Persistence of Memory

...we're in a furniture store looking for a living room set and we have a laminate flooring sample we're carrying around to compare against any wood involved in the couch/loveseat and tables. At one point the salesman looks over at Rick and says, "Well, let me see your wood."

After a short pause I snicker and say, "That could be soooo misinterpreted, you know."

To my surprise, the salesman took it in good stride and started laughing while Rick said something about how they weren't at 'that' stage of the relationship yet, so...

And it's finally snowing. Just barely. It only took half of "winter" for it to happen here.

Happy Western-World New Year, or something like that.

Finally got around to updating the Recs pages. Added to are: Gen/Other; Misc. Slash; Harry/Severus; and Misc. Game-Related under Cloud/Sephiroth.

*&%@^$!

Results of my endoscopy? Another friggin' ulcer. At least this one isn't of the bleeding variety.

Well, I should hope note since the moment I recognized the symptoms I hauled my ass off to a doctor and strongly requested a camera get snaked down my throat.

I am displeased. Displeased!

And the GI is very much, "You need to stop smoking. It really isn't helping here."

Man, it's my one freakin' vice.

Visited Ae'gura today so I could stand down at the docks and listen to the lake splishing and stare at Kerath's Arch. Seems like the algae in the lake is brighter, but who knows. You wouldn't think orange light would be pleasant, but it is. There's something deeply relaxing and comforting (strangely enough) down there at the docks.

Truly, if there was a place/reality I wish could be real, this would be it. I absolutely adore Ae'gura, despite the fact that so much of it is damaged.

A bunch of people were wearing santa hats today, and quite a number were amusing themselves by trying to jump onto ... a marker? I didn't bother to take a good look, actually, just took pictures. Kind of like that game where you see how many people you can fit into a telephone box.

I have to wonder if I'm listening to the panic and/or death throes of a mouse or rat trapped in the walls or something. At first I heard what sounded like scratching up above (though it could have been below), and now I keep hearing scrabbling sounds coming from the closet in here. When I wandered out into the hall both cats were sitting there staring at the wall (back side of the closet) all puzzled like. Bane came in here a little while ago and kept cocking his head at the closet doors (they're the sliding mirror types).

This is all doubly annoying since I've barely had any sleep. I think all that Sucralfate I've been taking is responsible for the twitching in my knees again that Excedrin suddenly can't do anything about.

Blech. And I am so craving chocolate right now. Brownies sound good, actually.

That was wonderful. Just finished a gander through Bloom County, the Complete Library, Volume One. Now all I need is the other four.

I've come to the decision (whether it is erroneous or not is beside the point) that people who continue to answer reviews in their chapters are simply looking for more attention. They want everyone who reads the story to see how they answer their reviews, never mind that it's against site rules (though honestly, FFN could do better in keeping those rules at the forefront) and annoys the fuck out of a lot of people who hate having to scroll past all that stuff which shouldn't be there to begin with.

Back when you didn't have any choice. It was the only way to answer reviews... unless you set up a journal somewhere with a link in your profile and hoped people would go look there. To keep doing it now, even after FFN provided a very simple and easy way to respond... yeah, attention-seeking mode is on.

It's really annoying. The dream I had this morning revealed that I had a lot more oneshots written, but I had purposely posted them in a non-linked location (for some reason), and apparently some of them were quite good. I tried so hard to capture what they were... you know, so I could actually write them! Alas, to no avail. So... very... frustrating.

I mean, I knew it was a dream. What else could it be with the shit going down during it (including a room of mine I'd never seen before but found rather interesting). Besides, why on earth would I post a bunch of oneshots and then not share them with anyone?

The whole thing was just plain weird. Well, that and I apparently had friends I saw in person, which is just about unheard of. Maybe one day I'll get the hang of lucid dreaming.

So, earlier today I went for a consult about a potential "come back to bite me on the ass" problem. This week... well, I guess two weeks, actually, I've been having symptoms again of my brush with death two years ago. So I hauled my ass off to a doctor (translation: I asked Rick to please make an appointment) and got a referral. So I get to have another camera snaked down my throat soon to see if another ulcer is trying to sneak up on me (though if this is sneaking it needs to go back to ninja school).

I am displeased, you understand.

But if it is happening I want to know, not sit here twiddling my fingers nervously and spiraling off into anxiety attacks. (Yay for a new Xanax 'scrip!)

In other news, I have found out that apparently... my paternal grandfather's family originates from Cornwall. Huh. But we won't forget that inclusion once over on this side of the pond of Native American Indian. And my paternal grandmother's side hails from Ireland.

Now all this time I could have sworn I had a Scot hiding in there and no Irish, but whatever, right? And someone on my mum's side swears there's a Chinese person in the lineage, but I'll believe that once I see proof (translation: not likely to happen).

So, I'm way more English than I realized. So that's kinda neat. I'll still probably say half out of habit, though.

No news on the story front aside from saying I did have an idea to thieve from a will-probably-never-be-finished story and tossed the idea into a might-be-eventually-finished story of the Harry/Voldemort variety, but we'll see how that goes. Still considering some crossover ideas, too.

I've been streaming SG1 and thinking... uh, Daniel? What the fuck happened to finding your wife? Why are you flipping out over admittedly very valuable information at the risk of your life and never being able to share it with anyone (because, you know, you'd be dead) instead of not denying that slap of reality to the face? What good are you to what's-her-face if you're stuck forevermore on a dead planet, assuming you even survive the partial to whole destruction of the area you're in?

I wonder about the writers, you know? It's almost like they very quickly (and this is the episode right after Thor's Hammer) decided to shove that plot thread on Ye Olde Back Burner in favor of giving Daniel a bit of a personality transplant. Frankly, I'm shocked that Jack did not pull the Guilt Card to get Daniel to move it. Cruel? Damn skippy. Effective? Yeah. What the hell?

There are some real assholes in Wizard101. The ones who see you in a battle, jump in, wait long enough for another enemy to join in, then flee or log out. Gee, thanks! And I'm already having to purchase minions just to do a normal battle in this area, and these wankers are making it two and three times more difficult.

These people at Wizard101 are sadistic. There's a semi-optional area called Wintertusk in Grizzelheim (also a semi-optional area). Both are used in spell quest chains. Some of the spells you get from your primary school (mine is Life) are obtained by going through quest chains. Normally not much of an issue.

Except... I solo most everything (though I do use crowns to purchase temporary minions on the tougher fights), and Wintertusk, which I will need to get at least partway though for my level 58 quest, has all Ice enemies. And they're all Rank 9, which means it's next to impossible for me to solo any fight without a purchased minion. Gah!

Most of the people on my friends list (admittedly few, because most of them seem to friend and forget) are lower level. They also seem to be the type to beg for help in earlier areas, never mind that I'm in a dungeon instance at the moment, and they never friggin' bother to say what they need help with! I removed one kid for that because even when I asked he wouldn't answer for what.

Anyway, doing Wintertusk is gonna be a bitch and maybe I'll just hold off on doing any more there until I hit level 58, and instead faff around finishing Dragonspyre and however much of Celestia. Mind you, the level cap at the moment is 60 and I'm level 51.... which means I'll end up doing a bunch of stuff for no xp at all, just loot and money.

On the plus side, I have over 100k, which means I could get the house I want, but I'm still saving up since I'll have to buy new gear again soon enough. And mats to make food for raising pets... but yeah, soon.

Oh look, there's one now... at least she told me what when I asked.

( Vulgarity Ahead )

If anyone likes playing silly little games while they've got nothing better to do...

Well, if you feel like helping me out, go here. If you score high enough you'll get a code you can send to me and I can redeem it in game.

But if nobody does, not exactly a big deal, you know? Started playing them myself while waiting to be able to get a subscription to Wizard101, and it's way faster than grinding for gold in game right now. Trying to save up for a house, among other things.

1. Animated favicons are really quite annoying.

2. It's a bit weird to be standing in the Commons (Wizard101) and see a bunch of (presumably) male players all saying "I need a girl" and "Any sixth grade honeys out there needing a guy, talk to me" and suchlike. I mean... WTF?

3. Got through Campaign 2 in Tropico 4, not that I could actually remember what the goal was, as I tend to play, win, start the next one, save, and quit until I'm in the mood again. Definitely like the side quests that pop up, love the new artwork for the representatives of various countries, Tropicans, etc. Very amusing and fairly gentle mocking going on, with those and the way the speeches are done. I did remember to write myself a note about the goals of Campaign 3, though.

4. Made some batter, sliced some potatoes... fried some up. I'll have to remember next time to slice them thinner than I think looks right, since the heat from the oil has to get through the batter before it starts cooking those poor potato slices. Still, they came out pretty good, just slightly undercooked in the middle. Suppose I could use the same batter to fry up partially cooked chicken. I think I have BBQ sauce around here somewhere.

5. I suck at making gravy, apparently.

For all the hype of Pottermore... I got through year 1 in a day (and it would have been much, much less if not for the outages) and the idea of making potions or dueling to gain house points is... lacking. Yeah, it's beta, and maybe it will flesh out more later, but.... The new information is interesting and useful, but not really enough.

Honestly, if JKR wanted to keep things alive she would turn to an MMO. Quest-driven, mostly.

I've been playing Wizard101 recently and while you can just grind like a mother for levels and drops (to some extent), it's basically about quests revolving around saving Wizard City (and the Spiral, I suppose?) from the evil wizard. (I'm playing a Life wizard of all things, with Ice as secondary mostly.)

So why not Harry Potter? New areas on Earth could be added as time went by, or new villains, with corresponding quest chains. People could even start in different wizarding communities as home base. England, France, etc., and have to earn passage to other "nations" via quests or whatever.

I got placed in Slytherin, but based on the questions, I'm not exactly sure why.

I was off by one day regarding my Pottermore early access activation.

Can I get into the site? Nah. Still overloaded. Pfft.