the wonders of selective grammar usage

I'm so addicted to Trauma Center: Under the Knife.  Excellence has always been one of my weaknesses when it comes to gaming.

One of the things that people have been bringing up in their reviews for Trauma Center is that if you want to be a completionist, you'll drive yourself absolutely batty.  Now, while I've been consistently awarded Rank B: Specialist at the end of each surgery (with the occasional C, A, and one S), I have no desire to go back and S-Rank everything in this game.  That would completely ruin the experience for me.

It's the same feeling I have towards Gitaroo Man.  If I were to try to force myself through Master Mode, knowing full well that it'd take a long time to get through it and learn the patterns, it'd take this game that makes me so happy and turn it into a thing of frustration.  I'll never let anything ruin the joy of pummeling Zowie or stitching up a patient.

Oh, and that Nerd/Geek/Dork test that everyone's been taking?  Totally an Outcast Genius, baby.

( What's an Outcast Genius? Someone who edits the actual text of the meme. )

I did this last year as well, but the only reason why I'm actually saving it is because everyone associated with Nick tricked me (Aaron, you and your banana-flavored candies of death are worse than stealing).

Alex, I forgive you for stealing, because owning Pop'n Music is, like, grounds for automatic absolution of crimes anyday.

My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul
umilicious goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as a f'ing ninja.
alixd tricks you! You get a piece of paper.
areiser gives you 12 dark blue banana-flavoured nuggets.
njr tricks you! You lose 10 pieces of candy!
patdayooper gives you 8 brown root beer-flavoured pieces of chewing gum.
puccapeach gives you 12 red-orange cherry-flavoured gumdrops.
jebimstr gives you 11 blue licorice-flavoured jawbreakers.
xtcdukes gives you 14 yellow grape-flavoured nuggets.
timetokill gives you 8 softly glowing grape-flavoured pieces of bubblegum.
tsaoshin gives you 2 mauve coffee-flavoured jawbreakers.
vjd tricks you! You lose 7 pieces of candy!
umilicious ends up with 50 pieces of candy, and a piece of paper.
Go trick-or-treating! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

Name 10 things that bring you a moment of joy, and tag four friends to do the same.
(also not in any order, but mine are completely random and off the top of my head)

1. Lorelei, and to cite a specific moment, the day when she gets back from being with her father and she and I just talk and bond
2. Nick, and to cite a specific moment, when he'd be sitting next to me in a restaurant and spontaneously kiss my forehead
3. Snuggling in my papasan chair with a blanket
4. Knitting in the breakroom with my headphones on to drown out the noise
5. Having geektacular discussions about gaming with people I wouldn't expect to have them with
6. Unexpected e-mail and answering machine messages
7. The final levels of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, Gitaroo Man, and Katamari Damacy
8. Happy-go-lucky music
9. Driving down the street-light-free backroads of Washington early in the morning or late in the day, when the sun's on the move and you can see Mount Rainier rising above all the evergreens
10. Getting a genuine smile from others who don't want anything back from you but a smile

Who's next? I hope that samedi, xtcdukes, patdayooper, and especially njr will oblige me in this flight of fancy.

( ... and I decided to do Mully's quizlet, too, just because I'm that lame. )

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 )

This may very well be the scariest thing you ever see.
... and this may be the funniest.

Oh, Pete.

the Wit (69% dark, 34% spontaneous, 16% vulgar)

your humor style: CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean you're pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that 'the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat. I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer. Your sense of humor takes the most effort to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion. Also, you probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 88% on dark You scored higher than 15% on spontaneous You scored higher than 11% on vulgar

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

Work is hectic.  I have to cover both Housewares and Domestics, and also go home and call Mr. Jebbers tonight at midnight.  Thank goodness I have two days off.  I'm really thinking of driving away to somewhere tomorrow just because.

Magic phone cards are "teh woor".

I still want to hear "Feel Good Inc." in its entirety again.

Happiness rocks.

( stolen from a tan panda! )