the wonders of selective grammar usage

Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Iruka [mini SD figures].
Mario on a cloud, Luigi's fireball death, a Cheep-Cheep and a Starman on its block [collectible Pepsi caps].
The issue where Rock Lee and Gaara do battle [Jump Comics].
Karaoke Revolution Party with mic [PS2].
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure [PSX].
Trauma Center: Under the Knife [NDS].
Pokemon Snap in the original box, Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Puzzle League and Paper Mario (the surprise gift!) [all N64].
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Metroid Fusion, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Four Swords, Mega Man Battle Network 2, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Naruto RPG (import) [all GBA].

I usually think that I'm spoiled just by the affection and care and listening, but then it's things like this that make me smile and gush and fall in love all over again. Pictures tomorrow when I get to the 'rents, some even taken by the lovely and talented Lorelei! :D

I am such a lucky girl. Only a month and change to go!

Hot damn, I just deleted my nine-minute long audioblog.
You can all thank me later.

The past couple weeks have been an interesting mix of hectic and insane. There's so much going on right now that I'm both worried and excited about, but all I really want to do is sit amongst the falling snow and let it rest in my hair. I want to hold a flake in my hand, mourn its passing as it melts oh-so-quickly, and rejoice moments later when another lands upon me. It's like a rebirth of sorts. Makes me happy.

As for now, though, I'll sit alone in my cozy abode, poking away at The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe [NDS] and close up my Kim Possible: Kimmunicator [NDS] review. I'm expecting a box full of goodies from my East Coast cuddlebug (and when I say goodies, I mean Karaoke Revolution Party... amongst other games), and o the sixth, two things come out that I've been waiting for with bated breath -- Animal Crossing: Wild World and the newest issue of Pocket Games! I never thought that my name would be published anywhere in a gaming mag outside of the letters section, but it'll be here soon. I almost am waiting to buy it because I really don't believe it's true. It's surely a dream come true, and I have Kimi Matsuzaki (1UP's Community Editor) to thank.

About a week ago, I wrote up a post for my 1UP blog acknowledging my missed "anniversary"... but am more than a bit apprehensive about posting it. I guess that, even though my memories of that time have a veneer of cynicism (and with good reason), I really can't deny the impact that the site has had on me. Nick aside, 1UP was the catalyst for two things in my life. The first was GotNext -- I never would have been connected with Chris if it wasn't for my blog and the amount of non-effort (because honestly, blogging shouldn't take too much effort) put into it. The other is that I met some great people on there, and while I may not talk to most of them anymore, they really were a driving force. They helped change my life.

It's December now. I keep on trying to reconcile myself with this, because in many ways I feel that not only had my year begun in May, but my life in general. To think that I'm going to have a chance at a new year so soon really trips me out. So much has happened to me in these past six, seven, eight months... so much indeed. What was just a shell of an existence was made whole again, and I really do have many of you to thank for that. As I go on, inching closer to spending time with my dear friends who have moved away... Christmas... New Year's... January 10th (when Nick lands here in Sea-Tac for two weeks and two days... I sometimes sink back and think about how I got to this point.

I can't wait for next year. I have Nick's graduation to look forward to, which hopefully also means a longer stay in Queens Village (and more time with Bill and Vin -- they're too awesome for words). Nick will get to meet my family, and in May I'll get to meet his father and stepmother. If I end up at Wal-Mart around bonus time, I may try socking that away so I can either: a) get myself over to Amherst for a weekend or so if Nick can't make it over here during Spring Break; or b) save up for a new computer/broadband/mp3 player. Dial-up is a hindrance, and while I'm making do, I'd rather have the convenience of always-on service. The connection situation is one of the main reasons why I've done away with AIM, actually.

Ah. Anyway.

I've never been one for resolutions; I've accepted the fact long ago that, in my case, they only lead to broken dreams. However, my only resolution will be this: keep going forward. What else is there to do, really?

I've been sitting here, trying to mash together a skills-based resume. Under duress, the words that keep appearing on the page feel like a forgery, plagiarism, lies. I can't seem to keep my story straight, yet all I worry about is how I'm going to make this thing stand out. Be different. Stunning.

It's a fact -- when it comes to the printed word, I'm as shallow as can be.

My true colors come out in autumn, it seems. Maybe it's directly affected by the lack of sunlight -- the chlorophyll slowly draining from my face, coating the puddles of rain outside my doorstep with a pearly film. That seasonal disorder with its fitting acronym, SAD... I don't think I actually have that, mind you, but it's fun to play doctor and misdiagnose yourself every now and then. Something to pass the time.
========
My list of titles to review is growing by leaps and bounds. D.I.C.E. (PS2), Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS), The Nightmare Before Christmas (PS2), Animaniacs: Lights! Camera! Action! (DS), and most likely when I'm done with two of those mentioned, Zoo Tycoon (DS) and Bratz: Rock Angelz (GC).

... I just read that list aloud, and realized that I'm crazy.

========
Last night, I got a message on MySpace from someone from the Ridge that was in Newspaper, and today I found that another found me through LiveJournal. See, now these are the reasons why I don't mind putting myself out there to an extent, because these are two people I don't mind finding me. The whole drama at work regarding people reading another's MySpace and gossiping about it is the main reason why I tried to tuck myself away in this little corner as much as possible. I don't want them to find me or my friends and use their vicious retail barbs for their sick little mindgames. I'm very close to deleting that MySpace account.

========
Karissa, a coworker, and I were sharing our experiences as "tomboys" last night at work. She was more of the jock breed, where I was (obviously) the geek type. She's a gorgeous girl -- v. tall, v. slender, wonderful features -- so it was surprising to find that she went through many of the same things I did while growing up. We have a lot in common, though, be it in past relationships or just plain interests (we both prefer sniping and sniping alone during Halo parties).

Lumping this in with the work stuff...
I went to go pick up my pictures at work today, and my MoMoMo was the lucky stiff who developed them. When I opened up the envelope, a note fell out with an outburst of love and affection. Even though there are days where I yearn for random bouquets just because (Karissa and Wendy via samedi) or even just the "I was just in the neighborhood -- let's go to lunch" deals, it's those little things that mean just as much to me.

========
I wish I had broadband right now. I'm craving some OC Remix goodness, mmhmm. Even though Orange County has immortalized by the nighttime soap (which I've never seen, mind you) as such, OC to me will always mean Overclocked and trigger thoughts of remixes galore.

Playing Pump it Up: Exceed* isn't good for what should be my kicking back time, but I've got to do something or else I'll scream as loud as my half-hoarse, half-gone voice will let me.

I tried to brave an errand run today once my father got home from the family shindig (I'd have gone, if it weren't for the fact that I'm effin' sick and I would've felt bad if the birthday boy caught anything from his oldest cousin). Yeah... it technically worked, but the whole time I was just sore all over and hot beyond belief. I hope I'm not running a fever... or becoming a hypochondriac.

There's this place that opened up a few doors down from samedi's old workplace called Bubble Heaven. The fresh fruit combo I had was quite delicious -- kiwi mango, yum -- but the incessant high pitched voice over the speakers taunting me about how I wish I was hot or something? The disaffected youth behind the counter that barely noticed I was there the whole time? All the writing on the Polaroids on the wall with the letter S replaced with a Z?

Hopefully the Legion Way haunt's more palatable, drinks and otherwise.

As for Exceed, I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. The diagonal thing's not hard to get used to at all (except when doubles are concerned, eesh), and the music selection's quite nice. Vivaldi's "Winter" continues to kick my ass to high heaven, though. I called Gamestop and EB to see what the trade-in value would be, though... and $22 is the best I can get for it. $22?! To hell with that, I say. The game's still entertaining me, and if keeping it means that I have to wait until... forever to play Trauma Center or Phoenix Wright, then I guess that's my fate. Anyway, I'd feel kinda bad trading in my first supplied game from GotNext. It'd be like selling a memory for a candy bar.

I can't stress enough how much I suck at Exceed, though, a point I drive home quite a bit in the review. In Nick's rundown of the trip, he mentions that we're going play some DDR either on Friday or Saturday. Now, I'm hoping that we're speaking the same language, and that "we" translates into "Vin and I" or just "I, Nick, by myself" because there's no way you're going to get me to embarrass myself on those godforsaken machines in front of people. Nope. Nuh-uh. Even Tipsy Luana'd say no to that.

* - Oh, and I've decided that for LiveJournal purposes, the Umilicious Stylebook deems that all game titles will be bolded, since quotations don't feel right and I like to italicize for emphasis. Good lord, a reference material for my LiveJournal. I've reached new geeky lows.

I was going to write an entry for my 1UP blog tonight, but I got caught up in trying to find a new layout for this here LiveJournal. After getting quite frustrated with another layout, I decided to go with 3 Column, a choice that, if I'm correct, samedi also has made. This is the time where I wish I was an artist, because I'd like to have an image atop everything... but alas, I'm not. Oh, well.

As I was contemplating actually using purple as my base color here as well, I decided that purple just needs to go out of style. NOW. I remember someone once saying that purple was never anyone's favorite color, but it's always been mine. It's all over the damn place, now, so what I figure is this:

Style gurus of the world hold a summit and decide that purple is just absolutely horrendous on their stick-thin models of twiggyness, and therefore all of the mainstream stores decide that they must clearance out all their purple, because they can't possibly be caught dead with purple in their storefronts. I go into the clearance aisle and die of happiness.

I think it's a great idea, personally.
============
I can't sleep. Insomnia sucks.
I'm actually used to dial-up again, though, which is weird considering the fact that I was just on a connection almost ten times as fast as this about twelve hours ago.

============
Amongst other heartstring-pulling songs, "Hybrid Rainbow"'s once again found a place in my playlist. It makes my heart absolutely die of yearning. I read a translation of "Nakushita Kotoba" tonight as well, and even though my default level for omgrabidfantranslation is that of skeptical, if it's even remotely close to what the site said, it's damn swoony.

I should just shut up and get to sleep. I don't even know why I posted this, but I guess I'm just trying to prolong this day off so's to avoid work tomorrow. Since my assistant manager's on vacation, I won't be able to find out whether or not I can transfer over to the photo lab or not. If I could, that would mean actual hours to live by, which would be immensely preferable to this... this schedule where I never see my daughter. Ah. We'll see.

Now, I could make a substantial post about... something substantial, but instead I'm just going to drool over this baby.

Okay, so it may be another wannabe throwaway system, but for that price? Those features? I'm wanting one SO BAD.

Thanks, Doctor S., for making my mechanical heart beat just a bit faster.

===========

In other gaming news, I have come to a conclusion that I never thought I'd come to -- GamePro is now one of the more compelling magazines on the market.

How did she come to this ludicrous conclusion?

I've been getting free GamePros in the mail for some time, and every few months or so, I'd actually read one of them rather than just let Lor use them as scissor feed. Today, I picked the November issue and gave it a shot.

Its layout is gorgeous.
The articles are well-written and mature (hate speech in games and the (no pun intended) advent of mature Christian games amongst the regular ilk).
All in all, it's polished beyond belief.

Now, I haven't read Game Informer in a while (my last known favorite), but it looks like if GamePro can keep this up, then they'll easily take the title of best game mag.

So... yes.
Lots of stuff have been going on in the last couple of days. I could put it in a bulleted list, but we're not doing that right now. I'll stick with the old-fashioned Luana-ramble that you're all used to by now (or, at least, I hope you're used to it).

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan came in on Monday, and boooooy, is it awesome or what? It's very reminiscent of Gitaroo Man, in both the humor and the gameplay. Oh, and the fact that the final level is kicking my ass hardcore. HARDCORE. The music is absolutely fantastic; it's apparently composed of popular Japanese rock/pop tunes over the years, and since I've had them stuck in my head all day long, I downloaded Bittorrent and now and in the process of waiting... waiting... waiting for them. Between the various Naruto intro/ending themes and Ouendan, my interest in Japanese popular music is really starting to grow.

Work-wise... it's been slow at the store, but I really think that's to make up for all the drama at Deeko. Good lord, THE DRAMA. I won't go into it any more here, for I don't think that it would be either appropriate professionally or personally (even though this is my blog), but man. It's crazy. Things are looking damn good in the GotNext corner, though -- not only do I have my latest contribution to GotGame up, but also my concise review of Nintendogs that, while I'm rather unsettled by, has some good traits that I'm proud of. In a recent e-mail, Chris informed me that I'm ready to make the jump from freelancer to regular reviewer, which means supplied games! :0 So excited. Of course, my next review? Ouendan.

Talked to Pat last night for some time. It has been decided that our parents are to be exchanged -- not for each other's, mind you, but just in general. While we love our parents, there're some things that are... shall we say lacking. Can't say more without compromising our... whatever's to be compromised, but yeah. 'Twas a relaxing conversation, to say the least.

I decided last night that it'd be a good idea to grab my flight information for the tandem NYC trip that Georgia and I were taking, so I checked my email and OMG NOOOOOOOO. We weren't coming in on Friday morning after all, but on Saturday. NOOOOOOOO
This just couldn't be (for I have to cover Digital Life on Friday for GotNext), so I panicked a bit before checking prices and then left Nick a hasty email of woe. Instead of us just settling for two days and one night, he went ahead and got me a ticket for a Thursday morning departure... so it's now three days and three nights. I mean, I can have dinner with him and his mom!

I'm starting to get very very excited now. I guess, when you get down to it, I really am a small-town girl in comparison to living somewhere as... metropolitan as New York City. Not only that, but the airline I'm flying on, Delta Song, is pretty damn fancypants for the price (Nick) paid. There's a screen on every seat -- every seat! -- so you can watch fairly new releases, and you can preorder meals. Actual meals. They're not cheap, mind you, but just look at the screenshot, dude. It actually looks comfy cozy and all. Now it's just telling my parents that they need to drop me off early early and that I'm staying with Nick and his mom. :0

Crazy.

Georgia said today that I was only to pay her back half the money owed since I only was using one of the tickets. Let it be known that this is my public statement of refusal. I refuse to comply with this, lady. I swear, if it means me getting you awesome birthday gifts for the next three years or so, then so be it. I will pay you back somehow. MARK MY WORDS.

Anyway, I went ahead and did some meme thing, and since I totally forgot the bio for swoontastic at home, I guess I can just go and scrounge up some food before crashing. Life's hectic, but in a happy way. I'm glad to be livin' it.

( memeriffic interests quiz )

Now, mind you, I don't normally read things on the home page of 1UP.com -- that would require either going to the home page or even just going there -- but there was this story on a peripheral from Hori... and seeing how I'm a peripheral junkie, I had to give it a looksie.

First off, the spoon-and-fork peripheral is nothing new -- I remember reading about it in a friend's 1UP blog, oh, in May.  MAY.  The thing that really stuck out to me, though, was the second paragraph in general.  Ah, Jane.  When you began writing for the mainstream media, did you have to trade in your basic sentence construction skills for a pay raise?

"You strap [the peripheral] on and, as demonstrated in the photo below, it causes your thumb to move back and forth absurdly quickly, far faster than a human can actually move it under his own power. Which is great for two things that I can think of, one of which is depicted in the photo: it lets you shoot that much faster in arcade-style shooter games."

Um... yeah.  I didn't realize that news articles were actually blog posts, and that two sentences could actually sound better as a run-on sentence in my head.  Come on, people! Isn't it obvious that, instead of "which", the sentence should start with something more like "it" or "the device" or an actual subject?

I don't know... the more I see the industry settle for such mediocrity, the more I wonder about how much I really want to break into it.

Holy crap.

So, I'm under the impression that a few of you would understand the content of this page: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/aosj/

Will anyone please please please give me a rough translation? If you could, I would love you forever (for most of you, in a very platonic way).

I've always loved shoes, but only until most recently was never allowed to indulge in the frivolous shoe-buying that many other women in my life have been able to do.  Now I've got the permission ("Hm? Would I like to buy some shoes? Why yes, I would"), but no money.

It only makes it worse that I found some most wonderful shoes.  Oh.  The heart, it hurts.

Stupid writers' block.

I realized that one of the things that's been bugging me of late is the fact that... well, how do I explain it?  When I'd have one creative block (generally that of the writers'), I'd throw myself into something else creative: music.  I'd pick up my violin or cello and just play something... anything to get those ideas flowing.  I don't have that outlet anymore, and there's a part of me that just dies inside thinking about it.

So, yeah.  I've made a decision... something that may not necessarily be the smartest thing, but it'll make me happier.  I'm going to the local pawn shops (suggestions, anyone?) and possibly Music 6000 to look for a guitar.  If it's not too bank-breaking, it's happening.  I should be saving said money for impending dinner dates with the Tsao, but... yeah.  I want a musical instrument -- nay, need-- and bad.

I've hit a brick wall.  I need some inspiration.

Until that moment comes, here's a sneak peek of my piece:

You may be asking yourself, "... but why should women sacrifice their femininity in exchange for acceptance from their so-called 'peers'?"  As is with any other question I'm bound to pose in this piece, both the answer and the reasoning behind it are murky at best.  A woman's innate sensuality is not something that is to be ashamed of or hidden away -- however, I do feel that it is a weapon that too often is wielded for the wrong reasons.  Do many of us want to be considered equals by our fellow male gamers?  I think so.  I just don't think that many of us are going about it the right way, that's all.

subtitled: "i am so wearing my PA shirt to work now"

It's so weird.

I read the PA news post today, like the good gamer that I am, and saw Tycho's reference to a glowing scorpion.  Went to the archives, thought for a moment, and the first comic I chose -- the first, I kid you not -- was that very comic.

Now, either they've gone back and edited radioactive arachnids into every single PA strip in the archives, or I'm just that big of a PA geek.

I don't know if this would pump up my desirability quotient to other gamers, or if it just cements the fact that I, indeed, am just one of the boys. Hot or not? You decide.

I'm too tired to expound fully about this right now, so you'll have to do with summaries and witticisms until tomorrow sometime. <3

• Drove to Seattle on Thursday afternoon to go see jebimstr.  Traffic won't be that bad, I told myself. I've got to stop listening to myself.  Let's just say that it took me about... oh, a bajillion hours to get there when it should've only taken one.  I got so bored and desperate that I not only left a voicemail on jennanemone's cell phone, but also called up good ol' Patrick himself on a whim.  Poor kid probably thinks I'm insane or something, but that's what he gets for being one of the few people programmed into my mother's cell phone (good ol' E3).
• Got there, went out to the Northgate Target and to the Starbucks and Barnes & Noble's in the UVillage.  When we went to Starbucks, nobody recognized Jeb, which was a first that I totally brought up.  What happens when we go to B&N, though?  :D  After that, we went to QFC to go get some ingredients so he could cook me food.  The boy's fasting for spiritual reasons, something I totally respect, yet it's still weird for him to cook this wonderful yumminess for me and not partake in any of it.
• While we were sitting in his room, Jeb's cell phone rings.  It's puccapeach, and she totally had something for me.  She zooms on over to Jeb's apartment, where we all just talk and reminisce and tell funny stories.  She got me a phone card, lovely girl... but the best part about it was that it was a card with a hundred domestic minutes, which balanced out to eleven minutes to the boy's cell phone.  Hey, I'll take eleven minutes when I can get them, and I know Georgia loved her Jigglypuff serenade.
• No, my giant pen does not look suggestive.  Will everyone please stop saying that?
• So, "roommate", formerly known to the world as Alex (obligatory LJ link right... about... here: alixd), called up Jeb around 1:30 needing a ride home.  We all pile into Georgia's little red number and wait outside the local PetCo for him to show up.  A crazy dude wanders around, making us nervous.  Finally, Alex and his friend Alex (!!) show up, and we make our way down to drop off Alex #2 (literally -- his name is Alex Tu).
• This deserves its own bullet: so, we're talking about how people were recognizing them, and Alex #2 says that all "the Asians" were saying that they'd seen him somewhere.  One of us made a crack about him lumping them all together (made all the more funny since #2 himself is Asian, as well as Jeb, Georgia, and I -- "roommate" is practically Asian, having spent a year in Japan on study), and he said that they all came together, so it was okay.  I said something about the Asians being a box set -- why hide my geekiness -- to which "roommate" replied that the Asians were a bento box.  Hearty laughs all around.
• Oh, and it needs to be said -- roommate Alex (like there's any other Alex as far as I'm concerned!) is totally awesome.  He plays Pop 'n Music.  DUDE.  He also gives Jeb a hard time about everything, which I wholeheartedly approve of.  I got along with him splendidly, and can't wait to see him again.
• Jeb and I spent quite a bit of time bonding over past experiences and whatnot.  I made him jealous with a couple of my stories.  Ahahahaha.  Nice to know I had it at some point.  ::struts::  Then Alex came out, we all talked about nothing and everything, and I found out that even though Jeb put up a pretty calm front while all the stuff of May was going on, in reality he was angry as hell.  Apparently he startled both Alex and his friend Veronica (on separate occassions) with his fury and rage at what was going on with me.  Oh, I love that boy so much.
• Jeb + cooking = mmmm.
• Jeb's apartment + Luana's stuff = black hole.  Okay, so I have about $8.50 of a phone card sitting somewhere in that apartment.  Then I lost my keys.  Actually, this one can't be blamed on his apartment, since they were actually in Georgia's car.  Because of this, we totally left late for Olympia (he rode down with me) an hour or so and got stuck in the worst traffic on the face of the planet.  I was two hours late for work.  I don't think they really cared -- as long as you show up and call if you'll be late, they'll love you.  Oh, and if you work.
  
• We almost got into an accident that would have surely landed us at Harborview.  That would have been bad, seeing that neither of us are insured at the moment.  Damn adulthood.
• I ate the rest of Jeb's ABC bread during my break.  Stuff's damn addictive.
• For the first time in forever, I only had to cover one department.  SOLID.  Too bad that one department was Domestics.  LAME.
• 'Tis funny how instances that should really break things only make them stronger.

I could go into more elaborate detail about everything here, but I'm going to try to get to bed early tonight (three am! go me!) and... yeah.  Going to audioblog tomorrow for 1UP, I believe, after I get on Skype and have me some Phil time.  I miss my Phil.

So, Ken works in Inventory Control (I think that's what the "IC" in "ICS" stands for...?) and I work in Housewares and Domestics, so the two of us are always playfighting. While we were both acting macho to "intimidate" the other, he spouted some movie quote and asked me what it was from. "I have no idea -- I don't watch movies all that much," I told him.

"You must be big on music, then," he replied.

I thought about it. "Well, I guess so... music and video games."

"Video games?" He gave me a quizzical look. "Nah." I pointed to my shirt -- it was my E3 polo, one of my favorite wear-to-work shirts. If only he knew of the PMS clan shirt I was sporting underneath, but not only is it somewhat inappropriate to flash your coworkers, I just don't think a shirt that promotes a group of women who are "psychotic man slayerz" is really work-safe. "We'll see about that," he told me.

I didn't give it another thought because I was mega-busy today (and running on an hour of sleep -- thank you, mister <3) until I was zooming past Foods and heard my name being called out. After grabbing what I needed, I hurried back over there to see what the hubbub was all about.

"What'd you need, Ken?"

"I've got a question for you."

"Shoot." I was getting impatient -- the sales floor was packed and my assistant manager, Claud (also known as the hard-ass out of all of them), was walking through Domestics with a clipboard. Not knowing what the hell that meant, it made me unseasonably nervous.

"Okay, in God of War..."

"Yeeeeeees?"

"... what's the name of the main character that you play as?"

I didn't miss a beat. "Kratos." Right as I was walking back to my area, I looked back over my shoulder to see a fairly short redhead with mouth agape.

The moral of the story? If you're going to try to stump me with gamer knowledge, please don't ask me about the one game that PS2 owners across the land have been simultaneously orgasming about for about three months now.

Dad: So, are there really people that just stand around and do nothing all day?
Me: Yes, Daddy.  They're called cashiers.

Before you get all huffy, put on my Converse(s?) and try covering Housewares, Domestics, and Furniture all by yourself on your first day without any training whatsoever.

Cashiering in comparison is a breeze.  They've got it so easy.  They don't even put their own returns away.  pssh.

Jeb, I want my Gorillaz tracks yesterday. :|  Mail them over, sucka.

Hm.  I saw someone that I was friends with in high school today.  She didn't know that I saw her, because I purposely avoided talking to her, but she's still with the same guy she was dating a few years ago.  She's also as rail thin as ever... but that's okay, because I'm wearing a large belt, and I'm almost to the last notch.  My size 12 pants are loose.  Oh, man.  At this rate, I'll be a size 8 before I know it.  I don't know if that's quite a good thing or not, because frankly, I like having breasts.

This ends the OH MY LORD I KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT YOU portion of my LiveJournal.  Thank you, and good night.

lm.rawlins[at]gmail.com

I expect e-mails.  This means you, Mr. I'm Going To Leave You A Message Somewhere But It Might Not Be E-Mail And I'M REALLY NOT GOING TO DO IT.  >.<  They're probably the only thing that I'll be able to use as correspondence for the next couple of days, unless I luck out and my uncle doesn't pick up the lappy tonight while I'm at work.  HOPE HOPE HOPE

At least I can still look forward to my Songs of the Day.  Matt, I'll get you two songs tomorrow, unless HOPE HOPE HOPE burns brightly in a glittery flame of love.

I actually got trained last night, and I got to spend time at the register.  I generally hate retail, but Wal-Mart's actually not that bad.  Okay, well, co-worker wise.  I expected everyone to be bitchy, but they're all a really genuine type of bitchy, which I like.

I'm not spending one dime of my paycheck there, though.

One nice thing about sitting in the break room is that I feel rather inspired there.  I've gotten more 1UP writing done there than I have in ages.  I also met a nice guy, Alex, who saw my E3 bag and talked about games with me for my whole fifteen.  <jeb>I think he's family.</jeb> Very cute and nice, though -- and he's a gamer, so I'd totally be pimping out my best friend to him.

I was feeling kinda lonely during the second fifteen because everyone was talking to their significant others on their cell phones.  :(  "I miss you, but I'll see you tonight."  BAH.  -_-

Ack, got to get dressed for work and warm up that retail voice of mine.