So as you might have heard, I've been working on a new layout recently! It's been up but I've been changing things all week and now it's pretty much done. I even made a matching one for my profile. There are sooo many little details and it's definitely the most intricate and CSS heavy layout I've ever made. I spent lots of time and effort and cursing on it so let me know what you think! Inflate my ego! I'm considering getting the code all packaged nicely and submitting it to key_graphics. Maybe someone other than me will want to use it? That would be amazing... Oh! Let me know if anything looks weird to you. I can only test in one browser and one resolution, unfortunately. (IE users won't get to see my pretty rounded borders, but that's what they get for using IE :P)

Anyway, besides that I haven't been doing much other than school. Which I'm doing really well in which is making me feel like less of a failure :D In my free time I've been watching anime (most recently FMP!, Nyan Koi!, DTB and Bakemonogatari), playing a little FFXII and Harvest Moon, baking a bit and uh... that's it. I have no life. My dad was here for Dad's Weekend which is always interesting.

My kitty Marisssa died last weekend. It was really sudden, one day she was fine and the next she wasn't. My Dad and Marilyn heard her meowing loudly in the morning and could tell she was in pain cause she wouldn't get up. They took her to the vet and he said her back legs were paralyzed and she was going through heart failure. They had to put her down :( I guess my dad said when he looked back on it she had been less herself recently, but it wasn't enough for anyone to notice.

I talked to Marilyn last night and she was telling me about how she went to an animal shelter the other day. So I guess she's thinking about getting another cat sometime soon. I'm okay with this, I'm just don't want to forget about Missy. With all the "new pet" excitement I'm afraid I might. But she was always my kitty, and the new one won't be, so...

Anyway, that's pretty much what's been going on recently. I've been getting restless and I really want Thanksgiving so I can get out of here. My manager asked if I wanted to work black friday.... lol no. Black Friday will be spent sleeping off my food coma and eating leftovers. Mmmmmm. Can't wait.

So, my speakers died D:

I need reccomendations on brands and stuff. I just need your basic left and right computer speakers, no sub or anything. Some kind of balance between quality and price... idk. Just give me brands and I'll go from there unless you have something specific you really like.

Thanks so much! I've never shopped for speakers before so I have no idea :P

Actually have stuff to write about! I had not been out with a friend and had been coming straight home after work since Monday. So today I went and hung out with Francine, and it was a really fun break.

We first went to her house and I met her new dog, who miraculously did not try to eat me (her old dog actually tried to attack me once. If I had not put my backpack in front of me I probably would have been bit in the leg), and then took her nephew and his friend down to Kumoricon (I could have taken her sister's badge and snuck in, but I really had just wanted to go into the dealer's room which was already closed. So I'll go next year I guess). Then Francine, Frankie, and their sister Tina and I ate at Kells! It was delicious and not super spendy (my meal was $12.75 including tip). I got the Irish Lamb Stew, which was amazing. I also tried some of the Meatballs and they were also really good. I'll have to go back and try their corned beef and cabbage sometime and see how it compares to my Grandmother's.

After that we went to Powell's City of Books at my request. We sadly didn't get to the technical bookstore in time, which is where I really wanted to go, but I just browsed through the Literature section and bought ( some classics and a couple I'd heard good things about )

And they just dropped me off a bit ago. I'm sooo not ready to wind down yet, and dreading my long shift tomorrow (Though I get Holiday pay!!) but I guess I'll get over it soon enough. Being cooped up for almost a week really doesn't work well for me. Hopefully I can go out again soon!

❝ Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc. ❞

I'm a pretty open person, so I doubt anyone's gonna comment cause I can't think of anything that I find too out of my comfort zone to discuss, but please, prove me wrong. I'm curious :)

(If it's not out of my comfort zone but you still want to ask me about it, go ahead.)

I don't really have any computer games. I'd like to get some on monday once I get real internet. I like RPGs, and I suck at FPS and RTS (I have the reflexes of a turtle). Not really a fan of the big open-ended games like Oblivion and Sacred though. I'm already gonna get HoMM 5 since I played 2 all the time when I was younger, but I want some more ideas. Any reccs?

Edit: Also, I prefer games that have some sort of a storyline. I mean one deeper than "Omg there are aliens, we must shoot them". I can do without, though, if the rest of the game is fun.

Edit2: Sorry if I didn't make it clear, but I don't care if they are online or not or if they are multiplayer or not.

WE'RE GETTING COMCAST INTERNET!!!

MY DIAL-UP DAYS ARE OVER!

This is like one of the happiest days of my life. Oh my god. SO HAPPY.

Apparently Marilyn "threw a litle tissy fit" and so we're finally getting it. It's being installed next Monday. YAAAAAAAAAAAAY.


Uh other than that nothing much has been happening. Working a lot, playing with the Munchkins, and then camping this past weekend, which was............ uh...... interesting. But fun. Back to working though, bleh.

Also Ben got me chocolate~! Yay.

K, time to go wash 3 days of dirt off of me. Gross.

I don't even remember the last time I made an entry about my mom on here, but I'm guessing it was a while ago. She's now been through two group / adult foster care homes (Group homes are BAD NEWS, we found out. They don't care for you well and skim tons of money off the top of what the government pays them) and is now in an assisted living center, which is kinda like a nursing home except the people are more independent (They're still mostly old though. My mom is the youngest one by a long shot).

Finally a place that actually takes care of her! But gives her independece. And friends. It's also good becasue my mom absolutely loves to help people, and she's made tons of friends helping out the old people there. She has motherly instincts to the max, and she's finally getitng to use them. Finally a home that seems perfect for her.

Except she got home from Mother's weekend to find that two of her good friends there had died, and her best friend's kidneys are failing and he's now on hospice care.

Guess this place isn't so perfect after all. I mean the care is perfect, the people are perfect, the enviornment is perfect... but the residents here aren't as stable as the ones in the group homes, I guess. And they're more active so she's gotten to know them all better. This is going to be a difficult place to live, I can tell, and it's so sad becasue the place is so nice.

I can't even imagine coming home and finding out that two of my friends had died on my birthday and my best friend was terminally ill.

I don't understand why her life has to be so hard.

Well, thanks to everyone who commented on my post about where to live next year, but it kinda became pointless once I finally decided (and told my father) about moving to a five year plan. I can't keep living in a $525 room if my education just went up another $15 to $20k. So I need to find somewhere else to live :(

Unfortunately, this is kinda hard. One of my friends had a room open, which I was kinda banking on, but now it looks like her brother is gonna move in. Apparently he's having doubts about it, but it's currently his so it won't become open again unless he bails. Which means I need to find a backup.

Which suuucks cause I don't know anyone else who has a room open. Which means I am forced to ask people I don't know all that well and they get all awkward and try to find a way to disguise the fact that they don't want to live with someone they hardly know. Uuugh. I have to try though.

There is a group of about 4 of us in ChE (including my best friend in my major) who are now on a five year plan. We have sort of banded together to become a little group of failures :D Plus it's fun cause they're all guys, and I'm way better at making friends with guys than girls. Girls are so boring, bleh.

Unfortunatley none of them failed ChE 211, so I will still be taking that one alone. But in 212 and 213 and on we'll all be together.

Umm, what else... the YMCA might have an opening for a summer camp I can actually bus to this year, they told me to call back mid-May. But my dad apparently hates this idea, and I don't really understand why, since it'll be a full time job so I'll probably be making more money. I guess he probably just doesn't want me to lose the history and security I have with Penney's. Which is understandable since if I leave there I may not have a job during winter break, and there is no gauruntee that the Y will have openings next summer too. (Less of a gauruntee than if I stuck with Penney's, I mean.) But I would so much rather play with kids and go on field trips all day than fold and sell clothes. But job security is important. Blaaaaaarg.

Anyway I should finish my math homework now. Byes!

• Bold all of the following TV shows which you've ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime.
• Italicize a show if you're positive you've seen every episode of it.
• Underline any shows you want to watch but haven't gotten around to doing so yet.
• If you want, add up to 3 additional shows (keep the list in alphabetical order), but you must delete one show for each one that you add.

( Some of these are really embarassing! )

Good lord, I need to watch more TV. I am so lame. I only italicized one show.

Who is ygiioluz? He has like everyone on my flist friended.

I think I'm gonna start using Citrus Alarm Clock to wake me up again. But this time I'm going to compile a playlist, so I don't get woken up by the same song everyday and then start hating it cause it reminds me of having to wake up.

So, what are some songs you think would be good to wake up to? Probably something peppy would be nice. Anyone who suggests Good Morning, Good Morning by the Beatles will be shot. Go listen to it if you don't know why, and imagine it being blasted in your ear at 5am after a long day of physical labor and a very short sleep. It is a horrible experience, trust me.

So yeah, reccomend away!

This journal is for me to write my thoughts in, and for everyone else to comment on those thoughts. If your statement does neither, please put it in your own journal, or somewhere else. Thank you.

Some interesting statistics from a retreat I went to last weekend. Unfortunatley, I do not have the sources. All statistics are for the U.S. only.

Current average divorce rate: 60%

Divorce rate for couples who live together before getting married: 80%
Divorce rate for couples who are married by a Justice of the Peace: 50%
Divorce rate for couples who are married in a church: 30%

Divorce rate for couples who use natural family planning and attend mass together: 2%
Divorce rate for couples who do the above and pray together: 1%

Wow.

So I know that most of my flist isn't really religious BUT I'm going to throw this out here regardless, cause it's important.

I'm a leader on a retreat at OSU that's coming up in a few weeks. For the retreat, we have a rosary chain, similar to the prayer list during the Encounter at JHS, where people sign up to say the rosary during a specific time so that the retreatants can see how many people around the country have been praying for them over the weekend.

The time slots are from Friday, January 23 at 4pm to Sunday, January 25th at 5pm. If you (or someone you know) would like to say the rosary and pray for the retreat, please comment with a time during that weekend that you would be willing to do so.

I know I probably won't get many or any comments on this, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyways. Thanks!

I just finished eight icons in like an hour. This is very strange for me.

Okay so most of them have been sitting unfinished for a few weeks (some of them still feel slightly unfinished to me, actually), and all I ever really do to icons anymore is cropping and a bit (at times a very, very tiny bit) of color adjustment, but meh. They still count / I don't care. [P.S. They are uploded to my userpics if you want to see them, all CLANNAD.]

We had tonkatsu tonight, yay! Yes, tonkatsu is a somewhat normal dinner in my house; my dad visited Japan many years ago, fell in love with it and started cooking it at home. Awesome for me. I get yummy Japanese food.

Umm, that's about it. I got lots of yummy chocolate and P4 from mythos, yay. And I totally should have been packing instead of iconing tonight. Whoops.

K, Sleepy time soon, byes.

OMG I HAVE A PAID ACCOUNT.

mythos is the BESTEST!


Now I'm gonna get hooked on it and will have to throw money away at LJ every year but OH WELL I DON'T CARE. YAAAAAAY!