Grimm and I against the world.

The first line of my first post from each month of this year...

January:  Happy New Year, all!

February:  Dear World: The United States of America, your quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for its 2001-2008 service outage.

March: This is my little addendum to this post about my first foray into hired housecleaning. The apartment is cleaner than it's been since I moved in, but the fluffies were a tad traumatized.

April: Life goes on.

May: I simply MUST post the following segment of an IM transcript from a singularly weird conversation I had with Mum tonight after watching a video about ducklings (known in our family as "gucklings" - long story).

June: Ya know, I don't agree on all of President Obama's policy decisions...but you can't deny, he's got style.

July: In our old house in Gainesville, we fed whole raw peanuts to squirrels until they were waiting and scratching at the door, and eventually would take them from our hands.

August: For those of you on my F'list who are not Real Life friends or family, here's my big news: I lost my job on Friday.

September: Gakked from misscam (and also answering her interview questions...)

October: Today is the first day of the rest of my life, or at least the next part of it. Today I start my new job.

November: Report: 2 Dead, At Least 8 Shot In Orlando High-Rise...I live within a block of that building.

December: Dear Couple: Ya know, I've had people tell me I have issues for being so disinterested in dating. But living next door to the two of you could make Marianne Dashwood embrace the single life.

Yep...been an eventful year, to say the least. Like many, I hope next year will be better for the world.

I'm seeing the 00 decade out quietly with the fluffies. Was a bad, BAD girl and went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner - I'm going into a full-blown diet starting Sunday, seeing as I'm in the worst shape and heaviest I've ever been, so it's eat-drink-and-be-merry until then. Joining the 'rents for brunch and to watch the Rose Parade tomorrow.

Bagel boyo is flopped on my desk upside down with his paws in the air, sweet kitty.   Bast is trilling at me from the kitchen floor, and Raqi is watching her suspiciously from under the table.

Symbolism is a big part of my life, but I can't bring myself to care about the end of the first decade of my adult life. Something really heavy is going on, and I don't mean separating from Rob, so I'm more focused on that.

In other news, according to my Uncle, who is high up in the state police, the apartment in Indianapolis is controlled by the Mexican mafia. So, that's nice.

(Completely unrelated, since I'm not paranoid or racist enough to believe these guys were criminals, Mal and I were at the grocery store across the street when he says to me, "You know those guys over there are talking about you", referring to a nearby group of young men speaking Spanish. Apparently it was very complimentary. That was kind of awesome.)

I've been tasked with test-running another computer before I go back to Tallahassee, as Daddy tried to fix my desktop and failed, so this is a second attempt. As for my laptop, I'm in laptop hell, with the final straw on the old one coming Christmas morning. Apparently Santa thinks I don't deserve a laptop. Newsflash, that's not negotiable. A co-worker of my dad's has an old one he might give/sell him. So, I may be testing another new computer tomorrow. As for the rest of my holiday, it was good, but busy. I should've come into town closer to Christmas and worked out leaving more carefully. Greyhound changed the schedule going from Mobile/Pensacola to Tallahassee and that bus is now majorly inconvenient. As such, I'll be watching NYE coverage from my parents' house, not my apartment. 2am live stream in the garage is not my idea of fun, but it's a necessary evil. Told Daddy he can watch Auburn play in peace because I'll be sleeping unless Adam vids appear on You Tube at a reasonable hour.

Football at 10am is optional, 12pm is not. This is when the FSU game starts and due to the fuckwads on the Board of Trustees, it's Bobby Bowden's last game, and not his choice. Forcing a legend to resign is bullshit and I hope Jimbo Fisher fails and the Trustees have to eat their words. One more season wouldn't have done anymore damage than has already been done. And Bobby is pissed enough that he's leaving Tallahassee. That should never have had to happen. If Jimbo can't win in Bobby's shadow, he doesn't deserve the job. However, this idiocy did get FSU a Gator Bowl bid we didn't deserve, so I'll take it. Too bad I couldn't go. Would've loved New Year's in Jacksonville with Tyler rather than in Mobile. Plus, Tyler's not coming back to Florida until March now. So mad I missed him last time he was in town. Totally amused my dad thought Tyler was Thomas. Nope, the latter I've barely spoken to lately because he's in Boston again. Plus, computer hell means no Yahoo messenger and barely working AIM. I need a working computer ASAP.

... sorta ... all the presents i got this year were really lackluster, either i couldn't use any of them, or i had no interest in them, or i owned them already.
And normally we all get one or 2 gifts like that every year ... but EVERY gift?

On one hand it pains me to know people spent a lot of money on me, on things i have to reject. On the other hand, i'm trying to appreciate the "thought" ... but when every single gift you've recieved is a dud (not because i'm picky, but because my girlfriend does not know how to shop for gifts for people), it gets frustrating, especially watching others open gifts that you got them that you know they wanted while having none for yourself.

Good thing i got $300 in xmas money, and a $50 gift card to EB Games as well!

And it's not like i'm so materialistic, and i understand not getting the gifts i wanted is not exactly the worst fate a person can have in this world, but i like what i like, and i want to be able to enjoy the things i like.

So, what did i get for myself?

GAMES!!!
Xbox 360
-Batman: Arkham Assulym
-Dragon Age: Origins
-Brutal Legend

Wii
-Mad World
-Ghostbusters
-Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars
-Death Jr., Root of Evil

MUSIC!!!
-Unearth, "The March"
-Opeth, "Blackwater Park"
-DevilDriver, Self Titled
-Machinehead, "The Blackening (Special Edition)"

(Ooh, a table of contents for you all!)


GAMES!!!
Of course, i finally had to pick up Batman: Arkham Assylum, since i'd been waiting for that one the longest (and Sarah was hinting and implying that her mom was getting that for me - but no, she got me the gift card - which is awesome, but i wanted something to take home and play christmas night, not wait a few days to go out and get later). Other than the weird over-the-shoulder camera, the game is pretty awesome, the graphics are amazing, and the character designs are perfect, and the fighting is fun and stuff. I'm not much of a fan of the sneaking game genre, but a lot of it is very reminiscent of Metroid Prime, which is one of the all-time greatest games ever. So i'll try to tolerate the sneaking elements.

I also saw Dragon Age: Origins and decided to see what all the fuss was about. People have hailed it as "what Fable 2 should have been." So far it is pretty good, though the fighting system is horrible. It's just a repeated attack graphic that doesn't even physically affect the opponent (like, they don't reel backward, or move the direction they're hit) other than the drain on the health bar. There isn't even a block button. Come on, this is the 360/PS3 era! There's no excuse for lazy battle-design *cough Sacred 2: Fallen Angel vomit*!
I've started a Dwarf Noble quest as a Warrior. I see magic as the "guns" of the fantasy genre, and i don't like games where i have to primarily use guns, and so i've never really cared about using magic in games, either. I'm more of a sword/axe swinging kinda guy, so a Dwarf Warrior is perfect for me.
I will enjoy this game, i AM so far, but i don't know if i'd call this a step forward - especially since it seems a lot of the freedoms i came to love in Oblivion are even further limited than they were Fable 2. I want a big friggin' map, like Oblivion, that i can walk all the way across without meeting any loading screens (until i enter a city or house, of course - but even then), with the physics and fighting system of Fable 2 (lock-on shooting was such a blessing!), but the involving storylines and supporting characters of Dragon Age.

Ever since seeing a review for it, i knew i had to pick up Brutal Legend - about a guy who enters the Realm of Metal, a hellish place full of headbangers and demons, written by the same guy behind Psychonauts, another one of the most creatively designed games ever made (a few little references in Brutal Legend were very appreciated by this Raz fan). So it's hilarious, and fun, and full of Metal. Too bad it's mostly the crappy 80s hair-metal stuff. I still usually have to put on my 360's metal playlist while playing the game. But yah, it's very interesting and funny, and it has a huge world to explore without needing a loading screen!

I sampled Mad World for the Wii, that crazy violent black and white one, and it's quite fun! I just seem to have less mental patience for the Wii lately, so i've focused more on the xbox games so far.

I'd sampled the 360 version of Ghostbusters demo, but you still need to use the control sticks to aim the "gun", and again i'm no good at that. If i have to play a shooting game, make sure it has Lock-on, or fuck off! I am not an FPS fan, my fingers just don't move fast enough to aim my target before i'm full of holes. So, i figured i'd have more fun with the game if i can just AIM at the screen with the Wii controls. It is a lot more fun this way, and easier for me, but i can see this game get tiring quickly. Plus it doesn't have lock-on until you weaken the ghost enough.
But i LOVE the fact that the original voice actors are in this, even for the secretary (who i am kicking myself not remembering her name, i used to be obsessed with the Ghostbusters in the 80s ... Go Egon, with your blond tornado hair ... or black hair in the movies and game). Would have been cool to be able to choose one of the Ghostbusters as your character, but you just play as an unnamed rookie alongside the original 4. But it's still pretty neat.

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars - what a friggin' awesome game! It's very platformy, and so confusing, but damn, the characters, the trippy music, the entire premise, the colours ... it's just very fun. Everyone with a Wii should at least rent this game, but i know you'll want to own it after that. Too bad i'm stuck at the moment. And the camera is a little awkward, but very responsive (so much so as to be TOO responsive at times).

I haven't gotten around to trying Death Jr., Root of Evil yet, but it looks like at least a fun little 2 player adventure.


MUSIC!!!

Unearth is another band i've discovered in my Metal Trek who are brilliantly amazing. The voice borders on my tolerance levels, but it's mostly good. The music though is just excellently complex and beautiful, just what i ask for. So, it goes without saying that i quite enjoy "The March."

Opeth's "Blackwater Park" is yet another masterpiece of metal. Each song (on any album of theirs) just travels through the entire expanse of the heavy metal experience - from the complicated, excellently triumphant, brutal, heavy stuff to the beautiful, haunting, enchanting melodies.

Devildriver's self titled album (i assume their first) is also quite excellent, though he seems to use the annoying high pitched metal scream that i don't like more often in this album.
Hey, did you guys know the singer for Devildriver is the same guy who sang for the group Coal Chamber? He's toned down his psycho goth-punk image, and his neck is now as thick as a tree, but he does look like (and most importantly, SING like) a serious metal singer now, complete with long hair, haha. His voice is all over the place, and i appreciate that, even when he sings crappy - cuz it makes me appreciate the good singing he does even more, and he does "scrowl" very pleasingly. But his singing should be the secondary reason you listen to this group - the REAL magic is in the music. So energetic and complex and brutal and beautiful. Very fun to listen to. One of the metal bands that seems to have a lot of fun with their songs, without taking them too seriously.

Now, i already own "The Blackening" by Machine Head, but i did NOT own the special edition which comes with a behind the scenes DVD, and 2 extra songs. I don't care much about the extra songs because they're just covers (one from Iron Maiden, and one from Metallica - both of songs i've never heard of), but i loved their tour video, "Elegies" released alongside their "Through the Ashes of Empires" album, and these guys really care about their music, and so i really wanted to see more of their tour/behind the scenes stuff for this album - which i consider one of the greatest albums ever made.



I also ended up picking up a 3rd xbox controller in case we actually play a game with more than 2 players, like Fusion Frenzy.

So yah, what was looking like a disappointing christmas turned out just fine!

(Because really, besides family, it's a holiday about presents - it's the shameless, religious-indoctrination bribery scheme that pulls you in as a kid, and it's part of what keeps you coming back to it - the other part being the warm family and friends thing ... just try not to be fooled by the bribery scheme into believing crazy things!)

I've never seen you look like this without a reason,
Another promise fallen through, another season passes by you.
I never took the smile away from anybody's face,
And that's a desperate way to look for someone who is still a child.


And in a big country, dreams stay with you,
Like a lover's voice, fires the mountainside..
Stay alive..

(I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered)


I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert,
But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime..


So take that look out of here, it doesn't fit you.
Because it's happened doesn't mean you've been discarded.
Pull up your head off the floor, come up screaming.
Cry out for everything you ever might have wanted.
I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered.

I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert,
But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime..

And in a big country, dreams stay with you,
Like a lover's voice, fires the mountainside..
Stay alive..

Basically.

I hate when my mind doesn't turn off! I hardly slept at all last night and was up before 5 am. Really, I just need a break. I can't wait for Monday and Tuesday. I do not even plan on checking my work email. It can and will wait.

Everything else is going to have to wait, too. I can't afford to do things I want/need to right now, but will soon. Even with a "battle plan" in mind, though, I still wake up churning it over and over in my head. I think my being unsettled has more to do with nightmares I've been having lately than any real worry over the finances (which will be under really good control - knock on wood - in the next month or so as things get paid off :)).

Add to that that I was told someone was preparing something for me to look at job-wise... ack.

I think it's time for a major revamp of Chicahuac. The island thing is done to death and I am just not getting tenants. I'm not sure what I want to do there just yet, though, or if I want to just give it up entirely and call it a good run. Rand and Alida can buy a little house somewhere nice to call home and buy a plot for Sapphire Moon. It'll be a lot less per month than I am paying now.

Ideas for a theme for a sim, anyone?

Grimm and I have arrived and our things are all settled. He is happy with his new space and has currently literally attached himself to my hip, happily curled up in a ball with his forelegs wrapped around mommy. I have everything I need here, except that the bedroom doesn't have a phone extension, so Rob is bringing down a cordless phone so I can talk to Mal in privacy. I have several stacks of paperback horror novels, The Buffy Box, a small altar with St. Dymphna and The Big Jesus Candle, and the collection of Joker Batman comics Mal got me is propped up so that the Joker watches me while I sleep. Mal would approve.

The next step is slowly introducing the reality of Mal to my mother. She doesn't know about Florida. But when he comes up to see me in a couple weeks, she'll have to be told at least part of the truth. We're feeding it to her bit by bit. My mother is exhausting.

Now that I've run out of episodes of The Venture Brothers, I'm going to bed with my baby boy.

How sad is it that the top word I use in FB is "work"?

It took less than 20 minutes to gather up the necessities of my life, including art, entertainment, and the comforts of living. I don't know what that means.

Dear Cat "Owners" in College Park, Orlando:

Your beautiful brown tabby, "Leonardo" has been a visitor to my parents' house ever since they moved to the area.  Before he turned up with a collar, we named him "Feather" because his brown and black stripes resemble the pheasant feather which has been a favorite toy of our own cats.

Even if it meant we would never see him again, I would be thrilled if it meant you would act like responsible pet owners and KEEP YOUR CAT INSIDE!!!!

News flash:  It's cold outside, Florida or not.  Your cat is cold.  He cuddles up in our laps when we come outside to play with him and even shivers, poor baby.  He tries to come into the house, which can't be, unfortunately, due to Mum's allergies.  We're pondering ways for him to have a warm spot near us, maybe a heat lamp on the porch or a cat flap into the screen room, but that shouldn't be for us to do.  He is yours and your responsibility.  Why aren't you keeping him in when it's cold out?

News flash:  I have seen wounds on that poor cat more than once.  Yes, it looks like you get him treated, but it doesn't matter - he shows up with injuries again and again.  And as long as he remains outside, he will have more wounds from other cats, from raccoons, from dogs.

News flash:  Your cat is more than likely to die young, and to die suddenly and painfully.  Probably from a car - people drive like maniacs down my parents' street.  Most of the neighbors worry about the neighborhood kids - with justification.  The speeds these morons drive at could kill a child.   A cat wouldn't stand a chance.  As a young girl, I cried when a neighbor's beautiful kitty, Snowball, was killed by a car on our street.  It makes me ill to know how likely that our Feather will suffer the same fate. 

In conclusion:  You are irresponsible scum and do not deserve that sweet, affectionate, beautiful cat.  If you're not willing to be responsible for his welfare, then find him a home where people treat him decently and keep him safe and warm INSIDE.  Cats DO NOT BELONG OUTSIDE and definitely not in a city.  Your cat will die and/or disappear one day.  Will you mourn him?  My family will.

Maybe you just don't care.  If not, why the hell do you have a cat at all?  He's not a toy.  He's alive.

He deserves better.

Not sure just yet what the final menu will be, but so far, I'm looking at:

Deviled eggs
Cheesy olive snacks (It's a cheese/olive mixture spread over Triscuits and baked lightly)
Baked brie with crackers and fruit
Shrimp tartlets
Prosciutto-provolone pinwheels

Dessert something or other

Updated the realty website with all new information and landmarks!

http://nelhuayotlrealty.com/available-properties

I hadn't realized how long I'd let it go!

I needed one of these! I am doing nothing today but playing in Facebook, Second Life and some IJ RPs. I don't even need to cook, since there are enough leftovers in this house to feed an army for a month!

I'm liking this a lot!

01] Please comment!
02] Credit ponyboy or iconzicons if taking!
03] No hotlinking or altering, please!
04] Tonight, I won't let you go~♡



( 2NE1: 12 CL & Minzy Icons! )

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas day.

Today was a lot better than I was expecting. Roo and I had a good time this morning, opening gifts, relaxing over coffee and breakfast. We relaxed, cooked things to bring to my parents' house, played Wii games, then went to dinner.

Heard from JT. Didn't let it spoil my day, though. I just can't feel bad for him being far from home when he made that decision to live this way for both of us!

It was wonderful having the family all together. The kids liked their gifts. Dinner was great. Laughing and talking with everyone was even better.

Curling up now with Second Life, FarmVille and CafeWorld and a big glass of OJ. Life is good.