I've been at my new base for over two weeks now and I can tell you that it feels great to be out of technical training.I don't have to abide by some of the ridiculous rules that I was forced to follow in tech training and no longer do I have to worry about some NCO walking around trying to find things wrong with you because he has nothing better to do.

No curfew ever and I can have as much alcohol as I want in my room. :P In fact, I had myself a beer not long before typing this.

I can finally be treated as an adult. :D

Work is well...laid back...and boring. Very boring. Where I work is also where a lot of intel people are. I have to wait to get my clearance passed before I can actually do my job. So right now, my job is...waiting. :lol:

It's easy work at least.

I've been behind on playing the DS games I have with me. I've been tired lately after the duty day. As an introvert, new places and people are very tiring for me.

Before Halloween, I should finish Apollo Justice and Investigation: Miles Edgeworth. The I'll move on to Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword and Ghost Trick.

Lately I've been exposed to the world that is figurines. In the past years I bought the Zelda statues from First4Figures simply as a collector of just about anything Zelda and had a couple Zelda action figures as a kid, but collecting other figurines such as Figma and Nendoroid wasn't my thing. I wasn't even familiar with the big name companies in the industry such as Max Factory, Good Smile Company, and Kaiyodo. I preordered the Link and Samus figures from Figma when a re-run was announced. Can't wait to get them. Should be here in time for Christmas.

However, now I'm getting addicted to it. I imported a couple figurines for my husband as gifts and seeing how cool they looked, I'm buying some for myself.

Already purchased a couple Hatsune Miku figurines. [I've been a fan of hers for a couple years now.] One of the Miku figures I purchased was one I read about that was only given at conventions and was open to online orders for two weeks and I preorderd it! And I preordered the Hatsune Miku Figma due to come out later this year.

At least it'll add something to my room. Something to look at other than random animal plushies and the spines of cases of countless games. :lol:

I can't wait to move into a house with my husband and finally have the space to put those F4F Zelda statues on display.

For anyone who hasn't bought figurines, look up Max Factory's Figma line. They're very detailed, but can be put into may poses so you don't have to look at the same pose everyday and it comes with many accessories. And they're a hell of a lot cheaper than buying those PVC figures that can easily go past the $100 mark. Some may see them as small, but if you like in a small place or don't have a lot of shelf space, it's the perfect size. And the prices is reasonable too considering how detailed they are. Every other action figure looks like crap once you get your hands on a Figma. A perfect balance of being a collectable item but still being able to play with it.

Also look up Bandai's D-Arts series which also consist of articulated figures. Recent figures in the line include Pocket Monsters and Rockman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figma

Already been two months since my last post. Haha

Well, played and beat The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks over the last couple weeks. Long story short: I loved it. While the train was somehwat restrictive compared to other forms of transportation in the series, it didn't bother me too much.

And if course, being the OCD completionist that I am, I did every sidequest and collected every train part. I like the system used to collect train parts here than the one in Pahntom Hourglass. In Phantom Hourglass, the chance of getting the part you need was random. In Spirit Tracks, you collected treasure, and getting the treasure you wanted was much easier as often times the treasure you got was determined by your time or score in a minigame and thus could purposely get less or more points to increase the chance of getting what you wanted.

Strangely, I had no problem getting the Rare and Ultra Rare treasures. For some reason though it took a while to get Dragon Scales and Pearl Necklaces even though they were in the Uncommon category.

I loved the music in the game and playing the Spirit Flute was quite fun.

In other news, I'm less than a week from graduating tech school. Don't have my orders yet though so I might be here longer waiting to get them. Oh well. But I will be going to the same base as my husband since my Joint Spouce Assignment Request was approved.

Wow! 300 games, can you believe it!? It's gotten to the point now that I have to check my collection list before I buy games, lest I end up buying a game I already have. lol Somehow I ended up with two copies of Bowser's Inside Story and Dragon Quest IV. haha This is an expensive hobby so I'm gonna be more careful next time. It doesn't help that I have the games shipped home to my parents so I never get to to see the physical games with my own eyes.

Right now, I'm worried about finding the time to play all these especially the RPGs. It's become a shining achievement and a personal hell at the same time! Haha

Class is going well. It's pretty easy. Much easier than learning a language most people have never heard of. My husband is doing well other than having a stubborn cold. It's hard being apart but our relationship is as strong as ever. ^^

Can't believe it's already March and my last blog was about Thanksgiving. Well it's been very busy being in the military and all. There's so much to do: being on time for everything, managing finances, tech school, and making sure my room and uniforms in up to standards.

I had a wonderful holiday that involved a lifechanging event: marriage. That's right! I'm married at the tender young age of 21. I honestly never expected to be married this early in my life, but that's what makes life interesting.

Everyone in class kind of expected this as well.

It's interesting how my husband never really proposed or anything like that. We just over time started talking about marriage and it happened.

We officially got married on New Year's Eve while on holiday leave. Went to New Jersey to meet my husband's family. He lives in a rural part of Jersey which is a big change for me. As a military brat, I grew up living in military housing so not seeing big name stores like Wal-Mart and only seeing small regional stores was quite a surprise.

During the holidays, my husband and I rode the NJ Transit all the way to Penn Station in New York. As a gamer, you can guess where I wanted to go: the Nintendo World Store. I purchased a Zelda messenger bag, a toon Link plushie, a Mario mug, a couple mini Zelda figures, and some T-shirts. It wasn't very crowded as we were there a few hours before lunch time.

On the way to the Nintendo World Store, we came across Toys R Us. This particular Toys R Us was huge. No surprise as it was located in Times Square. It had three floors and in the electronic section was suprised to come across a few Nintedno games that are generally rare to find new like the Mario and Luigi rpg games. I asked a employee at Nintendo Store about it and according to him Toy's R Us pays Nintendo to reprint certain Nintendo titles.

We only spent a few hours in New York so we didn't see the Statue of Liberty or anything major like that. Stopped at a small comic shop and founded a signed copy of Watchmen. Couldn't pass it up. Was cheap too.

Our wedding was small, as we don't have a lot of money being junior enlisted and all. We plan on having a major wedding party with my family sometime in the future.

Might upload some pics on Imageshack of New York for you all to see if I get the time.

Good news that happened recently is that I got a $50 Amazon gift card and combined with my Discover cashback credit, was able to buy almost a dozen games for almost nothing. Just about completed my PS2 collection and my DS collection isn't too far behind either.

Now if I could just find the time to finish them all.

The sad thing is, I got reclassed so as of last month, I am seperated from my husband. I didn't do so well on last few tests. I can learn a language, just not at the insane pace the military requires. The washout rate is very high as is. He is still in class back in California while I'm learning Radio Frequencies on Mississippi. We're making it work. My husband calls it "mini deployment." lol He thinks this will be a good experience as it will prepare us for when one of us actually gets deployed.A lot of people how failed the same school as me are here too so I've already made some friends I can relate too.

He has already purchased plane tickets to come down to Mississippi in May on his class break.

My husband's birthday was on March 1. I sent him quite an amusing birthday card with an adorable drawing I made of a female White Mage. I sent him a hat that looks like Puar from DBZ. He's taken quite a liking to it. I also gave him a set of Gundam Wing playing cards.

Can't wait to see him in May.

My first Thanksgiving away from home. It is kind of sad cause I miss my family, but instead me and my boyfriend went to a friend's house and ate tons of turkey, potatoes, and apple pie. We even played some D&D together. So I still got to spend Thanksgiving with people I care about.

Today is Black Friday, and for once I actually went and bought something at a physical store.

I took advantage of GameStop's PS3 bundle they had. A 250GB PS3 and 5 games (well 4 plus an expansion depending on your view) for only $200. A PS3 by itself is $250. Also bought myself the Mario Kart Wii bundle that comes with Wii Motion Plus built in to the Wiimote.

$350 - Two consoles and 6 games. Not bad.

I already have some Wii games. Gonna play some Xenoblade and Skyward Sword. Maybe some Tatsunoko vs Capcom as well.

A quick search on Amazon shows a huge number of PS3 games for less than $20 and not because it's Black Friday. These games were just flat out discounted.

My games collection is gonna explode. I'm never gonna be able to find time to play them all.

Also, 100th blog post. Yeah!

*For some reason comments don't show up or other people's blogs show on my profile as having zero comments despite actually having many. Anyway any comments you have should be sent via pm since the normal method is glitched up or something for me.

When you think of "import games", the first thing that comes to mind are Japanese games. They are often games too niche or "too Japanese" for release outside of the Land of the Rising Sun.

I've been been buying a lot of PC games lately. Baldur's Gate, Titan Quest, The Penumbra Collection, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, The Witcher Enhanced Edition, and my latest purchase, Thief: The Complete Colection. I have also purchased some Japanese visual movels that have been translated into English thanks to Jast USA. As my collection has increased, I noticed that my collection of European versions of games have increased. Thief, The Witcher, and Baldur's Gate are all UK versions. PEGI logo and all. Unintentional, but as long as the game is in English and is compatable on my laptop it's all good.

Last Window was supposed to be my only UK game purchase, but it looks like that has changed with my growing PC collection.

I think it is kind of cool though. People will see my games on a shelf and see how diverse they are not just in the variety of genres and game types, but in country of origin too. Japanese versions, US versions, UK/European versions.

You know you're very busy when you forget to write about your own birthday. My birthday was back on September 1st, but I'm only now writing a blog about it.

My 21st birthday was hands down the best birthday I ever had. My boyfriend was nice enough to get us a couple of 3-day tickets to Disneyland for Labor Day weekend which my birthday conveniently falls on.

Until then, I had never been to a Disney park. My parents always wanted to take me, but never had the time nor the money to do so.

The only downside was that Anaheim was hot. Very hot. My boyfriend and I got sunburned.

Oh, and everything is expensive. I never thought I would see the day that a churro would cost $3.00. :/ And forget gift shopping. I decided to get a Pirate Mickey keychain, a Disneyland 2012 snowglobe, and a Mickey plush. Anything more would leave me broke. I also got a free button that said Happy Birthday with my name written upon when I mentioned to an employee in the main gift shop that it was my birthday that day. All day almost every Disney employee I came across smiles and said Happy Birthday.

The hotel we stayed at was within walking distance of Disneyland. Quite nice too. What we did in the hotel room will not be discussed here. :lol:

We spent the first day in Disneyland. Star Tours was awesome. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride was one of my favorites. Didn't get to go to the Haunted Mansion since it was closed.

Late that night we took a quick walk at California Adventure. Not far from the entrance was the Mad Hatter's T Party. A nightclub like attraction themed after Alice in Wonderland. They had a DJ called the White Rabbit wearing light up white rabbit ears. Playing cards and chess pieces were projected on the walls. Alcoholic drinks were sold. No alcoholic drinks are allowed out of California Adventure so you have to finish it before you leave.

Decided to give a Long Island a shot with it being my 21st birthday and all.

Having never engaged in drinking before this point, I had no tolerance. Combined with the fact that I'm very small and might have the Asian Glow gene with me being half Korean, I got drunk before I even finished the drink. It was also very possible that they put a little extra in my drink seeing it was my birthday.

At first I did not know what was going on. It was the weirdest feeling. I could not walk straight at all. My boyfriend realizing how drunk I was asked me questions like what time it was, where we were, and why we were here. Mentally I was fine. I was very aware of my surroundings and what was going on. I spoke very clearly, not slurring my speech. Physically not so much.

My boyfriend had to hold me hand and during the evening fireworks put his hands on my shoulders to make sure I didn't fall over because I couldn't even stand straight.

He took care of me making sure I stayed hydrated and ate something.

I remember everything. I was frustrated with myself. Upset at the fact that my body would not do what I told it to do. I was also very stubborn, denying I was drunk and refusing to hold my boyfriend's hand insisting I could walk on my own.

My boyfriend decided to not walk back, but take a bus instead. We didn't have enough cash on hand, but the driver waived the fee upon seeing the state I was in.

Fell asleep as soon as we got back to the hotel room.

I honestly thought my dad would be very angry upon learning about what happened, but he wasn't at all. He was understanding seeing as I had no idea what my limit was and appreciated the fact that my boyfriend took care of me all night.

Looking back on it, it is kind of amusing.

I had a great time overall though. Best birthday present ever! :P

It's been what two months now? I'm currently in tech school, but I can't say what I'm doing or where exactly I'm at. Operational Security you know.

My games collection has been increasing now that I actually have a steady paycheck now, but I never have time to play them. :lol:

So much has happened in such a short amount of time that it feels as though my life is on fast forward.

I'm so busy everyday that the day is over before you know and you spend weekends juggling studying and maintaining relationships.

Speaking of relationships, I now have a boyfriend, an Army boyfriend, who I met only a couple weeks after coming to tech school. We're in tha samecla$$ which is seven hours a day so we spend quite a bit of time together like it or not.

So far, it's been great. We're always happy together and we've never argued because well, we don't have anything to argue about.

Other members of the military around us, namely those in the same cla$$, knew we were becoming close before we did.

I remember the first time I spoke to him. First day in cla$$, I bumped into to him while making my way to my seat. Being just out of Basic Training, I called everyone around me "Sir" or "Ma'am." Following my instincts, that's what I did.

"Uh, excuse me, sir."

"Sir? You outrank me!"

I am one pay grade higher than he is. I am an E-3 while he is an E-2. He gets paid more though after deductions are accounted for.

We ended up sitting at the same table since during the first week cla$$ we were divided into groups for group work.

From there we talked, then a week later exchanged phone numbers and from there we ate together in the dining facility and spent cla$$ breaks at each other's desk. Even the NCOs in our cla$$ commented about it.

Going to study hall one evening, I asked his friend where he was. He looked at me and responed, "I don't know where you're boyfriend is!"

"Wha-! He's not..."

From there everyone saw what was going on. After talking in front of his barracks late at night, he asked me to be his girlfriend after discussing his concerns about a relationship. Namely that if it didn't work out, we would still have to see each other in clas$$ every day for the next year or so making class very awkward.

"We won't know until we try," was my response.

So here we are. Happier than ever, pulling each other along offering each other moral and emotional support through the rigors of adjusting to military life.

Right now, I've been a bit on edge. I talked with a Chaplain today. (Every Chaplain I've ever seen or met except for one has been a Captain.) I've never talked with a Chaplain before. Then again, I've only been in the military for a few months.

I don't know if I'm ready to talk about what is going on right now here, but I will eventually. It's been crazy with so many first times for everything. First time away from my parents. (BMT doesn't count cause my parents were like an hour and a half away.) First time in a relationship and all the things to come with it: first time on a date, first kiss, first time....well, uh, my "first time." :lol: First time having a job. First time being able to buy things on my own.

It's a lot to take in, but I'm making it so far.

Stuff I bought in the last month.....Where do I start!?

After the Airman's Coin ceremony, I bought my dad a coin with my squadron on it. My parents and I decided to drive around Lackland and decided to stop at the main Base Exchange.

There I spent almost $180 on DS games:

Pokemon HeartGold

Pokemon SoulSilver

Pokemon Black

Kirby Mass Attack

Pokemon White I bought for my brother. Tax free too since I'm at a military base. Two days later I went back and purchased Ghost Trick. It was on sale for only $13. Couldn't pass it up.

It felt great buying games with my own money.

At a comic book store in one of the mini-malls on base, I purchased a 2-in-1 volume of Astro Boy.

After coming to tech school I found a comic book store at the Post Exchange (I'm on an Army post). I spent over $300 there so far. I bought all seven The Walking Dead hardcovers, three Deadpool comics (Deadpool Classics vol1, Suicide Kings, and X Marks the Spot), two Batman comics (The Long Halloween and Batman HUSH), two volumes of the manga Ghost Talker's Daydream, and an X-Men Omnibus of the Age of Apocalypse storyline (it's freaking huge!).

When my parents sent over a laptop, I connected to the American Warrior Network, subscribed to the unlimited plan for $39 and went shopping on Amazon for the last two days. What did I buy? Well... (Prices rounded up to the nearest dollar and as always, all games are new and sealed)

Baten Kaitos Origins (GCN) - $35

Resident Evil 3 (GCN) - $39

Super Monkey Ball (GCN) - $22

X-Men Legends II Rise of Apocalypse (GCN) - $20

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) - $23

Chrono Trigger (DS) - $20

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS) - $31

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS) - $32

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS) - $15

Final Fantasy III (DS) - $18

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS) - $30

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS) - $19

RayCrisis (PS1) - $20

We Love Katamari (PS2) - $22

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From Amazon UK:

Last Window: Secret of Cape West (DS) I've wanted this game for so long! - ~$38 (according to current exchange rate)

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From Amazon Japan:

Gyakuten Saiban (New Best Price 2000) ~$21

Gyakuten Saiban 2 (New Best Price 2000) (language can be changed to English on both games) - ~$21

Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Dororon! Yokai Daikessen! (Taiko Drum Master DS: Dororon! Big Yokai Decisive Battle!) - ~$47

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From Square Enix's Online Store

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS) - $15

The World Ends with You (DS) (currently on backorder) - $19

On Amazon, I also purchased Knife-Hands ($20). A book that contains the first 100 comic strips of the webcomic series Terminal Lance as well as extra sketches and commentary. I'm sure it'll become real popular on post with those unfamiliar with the series, particularly with Marines.

You don't want to know how much money I spent. Let's just say that I received an e-mail alert from Bank of America saying my balance was running a bit too low.

I'll add the games to My Collection once I've confirmed that they've been delivered to my parents' place safely. I don't have room in this tiny dorm I'm now living in to store all my new games. I don't have a way to play them anyway except for the DS games.

Basic Military Training is over! I graduated on June 1.

I'm sure you all want to know what it was like and what I had to do, but that will have to wait for now.

On the final week of training, you are allowed to wander around base (known as base liberty) and make use of most of the facilities and services available. On the Friday and Saturday of your 8th week of training, you are allowed to leave base and have fun around San Antonio (known as town pass) though you are not allowed to leave San Antonio.

Base Liberty is given on Thursday (which begins right after the Airman's Coin Ceremony also known as Retreat), and Sunday (which begins at 9am). However, honor graduates and those who made top PT are given a special town pass on Sunday.

The Airman's Coin ceremony is when you get your Airman's Coin obviously. Once you recieve the coin, you are officially promoted from Trainee to Airman. When you reporting to your MTI, your reporting statement will reflect the change. Though I kept using "trainee" until Friday.

Town Pass is given on Friday immediately following Parade which the official graduation ceremony. On Saturday, Town Pass begins at 9am.

On base liberty on Thursday I went to the main BX (Base Exchange), and bought some Pokemon games thus the sudden addition of three Pokemon games to my Game Collection list. On Sunday I saw Ghost Trick on sale and bought that. It was originally $30, but had a sale price of $13. Yeah, even in BMT you get a paycheck.

You are shipped out to your technical school the Monday following graduation.

I had to wait up at 1am and be outside by 2am. It wasn't that bad since I couldn't sleep all night anyway. I got maybe one hour of sleep that night if that. Other members of my flight going to different tech schools didn't have to leave til 6 so they were still sleeping.

During my time in BMT, I became very attached to my instructor. She'll tell you to get on your face when you screw up and whatnot, but her teaching method is unique. She is not Drill Sergreant Nasty...well she is sometimes. She uses positive reinforcement and encouragement.

It was during the sixth week of training that our flight starting calling her mom. When she starts banging on the door to the dorm at 4:30 in the morning, we're all like, "Mom's home!"

She very much is like a mother to us. She even told the flight that she became more emotionally attached to our flight that any other flight she pushed through training.

She gave those of us leaving early a hug before getting on the bus. When she did so I said, "Goodbye, mom." With a smile she replied, "Goodbye, kid." I almost shed a tear.

During BMT, I never really got yelled at much. If you just do as you're told, you can avoid becoming a target.

BMT storytime will have to continue furthur down the road.

What sucked the most was carrying all my stuff. My civilian clothes and important paperwork were in a backpack while all my uniforms and my other pair of boots were in my duffel bag. Let me tell you that that duffel bag was heavy. According to the scale at the airport when I checked my bags in, it was almost 45 pounds. Now it might not be that bad for most people, but when you're 5ft tall and only weigh 115lbs, it really sucks. Not to mention I was wearing my backpack in front which weighed in at 30lbs. So in total, I was carrying an extra 75lbs on me.

I had more stuff than I thought so when I got to the airport, another Airman heading to the same tech school as I was showed me a store to buy a luggage bag. I was carrying my extra stuff in a trash bag which doesn't look at all suspicious. I got a good one for less than $45. I should've bought a Air Force duffel bag back at the BX for $20 when I had the chance. Oh well. The bag I bought was quite nice. You can carry it like a duffel bag or pull out the plastic handle and pull it behind you.

Me and the other Airmen going to tech school arrived at the San Antonio airport at around 3am. Those of us going to Monterey...our flight wasn't until 2:30 in the afternoon. So what did we do? Why we slept of course! I never really got a long nap. I took a lot of short naps. I was really nervous and excited at the same time and that kept me from getting any deep sleep.

After a while our group headed to the USO. There were a couple computers, a large HD TV and some bowls full of candy. When you walk in, there are large cubbies to place your stuff in.

Since I couldn't really get any sleep, I decided to read the copy of Astro Boy I purchased at one of the various BXs back at Lackland. The copy of Astro Boy I purchased had volumes 1 and 2 combined into one so I had a decent amount of reading material.

After for what seemed like eternity, it was time to get ready for our flight. Our group headed to the gate our plane was at. I forgot to mention that our group was small. There were only four of us. We were the only ones out of our graduating class going to Monterey.

When the plane was ready for boarding, one thing I noticed is that they call on military personal to board first.

I haven't been at an airport, much less flown, since I was very young so this felt like a whole new experience for me.

How would I handle it? Would I hold onto my seat for dear life? Would I get airsick? That'd be funny right? An Airman getting airsick.

So once we all got on the plane we had to listen to the whole "in case of emergency" briefing. Boring.

So the plane slowly moves into position making turns here and there. To me, the runways make about as much sense as the architecture in the early Resident Evil games.

Then the planes stops. Then suddenly, full throttle. Then the plane takes off into the sky.

I was way more excited than I should be. Seeing everything below and then seeing all clouds surrounding the plane. Way cool. And there was still one more flight after this one since this was a connecting flight. I actually like flying now and can't wait till I graduate so I can get on a plane again to get back home.

Part 2 coming soon.