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Last time I posted was four months ago. Sorry, but I’ve been doing lots of programming, going to class, writing papers and studying until I forget what level my main in Warcraft is. Which is now 62 or 63, coz Burning Crusade came out and I gamed something fierce. In Trauma Center I have been stumped, not by a complicated surgery, but by a level in which I must DEFUSE A BOMB. Japanese games are, well, strange.dkdkd

 As for school… I got a near-perfect A on my algebra course. Score! I anticipate getting A’s in my other classes, but I have a Biology and CM final to go before it’s sure. I’ve got to really hit the math books this summer, so I’ll be ready for Chemistry in the Fall. Not looking forward to it, but I gotta do what I gotta do, right?

In other news, there really is no other news. Work is good, I love Travis, and someday I’ll take over the universe. For now, I need a snack.

Last night, in order to keep ourselves from opening our presents during daylight, Travis and I saw Rocky. I endorse it, although a couple parts in the first half almost made me cry, they were so sad. Of course, when we got home we busted out the champagne and opened all our presents to each other. Cutest part? We both got each other the same set of new paintbrushes. Hahahah. All the rest of our gifts to each other were either books or videogames. Yeah, we’re the perfect modern couple. We drank the whole bottle of champagne, which made me quite silly.

The champagne also made me SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEPY. Went to bed at 10. But mysteriously awoke again at around 2am. Travis fed me cookies and hot chocolate, I played my DS and went back to bed at 4am. Ten till 7, and I was wide awake again. Hahah, I’m such a little kid on Christmas.

Went over to mom’s around 10, where Travis & Reza & I got spoiled rotten. Mom got us all house stuff, and we got Reza more house stuff. It was pretty awesome. But the best part? It was, quite simply, seeing Reza’s and Mom’s faces when they opened stuff from us. It’s cheeseball, but I love giving people gifts. I expect to go nuts when I’m more financially secure, and do insane things like buying Kat some sort of hovercraft.

Afterwards, we went to Baba’s and hung out in the garden and talked. Since Baba’s going to Iran next month, he got four Furby’s to give to the younger cousins. Those little robots have CHANGED since they first came out. It was hilarious, me and Guity and my dad yelling at a little furby. “hey furby! sing me a song!” and laughing whenever it giggled. Although they’re cute, they’re also undeniably creepy. Uber creepy. “Please tickle me” is not something you want a fuzzy robot to say to you. But it does, oh yes it does.

The lack of sleep hit me and Travis about 3pm, and we came home and crashed out hard. Ahhh, holiday naps!

Best gift of the season? Trauma Center for the DS. I get to play at being doctor, and I freaking love it. Nintendo’s stylus interface is like the best thing since the Nanernet. It’s a real bummer when your patient dies, tho, coz you can’t just go on to the next one. Instead, you’re trapped in a Groundhog Day madness of re-living the same surgery again and again… until you do it right. I so love it.

If I magically had $500 a month to do with as I please I could get a RAV4. A pretty blue one, with a fancy alarm. I’m vexed with my car lately, coz its alarm likes to go off when the wind blows too hard, or a cat walks nearby. :P And it’s not anywhere near as cute as a RAV4. ;)

Playing Lego Star Wars 2 in co-op mode, on free play. OMFG. It’s not just you and your pal running around as Darth Vader & Yoda in the first level. It’s the two characters you pick plus a handful of others the game assigns you (some coz you’ll need them to access all the secrets of the level, others coz the designers are just silly) that you can rotate through at any point in play. There are not sufficient words in the English language to describe my amusement with this, the sheer entertainment that two people can have playing. In case you haven’t figured it out, Travis & I went nuts last night & this morning, free playing through several levels. And, of course, fighting each other in the Cantina. Hehehehe. Couldn’t help it. His back was turned, I was Darth Vader, I used the Dark Side of the Force to pop his little lego body apart. I should’ve been ashamed, but I just giggled.

Additionally, I’ve played 9 hours of Final Fantasy XII. I still haven’t gotten Espers (aka the Summons) and am in a fairly cut-scene heavy segment, but the gameplay is awesome. The gambit system was not, as so many feared, a bastardization of the game. I’d go on to explain it, but Gabe at Penny Arcade did it perfectly. In simpler terms, it makes it so you don’t go nuts pushing the ‘x’ button, but still die due to your own stupidity. At this point I am rearranging gambits fairly often, but hopefully I’ll figure out the perfect setting at some point. ;) Until I get those darn Espers. And, OMG, the game is beautiful. And the MOOGLES! So cute, i might just DIE.
(Don’t worry, I spent plenty of time working on my paper this morning - 4 hours, in fact. Still short a page, although it happened solely due to re-formatting to fit APA standards. Ah, well.)

I’ve never been all that big on StarWars. I didn’t even watch them until I was 19 or 20, so I’m obviously not one of those kids who grew up on it. I did like the original 3 (erm, 4-6, that is) and the last new one (#3) coz we all know Anakin was a whiny brat until he turned evil, and then you rooted for him in all of his wickedness. Or, at least, I did.

So, when Travis & I were at Bookmans this weekend and he suggested getting the Lego Star Wars II game I encouraged it for his entertainment. And then I watched him play. And was fairly enthralled. I mean, it’s no Final Fantasy VII, but seeing little lego versions of the movie scenes is freaking hilarious. And then… he made me play.

And the hours disappeared as I attempted to get through the game and get the “True Jedi” score (only possible if you collect X amount of little lego studs). Let me tell ya, making a game where the GAME MANUAL says you’re not a ‘real gamer’ unless you get that “True Jedi” score, well, it’s not nice to do that to an obsessive-compulsive gamer girl. Not nice, not at all. I replayed that damn Tattooine bar level again. Collected studs found by SHOOTING DIRT UNTIL LEGO FLOWERS FORMED and STILL only got a 97% Jedi score at the end. Mother effer. This game will be my doom.

Oh, almost forgot. CUTEST DETAIL EVER PUT INTO A FREAKING VIDEOGAME EVER! Cuter than Disney references in WoW! What is it? The LEGO HAT MACHINE!! OMFG. You walk up to it, pull a lever and ta-dah, Luke with Leia buns. Han Solo in a classic lego red baseball cap. Chewbacca in a top hat. Of course, occasionally it serves an actual game purpose (beyond causing me to giggle insanely as I run about a Tattooine town) of giving you a disguise (Trooper helmet) to get into restricted areas. Oh heck yes. HECK YES.
In other news, I have Final Fantasy XII on reserve at the game store, but won’t be able to afford it until probably Friday. GHEYYYYYYYYYYYYY. On the other hand, I have a biology test Thursday, so it’s probably for my own good that I don’t have two new games to lure me into non-studying doom…

i’m having trouble sleeping. last night i couldn’t fall asleep, tossed & turned for more than an hour. travis’s insomnia finally transferred to me, i guess. or i’m losing my mind. one of the two. and now, it’s totally my normal bedtime, and i’m wide-the-fuck-awake.

i’m seriously tempted to just take some nyquil to get to sleep. but, before i resort to drugs, i thought i’d check online for some sort of sleeping tricks…

WebMD says: “Keep your bedroom for sex and sleeping. If you can’t sleep or if you wake up in the middle of the night, go into another room and read a book or watch television until you feel sleepy.” (i giggled at that)
and
“Stop working at any task an hour before bedtime to calm mental activity.” well W-T-F?! am i just supposed to sit in a chair and stare at the wall for an hour?

Everything else just had crap like “count backwards from 100″ and “do tai chi to calm yourself”. Mother-effer, I just want to go to BED so I can get up early enough in the morning to work out before I have to shower, dress, eat and rush off to school. LAME-SAUCE.

So, I’m looking around online for a cute blouse I saw in a photograph. I have no idea who makes it or anything, so I was just entering random descriptive words into google. This never works for finding what I’m looking for, but usually nets me something worthwhile.

Tonight I ended up on the LAMB clothing site. Where “graphic” tees start at $65. I think, surely these must be nicer material than regular clothes. Nope. Regular old 100% cotton. But at more than 300% the cost. On the one hand, I realize what’s-her-face from NoDoubt is the one behind this and wants to compete with real fashion designers. But, um, hello? The only person who’s going to spend that much on what is, honestly, an ugly t-shirt, is one of her friends, or someone with no taste.

Looking throughout the site I found 3 things I would actually wear. The rest are things that, if I saw someone wearing them in public, I would think they’d got at Savers. What the eff?

Sometimes, i’m sitting in the computer commons and all of a sudden i get a shooting pain in my knee. Since I cannot figure out why the hell this happens I must simply assume that it’s because aliens are trying to read my thoughts and don’t know that they need to point at the head, not the knee.

This is probably good for me though. If it hurts my knee so darn much I can only imagine the excruciating pain it would cause in my head. Hmmm……… I think I’ve just discovered where headaches come from. It’s clearly time to start wearing a tin foil hat, people.

In other news, I wanted to be the cute girl from Dresden Dolls for Halloween, but I do not own a black crushed velvet dress. Soooooooo… I’ll just be a crazy broken doll mime girl. Coz I do have a black & white striped dress and stripey stockings. Or, I guess I could reuse my old costumes… I’ve still got my cute Alice dress that Katling made me for New Orleans a few years ago, and the Snow White costume from 2 years ago… Dunno, just don’t know…

i have a bio test on thursday, my definitional paper is due monday, the outline for my integrative paper is due next wednesday and the rough draft in 2 weeks. i really, really need to get caught up on math homework in time for next semester.

my alternator died last thursday. coordinating with mom and travis to get me to school and him to work with her car is a pain in the butt. it was supposed to be done yesterday, but it wasn’t. i bet it won’t be done today.

i’ve never written a lab report, and i find myself stuck, incapable of getting it started. i just keep re-reading the guidelines and wondering what the eff to put in my introduction. maybe i should just skip that and go on to the methods section? yeah, that’ll be easier. i’ll write it out of order and mash it all together at the end.

i’m starving right now. want a steak sooooooooooooooo bad. grrr.