joudama scribbling

Wii Fit Challenge~: You dirty, rotten cheater!

homasse99@yahoo.com — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:28:25 GMT

Time spent: 1:04
Calories burned: 289
BMI: 29.07

This game is a dirty, rotten cheater! ARGH!

As an addendum to the "likes to kill you by making you plummet to your death" thing. I learned today in the CHEATING ROTTEN obstacle course game that it also likes to flatten your Mii like a pancake by making logs roll over it.

And I cry FOUL FOUL FOUL to some of my Mii getting clobbered by a pendulum; I said to jump, dangit. And WTFBBQ to me supposedly losing 1.1 kilo in a day. A day I spent stuffing my face with grits. I'm going to chalk that up to me having not had dinner, since the aforementioned grits left me stuffed to the gills. I didn't even get hungry until, of course, two minutes after I started exercising (I popped a sweet potato in the oven and let it bake while I was exercising. Mmmm, sweet potato.)

Also, my arms and legs want to fall off and diiiiie. *death*

Wii Fit Challenge~: Plummet and Die

homasse99@yahoo.com — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:15:04 GMT

Time spent: 1:00
Calories burned: 287
BMI: 29.44

Yup, weight went up again, but I ate a Southern Breakfast (tm)--cheesy grits and real sausage and ate ramen for dinner; this is not a shock. It's also not that upsetting, since I'm viewing things as a restart--I slacked off, I did exercises that were ineffective, and so now I'm starting over. I'm not going to worry unless I start going up for a week straight.

The cycling game can blow me. I'm not even kidding. I wandered around the area trying to find the last two flags, then said "Fuck this," and quit the game. I had been doing it for about fifteen minutes, and it counted none of that time. asdfghjkl;

I'll do the short course; the long courses can SUCK IT. GAH.

Also, Wii Fit has a perverse love of making your Mii die spectacularly. XD Or rather, it loves to make it flail cartoonishly and then plummet to its death. The pata-pata chicken game, if you run out of time, your Mii--already in a chicken suit--stops short, flails in a panic, and then plummets into the sea.

If you bike off a cliff in the biking game, your Mii stops, flails in a panic, and plummets into a fade to black.

And if you get hit by one of the giant pendulum during the obstacle course, you go flying off into the sea in a flailing parabola. And if you miss a jump in the obstacle course, your Mii, say it with me, flails in a panic and plummets into the sea. XD

This game was definitely made by the same people who do Super Mario Bros, that much is true.

On the plus side, I finally beat the beginner obstacle course, and so tomorrow I'm going to try the next one. I also did way better at the second level of the rhythmic boxing one, and have almost figured out the pattern to the curve balls it throws. One or two more, and I should be good to try the next one.

I still firmly believe it was a massive mistake to try 20 jackknifes. Oh god. And it wants me to up it to 30 or do a "challenge" mode with the game. OH HAAAAAALE NO. A lot of these exercises, I get through on pure, unbridled determination--my body wants very much to stop (one exercise is 20, but my legs start to give out at 17, and the jackknifes start to kill me at ten) but pure will power is the only thing getting me to the end, and then I want to die. Still, that seems the way to go.

Wii Fit Challenge~: My Mii commited suicide...

homasse99@yahoo.com — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:12:22 GMT

Exercise Time: 1:05
Calories burned: 278
BMI: 29.34 (boooo~. But it's no one's fault but my own. ^^;; And I'm still lower than when I started out, so no complaints yet--ask me in a week)

Yeah, I gained weight back, but looking at the last week, I can totally understand why. With the total pigging out that was last weekend and last night (it was a 3-day weekend and friends came to visit last weekend, and yesterday I went out with people to the yummiest Indian place ever and ate far too much cheese naan) and the sheer lack of exercising I've been doing (I didn't do any Wii Fit the whole time I had people here, or the day after because my living room was still set up for having guests and not for me to be able to exercise, so I didn't do anything but walking for five days [busted Balance Board and also laziness] and yesterday [I was so stuffed my stomach cried at the thought], yeah, I can see why. I kinda winced and went, "Yeah, yeah, I get it. No more slacking off."

So to make up for it, I made sure to put in 275 calories, since that seemed to be the magic number. I have to get back in the exercising habit, so I have to make things enjoyable. So I did the step dance thing, and the "rhythm king fu" thing and the marching band thing, and the obstacle course thing (I WAS SO CLOSE *sob*).

Then for shits and giggles, I did the "cycling" game, and unlocked the longer course. And went, "Heh, let's try that!"

OMFG MISTAAAAKE~.

There's no time limit; you go until you find all the "flags" then go back to the checkpoint.

...I have no sense of direction. That's right, I got lost. I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING. I GOT LOST.

I finally managed to find all the flags and started trying to get back to the checkpoint. The game "helpfully" gives you an arrow pointing the way to the checkpoint...but pays no attention to the terrain.

Silly me, I followed the arrow.

Right off a cliff.

There was this vaguely hilarious look of panic on the Mii's face, then flailling and the sound of something dropping, and then a fade to black (rather than seeing your Mii go splat), and I went, "...My Mii just committed suicide! D:"

That was not the end, oh no. It plops your little Mii Okami-style back at the top, and you still have to bike your way back.

TWENTY MINUTES. IT TOOK ME TWENTY MINUTES.

*death*

My legs were about ready to die. When I got to the end, I was like, "OH THANK GOD D:" and jumped off the board as soon as I was done and hoped my legs stayed on.

I did a couple more exercises to get me up to 275, and oh, man, and I feeling it. I'm still sore from Wednesday, and have no doubt I will be sore tomorrow. But it's a good kind of sore, so I'm OK with it.

I'm still D: over my Wii biking off a cliff, but hey. XD

The Muppet Bohemian Rhapsody. XD

homasse99@yahoo.com — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:50:30 GMT

AWESOME.

Behold, the single most horrifying thing I have seen in a long, long time.

homasse99@yahoo.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:29:04 GMT

Bayonetta's "sexy dancing."

I spent the whole clip of this like this: D: and going, "What am I watching?! DDDD:"

Speaking of wrong...y'all have to see this to believe it, too. Chinese card game that rips off...you won't even believe it. >XD

One more month...

homasse99@yahoo.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:11:09 GMT

Squeenix just put out the last FF13 trailer. I'd embed, but they're being "no embed!" jerks, so here's a link to the FF13 website, and you can watch it there.

...Yun Fang is going in my party at all times once I have her as a member. Because she is awesome.

You can also see the new Cid, and OMFG HAAAAWT. *drool* (trust me, watch the trailer; the screencaps do nothing.)

ETA!

I love the internet.

Wii Fit Challenge~: Yay, new balance board!

homasse99@yahoo.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:17:22 GMT

Time spent: 36 min
Calories burned: 161
Current BMI: 29.2

I have a new balance board! And it works wonderfully! This makes me happy.

Today was the first "Getting back to basics" day, and OMFG, I can feel such a difference doing exercise-exercise instead of "fat burning" exercise.

Mainly in that I am sore. I am very, very sore. My inner thighs are mutinying, and when the game suggested I could now do 30 jackknifes instead of 20, I went, out loud, no joke, "Oh HELL no!" Twenty is still pushing it and my abdominal muscles hate me.

Also, the game lies like a lying thing. I did the obstacle course thing and was nearly done, and apparently I jumped for real (I was mid-run when a log came at me). This makes the game force quit, admonish you, and start over. And when you start over, it does not count all the calories you burned before. So the "calories burned" is a lie. Bastard. I was SO CLOSE to beating the game; I will make it my bitch, oh yes. XD

I am sweaty and gross and when the game said, "If you feel tired, it's important to rest!" I took it as a sign. So the water for my bath is running, and once this is done I will go slouch in the bath and let my stress melt away. And hopefully some of the OW PAIN OW from actual exercise will melt away with it. XD

Sad, yo. But also LOL.

homasse99@yahoo.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:19:19 GMT

If y'all haven't seen this, well, apparently Microsoft is ripping off Apple and opening "Microsoft Stores." The stores look, well...like a ripped-off Apple Store, and the ubercool Apple Store in Shinsaibashi laughs in it's face.

Anyone, some astroturf blogger just happened to have a camcorder with him the day he just happened to go to the Microsoft Store, and on a day when the staff just happened to break out into a completely unplanned and unchoreographed 4-plus-minute line dance to a Black Eyed Peas song.

Yeah, this dude wasn't getting paid. Suuure. And was a hardcore Mac guy until his life changing trip to the magical land of singing and dancing techies at the Microsoft Store. Riiiiiight. (We'll just ignore all the talk on being a Vista beta tester on a link ON THE SAME PAGE).

Really, all that needs to be said about this sad spectacle is said at minute 2:14 of the video. Watch the woman in the white shirt veeeeery carefully. She says it all, really.

Today's Awesome

homasse99@yahoo.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:01:13 GMT

This is a Bad Idea.

Other people clearly think this as well. How do I know this?

Check out the "Customer images" and customer-given tags.

XDDDDDDD

And for the best "Passive Aggressive Note" EVAR. Check out the note in the third picture.

AWESOME.

Wii Fit Challenge~: The Balance Board is indeed busted

homasse99@yahoo.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:47:24 GMT

So the game tells me I have gained more weight--half a kilo, and I'm going >:( at it. And vowing once again to go back to the muscle training and yoga, since obviously that was what was working. But I am, to be honest, somewhat perplexed, and decide the sudden input of potatoes into my diet must be the factor to blame, sigh, and decide fiiiiine, no more starchy foods.

I start up the step dance thing, and it tells me "Please get off the balance board."

And I look at it blankly and go, "I AM off the board."

After several retries and finally getting it to register that I am not, in fact, standing on the board, I start the game, and it's making me as missing damned near everything. And I'm going, "...OK, you're broken. You are very broken. :/"

I have to go into Kyoto anyway, and I still have my receipt, so I'll try to get a new board and see if that helps explain the insane things it's been telling me, like the day it decided I lost nearly a kilo and a half (and the day I went, "You are FULL OF LIES") and why it's decided all of a sudden that I have chubbed up and my balance has gone to shit again. Hopefully, it's more a mechanical problem than me being full of fail. :/

Wii Fit Challenge~: Reassessment time

homasse99@yahoo.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:03:17 GMT

Exercise time: 35 min
Calories burned: 157
BMI: 29.14
Feeling: Ow ow sore ow

So I realized today--I feel weaker. Or rather, I feel like I lost a lot of the progress I made--my scores are going down, and my balance is beginning to skew off again, and my weight has been staying pretty flat for the last two weeks or so. I'd been noticing this the last few days, but today seeing my bmi only going down .10 even after I busted my ass yesterday, it hit me--I was doing best not when I was thinking, "Oh god, gotta burn calories fast because I'm going home!" but "Hmm, what works best for my problem areas, like my weak inner thighs?"

So starting today, I started over--I'm going back to thinking, "What do I need to do for myself and to make myself healthier?" instead of, "What can burn the most fat the fastest on the slim chance it will appease my family?" The deadline hanging over my head was sapping the fun out of this, and turning it into a chore; filling me with dread and making it so I couldn't enjoy myself like I had been.

I will never make my family happy, ever, so, I wondered, why am I shooting myself in the foot even trying? This is for me, not to make people I will never be able to please. In their eyes, something will always be wrong or not good enough, so...wtf. Screw it and screw them--the only person I've got to please and make myself better for is myself.

Instead of all the jogging and random fat-burn exercises, I went back to yoga and weight training--everything I told myself I'd do after I got back from the US. And hoo boy, am I ever feeling it. x_X My sides are like *death* and my legs are like *death* and oh God, are my arms ever like *death*. Which I am taking as a good sign.

I will shoot for trying to burn at least 175 calories (I missed it today because d00d, my dinner was ready), but I'm not going to sacrifice shaping up my weak areas all for the sake of a number.

Kantan Cooking with Jou: Parmesan Potatoes and Asparagus and faux-Italian baked chicken breast

homasse99@yahoo.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:11:19 GMT

And now, for another installment of "Kantan cooking!"

Kantan Cooking with Jou: Parmesian Potatoes and Asparagus and faux-Italian baked chicken breast

Yes, this is easy. I promise. It is easy because, again, I am laaaaaazy.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 Chicken breast(s)
2 small potatoes
2 stalks of asparagus
feta cheese
cooking oil
asparagus
in you are in the US: "Italian-style diced tomatoes"
If you are not in the US: 2 small tomatoes, oregano, basil

Both of these bake at the same time, so you can start your oven pre-heating to 350F/175C.

First up, the asparagus and potatoes:
Slice the potatoes into chunks however you like. I ended up with squarish-triangly things.

Put half of them in a baking dish.

Chop up a stalk of asparagus.

Put it in the baking dish.

Drizzle with oil, then coat with parmesan cheese. Same kind you put on your spaghetti.

Repeat with the rest of the potatoes and asparagus.

Cover with aluminum foil and stick in the oven.

Now for the chicken.

If you live in the US, you are lucky and I hate you, because you can buy canned "Italian-style diced tomatoes," which are already seasoned. That was what I used when I first created this dish. Open the can and dump everything in a baking dish.

If you're like me, get two smallish tomatoes. Chop them up and put them and the resulting juice in a baking dish.

Liberally add oregano and basil, and then get your hands dirty mixing it up a bit.

Get the chicken breast out of the fridge and put it on top of the tomatoes.

Get your hands dirty again getting the tomato on the chicken and the chicken nicely coated.

Open the feta and put as much as you want on the chicken. Also pour some of the oil the feta is in in there.

Stick this in the oven.

Wash the few dishes you used and wander off to read stuff on line, preferably in the kitchen area.

Cook until you can smell it and it smells like win. :D

Wii Fit Challenge~: OK, OK, I get it, no slacking! Yeesh

homasse99@yahoo.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:30:05 GMT

Exercise time: 1:19
Calories burned: 381
BMI: 29.17
Feeling: throat owie ;_;

So yesterday it was full of lies with the lying 28.83 BMI. And I knew it was full of lies. Today it jumped up to 29.27 and I went, "You are also full of lies today!" but the game insisted I justify my weight gain. I stuck my tongue out and said I ate dinner late. Which I had; my belly was still full of soup and a piece of cake I picked up because dude, chocolate. Everyone once in a while, you just need chocolate. :p (and I reweighed myself after exercising, figuring the sweating would counter all the food remaining in my stomach.

Seriously, though, it's getting cold and I know I'm fighting a losing battle with my body in winter--my body is like, "it's hibernation time!" and my metabolism seriously slows the hell down. So I am not at all surprised that it's telling me I'm gaining weight (and my demon friend M-chan is not talking me into buying takoyaki at lunch again. She saw I was just eating a salad and she was like "That's not enough! Are you getting enough calories?! You need more!" She is the devil, I tell you. XD;;) Though I more blame the kome-pan (bread made with rice flour) I had for breakfast than the takoyaki. But since winter kills me, I know I can't slack even a single day until it's spring time, cold-catching or not be damned. I slacked off yesterday and got the smack with the rolled-up newspaper for it. Blech. Still, now I know it and will make sure to at least do 275 calories burned per day.

Since the game was "RAWR, BAD!" at me, I did a longer workout (I actually thought about going to an hour and a half or at least 400 calories, but my throat started telling me I had done a bit too much--the rest of me feels fine, but my throat is back to the "rubbed down with sandpaper" feel, so that convinced me to stop for the day). I also made sure to do the "help speed your metabolism" exercises and more of the fat-burning ones. I did the damned pata-pata flying chicken game, and I want it to die. I was so close to hitting the target. I am going to beat it, by god. I also did the boxing game again, and it didn't pwn me quite as much as it did the last time I tried the middle level. Still, there was much flailing and "Argh! Wargh! Wagh! What was I supposed to oh crap, crap!" yelling at the game. But it burned a lot of calories and it also made me break into a sweat. so I'll keep with it. :)

Okami game review!

homasse99@yahoo.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:59:14 GMT

So Not A Gamer's Game Review: Okami

I am slow and late, I admit this. Everyone else on the planet played this years ago. And I actually started to play it years ago, well before there was an English version, and my Japanese back then was sufficiently crap that I ran screaming. But in honor of Okamiden coming out, and it Chibi-Amaterasu being the cutest thing EVER, I decided to pull out Okami and play it (never mind the PS3 version of Tales of Desperia sitting sad and alone in my PS3. That's next on the list To Play, followed by finishing FF7. And no, I've never played it. Shush. I'll still be playing FF13 long before you suckers. >XD )

Also, as a warning...yeah, I played it in Japanese. And a lot of the names are different--the names of people, places, and animals were really truncated in the English version. I'm using the Japanese names, just because that's how I think of the characters.

I hereby officially take back every bad thing I said about FF12's minigames, because Okami just, hands down, beat FF12 in terms of "Minigames I'd like to Go Die In A Fire." FF12's minigames were just mindnumbingly stupid. And stupid in the "...I have just reevaluated the mental capacity of the lead character down. A lot." Okami's were just frustrating. And the special kind of frustrating, the kind that makes rage quit look like a mild spat. The fishing minigame? Needed to die. A lot. Especially the "mandatory to get into Seian-kyo" bits. None of the minigames in FF12 caused me to rage quit. The same cannot be said for Okami.

All in all, I rage-quit Okami a lot more than I've rage-quit any game I can remember. I quit Crisis Core a lot when I kept getting my ass handed to me on side missions, but never did I want to quit completely (although, y'know, I did quit, but that was more out of "I don't wanna see Nibelhiem and everything go to hell and Zack eventually die" than the "I am sick of this game" Okami gave me). At 40 hours in, I was ready for Okami to be over. It took me 80+ hours to get to that point with FF12. I was rage quitting. It ceased to be fun. Any time you start thinking, "I wanna play another game," well, that's a bad sign. I have zero urge whatsoever to play it again. If there's a game I trade it, it would be Okami, and given my packrat tendancies, that is really saying something. :/ The only reason I finished at all was because I figured I had to finish before I could review it. That's the only reason.

I didn't completely hate the game. I actually started out really loving it--it was the minigames and gratuitous and random platforming I hated (I'm not good at any platformer that is not a Super Mario Bros game, I admit it). What I loved before the game started frustrating me was how gorgeous it was and all the mythology. The game is absolutely gorgeous, and in a way that will age very well--ten years from now, Okami will still be a beautiful game.

The battle system was easy and intuitive a lot of the time, even if fighting bosses was very dependent on you figuring out the One Way to kill them. My only complaint with the battles and fighting was that they were too easy--it would take me forever and a year to get through a simple platforming section, but a boss fight would be done in three minutes. Many of the demons were too easy to beat once you knew how to do it, and so it ceased to be a challenge (although really, whacking things until they are dead never ceases to be fun, and easy fights let me get my trash-talk on. I loved Amako's ability to pee on her enemies just because it was like the game let me trash-talk in the game. I also used it when I thought the game gave me a bullshit score on a battle; I'd make Amako pee on the score. It was very childish and yet very, very, very satisfying. XD )

One thing about the game that I loved, and I seriously mean loved, is the Japanese mythology. I think people playing it in English miss out on a lot of it, mainly because of the shortening of the names. Almost all of the names in the English localization, people and places, were cut in half. Which means, yeah, y'all miss out if you know Japanese mythology and history (if you don't know, yeah, it has no effect; this is something that would only impact my fellow nerds). The biggest examples I can think of are "Seian-kyo" and "Wadatsumi." Those became Seian City and Wada...and while the "Seian City" makes sense, it means that you instantly lose the connection to "Heian-kyo"...which was the original name for...Kyoto. And with "Wada"...unless you knew Japanese myth, you'd never guess his full name was "Wadatsumi," which is an alternate name for the dragon god of the sea. (Ditto with "Ushiwaka" becoming "Waka." Mainly because it instantly takes away the connection with Minamoto no Yoshitsune, whose childhood name was "Ushiwakamaru.") I saw "Seian-kyo" and went, "AAAAAHHH! It's Kyoto!" and when Wadatsumi popped up, I went, "...I know that name, hold up! Yeah, from 'Wadatsumi no ki' by Hajime Chitose. Lemme look up who this guy is, because I think it's a sea god." All the names were like that, and made me kinda sad to know people playing it in English were missing out on that bit of geekiness.

But anyway, I was seriously digging all the Japanese (and Ainu!) mytholgical and historical references. If you know anything about Japanese mythology, that aspect of the game will win it serious points with you.

However, if you hate quick time events (I do) and random platforming elements tossed into a game (I do), this game will frustrate you. A lot.
Also, speaking of frustration...one thing the localizers got right was fixing Ushiwaka's TERRIBLE TERRIBLE ENGRISH. Y'all got Waka, who was done as if he were bilingual-level fluent in English and French. The Japanese Ushiwaka? We got "Zattsu raito!" ...And no, oh god no, that's wrong. Everything he said was full of TERRIBLE TERRIBLE KATAKANA ENGRISH OVERFLOWING WITH BASIC GRAMATICAL ERRORS. I'm sorry, but you can not use "me" as a subject. You use "I" for that. And "you-tachi" is NO. Gaaaaaaaah. NO.

Dead Zacks: About three or four, including the embarrassing "falling off a log in Kusanagi Village into the Great Black Abyss" and "Hey, I Think I Can Make This Jump Off the Flower...Well, Shit." deaths.
Oh, You Motherfucker point: When Jinkou dug a hole, I accidently dropped in it, and then he peed on me. I think I actually said, "You motherfucker! Oh, now it's on, bitch!"
Suspension of Belief factor: ...it's about the goddess of the sun reincarnated in the form of a giant white wolf, and about myth, all done in a very stylized fashion. Dude. Even I was telling my internal nitpicker to shut it.
Chances of a Replay: Some games I want to turn around and replay as soon as I'm done. Okami was not one of these games. For me, once is enough.
Walkthrough?: Yeah, but as always, I shouldn't have even started looking, because once I did, I was tied to the bloody thing because OMFG WHAT IF I MISS SOMETHING?!
Characters: Okikurumi. I...I have no idea what it was about him, but I loved him from the instant he showed up, and his theme song is on my "Awesome" playlist.
Squee point: This game is just gorgeous. The colors especially. It's a wonderful change from the brown-grey-brown of a lot of games out there now. Also the snake god in the jar trying to get out, SQUEEEEEEEEEE~, so cute. Also, I don't have words for how much I adored Okikurumi's (Oki's) theme. It's pure win. Also, and completely random, I love how the booklet (at least in my Japanese version) is read right to left and up to down. Yeah, those are the kind of things I dork out about.
WTF point: ...I think the birds running the onsen were supposed to be Chinese. Their names were all written in katakana and they were also very Chinese sounding--Chun and Tai Shan. Hunh. And also, purple sperm. Whut.
No love point: HOLY FRAMERATE ISSUES, BATMAN. Also, Issun. I wanted Amako to eat him. For real. AND THE QTES AND PLATFORMING CAN GO DIE. ALSO USHIWAKA'S ENGRISH. PUREESU DAI IN A FAIYAA.

The horrifying realization

homasse99@yahoo.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:09:08 GMT

There comes a point when you have a horrifying realization of just how big of a nerd you really are.

I was putzing around with the Ultimania author's notes for A Hope in Hell, and I had mentioned the Divine Comedy (because I was talking about the Chimera, and how the Angeal!boss in Crisis Core matches the way Dante described a chimera, and that was were I got my idea for "The Griffin and the Chimera" from). Which made me look on line for the first few stanzas, because it mentioned being "lost" from the "straight way" and that tied in with how I'm doing Angeal in it. And I realized how well the first few lines tied in to the fic, even down to the "a dark wood...savage, dense, and harsh" and how the name of the city, Daerimmun, means "the gate to the great forest."

And then went, "...I can SO use this! >:D" and decided to reread the Inferno. For a fic. One I'm not even working on right now, since the next chapter of HC is a priority.

So....yup, I'm a neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd~.

Who is going to bed, because it's 1 am, but will be curling up with my copy of the Divine Comedy. :D

Wii Fit Challenge~: Wait, whut?

homasse99@yahoo.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:19:16 GMT

Exercise time: 0:00
Calories burned: 0
BMI: 28.83
Feeling: COUGH COUGH HACK HACK Bwuh...?!

I have been hopped up on cold meds all day. Not even kidding. The cold meds keep me from coughing, which keeps my throat from wanting to weep.

I had decided not to exercise today, for said cough cough hack hack ow ow reasons. And also I made more soup since all I want is soup and bread, and it hadn'T finished until after 9, and 9 is when I usually start exercising. But I figured I should at least turn the Wii Fit on and weigh myself, since as long as you do that every day it doesn't bitch at you. And in order to make sure I didn't do something stupid like figure, "Hey, since it's on, I can do a little something," what with the "I only feel healthy because of the cold meds" (and right on schedule, about ten minutes ago, just when I was thinking, "Hey, we're not SO bad off, maybe I should actually get some exer---COUGH COUGH COUGH oh shit, the meds are wearing off. Never mind!"), I left on my regular clothes (a sweater and a skirt) instead of changing into the T-shirt I usually exercise in (yay, living alone, where I can exercise in just a t-shirt).

So I got on the balance board, and told it I was wearing heavy clothes, and awaited my results. And saw them and went, "YOU LIE!!" when it said my BMI was 28.63. I went, "NO. No, you lie," and the game congratulated me on reaching my goal, but then warned me that sudden weight loss wasn't likely to last. And I was still going, "You LIE, that makes no sense." Then I turned the game off.

About five minutes later, I changed into my regular workout clothes and turned it back on, and said, "DO OVER." And this time selected light clothes and waited for a more normal response.

28.83.

Bwuar?

So I was like, "...OK, this still makes no sense. Maybe because I didn't eat dinner? Wait, but I did eat something, I had that giant, heavy bread thing from the bakery right after I got home because I was making soup and it wouldn't be ready for hours and I was hungry, and that was only two hours ago, only an hour before I normally eat. I am so confused."

I'm still confused, but hey. If it jumps back up some tomorrow, I will also not be surprised, because seriously, bwuh?

So I still think it lies like a lying thing, but hey. We'll see what it say tomorrow. XD;;;

Bwuh.

homasse99@yahoo.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:58:45 GMT

My mother just called me.

I'm not surprised; I wired her about $3000 yesterday, but the told me it'd take around a week to get there, because trying to send money out of Japan is insane. I forgot to e-mail mom to tell her it'd take a week, and she called me saying, "When is the money going to get here?"

So I told her about a week, and she went, "A week?!" and I said, "Yeah. A week. It's not instant." She asked if I sent it to her bank account, and I said yes. And apologized for not e-mailing her to let her know it'd be a week, since I was sick and had gone to bed not long after I got home (which I did; I had to drag myself out of bed to exercise, and then I dragged myself right back into bed).

And she went, "Oh, OK. Take care of yourself. I love you."

And I as "...hunh?" to myself and just blinked lots and lots, because I'm not used to my mother a) being nice or b) telling me she loves me. I was too flummoxed to answer for a second, and finally said, "Thank you, I love you, too."

I'll be honest, the "I love you, too" felt pretty hollow--just words, and I said them because I had to. I don't really like my mother, and I honestly have no idea how to react when she does things like tell me to take care of myself or says she loves me. Maybe because I never once heard any of that from her as a kid. I'm always suspicious when she says it, wondering what the heck prompted something so, well, out of character for her. And a cynical part of me is going "she's only being nice because you just mailed her $3000." After all, this is the same woman who sent me an e-mail lambasting me when I didn't call or e-mail her for Mother's Day the week I had been in a car accident and was struggling to finish up the last of my coursework so I could graduate and who just left me after I graduated with no money and nowhere to go, all because I dared to invite my father to my graduation, and who once told me she never wanted to see me again after a miscommunication where I told my grandma, "I don't know where the paper with my aunt's number is. It was on the table, so maybe mom accidentally threw it away?" and grandma told her "[me] said you threw it away," amongst other things. I had to hock my violin to come to Japan because Mom wouldn't lend me money to come when I had been out of work for six months and so had no savings left (I still remember grandma making me call mom to ask her for money, and grandma writing me a check only after Mom made me start crying.) This woman giving a shit about me is, well, completely out of character. There is a reason why I can remember every time she has hugged me...and how my reaction was to go stiff. And for the record, she only hugged me when I was in college, and when she would pick me up at the airport. This was back when you could still meet people at the gates, and so we were in front of people. Now that you can't meet people at the gates, I have to call mom when I get in to America and ask for her to come pick me up. And there are no hugs, and I am FINE with that. I don't like her hugging me.

Honest to god, I would rather my mother not be nice to me at all, because it throws me off balance too much when she is, because it's such a curve ball. It's confusing and jarring and puts me on edge because I'm waiting for the verbal slap or the punchline to come. And yes, I'm aware of how fucked up the whole thing is. :/

I don't want to go back to America next month.

blink blink

homasse99@yahoo.com — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:00:50 GMT

Dear fic brain,

I don't know how you do it. By all rights, the scene I've been putzing around on all day should lead to pr0n. And yet, it is not. I don't quite know how you're doing it. I'm not objecting, mind, but I'm having flashbacks to when I lived in the US and my roommate was reading one of my fic in progress while I was doing something else so I wouldn't be hovering over her, and suddenly I heard a scream and she stomped out of my room and told me that if the two characters in the scene (at that time Toya and Yukito from CCS) didn't get laid, she was going to kill me. Admittedly, them getting interrupted was supposed to be comedic, and the comedic parts in HC is few and far between, but still. I full anticipate someone screaming.

If no one else, the chibi-Aerith-in-my-head waving around "OT3!!!" signs is going to start ripping out her hair and screaming soon. She's yelling that they're hopeless, and I'm not disagreeing with her.

Even I'm going bwuah?
jou

(and for the record, AHAHAHAHA, no, it's not in part two, but part three. I don't write linearly. :p AHAHAHAHAHA)

Wii Fit Challenge~: It's Yellow Powdery Death Time

homasse99@yahoo.com — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:45:51 GMT

Total exercise time: 1:04
Calories burned: 287
BMI: 29.07
Time: fine, aside from my throat feeling like someone rubbed it down with sandpaper

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I gained weight, and I REGRET THAT DESSERT YESTERDAY AND THE YUMMILICIOUS CHEESE RICE BREAD TODAY NOT ONE LITTLE BIT. *gives game the finger*

The game asked me, "What happened yesterday?" and I went, "I was sick! Fuck you! Be glad I turned you on today!" Considering I ran into a friend randomly when I was at the mall getting something for lunch (yay, the post office taking up my whole lunch hour--I had to stay an extra half hour to make up for taking extra time at lunch, but no way was I not eating lunch, and since I was already fifteen minutes over, I said "screw it" and ran down to the mall to grab some bread, since the conbini closed) and he took one look at me and went, "Hey, how are...you look kinda rough." I spent most of today wishing I was home in bed, but I have a deadline of this Friday for some evals, meaning no rest for me until it's done. Cold meds will get me through. Somehow. But anyway, I felt like death yesterday and I feel like death today. So I was expecting to only do about 30 minutes, when the game cheerfully informed me I gained weight. Not enough for it to bitch at me and demand an explanation for my lapse, but enough to make me grumble.

I had intended to just do thirty minutes, but then after thirty minutes I saw my "calories burned" was still in the hundreds so I ran the three minute Jogging + again, and discovered the bastard of a game cheats and on the third time doing it asked completely different questions from the one it had asked the first three times, so I bombed bombed BOMBED. I object; that material was NOT covered during class! GAH!

I decided to do some random arm exercises (my tricep area is flabby and gross and ew, and so I'm working on it), and from there I just did more muscle burning, and when I was more than ready to go, "I wanna stooooop~ Throat feels like fire~!" I saw I only needed to go four more minutes to push my total time exercising to 16 hours, and only about twenty more calories burned to get me to over 275. So I went, "OK, fine," and did the step dance thing again, because I knew that was guaranteed to bump me over both of those.

So whoot, did an hour, burned over 275 calories, and now I am going to take out the trash then pour Yellow Powdery Death down my throat and sleep. x_X

PSA

homasse99@yahoo.com — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:15:03 GMT

PSA:

Dear straight men:

There are some women out there who will jack your shit up. Remember that should you ever be tempted to cheat.

Bleargh, TV

homasse99@yahoo.com — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:25:46 GMT

There was a demo this morning that was for a TV show--this one on TBS. And yes, there was a camera, but this time, thankfully, it was just a camcorder and not the big camera and mikes and all that jazz for the NHK one.

As always, English is the most interesting of all the languages, meaning I get to do extra bits. -_-;

I'm just thrilled, however, that the blasted machine did better with groking my accent. Since "in" and "en" are the same in Southern American English, it goes "Pbbbbth" when I say "Kinkaku-ji temple" and insists it's "Enkaku-ji temple." But it got it right this time, and on the first try, so YAAAAAY~. The one embarrassed by it was not me this time! This time, it was Chinese!fail, but that was more because the Chinese guy screwed up because he was using the iPhone app version for the first time (and he forgot his lines, aiya).

The one that has my blood running cold is the NHK one, mainly because it is for a very well-known program. Arararara.

Because it's been a while, and to prove I have been writing.

homasse99@yahoo.com — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:29:10 GMT

Yay, meme!

If you happen to be working on some creative writing project, fanfiction or what have you, post one sentence/paragraph/whatever from each of your current work(s) in progress in your journal. It should probably be your favourite or most intriguing sentence so far, but what you choose is entirely your discretion. Mention the title (and genre) if you like, but don't mention anything else--this is merely to whet the general appetite for your forthcoming work(s).

Harrow Children:
Part the Second:

"...Vincent, how do you know all this? Seriously, how do you know that?" Zack said, staring at him with his jaw hanging open.

Vincent smiled, faintly. "Once a Turk," he said, and Zack rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway. They're fragments of Sephiroth? How is Jenova going to do anything with pieces? I don't get it."

"Perhaps 'fragments' isn't the right way to think of them. They're closer to...larvae."

"...Ew," Zack said, making a face. "I think I liked 'fragments' better. No mental images that way."

Vincent got the tired look he seemed to get all the time when Zack was talking to him.

Part the Third:

"You're hopeless, Zack," Tifa said, a faint smile touching her lips.

"Not hopeless, just clueless," he said with a grin, and she shook her head with a faint laugh and walked in.

"I won't argue with that one," she said, and took the bandages. "Raise your arms," she said.

"Yes, ma'am," Zack said and dutifully raised his arms.

"You need a shower," she said mildly as she unwrapped the dirty bandages. Oh, gods, when did his Geostigma get this bad?

"Hey, you're the one who told me to raise my arms!" Zack said, grinning like a fool, and she thumped him on the leg.

The Garden of Everything (whether or not I write all of it is in the air):
Tifa started smiling, too, looking like she was trying not to giggle, and Zack felt hopeless lost. "'Dress appropriately'? What do you mean by...oh, no. Oh, no, no, no!" Zack said, shaking his head frantically as he finally understood. "There is no way I'm dressing up like a girl!"

"Then you stay here like a good boy and watch Cloud and we'll go," Aerith said with a smile, and stood up, dusting her dress off.

"There's no way I'm letting the two of you walk into Don Corneo's House of Perverts!" Zack wailed. "No way, nuh-uh!"

"Zack, I can take care of myself," Tifa said, raising an eyebrow. "You saw me fighting."

"Yeah, and you're a good fighter, but you'll both still be outnumbered, and maybe split up, and oh, yeah, it's in the red-light district and in Rapeville Central!" Zack yelled. "No!"

"Well, you know what to do, then." Aerith said sweetly. "I'll be a good girl and wait here with Cloud, and you go with Tifa."

"But...but I'll make a terrible girl!" Zack wailed.

"Then you can stay with Cloud and I'll go."

"That sucks, too!" Zack wailed again, and Aerith gave him that smile again.

"You can either trust me and Tifa, or we can go get you a dress," she said brightly.

Zack wilted. "...Just not pink, OK?" he said, giving up all hope.

"Oh, pink would be terrible with your complexion. I'll get you something blue to match your eyes," Aerith said with that grin, and Zack buried his face in his hands.

Biological Warfare:
The kitten glared up at him and Sephiroth glared back. And they continued glaring until the kitten decided to groom itself and turned its head and began licking its shoulder. Sephiroth decided not to think too deeply about the satisfaction he felt just then, and headed back to bed.

There was silence from the living room of his quarters, and Sephiroth considered himself the winner.

Until the next morning, when he went out into his quarters and discovered the kitten had urinated all over his carpet.

Puppyverse:
Puppy Chow:
"Besides, I've no idea what will happen if you receive the Jenova cells," Hojo said dismissively. "And I see no reason to waste them on an unknown. There is, after all, a reason why neither you nor the other part of Project G ever received Jenova cells during the SOLDIER process. Hollander oversaw his own projects and was careful to keep the cells away from you."

"And you have no idea what would happen if I got the Jenova cells?" Genesis said narrowly.

"No idea. Of course," he said, and got his oily little smile again. "If I had access to all of Hollander's preliminary research, I could probably hazard a guess what might result."

"Then you'll get it," Genesis said sharply, and stomped out.

Hojo watched him go, and then began, quietly at first and then louder, loud enough to echo through the room, to laugh.

Teaching an Old Dog:
"You weren't there, the day they were clearing his quarters," Sephiroth began. He wasn't entirely sure what he intended to say, but it didn't matter, since that was as far as he got before Lt. Fair went still and looked away.

"Yeah. Couldn't deal with it," he said, looking at the table. "Didn't want to be there."

"Ah," Sephiroth said, and he supposed he could understand that.

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails:
Zack smiled. It wasn't Zack's normal insane grin, but a soft little smile Sephiroth didn't quite understand. "You're a good guy, Seph," Zack said, and Sephiroth blinked.

"I--" he began, and was relieved when Zack went back to normal footing, grinning like a loon.

Obedience School:
"Anneke...dear Anneke," Hojo said, and she fought against gritting her teeth. "I am the lead doctor in regards to the SOLDIER project, am I not?" he said.

"Be that as it may. I was hired to assist you with the SOLDIER project because of your other projects interfering with this one," Dr. Laumbe said, not backing down.

Puppy Love:
Sephiroth eyed the small, colorfully-wrapped package Cloud was holding. "I hope you're not planning to add to this."

Cloud choked and felt himself turning red, and quickly spoke. "I got roped into being a delivery boy by Zack. For his girlfriend," he added quickly.

Slipping the Leash:
His PHS buzzed, and Sephiroth opened the message with trepidation once he saw the From address: Zack. F.

At one line, the mail was short and quite succinct.

"You're being an asshole."

Hounds of War:
"And I'm going to give Her Her other wing...that wing of light, Sephiroth."

In This Together
Temper Tantrums and Breaking Pencils:
Genesis was still scowling and was being all but dragged away, but he was very obviously letting himself be dragged out--Halia knew far too well how well trying to make Genesis Rhapsodos go somewhere or do something he didn't want to went and had gotten the black eye from a flailing fist to prove it--and she just stood there with her mouth hanging open.

Genesis Rhapsodos, the demon child, had just given in to someone.

She wandered down to the teacher's room in something of a haze.

Letters Home:
Dear Mother and Father,

Angeal is making me write this. He threatened to sit on me if I didn't write you
or something to let you know I was still alive.

Break It Down:
"I'm surprised," Angeal said, hoping for some kind of response, "that you made this. I mean, you...you hated home," he said, not sure what he was trying to say.

Going It Alone:
"Go back to your precious puppy, then," Genesis said with an upturned lip, and he never even looked up.

A Hope In Hell
Part 5:
"What the fuck is wrong with the general?" Brian Turner said as he dropped into an empty chair, shaking his head. "And deal me in next round."

"Small dick. Why do you think he's got all that muscle and giant sword? Guy's obviously compensating for something," Elliot Striker said, not missing a beat as he reached for another card.

"Dare you to say that with him in earshot," Banks said with a grin.

Part 6:
Park's voice stayed steady. "How is this different," he said, meeting Angeal's eyes and not looking away, "than all of the other civilian deaths that have come at ShinRa's hands? How many civilians died when the castle fell? How many in the villages that have been razed? How is this different from the strikes at the holds of the insurgents? Do you honestly believe everyone in those places are insurgents? Is this only different because we know their names?" he said, and the question hit Angeal like a blow to the gut, and never in his life had he felt more out of his depth. "Do you think I have never killed a civilian before? Do you think I never have under your orders, sir? This is war, and civilians die the same as soliders. But in battle, we just call it collateral damage and move on. And that is how ShinRa sees this."

The Things You Never Knew About People
Losing It All:
Reno stared out into space. "Well...I guess that solves one thing. I'd been plannin' to move out, y'know? Soon as I was sixteen an' could rent my own place to, y'know, get away. Ain't...ain't gotta move now," he said, and something inside starting hurting again. And another part felt numb at the same time, and how did that work? "I was kinda hopin' to finish junior high then get a job, but hey. Never was no good at school anyway. Prolly gotta move anyway, I don't think I can afford the place Ma...where I live now."

Revenge:
"I watched the videos of your 'interrogation' of Shi while you were in Wutai," Tseng said, his voice low and uninflected, and Reno's head jerked up, his whole body jerking like he'd had a shock, and he went from slumping in his chair to stiff and coiled like a spring. "And I would like to know what was on your Wutai wire recordings that were deleted. I believe those deletions were your doing."

Hidden Dragon:
He looked in the mirror. Instead of being the darker, brownish red it had been before, it was now the same bright red as the tattoos, almost drawing attention to them, and he pulled some of the hair in the back back into a ponytail. It wasn't really long enough, yet, but he'd give it time, and it would be. Auntie Qian had always tried to convince him to grow it out; if he was going for a new look, he was going to do it. Looking in the mirror, he barely recognized himself, and he let a slow, lazy smile go over his face instead of the angry and indrawn look that had been there. No more of that shit. Time for a life over--no more ties to nothin' or no one no more.

Noodles:
"Ya don't say," Reno said, looking amused. "Me, I'm always happy to have food around, y'know? When I was a kid, once I was around a steady supply of food, I got real interested in how to put it together."

"Makes sense," Rude said, nodding. Now that he thought about it, Reno did always know where the best places to eat were, no matter where they were in Midgar or Junon, and his desk always had something stashed away in it, be it a candy bar or a small bag of chips.

...well, he'd used to keep candy bars. After the third or fourth time Rude found them, Reno'd given up on threatening to beat Rude with his baton and just switched to caching small bags of nuts or chips.

Hui Lai:
"Get out," Reno finally said, voice choking. "Get the fuck out."

Reno'd say one thing for Rude. He knew when to stand his ground and when not to.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Rude said, voice in some way Reno couldn't put his finger on different, softer somehow, and he left before Reno could snap and start beating him.

BEHOLD~

homasse99@yahoo.com — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:56:21 GMT

BEHOLD!

MY GLORIOUS FINAL FANTASY 13 PREORDER!!!

:DDDDDDD

December 18th, that bad boy is MIIIIIIIIINE.

:DDDDDDD

Jou's Kantan Cooking: Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

homasse99@yahoo.com — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:22:30 GMT

I have a cold and I wanted chicken noodle soup, danggit. And living in Japan has got me used to the idea of cooking everything from scratch instead of getting it in a can. Plus, a can means a can I have to throw away, and that means figuring out what random day out of the month is can day for garbage. And that's a pain.

So instead, I bought ingredients on my way home Friday, and it has been Soup Weekend. :D

Ingredients:
Chicken (preferable pre-sliced. I went that route because a) lazy b) only one cutting board and I use it for veggies)
Chicken consomme (2 or 3 cubes)
2 smalliish to mid-sized potatoes
2 smallish carrots
1/2 an onion
1 or 2 stalks of asparagus
OPTIONAL: pasta (or rice, whichever floats your boat)
water

Get a good-sized pot.

Fill it with water.

Toss in the chicken.

Wander off and watch something on youtube.

Come back, wash the potatoes, and slice them into 1-2 centimeter sized cubes. DO NOT PEEL THEM.

Peel and chop up the carrots to about the same size as the potatoes.

Toss them into the water (cussing when you splash yourself optional)

Add 2 blocks of consomme. Turn heat down and put a lid on the pot.

Wander off to watch more stuff on youtube. Like a couple clip of a Let's Play of Vagrant Story.

Wander back, check to see that the potato is cooked.

Get asparagus and chop into pieces. Add.

Chop up onion and add.

Toss in another block of consomme and put the lid back on the pot.

Wander off and watch another Let's Play clip.

Come back, add a handful of whatever kind of pasta you like. I added "salad macaroni," which was tri-color macaroni (yay, extra veggies and flavors!).

Watch more youtube--a ten minute clip is good.

Come back, turn off heat, and voila! Because it's boiled for so long, the potato really thickens the soup, and there are tasty bits of peel floating around.

Today's Awesome: Mid-air Moonwalk

homasse99@yahoo.com — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:17:45 GMT

Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn~