7 Things I learned while house sitting and watching a friend's dog alone

7. Buy food stuffs before you go to the friend’s house where you know you won’t have access to a car for days.

6. Check the bike lock to make sure it actually fits before riding to the nearest store.

5. Check the carton of milk to make sure it is one you’d actually drink before buying it (even if it means making the nice person who is watching your bike wait a few seconds longer.

4. PHONE CHARGER! Make sure you bring it, forgetting it is a really bad idea.

3. Keep house alarm key fob thing next to you at all times

2. Watch your toast while frying it (the house still smells like burnt toast)

1. It doesn’t matter how productive you think you’ll be…you won’t be.

Good News and another day of Silence

Last night I got an email announcing that I was accepted to Grad School! That's the good news, now for the observations from a day of silence. Today was very different from last year. Last year I was out and about interacting with the public. This year I stayed home all day so only my family had to deal with it. My dad spent quite a bit of time yesterday trying to convince me that not talking today wasn't that big of a deal, that maybe talking about things could change the world. I agree talking about things can change the world, but so can just a bit of silence. We morn people by having a moment of silence. This day is a day of morning for those who cannot speak for themselves, for those who have lost their lives because of their assumed crimes of being gay.

Truthfully the worst part of today was the fact that my boyfriend actually tried to get me to talk. Otherwise once my dad got here he accepted my silence. There were quiet a few jokes about how to keep me quiet. I have since last year picked up ASL and at points I found myself signing to people who had no idea what I was signing. No one in my family knows sign at least not as much as I do so it was pointless to even try. I ended up, like last year, passing notes in the same notebook even. I don't feel I should have even bothered to be truthful. I mean I know it was good for me in the practice of self control or something of that sort, but I didn't make an impact. 

Felling Stuck

It seems that as of late I have this irrational fear that I'm not going anywhere. I look forward at what I want to do and my heart drops. Suddenly I feel like I  may be in a place I can't get out of. What are the odds of me accomplishing my dream? I can't even get a job in this area in my field what makes me think I'll ever be able to. What seems the worst is I don't know how to get unstuck.

On a brighter note I have played Minecraft and I have fallen in love! I totally recommend it. It may not be pretty, but boy is it fun. I have found that I may be playing it a bit too often (at least I've got more applications out now). Though luckily I have build my big project so I'm not totally focused on it.
Minecraft is a simple game based around the idea you have just been dropped in this block based universe and you have about 10 minutes of daylight to get a hole dug (easier than you'd think) and some light (harder than you'd think). Once the sun goes down there be monsters. There are 4 main types of monsters (there are more but these are the ones that are around the most). You have your rather benign type the Zombies, as long as they don't get too close you're fine. They make a lot of noise so they are easy to know that they are near. Then there are skeletons, another mostly benign type, except they have range. The skeletons can shoot arrows at you, fun times. Then there are spiders. Which are all sorts of sweet during the day time, but as soon as the sun goes down they are after your blood. Spiders are hard to evade because they can climb walls and as soon as you get within agro range they will follow you even after the sun comes up. They can see through walls so even if you dig a hole they will still find you. After Spiders the most dangerous are the Creepers. They are dangerous because you don't know they are there until you hear the sound of a fuse burning. If you hear that noise RUN. Creepers explode destroying the area around them and you if you are too close. Armor reduces the damage you take from them, but it still hurts. Other than the four main types of monsters there are the ones in the Nether (not an easy task to get there) and there are the slimes. There are mods for more monsters and peaceful mobs.
Peaceful mobs are great, you have cows, chickens, sheep and pigs. Each have something you want. Cows have milk and hide. Chickens have eggs and feathers. Sheep have wool and pigs have tasty meats that heal you. There are also squids but they don't show up all that often since they live in the water and the point of the game is to dig holes and find cool stuff in the ground and build ...anything.
That's all for today, but soon I shall have more info on the wonderful world of Minecraft. Thank you Notch!

Slightly addicted

Well this last December in a fit of boredom and wanting a good RP I went on a search of a forum based rp site that wasn't lame (lame ones including gaiaonline, tinierme etc) . What happens other than me finding a good one? I find an amazing one, one that eats my time more than Stumbleupon.com  (God forsaken app! (I love you, don't leave me)). So of course now I tote my laptop around everywhere and anytime I have internet I'm checking it to see if I have an rp to post in. I think my friends may be getting a bit annoyed with me. It's almost as bad...if not worse than NaNo. Oh God that's going to be a nightmare this November.
Anyway what I wanted to say is as much as I am a role player and a nerd. My life on roleplayerguild.com has become more interesting at times. There is drama, hasn't been any in my real life for a while. I enjoy the lack of drama in my normal life, but I do have to say it's nice to have some diversion from the normal life I've been leading for so long. I have had more drama in the last month (exactly as of yesterday the 12) then I have had in the last four years. This may not be the best of things, but there is no actual attachment to what has been going on so it is only for entertainment purposes.
On that note story time.
Rules of engagement while playing in an rp forum, you do not take over the rp if you are not the story teller or co-gm. What happens, this poor girl who has got to be younger than 16 comes in and starts doing just that. She gets yelled out of at least 3 rp's in her first week. One of the things she is complaining about is not being able to log into an old rp site. I wonder why?
Story two
Always go into the OOC and introduce your character asking for permission to join.
Three posts in, someone doesn't introduce themselves and just starts posting in the IC.
Story Three
Don't lie about your age. We'll find out eventually.
One person lied, their mother found out they were on. They got busted.
This is in the last month only, and just the best (though cliff notes version) stories I have so far. More to come...eventually.

New Year

Welcome to 2011!
Goodbye 2010!
When times are troubling remember it could be worse. I promise it really could. Pray (to whoever from Cthulhu to The Spaghetti god and so on). Give to someone you don't know, and someone you love. Enjoy a hug. Enjoy a drink. Enjoy a meal with friends that you like talking to.
Do not resolve to do something, do it. Share a secret. Kiss someone you love, tell them that you love them. Take pictures! A lot of pictures! Get them off your camera and off the computer. Put them in a picture album, or a frame and show them off to people. Write, read, laugh, dance, cry, all in one day! Watch a sad movie. Watch a comedy. Film yourself and your friends, doing anything! Post it on youtube (link it here). Make someone's day. Tell someone off that you don't like. Go to a library and thank them for what they do, then check out a book from someone you've never heard of before.
Live, because that's what life is about.

Book to Movie

I have always been an avid reader, and as always I enjoy going to see movies based on books. Sometimes I have read the book and have been gravely disappointing with the movie (My Sister's Keeper), other times I have read the book and have walked away from the movie saying that is the best anyone could have ever wanted from a movie based on a book (The Road; The Time Traveler's Wife).
Recently Disney decided to make movies based on the Narnia Chronicles. That was cool with me. I had seen some BBC production years before and enjoyed it greatly. I had a few complaints, but nothing that I couldn't get past. Disney made "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe", while not as good as the BBC version, it was still good. It was better for the graphics, I must admit. Then Disney went on to make "Prince Caspian", I was fine with this movie, until the last 10 minutes (I have noticed the last 10 minutes break or make a lot of movies). At which point I was almost got kicked out of the theater for the outrage that spewed forth.
Now Disney has gone and done it again, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is coming out. Already I know some plot points are ruined, because of how they treated "Prince Caspian", but to add insult to injury Susan and Peter are in this atrocity.
I loved the Narnia Chronicles, I read them multiple times as a kid, I know how "Prince Caspian" works and what it means to the rest of the books that certain characters are represented when they should not be.
~Spoilers~
Let me explain the plot of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader". Edmund and Lucy are staying at their aunt's house, they have an obnoxious cousin, Eustace. He continues to be obnoxious until he is carried off by a dragon at one point. The older siblings have stopped believing in Narnia. This became apparent at the beginning of "Prince Caspian", when only Lucy could see Aslan. Susan is especially annoying about Narnia saying things like "Oh that old game we used to play".
Now much later in the books Susan being a...brat, yes we'll go with that, means much more about all of the religious "under"tones within the series. ~MAJOR SPOILER DO NOT READ IF YOU CARE~ They all die and go to the world that has cast the shadow (which is the world we live in/Narnia/etc) except Susan who wasn't on the train and did not really believe all that non-sense. This means she didn't believe in Jesus and when everyone died she did not go to heaven, get it? Ok so hear is the problem, if she loves someone in the "pretend" world, how does she justify herself when she begins to stop believing? Is it a jealousy thing because Prince Caspian ends up with the star princess, and not with Susan. In fact Susan should be in her teens or possibly her 20's during "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and several years have past since "Prince Caspian" which means Prince Caspian aged quite a bit more than the rest of them. Try that one on for size, what was originally a match of proper ages is now gross.
~End Spoilers~
With all this rewriting of a classic, I can't handle it I am refusing to go see the movie. Feel free to do the same.

New Year's resolution Update

It has been almost a year since I posted that I was going to stop using chapstick, I have been really bad about updating about that and for that I apologize, but as I sit here trying to avoid working on this years NaNo (word count 7,171) I was wandering around my blog and found the post about my desire to no longer use chapstick.

The update is: I am no longer using Burt's Bees (the first step of my plan), I no longer sleep with my chapstick. After I brush my teeth I don't even put on chapstick. I have been rather good about going hours without using chapstick, some days I haven't even used it. I am super proud of myself for this. Now my next goal is to leave my chapstick somewhere (such as at home when at school), which means leaving my comfort blanket at home essentially. This will be a bit more difficult.