January 2004 Archives

Skuld feels shitty. She has yet to read chapter 202 of Naruto, and might not have time for it tonight because the ninja party starts in an hour and a half, and I'm not even close to being completely unpacked. I have two suitcases and three boxes sittinga round in my room begging for some sort of attention. ARGH! *annoyed*

This all thanks to Boing, who is the slowest person I've ever seen to move out of her room. >_< Oh well, I don't blame her. She's been stressed out and freezing up and panicking over her thesis. :P Skuld doesn't have to write a thesis, and thusly is glad. And she moves out of her room quick too.

Note to self: throw out crap.

I swear half the stuff I have around here is stuff I don't really need, but I might before I graduate. -_-;; I'll just be sure to throw stuff out after I graduate I guess. Until then...I don't wanna move anymore. *sobs* ;_;

I'm really sick of the X fandom and their sniping. Especially between Seishirou/Subaru fans and Subaru/Kamui fans. Okay, look, I hate S/K too. I hate it with a passion, but you know, no matter how much you guys argue back and forth, it's not going to change anything. It's just going to foster more and more animosity and more stubbornness.

Why don't we just leave each other alone, instead of having our pointless little wars where we just always end up saying the same thing? Can't we learn for once?

Jesus Christ. >_< *sighs* Maybe I'm just saying this because I feel like shit.

Thanks to being cosplay geeks, Ali-chan and I have completely lost our shame and sense of dignity. Thusly, if you happen to pass by Lobby 10 of MIT today between the hours of 11:30am and sometime late afternoon, you will see Naruto and Sasuke bumming around and chilling out in order to promote the Fenway House Ninja Party on Saturday at 5pm. *coughs*

Stop by and see us be silly fangirls and kick-ass ninjas.

Debating whether or not to bring the Fuuma Shuriken. >_> Probably not, but will bring a camera to document our silly good times. ^_^

Had nasty argument with some housemates today over Rush and the Work Week of the house. -_-;; *sighs* Oh well. I'm just glad that everything got resolved and I didn't have to resort to anything like strangling them in their sleep. ^^;; *coughs*

I have a few amusing links for you guys:

1. Fefnir's blog which has the gayest layout of Sol Badguy ever witnessed by mankind. This one's hard to top, folks.

2. Here's a comic for you Seishirou x Subaru fans and another similar one for you Seishirou x Fuuma fans.

3. Here is yet another example of why I hate those bastards currently running the United States government. >_< ARGH!

Catch Skuld and Ali-chan on Friday, around noon-ish, running around MIT as Sasuke and Naruto. >_> We're just really bored. ^^;;

Was still a little tired today during work week, and ended up taking a one hour nap until dinner time. ^^;; *sweatdrops* But Chris came back to Fenway House today, and even though he's not even remotely close to graduating, at least he's back. Fenway's not half as fun without him.

So...Fenway House is having a ninja party on Saturday starting at 5pm. That means that all you people who have ninja costumes *coughNarutocough* should come, hang out, and be ninja-y. Also, Will, who has Narutimet Hero should come and hang out...so we can play Narutomet Hero, which his horribly addictive. And then we can watch crappy ninja movies like American Ninja, and we'll just have a great night before classes start again on Tuesday. (the 3rd or something. -_-;; One week before my birthday.)

Skuld's classes have taken this form:

9.09 Cellular Neurobiology
9.70 Social Psychology
21F.016 Alternative Cinema: Male Same-Sex Desire in International Film (don't you all wish you had this class? :p)
21F.506 Advanced Japanese II (my final Japanese class. *sniffle*)

Gonna be a fun term, I think. I might take 9.07 as a listener, but the class starts at 9:30am. Ludicrously early. I can tell you right now I'm never going to be able to rise that early. EVER.

On the subject of RP, since Rah has been having a lot of roleplay angst lately. So that's gotten me thinking. I miss my Tolkien RP. I had some pretty kick-ass original characters that I really enjoyed playing as, but it doesn't quite seem as right to roleplay with Mirai without Lantis. It also isn't quite as right to roleplay Silniyel without Elendar. I miss Mirai. She was one of the few female characters I really liked to roleplay as, because she was just plain so much fun. -_-;; *sighs*

I'm sort of hankering for either a One Piece or a Naruto roleplay. More the Naruto actually, since there are a lot more cool characters to follow in Naruto than in One Piece. I mean, Luffy and his crew are really awesome and all that, but to really get the variety you have to watch/read Naruto. (I'm sure Roni is very tired of me blabbing on and on about Naruto by now.)

So if anyone is planning a small-ish (3-5 people) Naruto roleplay and needs a Sasuke (though I'd rather not), a Neji (lurve the Neji!), or a post-Chuunin exam Shikamaru, give me a holler. Also willing to do Rock Lee or Kimimaro (though we should probably hold off on having him in any RP until we see more than two chapters with him in it).

Also hankering for First Age Middle-Earth roleplay. Doing something short in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad would totally rock. Or any of the other five major battles. I forget the details of them because I've misplaced my copy of The Silmarillion but I wouldn't mind RPing a original character or one of the Noldor.

In short:
- Wanna ninja RP? Give Skuld a call.
- Wanna elf RP? Give Skuld a call.
- Want Skuld to finish writing the 2nd chapter of "Miles?" Give Skuld a call. ^^;;

Your life in a Final Fantasy game by Neko_Kaolla
Character Name
Age
Hair/Eye Color	Long, silky black/Dark brown
Role in Party	Sexy one
Type	Gunner/Item shooter/etc.
In Game Lover	Sepiroth (You like 'em bad!)
Created with quill18's MemeGen 2.0!

p0wnZ!!
If only this person could spell right... >_>

I miss my long, silky black hair. -_-;; My hair is now short and mostly-black. And I don't like being a gunner (because they SUCK), but oh well. I can deal, especially if I get to go on a couple of dates with Seph before Cloud kicks my ass.

Work week is a drag, as usual.
And if anyone ever wonders what I'm smoking when I write my fanfiction...check my livejournal.

Work week sucks. Okay, so I technically don't really have to do much work because I spend most my time checking up on other peoples' work...but... it's still a drag getting up every morning at 8:30am. =_=;; For someone who is used to getting up at 11, that's very early indeed.

Rah came over last night and we hung out for a bit and went to dinner together. ^_^ We spent a long time talking about various things. We never run out of things to talk about in person. It's rather odd that way. XD Whee! I wish I could've seen her a weekend where I didn't have to stay in the house..but..hey. *shrugs* No big deal. ^^;; I'll find some random weekend (Spring Break?) to clamber up to Dartmouth and chill out with her there. ^_^ Huzzah!

Class starts soon. >_< Blargle. And on a note of randomness: I think Fenway is having a ninja party. It was my idea. Being a big Naruto fan and all. Might dress up as Sasuke for the occasion. Always a good idea to dig out old costumes. ^_^;;

Watched Army of Darkness and Pee Wee's big adventure. Now I know why I'm so fucked up. @_@

Oh yeah, and I passed Stoic yesterday, and almost would have passed Exotic Ethnic if it hadn't been for the fact that I almost slipped and fell. >_< note to self: get new DDR-ing winter boots.

Rah's coming over to visit tomorrow...I hope she got the directions to my place. If not, I'll have my cell phone on me all weekend. XD

At Roni's behest...Skuld posts pictures! ^_^ Note that I am not actually in any of these pictures. ^^;; *sweatdrops* Obviously, because I am taking all of them.

Fenway House: Skuld's room
Well, my room until this weekend when I move into another room. ^^;;

This is what you'll see when you enter through the doorway. And if you turn to the left, you'll see my little corner of the room. ^_^ There might be several things you recognize, wall hangings, posters, pictures...especially the ones by my bed. *cough* I call that my "Wall of Gay Men." Because well...it's a wall of yaoi. ^^;;

Next to my little space is my roommate, Mike Lewis's little space. Do not be fooled by the loft with the couch up there. He does not sleep there. He sleeps in another secret corner of the room which I have not photographed due to extreme messiness. ^^;; So if you turn around, then you'll see more of my stuff. Including the piece I used for my Legato shoulder thingy. ^^;; *sweatdrop*

Fenway House: the living room and the fenbeings

Here is a wonderful view of our bookshelf, complete with numberous A-Ameri encyclopedias. Here's the rest of the living room. And yes, that is an atrocious color of blue. ^_^ We like it that way.

Here's a picture of some Fenbeings watching cartoons.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2004

Huzzah! Look at all the people who gathered on Fri. Jan 16th for the opening ceremonies in Lobby 7. ^_^ So many people! So many nerds!

Here are several pictures of ACME Headquarters. ^_^
Just barely set up
Just at the beginning...
The first night
A bit further that night as we started getting answers.
More pondering, with C. Scott in the foreground, and Mike Springer in the background on those nifty couch things I spent two nights sleeping on. ^^;;
Still being nerdy.
Saturday evening when we were thoroughly frustrated.
Our fridge and our tables of food and gallons of water.
C. Scott and Jessica studying the maps.
Our blackboards...and our pitifully small amount of answers.
THE quote that will stay with us forever as we remember how shittily that hunt was run. Well, hats off to Kappa Sig anyway. ^_^

and now my pictures are exhausted, as am I.

At lab. Hungry, but too lazy to go get food. My laziness will be the death of me, I swear. @_@ I remember way back freshman year, spring term, when I was in the Chah Minh and chatting online at 2:30-3am-ish with Miriya, and I was tired and sleepy, but too lazy to climb up the ladder to my loft to sleep...so I spent more time online chatting. ¬_¬ Oh, I am so bad.

And nowadays, I'm having trouble falling asleep before 4am. >_< Goddammit! There's work week this weekend and next week too! @_@ I have to get up at 8-8:30am-ish! Blargh! (Yes, that's a very ungodly early hour for me.) *sighs*

Not too busy at lab today, so I might have time to make a trip down to The Garment District and see if they have anything conducive to the Sol cosplay (need white vinyl pants! white vinyl pants, people! >_> Someone give a holler if they find any nice ones!) or to a possible Sasuke Version 2.0 cosplay. XD (The black...oooh, the black is so nice. ^_^<3)

Oh yeah, and Happy Chinese New Year. Anyone want to go to dinner with me tonight? ...or not.

Held a baby rat in my hand for the first time today. It was about as big as a mouse, and was the cutest little thing I'd ever seen. They were only abuot 11 days old, and still had their eyes closed and their ears lying flat. They were so small and so adorable. Of course, we were using them to harvest their brains, so one by one I played with them, and handed them over to be euthanized with ketamine. ;_; That part was quite depressing, because it was obvious they really hated being injected with ketamine. You should have heard the little ratty screams. ._. Poor things.

Then I spent the rest of the evening at Ali-chan's place, where we celebrated Adam's birthday with a pot of chili, Cartoon Network cartoons, and wrestling with the sewing machine. Because vinyl doesn't work very well under the sewing machine, I have to go out and buy this special stuff that lets you sew on vinyl. >_< Ugh, what a pain in the ass! *grumbles*

Sol, you're a pain in the ass! ^_^

But at least...*drumroll*

I passed Cartoon Heroes today! ^_^ *cheers* Yay! One of the hardest 9-foot songs! Okay, so I wouldn't have survived if it hadn't been for the fact that I played it as my first song...but hey, that's one of the hardest 9-foots already out of the way on my:

Songs to beat by Anime Boston list

1. So Deep
2. A (oni)
3. Waka Laka
4. Cartoon Heroes
5. Sakura
6. Exotic Ethnic
7. Stoic
8. Orion .78 Civilization Mix
9. V (oni)
10. The Least 100 Seconds

w00t. 4 down, 6 to go. Tried "Stoic" the other day...definitely harder than Waka Laka. Goddammit. Still must work on playing more of "The Least 100 Seconds." I don't think I shall get it out of the way with too much trouble. XD Go rigorous DDR training!

So for all of you who told me to read the Naruto manga...I finally gave in and read it after seeing episodes 66 and 67 of the anime. =_=;; And now I'm all caught up to manga chapter 200...and once more I am dying to know what's going to happen next. ARGH! I have also decided that my next layout is going to be a Naruto layout. ^_^ Because there are some damn cool parts of the manga. @_@

And the Konoha Five totally rule. ^_^ Despite the fact that Shino's not in there (he's one of my favorites. *sniffles* I like him way better than Kiba. >_< Oh well). ^^;; Oh well.

And I believe these lines from "Rejected" will now apply quite well to Sasuke:

Naruto: Tuesday's coming, did you bring your coat?
Sasuke: ;_; I live in a giant bucket.

XD I amuse myself too much. I think Sasuke needs to spend more time in his giant bucket so he can come to his senses.

*cough cough cough*

Oh, I'm sorry I meant to say, "I think Sasuke to needs to spend more in Naruto's bed so he can come to his senses." Silly me, getting those mixed up. ^_^

Hooray for Setec, they found the coin this morning at about 9am. =_=;; And they're writing the hunt next year, which means it's NOT going to SUCK. >_<

and yes, this year's hunt sucked incomparably to the other year's hunts. >_< I could rant about it for hours, but basically:

1. Bad flavor text cluing
2. Answers inconsistent with puzzle structure
3. Too many difficult puzzles (they wrote 120+ puzzles in total, which is more than anyone ever has)

And that made for a miserable hunt. I spent hours on the "Shogun Trivia" puzzle before I found out it was a metapuzzle. >_< I also spent a long time on the "Merchant's Courtyard/MahJongg" puzzle because it was poorly clued as to what to do after I got the first step. >_< *grumble grumble*

I also have no clue how to solve the DDR puzzle, but I think it involves the light steps of those particular steps during those 7-17sec. clips...and boy is that a pain in the ass to do for 49 clips. Puzzles shouldn't be mindless grunt work, they should be puzzles. They should test your knowledge and your cleverness, not how much time you can spend looking at stepcharts and matching clips. >_<

Either way, Setec's writing the hunt next year, and Setec writes good hunts. ^_^ Really good hunts. The monopoly hunt was pretty good. So I look forward to next year. Hopefully our team will be larger...or I might join a larger team or something. ^^;;

Anyways...it was fun though, during the moments where I knew what to do and the moments where I solved puzzles. Those are the best. -_-;; And whoever wrote the "Turning Japanese/backwards Engrish" puzzle needs to be shot. Or at least have rocks thrown at him/her. >_< *unhappy*

I also think I have strep throat. My throat is killing me everytime I try to swallow. I don't want to talk or even try to eat. *pain* I could feel it coming on at Mystery Hunt, but it was a mild sore and nothing full blown like it is right now. @_@ Thank god I have some penicillin from the last time. I might have to travel to campus tomorrow or tonight and get it checked out. >_< *grumble grumble grumble*

Had a dream about cosplay last night. Involved Cocoa and her friends, and Roni and I. Much cuddling ensued for some odd reason, despite us all being excited about being in our X costumes and going to Jamba Juice. I love dreams when it's summer, and not cold as hell. ¬_¬ And when I'm not sick. I hope the penicillin makes me feel better. >_<

Sleeping at Mystery Hunt HQ once more tonight. =_=;; Blargle.

Sunday morning at Mystery Hunt. =_=;; Still no end in sight. We are not even close. NOT EVEN CLOSE. At this moment, we hate Kappa Sig. With a passion. With a fucking passion, because a lot of their puzzles suck ass.

Especially the DDR one. >_< And then there's other stuff we have, and we just have no idea what to DO. *grumble grumble grumble*

Our quote of the day comes from C. Scott. "I think we can pretty much discard any argument which begins, 'but then the puzzle wouldn't be elegant!'"

Which is too too true. =_=;; *sobs*

Skuld's Mystery Hunt report!

This year's theme: Pirates! (Somehow I'm not surprised...if we win the hunt this year I'll make them make the next hunt be Ninjas. XD) And hunting for treasure and fun stuff like that.

Out of curiosity, does anyone do some crocheting? There seems to be a Mystery Hunt crocehting puzzle, and no one I know crochets. If any of you would like to help...please do. E-mail me.

For those of you about to kick my ass...

I have finally given in and read the Naruto manga. Of course, this is coming at the price of sleep (as do all things unhomework related) and I am now on chapter 136. Yes, I know it's an awful lot to catch up to, considering that chapter 200 comes out tomorrow...

I'm also behind on my One Piece manga, and thanks to my friends I have downloaded that as well and will be caught up to 292. *sighs*

Naruto and One Piece are awesome. Honestly. XD I'm actually liking Naruto more than One Piece now, despite the fact that Luffy's final fight with Crocodile will always OWN ME. ^^;; (I am firmly convinced that nothing can take the badassness of Monkey D. Luffy vs. Crocodile in Alabasta. OH MY GOD.) I think there's more depth to the Naruto characters, and there's more characters I like in Naruto than in One Piece. But hell, they're both awesome, and I love them both.

Skuld's turned into a shounen fan! :x
Or rather, a Naruto-and-One Piece shounen fan! XD

Oh yes, and MIT Mystery Hunt is tomorrow, and yours truly is part of the ACME/VILE team once again. ^_^ I shall be updating as the Hunt goes on...probably with rants of frustration as to why I can't figure out so-and-so puzzle. -_-;;

As for last year's Mystery Hunt, you can read my entries here, and amuse yourself with me gushing about how cool Mystery Hunt was because were running it. XD (Scroll down towards the bottom-ish.)

Anyways, off to finish little bits and pieces for my paper, and I'll see you all tomorrow at 12 noon, Lobby 7, when Mystery Hunt has its kickoff and our theme is revealed!

Skuld now rules her own little country. XD She welcomes you check out: The Holy Empire of Sterkinbobra!

I just remembered that I founded it about six days while I was over at Mark's place. You guys should all found little countries too. XD And then we can join the UN and take over the world.

Here's something for all you Get Backers fans. ^_^ I just barely finished watching it...and you can imagine what nasty things were going through my head the entire time.

For all the guys out there who haven't noticed the inherent gayness in Get Backers....WHAT THE HELL CRACK ARE YOU SMOKING?

So far the count of characters who have been confirmed to be straight are:

1. Kagami
2. Shidou
3. Madoka
4. Hevn

All the other characters are ambiguously gay. Or just straight-out (pardon the pun) gay. *cough*Juubei/Kazuki*cough* ¬_¬ Sometimes I wonder if men really are that dense not to have noticed that their favorite shounen show is full of homosexual men. What is that supposed to say, I wonder...

EDIT: I got linked off GuiltyGear.ru @_@ Why? Why is someone linking my blog from a Guilty Gear website? In Russian, no less? Beats the hell outta me. ¬_¬ Sheer comedic value, I suppose.

Now I fear that the Sol Badguy bunny has been working behind my back. Look Sol, if you're planning a hostile posession of my body, just tell me, okay? And while you're at it, why don't you make me do something useful, like write my papers and do my laundry?

I have passed Waka Laka! Huzzah, I finally passed Waka Laka! That's another tick mark off...

Songs to beat by Anime Boston

1. So Deep
2. A (oni)
3. Waka Laka
4. Cartoon Heroes
5. Sakura
6. Exotic Ethnic
7. Stoic
8. Orion .78 Civilization Mix
9. V (oni)
10. The Least 100 Seconds

I think I will tackle #10 and #7 next. @_@

Hosed tonight with writing the paper for my lab. Writing a paper for an experiment you never worked on really sucks ass. >_< *grumble grumble* But it does help you learn a lot, I think. I've learned much. Now if I can just survive tomorrow, where I'm supposed go through this paper paragraph by paragraphy and plate some cells...I have survived until Mystery Hunt.

Then the big question becomes, will I survive Mystery Hunt?
I leave you now with some warmup Mystery Hunt puzzles to let you guys what hell I'm getting myself into this weekend. ^_^ *happy grin*

Some of you may be surprised to find that I have resumed work on "And Miles to Go..." my Legato Bluesummers fanfic. The Legato bunny seized me (my Sol bunny has been oddly quiet of late) in the midst of listening to one of the non-music tracks of the 2nd Donut Trigun soundtrack (hearing Legato/Seki Toshihiko's sexy voice in an Osaka accent totally kicked my ass ^_^) and it seems Legato has finally decided that he wants me to finish his story.

Or at the very least, start to finish his story.

I hope to have chapter two out before Mystery Hunt starts, because I know nothing will get done Mystery Hunt weekend. XD Let's see if I can make it.

Damn, "Miles" has been on hiatus for about six months. ¬_¬ I blame Sol...and Otakon. I would have finished the second chapter by now if it weren't that I was so hosed during term, so Guilty Gear obsessed, and so busy with cosplay during the month of August.

My dear, Legato bunny, you are not leaving. But do me a favor, resuscitate my Sol bunny. He's not looking too healthy over there.

Finally got myself all caught up with Naruto up to episode 65! ^_^ Whee! I can't wait for the one hour special to come out. ^_^ *fufufufufu* And I really like Sasuke's new outfit...the black just makes him even more badass. I must keep the cosplay bunnies at bay... @_@ Because my hair is nowhere long enough to pull off a black!Sasuke costume. *coughs* And need I remind myself that I have my Sol costume to start?

I don't think it's really quite hit me that everyone in Naruto is uber-angsty. Even Naruto, who acts all genki has his angst moments, especially about his past, his childhood, and his previous failures. Sakura has her angst about her relationship with Ino, even though that's nothing compared to say, Neji's angst. @_@

I guess what makes Naruto special is that unlike a lot of other shows or manga I've really liked (*cough hack* X *cough cough*) each character learns how to overcome their shortcomings. Sasuke works trains hard so that one day he'll be able to kill Itachi and avenge his clan (Good luck, kid. ¬_¬ You've got a long way to go). Naruto never gives up, Hinata's overcome her shyness, Neji's stopped being such a damn fatalist, Lee still (waveringly) believes in his nindou, and Gaara...well...has found a way to deal with his issues by creating even more issues. *sweatdrops*

I think I'll have to honestly say that I'm really fond of the Naruto crew, with only a few exceptions. *cough*Sakura and Ino*cough* All the major players whom I've mentioned above are really alive and diverse characters, and honestly, I think they're also some of the most well-developed and well-portrayed characters I've met in anime in a long time.

In that sense, it beats out One Piece. (Yeah, you all can come and kill me now. XD) Not that I don't like One Piece. One Piece is special in its own way and is in a league all its own. It's just that, as far as I've seen in the series, there's too much "plot" happening and not enough "plot&character" happening. Could I say that the One Piece characters are a little flat? Yeah. They're not as complex as the Naruto characters, but then again, One Piece exists for a different reason, and I love it for a different reason than I love Naruto.

As some who has yet to read any significant portions of the Naruto manga...I like how the anime is being played out. It could go along a little faster, but hey, it's shounen, it's supposed to be slow. That's okay with me. In the meantime, I'll wait for things to pan out and hope that the characters keep going their ways. ^_^

And cheers to Naruto for summoning Gamabunta. XD Naruto's frogs might even beat out Fuuma's.

Oh yeah, and still a big Sasuke/Naruto fan. XD I see them as almost having a Ban/Ginji-ish relationship, but with way more sexual tension. @_@

Oh yes, and here's a random conversion between me and t3h clon3. ^_^ See if you understand the references. (And don't say Guilty Gear....that's the obvious one.)

Skuld: Ky: My sword's too big...
Sol: I am a banana.
Ed Ky: Tuesday's coming. Did you bring your coat?
Sol: Yare yare da ze.
Skuld: Jam: I'm feeling fat...and sassy.
Ed: Venom: My anus is bleeding!
Ed: ok, that one was bad <_<;
Skuld: I-no: I am Ishiwatari's whore!
Axl: And how!
Ed: and then the alien can come down and pluck out Zato's eyes
Skuld: May: now with more shota!
Bridget: Sweet Jesus!
Ed: rotfl XD
Ed: Dizzy: Say, would you like to go see a movie?
Test: I'm wearing a giant bucket.
Skuld: Zappa: You're watching Guilty Gear, and now angry ticks fire out of my nipples.
Ed: Chipp: DOYOOOOOOO
JUSTICE: RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOO
Chipp: GAAAAAH
Justice: RAUUUUUUUUUUUU
Skuld: Chipp: *eye pops out*
Ed: Millia: *rips Zato's stomach out, puts on head* I am the queeeeeeeeeen of France.
Skuld: Hahahaha. No way dude, Ky has to do that. XD
Skuld: Millia can get beaten down for not having a silly hat. XD
Ed: lol, I'd be pretty scared
Ed: hahaha XD
Ed: by Johnny.
Skuld: Hahaha. XD By Johnny and... I-no? @_@
Ed: oh yeah XD

Wow, Sunday was very boring. I don't even much remember what I did except for hang around the library for four hours for work (I punted writing my lab's paper outrageously, which is why I'm paying for it now, I suppose), and go to a long housemeeting, and then play a couple of games of Smashies Melee.

I know it's only Monday, but I am all psyched about MIT Mystery Hunt. It is t3h cool, and I will miss it dearly when I am graduated and gone. ;_; Skuld is still sticking around with her Acme team, even though we have split into "people who just want to have fun" and "people who are seriously trying to win a hunt." I am in the "Acme just wants to have fun" group, because you know, Mystery Hunt is just one big blast. And even though we probably do not have much of a shot this year (since some of our best puzzlers, Lance and Francis have split off are gone), but I'm going to enjoy it anyways.

Mystery Hunt is one of the reasons I come back for IAP (besides being sick of my parents), and it is thoroughly one large, enjoyable group frustration activity. But it's so nice when you solve a puzzle. So nice when you call in your answer and you're right. So nice when you get to end game and run around the campus trying to find "the coin." Mystery Hunt is just plain awesome, and I really wish I could share it with my friends who aren't here. Never fear, I shall probably be IMing you or calling you up and asking you questions I can't quite remember. ^_^

But in the meantime, as I finish my paper, why don't you take a look at the puzzles we made for the hunt last year? ^_^

Wow, that was one of the coolest Saturdays I've ever had. Despite the weird-ass dream, I got to go see "Return of the King" for free courtesy with Ali-chan, Leah, and Adam (and we squealed over all the hobbity gay moments), and after that I got to go to Red Bones for dinner with Lewis and Will (we actually finished all our food! @_@ That's a first!), went to the arcade for some ParaPara, DDR, and go kart action (oooh, the adrenaline), and then we went home and played almost two hours straight of the Naruto: Narutimate Hero for the PS2. Holy shit is that game addictive. @_@

ADDICTIVE.

I'm thinking of getting a mod chip just so I can play that game...because it's t3h addictive. XD Oh yeah, and I called Roni and we caught up on things...so all in all, it's been an awesome, awesome weekend...aside from actually having to write a paper tomorrow and go to work. >_< Blargle.

Must play more Naruto. Must watch more Naruto, since they've gotten to the final fight and Sasuke's got his hot new uniform. ^_^ <3 Sasuke! <3 Now I want to break the costume out again and romp around the house with my hair all gelled up. ^_^ Yup, sounds like fun.

Bad ideas! All round! Wheeeee!! ^_^

Let's just say what's going on today: Velcro Wrestling, Asskicking Machines, hopefully the Attack Toaster, and maybe the ramen-flavored pop tarts. My life is t3h exciting, yes it is.

On lab news...they're making me write papers. *sighs* I wish I could do something interesting for a change, like actually watching some surgery or handling the plating and passaging of cells. Oh well. -_-;; Off to Asskicking Machines for me!

Yay! I just beat Lament of Innocence as Leon! ^_^ Now I've unlocked Joachim, and oh my god, I love how he plays. <3 And damn, that twist at the ending...okay, that I did not see coming. *got blindsided*

But yay! I beat it! ^_^
(and I shouldn't be saying this, but I have to...)

YATTA!

^_^;; *sweatdrop?*

There are some people's blog entries I read, and that just gets me thinking. Stupid mind, stop thinking.

Hated the old layout...so a new one. ^_^ This one's much prettier. Huzzah for slashy Sephiroth x Cloud.

Holy crap! How did I miss this when it was first shown months ago! O_o;; I have been completely bypassed by a Japanese-turned-American internet phenomenon. Sh~it.

For those of you who haven't seen it...YATTA! the music video by Happatai. (For more information...MIT students rule. Especially those who apparently live in Burton-Conner.)

Apparently they're a Japanese group of sketch comedians on a show called "Silly Go Lucky".... and this is one of their sketches which has amused Americans, entertained the Japanese, and sold millions. @_@ Holy shit.

Please, tell me someone (*pointed looks at Mike Lewis, Avatrix, and Ray*) wants to get a "YATTA!" group together for Anime Boston. XD Please please please tell me you want to. Because that would just plain OWN.

Finally got around to seeing the Cowboy Bebop Movie last night. It's pretty good, but there are some drawbacks to it, I think. I don't think the story was as well-developed or well-explained as it could have been, but hey, it's Cowboy Bebop, so I suppose there's some suspension of disbelief to be expected on the audience's part.

There were some visually stunning scenes though (in addition to bad excuses to show how well Spike can fly), and Spike kicking a whole load of ass is definitely plus points. There's even some character development there which sets him up for his confrontation with Vicious later in the timeline. But all in all, pretty good movie, and as soon as I find screenshots I might want to try to make a layout or something. ^_^;; *sweatdrops*

Still ploughing on through Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Almost done. Just finished up the Ghostly Theatre, but I think I'm going to have to walk around the other levels, grab some keys I missed, open some doors to keys I've got just gotten, and random cleany-up bits. I'm also going to have to fight The Forgotten One, and that I dread since I've seen Omi go through Boss Rush Mode. =_=;; Blargle. But then I get Joachim, and I can go through the game yet again! ^_^ Huzzah!

Other than that...it's good to be back...and hanging around a DDR machine. ^_^ Might skip out on lab today due to laziness...but might also not skip out on lab and get something productive done. Oh, the choices one has to make.

Skuld is home sweet home in Boston. ^_^ I have to be on campus tomorrow for work (should check the schedule I've dumped in some random place... ^^;;), but other than that I think life'll be good. I've set up my DDR pad, received some other parts to my Sol costume (I'm going to have to dye my hair black because the hair extension I got is a really dark black O_O), and almost fully unpacked. ^_^ Huzzah!

gonna settle in for the night before I'm whisked off to work, lab, and other things during IAP. *sweatdrops*

Anyways, Skuld is home now, so give her a call and see when is a good time to get together.

Skuld likes making fun of the French. ^_^ I'm sure you do too.
here you go, knock yourself out. ^_^

Spent much of the day at Omi's place, and that was actually a lot of fun. We played some Lament of Innocence (ooh, Joachim, so pretty, must beat game so I can jump through the same hoops again with pretty flying bishounen) and Kingdom Hearts (I forced him to beat Sephiroth ^_^), took a little break and then played some Guilty Gear XX.

I think I've pretty much finished everything I set out to do here, except finish up chapter two of my followup to Roni's "Azure." This is because, after the whole Seishirou fiasco, my muse stuck around for about a week, and has now decided that it is a good time for a vacation. A VACATION?! @_@ A VACATION?! Where is it? I must find it, precious, where did it go? ;_;

Speaking of which...Roooooni...*pokepoke* Are you alive? ^^;; I need your Ky to revive my Sol bunny...or at the very least, lure out it into the light where I may catch it again. ^^;; *poke poke* You there?

Well, I leave on Tuesday, and I'll be back in Boston by 4pm. ^_^ Huzzah! Where my long-awaited completion of the softpad-taped-to-floor and USB-PS2-converter and Stepmania await me. ^_^

*huggles to Omi, because he starts school tomorrow, and I will miss him. ^_^*

Just got back from Charm and Crystal's house yet again....and I watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" with them yet again...and then we played Mah Jongg, like we always do. ^_^ Good times, so good times, especially when Charm spouts absolute gibberish out her mouth. ^_^ Huzzah!

She leaves for Princeton tomorrow, oh I shall miss her. And damn, we spent a whole shitload of time together this winter break. XD

Hopefully I'll get to hang out with Omi tomorrow, because that or Monday night will be my last chance to see him. ;_;

And I should get a little further in "Lament of Innocence" but I just don't feel like it. And Joachim is so pretty. Oh yes, he's the pretty. ^_^ Not as pretty as Soma Cruz, I think...but then again, I don't think anyone in Castlevania can be as pretty as Soma. *grumbles* Must play Harmony of Dissonance. *grumble grumble*

Just spent a lovely Friday evening watching "Pirates of the Caribbean."
That movie owns me. ^_^

and now, since I'm a little bored, I share with you the December 2003 and the February 2004 covers of Arcadia magazine.

Oh, the badassness of Sol Badguy. *lovelovelove*

the downfall of your fandom by skuldchan
Username:
Fandom:
How it happened:	You fandom was invaded by the slash fangirls, the doom of all mankind
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Yet proof again that Skuld is right. O_o;; At least when it deals with my own Memes. O_o;; Yeah, it's late I'm reading "A Long, Hard Road again (hats off to Twig, and it's like crack. O_O;; I need it. I needs it. *keeps plugging Twig* (It's Cocoa's fault, really...I told her to read it again because she finished FF7 and now Sephiroth won't let me get away without rereading it too. *sobs*)

Anyways...¬_¬ have you finished it, Cocoa? ^^;; Drop me a line when you have, because I always love discussing fanfics with people. ^_~

Aaah, I think back on the days, when I was a freshman in high school (oh so long ago) and I was, deep down in my little teeny weeny heart, a Sephiroth fangirl. And you know being a Sephiroth fangirl is one of those things that you never grow out of. Sort of like crack, or breathing. You always come back to it no matter how long it's been. Once a Sephiroth fan, always a Sephiroth fan. Even though the Sephiroth obsession only lasted about 3 or 4 months (because it was quickly overtaken by the Hotohori obsession), who am I making layouts of now? ^_^;; Not Hotohori. (Though he too holds a special place in my heart...but not as special as Sephiroth :x)

And oh, reading Twig's fic is stirring my little heartstrings and making me go, "Oh, Sephiroth, I love you!" just like I did when I was a wee little 14 year old. *nostalgia* I think my tune has now changed to (since my wee little 14 year old days were before I stumbled upon yaoi and slash and the joys of male homosexuality), "Oh, Sephiroth, I love you when you boink Cloud!"

This has, of course, prompted a massive exodus of me (and I am getting massive as I sit here on my ass in Salt Lake City while my mother and her friends forcefeed me delicious Chinese food) to Ebay to search for SephirothxCloud doujinshi. I do have to say, out of my entire doujinshi collection (which is not as massive as I would like, not as massive as some of my friends' collections and certain not as massive as me) a good decent part of it is SephirothxCloud. ^_^ Even though my first doujinshi were Toshimi Nigoshi's two volumes of Sand End (Oh, the WolfwoodxVash goodness)...I will always welcome SephirothxCloud. Especially anything by Pure Hearts Club F (their "I Love You" doujinshi is my favorite) and the Level-C circle (I have temporarily forgotten their doujinshi pseudoym...goddammit).

And damn, it's late, I should be sleeping. Mmm...Sephiroth. *melts into a puddle of fangirl* Don't even get me started on how they've gotten him all wrong on the Advent Children DVD they're making. >_< *grumbles* Nooo~! Sephiroth is supposed to be hot, not evil! He's just misunderstood and Jenova made him crazy. ¬_¬ (Psst, LHR is canon. No, really.)

Okay, I'll stop my late-night insane ramblings. =_=;; I will most likely stumble upon this in the morning (as will you) and go, "WTF?!"

Happy New Year's to anyone out there bored enough to come to my blog and see what I have to say. *sweatdrops*

Nothing much here to say, but I shall follow the trend and say what's on my mind about 2003, and what I expect out of 2004.

I don't really make any resolutions (because I suck at keeping them) so there's nothing to fulfill in that arena. Overall, 2003 was a pretty cool year. The little I remember of it outside of doing horrendous amounts of work (thanks, MIT) was really cool.

I started off the year pretty much in a horrible One Piece obsession, and that was honestly, pretty cool. ^_^ I got to work with Kaizoku-Fansubs and that was just one huge, fun experience. I don't have much time left for it anymore, but I'll do something when I can. *sweatdrops*

Then Anime Boston happened in April, and AniBos was an awesome experience. I met so many people there who are now good friends of mine. ^_^ Meeting people and sticking around with them is one of the coolest things about going to an anime convention. AniBos was awesome, from doing the Masquerade to just sitting around the hotel lobby and going to the ghetto rave. ^_^ I look forward to Anime Boston in 2004, because I know even more of my friends are going to be there.

Nothing much was eventful in the months of April and May, aside from scrambling to get enough studying done for finals. I headed home for three weeks in June, and that was loads of fun. Mostly because Omi got me hooked on Guilty Gear, and I took a trip down to Anime Expo in Anaheim for a day (Thursday). Even though I was alone, I had a good time interviewing people and hanging around the game room. There some good costumes, and overall, it was a nice day away from the parental units. But it doesn't match up at all to...

Otakon! Otakon was by far the most enjoyable experience I had in 2003. And I know several people might agree with me on this one. Otakon rocked, the whole way through. I heard there was close to 20,000 total in attendance, and though that's barely a tenth of the Tokyo Comic Market, that's pretty big for something in the United States. Otakon, you kicked Anime Expo's ass. ^_^

We headed down there in a caravan of three cars, and even those of us who weren't going down with us got to crash in our rooms. Otakon was just one big weekend-long uber-expensive party. We drove down Thursday nigh so we wouldn't miss a single thing when it opened on Friday. There's some pretty amusing stories of us going down, like Mark, Ray, and I shouting the lyrics to Weird Al's "Albuquerque" out the window, and meeting up with other random Otakon pilgrims (including Matt and Lise) at rest stops in New Jersey. Sure, it was rainy on the way down, and we traded sketchy looks whenever Avatrix and Destra's vehicle would slow down to 50mph on the freeway, and Will accidentally took the wrong turn and came in about 45 mins. after we did (he also knocked out his alignment), it was fun. Really really fun, and even though I can't hit Otakon 2004, I will try my best to haul my ass to Otakon 2005.

Two weeks after Otakon was ShoujoCon and there I met some people from the X fandom, Rackham Rose, Rachel, and Ko. Amberlee drove us (namely, Ali-chan and me) down there, and though ShoujoCon was only about 600 people this year, it was still fun. It's a small enough con that you can just plop your ass down and talk with people. And I found a couple of Guilty Gear gashapon figures from the first set. Uber-rare. And at ShoujoCon. O_O;; Go figure. (Still need a Ky...need a Ky...my Sol is lonely. ;_;)

The summer, aside from the cons was pretty good. I enjoyed being home and spending time with my parents, my sister, and Omi. Then I came home and got to room with Asphodel, who was very good at putting up with my constant requests for DDR, my laziness and non-fic-betaing, my frenzy over finishing my three costumes (Legato Bluesummers, Uchiha Sasuke, and Monou Fuuma), and the late night conversations which would most often carry us into three in the morning.

I also met Roni and Ed, and they're the two people I was closest to in the fall. They're awesome, hilarious, and well, Ed's my clone, and I don't think I could have survived this term without them keeping me company.

Oh right, and a shout-out to Mike Lewis, my fall term roommate. We actually worked out this term since there was nothing like that nasty matchmaking going on last fall, and I find that we work really well as roommates. ^_^ Go figure.

On the gaming front, I really haven't gotten much done in 2003 aside from getting stuck in Devil May Cry and giving up, playing ludicrous amounts of Guilty Gear, discovering the joys of Para Para Paradise, and improving my Dance Dance Revolution skills.

Not much to say about 2004 except that I hope to still be friends with those I'm currently friends with, I hope to patch up some relations with some people I've grown apart from, and the summer in Japan is going to rule. ^_^ Next term is going to be a little tough with 5 classes, a part-time job, and research to do, so I'm going to have to drop some of my projects (I have the feeling I will not be timing for K-F next term) in order to make time for the people I like talking to, and the games I like to play. I look forward to Anime Boston 2004 and Anime Central 2004, and I wonder what the beginning of my senior year will hold for me.

Skuld and Omi-kun wish everyone a happy new year.