to do that). Windows installed! Probably the hard drive was defunct.

Then Unc says to give the computer to the engineer. And take one of the laptops he was using.

Get really upset when mom tells me rumor that Unc was talking about switching the current part-time arrangement I asked for to full time. Based on the first two days (and lack of actual things to do from observing J's work flow), had first reaction of "do not want." Worked myself through it. Figured I can handle it if I had to, and I would definitely try to hash it out with him first.

Day 3:
Better. Chilled out in morning as engineer was busy... settled switching computers after engineer was freed up. Then, after finally getting a computer into my possession.... accounting work was so under control, J had nothing to hand over to me to do. Chilled some more. Resumed ordering folders as asked by Unc yesterday. Moved supplies around as I cleaned. Found out some filing needed to be done towards end of afternoon and worked on that.

Asked Unc about switching day off in April and got asked to come in full time for two-weeks for now. Things seem good, feel much happier.

Figure out need to explain preference for part time for now to mom, who has been on about full time, full time. Messy, didn't agree, but I think she kind of understood.

Again, not that I would blow it off if I had to convert to full time, but as is, this arrangement would work best for me right now if possible. Hopefully it will stand for a while.

Still not sure how useful I'll be and how long I'll last, but hopeful to sticking it out and things working.

8:33pm: I'm not looking forward to this.
So, up until last night I was still putting off things like no tomorrow.

Then Uncle Wen called and offered to have me work at his place again. The pay is better than last time and he's letting me do part time (at least for 3 months; I probably would prefer to get away with part time forever, but he says it's really busy and he wants full time; but then again the LAST time I was there, even when it was busy, there was a pretty big lull where I couldn't do anything for a while towards end of the week). Starting tomorrow...

I kind of left suddenly last time. And, his place is 'high pressure, out of left field, and high volume.'

Like I mentioned to my mom between FENB and Unc's place, I preferred Unc's; and it is really nice of him to offer to have me back. Still worried about the chaos, high tension, and flood of random stuff at his place though. Not really looking forward to tomorrow, but hoping it all works out.

I've stopped writing, stopped drawing, stopped speaking, stopped doing much at all. I've haven't really gotten how to handle the work thing or how to really function. Here's to hoping it'll work out, I'll last, and I can start putting myself together from here on out.

PS-- Have been sleeping 4 AM to noon/1 PM. Managed to wake up a bit before 10 today. Need to head out about 7:30 AM tomorrow. Felt a bit flash-dried already; tomorrow should feel even more wobbity. Maybe a month to fully get used to getting back up at work hours? I'll never enjoy it though. D:

1:15am: What was that?
Er. So, the last two days were still pretty flat... I slept late, woke up late the day before. Just ate lunch, updated FB, had to cook dinner, etc.... watched some anime. Today I got up a little earlier, a bit after noon, then had lunch, did dishes, read up on some drama with FB Country Story's update last night (I wasn't very thrilled either), and then I did go outside. I went over to the Arboretum and walked around, then went to check out the bargain theater over in Pasadena and watched the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Went home, picked up a boba on the way back, found out my parents actually wanted to eat out, had a nice dinner, came back, watched Supernatural, puttered on FB, and am now typing aimlessly, kind of bored, still bit frustrated, yada yada.

The bargain theater gives wonderful prices for its movies (out of theaters but not released on DVD yet) and is pleasant. It's not plush and outfitted with the best and latest upholstery or systems, but it's not horrible. The chairs were comfortable and plush enough, although the plastic was less sleek than, say, AMC. The air was slightly funky, it smelled like Dimetapp, but it wasn't overly musty or foul. I think the screen was kind of unfocused, but it seemed clear enough. There were no signs spelling out the movies next to the numbers for each theater but the concession/ticket booth was friendly and pointed out the direction well enough.

I showed up a little early, which was good as parking turned out to be a bit of a challenge. They did have a small lot behind the theater, but it was full and I had to loop around a little. There was street parking and I found a space after 10, 15 minutes.

Imaginarium was weird. Mildly interesting in costumes and displays, but completely lackluster in plot and characters. I'm glad I didn't catch it in regular theaters; at $2, it wasn't that much of a loss to watch. ;)

They're starting to show Sherlock Holmes there tomorrow. I really loved the movie when I watched it in Long Beach with Luce when it first came out and am a bit tempted to watch it again. They're also showing something called Hurt Locker that seems pretty interesting. I haven't managed to watch it yet because it shows at 9:20 PM and by that point I'm too lazy and cold to really want to go there by myself...

6:29pm: Yup, that's over.
Mom came back home and said HR talked to MG, who was my supe, and learned I wasn't interested in the job descript, and said she preferred someone who was into the work. So, that op is truly well and over. K is also taking off to London (! Too awesome!) in May. Her position is already filled after being posted today.

Mom pushed me a bit on posting my resume again. But AGAIN, if I don't know what I'm aiming for, applying for anything doesn't really help. Excuses, excuses ::mocks herself::, I've still yet to work out what I'm aiming for after al

Had lunch, dawdled on the computer, especially after the new trick with PS came out-- temporarily being able to get paid items. Picked up some groceries at Henry's and stopped by PO. Mailed out the 4 postcards, but hadn't finished SS's letter; got the postage for it all settled though. :)

Came back, hauled out some trash, washed dishes, fiddled with new PS trick again. Well and truly can't save. Then got more news from mom and just idling.

Want to stop by bargain movie later today in Pasadena, finish that letter, study, clean, etc.

Last night looked up full Supernatural eps online and ended up watching about 1.5 eps before being cut off by Megavideo. Saw the SPN convention spoof and half of the Valentine ep; funny stuff. :)

1:31am: On a conflict of common sense.
http://bit.ly/95dSB1

Water use has always been wasteful in the States, as the States is generally fortunate to have a large proportion of freshwater to its population, as compared to the Middle East or India, etc.

However, the population and wasteful use of water has started to outstrip the resources. Southern California has gotten pretty close to the redline; we are in a drought, although the last month, with the good rainfall, we might have recovered a little.

Nonetheless with all this in mind; especially recommended water conservation and increasing notice on conversation methods, why is Orange County pushing adherence to a regulation (unfortunately I don't know which one; from the sound of it its outdated although I'll give maybe there's a reason for it) that homeowners have to have 40% live coverage on the lawn?

The couple who pulled out their front lawn did a pretty good thing. Definitely environmentally conscientious. Saved thousands of gallons of water. And they're being fined for it? Even after trying to meet the reg by putting in drought tolerant plants? :(

9:24pm: Times move on, but registering the change is going to take a wihle.
Mr. G died last month. He lived next door to us and is pretty much the only neighbor I really know. We've lived here since about 1996, and he was the only one who would say hi regularly, and sometimes stop for a chat. And even then, I don't know him very well.

He was really sweet. Flirty, even to me! When the other neighbor I sometimes see, who lives across the street, came to tell us, I was really shocked.

They were kind to send us an invite to the memorial service but we ended up missing it. I wanted to go, but I ended up staying up too late and couldn't get up. It was at his church, but not where he is buried.

The last time I saw him, he stopped for a little chat. His arm was wrapped up in bandages, and bloated. He had a form of skin cancer and he said he would be leaving his house for a while to get treatment at City of Hope.

In the end, the cancer killed him. Skin cancer.

His son put up his house for sale. There's a sign on the lawn now. I saw an Asian family arrive to view the house with an agent. It feels so weird. (Mr. G was Caucasian.)

I can't really picture his house without him in it.

My godmother died last June/July as well.

8:23pm: Today
Today is the first day after the Spring Festival. The Lunar New Year was on the same date as Valentine's this year-- 2/14. It runs for 15 days, the last day was yesterday, and it's called the Festival of Lanterns.

I never knew these things about Chinese New Year before. My parents never did much, or teach us. However this year they mentioned it, and were surprised I didn't know. How would I know about the things I don't know?

A slight mind trip I kept falling over is that according to the Lunar calendar, it's only 1/16 today. The New Year marks 1/1. So 2/14 on the Gregorian/solar calendar is 1/1 on the Lunar's. Interesting.

Superstition has it luck is inauspicious for you during the year of your zodiac. I'm not sure I believe it, but last year certainly was lackluster, if thankfully not terrible, and I am an Ox. Roughly at the beginning of the Year of the Tiger, I've been feeling I've snapped to. Interesting.

My sleeping schedule is still overturned. I've always been a night owl and since high school, my sleeping schedule's been "flipped" (at least, as considered by most). Meaning I sleep after midnight (actually about 4-5 AM) and wake up about noon to 1 PM. While I was temping, I was better, crashing at about 1 and then being dragged awake at 7 AM, which was definitely no picnic.

I've noticed I'm at least consistently sleeping about 8 hours. I'm inching back towards 3 AM at the moment. Got up at 1 AM today. I definitely need to try to rein in at about 1-2 AM and get up by 9 AM. It's hard because I've gotten used to puttering around at night. Boredom is a factor too. I feel purposeless in the morning. Then at night I'm bored so I search for something to read or work on the FB games again and then the next thing I know, it's almost morning.

So I got up about 1 AM. I still haven't gotten the hang of eating breakfast. I haven't regularly gotten into the habit since high school. Although if I definitely have to be awake early (like when I was working), I would be hungry in the morning and eat. But like this, I just eat lunch and dinner. Yeah, so I ate. Then I rearranged some dishware in the cabinet. I finally finished wiping down and resorting the dishware for it. Before it was a complete mess. When I wiped it down and replaced the calendar paper we used to line the shelves, it was dusty and littered with dead bugs. It was pretty disgusting. I also had to rewash all the dishes. It took way longer than it should have, I guess, but at least it's done.

I checked into the computer, updated game status, and then hauled out all the random clutter in mom's room to vacuum it. I also meant to do the lobby and my room (haha; at dad's suggestion in turn for him doing his own and the living room-- originally I was just going to do mom's-- my room's still solidly stuck as a mess) but it was about 4 by then and I wanted to actually go outside to check if that Hallmark store we saw a month ago was still open and on sale.

It was. I looked around and stood around looking at three neat-looking scarves for about 25 minutes, before deciding not to buy them (they were nice but the knitting was messed up in a few spots). Then I went to check out the Comic Cellar. Then a closing DVD store I spotted from the road on the way over.

I got home about 6:30 PM. Dad got the dishes this time, so I just chilled on the computer for a while, dinner, and now I've gotten back on here.

I have a very late letter to Starstray to write and 3 postcards to fill out for PostCrossing that I requested this afternoon. PC is a pretty cool site I saw my cousin Tweeting about. It's a site that sponsors random international postcard exchanges. After that I think I'll work on cleaning my room (again) and crack open those library books I checked out a while back. :/ I think I keep managing to find the starting point of what I need to read, but keep failing at actually concentrating or being motivated to plow through it all. I've had this problem throughout my college studies as well, which out even worse in my last year. I still find it absolutely amazing I passed classes after only reading maybe 50% of the material. I think, now, I was a little burned out from high school and then just... yeah. Well.

The worse thing about my room is there is no space and I'm still a packrat.

PS-- An odd thing happened to my laptop when I started it up today. It said some Windows files were corrupted or damaged and I had to request it operate from a previous save point. This never happened to me before and everything seems in order, but I wonder what exactly happened. I got a very odd popup that was an obvious spyware attempt last night and I wonder if it was that, even though I just closed it without clicking any links.

7:51pm: Last year
Last year, I moved back Livejournal to try to get more in touch with older LJ friends and dip into the thrumming community pools there. I felt disconnected and part of 2009's New Year resolution was to correct that.

I feel sorry for vanishing off Insanejournal. In the back of my head, I was thinking of figuring out that dual post mechanism, but I never did.

Have I accomplished my desires by going back to LJ?

No. I haven't written much and while I have met some wonderful people, I haven't been keeping up. I feel just as disconnected as before. I haven't been doing anything to be worth writing about. I think I've almost forgotten how to 'speak' sometimes. I've been so absent I'm sure if I were to drop dead, no one would notice. No one would care. Least of all myself.

In review, since graduation in June 2008, I took about 2 weeks for a family trip. I worked 3 months for a family friend's company before accepting a discharge to sort my business. I never have sorted my business, even to today. I lingered over nothing productive until May. I can't remember what I was doing. I think I took a little time off, organized a number of books in my possession for resell, applied to JET and slowly worked through the interview and waiting periods, hoping I'd get in. (I got on the waitlist but wasn't accepted in after all in the end). I traveled in May for a friend's wedding, came back, went to Fanime (which wasn't as fun as I hoped), and then meandered a while at home, recovering from the traveling. I think I applied to a job or two, but didn't get them. Then about September, I got a temp job at my mom's place. It was extended until December whereupon I managed to bow out in mid-December.

Since then, I've spent 95% of my time in my room, picking over a couple of Facebook games, which I had started to play in August 2009. Come to think of it, I think that was what tanked any progress in those months before I got into the temp job. I became obsessed with the game, trying to regain older released items and gaining affluence in the game.

However, last month I've "peaked" in those simplistic decorating games. I don't feel as obsessed anymore. I feel more awake.

It's not a great feeling. I'm okay right now because my parents have been tolerant, but I haven't gotten much of a better idea of what I'm doing or where I'm going since I finished with college a year and a half back. I know I need to identify the career I want and the goals I want to reach, but I haven't been able to focus. I'll be working on that.

Last week my mom told me HR was asking if I'd like to take my job again as a full-time employee. Funnily, it was a couple of days right after I made a self-mocking remark on Facebook about my life. It is a reasonable chance but I got a headache thinking it over. I left because I knew it wasn't what I wanted to be doing long-term. The department I ended up in had nice people, the work was tangentially interesting (but isn't everything?), but I disliked my job and was so relieved when I got out. Well, I knew it was a nice opportunity so I said I'd take it if she'd raise the salary a little. I was doing 10/hr as a temp, and if I was going back, especially to a job I didn't like much, I really wanted a slight raise. They didn't raise it, so I'm not going back.

I did wonder if I should have said yes anyway. Last night I was thinking about it and I just asked myself: Would I regret having said yes or no? I guess the answer is yes, if the terms remained the same as originally offered.

So I'm still back on square one with this Life business. Past time to work on it and figure things out. I'm going to write here, hopefully everyday, to remind myself what I'm doing and to shock myself a little into doing productive things. I want to relearn how to write well. I haven't been writing or drawing or speaking much. Just click click click on the computer. I want it all back. I want to know what I'm doing and do it well.

Hi, Life. Good morning.

3:44pm: Yesterday was an intense day.
Holy shit, the lid shattered underneath my hands.;;

D:

Dad wanted me to scrub off the junk on the glass lids we use to cover our pans and I was just washing away when the center with the handle on it suddenly gave way.;; Good thing I had gloves on and it was over the plastic tub. Whoa... I must've pressed a little too much on a bad spot. :X

Read about the Gaza humanitarian crisis yesterday. It's horrible. I find the Israeli government (and it's religious right who advocates for this) repulsive. I'm glad there are a few sane voices in Israeli shouting for the siege to stop and to send food and help in-- and those voices are being accused of allying with the Hamas or of being traiters|||-- but the whole of it is Israel seems to have gone psycho.

The lack of response, or the tacit blanket support of Israel, by the US government is just as repulsive. DD: WTF, U.S., seriously?!!

Hetalia comm exploded last night as well over the cancellation of TV broadcast of the anime. (Seems such a neglible thing in comparison that shouldn't even go on the radar. orz There seemed to be a little wank, but that caught itself quickly.)

I also got my first Hetalia doujinshi yesterday. ♥

Unc and Auntie are coming down tonight so I'm sort of cleaning. D: I think I have about an hour left... I also need to finish up this letter and mail them out. ::work::

....haven't really done anything productive though. :/

orz

Also... Britain study on coffee inducing more hallucinations in people BUT seems to slow dementia? Neat.;

1:52am: Tibet T_T
There was a request up for Tibet on the Hetalia Request comm. I am interested because of the riots last year and violations of human rights that bought my attention to Tibet. I went to Google to pull up some information to see if I could shake anything loose from my clump of procrastination and searched for Free Tibet, since, wTell, that's part of what I remember.

Then I read the news feed on the site.

Jesus Christ. Ever since that blowout I had with STA, a (Taiwanese) Chinese club at UCSD, I really despise the authoritarian (read: dictatorial) Chinese mentality. The abysmal human rights record and treatment of Taiwan and organ harvesting/Falun murders (and maybe the gender gap/missing girls of China) just put me in a hate-like relationship (I know people from China and they're nice; plus history and all that).

But this is enough. The Chinese government disgusts me. I feel like it's turning into something like North Korea. There's so much rot, violent oppression, and lies....

5:07pm: World Summit and Polar Star browsing
I just went all the links provided in the circle listings for the two Hetalia events that Little Nook is going to.

I feel like my head is going to explode. There were a bunch I couldn't understand how to access, a surprising number of sites have defaulted into password locking their sites. I managed to figure out maybe 3, 4, but those took a while. I guess some of it is unavoidable when people keep taking out the art to plaster elsewhere, but Jesus, will never figure out what they're about.

And out of all of the sites I went through, there are only 3 whose works I might be interested in.... (Ahaha, what a waste of an afternoon, eh?)

Going to look them over and reply back to Little Nook. ::yawn:: Man I wish I'd just hung around outside in the sun for a while this afternoon. :( Got carried away checking out all the sites. :(

11:07am: Trivia and Comedy Improv?
My arms got a little scratched up when I volunteered at Border State Park on Saturday. I was down to a T-shirt because I figured the work would have me too hot otherwise, and I didn't even realize the plants had scratched up my arms until I paused much later.

Some of them turned into welts (and were itchy) and eventually a few of those, blistered. ...it's pretty weird to see a blister in the middle of a scratch. I think they're all getting better though.

Signed up for Comedy Improv at PCC Extension and it started last night. It wasn't quite what I had in mind, but it seems fun and somewhat interesting. It doesn't teach you how to be funny, but how to react quickly and be yourself. (Mainly improv; I'm not sure why there's a Comedy with the title.)

Last night we did the Story Story, Hitchhikers in a Car, Sit Stand Lean, and the Middle in a bar scenarios.

7:23pm: Back home!
Over this weekend I drove 368 miles. Not bad, right? :D

We went to the San Diego Zoo Sunday and that was fun. I... however forgot to take my admission ticket with me which was part of the exercise of going to the zoo in the first place. Unc covered it for me. ;_; ♥

My rechargable batteries kept running out quickly. I don't understand why. I'm starting to suspect the charger.

Afterward we went back and had dinner at Popeyes where this semi-funny ordering process took place. I chilled out a bit at their place and then packed up and drove home. ^^

Tired today. As it turns out I can't attend the Career Svcs Ctr workshops tomorrow or the fair on Wednesday because they require I have an Alumni Plus account to access them. (Before, most of the workshops were simply walk in, however in these cases, they are going to swipe the students' ID cards). Since my extracurricular class also starts tomorrow night, it's not worth it.;;

9:12pm: Border State Park + Fashion Valley Mall
Conclusion: I'm naturally horribly out of shape.

Last night's mistake #1: Downing over 6 cups of green tea shortly before I sleep, no matter how nice it is to drink or weak unc and auntie say it is does not encourage sleep. Mistake #2: The blankets I bought with my sleeping bag, in additional to the newly fixed heater (which I'm glad got fixed) made it extremely hot to sleep. Mistake #3: I probably should've bought a pad for my sleeping bag; getting up I was stiff enough I cracked my joints from my neck to my limbs.

All in all, I was tired enough to try to sleep at 10 PM. I sort of dozed off twice and then snapped awake two, three hours later whereupon I studied the whiteness of the ceiling for another two hours before I admitted defeat and got up to fiddle with my comp. Tried to sleep again around 3 AM. They got me up around 7 AM like planned, but we ended up leaving around 8:10 AM anyway.

Got lost twice on the way to Maiko's, got lost once after picking up Maiko, and I think we got lost after the volunteering. I also got flipped off by an impatient jerk when I stopped momentarily in the right lane (leaning into the right) to try to figure out where the restaurant was (when he passed easily me ANYWAY) and then honked by an asshole when I turned out of the parking lot. The space was large enough for me to cut in, either he was speeding or just being an ass. The first time I can kind of understand, the second, hell no. Do SDers have huge gouges in their shoulders or what? (And this time I'm in SD proper. UCSD is technically in La Jolla.)

I think Maiko got a somewhat poor impression of me.;; (She's the latest intl Jpn student who mailed me on Conversation Partners and I thought it would be a lovely chance to meet her and take her out with the others. Unfortunately we also kept lapsing into Mandarin [DD:] and... well, tired and cranky me is potty-mouthed short-tempered me. I did manage to get her and the others to laugh a couple of times though.)

Volunteer work was simple but I got tired quickly. :D;; We widened the horse riding trails. Essentially we just broke off or cut the overgrowth of 'chlora canthis' (I have no idea how its spelled, but this was roughly what it sounded like). We saw a number of riders with their horses. I haven't seen horses in a long time, so it was very cool. Had lunch at the House of Pancakes, where I ran into those rude drivers. Then we drove down to the Fashion Valley Mall to have a look-see... it's pretty huge.

Nice day. Could've been better, but it was interesting and kind of cool. ^^ Tomorrow, the zoo! And I drive home.

10:14pm: Success!
The plans pulled together and I'm in SD for the weekend. There is internet, but I won't be doing anything interactive, so I won't be "available" until Monday. I'll be checking mail and such if things come up.

3:07am: Finally, not lolling in front of the laptop...
I'm not even sure what I did today. I should make a list of what I did do and see where I went wrong. Time is like money, isn't it? You make a list to see where the budgeting goes and where it goes all sorts of wrong, right?

I'm lousy with budgeting. I'm a fright.

Speaking of money.... Mandarake FINALLY has Hetalia doujinshi up. ....yeah. Uh. ._. I seriously hope I only stop when I literally have no money left to spend. That would be very bad.

I might be out this weekend. It will depend on whether I pull it all together tomorrow and wake up in a timely manner Friday/Saturday.

If I do, I'll be driving down to San Diego Friday afternoon/night and kicking it over at Yvonne and Jenny's (the two houseguests from earlier this month). Saturday I'll take them to volunteer at the Border State Park, helping clear the equestrian trails with Roots and Shoots/Tijuana Estuary.

Then maybe I'll go see Randy, if he lets me, and draw around... probably go back for dinner? Either that or maybe we'll hit the Birch Aquarium if there's time. Their parents are visiting (originally I thought they'd already gone home) so I feel like an odd one out. :D;; Sunday I'll take them and their parents to the SD Zoo.

Then I'll drive on Sunday, I'm thinking... I'll be crashing at their place for two nights, if so. Luckily their parents seem to be okay with me taking up some floorspace.

So... I need to finish a letter, mail it and a package out, finish some pictures and script and do more cleaning. :

3:22am: Government on Ebay.
This made me laugh.

http://www.americant.boxbrown.com/

Brilliant.

2:53am: ....or not.
After making the resolution to use LJ again, it is supremely ironic that news of a harsh layoff hits LJ users via Valleywag, leading to speculation that it is only a matter of time before LJ, like the USSR, collapses.

¬_¬

Spent most of the day editing and updating (by only a dozen) the doujinshi on my direct sales post on my LJ account, so no real cleaning or progress on my to-do list. Wednesday is another shot.

In other news, Fukki's off-hand joke has made me realise I really am addicted to buying doujinshi (well it's one of the only things I ever collected. Some go for coins, electronic pieces, shotglasses... I did doujinshi...) as I'm currently negotiating a ~$200 buy. While this is a little crazy to me since this is the first time I'm using this deputy (however she does seem reliable and established if the other (repeat) buyers are any indication). Also, I'm not sure if her prices are the best rates, but since I'm only use SMJ and ITM4U, I think it's more or less close to what ITM4U would charge after the commission and PP fees... up to a certain point. Then again a number of the circles I'm requesting for at the events she's attending don't sell their books via site... they use the bookshops which I've not tried to navigate. I think I thought about it a few times and got hopelessly lost.

Then again, it's still a lot of money. ^^; ..... ._. Ah yes, I've been doing that a lot anyway.