Jackie

I've hardly been shaky at all today, and I kept down food all of yesterday and today, so I think I'm done with the food poisoning. It's nice to be pretty much back to normal. As normal as I get. ;)

( I'm trying to figure out who I want for my sixth and final character in Adstring )

By the way, Janet, Stella, Tri, Meg? Crow just joined adstringendum. ;) And Jill's been there for forever, and we might pull Bert in. You know you miss everyone. ;)

( And now a meme from the Monkey, What Anime Stereotype are You? )

I went to Disney today, Magic Kingdom. But before I talk about that, I wanted to say that I'm making two opt-in filters. One of the filters is going to be a writing filter. I need to rearrange some priorities, so I'm setting a goal of writing at least 1000 words a week, original writing. Obviously it will need to be friendslocked, but I figure in case you don't want to be spammed by it, I'll leave it opt-in. The other filter will be health. I don't know that anyone really cares to hear about how I'm doing, but sometimes it's on my mind. ~shrugs~ Anyways, if you want to be on either or both, leave a comment saying you do.

Now, on to Disney. The day started off not-so-great, but it got fantastic.

( Yes, Monkey, there IS a Goku on Small World )

So, yeah, I apparently fail at memes and keeping track of life. HI! I'm not dead.

And, even better news, my dad is quite the opposite of dead. He's been home from the hospital for a couple of weeks, and he's back to normal. He even went on a day-hike on the 27th to take pictures.

Life is going pretty darn well. Yeah, 2008 didn't quite fit into my plans, but that last week or two was nice (besides the nasty cold), and this week has been too.

Among the things I got for Christmas was the one I most wanted. See, every year, mom has us make lists, and I always put one thing on there I know I won't get, but still have it there anyways. I was wrong. I wound up getting the gold tri-force DS Lite. It is so much awesomeness in a little package. :D I picked up Phoenix Wright for it, and... am not impressed. But the Japanese Coach is excellent, and I like the GBA Fire Emblem.

Band competition is coming up fast, and... I'm not sure I'm ready to go pro. We'll see.

I'm hooked on two new series, thanks to Logan and Lisa - The Dresden Files and Sookie Stackhouse, respectively. So, of course, now I'm working on getting Lisa hooked on Dresden. I don't think Logan would all that much appreciate Sookie.

I'm RPing again, and it's eating my time, but it's such a fun way to have time be eaten. I have five characters now, which is quite a lot, but... it's such fun. And they're all on one comm, which makes things easier.

And, of course, the most important thing going on with me right now - JET. I can't yet check the status of my application, but maybe soon. Yes, I know they said end of January/beginning of February, but it doesn't hurt to try checking. >.>

I will seriously try to keep better track of this this year... But we'll see how that goes. Especially since I just realized that I've still got 2008 calendars up. Whoops.

Here's the plan. Rule the world.

No, wait, that's the plan that's supposed to stay secret. And also get stuck in my head to be sung over and over. Darn catchy songs.

Ahem.
( Writer woes and balancing life )
Anyways, there are fun things a-brewing in Jackieland too. It's not all writer woes.

I'm walking without my cane for the most part inside my house now, I didn't use it last Sunday at church (which is more of a big thing, because that's often crowded and random people make staying upright difficult,) and tomorrow I'll be seeing if I can deal at work without it.

The church birthday this year should be a huge blast, the theme is themeparks, so we're revisiting some of the best birthdays: pirates, cowboys, outer space, Imagination Laboratories, and superheroes. And then we're all going to DisneyQuest after. :D DisneyQuest is fantastic, but I haven't been in years.

I've finally seen B5: The Lost Tales. Uh. The music was good. I was expecting more of the cast besides Sheridan, Lochley, and Galen. Granted, it would be impossible to have anything new of G'Kar or Dr. Franklin, but... yeah. Was kinda hoping for more cast.

I've also finished the first season of Angel. I recognized a few episodes, but most were new to me, including all of the ones with Doyle. So much for thinking I'd seen most of the episodes. But that's fine, the cello opening and closing are addicting. I have no objection whatsoever to watching Angel.

Oh, and "I Survived A Japanese Gameshow" finished last night. I have to say, it was a whole lot of fun, and they picked an excellent cast, from the contestants to the host. There were moments of aggravation, but for the most part everyone got along and had fun. That made watching it a whole lot more fun. I kinda want to be on it. Tony is hot for one thing. Thing two: Japan. Thing three: first and second place got tickets back to Japan whenever they felt like going. And there is also the prize. Yes, the games are silly. But I've been aware of the silliness of Japanese game shows for quite a while. Nothing is really shocking anymore, and Romu's games were actually pretty mild. The spinny chair would either be the ace up my sleeve or my nemesis. I know how to deal with excessive vertigo, but I'm more prone to it than most. I have no idea how I'd do.

Yeah. Another pretty normal day over here.

Comment, and I'll reply with a few sentences on why I value you as a friend. Then, post this on your journal so you can do the same to your friends. (Or not.) TURN UP THE POSITIVITY!

Also. Why are so many Irish slang sites blocked as porn? Dagnabitall. Not like I'm considering apping Jin if the one girl ever finishes her Botan app. No. Not at all. On the topic of YYH, I might like this icon just a little too much. Poor Hiei. (The short one in it. He stands at 4'7"... counting the hair.)

I need to finish my metro Kenpachi app. Can probably wrap it up this afternoon, or tomorrow, depending on how much tweaking I feel it needs, and how blasted long it takes to find songs with my memory of them.

Band practice tonight. I'll get to see score sheets. Could be interesting.

I'm feeling better yay! While my normal isn't 'healthy,' it's what I'm used to, and I can function and cook and clean and stuff. It's nice to see my couch again. Things just pile up there when I'm not feeling well. Purse, groceries, hats...

Now if someone would just app Chuu and/or Kuwabara in Mishima, my RP life would be so near complete.

Yes, this post is likely as dull as the title makes it sound. Edit: Okay, maybe it's not.

I've never had a place of my own before, and I'm starting to get cluttered. It may not be spring yet, technically, but by golly, it's close enough.

And I has a plan of action.

Bathroom - get rid of the old stuff. Too many Christmas gifts of bath sets from distant relatives who don't know me means a whole bunch of stuff I've never used because I really don't like the scent. Also, I still have leftover stuff from when I was a theatre major. Why? Because I kept forgetting to throw it out. I'm using slight makeup again now, but I really don't need to worry that my professors are thinking about casting every moment.

Kitchen - organize the blasted pots and pans. They're going everywhere, and taking over. Take care of them before they get a flag and start claiming more cabinets for themselves.

Closet - I haven't worn pink in years. Why do I have a pink shirt? That and sundry others need to go. Along with all of the pants that fit me freshman year (holy guacamole, did I really think a size three was big??) and will never, ever again. No matter how much I hope.

Living Room - thankfully, not much to do here. Other than throw out the two DVDs that don't work. Really, hoping that 'this time' Sealed Sword Frenzy and Death Note will miraculously get over their problems and show me pictures is not going to work. Oh, and get the Sephiroth poster to stop curling up so I can see more than the hair and his belt. Granted, with all the hair, there's not much more than that to see, but...


Sidenote one: I hurt my heel somehow. It's red, and painful, and I couldn't stand having a sock on that foot. I have no idea what I did...

Sidenote two: Maes is still gleeful and exuberant about besting Dei in a verbal match. He really needs to stop gloating. Link is here, Maes is planning a picnic, and is armed_with_pics. Deidara is a bit of a reprobate in the community, speeding, mocking cops, etcetera.

Sidenote three: Faramir action figure is not very flexible. Most definitely, he is not as flexible as Yoruichi, and since he's standing in for Yoruichi as a model for a sparring thread, he needs to be. I first thought it was all the clothes, and that I needed to find another figure to work with. Nope. Cave Troll isn't flexible enough either. And he refuses to hold a sword. Okay, how many on my flist expected me to try to undress Faramir...

Also, Cave Troll towers over Aragorn, and that just doesn't fit. This then escalated to Treebeard taking over as Aragorn, since Aragorn is standing in for Kenpachi and thus needed to be taller. But Treebeard doesn't hold weapons either, and I kept bumping the thing on his back that makes him speak. Which lead to pulling out Gollem and making him speak. ...I'm getting the feeling that while in the beginning modeling a sparring scene with the figures was easier, it's instead getting distracting now.

And I need to find where Legolas' one arrow went...

We, as a band, took first place at the games yesterday. This was highly unexpected, since we tenors only heard the music for the first time on Monday, AND the reason we got first was because of the drumming and ensemble judges. The piping judges put us lower. So we drummers saved the pipers. About time they're thankful, hee. Though the one piper who is always griping about drummers vanished right when that was discovered on our score sheets. How... surprising. Yeah. But yay!

I got third out of five tenors, for solo competition. But there was still luck there - I should have been disqualified, but I impressed the judge with my playing so much that he placed me. I'll explain. For drumming solo competition, you play with a piper. The piper I'd asked right in the beginning of the season to play all the games for me did not show. My backup piper was needed for the Games opening ceremony, so he couldn't play. So I wound up with another piper I'd not played with before. This wouldn't be a problem, normally. Most of our pipers are quite good. But there is one slight difference in piping and drumming solos - if you mess up right in the beginning, pipers are allowed to start over. Drummers are NOT. This gets you disqualified.

We start playing, and it's obvious something has happened to her drones. (The drones are the three long pipes on the top of the bag - they provide the deep, continuous background sound of the pipes.) They sound abysmal. They're not just off-key with the chanter (the played portion of the pipes, which is how you control what notes are coming out of the pipes), they're off-key with each other too. I'm still playing, because I can't stop. She stops. Completely. I can't compete without a tune. I could keep the beat, but it's not allowed. Thinking I was done, I stopped. She started apologizing to the judge profusely, telling him how it's her fault, that she doesn't know what happened, to please let us go again. The judge is one I've had before. He looks and acts a bit like a bear. Sometimes he'll be happy and friendly, other times he'll rip your head off, and you never know what's going to happen. He grimaced, looking quite not-happy, but then waved his hand.

We started again, her pipes still sounded horrible, and she couldn't stick to a steady beat. I did. This fact alone saved me. He'd been considering just giving comments, but disqualifying me anyways, but he was impressed.

Afterwards, looking at my comment sheet, I saw that everything was marked high. So I went and asked if he had any advice for me. He looked very amused, and said, "I shouldn't tell you this. But get a better piper. That's your only problem, the only reason you didn't get first. You kept the beat steady, when she didn't. Good job. Of course, I can't put that on the sheets. But get a better piper."

So... I did get lucky in that I actually got points instead of being disqualified.

The other lucky thing? The girls that got first and second... haven't placed before. They weren't at Fort Lauderdale, they didn't place at Orlando. So I'm well in the lead with points! Whee!

Next weekend is Zephyrhills. I'll be talking to several pipers tomorrow night, seeing if I can get more backups for solo competition. Here's hoping.

Health sidenote: Started out that morning doing better than I have in several weeks, but by the end of the day it really hurt to take a breath. I'm thinking the long-action inhaler is doing me good, but the short-term one isn't doing much at all.

A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it".

1) I'm a bit obsessive and compulsive about how my house looks if I have a guest coming over. It doesn't matter if it's my little brother, everything gets dealt with unless I'm sick... and then I'm stressed the whole time the guest is there.

2) I like kool-aid. Specifically, grape kool-aid. I make it often. And I still like to eat cinnamon toast crunch for breakfast.

3) I hate taking pills. I've taken so many in my life that I'm good at it, can even take them without any liquids, but I really loathe pills.

4) I've never bought myself an alcoholic drink, though I've had a few. Apparently I can't get a date, but I can get a drink.

5) I'm most comfortable wearing shorts and a t-shirt and being barefoot. It's even better if I'm relaxing in the sun with a good book.

6) I like capes. No, I love capes. Anything billowy, even. If it billows while you walk, gosh, it's awesome. It's probably a good thing that I can't run anymore, because I have a Lorien-style cape, and I'd be running down the Riverwalk nearby on Halloweens in it otherwise. And yes. I am nearly a quarter of a century old, thank you very much.

7) I am a word geek. Typing the word 'billow' up there made me very happy. I also like 'expound,' 'typographically,' 'waterbuffalo,' and 'eggplant,' and so many more. Yay words!

I tag: niggsyisabore, teh_elb, oceanica (your name is so much easier to remember now. And so pretty. heehee.), boz4pm, edge_chan, primula_baggins, and enchantedskies.

Sidenote: Don't know if the new antibiotic is working yet. Still not breathing right, still having coughing problems.

I thought the cough was a simple reaction to the cold and pollution of China.

And then there was blood coughed up.

So I went to the doctor. I have bronchitis and sinusitis. And bonus antibiotics and icky cough syrup. Yay surprise Chinese souvenirs...

For two weeks I've been dealing with acheyness and scratchy throat. I think my body actually wants to get sick. I've fought as hard as I could, but my throat is now sore too. I think I'm losing. :(

Oh well. At least I have cough drops.

We have changed around how articles go through editing here at work. This is good, because our website content-manager was getting a little... heavy-handed. Changing titles, teasers, ledes, anything he felt like it, when he felt like it. So this should make all of us writers/editors happy, which is not an easy thing.

I've also moved desks. This makes me happy. Instead of being shoved into a back corner, I am now near the other writers. This is also closer to the chocolate stash, which may or may not be a good thing.

Taichous Invade is going to kill me. Szayel's release is just obnoxious. I realize the evil creatures have to get more and more powerful, but... Agh. Oh well. At least it's Byakuya against him. If it was Shunsui, I'd end up spending hours just writing suggestive dialogue between the two.

Oh, and look! Moodtheme! Bleach! Made by niggsyisabore and myself. Not quite done, but close, and so pretty. Now I've just got to choose whether to really use what mood I'm in, or go for a pretty picture. So full of our four favorites: Kisuke, Kenpachi, Shunsui, and Ukitake.

Forget this. Have a pretty. Favorite mood, right here. Yay CloudPurse!