It's A Magical World

2008-03-23T04:38:00.000-07:00

Just testing the Picasa's feature of "Blog This!" Probably a lot easier than fiddling through files and all that crap, while for Picasa I can just pick one and blog it right away. I don't like the lack of tags (they call it keywords), and no smart albums where I can group pictures with a specific tag. The one that comes with Vista is much better, however, no "Blog This!" feature. Oh the agony of trying to pick!

Long overdue

2008-02-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

Aww! Don't they look cute with their tails crossed? That's probably the first time that I've seen that happen, especially these two.

When I paint, I leave my oil paints on a wax paper and add linseed oil to keep it fresh. Well, I left the door open, and look what happened. One of these two above cats did this mess.

I suspected that Hobbes did it because he can be very silly. I checked his paws...no paint. Guess who.

At least it's the colors of my Alma Mater, Mountain Lakes H.S.

Adopted deaf child returned...

2008-01-31T13:39:00.000-08:00

I was reading up on forums, and I was appalled at what I read.

DeafMom explains it better than I do.

Basically, someone adopted a child. The child was discovered to be deaf. The child does not qualify for CI (I have no idea why though). The child was returned to the adoption agency.

All I can say is WTF?!

This pissed off so many people. Nice to know that they think deaf people are disposables.
The couple got pregnant and now they'll be loving parents. Excuse me while I gag.

Pleasure

2008-01-29T15:56:00.000-08:00

You know, every once in a while, you just have to treat yourself. Whether it's a facial, a massage, a hot steaming bubble bath, a chocolate éclair, anything you want for little or no cost.

Today, I went to 7-11 to get some milk and ice cream. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my pleasure. I thought to myself, eh. Who cares? I got myself a nice 18" Slim Jim. I used to eat that all the time when I was working at cat-only hospital, and Eddie would buy it for me from time to time. I haven't had it in so long.

I hurried home, peeled off the ever so familiar wrapping, and took my first pleasurable bite into the skin, and biting into the meat of the Slim Jim. Oh, the pleasure!
And...it only cost me a buck.

I get hot steaming bubble baths all the time. Facials is not my thing. Slim Jim satisfied my need to have pleasure.

What's your pleasure?

Denied Shakes

2008-01-25T07:44:00.000-08:00

http://deafmomworld.com/

Scroll down to the story how this Deaf mother of 3 deaf children was denied service at Steak and Shake (Midwest Fast food type of thing). She was on ABC last night. I've heard some stories like this from time to time. I've only gone through the drive through 3 times and only one time I had to say, "Yo, I'm deaf and all I want is shake." then the person on the speaker would keep talking and talking. I would just ignore him/her. Other times I would walk inside to order to avoid having this to happen. This mom just wanted 2 shakes. How difficult is that for an employee to do? I've worked at McDonald's and yes sometimes we get held up by rush hour, but we never deny people service. I know a friend that comes to my McDonald's all the time, and she has to bring a paper to the window. The little problem with going past the window is that the person behind the deaf customer will give the order, and if the deaf person gives the order through the window, it can mess up the order a little bit. Does that make sense?
Even though the deaf culture/deaf community and people that are deaf are increasingly becoming recognized, we still struggle through issues like this. Sure, there has been major issues with someone who is deaf and denied service/interpreters/medical issues and what not. The deaf mom did not deserve to be treated this way...especially when she is capable of speaking, and all she wanted was 2 shakes from her favorite place. She deserves free shakes for a year.

Bath Time

2008-01-23T06:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I went to UCC to start my new classes for the Spring. When I arrived, I saw that there wasn't a lot of cars there. I thought it was weird. I went inside, and proceeded to my classroom. The door was locked. It was 1:58pm, and I thought it was impossible that no one was there yet. Then I thought, perhaps they moved the room (which would be very odd because there's only two drawing studios).
I went up to where the class schedules are and the room numbers to check. I saw it says "Start: 1/24/08" Oh DUH! I got confused because I was told that classes start the week of 1/21/08. Whatever.

Roy gave Mocha a bath last night as she was flaking and having dry skin. She was very good. It wasn't until after the bath that I totally forgot about the Golden Rule...clip your cats nails before giving a bath. Good thing Mocha didn't fight!

On a sad note, it was sad to hear that Heath passed away. I thought he was so cute in 10 things I Hate About You. Life sucks sometimes.

Interesting eh?

2008-01-20T09:39:00.001-08:00

Click here

I stumbled across this website. I was searching pictures of placement of the CI. Some are high above the ear and others are just right next to the ear. I guess it all depends on where is a good location for the CI to countersink in the skull.
Anyways, I came across this picture. I thought it was very interesting. I've always wanted a white cat with blue eyes, and I still do.
This is the first time that I've seen a CI in an animal. I have seen BAHA in a dog once, it's not the same as CI.

Interesting eh?

Cat Genie

2008-01-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

Whenever people invent something to make human lives easier to deal with cats, I stray from it. Nothing is better than just a good old fashion litter box and a pooper scooper. That's what you have to deal with for cats. Same idea goes for dogs, you deal with poop.

http://www.catgenie.com/

It's much like LitterMaid, but ooooh...it's flushable! Oh wow I'm so IMPRESSED! *sarcasm*

Seriously, no, I'm not getting this litter box. I like the litter boxes that I have. One covered, one open, both XXL. This way the cats have a choice which ones to use.

Hobbes has the tendency to lift up his butt while he pees instead of just straight down like Mocha. I don't know WHY he does it, but that's how he takes a piss. Just like men take a piss in various ways. So, sometimes when he does that, there's a spot of pee on the wall of the litter box down to the litter. No big deal, after a month of using scoopable litter, I clean the litter boxes very well with mild soap and water, and it's good to go.

LitterMaid and Cat Genie does not have high walls. And God forbid that if Hobbes took a piss inside the hole where the "scoop" is.

If someone cannot deal with poop/pee, then DON'T GET A CAT! Simple!

Types of litter is a different story. I have tried the following:
Johnny Cat - what a crappy litter. It's basically clay, and not good.
World's Best Litter - made out of corn. Many vegans/vegetarians are partial to this one
because if it gets stuck on the cats paw, it's okay. Plus it's flushable. However, for me - I could smell it through my apartment. If it was in the basement, then maybe. Expensive though.
Tidy Cat Scoopable - Better than Johnny cat, but has a sandy feel to it, very hard to vacuum from carpets, and doesn't clump very well
Fresh Step - very good litter, but for some reason, my cats hate it. (They wouldn't bother covering up their "messes", and when I had one box with Fresh Step and the other box with Scoopaway, they liked the Scoopaway better).

Scoopaway - Clumps very well, doesn't smell at all, my cats love it, and it's what I've been using for years.

I picked Scoopaway because my cats PREFER that way. It's like some people prefer an oval toilet bowl over a circle toilet bowl. I also use unscented because Roy is very sensitive to smell, so no perfumey smell anywhere. I think I like that better anyways, because if you smell perfumes or odor control stuff for the house, you can tell that something is being covered up.

Roy would love to try to teach Hobbes to use the toilet. But first, he has to teach Hobbes to STOP drinking from the toilet.

Gotta go pee now.

New Beginnings...

2008-01-08T03:27:00.001-08:00

While I will maintain this blog as my personal blog, I have created another blog that focuses on my cochlear implant journey. I don't think I've been so excited about something in a long while.

http://cyborgqueen.blogspot.com

Since January 1st, my life has been so crazy. Running around getting things done. Cleaning up the apartment in between errands and doctor's appointments, and I thought December was crazy when I ended up in the hospital due to a seizure-like episodes. To this day, the doctors have no clue what exactly had happened. All the tests pointed out normal/negative. I still have to take anti-seizure medication. What a drag. For the first time, I have to take something twice a day, for a medical reason. Cold pills, birth controls, antibiotics doesn't count because they're not long term...well, maybe with a small exception of birth control. But nevermind that, it took a bit of pushing from Roy to keep up with my pills. Good thing that it's firmly planted in my head, and I won't forget. :-)

I went to my mom's house to get rid of all my "shit" as she calls it. No more storing my stuff at her place. She wants to renovate the basement so it's habitable. She wants to have a bar, close off the water heater, heating ducts, washer/dryer, make a panstry closet (what's wrong with the two they have on first floor? It's filled with shit). She wants to have a slot machine down there, and all the bells and whistles of having a furnished basement. I think she's slightly crazy, but it's her house, she can do whatever she wants. She ought to keep this in mind that the cats' litter box is downstairs, and that means she has to clean it EVERYDAY (instead of every other day or once a week?!), plus she needs to put TWO litter boxes. Poor Baby, 16 year old cat, trotting his big body downstairs just to take a piss. Yeah. We'll see how *that* goes. (Yes, my mother reads my blog, but doesn't comment. "Don't have time." She says. Sure.)

Anyways, the whole point is, I found over 150 VHS tapes of mine. Many have Reba stuff on it. Thank goodness for TViO, I can now transfer snippets of what I want on a DVD instead of putting the full 3 hours of CMA awards or something. Found childhood stuff, found my HS diploma, which I needed it for something. Sometimes it's nice to take a look through my stuff every once in a while, but jeez that's a lot of stuff. Then it hit me, I'm just like Roy.

2008 is looking to be a good year. I know sometime down the road I'll face an obstacle, but i think I can handle it.

Christmas

2007-12-27T18:57:00.000-08:00

Christmas was uneventful. Nothing really special, just a simple Christmas with all of the families. Roy's nephew got a Wii from everyone, and he was pretty excited. Roy's brother bought the Wii like 4 or 5 months ago...and he was dang lucky.

I didn't get too much, so that's the good thing! I got Super Paper Mario, which I have been wanting for months. I was hoping to get Super Mario Galaxy...no biggie, I got enough gift certificates to buy a bunch of stuff that I want off Amazon. :-)

I'm playing Elder Scrolls: Morrowind. I'm giving this another shot. It's a helluva intensive game to play (200+ hours), plus you're not just stuck with one character, you can create dozen of others. First character I created was something that I found off the internet that sounded good. WRONG. She could do shit with melee stuff, and awful with people, it was just dumb. I started over again, after I put in about 4 to 5 hours in the first one. This time I thought was a little bit better, however, the skills were slightly better, but the major/minor skills were crap. I got a great weapon, Steel Sparkmauler (who the hell comes up with these names?!). Did very well, but for the life of me, I could not figure out why I couldn't slash and chop...I was just thrusting my weapons. Duh. Figured it out later. I was not satisfied with this character as well as I hated the major/minor skills system because I knew it would take me quite a long time just to raise my level. I put in about 10 to 12 hours total in this one.
Third time is a charm. I found a GREAT user guide to explore every single skill, every birth sign, every class, every race in detail. Because I like my character to be involved with Magic, but I also like to have some combat. The first thing the game asks me is a name. I wanted a fantasy name. Then I thought, Kahlan from Sword of Truth series. *sound of a light bulb turning on* I decided to mold my character to be just as similar as her. I had to modify my skills set slightly.
She is an Imperial Race, under the sign of Astronach, with good combat skills and good magic skills.
So far, I played about 4 hours, and she is fabulous. She kills mudcrabs very easily with one shot (while my other characters took about 3 or 4 shots to kill), and she will level up pretty quickly.

There are cheats out there to level up easily, but I ain't doing that! There are some players that can finish the game in 10 minutes. I ain't doing that either. Some hard core players will join every guild, every faction, and complete Main quests, and Misc quests, and THAT my dah-lings, I'm doing. :-) I ought to keep track of my hours....

If you're curious what this game looks like, just go to youtube.com, and search for Morrowind. Simple.
Hope everyone had a good Christmas.

The drama....

2007-12-19T07:33:00.000-08:00

Finally I'm able to drive again with the doc's permission. It was getting a bit of a pain in the ass staying home and unable to drive. But hey, at least I didn't waste gas or emitted some poison in our Earth's precious atmosphere. :-)

Finished my two finals on Monday. I had to create a 3D model of Patrick Star, that's it. Finished my research paper about female characters in video games. Both times I got 100%. Easy peasy.

Roy and I finished our Christmas shopping. We only had to buy gifts for 3 people. We had told both of our families that we are not buying any of the adults any gifts this year. It made a hellva lot easier to deal with. I'm tired of banging my brain on trying to figure out what they want. Everyone has "everything" they need/want. Besides the stuff that I would like to have is way over their budget.

We got a package in the mail with our niece's gift. There was a paper packaging material. Hobbes went nuts playing with it, hiding underneath it. Roy and I went to bed, and Roy was laughing. He says he can hear Hobbes still playing with the paper.

Then this happened...
It includes jealousy, thought of murder, evil eyes, swishing of the tails, and lastly, a piece of long paper.
Mocha was under the paper (when Hobbes was just taking a swig of water), Hobbes heard the crumbling of the paper and immediately started to get jealous. He was swishing his tail very hard, and ready to pounce on Mocha for stealing his spot. The Big Momma (moi), had to restrain him with all her might. Finally, Mocha said to herself, "What's the big deal about this 'cave-like' place made out of paper? I'm outta here."
Hobbes' tail stop swishing, and Big Momma let him go. Hobbes resents the fact that Mocha's DNA is now all over the paper, and he plans for the next attack.

More in the next book...."When Fur Flies"

Lastly, my camera has been sent to Canon manufacturer because lately my photos suck. On the little screen on my camera it looks good, but once I transfer it over and it's on full size (I normally leave it on 1600 x 1200...crazy, I know), the pictures look out of focus, blurry and even the colors doesn't look right, it just look flat. I have tried resetting everything, changing the color balance, etc, nothing is solving the issue. I have to leave it on vivid mode. The shutter speed is even slow too..1/60??? It should be 1/120 indoors, and 1/400 outdoors (bright shots).
So, as of this moment, my lovely camera is in the hospital for the time being. Hopefully when it comes back fixed up, I will sign "Wind Beneath My Wings", and "Something in Red".

Have a Happy Holiday!

Wthell?

2007-12-11T02:42:00.000-08:00

Suffering from insomnia once again. Sorta my fault for having Darjeeling Tea late in the evening. Who knew there's caffeine in that crap. :-)

Regardless, I was checking my email on Gmail, and for those of you who have it, right above your inbox would be various sites. Well, this is a hoot.

Work Safe...I promise!
Click here!

I mean seriously. If you go to "Colours - Order now". I had a dirty thought, real dirty. :-D I would like to order the Glow in the Dark one please!

So...

2007-12-04T12:44:00.000-08:00

Ho Hum,
Besides the tough weekend I had, and not able to drive (doctor's orders)...I'm doing well. I am still able to complete my classes on time.
I find myself playing Picross on my DS quite a lot...I love it.

I still get bad headaches, and so far it has been 4 days. It's nothing that I couldn't handle, but sometimes it just can be a pain and annoying.
I finished "The Glass Castle" by Jennette Walls. I must say, I was inspired by this book. It makes you think that for people who had a good life, a roof over themselves, friends, good education, and money to get by...that you don't really realize or ignored the people who are suffering with broken homes, poor education, and barely scraping by...they do exist, even at this time and age. It's kind of sad.
The book is fast reading, and I recommend to borrow or get from library. I needed a "light" book after reading all the Harry Potter books. I am now reading, "The Devil Wears Parada". It's pretty funny. Some of the lingo is NYC type, and fashion. So, if you don't really know fashion or not understanding the city lingo, then don't read it.

I also saw Citizen Kane on Sunday. That's another movie off the AFI 100 movies list! It's interesting, and Roy explained to me why it's considered number one. It's a good movie, a bit long for my taste, no action, no sex, no drugs. Just your standard B&W oldie.

I think Roy and I will watch Lawrence of Arabia. We'll see what happens.

I still want to try to do Roni's request...I just need to make sure that the Audio will transfer!

I know I know..boring post. What did you expect?

Manga

2007-11-27T21:20:00.000-08:00

Just finished Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls Book 1.
Don't you hate it when you are nearing the end, and the book leaves you hanging? I hate that, yet I love it. :-)
The book is a horror Manga, and I do recommend this book as well as Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (which is exactly what it does, delivers corpse's soul back where it belongs and all that creepy shit). The problem with Basilisk series, it's mature contents, so the books are covered with shrink paper at Barnes and Noble, so I can't exactly open and read it there. I got it off a Gift Certificate, but it's slightly more than a regular manga. I think I'll stick with Amazon or eBay if I want to get more. I checked my local library, they don't carry this stuff. Boo hoo.

Gotta start going through my books. :-)

Started knitting my scarf again, and I promised myself to FINISH the damn thing before Christmas roll around. It's for me only, so at least I have something of mine that I made.

Just found out some disturbing news from my family, so I'm a bit sad at the moment. :-( (Oh, no one died...I guess that's the good news)

Roy FINALLY, saw Indiana Jones Raiders of Lost Ark and Temple of Doom DVD. :-) I kept teasing him that Harrison Ford was my childhood crush. Hey, I didn't care how OLD he was...he was just damn cute. He has to watch the last movie. That's one movie off the AFI's Top 100 Movies list.

Roy's the Man

2007-11-26T05:39:00.000-08:00

About 6 or 8 months ago, Roy made my bath with candles, bubble baths, and always have my book ready (yes, he still does it...sorry ladies!). On that particular day, he used a tea candle with metal bottom. We didn't think twice of it, but after I was done, there was 4 small burnt area from one tea candle. You could tell that a tea candle was there. I tried a lot of things to remove it, I even asked my handy mom how I can remove it or we could get in trouble.

Fast forward to a few days ago. I "strip" cleaned my apartment...basically that means I clean every surface, cleaning the TVs, cleaning the bathrooms, doing all laundry, etc. I decided to try again on the burnt area. Mom gave me a little bit of bleach, and I thought that may help. It didn't. I threw the small terry towels on top of a pile of towels. Little did I know that it fell off the "mountain". That night, Roy looked at the floor and saw a small area that the bleach towel has touched...and it was a little lighter than our carpet...oops.

Fast Forward to yesterday - He left the couch to go in the bedroom. The bathroom was in the bedroom area, so I could not tell if he was in the bathroom or on the bed. After 20 to 25 mins has gone by....he comes out beaming. I said to him, "What the heck were you doing for the last half hour?" He says, "I was clipping my nails. I cleaned off the burned marks." I was like, "WTF? I've been trying to clean that for months, how did you do it?" He just shrugged and beamed like his ego was bigger than the apartment. I ran to the tub, and found NO burn marks. I asked him, "Seriously, how did you do it?!". He says, "I used toothpaste. It's a mild abrasive, so I scrubbed for about 10 mins to get that thing off". WHAT? He used toothpaste?! Why didn't he tell me that before? "I just thought of it 10 mins ago!"

Then...he went on his Ego trip...and what a trip it was. I ended up hearing, "Who's the man?! Who's the man?" All I could say was a few choice 4-letter words.

"Now, I'll have to think of something how to fix the bleached stain."

Yes Roy...you're the man.

Vlog

2007-11-19T10:54:00.000-08:00

I look like an idiot. I am using my camera, so I had it sit on the table hence why I look like I'm 20ft woman. Whatever, enjoy.

Harry Potter

2007-11-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I did it. It took a little bit longer to finish, but I finally finished the entire Harry Potter series. In a way I was not surprised by the ending, and in some ways I was. When I closed the book, it left me some questions, but I think that's what J.K. Rowling meant to do so we can create our own stories. I said, "Goodbye Harry" before setting the book down, and dozing off to sleep. It seems to take a long time for me to do the task, but it has to be done. Life goes on. I can only dream what will happen, and I know in the future, I will go through the struggles that Harry did, and struggles to go finish all 7 books in a row with my children, someday.
As much as I wished JK could contiune the series, but it's time to say goodbye for the most beloved character and series of all time. She did it well.
I'm hoping that the next book that she will be working on will be just as good, or she will be screwed.
Whilst I understand why some people do not want to read this book, but there's no reason why. I'm glad that I got to be part of the Harry Potter world from the beginning to the end. It's something that can be passed on in generations.

Good bye, Harry.

Roy's First Bath

2007-11-13T19:03:00.000-08:00

I have given both of my cats, Mocha and Hobbes baths since I've gotten them. Mocha is used to it, and Hobbes is starting to. I normally take the "bath" duty. Roy mentioned to me the other day that Mocha's "flaking", which shows me that her skin is a bit dry and she needs a good brush out and a bath. I do it like 4 to 6 times a year.
This time I jokingly asked Roy if he wanted to give Mocha a bath since he was the one that's complaining about the flakiness. "Sure." He says.

I clipped Mocha's nails hours before giving a bath. I explained to him step by step, on how to set up a bath prior soaking her in water. Mocha took the bath like a pro, aside from the crying, she was perfectly good.
Hobbes's turn was after dinner, and he didn't really like it too much, but he took it well.

So yeah, Roy did their baths for the first time.

It's that time again...

2007-11-02T16:29:00.001-07:00

It's that time of the year again, NaNoWriMo. Don't know what it is? nanowrimo.org, go check it out.

I must be crazy to attempt a unreachable goal, at least for me. I browsed a little on the site, and found some people were able to plug in couple of thousand words, and a few passed the 10k words mark (wtf?!).
Well, I'm gonna try. This year's novel is a bit autobiographical, with little bits of my crazy ideas in my brain that you really do not want to explore. As of this moment in time, I have done 0 words. Eh, I'll make up for it...tomorrow.

On the other hand, I got Super Princess Peach because it was recommended by a friend. Note to self: Do not buy games because the guy says it's hard. Super easy. Finished it in two days (roughly 4 hours total). It's a cute game, and I've always liked the Super Mario Bros. characters anyways, so none of those Mario/Luigi/Princess Peach games will turn me off, no matter how bad they are.

Got Castlevania for the PSP. It was a bitch to go through several levels to open up the secret game that I wanted to play in the first place.

I'm outta here.

A little film based on Hobbes

2007-10-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

I saw this, and I was laughing so hard that tears were coming down my face. Seriously. Watch it.

Ellen vs. Dog

2007-10-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

I heard about Ellen's issues with the dog. Here's my take on it.

First - read THIS
The blog pretty much says it all of what I feel.
I feel that it's partly Ellen's fault, and she admits to that for ignoring the contract about placement of the dog. However, I feel it's majority Mutts and Mom's fault because they could have been nice enough to Ellen and "scold" her for not following the contract, and go after the hairdresser's family to do the proper procedures. I know there's some adoption agencies that are really obsessed to where they place their animals. Instead, what did Mutts and Mom do? They took the dog away and give it away to another family...out of spite.
Ellen should have informed Mutts and Mom that her new puppy was not getting along with the cats, however, found a family that's willing to take in the dog and do the proper procedure then. Ellen probably thought that once she signed the adoption papers, that the dog is hers....I would have thought the exact same thing, and if the dog or cat didn't get along with my cats, I would find a home for them, just as if they were mine. Instead, the contract made it sound like, "Even though you have the dog, we still own it." Make sense?

I find it so sad the people are pitting against one or another, and very rarely they think about the puppy.

If Mutts and Mom had just accepted Ellen's little mistake, and then go through the proper procedure with the other family (adoption papers, fees, whatnot), I'll bet you 100% that Ellen will use her fame and talk about Mutts and Mom, and it will make them look good, and some fans would even adopt dogs from them or donate money. Instead, it's the other way around. Fans are protesting against Mutts and Mom dogs, giving them a bad rap...probably for a long time.

Ellen had good intentions, and I firmly believe that she did not use her fame to get away with shit. She's one of the few famous people that is "Normal" human being...she just happens to be on TV. No big deal.

It just really sucks to see how this was turned out. I wonder how the new family feels with the puppy that the puppy was in the middle of this just like the King Solomon story. If people find out who was the new family is, the new family could face issues for a while.

All my cats are adopted (with exception of Baby who was given to me when I was 13...he's the King). I never bought one from a pet store, and I will never do so. If I want a purebred cat, I'm adopting one, no question about that, you'll be surprised how many purebred cats are in shelters. Often shelters do not do a family background check, because they want to get rid of the animals. That's even sad, because sometimes you'll never know if the cat will be taken to a hoarder's home, abusive family home, kids are mean to the cats, or the cat is used for other things besides being a cat if you catch my drift.

Car accident

2007-10-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

At this day and age, you would think that people would drive a bit more carefully if they have an SUV/Truck, instead of speeding down the road thinking they're invincible. They couldn't be more wrong. Instead, they tear down the road, and hit the little weeny cars that populate the road. The drivers of the weeny little cars would realize the extent of the damage to their car, then would rather drive an SUV as their next car. Does that even make any sense?

I did a lot of driving over the weekend, probably 10 hours (including the time I went to Philadelphia which I didn't drive to).

I must have seen like 7 or 8 accidents through the whole weekend. 4 of them were SUVs, 2 were sedans. One SUV must have speeding and hydroplaned off to the side of the road smashing into trees when it was pouring rain. Two SUVs were in a bad accident when one rear ended the other. It drives me crazy that some people were rubberneckers and just completely slow down and see the accident. Yes, sometimes it gets me curious, but other times, I just want to go home, safely.

It's just sad to see how many accidents I've seen in just a short span of 3 days. Sure, sometimes driving an SUV could save your life because the car is so "BIG", but on the other hand it could cause more damage to a little sedan like mine.

I get very nervous when I have to drive in between two SUVs, and Trucks on a three or more lane highway.

So, do yourself a favor, do not get a large SUV, and if you do, be careful driving. Now I see why my mom says, "I'm never gonna let you drive until you're 30!" Ptth.

3 inches of WHAT?

2007-10-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it. I cut my hair. Not short, but it's not as long. 3 inches of my locks chopped off. It feels like I chopped off a finger. I miss it. As much I know that I needed that amount cut off so my hair looks better and not as frayed or dry, it feels so short. :-( To my surprise, when I informed Roy of chopping off my hair, he just said, "Nice. What do you want for dinner?" WTH? He threatened me numerous times that if I ever cut my hair, he'll break up with me, take Hobbes, and send me back to live with my parents. Okay, not THAT extreme, but close enough. I looked at him in awe, and said, "What the hell? I thought you would get all hyped up and upset for cutting off 3 inches. I understand 1 inch, but I cut off 3 inches!!"

He said, "Well, you discussed with me of your reasons why you need to cut that much a little while ago. So, that's that. "

I seriously thought he would put up a fit...whatever, he surprises me every day.

I wonder what would have happened if I cut 4 inches....hmmmm.

Mom and Terry is off to Aruba for two weeks. Lucky them...I hope they fry down there.
I'll be going to Philly on a class trip. I haven't been to Philly since I was in middle school. $10 for everything????

That's about it.
I'm playing Silent Hill 2 on Xbox. Do not play it alone. Do not play it when it's dark. Seriously. This is some creepy $hit.

Adios until next time!

Journey

2007-10-04T02:30:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, Roni and I went to the Melting Pot. OH MY GOD! It's soooooo good! We both were impressed by the waitress. This was my first time. The food was just so good.

I'm about to embark on a journey to discover what colleges would be better for me instead of staying here. I know I may get a very low level job, or no job at all if I am in AAS program instead of BA. I already have two AAS, and I think I deserve a BA after all this time in school!

Yes I know, it's a big decision, but I got the go ahead by Roy (and he's the king), and I have his full support in whatever I want to do. He was the one that pushed me into this, so it's not fair to him and to me to just give up when I do have the potential. :-)

Classes are going okay, it's dragging a bit because it's been a month, and so far, I've only worked on 3 things in animation, and touching the surface of programming in DarkBASIC. For my DarkBASIC class, the prerequisite is Visual Basic. And you know what?! The teacher is teaching the SAME stuff that I already learned in Visual Basic...programming. I mean they aren't the complicated stuff, they're the basic stuff like declaring a variable, making a remark, how to determine the number of characters in a line, or whatever.

You know what else pisses me off? The students have the nerve to go online and play games or look at girls (Seriously, a few are addicted to MySpace!). And what's even more pitiful is the teacher doesn't say anything about it. I see these guys looking at semi naked girls with probably 5 sq inch total of fabric on them. I'm just disgusted by this. I know boys will be boys, but keep your wee wee inside the garage until you go home. I would be less pissed if they were looking at game reviews on GameSpot.

yes I know that the majority of the people in the industry are male, but I think they have the maturity to know not to do this stuff while there's some women around.

Eh. what a world.

What the hell?

2007-09-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

Mom sues after IVF brings 2 babies instead of 1

WTF?! Can you imagine when these children is 18, and find this article?

Just stuff

2007-09-25T04:06:00.000-07:00

Finished The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Book 2. It's a horror manga (technically, not a horror story, but just as gruesome). I started Book 3 while waiting for a doctor (for almost 50 mins for a 3 min check up...and the appt was EARLY! WTF). If you like bizarre stories, and don't mind the nudity (yes, some of the characters are NUDE...kind of odd, but the male's "parts" are crudely drawn, while the female parts are detailed...c'mon *groans*), and don't mind some of the cruelty of dead people.

I'm a little bit frustrated with school because in my class, "Principals of Animation", I'm the one that "TEACHING" the teacher! He knows shit about Maya Software, and it drives me batty that he doesn't quite know how to do very SIMPLE things (View Compass, changing frame view, changing Perspective view). It's different if I need to know a technique such as, "How do I select a face and change the lighting only on that small area, not the rest of the model?" Compared to, "How do I get out of Hypershade?" (a workspace that modifies color and texture of a model). Dude - you click on "Perspective Mode" icon. HOW f**king hard is that?! It's like me teaching about Photoshop when I only touched the surface, compared to someone, like Kat, who does it for a living. Well, the best thing I could do is to learn about Maya on my own at home. Hell, I can even make glass and chrome surfaces.

As much as I'm excited about my classes (finally getting into the core of designing), It's just a bit dragging.

I went to Great Adventure with Roy, Roni, and Paul. Besides the little "problem" we had in the morning, and slight rain (Mom said it was POURING ALL DAY, while, it just drizzled for a little while), we had loads of fun. I love El Toro...my favorite ride ever.

Mom and I went to the Mall on Sunday so I can use up my dozen of gift certificates. I have $150 for Lord and Taylor, and I don't even know what to get! The clothes ain't my style.
I'm thinking about waiting until November or something, and see if they have a winter jacket that I'll like. My old jacket is bleh. It was also my brother's 31st birthday, so Mom and I took silly pictures to send to him. My favorite one is putting a bra on top of our heads, "Bosom Buddies" was the title.

Hobbes woke me up this morning...again. If I shift or move, he comes running to my face and start licking me and curling all over me. I have to stay STILL, but it gets uncomfortable if you're in a weird position.
He's getting the doghouse tonight. :-)

Halo 3 came out at Midnight last night, and will sell more today...Halo 3 for the gaming world is like Harry Potter. I don't play Halo, so I can't understand the hype. :-D

Go away.

A little overdue

2007-09-25T04:03:00.000-07:00

This is kind of little overdue.

I sent email to the Cat Lady on About.com about Jamie's passing. She put up Jamie on the website. Here's the links

The Passing of a Special Cat: Jamie

As some may remember, Jamie won September Cat of the Month last year.

Sept Cat Picture of the Month

Because of Jamie's story, Frannie (Cat Lady), set up a Special Needs Kitty page for those Kitties that have special needs.

God of War : Finished

2007-09-21T10:17:00.001-07:00

Finished the game, God of War two days ago...in wee hours in the morning. Boy, this game rocks. They have God mode, which is unbelievably HARD. You get bitten in the head twice by a Hydra...you're dead with a capital D.

I tried a bit, and it's defintely much harder (no shit?!), but I'm willing to try a little. I'm on my little break from video games for a bit, but will contiune play GTA: San Andreas as I have a bit more to go before I can call this finished.

I probably will play Okami as well. That's a pretty interesting game. I started it a bit, so now I'm starting again. It's an interesting game. Far different from all the shooter games that I've been playing lately (GTA, God of War, Resident Evil 4, RE 0)...I'm in control of a dog...and yes, I can pee. :-D

I think the next game I want to play after Okami is Fatal Frame...that's supposely supposed to scare the crap out of you. We'll see what happens!

Going off to Great Adventure with a few friends of mine...and Roy's coming as well. Think I can conquer Kingda Ka again?! :-)

Physical Therapy is going well. It's just the matter of relearning how to move my body, and stretching.

Busy busy...
Game On.

Interesting!

2007-09-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

I am a member of Game Accessibility from IGDA. Their mission is to provide accessibility for anyone who has a disability to play games. http://gameaccessibility.com/
There's one guy that I admire, he is paralyzed from the neck down, and he can whip my ass in The Matrix. He uses a special controller that enables him to play any game. Anyways, someone brought up this article that IBM is working on a prototype that is basically a virtual interpreter in the UK. See this video. I apologize that it's very short, but you get the idea. The signs are BSL, not ASL.

Here's the article:
A group of students working for IBM develops technology that automatically converts the spoken word to British Sign Language.

Technology that translates spoken or written words into British Sign Language (BSL) has been developed by researchers at IBM.
The system, called SiSi (Say It Sign It) was created by a group of students in the UK.

SiSi will enable deaf people to have simultaneous sign language interpretations of meetings and presentations.

It uses speech recognition to animate a digital character or avatar.

IBM says its technology will allow for interpretation in situations where a human interpreter is not available.

It could also be used to provide automatic signing for television, radio and telephone calls.

'Disenfranchised citizens'

The concept has already gained the approval of the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID).

"RNID welcomes any development that would make the information society a more equal place for deaf and hard of hearing people," said the charity's director of new technologies, Guido Gybels.

"Sign language users are among the most disenfranchised citizens as a result of services and products not being designed with their needs in mind."

But Mr Gybels says there is still a long way to go before such prototypes are in everyday use.

IBM runs a yearly initiative called Extreme Blue which invites technically-minded and business students to collaborate for 12 weeks.

"We had a profoundly deaf mentor, so he kept a close eye on what was being done and checking whether our translation corresponded to real BSL," said Maria Vihljajeva, the student who developed the business plan for SiSi.

The students used two signing avatars developed by the University of East Anglia.

One of them signs in BSL and the other uses Sign Supported English - a more direct translation using conventional syntax and grammar.

Converting SiSi to use other languages should also be straightforward, according to Tom Klapiscak, another student who had technical input into the project.

"We designed the SiSi architecture in such a way that new translation modules can easily be plugged into the system," he said.

"Obviously this would involve the work of creating the translation module itself - which is no small task."

Mr Gybels of the RNID says he is "very impressed" with what the students were able to achieve in just twelve weeks.

"Creating a system that can actually bridge the gap between hearing people who speak English and deaf people who use BSL is very important."

God of War

2007-09-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

I stopped playing GTA: San Andreas for a little while, I'm currently playing God of War. I've heard some good things about it, but thought it was a game that I wouldn't like. I couldn't be more wrong. I saw the trailer of this game on YouTube, and HOLY CRAP...I bought this game for my birthday. Loaded it up...and damn.
So far, my favorite boss is the Hydra, which is the very first boss. Here's a video, I didn't make this video, but I did the exact same game play.

what's even weird, right after this is done, I have to go in the mouth (yes with the hanging ball thing showing as well as icky stuff inside), to get the Captain's key....which the Captain is hanging on his dear life on the Hydra's throat. Kratos (the main character), rips the Captain's key off his neck and the Captain falls down to the belly of the Beast. Ahhh...what a game.

Been a while eh?

2007-09-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks has been uneventful. Sorta.

Couldn't sleep tonight, so thought I would post a quick note. Just finished Book 6 of Harry Potter. It's taking longer than expected to finish the whole series, but I'm getting there!
With Roy's mom's gift to me, and my dad's gift certificate, I was able to get a real nice radio replacement for my car. When I bought my car 5 years ago, I promised myself that I would get a nice stereo, or interesting faceplate. I've always wanted one of those. Finally, I thought I would get it for my birthday as well as my car's birthday. Good thing I waited, otherwise, the ones that I would have gotten 5 years ago would not be iPod friendly.
I love it. It has quite a lot of features, and some that I know I will not use, but you know what, I think I'll get another good 5 years out of them. It's just so freakin' cool. :-)

Started my classes last week. Finally we're getting to the "meat" of game design, by that I mean programming and creating actual games. I got involved in another group, and thank goodness that I like my group compared to the fiasco from last year.

Physical therapy for my back is going well, but during the week, I can't seem to get comfortable. It's as if I feel detached from my back and legs. Hopefully, over time it will get better, but it's just annoying not being able to find a right spot to be comfortable in.

I'm still playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I struggled with one mission for the last two days. I really suck at flying airplanes (not real planes, but you know what I mean). Then I had to keep Roy's words in my head, "Enjoy the process. Don't rush." Sonofabitch, it worked. I realized that I cannot just jerk the controller's analog stick quickly. I have to do it nice and slow. And finally beat the crap out of that mission...moving on. I'm starting to really like wielding double AK-47s after I reached the "Hitman" weapon skill...that took ages.

Speaking of classes, I really miss History. I learned some new things here and there so far. Majority of it, I already knew, but some things I didn't.

Last Saturday, I saw a friend (well, I haven't seen him in like 9 years, but I still know him from my American History class at RIT), Matt Hamill for his UFC: Champion vs. Champion on TV. He really whipped serious ass. He kept going after Mike (the UK guy), and knocking him down with a bunch of wrestling moves (which I recognized from seeing my brother do them). I was really impressed. Matt lost...which in a way not surprising because this was taken place in London, so there may be some favoritism towards Mike. Mike was a wimp and suffered a lot of blows by Matt. I know there has been some "choice words" of deaf people that knows Matt, but I don't care. He treated me with respect, and was nice to me all the time.

Now I'm off to drink my milk/sugar concoction.

Joy of Socks

2007-08-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

Read this, then read my comments below.

The Joy of Sox

DEAR MARGO: I recently married the love of my life (after six years of being single), and he has given me the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom so that I can take care of my two children from a previous relationship. I have taken on all of the responsibilities of a homemaker from cooking dinner most nights to doing the laundry.

One thing that has given me pause is the fact that my husband throws his socks into the basket without turning the socks right side out. I don't want to reach into dirty socks to turn them right side out. Is it too much to ask that he turn them right side out himself before tossing them in the basket?

--- DISCONCERTED WITH SOCKS

DEAR DIS: I am going to channel my mother on this one. It is a piece of advice she gave me long ago. She actually used leaving socks on the floor as the example. Her position was that the little stuff wasn't worth making a fuss over or getting annoyed about. In your situation, this man sounds like a gem, so maybe turning his socks inside out is not too much to do for him. (If this chore really grosses you out, put on rubber gloves when you do it.)

And perhaps you might say -- once -- "Darling, it would be such a help if you could turn your socks right side out when you take them off." Or, to be practical, wash them the way he leaves them, because that is actually the part that needs laundering.

--- MARGO, PRUDENTLY

Margo is the daughter of Ann Landers. Roy sent me this link because it sounded like me when I first started to do his laundry. I would bitch and moan that his socks were inside out, and they aren't short socks, they're the long socks, so it's a PIA to turn them inside out. After a month or two of putting up with this weird behavior, I told him that it was a PIA to turn your socks inside out. He looked at me and said, "Yeah, but that's the part that needs to be cleaned!" Mind you, that was a smart answer, but you know what? The entire sock gets soaked in soapy water, what's the difference does it make?!

After mentioning this, I only see stray inside out socks here and there. It was enough for me that he learned to put his dirty socks in a laundry basket instead on the floor. Except for the last week. BOTH of our clothes are all over the closet floor. LOL!

Potty Mouth

2007-08-15T14:10:00.001-07:00

I swear. Often. Sometimes it just slips, other times, it's a way I can say something to the extreme, like "Oh this is so fuckin' cool!"

I am playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (and yes, this I have the one with the Hot Coffee, not the remake). The last time I played it was July 25, 2005. I put it down because I felt that it will be too long for me to play, secondly, because I kept screwing up at one little part. Never played it again, until now.

This time around, I'm more experienced with shooter games (thanks to Resident Evil). Breezed through some of the first few missions (aside from getting killed twice from riding my bike the wrong way). Now I've reached to the part where I kept screwing up last time. I've put it down as I've played a bit. I can't play a game for more than 4 hours without feeling tired. Need to rest a bit, then I can get back into the game.

Anyhoo...going back to the topic...this game has a swear word in every sentence. "Oh nigga, we gotta go kill some Ballas!", "Too fuckin' sweet. Need to get some shit.", "Oh fuck you homie!" Etc. Oh it's SO bad. :-)

I remember when I came home from RIT for my break, I was swearing like crazy, I didn't mean it. Mom calls it "Dorm language!" LOL. Of course, she swears too, yet she yells at me about it...go figure.

Nice Weekend

2007-08-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

Went to NYC for a day with Paul. We went to many different places that I never went to.
WTC Site
SoHo
Tribeca
Greenwich Villiage
West Side/ Christopher
I had a lot of fun just browsing around in several different stores. Went to Anil Gupta's Tattoo Studio to check out his works. Amazing tattoo artist. No, I did not get a tattoo. :-D

Finished Goblet of Fire on Friday or Thursday, now on to the 5th book.
Finished my 3rd painting. I got great compliments for my second painting, which is below.
Finished Resident Evil 0. Freaky shit. :-) It's a bit short, and there aren't much variety of enemies. Resident Evil 4, there was quite a lot, and sometimes the zombies come at you at swarms, and that's always fun to do. :-) The Chainsaw twins, and Double Chainsaw guys were the freakiest. Just hold on to your heads or they'll be chopped off. *shudders at the sounds of the chainsaws*

Sunday, I went to my family reunion. That was nice. I haven't seen many members of my family in years, so it was nice to catch up with some of these people. :-D
"Winter Serenity" by me. My 2nd painting.

Mocha and etc.

2007-08-08T09:07:00.000-07:00

I started on a third painting because I have to let the oil to dry on the second painting before I can really do anything to it. "That's why people like acrylics!" Roy says. Yeah whatever, you know what I actually like oil painting better than acrylics, and I'm willing to wait it out.

My third painting is not based on any photographs or another painting. It's based on a small drawing of mine, and I can't wait to see it done.

Took Mocha to the vet today for her yearly check up and blood work. This is actually the very first time that she was really nasty to the vet. I have to bring her back on Friday to get the blood test...it's very important to check her blood for kidneys, liver, and heart issues. Man, was she a bitch. Left her alone for now.

Still reading Goblet of Fire. This is one of my favorites in the series...almost done with this book!

That's about it. See? I have a boring life, for now.

I'm on a roll!

2007-08-02T06:05:00.000-07:00

Finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban this morning, now on to Goblet of Fire! Woo!
At this rate, I probably will reach the 7th book in roughly two weeks if I'm reading one book every 3 days.
I am currently playing Resident Evil 0. Creepy. LOL! Again, the only disadvantage is lack of subtiles, however someone wrote the script on GameFAQs, so all is good! I just have to get Roy to print it from work. I'm actually pretty impressed with the graphics of this game.
Here's my very first oil painting. I used Monet's "San Francisco" as my reference. It doesn't look as flat/dull like in the picture...lousy lighting.

Finished another book!

2007-07-30T04:34:00.000-07:00

Finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets book this morning. The weather was getting cool, so I went outside on the deck and sat in the chair, with warm blanket and curled up with the book. I'm on the 3rd book now. :-)

Had a good weekend. It was Miss Deaf NJ pageant on Saturday. I met some friends I haven't seen in a while. Sunday, Roy and I went to his brother in law's new house and celebrated his birthday. Roy's nephew really love Transformers and has a bunch of them, so I spent some time playing with them. I have always wanted one when I was young, (remember the cartoons?), but many boys would not allow me play with them. "You're a girl! Girls don't play with boy toys!"
Boy, these Transformers today seems a lot more complicated than in the 80's! Regardless, I had a lot of fun turning a robot into a 18 wheeler.

Finally my cold is gone, so is my butt to the gym. Skipped gym all week last week due to lack of energy.

Sorry, not much else to say. LOL!

Today was a good day!

2007-07-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well, finally, after a few weeks of lots of downs, I had a really good day today, aside from one little thing.

First off - I use my iBook G4 all the time, everyday, and I pretty much leave it on 24/7. I think before yesterday, it has been about 3 months since I turned it off. LOL! Anyways, the power plug is a bit annoying. The first one that came with the computer got badly bended like below:

See where the exposed wires are? Well, because of all the bending that occurs with "normal" usage (yeah, I break things so shuddup). This is partially my fault. Well, it gets worse when it gets overheated and start burning off the rest of the wires after the first crack.

I was able to find yet another AC adapter (this is my third one), and told Roy to turn his inventing machine on in his head and come up with a way that it will be hard for that area to be bended. No matter how hard I try, I forget in a hurry to be careful of the wire. So, Roy found a heat activated "thing", that you normally wrap around exposed wires to keep them from environmental exposures.

So you can see that it will be HARDER for that annoying spot to be bended! Isn't that cool or what?!
It is about 5 inches long, so it should def protect it for a long time.

Another good note - My car is ready. How I miss my automatic windows, power locks, better stereo system! I have to wait until tomorrow or Monday to pick it up. Ugh.

The only small sad note of the day is that I got Jamie's ashes back. I will be doing the Memory Glass for Jamie, and scatter her ashes somewhere. We haven't really decided yet, but I really would like the Memory Glass.

Until next time...

FInished a book.

2007-07-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

Finished Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. Took only two days to complete! I'm reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets now.

Both Kat and Roy gave me a link about an amazing cat, Oscar who resides in a nursing home that can predict death in patients. I told both of them that this is not the first time that I've heard about cats' amazing abilities. Which reminded me the time that Jamie's first owner passed away. I came home from work sad when I found out that Jamie's first mom passed. Jamie was waiting by the door, and greeted me. I sat down, and Jamie just curled up next to me. She would look up once in a while, and looked at me with sad eyes. She knew. Somehow, she knew. Jamie is not normally a lapcat. She is very independent, and doesn't show much affection like Hobbes, but she did show her love during her last few weeks a lot more than she ever has been.

I frequent watch, How It's Made on Discovery channel. The factories are based in Canada. Why? I don't know, so don't ask. Anyways, on today's show, they showed how they made saintary napkins. Seriously. The name of the company is Incongito. Those pads are huge, long, bulky. Ew! They'll be better off naming it Sleepys. But, it was interesting to see how it was made though!

Harry Potter

2007-07-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I decided to start with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and finish the series. I was talking to Roy, and I remembered that for the last 3 or 4 books, I would start from the beginning, then finish with the newly released book. So, why break the cycle?

We'll see how long it takes me to finish all 7 books!

On a sad note, the Minnisota sextuplet is not doing so good. Only one survived.

What a month

2007-07-24T08:07:00.001-07:00

Today I'm sick with a head cold. For two days, my throat has been sore. Drank some throat soothing tea. Used Zicam (which reduces the length of duration), and Breathe Right (oh this SO works for congestion). Woke up at 3am this morning. I just could not get comfortable. So I got up, drank TheraFlu drink, watched Cosby Show. Fell asleep on the couch...I was so comfortable....kind of strange that I'm comfortable on the couch, but not on the bed.

I'm a bit peeved. I got a new power adapter for my laptop about 7 months ago because the cord was breaking. Now, it's breaking again. Roy says because I "abuse" the powercord. I hate it when he's right...but he's right. I keep moving my laptop a lot that the cord gets bended under the laptop. This time I am asking Roy to come up with some kind of protection so it will be diffcult to bend. Yesterday, the powercord is on the fritz. I'm waiting to get it from eBay....of course, I have to win first. :-)
For now, I'm using OUR Gaming PC for internet. Ew. Windows. Ew!

For a while, Roy and I want to read a Manga. However, there's so many out there, so we searched (moreof, he did), for some Manga that recieved good reviews. We got "I Luv Halloween", which is read traditional English way. Roy is reading that now, and he seem to like it. I'm reading, "The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service". Okay..weird title, and that's what the book is about. Basically it's about one guy can talk to the dead (Sixth Sense type of thing), and "deliver" their bodies to places where they will rest at peace. This book...is..umm...weird. The drawings are a little bit crude compared to color manga, but it's pretty powerful. This is read Japanese way, from right to left. It is a bit getting used to, but easy. The only thing that is a little odd is that there's "sound effects", that are written in Japanese, so you have to go at the end of the book (which is the begining of the book for English readers), to know what the sound effects are. Such examples are "Sound of body thudding to the ground", "Buzzing sound", "sound of hand touching body", that kind of thing. If you like manga, I suggest you to read it.

After this, I want to reread Harry Potter: Order of the Phoneix, then I can read the 7th book. I'm in no rush into reading the 7th book. I've learned to ENJOY the process of life. Thanks Roy.

Other than that...SOS. :-)

Video Games

2007-07-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

I love video games, ever since I touched the NES controller. I stopped a little during college because I felt that I "needed to grow up". Looking back, I wished I didn't care what people thought of me. Regardless, I'm making up for my lost time.

I have 8 or 9 game consoles (between Roy and I...he has the old school ones, while I have the newer ones). We don't have Xbox 360 and PS3. These are just the predecessors on steroids.

I'm glad that I'm a straight out Nintendo fan all the way. They have always been consistent. Sure their products/consoles are simple, considered "too easy" for hard core gamers, but if you look at the history of Nintendo...they kick ass.

Sony's Playstation 2, was probably the best console EVER made, and I do agree in some ways. They have such a HUGE video game library, the controllers were well designed. The only gripe I didn't like was no hard drive, but Nintendo did not implement harddrive in their consoles until the Wii. I was really excited for PS3, but then when I read the specs and the prices, it was WTF moment for me. First, Roy and I have simple TVs, and we ain't going to splurge on a Plasma or HDTV any time soon, so the Blu-Ray ain't going do much for us. Second, Sony kept putting off the release dates due to production problems. Dudes..just remove the Blu-Ray, and have it as an option for 2nd generation. (PS2 had Network as an accessory at first, then they had it attached for 2nd generation models, then it was inside for the 3rd, and much thinner model later on...do the same thing!)

Anyways, the point of this, is that I feel that Xbox 360 and PS3 is going to HURT the companies. Peter Moore - Head of Xbox is resigning. Ken Kutaragi of Playstation is resigning. This shows me that they don't stand by their products and that stinks.

Xbox Head Resigns

It really tells me that these guys were a bit over their heads, and if a major issue comes up with the product that they stood by, they freak out and resign, and put all the problems to the next person...can't they solve problems?! I thought Xbox 360 were doing really well, but I guess not.

Nintendo's Director Hiroshi Yamauchi has been involved since 1949 to May 2002 where he resigned due to his age. Heck, he didn't even accept the retirement pension! Now THAT is loyalty.

What a day!!

2007-07-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

What a day. It all started at 3:30am....

3:30am - Roy shifts the bed, waking me up slightly. I have difficulty falling back to sleep, especially when I'm hearing Buzzing noise in my ear.

4:30am - Still awake, surfing the 'net, bugging people on Facebook, buzzing still in my ear.

5:30am - Found some good information about Game Design schools, Hobbes starts crying, and rubbing his face all over me. The bee is singing his song in my ear.

6:30am - I turn on the TV, and put on Nick to watch Jimmy Neutron. Fall asleep for about half hour. Had a weird dream where I met Reba in Disney World and she's dressed up in a Cinderella dress, and had a picture taken with her in a large white carriage. I woke up around 7ish.

7:40am - I check on Roy, nudge him awake and blame him for my insomnia. Then I kiss him and said, "Nah, it is not your fault", as I feel my ear drum vibrating in my head. I was able to fall asleep a little bit. The rain was POURING. I swear, it felt like flash flood. Thundering, lighting...which freaked out Hobbes.

8:20am - Watched Cosby Show for a little while, while Roy showered and getting ready for work. Made myself English Tea, and breakfast. Fed the cats as my ear starting to annoy the heck out of me.

8:45am - Roy leaves for work, opens the door, a business card falls. It says, "Call us regarding issue with your vehicle." From the Police Department. Convinced Roy that I will call and take care of it. Roy leaves. I call the police via VP. "Ma'am, your car was broken in."
WHAT?! I was thinking to myself, I live in a dang gated community, how the hell can someone steal my car. It was not stolen, just broken in. As I was in shocked about this, Roy came running to the door and towards me...and said, "Your car was broken into!"

And that's the start of a very long day.
Found out that my car was the third car to be broken into overnight. Each of our cars had the GPS stolen. I normally put the cover on, and put it under the seat of the car, but I didn't do that the last time I used it, so I just left it on the dashboard. The police came, and they asked me if there was anything else stolen. I immediately thought of my iPod.
Went up to my car, I cried inside my heart, I could not believe how bad it was. The driver side window was completely destroyed. The front seats were covered in glass, the upholstery was completely soaked. There was some interior damage near the gear shift. I looked around, and saw my iPod. It was still on the passenger's side seat. Sure, take the GPS, not the iPod.
Everything else seems intact.

Called my insurance company, called rental place, called Auto body, called Lowrance to see if there's any chance of recovery (I thought it may be able to send out signals to tell where it was....it doesn't.) All the phone calls took me all morning. Had to get my car out of the weather, otherwise it would be a lot worse. Car rental place dropped off the rental car, my car was taken to the Auto Body under a roof.

Went to Barnes and Noble to relieve stress. Roy decided to stay home with me to make sure everything is okay and going without a hitch. We came home, had to clean up all the glass shards so I can park in my parking space. We had dinner, and I'm tired, and the damn bee in my ear is still buzzing as ever!

Yes I'm a little sad that my GPS was stolen, but it is a possibility that I can get it covered under my auto insurance and homeowner's insurance. Hope the guy doesn't use it and go to my friends' houses! But you know what, that's life. Shit happens. It could have been worse. My car could have be completely stolen or smashed up, my iPod could have be stolen, my old license that was in the car could have been stolen, the cat carrier could have been stolen, a tree could have fallen on my car, my tires could have been busted, but you know what...I'll still have the damn buzzing in my ear. :-) Life goes on.

On to another day. :-)

Reflections

2007-07-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Tonight I had my traditional Summer dinner with a teacher of mine way back when I was 11 years old. We've been friends for quite a long time...17 years! We reflected on the past, talked about our current lives, friends/past students. Before we met up, I sent her a picture above from a yearbook. Talk about a blast from the past! Of course, me looking bored as ever. This was taken when I was 11 years old, and a smart ass. I was telling Mrs. R that I remember that I cheated my way through book reports by just writing a little bit from a chapter, and reading the back of the book and never fully reading the book. She said to me, "Yeah, I know you do that!" I was laughing because I couldn't believe that I got away with it, but at the same time, I don't think she wanted to deal with smart mouth! Anyways, I've changed...mostly. :-D

A Day of my life...

2007-07-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Roy and I went my Mom and Terry's house. It was his birthday on July 3rd. It wasn't until in the evening that I realized it was his birthday, and Jamie left this world. That must have been a crummy birthday. Regardless, we got him Armor All "stuff" for his spanking brand new truck. He's going ga-ga over it, and personally, between you and me...it's his midlife crisis, and better getting a huge mo-fo truck, than a woman with huge mo-fo frontals. :-)

Anyhoo, we had our funny moments, just like we always do when we go over their house.

"Mom! Roy unhooked my bra! Can you please hook 'em back together?" - me, after Roy shows off his one-hand-bra-unhooker

"I got rabies!" - after filling my mouth with whipped cream, and letting it drip out of my mouth (oh c'mon, don't tell me you don't eat whipped cream out of a can)

"D - you need to take your vitamins! Take your calcium! Take it every morning! I'll remind you" - mom nagging me, then Roy chimes in, "Yeah, Mom, I tried so hard, but she forgets or she doesn't listen to me!" At this point they're both talking about me not taking my vitamins. Since when did I turn 6?

For some ODD reason, Terry started a Pea fight. He is normally quiet and composed during dinner. Yesterday, he just flicked a pea on me, and we all were acting like 10. I think that's another notch in the "Midlife crisis" board.

I'm sure there's more, and maybe...JUST maybe Roy can refresh my memory.

Painting and stuff

2007-07-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

I feel very at peace since the passing of Jamie. I know I made the right choice because I wouldn't want to make her suffer much longer. I gave her 2 more years than the doctors thought. Sometimes I can't help but look in the bathroom where she sleeps in the tub to see if her spirit is there...and you know what, her spirit is there. Yes I am sad to see that she's gone, and the apt feel slightly empty, but I can reflect on the happy memories and the stuff she taught me through the short time I've had with her.

I started my Painting class yesterday, and I must say, I'm really excited to start! I adore Bob Ross, and we'll be learning a few of his techniques. I have never painted before, so it will be interesting to see how well I do.

That's pretty much it...back to my magical world.

Create A Caption

2007-07-04T17:05:00.001-07:00

This is a friend of mine, Paul. Create a Caption for this picture!

2007-07-03T07:20:00.001-07:00

My most favorite picture of Jamie

Jamie

2007-07-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

Today is one of the saddest days I ever had to endure. Jamie, my beloved 14 years old cat will be going over the Rainbow bridge. I had her for only a little over 3 years. Her original mom was a client of a Veterinary hospital that I worked at. She was dying of ovarian cancer, and was more worried about her cats than herself. I was unable to take in both because one of them was FIV positive. No body else wanted a 11 year old diabetic cat, with almost no teeth, overweight, and a bit of a priss cat. I took in Jamie fully aware that I will try to get her adopted out. At my vet hospital, we focus a lot on dental health, and I'm the primary technician for dentistry. I gave up one Saturday to do a dental on Jamie, it took me over 2 hours to work on her teeth. Reason why, she had ALL of her teeth, but more than half was rotten, or broken or in a really bad shape due to diabetes. She was the longest dental I've ever did. Little did I know, she'll be in my life.
Three days after I acquired Jamie, her mom passed away. Needless to say, my softie heart gave out, and I decided to make Jamie my own. It was tough because Mocha, my other cat that I adopted from Rochester, is the alpha cat, and with the two of them....they fight. Jamie is not a lap cat, or affectionate. In a way, she acts like she's just a wandering cat swatting at any cat that crosses her path.
I've learned to separate Mocha and Jamie. After I started dating Roy, he wanted to know about cats as he never owned one (in fact, he was allergic). Jamie was perfect because she had the classic signs of a neglected health type of cat (the previous owner just used her as companionship, and never really took care of Jamie's health, weight, diabetes, etc). Due to Jamie's diabetes, I have to give her insulin twice daily. Roy got over his fear of needles and was able to be a pro at giving insulin when I came home from work late.
Less than a year after I got Jamie, Jamie started to show signs of vomiting a lot more frequent, and it was unusual. I know she gets hairballs frequently due to obsessive grooming habits. I took her to a Internal Medicine specialist of where I worked. They did an ultrasound of her abdomen. Found a small mass. It turned out to be Mast Cell Tumor. In other words, Cancer. After talking to several doctors, I was given 4 to 6 months for this type of cancer, and 6 to 8 months if I opt surgery. I felt that Jamie has lived a full life, and deserved to have more full life instead of being in pain. So I opted out on surgery. The good news was, because I got Jamie's weight from 17 pounds to 10, she's not diabetic anymore.
Months went by, and Jamie was showing no signs of slowing down. I moved in with Roy, a few times during my first summer living with him, Jamie started to get sicker and sicker. She was getting sick on a daily basis. Her tumor became more visible. This has been over a year since the diagnosis. We were expecting this. Then we decided to give her another couple days. After those couple days were up, she bounced back to her normal bubbly self.
Fast forward, yet another year, to May 2007. Jamie started to show signs of slowing down. She started to breath funny, breathing with more effort. I took her to the vet, and discovered that she has congestive heart failure. It won't be much longer.
The last week of June 2007, she refused to eat, and would just sleep all day, wouldn't walk around anymore. It was getting really obvious that she was losing more weight, not interested in catnip - her favorite treat. After talking to Roy, I made the decision that it's time. I called for an appointment for Saturday. After I called, Jamie walked up to me, and just stared at me in the eyes saying, "I'm ready now. I cannot wait 5 more days."
I called them again, and made the appointment earlier.

Roy and I said our goodbyes last night, and I'm saying goodbye today. She's special because she was the cat that no one wanted. She was my first special needs kitty, she was my first cat that had cancer, and now she's my first cat that I had to say good bye.

Today, I'm taking her out for a little walk, get a breath of fresh air and let her eat all the grass that she wants. I will reflect on the memories that's always going to be in our hearts.

I love you Jamie.

Jamie April 1993 - July 3, 2007. Have a good journey over the Rainbow.

R and D

Meme time

2007-06-28T12:18:00.001-07:00

I know, I'm blogging too much lately, well tough $hit.

Meme time

Guidelines:

Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following categories. They should be real places, names, things.nothing made up! If you can’t think of anything, google it.
Copy and Paste to answer in your blog - let me know if you do this one!

Your Name: DJ
Famous singer: Don King
Street name: Davis Court
Color: Dark Purple
Gifts/presents: Dollar bills
Vehicle: Dodge
Things in a Souvenir Shop: Dancing windup toy
Boy Name: Dave
Girl Name: Danica
Movie Title: Don't Tell Mom, The Babysitter's Dead!
Drink: Dirty Bong Water (Don't believe me? Check it out!)
Occupation: Dancer
Flower: Daffodils
Celebrity: Deanna Derbin
Magazine: Dance
U.S. City: Detroit
Pro Sports Teams: Dodgers
Something found in a Kitchen: Drainer
Reason for being late for work: Drunk
Something you throw away: Dog shit
Things you shout: Do it!
Cartoon Character: Dot Matrix from "ReBoot"

2007-06-28T12:01:00.001-07:00

$5575.00

Mingle² - Online Dating

Interesting eh? Do yours!

My rating

2007-06-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

My blog rating:

Mingle² - Online Dating

Interesting, because I swear my mouth is NC-17. Oh well.

Oy, what a night.

2007-06-27T06:41:00.000-07:00

First Roni was harassing, strike that, "asking" me to put a picture up on my facebook. Sure, I'm sure there's people that would love to see my ugly face. LOL! Then she had the nerve to say through video (she actually took the time to make a video of herself and send it to me through facebook), "Ignore my ugly face. You need to go to bed right now!" What nerve. First, I don't work, second, since when she's my mommy?, thirdly, she is scolding me to go to bed right now, yet she's up at 12:30am to make a video of her lovely face. (Luv ya Roni!)

Then, at 3am, the fire alarms goes off, and Roy, my alarm system, jumped out of bed and shook me like I was on a bridge with an 10.0 ritcher scale earthquake.

I put on my sweatshirt, and sandles, and my "alarm system", went to the bathroom, and took his dear time to get ready. Umm, dude, when there's a fire alarm going off, just because it went off 3 times already and all of them were false alarms for a real fire/real emergency, doesn't mean this is not an emergency. What's gonna happen when we live in a house, and the alarm going off and we're engulfed by flames, and I find him on the toliet? Huh?? :-D (Luv ya Roy!)

Then we finally went back inside. Sprinkler system went off on first floor apartment, probably has to do with the water heater. Not a real big deal but you'll never know!

I went to sleep, Mr. Alarm System, was unable to really settle down to sleep kept shifting the bed. Not exactly deaf friendly. I quipped, "Honey, you're moving slightly too much, can you kindly stop moving?", I'm sure he heard this instead, "Stop moving A$$hole!"

It was one of those nights when I felt so good to be asleep, then boom, one little thing has to wreck my night.

*sigh*
Another day, another time.

Future Star Wars Fan

2007-06-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't this be cool for your kid to have?

Future Star Wars Baby

People's Court

2007-06-25T06:55:00.001-07:00

Almost every morning, I watch "The People's Court". The latino Judge Milian is so funny, compared to Judge Judy who gives sharp wisecracks.

Today, I was laughing out loud, and HAD to post the funny comments.

A lady is suing a furniture company $5000 for her living room set that she purchased for $3500. She claims that her leather couch had a stain. They were replaced. Then she claimed that there's "Behind marks", meaning it was used, and the leather stretched out a little bit before she had it. She never owned a leather couch and claims that there should be no creases. (In fact, after just a week after owning a leather couch, you will see a little indentation of where your butt was, that's the way leather works...it stretches).
The furniture company was willing to replace it the 3rd time, but she kicked him out. They bought the new cushions. Judge Milian wanted to go sit on them. Mind you, she's 5 feet, and looks tall on the judge's desk.
She walked around...her hair is pretty, make-up on and all that. She comes out with jeans and sneakers. I thought that was really funny. Then she proceeded to sit on the cushions...her feet barely touched the floor. "This is more comfortable than Wapner's chair!"
She walked back and had a wise crack and said,
"There are creases in the leather. It's natural. I just sat on all three cushions, and I have a sizable behind!"

Judgment for the defendants because the plaintiffs could not be pleased.

Just thought it was funny...

45 Things

2007-06-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

Cuz I felt like it.

Learn 45 things about your friends, and let them learn 45 things about you! Do this cuz it's fun! Copy/paste/fill out and send!

1. Who's #1 on your top 8?

Roy

2. What is your favorite possession?

My Reba Scrapbook, and my cats

3. Do you own a gun?

no, and I refuse to ever own one.

4. If you could tell your last X something what would you say?
Never had an ex. Roy's my first and last. :-)

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?

No. I hate the waiting though.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?

Ha! I eat certain kinds of hot dogs, and I prefer them to be boiled.

7. What's your favorite Christmas song?

Silent Night and White Christmas

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?

Tea

9. Can you do push ups?

Kind of. I'm a weakling.

10. Is your bathroom clean?

Most of the time.

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry?

My very first diamond earrings from Roy, and a Renaissance ring from Roy.

12. Do you take painkillers?

Only for my migraines

13. What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex/same sex?

Why would I need to "lure" anyone? I'm just myself.

14. Do you have A.D.D.? [Attention Deficit Disorder]

Roy thinks I do, but I don't, I swear I can focus on one thing at a time, no many things, no a few things..I swear!

15.Whats your name?

Not telling.

16. Middle Name?

What are Levis made out of?

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment?

- Can't wait to put together our 4th bookshelf!
- Can't wait to play Pharaoh again
- Wish my ears will stop buzzing (tinnitus)

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought?

- Ring Pop
- Bookshelves from Ikea
- Paintbrushes for my drawing class

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink:

Nesquik Chocolate milk
Tea of various flavors
water

20. Current worry?

What will I do as a career?

21. Current hate?

I hate my tinnitus

22. Favorite place to be?

Don't exactly have one, but I love being home.

23. How did you bring in the New Year?

Roy made King Crab Legs and I made various dips.

24. Where would you like to go?

I think it would be cool to visit San Francisco and Europe

25. Do you own slippers?

Yes

26. What shirt are you wearing?

Pink plaid pajamas top

27. Favorite color(s)?

Purple

28. Would you be a pirate?

Nay Mate!

29. Are you gay?

Of course I'm happy!

30. Do you sing in the shower?

Occasionally

31. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?

Nothing actually!

32. What's in your pockets right now?

Lint

33. Best bed sheets as a child?

Rainbow Brite

34. Worst injury you've ever had?

Attacked by a dog 13 times

35. Who is your loudest friend?

I'm the loudest, but out of MY friends, I would have to say "No comment!"

36. Who is your most silent friend?

Not sure. LOL!

37. Does someone have a crush on you?

I don't think so, and I hope not.

38. Do you wish on shooting stars?

Yes, and I've only seen it twice.

39. What is your favorite book?

Wizard's First Rule and Harry Potter series

40. What is your favorite candy?

Twizzlers

41. What song do/did you want played at your wedding?

Forever Love by Reba, or All This Time by Reba

42. What song do you want played at your funeral?

Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler, and You Were Loved by Wynonna Judd, and Fancy by Reba

43. What were you doing @ 12 AM last night?

Curling up in bed reading a book with Roy and Mocha on my side.

44. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?

I'm hungry.

45. What is the last song you listened to?

Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Poison.

Whew! hope you learned a thing or two.

Photoshop

2007-06-21T07:06:00.001-07:00

Last summer, I took Photoshop class. I had a lot of fun learning the ins and the outs of Photoshop. At the same time, I was playing around with icons and stuff over at LiveJournal. This is one of my works. I liked this!

I have a bad habit of starting something (a hobby), then stopping it and not touch it again. It was nice to see my work on Flickr once again.

Who's this?!

2007-06-21T06:53:00.001-07:00

Went to Great Adventure with Roy. I went there in Sept, and Roy hasn't been there since he was in 8th grade. We were walking around and discovered that Tony Hawk was doing a show. Being a fan of his video games, I mosey myself over to catch a glimpse of the famous skater!

PS - That's Kingda Ka in the background. I conquered that in Sept, thanks to Roy's breathing technique. It was awesome baby!

Life Lesson #23884846

2007-06-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

Lesson #23884846

When making English muffin, make sure that the toaster is plugged in, so you don't have to wonder why it hasn't popped.

Oh C'mon you people, admit that you forget to plug in stuff too.

Life Lesson #23884845

2007-06-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Lesson #23884845

When taking off the cornstarch on the bottom of your English muffins (for some reason, it's just too much for me), make sure you hold on to the English muffin tightly, or it will fall in a pot full of dirty water.

Need I say more?
At least the birds got a nice breakfast.

Old Emails

2007-06-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

Three cats ain't enough. Trust me, but since living with Roy, I think 3 is enough. They all have their own issues, personalities. I don't think I can stand to have 3 more. :-)

Anyhoo, I was going through some of my old emails on my sidekick, and found these amusing. Roy sent them to me years ago.

"Did you talk to your Mom? Did she mention anything about some vandals knocking down the Bush sign on their front lawn? You know, you better not tell on me. Because if I get caught, I'm going to cut a deal and testify against you." - the time we knocked over "Support Bush" sign on my mom's lawn...we dislike Bush.

"Why are cats good at video games? Because they have nine lives!"

"There's no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast."

"Did you hear about the cat who swallowed a ball of wool? She had mittens."

"Did anyone at work notice your scrubs smelled like Gatorade?"

OH i LOVE this one!!
"Don't tell anyone because it may ruin my macho image, but years ago I did a couple cross stitch kits." LOL!!

Last one - (word for word...seriously!)

"Wow, with my spelling and your spelling, our kids will be horible spellers :-) Don't worry, I have a sugar cookie recipe I will bring and I will pick up the ingredence." LOL.

Ahhh...sweet precious memories.

Hair, and more hair.

2007-06-12T06:44:00.001-07:00

Well, finally I got my hair trimmed, had an inch cut off. If it was more than that, Roy would break up with me.
He says, "If you cut your hair I'll be very pissed. Tell her only THIS much", putting his hands up and a very little distance between the thumb and forefinger.
I said, "Why?"

"Because you're beautiful with long hair." And here I am, looking at my long frayed hair with so many split ends.
I said, "Does that mean I'm not beautiful if I get a little haircut?".
"I knew you were going to say that." MEN!
I went to the hair salon, finally found the one that I really like. I told the hairdresser, "Please only cut an inch, that's all. Or my boyfriend will kill me." She laughed and said, "All men are like that!" I got my hair a much needed deep conditioning, and it feels so soft, and healthy.

Every morning, Mocha greets Roy while he's putting his shoes on...in a way, it's a Daddy-Daughter moment. Her fur gets all over his black pants. "Ugh. Comb her will ya? Her hair is falling out everywhere." Hmm...I thought he likes girls hair long.
I brushed her as well as I can without having her bite my hands off, and boy her winter coat really came out. I have to brush her a couple more times. I hate the time when their (the cats) winter coat sheds.

Short and Sweet

2007-06-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

This is the first of many "Short and Sweet" posts....

Today, Roy installed Pharaoh for our Game PC (yeah, the one I found in the trash to use for ROMs and my old Windows based games...I have a Mac now, so they won't work). Pharaoh is my most favorite Windows game. It's basically a city building in Egypt. I could not believe how FAST it moves...compared to my old slow laptop. It would take frickin' forever to build a pyramid...now, I can finish it in no time. Woot!

See, I told you...short and sweet. Boring? Tough.

Interesting links

2007-06-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Here's some links that are worthy to check out!

Catcam - ever wonder what your cat does when he/she goes out exploring? Check it out! Perhaps I can rig one on Hobbes to see what he does when I'm not home.

Garden State Roller Girls - Roni and I and a group of friends saw a roller derby. It was not professional competition, just a friendly one. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun to watch! We may go again to see a professional team. It's definitely different than 70's -80's teams.

Russian Arcade - During the Cold War, Russians forbade any arcade games from another country, instead they made their own. A group of people are trying to rebuild them. Take a look!

Until next time...

Commericals

2007-06-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

Ya'll are probably working. In a small way I envy you people, but I go through a lot of suffering throughout the day.
One biggest vexation that I go through is the commercials.
The following commercials should be banned:
Valtrex - Pill for genital herpes that the affected partner can take, but will not spread it to the other partner. "I have genital herpes. And I don't. We would like to keep it that way." OMFG! Seriously! I must have seen this like 4 or 5 times PER HOUR! I get it okay? When I have (like I will ever have), genital herpes I'll call you, but please I implore you, get rid of the dang commercial! Roy and I would make fun of the actors, and a scene will pop up in our heads.

Actors auditions for commercials.
Agent says, "I got good news and bad news. The good news is you landed a commercial job!"

Actors says, "Yahoo! All of these years of trying! I finally got a job! What's the bad news?"

Agent says, "Bad news is, you have genital herpes."
Months later, you see the couple walking down the street.
"You got cooties! You got cooties! You got cooties!", you yelled out loud.

*Disclaimer: this is meant to be a joke, not to be taken seriously. If you actually do have genital herpes, sorry. Try some Valtrex! I heard good things!

Optimum Cable - You know the one, with the female singer singing with a band, singing why you should choose, "For All your long distance calls!" Let's set up a soap opera for her because she's so dramatic. I see this one just as frequent as the Valtrex commercial.

That's all I can think of right now...
I'm sure there's more, so I'll add to this list from time to time.

My Living Will

2007-06-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

Originally inspired by the Terri Shiavo debacle…

Subject: Living Will - Print and sign one today

I, _________________________ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood politicians who couldn’t pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a cold beer, it should be presumed that I won’t ever get better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it
a day.

Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damned business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Americans who aren’t in a permanent coma.

Under no circumstances shall any politicians butt into this case. I don’t care how many fundamentalist votes they’re trying to scrounge for their run for the presidency in 2008 (or 2032), it is my wish that they play politics with someone else’s life and leave me alone to die in peace.

I couldn’t care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don’t know these people, and I certainly haven’t authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf. They should mind their own business, too.

If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make his or her existence a living hell.

_____________________ _____
Signature date

_____________________ _____
Signature of Witness date

ADDUNEM: Please make sure my cats' ashes are buried with me along with my Reba scrapbook, my iPod, my laptop, my DS, and my hearing aids. This is not a joke.

Hearing People can be immature

2007-06-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hearing people can be really immature towards the services that are available for the deaf. Namely ip-relay for the Sidekick. Yes it's already implemented in the Sidekick software, but it's sad that it's been abused, terribly.
T-Mobile should really only make this available to those who have data only plan on their sidekick. I can tell you that almost the majority of the hearing who has sidekick will not choose that plan. Sadly, this occurs:

Hearing Abusing ip-relay

Read ALL of the posts....scroll to the bottom. There's a post by a deaf person objecting to this whole thing. What made me even MORE furious is this line, "I can explain why it took so long for someone to notice it. 90% of the deafs are illiterate. One of the deafs favorite pastimes has been hacking and I seen that with my own eyes and still they dont pick this thread up till today."

OH my frickin' God. I'm not usually 100% involved with the Deaf community, but this really pisses me off, seriously.

I got a Beehive in my ear...

2007-06-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

Today is day 14 of the buzzing noise that's occurring in my ear. For those of who knows, and those who don't, I have chronic tinnitus and migraines. I hate my tinnitus a lot more than my migraines. When I do get migraines, I have Roy to comfort me, and he knows what to do when I get the attacks (turning off the lights, rubbing my back, making me a bath if I want it, I got it good...maybe I should lie to him from time to time!). However, with the tinnitus, there's really nothing anyone can do. All I can do is scream. I usually get ringing sounds or water boiling type of sound. This time, for 14 days, it sounds like I have a bee in my ear. Buzz buzz buzz buzz...OH it's so frickin' annoying...seriously. I remember there was one time that I suffered tinnitus for 2 1/2 months, straight. I thought I was going crazy.

In a way, I am glad that I'm not working right now because it would really bother me at work. I just kind of go outside, chill, watch TV, play with my cats (that is if I wake them up), just kind of keep myself busy.

Yesterday, I spent some time looking at YouTube for various videos. On Roni's blog, she showed me a video of Deaf Ninja . It's pretty funny. I didn't really have to interpret too much for Roy because this guy was very clear of telling the story. When I saw this, I stumbled upon a video of Clarke School Student. WARNING - not for those who are 100% supportive of oral schools.
At first, Roy thought this was an actual advertisement. He wasn't laughing. Then I said to him, Clarke School for the Deaf is an oral school, and this guy is making fun of them. Roy got it and he was laughing. Then he saw, "Karaoke for the Deaf" by Hollow Men (kind of infamous video of a guy interpreting "Torn" by Natalie...not in ASL or sign language). Roy was almost peeing in his pants when he saw that. Since then, he won't stop signing the last words, "TOOOORRRN". Drives me crazy.

It's such a nice day outside. I think I'm gonna hang out by the pool.

2007-06-05T08:41:00.001-07:00

This is Hobbes getting upset that he couldn't come in Jamie's room. I have to keep Jamie in her own room at times because of her umm...presents. :-) Every time I go in there to play with Jamie or clean up, this is what Hobbes does. He cries and cries. Then I let him in. 20 sec later, he wants out. Whatever.

This is our little garden. From Right to left - Catcus, Sunflowers, Catnip (yeah yeah, a lot!), a Earthy Disc that had seeds in them...they didn't grow, Spearmints in the background

Hmm...I dunno how to rotate this photo. The one in background is a bed of flowers. It will be a bunch of different flowers. Roy knew that probably a low percentage of flowers will emerge from the seeds, so he just spread the entire package...Almost ALL of them sprouted! We can't wait for the flowers to come in.
The foreground is the beans and tomatos. We thought a small percentage will grow...A LOT grew. The beans branches is growing pretty tall...it has outgrew the short supporter, and now it outgrew the taller one. As you look closely, you can see it winding up. Pretty cool. This is a learning experience for the both of us, so we're learning what type of soil they like, what type of veggies grow best, etc.

First post...

2007-06-05T06:28:00.001-07:00

Hopefully, I'll be able to keep THIS blog. LOL! I had LiveJournal account for a while, but then I dropped it because if a friend want to post, they'll have to post anonymously. This way, everyone can comment. And perhaps for once, Roy will comment. :-D
I do have another blog for GameSpot, but it's mainly about video games. If you want to check it out, LadySekhmet. I normally talk about video games and what games I've played and stuff. You would have to be a member of GameSpot to respond to my posts, but feel free to comment it here.
Just a few days ago, I was told that Jamie is going into congestive heart failure. It sucks. Her time is coming soon, and I'm ready. It's tough because she does not seem to be in pain or suffering. I know she does get uncomfortable when she tries to lay down, you would be too if you have a massive tumor in your belly. :-)
I know my cats love to give me a present, Hobbes gave me a nice wet hairball this morning.
I'll have to figure out how to post pictures, so I can post pictures of our mini-garden. We have beans, catnip (which the cats go CRAZY after we nip off a few), spearmints to use for tea, sunflowers and a bed of flowers. There are also some cactus.
Until then...see ya