Crikey it's cold around here!  After several weeks of freezing weather, we finally got some snow on Tuesday.  And it's hung around since.  In fact it was snowing pretty heavily this morning, but let up as the afternoon wore on.  Now it's getting warmer outside and now it's becoming a slushy melt.  I fervetly wish that we'll get lots more snow (I'm rather liking the fact that I can curly up on the couch with a pot of tea and a book), but as things stand it probably won't happen.  Oh well.  Can't blame a girl for wishing, can you?

Nothing new around here.  My completion percent has gone up by leaps and bounds, and I'm waiting to hear back on a submission I made to Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide.  I watched the show mostly for Darren Norris (Gordy) but now I've come to find it funny and best of all, kid friendly, which is good because I have younger siblings to find decent programming for.  And that's about it.

Mwahahahaha!  The redecorator strikes again!  I decided to change my icon to that of Yuki-rat in the dress from Fruits Basket, since we're closing in on the Chinese New Year.  That's just until I can figure out what icon I really want up there.  I'll get something figured out, I'm sure.  I also changed out my profile image because I didn't think that the twenty-year-old me is an accurate representation of who I am now, and until I can find a new, decent picture of me to post, that will simply have to do.  My friend's joked that I looked remarkably like that girl back in high school, and I guess I still do to some degree...

Ah well, I digress.  I have a mountian of laundry to fold, a room to clean and text books to read.  Ciao!

It's always hard, saying goodbye.  Especially if this is a relationship that has been well established.  I made the tough choice of putting my cat down tonight.  She was old, rapidly loosing weight, and blind.  I know that it was the best thing that I could do for her, but it doesn't make it any easier.  I remember the first time I saw Cali.  She looked just like her mother, Shoga (that's Japanese for "ginger" if you were wondering).  And I knew that she had to be mine.  She was my baby, and now she's gone.  There are little reminders of her all over the house - an empty food dish, cat litter, traces of her fur - it just seems so surreal to me.  I keep expecting to find her curled up in front of the refrigerator, but I know I'll never see her again.  There's an ache in my heart that won't go away.  It's been killing me to watch her deterioration over the last few months.  I keep telling myself that I did the right thing, but it's not really helping.

Mea culpa, mea culpa!

So it's been over a year since I first became active on the community.  My stats?

Level 9 - Door Number 2 - 10% complete
82 Blog posts
251 Forum posts
20 Reviews (15 shows and 5 episodes)
35 submissions (29 accpeted and 6 denied)
18 contacts (15 Friends, 3 I'm Tracking, and 0 Tracking Me)

Anything else is pointless, however is accessable via my profile (which, if you're reading this, is where you happen to be).  As of December 1, 2006 I have been an active member.  Keep in mind that I officially joined Gamespot on March 19, 2005 (and of course, by proxy, tv.com and MP3.com) however have done really nothing until the former date. 

Random picture:

Gotta love boredom.  This and other pictures are available at my divantART account, link provided on my profile.

So, no one can understand me right now.  I now have braces on the top and bottom (the bands done up in Seahawks color to ante up the mojo) and a bite plate that's driving me crazy.  In about two weeks I'll hardly notice, but until then I'll be going crazy.  Is it possible for teeth to itch?

I think I'm getting close to one year or being active on the community, I'll have to check my first journal entry to know for sure.  Anyway, I'm dog tired and I need to get some real quality sleep.

Dang, I'm having a heck of a time trying to remember to write 2007 on my checks...and anything else I've had to date recently.  Anyone else feeling my pain?

Anyway, things are decent around here.  It's raining when it really should be snowing (it's January for pete's sake!) which just makes things depressing. 

Been into a lot of morbid television lately, as all I want to watch are re-runs of Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: CI.  Of course I always enjoyed good whodunnits, so I suppose this is right up my alley.

In other, more depressing news, I had a dental apointment, where I had more spacers put in.  On Monday, the rest of my braces are put in and I can't eat for a week (or so).  Man, I was just getting used to being able to eat whatever I wanted and now I'm back on the yogurt/oatmeal/Cream of Wheat/ramen diet.  I really should be making more fruit smoothies, but this time I'll splurge and buy the mixes (or actually follow my recipe, seeing as I actually have one).  But you see what I'm getting at.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year!  (I rather enjoyed playing Karaoke Revolution with my family and watching my step-dad make an idiot of himself butchering Brick House by Lionel Ritchie.)

Well.  I made it.  Heckuva year it's been, too.

So far, this year has included family fueds, two deaths and a ton of homework.  Sometimes I just wanna crawl into bed and never get out.  The world is so depressing these days.

Okay, so not totally depressing - seeing as that ratfink (hey, I have other, more colorful terms for the guy but this is a family friendly site and therefore I am not allowed to post them) Saddam Hussain is now doing his little dance in Hell.  Whaddaya know, there is justice in the world.

That cynical note aside, this year has been rough and it looks like it's only going to get worse.  Manipulative parents, impossibe siblings, it's a never-ending cycle of phsycological stress that one day may cause me to jump off the deep end and do something either really dramatic (shave my head and cover myself in tattoos) or really stupid (kill myself).  Hopefully I just go for the dramatic when the time comes.

So there are two basic topics that I plan to cover in this blog. 

1) I finally reached level 9 here on tv.com.  Okay, kind of weak compared to some of my contacts, but hey, considering that I earn most of my points by blogging, that's pretty darn good. 

2) The obligatory rundown of Christmas swag.  I figure I did pretty good, especially considering that I really didn't ask for much.

-iPod Nano, in silver, which my dad totally surprised me with.
-X3, The Lost City, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, andV for Vendetta all on DVD
-Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (I only need Emma to complete my collection)
-Great Cities of the World book (which include the four I studied extensively, Paris, New York, Budapest and Moscow)
-The Secret Language of the Renaissance and The Great Masters of Italian Art (yes, yes, I'm a total art geek, get over it)
-A Chinese china doll (holy cow, what a concept!), a Victorian china doll, and a little boy and a little girl set of china dolls
-A Shaun Alexander jersey and a Seahawks sweatshirt
-A fuzzy pink sweater
-A fuzzy blue bathrobe (really soft, and effectively doubles the hug quota in the morning)
-A Washington State Univeristy throw blanket (very soft and very warm, great for sitting and watching TV)
-Canvasses, paintbrushes, oil paints, and a palette knife (yay!  I can be like Van Gogh, but with both of my ears).  I do have a easeal, which I got last Christmas.
-A pink Cubic Zirconia necklace and earring set and a glass heart pendant
-A gold and Swarovski crystal Washington State University charm bracelet
-Japanese woodblock print calander (even has Hokusai's Tidal Wave on it)
-Guess Gold perfume set (which my mother bought right in front of me :roll: )

So I think that about wraps it up.  I have my iPod up and running, and even with all of my audio files on it, I still have room left.  No new games, but they aren't really necessary seeing as I'm up to the Ganon battle in Twilight Princess.  I've been getting upgrades, heart container peices, etc. and in all trying to get all of the side-quests completed.  And I'm at about forty-five hours of play time.  Other than that, things are pretty boring.  Doing puzzles and drinking cocoa, playing board games with my family (which reminds me, I really should challenge my brother to the STAR WARS Saga Edition of Trivial Pursuit).  Nice, relaxing holiday. :D

Hello all!  I touched on this in my last entry, but Merry Christmas to everyone here,  who at least celebrate the holiday.  To everyone else, I hope your holiday season was pleasant, and warm wishes on the coming new year. 

Hope everyone has "the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny f-----g Kaye!"*

*Clark W. Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

'Tis the season of disgruntled shoppers, and lucky me, I'm right in the middle of 'em.  I suppose it could be worse, I could be working at Wal-Mart or some equally heinous place, but I'm working grocery - a pretty thankless job in my opinion - and no one every thanks me for sacrificing my time to cater to their every whiney need.  Yes, I need money, but that doesn't not give you licensce to walk all over me as if I were a nobody.  Remember, I am human and I would appreciate it if you treated me like one.  Actually, I think that this applies to everyone who works in retail this holiday season.  So what's my point?  Thank the people who are working tomorrow, or even, heaven forbid, on Christmas and let them know how much you appreciate all of their hard work.

Let me see, what else?  My Grandpa Walter passed away on Thursday.  I won't be going up to Manson for the funeral, as first of all I don't know when it is, and second I have no reliable mode of transportation to even get me there.  I am sending a card to Grandma, if I could just get my brother and my mother to sign it.  The envelope is all ready to go, I just need signatures (but hey, I've been at work all day today so they might have sent it already).  Frustrating, as you can well imagine.

I think that does it.  I don't think I'll really be on for the next couple of days, so: MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of my Christian friends, and HAPPY CHAUNNAKA (did I spell that right?  If not, I'm sorry, but I'm technically a Catholic, and I'm also sorry if I'm late as I'm not really attuned Jewish holidays) to all of the Jewish people out there.  Ah yes, and to anyone who might be celebrating this, HAPPY KAWANZAA.  Hope the holiday season is merry and bright for all!