Be excellent to each other

A belated Christmas recap! (Sorry, sorry, work is eating my soul. *sob* Days off are spent trying to do everything that I'd like to spend all week doing.)

Anyway, I had a good Christmas! I had Christmas and Christmas Eve off, which was awesome. And the day before, on the 23d, while I was at work a customer tipped me $10. I was helping him print out pictures for his fiance. They were really important to him because they were of her family and her aunt had just died, and he was bummed out because she was sad, and I guess he was feeling sad because it was reminding him of when his family died. (yeah...he told me all this. Slightly awkward.) But he was a polite customer and I wanted to help so I spent awhile trying to make his pictures look really good. When he thanked me for helping him I swear he was about to cry. Then, after paying, he gave me $10 and said he just wanted to do something to thank me. I nearly cried! It really put me in the spirit of the season. (I donated $10 later to Charity:Water via the Cakewrecks charity drive.)

Having Christmas Eve off was great because I finally had a chance to paint my toenails, and I continued playing Reshef. I WILL beat this game sooner or later! I'm further along in it right now that I ever got before, so this is good. (Thank you game guide.)

I really liked my presents. =D My gifts from this year:

- A Puzzleshippy fanfic from my lovely Yugi-Gina <33
- Fluttershy shirt from WeLoveFine (It's so cuteee, and they sent a free MLP:FiM poster and sticker with it! The poster is the mane six and Vinyl Scratch, and the sticker is of Rarity and Spike.)
- Books! (Totally Joe, Boy Meets Boy, Pretending You Care: The Retail Employee's Guide, and Cake Wrecks: Wreck the Halls. I've read them all AND THEY ALL ROCKED.)
- Rainbow earrings
- Yugioh cards
- Hetalia: Paint It White DVD (which came with a Hetalia bandana, which I immediately put on and wore the rest of the day.)
- Purple long-sleeved nightshirt
- Cute undies with Hello Kitty and hearts
- Knee socks with penguins on them
- Kitty figurines
- And biggest of all~ A Kindle! (It's the regular Kindle 4, but all I want is to be able to read books on it, so I didn't need anything fancy.) It's really sleek and pretty. =3= And the pages turn fast, which is very important to me. I assuage my guilt over getting into e-books by the fact that my favorite author has and loves her Kindle, so if it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me. u_u Besides, there's now no bookstore within a hundred miles of me, and I NEED certain books on the day they come out. I am not freaking waiting for Casket of Souls to arrive in my mailbox. It is integral to my life that I read it the day it comes out. (God help us all if I have to work that day. xD) I had a moment of indecision over which book should be the first to grace my new technology friend. I didn't feel like trying to figure out how to set up payment over it, so I went through the free books and decided to download Flatland for my first Kindle book, since I'd been meaning to read Flatland someday anyway. I've already got a huge list of books to buy for it. xD Since I finished my Christmas gift books, I'll be reading more on it now. The other day I downloaded two new books that I'm excited to start. I also bought it a pretty purple e-reader case so that it'll be safe. x3

I also lol'd a lot when I did a search for manga for the Kindle and it's pretty much ALL yaoi porn that's available. xDDD WELL.

My mom really liked the gifts I got for her, too, which makes me happy because I love picking out gifts for her. Her favorites I got her were a new camera (The same one that I have, because she liked mine so much. xD) and a calendar with pictures of her dogs on it. I usually get her a german shepherd calendar, but this year I found out that at The Ghetto we can make custom calendars, so I raided her computer for pictures of the dogs and made up one with them, which she really liked. x3 I never know what to get my dad, so I ended up getting him weird stuff like these little squishy ball things that grow when you put them in water, and binders for his magazines. =| He was being such a Grinch about Christmas anyway.

I've got Christmas pics on my camera that I'll download eventually. xD Maybe after my birthday so I can include a picture of my cake. (I asked to have the day off on my birthday, so here's hoping. ^^;)

In other news, the new season of Pretty Little Liars started. This show. It captivates me. I cannot wait for the next episode after all the stuff that went down in the last one. >.> And if I have Monday off for my birthday I won't have to worry about rushing home in time to watch it for once. Although I don't technically have to do that anymore, because we got a DVR! Comcast decided to switch all the people to digital so we had to get the digital box. But that ended up being great, because now we have a bunch more channels (sadly, we still don't get the Hub. No ponies for my TV. =| I could watch them On Demand, but that would cost extra. But guess what we DO get On Demand? Yugioh, GX, and 5Ds. Aw yeah.) AND we get On Demand AND we got a DVR. =D Which is pretty awesome. Why didn't I realize how awesome DVRs were before? I always thought they would be scary and complicated, but it's actually really cool. It's easier to program than a VCR, the tape won't stretch, and I don't have to re-program it after every power outage. Le awesome.

Also, I started an FYeah tumblr for sharkbaitshipping. http://fuckyeahsharkbaitshipping.tumblr.com/ Anyone who's a fan of Shark/Yuma, follow me? =3

And lastly, the annual New Years meme:


Give up computers? GIVE UP PUZZLESHIPPING?! NO. I REFUSE. I also have my doubts that I can find a better purple. I reject this list. Although taking everybody mythbusting might be okay.

Happy New Years Everypony!

Good bye 2011, hello 2012! I hope this coming year contains good things for all who read this. <3 May the world not end and may you all accomplish new things and learn stuff and do good.

Be excellent, everypony. Be excellent.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!! <33

HOLIDAY CARDS AND COOKIES REQUEST POST <3

As is my usual tradition, I'll be sending out cookies and cards this year to those who would like them. =D

Let me know if you would like just a card (I'll try to doodle something cute *cough*puzzleshipping*cough* inside each one), or if you want cookies too. We'll be making chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal-cranberry. (Unless you voice an allergy to cranberries, everyone will get at least a few of the last one, because those are sort of a tradition. However, you can choose if you want just chocolate chip, just peanut butter, or a mix of both.)

Comments are screened, so you can leave your address if you'd like, or e-mail it to me at darkenedreality@bellsouth.net

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! <33

I hope you all have wonderful days! I'm already quite full from our usual Thanksgiving lunch and contentedly have Alice's Restaurant stuck in my head. Now I'm working up to the second wave of food this evening. xD At which I shall blatantly violate my vegetarianism, because you have not lived until you have had deep-fried turkey. *3* I legit regret nothing.

I'll do up a real entry soon. I know I've been AWOL around here for the last month. NaNoWriMo literally tried to eat my soul, and I fell behind, then I was working a lot, and not a whole lot interesting was happening anyway. I flat out can't spend the time on a long entry until November is over. (In which I will explain why I haven't done a Nano entry yet.) As for NaNo, I'm barely on track, but I've got less than 10,000 words to go at least! Home stretch!

*returns to NaNoing*

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I just got home from work and I'm lazy, so I probably won't get my NaNo post up on my writing journal 'til tomorrow or sometime. xD I WILL be starting my NaNo at midnight tonight, though. x3 Now if I just had a plot... >.>

Eat lots of candy today everyone~ <33

Today's my nine-year Yugioh anniversary, so here's a meme for it. x3 (Nine years! How the time flies. To think my life was forever affected and altered simply by choosing to watch a TV show one night is amazing. You don't realize it when it's happening, but then you look back...and wow.)

Comment to this post asking for a list, and I will give you four things I
associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally
random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ. Other
people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

I got my list of things from strawberrykaoru
( under here )

So it's 4:00 am on Sunday and I'm awake because my brain is all, "So hey, we need to talk about that fanfic you're writing."
Me: "Why?"
Brain: "Well, this is the big confession scene and you're screwing it up. It doesn't have nearly enough tension. Your readers will be let down. You will spend your life agonizing over how you messed up the pivotal scene. You will--"
Me: "Go away."
Brain: "I think we should start re-writing it in our head. I'll start. 'It was a mistake to say it, but the words tumbled out anyway--' "
Me: "Seriously, can we do this later. Also that sounds really cliche."
Brain: "We could talk about how you're completely helpless and all of the things you're scared of if you want instead. I made a list for you."
Me: "...Okay, right, about that fanfic..."
Brain: "So I was thinking--"

When all of a sudden: VROOOOM SCREEEEEEEECHHH BOOM SMASH METAL SHRIEK GLASS BREAKING HORRIBLE CRUNCHING SOUND.

Me and my brain: "WHAT THE SHIT."

I look out my window and suddenly see some guy running down our street, but nothing else. Then I start freaking out and wondering if I should call the police or something, because that was DEFINITELY a bad car wreck sound, and not the little fender-bender sort. Then I see police showing up...on our street. Next thing I know like half the neighborhood is wandering around outside. And I really kind of want to go out and see what's up too, because I'm nosy, but it's now 4:30 in the morning and getting outside will wake up the whole house, so I just sit there and watch. Can't see anything except cop cars and people walking around though because our cars are in the way. Eventually I fall back asleep. (I was staying up hoping I'd see a tow truck take the car away, but I didn't.) The next morning, go outside, and oh, hello, what is this, A HOLE IN OUR FENCE?

Turns out the crash was some drunk dude taking a corner too fast and swerving into the fence and guardrail by our canal. =| The guardrail, fence, and a tree stopped him. The guy I saw running was the drunk dude...I guess he thought he'd just run home and that would fix everything...? (They did find him) The crazy thing is that as car crashes go, it was actually lucky. If he'd crashed a few feet to the right, he would have gone right into the canal. And a few feet to the left and he would have hit all three of our cars like dominoes. As it was the guardrail was ripped out of the ground and completely twisted. Eep. (And suddenly all I can think of is the Dane Cook car crash skit.)

I'm going to take some pictures of it, but it has literally been raining for three days and I don't want to take my camera out in the rain. Plus I want to wait until my dad's not home because he's taking the whole thing way too personally.

So needless to say I was tired on Sunday. Then I had to go to work at 5:00 and work until 11:15 pm because it was another price change night. (At least this time I knew that I could wear regular clothes. Last Sunday I got all dressed up in my uniform and they were all, "Oh you're here to do price changes, you can wear whatever you want." >_< THANKS FOR TELLING ME NOW.) On one hand, price changing isn't THAT horrible. For the most part the old prices are easy to find and change. You just pull out the old tag and put the new one in. And it's fun tearing apart the perforated bin labels. (I have this weird enjoyment of pulling apart perforated stuff. Don't ask me why.) But it's really tedious. >.< And I rage whenever I can't find one of the old labels. (I may or may not have thrown out a couple of the new ones after giving up trying to find then.) After hour 4 or so, all the little numbers start to look alike. I was a complete zombie when I got home. I'm a zombie today, too, since I slept badly again. (And dreamed about having to do price changes in a store, except the prices were quotes from TV shows instead of numbers. One of the TV shows was about these animals that ate testicles or something. The quote for that TV show was "stale testicles." Subconscious, WTF are you doing?) I swear I have a hard time even remembering what day it is anymore. It feels like every day is Tuesday, for some reason. O.o

In non-smashy news, my new monitor arrived in time for me to see the new MLP on Saturday. =D Saturdays are awesome days now because we get new MLP:FiM AND new Zexal dub! Speaking of which, the first episode was great. I love how they have multiple cracky catchphrases to replace Kattobingu. (Although I am sad that they didn't keep 'pop flying'.) I really like Yuuma's VA. And dub!Shark wins all of my awards. (My parents were like, "this guy is a jerk!" Me: "No he's not! I mean...he is right now, but I promise he really does get better and ends up being pretty cool. D=") I have a good feeling about Astral's voice, too. We only got like three words from him, but I like the slight accent that Marc put on it, and the soft pitch. We'll get a better idea this Saturday.

Also I went to a new doctor last week and she was a lot nicer than my other doctor. Much more expensive, but so much nicer, and if I'm only going to the doctor once a year, I can afford the price. And when she wrote my BC prescription out, instead of making it monthly, she wrote it out so that Walgreens gives me three packs at a time. So I don't have to remember to call them and have them refill it every month anymore! Now I only need to have it refilled every three months. This is so much simpler.

Now I have to go and comb poor Comet because he came home this morning with mud all over his fur. And then I have to wash my bedcovers because he's gotten mud all over them. =|

Saying this first because it's important. I'm sending good vibes to you Gin-Gin, and everyone else please send her good thoughts too. I hope things are getting better or that they get better soon and you know I'm here if you need me. <3 I love you bb, don't forget it. *hugs*

Well, yesterday was it. The last day of Borders. I'm using its real name now because a) I'm not saying anything bad about it and b) WTF could they do to me now anyway? ^^;

The day was pretty hectic and kind of sad. Our liquidator was driving us crazy though. He was wayyyyy on edge and snapped at us constantly. Like he would randomly make up new discounts to give to random people, but when I dared sell a woman three e-reader covers for a dollar he flipped out. "IT'S TWO FOR A DOLLAR. NOT THREE." Like I care? That fifty cents isn't going to make a difference. I thought the point of the last day was to just get everything out of the store. And Kelly dared to joke with a customer at one point, and the Boss flipped the fuck out. Then the next thing you know he's going to Starbucks and buying us all coffee. (I really am turning into a coffee convert. Damned if cappuccinos aren't delicious.)

We sold the last books at around 4:30. (All to one guy because he had a gift card with a bunch of money on it and didn't want it to go to waste. So we were like, "just buy out the store! There's maybe 40 books left here! You can give them to friends or the library or whatever and you're basically getting them for free. Just take them!" And he did.) After that was a lot of cleaning the store, throwing things out, and the only people there were the ones coming in to pick up the bookcases they had bought. It was just sad at that point. The whole store was torn apart, we were throwing out everything, it was all so empty and desolate.

On the plus side, we were pretty much allowed to take anything we wanted at that point, and I got the bell. =D You know the little bells that hotels have that you can ding? We had one too, so I nabbed it. I don't know why I needed the bell, I just did.

I'm going to miss Borders. Both as a store and as a job. The good news is now my schedule will be less insane. No more hour-long drives or not getting home until 10:30 at night. And I'll actually have days off again! /o/ I only need to make it another two months at Office Ghetto (My new name for it, courtesy of someone on Retail Hell Underground) before I can start looking for a new job and leave gracefully, and who knows, maybe by then it will have grown on me. Sometimes it's almost okay, but then something always happens to make it suck again. (Don't even get me started on this haggy old fuckwad who showed up and bitched me out the other night. Literally backed me into a corner and screamed at me condescendingly like I was an idiot because of the way I took her fuckin zip drive out of the computer. I would have loved nothing more than to see her bitch ass die in a car fire. I'd like to point out I was at Borders for several months before I had a customer make me mad enough to want to punch something.)

Farewell Borders. Onward and upwards. At least I got a nice big stack of discounted books out of the deal.

GOOD NEWS. They're going to replay the Doma arc on the WB 4Kids! /o/ Angst and puzzleshipping and shippiness and episodes 160-164 and more angst and Yami crying and lots of random hand-holding for no real reason (I can count three times in that arc that they held onto each other for no real reason, okay, other than that they're in love.) and hurt-comfort AND DID I MENTION PUZZLESHIPPING? Now cross your fingers that they don't cut out a huge chunk of it like they did with the Noa arc they just played. If they seriously cut out any of episodes 156-164 I am going to be flipping tables.

Stole this meme from strawberrykaoru and finally got a chance to do it. xD;;

( If fandoms were people you had relationships with... )

And now I have to go buy a black belt because apparently even though my pants are capable of staying up on their own, it's a required part of the OG uniform. =|

So it's 9:30 at night on Friday and I'm putzing around the internet and thinking about getting some oreos, when suddenly the internet connection goes out. And stays out. ALL FUCKING WEEKEND. X___x They wouldn't send a tech out until today. I ended up spending the weekend working on a lot of projects I've been putting off though, so at least I got something worthwhile done between clicking on Firefox every ten minutes and hoping it would miraculously load. Also, I watched Tangled again. x3 That was fun. <33

We only just got the internet back a few hours ago. So now, after re-catching up on everything, here I am at last to do the con post that was supposed to have been done on Saturday. I thought about just posting some pictures and linking the rest, but I wanted to write commentary with every one. I tried to make the commentary interesting to make it worth it. =w=

WARNING: Lots of words and pictures and more words under here. Literally in Word the text alone was nine pages long. So if you intend to read the whole thing make sure you have an hour or so free. xD Or you can just skim and look at the pictures, that's okay too. x3

( Magicalness under here~ )

Now I must resume catching up on everything I missed over the weekend. ^^; Also I haven't proofread this very well so I apologize in advance for any typos. I hope they're funny ones if there are any. xD</p>