I fully expected to neglect this thing once he got here, but not to this degree. Oh well, that's just how things are. It seems that I don't have a lot of time to do anything but spend time with him while he's here, and everything else is put on hold. The little sleepyhead is snoozing away in my bed at the moment (and I'm currently patching my Final Fantasy XI expansion pack), so I have some time to catch my breath and post a little something on here.

We haven't really done a lot of the things we were planning to do while he was here, but we've done quite a bit. It's cliche, but doing the whole West Edmonton Mall thing seemed to be a must. We only really went there once and looked around. And spent an insanely large about of money in the arcade (as you can see on Facebook with our purikura pictures). We did a few Christmas things, like going to the legislature and checking out the Christmas things they had set up there. We went to Whyte Avenue once, but just to eat at a restaurant, then we went to Asian karaoke. :D That was really fun. I'd go more often, but I don't really have anyone to go with. I didn't even know there were karaoke establishments in Edmonton set up the original way (in private rooms where they serve you stuff from the bar to your room).

Aside from that, we've watched a lot of anime and played a lot of video games. @_@ We're pathetic, I know, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Hey Lbeth, we watched your favourite: Gravitation! XD We finished Utena last night. We're going to gay it up even further and watch Yami no Matsuei today. Then we're going to get very, very hammered. We spent the rest of our money on booze yesterday. And stuff to mix with booze. We got ice wine. *.*; And Grey Goose vodka. And some rum, Baileys, Sourpuss (I couldn't resist XD), and all sorts of fun stuff. Oh, and cheap champagne. We both laughed when we saw one called "Baby Duck" (did I mention Zanth's vegetarian?), so we just had to get that for the novelty of drinking Baby Duck.

I hate to say it, but one of the video games we started playing was…… MapleStory. >.< He wanted me to show him it because I used to play it, and he ended up making a character… and now he's officially playing it. So I can't not leave him to play it alone, and I'm back to playing it. *sigh* Hopefully we'll get through our other video games we wanted to play. He brought so many. We're nearly through Final Fantasy X, we wanted to start XII but probably won't have time. X-2 looked absolutely awful. Yuna, what have they done to you!? ;_; He also brought Kingdom Hearts, which looks stupidly fun. Disney, wtf.

Speaking of video games, my FFXI patch is nearly done. I hope to talk to more of you after he's gone. I feel like most of my friends have been put on the back-burner, and I feel kinda bad. Forgive me? D:

don't worry, i'm not falling into the bad habit of not blogging, i'm just crazybusy, as many of you know.

i spent reading week staying up late every single night (one night i stayed up till 5:30am x_x). i hate hawaiians on maplestory. they make you stay up and don't even realize how late it is in your timezone. >:O as a result, i slept in very late every day. i didn't get anything done that i wanted to do except level up once on maplestory. that's great and all, but i still suck at life. :(

i didn't think this week would be so bad. i ended up skipping classes on tuesday because my sleeping schedule was still all messed up, and i slept right through into the afternoon. x_x i missed an important EDIT lab, but they're not so anal about labs as they are in biology (you miss one lab in biology and it's like 2% off your final grade; if you miss three labs you can expect to fail the course, or something like that).

i had a bio midterm wednesday evening. that wasn't fun at all. i then had a bio lab quiz the following morning which also wasn't fun in the least. i was pretty sick of bio in general by the end of yesterday, let me tell you.

i had an astronomy assignment due yesterday. the guy who sat next to me in class plagiarized his entire thing by copying off his friend. i was so close to tattling on him because i work hard to do my assignments properly, and here's some bloke who might do better than me yet he put forth no effort. -_-

japanese is a whole different mountain of fly-infested feces. i'm not going to list the specific stuff i had to do this week (we normally have various quizzes and assignments due every day), but i am going to mention my speech. the competition is in calgary on sunday. (did i even blog on here that i was accepted? well, i was. there you have it.) that's like, less than two days away. on wednesday she asked me if i'd be willing to get up in front of the class on friday (today) and present it as practice. considering i haven't had time to even memorize it (why didn't i over reading week!? >_< *hits self*) i was pretty worried.

so, yeah, i got up at 7:00am this morning and started memorizing. it was a bit easier than expected, and i do have it all memorized, the order is just messed up. like, i often can't remember which sentence comes next. i think it's easier to memorize scripts since you can play off each other's lines. :( as a result, i crashed and burned up front in class today. x_x at least i was able to look at my speech as a backup. i won't have that on sunday. so i have a lot of work to do, and i'm going to work on that tonight. i asked to have all weekend off from work, so i'll work on it all day tomorrow, too. i hope it goes well because i don't want to look like a complete fool on sunday. ;_; that would be absolutely devastating, in front of all those people.

it's low priority right now, but i might just have to share my speech with you sometime. maybe when i buy my video camera (i intend on buying one before summer, you know). i have an audio recording of it, but i've changed it a tiny bit since then. plus, if i do a video, i'd be able to subtitle it for you. >D but i don't want to worry about that now, i just want to survive past sunday.

if i'm somehow unable to be contacted after sunday, you can all assume i've slit my own wrists during my speech (for dramatic effect) after not being able to remember the words. :D

first of all, the maplestory video is ready to go.

here's a link to it on youtube, and here's a link for it on yousendit (wmv file, 43MB).

also, i got my package on my way home from work. it came in a really big package. O_o like, a foot and a half long. for two CDs? i was surprised. well, the reason it was that big was so the nana poster wouldn't damaged!! SURPRISE! O_O i love it. and they threw in a random anime magazine for free. *_* and the limited edition nana soundtrack is A FREAKING HARDCOVER ARTBOOK! the CD is on the back cover in a little pouch (as if the CD is the bonus, not the book). it's the coolest thing ever!!! i must take pictures of it sometime so i can show off. i'm not sure if i'll put the poster up (i still haven't put my nana wall scroll up). also, the ANZA single is absolutely wonderful. there are gorgeous pictures of her on the cover and in the little booklet.

i ate subway for supper, but i'm absolutely famished right now. what's going on? o_o it's only 10:00.

somebody make me something to eat. :( please. :(

well, despite my ill feelings toward adobe premiere, i spent most of my free time today redoing the stupid maplestory screenshot video. -_- and figuring out which format wouldn't mess it up. turns out windows media player is useful after all… and it only took me three or four hours to figure that out. -_- since i had to guess and check every single format with varying degrees of compression, frame rate, etc.

and youtube is down. can you feel the irony?

doesn't matter, though, because the three people who really care have watched it already. >_> when youtube is back up, i'll upload it there, as well as upload the video to yousendit, or something, so people can download it. because it's just that exciting (yeah, not… it's just a glorified slideshow of my screenshots).

also, my CDs arrived today. O_O!!! isn't that shocking? i think it is. i was expecting the package to arrive next week. sad thing is, they tried delivering it 45 minutes before i came home from work, so it's at the post office right now. i would have went to get it today, but i only just checked my mail a couple hours ago. x_x tomorrow evening after i get off work at 7:00 i'll get it. :D if they're open. O_O they should be. because then i really will have to wait until monday to get it. yay, i just checked the canada post site and they're open till 9:00. :D and on weekends. O_O why am i so shocked? this is the city. it's not like the little town post office i'm used to. -_-

and i just remembered something interesting. i've been at my current job for over two years now. x_x i started working there late july, 2004. i can now say things like, "i've worked here for over two years." >:D i'm not sure if that's pathetic or impressive, considering i put buns in bags and slice bread for a living.

let's see how short i can make this post…

i've been working on a maplestory video for the past few hours. i took a break to shower, and stuff, since i have to go to work early in the morning. i finished it and tried rendering the video. it turned out all garbled. so i changed the settings and tried to export using a different video codec. and it crashed my program. and i was stupid and hadn't saved for about an hour. about half of it was lost. so i'm a little upset and i'd be surprised if i ever feel like working on that video again. -_-

the family reunion last weekend was okay. there were a lot of family members there that i don't particularily care for. lots of little kids too, and i like most of them. it's the adults that are the problem. it was in a really nice campground in the middle of nowhere in central saskatchewan: about five hours east of here, then one hour south. saskatchewan is infamous for its flat, boring prairie, but we were in a lush green oasis. o_o it was quite nice. even though we slept in a tent, my mom and i both agreed that our sleeping-on-the-ground days are over. we bought air mattresses. soon we will buy these fold out bed things that are elevated off the ground and everything. >_> we've both done a lot of camping, and not always by choice. we don't like to do it anymore. <_< there was a manditory talent show, and i played my sax. it went okay, although i felt like i crashed and burned. i got really nervous and started sweating a lot. like… dripping in sweat. x_x;;; but other than that, i played the songs okay. note to self: if you're going to do up your own music from scratch to play, don't include lots of sixteenth notes (and sixteenth triplets!) which span notes over a large distance. too hard to master, especially in a short period of time. and for someone as rusty on the sax as you. that is all.

well, my japanese les misérables musical CD arrived monday. it cost a lot of money. :( but i've wanted it for well over a year now, and i'm so happy to have it. it's a live recording, actually. very good quality recording, i might add. it's like you're a blind person at the show (the stereo-ness is completely intact, so you can tell where on the stage the people are). i have never seen the musical, believe it or not, but want to so bad. i read the book back in high school, so i'm familiar with the story. the insert comes with every song's lyrics in japanese, so i followed along to the entire thing. i'm rather surprised at how much i understood, though my previous knowledge of the story sure helped. i must say that i ordered this because of my dear anza. i love her so much. she played eponine, and i got goosebumps every time she sang. >_> so, yeah, worth every penny, in my opinion, considering you can only order this CD directly from the theatre company using a japanese bank account. (i found an alternative method of obtaining it, of course, because i'm sneaky like that. >:D)

my other music is on its way: a first-press copy of anza's new solo single (debuting under a new record label, i might add) and a limited edition copy of the nana OST. :D which comes with an art book, or something like that. i'll let you know. >:D it's been shipped, processed by canadian customs, and is now somewhere in the vancouver area awaiting sortation by canada post. i'm hoping i'll have it by the end of the week, but that's stretching it. probably monday or tuesday.

i wanted to say something else, but i forgot what it was. i'm getting tired, and i shouldn't be up this late anyway. gotta get up in four hours. yay, this is a repeat of a couple days ago, and i was dead tired all day. but this time i have lots of coke. too bad i can't bring the 2L bottle with me and keep it behind the bakery counter. :( ugh, this sucks. sorry i couldn't share that video with you guys. :( maybe someday.

whow, this post ended up being long. o_o i'm not capable of quick updates, i guess.

i very rarely remember my dreams, so i really need to blog this.

i decided to sleep in today, and i just woke up (yes, at 12:30 in the afternoon :P). i had the weirdest dream, and it was maplestory-related. x_x i don't know where this even came from. anyway, in my dream, i found out that there was a secret version of maplestory called MMS: mermaid maplestory. *DIES* a version of maplestory made for mer-people. and the game was entirely modified to be underwater. and the characters had fins. to prevent outsiders from playing it, though, they passed a law that made it illegal for any outsider to play their version of the game. a british kid mysteriously disappeared after being caught playing MMS: kidnapped and on trial for playing MMS.

undercover CIA agents who had infiltrated the mer-people society, including their government and secret agency, were told to rescue the kid. i was a CIA agent. disguised as a merman. X_X another agent was a clerk in a mer-convenience store, and the mer-people were being extremely rude to him. so i told the "customers" off. >D and then… i don't know how… but all the CIA agents except for me were discovered! O_O and all the mer-people gathered in one big place, myself among them, and the leaders of their society put the imposters on display. they revealed, one by one, their identities and who in their society they were trying to fake. about half were undercover as drug dealers. *DIES*

and then i woke up. whether we rescued the boy remains unresolved! maybe this means that we'll be getting aqua road sometime in the near future on GMS. >_>

yahoo mail beta is on crack. i like it, but i still think gmail is better in terms of service, UI (yay for google's forte: simplicity), and features. but i still like.

my mom and sister are at my grandma and grandpa's. tomorrow is their 50th wedding anniversary, and, of course, it's easter weekend. so they went down there. i have to work six days in a row, five of which are closing shifts (in a row), three of which are eight-hour shifts (in a row). fun. -_- eight-hour closing shifts start tomorrow: one of the busiest days of the year. good friday and the day after are usually hell. and since when are we open on easter sunday!? WTF!? good thing i don't have a wife and kids, or something. o_O

it's just me and miss deadly for easter this year. this morning i put my mom on a guilt trip, and i told her i didn't want a waxy easter bunny this year to eat all by myself on easter. >D so i came home from work, took a nap, got up, and found a little tiny easter basket by the computer. it had cadbury mini eggs, creme eggs, a few other things, and a purdy's chocolate bunny. O_O yay for higher end chocolate. >D i was so happy though. ;_; if you want me to like you, feed me chocolate. i'm just that simple.

the creme eggs are so gone. >_> so are the mini eggs. <_< screw easter… i wanted them now. >D okay, i'll save the bunny for easter, but everything else is fair game. >:D i got a couple things left in there. purdy's jelly beans. :D i didn't know they made jelly beans. they're not bad. :D they're kinda like jelly bellies. maybe they are. o_O

okay, i need to go to bed. -_- in case you maplestory people didn't notice, i've been in self-exile on JMS. until school is done, at least. i've been telling myself that, but i'm finding this whole warrior thing more fun than i expected. and i've been leveling pretty fast, so yeah. :D two more levels and i'll make the spearman advancement. funfun. i apologize, hammy. you were right all along. :(

seven more levels till i get big titties. oh baby oh baby.

okay, i'm at school, and i'm bored to tears (what? study? wut u sei?), so i shall blog about maplestory. :D but i'm at school, so no screenshots for you. maybe when i get home i'll post a bunch, but that's unlikely.

well, i've been stuck on level 60 now for a little while. i was leveling very nicely thanks to a few quests (do you know how long it took me to get 300 white pang tails? too long >:P), and being able to kill drakes nice and quick, but 70% has been my limit. since ludibrium was released (!!!1), meg and i went exploring, and i kind of died. and i died at master chronos. X_X they're perfect for me to train on (plus there's a chance for tobis… and a 10% staff scroll, which is sellable or giveawayable), but their magic attack is ouchies. ;_; and having arguments about a monster you don't even know the drops for while being mattacked is not smart. i'm not smart. -_-

the level 60 jump quest is dead easy. took me ten minutes. *_* of course, after doing sabi2, ALL jump quests are easy. STUPID NECKIS. -_- I HATE THEM ALL. I WANT TO COMMIT JR. NECKI GENOCIDE (STILL). -_-

so far no drops from ludi monsters. i've mosty been going back and forth between master chronos and doing quests. last night i decided i'd do the entire series of quests with that guy… er… in the upper right of ludi. where you kill various monsters in eos tower. i finished last night around… 3am? which is great, because the final monster is boss-ish like mushmom, but spawns faster (20 minutes?). and i found one fairly quickly and soloed it. :D I SOLO ROMBOT I PRO. after all that work, though, i got a 60% bow scroll. -_-!!!!! i was so pissed off. it's not worth that much, and it's not something i can give away to a friend, so yeah… stupid prize. -_- i also got a 10% glove attack scroll (vs. 60%). good prize, but i was hoping for the one that i could sell for more. :(

so i figured it'd be a good idea to do the dollhouse quest while no one was online. i did it. first try. o_o it's really easy… the shading on the handle is really different. so yeah, got a bunch of pills for that… and it unlocked another quest… which was very fast. o_o i'm not sure if it's supposed to be an "arwen's shoe" type of quest, but i found that gold tick-tock crank thing after ten seconds, no joke. @_@ got a 60% claw scroll from that quest. *_*!!! that only makes four more to get. :D and prices are eeeever so slowly going down, so i'm happy. :D i just hope the level 80 claws don't stop dropping soon, because everyone will want to 60% them, and demand will go up. x_x

OMG MEG! hidden street just credited your ludi monster translation! YOU'RE SO POPULAR!!! *_*

i just found out that regular chronos drop tobis too. o_o i sure hope the price drops.

oh, i guess i should mention equips. i have yet to make new gloves or shoes (neither of which are that hard to make, really, i just need a few BC ores and a ton of bronze to make screws). i still have my crappy claw scrolled with 100%s. :( i really want a clean bronze gigantic (i don't care if the LUK is underaverage! as long as the attack is okay), but they're harder to come by than i thought. for a decent price, that is. i'm hoping to pay in the five to six million range. i've seen some go for 7mil. -_- i guess i should say that i only have 8mil (thanks to me selling crap all the time in free market… i love the vending pass thing! *_*). i probably have 10+, to be honest, with all the equips and scrolls i have yet to price (mostly scrolls…). so, yeah, i'm going to be POOR if i ever get a new weapon. :( the level 70 claws are not as expensive at all… it's not fair. ;_; i have this bad feeling that if i ever get seven 60% scrolls, and i manage to get a clean bronze gig, most of them will fail. ;_; which is why i want a bronze one, so i can upgrade to dark and i gots me seven more slots. but the scrolls!! ;_; sooo expensive. i should have made a spearman. :( you can make the serpant's tongue now! *_*

still gotta get a dark identity. -_- but i have the other two identities (bought on impulse >_>), so they'll do for now. this is the lowest priority. I LOOK LIKE SOMETHING AWFUL OUT OF NARUTO. ;_; but i was getting sick of the sonata anyway. x_x

so, yeah, my priorities are… finding a clean bronze gig, making gloves and shoes, obtaining seven 60% claw scrolls, obtaining a dark id (which is at least average).

weee, yay, that killed lots of time. hehe, killing time. i've been doing that a lot in maplestory. chronos. get it? >D *ahem* uh, yeah. music class now. finally finished beethoven. :D beethoven makes me want to write my own piano sonata. which i think i will… someday. o_o seriously.

!@#$()*#@()%* I JUST PRESSED BACKSPACE WHILE NOT TYPING IN THIS TEXT BOX AND STUPID RETARDED INTERNET EXPLORER WENT BACK A PAGE AND I PRESSED FORWARD AND NOW MY MESSAGE IS GONE ARGGGGGG >O

you're deprived of a really long maplestory post. :( so i'll just post this screenshot (since, somehow, i'm blaming hammy for internet explorer doing that… it's always her fault).

list of things to post about when i get home

• weird JMS moments
• brilliant moments communicating in japanese
• cash shop stuff
• free market permit thing (CHANNEL 1, ROOM 10, BUY MY STUFF RIGHT NOW)
• SOMEBODY'S ludibrium monster list!!
• errr… something else i can't think of because i have bio in six minutes

this will be a maplestory post mostly. >_>

well, i thought i would get some late night maplestory in. i've been trying really hard to get those dex crystals before i become level 55. :( minor zombies loved me last night though: two crystals within ten minutes of each other. *_* and i only got 200 teeth total. i forgot to buy some items to cure poisoning, so i couldn't stay too long. -_-

anyway, i didn't quite make it there. i just randomly lagged out on the screen before the level 50 area entrance. thankfully, i wasn't near any y&ps, so i shouldn't be dead next time i log on.

i accidentally NPC'd 15 drake's blood. i meant to NPC the lone drake's meat that's been sitting in there taking up a slot for i don't know how long. -_-;;;; anyone else accidentally NPC something they didn't want to? this is my first time.

screenshot taimu!

some random guy in the tower left a dumb message up while he was AFK. i killed many of his precious jr. sentinals because of that. just because. not that he ever would notice. that's the point, though.

i got hyperbodied for the first time ever. meh, kind of useless for thieves, but still cool. a warrior kept wanting my haste (level 17!) so we swapped skills every once and a while. >_> and this screenshot looks cute… ferret vs. star pixie!!! i will win because i have two throwing stars. he has one pathetic star. i love how we're both making the :D face too.

then sisko and i decided to be mean. >:D and kill people. pixies are easy to kill people with. >:D i recently posted about that… about how i killed someone with a lunar pixie. how evil i was. but sisko and i together… oooh, boy… NEVER idle in any cloud park screen EVER while we're online! OR ELSE! >D i should have put on my bathing suit to match sisko. oh well. *KILLS THAT GIRL AND STEALS HER PANSY EARRINGS* >:D

and then this was from tonight… i was doing the tower quest and got an amazing drop!!!! -_- and, yes, my cash items expired. :( they did a few days ago. sad day. ;_; i miss my slippers! ;_; i guess i could get the bunny ones now. >_> but the price! x_x i poh.

okay, enough of that. work. i missed my bus twice and was 45 minutes late for work today. i hate staying overtime, but i didn't really have much choice. and it sucks when your shift ends at 10:00pm. turned out to be a sucky day on top of being late and all, and i ended up staying until 11:45. -_- my legs and feet still hurt. i only took half my break(s). oh well… i'll get a good paycheque next week. did i mention i work this upcoming holiday friday for eight hours? *_* money! *_*

i wish my fansubs would be released faster. :( i'm so impatient at times. and ungrateful.

i have nothing to do tomorrow. apparently it's PD day… i didn't know they had those in college. o_O and my work doesn't know that, so i wasn't scheduled to come in. >:D i think i'm going to sleep in, pretty much. i guess i have no choice since i'm up this late now…

i still want to get some stuff done. i should list that stuff so i don't forget it. since it's just for me i'll make it on here… in japanese. >:D because i can.

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