katu

Yesterday there was delicious food and sick siblings. So, both good and bad. Went to see Ninja Assassin - it's not as bad as the reviews say it is. I mean, it's no feat of storytelling, but it was fun. And I can't say no to perpetually shirtless skinny Korean guys, frankly. Even if they are pop singers. :P

Anyway. Gashi and I came home, and in preparation for Black Friday, went to bed at 10pm. I woke up at midnight because I could NOT get comfortable. My legs were so stiff, and so sore. D: So I got up, did some light yoga exercises and stretches. My stomach felt empty, so I had some leftover sweet potato stuff and a juice box. I tried to go back to bed. About 30 minutes of tossing and turning later, I hied myself to the couch so Gashi, at least, could sleep peacefully. At about 2-2:30am, I drifted off to sleep, and the alarm woke me up at 4am. Gashi and I got up, got ready, and did drive through Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.

We arrived at Best Buy at 4:30am. There was all ready a line past the building next door. We waffled for a bit, and finally I decided I was too impatient to wait in the car, and we got in line. By the time they opened, the line snaked out into the parking lot and was weaving through the lanes, so thank goodness we got there when we did. At least we got to be on the sidewalk. :D A young Asian boy and his father were standing behind us, and we hung out chatting about robots and hot chocolate and whoever the crazy bastard was at the front of the line. XD

Finally we got inside, which was a welcome relief from the 20~degree weather outside. I got my ticket for my computer, and then went to stand in line. There was an adorably tiny girl who graciously told me that she was half-Vietnamese, and the rest was basically European mutt. I would have sworn she was part Asian and part mixed, but in any case, she was like 4'8" and probably weighed 90 pounds. She assigned me a Geek Squad assistant, who was incredibly non-pushy and answered all of my questions (was the hard drive 7200 RPM or higher, and would buying the restore disks mean that I was essentially getting a copy of Windows 7), without trying to sell me warranties (he did ask, but when I said I was okay, let it go, which I really appreciated). From there, got into ANOTHER line, and finally got to make my purchase! Also chatted to Annie from my old work for a while.

We got out of Best Buy at 6:00ish. We hit up Target (and left without buying anything - we were done with lines), Toys R Us (I got some Hello Kitty sushi toys!), and then went home. I tidied my desk and went to hook up my computer - to discover that the monitor has quite a sizable crack in it...We decided not to bother heading back today, and instead went to Planned Parenthood, where they shot me in the arm and GODDAMN THAT HURT. It made a farting noise as she injected it, and is WAY more sore than usual, so I'm hoping she didn't inject an air bubble into my muscle tissue (it's not a vein shot).

I got home, put away the dishes and slightly reorganised the silverware, then I tidied my nightstand, cleaned the catboxes, and did sociology reading before finally laying down to take a nap at about 9:30am.

At 1:24pm, my dad wakes me up by calling me in to work. I told him I was supposed to go in at 5, since Becky needed to leave early, but I'd come in early anyway. He wanted me in at 2, and I told him I'd come in at 3, which I did. I then worked from 3pm to 9pm. We were fairly busy, but only until 8pm, when everyone went home. I finished my soc reading for the day, and was laying my head on the bar, waiting for my shift to end, when my dad kindly told me to make sure all the work was done for the morning and get out. XD I was happy, got out a full hour early.

So yeah. Now I have a fancy new computer! AMD somethin' or other quad core processor, 2.6GHz rated at, like, 5.2GHz or something. Windows 7, which is Vista-y but I rather like, so far. 8GB RAM (4x2GB). 1TB hard drive. Only problem is, it's got a CRUMMY video card. nVidia 9100. Not GT. Just 9100. Granted, it's got over 3GB of video memory, but it's integrated. I intend to upgrade, possibly tomorrowish, since I gotta replace the monitor anyway. I only have a 300W power supply, though, so I may have to grab a new one of those, as well. Otherwise I can just get a lower-end graphics card (I think I read that GeForce 9500 GT is a good one - and it's better than the one Optimus has), and hope for the best.

Oh, and just to make this sound like an even better deal: it's a full setup. Keyboard, mouse, 20" monitor, and colour inkjet printer. Original price: $949.99. Price I paid: $499.99 (plus $40 for the restore disks). So even with the possibility of dropping another $200 on this computer, it's still cheap.

Yup. Oh, and I've quit Facebook games until the end of the year, ish. Have too much other stuff to do. At the very least, I ought to be playing REAL video games in my free time.

Anyway. Time to sleep, soon.

I know this isn't the place for my sims habit, but I redid my website and was too proud not to show it off.

I also have a new Youtube video of my cat. Because contrary to popular belief, The Internet Is (and always has been) For Cats.

He is such a genius he answered a question we hadn't even ASKED. *is in awe*

Dear people in front of me in History:

Cool it on the perfume. Seriously. I'm getting nauseous.

There's a guy in the chairs near me with a shirt that says, "Who needs drugs?" in the D.A.R.E. font. Beneath it, in small letters, it says, "No, seriously, I have drugs." XD

In less funny news, a guy with a speech impediment is talking about how his supplier has been compromised. Oh, the irony.

Unrelated, I am making a schedule of things to work on until the end of the semester, so as to prioritize all of my projects and readings and studying, so I don't go "Oh SHIT my Frankenstein paper is due on Tuesday and I haven't finished READING IT. But I don't have TIME to read it because I'm a chapter behind in sociology!" I have planned myself plenty of time to work on things, and I'm actually quite pleased with myself. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am an A student. XD

Oh! Speak of A's, I am fairly sure I aced my Geography test today. I was a little iffy on two of the questions, but I breezed through that thing like nothin'. XD Also, my Soc professor has not gotten back to me regarding my appeal for the midterm (I got a few wrong that I felt I shouldn't have). She's been thinking about it a long time, I think she agrees with me, but doesn't want to set a precedent. I guess we'll see.

Oh, and our drug dealing friend is now listening to his headphones so loudly that I can rather clearly hear his music. You'll go deaf like that, buddy. And pull up your pants, tuck in your shirt, keep your nose clean. Kids these days.

BTW, two cool stories from my work. First off, I must stress that my work is not a young and hip restaurant. Our dishes are $18.95 at the cheapest, so most of our clientèle are, shall we say, financially well-established. We do occasionally get groups of kids (and by that I mean people my age or a little older), but mostly our customers are late 40s-or-better.

Well, one of my tables a few nights ago was chatting, and I overheard one lady say something about "farm...it's a game..." and I walked out and said, "I'm sorry, but are you talking about FarmVille?" The woman snapped around to me immediately and cried, "DO YOU HAVE IT?! WILL YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?!" We exchanged names, but thus far she's not added me, and I long ago lost the paper.

Another night, I was cashing out my tips and overheard a group chatting over drinks: "Who was that fellow...in World of Warcraft?"
"Mister T?"
"No, no...the one who...just ran - "
"Leroy Jenkins," I answered promptly. The man, who was wearing a full suit, turned from his well-coifed female companion and said, "Haha! Yes, that's it!" and everyone enjoyed a good, hearty laugh that a 24-year-old might know who Leroy Jenkins was. >.>

And now, for some stories of things heard at my school! These are the things I want to look back on, truly.

I got into the elevator with a man in a wheelchair, his leg bandaged but not in a full cast. As we conversed, he mentioned that it was really quite gruesome under the bandages, and needed to get stitched up today. I asked him what happened.

"I was walking and I broke my leg."

Unfortunately, we then got to his floor and he disembarked, because GOSH DARN IT I wanted to know how the hell you break your leg gruesomely by WALKING. D:

Later than same day, we were in American Literature, discussing the works of William Cullen Bryant, and the idea of a national literature. We mentioned the national anthem, and the teacher then said, "Yes, and there's also the...other one. What's the one that isn't the national anthem, that we sing all the time?"

A chorus rang out from the class. "America the Beautiful?" I volunteered. "The Star Spangled Banner?" another person offered. As I mentally paused, fairly certain that the Star Spangled Banner WAS the national anthem, another, normally quite serious and studious classmate, called out, "Poker Face?"

Perhaps you had to have been there, but in my feverish delirium (this was moments before I left school due to illness), it was GODDAMN FUNNY.

And I STILL can't remember the National Anthem.

On that note! You may know the Eddie Izzard bit where he nominates to change God Save the Queen to God Attack the Queen? "God attack the Queen, send big dogs after her that bite her bum. Let them chase after her, and rip her knickers off..." Now, as the more apt of you may feel, the next line ought to be "From every mountaintop, let freedom ring." Now, I've - ah shit, why am I asking you when I can just google this. AH! It's My Country Tis of Thee, and now I remember the first two lines. Thanks guys.

In other news, searching "of the i see" will NOT get you results for "of thee i sing."

And while I'm googling, yes, The Star Spangled Banner IS the national anthem. Fail, random classmate. Fail.

Well, this is a weird situation. It's a family thing, and for the moment not intended for the internet, but it puts me in quite a unique position in which I have absolutely NO clue what is proper to do.

Got through work okay tonight. It was fairly busy, I was there until 9. Made lots of moneys and whatnot. Back is a little sore. Gonna draw a bit and then study for my test tomorrow. <3

I went back to sleep again. >.> But I'm awake now, for good. Seriously.

Work is presenting an issue. I need to discern what is "bleh I feel sick and cannot work" and what is "bleh I just don't want to work tonight." My dad won't be able to cover for me if we're busy tonight, and hot damn I could use the money.

Extra bleh - just called work and we've all ready got 14 people on the books. And ten of those are two 5-tops that are coming in at the same time, essentially crushing my aspirations of it being slow and easy tonight. Curse you, November, I love and hate you so! :P

On the other hand, I wish I could just go in now. I don't work until 5pm, and I do not know WHAT I'm gonna do for an hour and a half. Don't want to clean, don't want to get into playing video games, don't particularly want to do my homework...but I'd better suck it up and get started on Frankenstein.

As those of you in chat know, I have some kind of flu thing. I thought it might have been food poisoning, an ear infection, nasal drainage making me nauseous, or any number of things that weren't the flu. Then my mom goes, "That sounds like the flu." Yeah. Sometimes I am good at things. XD

Anyway! I took some Zhong Gan Ling at my mother's suggestion last night, and a few more today. So far I feel pretty good. Unfortunately, yesterday morning I felt pretty good, too, until about 3pm, at which point I actually had to LEAVE SCHOOL to go home. Considering how much I hate missing class, that's a biggie.

But yeah. Night before last, Gashi and I drove to Milwaukee to hang out with Emmu and get sushi. We went to Wasabi Sake Lounge, this place that Emmu recommended, and it was AWESOME. Or, well, I imagine it was awesome. I was able to eat a salad and one piece of a roll before I threw up and decided not to try eating any more. But the bathroom was QUITE thoughtful, because they actually had a chair close to the toilet, so I could sit while I was throwing up. And the air freshener was absolutely nauseating, which made the process a little easier to come by. :P So yeah, looking forward to going there again when I'm not so bluuurugh. I did get to eat all the leftovers last night, and they were TASTY. So I can only imagine how awesome they are fresh.

I haven't thrown up since eating yesterday. I've wanted to, but nothing comes up. I have been rather bowelly though, that's always fun. -.-

Not sure about work tonight. I plan on calling dad around 3 or so to let him know. I just can't stop...SLEEPING. XD Day before yesterday, I slept from 3am-12, then woke up, worked on my paper, went back to sleep from 3-5pm. Dozed off in the car on the way home from sushi, then went to bed at 1am (after finishing my paper, woo!), woke up at 10am, went to school, came home early, laid down at 3pm and then woke up three seconds later at 4:30pm. Stayed in bed for remainder of day, nodding off. Cuddled with Gashi at about 7-8ish, fell asleep. Woke up at 11pm. Stayed up until 12:30am, went to sleep. Forced myself awake at 11am this morning, and am considering taking a nap. On the one hand, chances are my body really needs to rest if I'm sleeping this much. But it's not always a comfortable sleep, since I've been out like a VERY OUT THING, I don't roll over often enough and my muscles get stiff and sore. And waking up is IMMENSELY HARD. It's like I am permanently drugged, and must drag myself from the bottom of sleep to consciousness so I don't wet the bed on accident. :P

But enough complaining. I am in bed with a cuddly kitty, a cup of 7up to keep my tummy settled, and have resolved not to bother counting calories for these past two days, since "throwing up" isn't an exercise in my app. :P

And at least I got my paper in! :D

God, I feel like such a horrible big sister sometimes. :/

I really can't afford to be procrastinating right now. But I'm all paper'd out.

I know I have work soon, and I KNOW I don't want to work on this when I get home. But I've got all day tomorrow, and half of it Gashi will be asleep for. So, I'll just have to do it then.

Just mentioning that I DO have a really good start on it. It's just not...5 pages long yet.

"I can read your mind. I'm telekinetic." - a girl in my history class

At least this time it was funny. Normally she's just obnoxious.

oh.

my.

god.

omg.

Assassin's Creed 2, are there no depths you won't stoop to?

Ezio: I am in you debt.
Man: Keep the sword, Ezio.
Ezio: Do I...know you from somewhere?
Man: You don't recognize me?
Ezio: ...
Man: It's-a me! Mario!
Ezio: Uncle Mario?

Gashi and I were literally left AGAPE at this. After last night hearing Ezio's mom tell him he needed an outlet "other than VAGINAS," I didn't think I could be any more shocked. Well, I was wrong.

Funny how the girls riiiight across from me think I can't hear them talking about me.

I suppose they might not be. I shall pretend that I am imagining things, and just being insecure. Nevertheless, college girls are so silly and vapid. Not all of them, but dear God it's like I'm in high school again, and so many of them have these valley girl voices and 1980s head-wobble when they talk. Right now she's complaining about how horrible it was that she had to wear heels all throughout the mall. Poor dear. Okay, I'll stop being catty and judgmental. They're young, they'll grow out of it. I shall instead be grateful that I have all ready grown out of it.

On a brighter note, I was admiring the hair of the girls in the hallway, because so many of them had adorable shiny pretty hairstyles. Then, as I was sitting down in my first class, the girl vacating the seat next to mine says, "Your hair is really pretty." I was a little flabbergasted and I probably blushed. So, that was nice, and that'll teach me to undervalue myself. :P

Linked from that hair website (I told you I was devouring it) I read an article on weight loss stuff, based on SCIENCE (link, if you're interested). It reminded me that I was watching my weight, once upon a time. I was doing really well, until I went to Australia and suddenly I had to TASTE EVERYTHING NEW and even if I'd cared about entering all my food into my calorie-counter app, the restaurants were all different and there was too much guesswork. So I quit, and I had a vacation and lived and ate fabulously.

And then I came home, and continued to eat everything, all though perhaps less fabulously. What's a little McDonald's, here or there, after all? Nothing, but when "here or there" becomes "everywhere," it adds up. My scale, lately, has been showing me things I don't like, specifically the numbers 1, 9, and 0. Sometimes 5. The scale at the rheumatologist only showed me two numbers; 2 and 0. Only there were two of that second number. Granted, this is up from 185ish, so not the grandest of inflations, but I've just been FEELING fat, lately. I didn't used to do that. I used to look in the mirror, and see fat. I used to try on clothes, which felt tight. But I did not feel like I was wearing a flotation device at all times.

I do now. I feel like I'm wearing a fatsuit. So, I think it's time to stop bitching at my contrary scale and open up my Lose It! app again. I'm going to be daring: I'm going to try for 130 pounds. GASP. Naturally a modest 150lbs is a more immediate goal, but hell. Why aim to settle? I wouldn't mind wiggling without jiggling, after all.

To maintain a weight of 130lbs with a sedentary activity level, I need approximately 1773 calories per day (another calculator that includes height says 1591). That's 500 more calories than I was allowing myself, before. No wonder I stopped. :P Anyway, I think for now I shall stick to the higher estimate, since either of them is to maintain less weight than I currently am. May as well ease myself into it.

And now, to play a bit of sims before finishing the last of my homework. Ahhh, moderation is good.

ETA: Just for my own purposes, to maintain my CURRENT weight with a sedentary lifestyle, I need to consume 2029 calories/day - my basal metabolic something thingy (BMR) is 1691.25, multiplied by 1.2.

On the note the last entry ended on, an amended wishlist:

- Barber's scissors (good ones, the sharper the better)
- Recumbent bike (like, the exercise kind), or donations thereto
- Kanzashi/Hair sticks - bonus points if it's a full hair-slide (available here: the sizes good for me are small, medium, and extra-large. If you got me one of each, I would be delighted. My favourite styles are this, this, and this, to give you an idea of what I like)
- Pretty much any dress from this store. Seriously, I love pretty much all their dresses (not so much a fan of this one, but aside from that...). I'm a size 18, but 16-20 usually fits me fairly well. Any similar dresses would be equally liked. The style I'm into right now is called "maxi dresses," if you're planning on ebay-ing it.
- Socks! Loooong long socks! I like pink, blue, green, and argyle. Bonus points if it's pink and green argyle. I am a freak about softness, though: nothing too coarse. And I inherited my mother's muscular calves, so they must be stretchy!

My amazon wishlist is pretty much devoid of things I really want at this point (except for the really high-end items), so I'd suggest ignoring it for the most part. I do still want a Half Life: Full Life Consequences t-shirt, but you guys took too long, and they are no longer available due to "copyright infringement." Pffft.

I may edit this later if I think of more stuff.

My mom sent me a link to this article on longlong hair. I am systematically devouring most of the site as a result. I'm currently on styles!

I must say, it is absolutely tickling to find out that I've been doing it right this whole time. :P Hairdryer? Mousse? What are those? What do you mean, STYLIST? How can anyone POSSIBLY take 15 minutes on their hair (unless, of course, you mean painstakingly brushing and detangling it)?

Okay, so I DO condition my scalp area, but I have fringe, which counts as ends IMHO.

But yes. Squee at new hair tips. I really do need to get to mum's so she can trim my hair. And then I really do need to get around to buying good scissors.