The Diva of Dumb

12:16am: You know you live with an awesome guy when he fetches you Kraft Dinner and tea, and then the two of you sit down for an in-depth discussion of Captain Olimar's biological processes.

1:48pm: ... Wow. I just heard a few bars of To Zanarkand through the apartment wall. It's so weird to hear video game music coming from a random stranger's musical choices instead of from me, Dash, or a fannish companion. I can't figure out if this neighbour person is actually playing FFX the game or just listening to a musical track, though. I'm concerned as to whether I'll overhear FFX cutscenes while I sleep. Spirals of death aren't the healthiest subliminal messages, y'know?

Oh, while I'm posting, I've gotten a job waitressing at the Thai restaurant I like. They seem to like me back! And they always feed their staff after a shift, so I get delicious noodles! \o/

Okay, I was writing for the authorblog when I heard music and simply HAD to tell the Internet about it. Back to work.

9:57pm: Let's see, journal entry, journal entry ... Well, the grocery store job goes well! I make pretty salad and I'm the most food-knowledgable one in the produce department. Bad part is that it's highly unlikely I'll get more than three shifts a week, like, ever. And it's minimum wage. So I'm job hunting again.

The free time has done my writing good, though, and the novel draft is three-quarters done. Also, Mother 3 owns my soul, and I'm reading the third book of the Temeraire series at the moment. ... And I'm RPing again 'cause I'm dumb or something.

In slightly more interesting news, my parents are following my authorblog. And Dad printed some entries out to show his mom, and generally everyone approves of me musing about fantasy/literary issues to the Intarwebs. It's kinda weird and great that I can encourage thought with the stuff that's just always percolating in my brainmeats. Only part that isn't great is that family keeps telling me I should write children's books. Haha. Ha. Yeah, not really.

I've been having a hard time sleeping lately. The 6 AM work shifts directly contradict my nightowl nature, and there aren't enough shifts to force me to any sort of natural-seeming routine. Maybe I'll try to get to bed soon. Just thought I'd assure you IJ-stalkerlovelies that I'm still alive!

ETA: Also, check out the Super Smash Brothers Everything Meme! By "everything", I mean punch and pie!

11:47pm:

This is some shanghai bok choy I bought at work today. Isn't it the cutest vegetable you've ever seen?

(Dash wants to throw a Pokeball at it. Mind you, he's been on the Pokecrack lately.)

4:33pm: 1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me!", or similarly interview-inducing statements.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog or journal.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

Questions care of Doxinator on LJ. Uhh, but I'm not going to start up a question hurricane. I just swept this floor.

1. If you could live anywhere else in the world, regardless of money or language barriers or things like that, where would you live?
Oooooo. Italy or Spain or someplace else Mediterranean, mostly because their food and food-related culture is all about taking things slow and enjoying. (I'm kind of a foodie, you see.)
Japan's a close second, because it may be the land of crazy and win, but their way of life is a little intense for me.

2. What is your FAVORITE KIND OF SANDWICH EVER
EVERYTHING IS BETTER BETWEEN BREAD but, hmm, I really like luncheon meat. Pork-based salty delicious things. So I'm quite happy with ham and/or other cold cuts, maybe with alfalfa sprouts, tomato and avocado in my ideal world.

3. OKAY SO LIKE, you're being mugged or something and you have the ability to summon ONE fictional character to rescue you. WHO IS IT
Vincent Valentine, because then it'd be an awesome physics-defying FMV rescue. (Or possibly a hilarious Legotacular rescue.)

4. What's your favorite game genre?
I like watching games stories unfold more than the act of pushing buttons, really, but to actually play myself? I enjoy rhythm games most. DDR is a blast to get good at, and I'm the messenger of Elite Beat Agents come to tell yon mortals that MUSIC LIVES.
Second place to RPGs. Because I'm a freak and I like slow improbable turn-taking in combat, and have no problem with ten billion random encounters. As long as it's an RPG whose storyline isn't drowning in clichéd fail.

5. NAME AT LEAST ONE NERVOUS HABIT I'm just gonna ask this to everyone
I pick at my lower lip a lot. Occasionally enough to draw blood, but keeping my nails short helps. Actually, I do it when bored as much as when nervous.

8:09am: Huh, been a while since I've updated. Since our last episode, Pyra was jerked around some more with the restaurant scheduling, so she gave her resignation notice in a fit of pique. My last shift was on Saturday. Everyone was unhappy to see me go (I felt so loved, srsly), but the whole serving staff is similarly not happy with how their job is treating them. I encouraged them to not just take it. Hope that place gets its shit together, I really do. And I hope that new dessert station girl does alright, she's so adorable it just about physically injured me.

Fortunately, I have some kind of Luck-based ability to walk into an establishment and say, "YOU! Hire me!" and have them go, "Okay! :D" So I have a job lined up as a prep cook at the nearby grocery store, I'll be cutting up fruit salad and stuff. The staff seem deliriously happy to have me. I start on Wednesday, at the ass-crack of dawn, and coffee is going to be my very closest friend for the next week.

The grocery store work will be part-time, so I really need to get back into the habit of daily novel work. I've been slacking lately, and writing a lot of fanfic that I don't finish. Also need to read moar books. The (tiny) Temeraire fandom taunts me with its need to have read all five books, I'll get to that as soon as I'm done playing Mother 3 and doing all the smiling, boggling and bleeding profusely from the heart that that game entails. Just started Chapter 5. Lucas needs hugs. <3

And this is the part where I get up for a shower and some food!

3:04am: (Icon not related to the post. It just made me grin the whole time I was making it.)

(Oh, and there's no New Year's content in this post because I think it's stupid that New Year's is such a big deal. Every day is a new day. If you're going to change your life, just change your life, don't idly threaten to on an annual basis.)

Weeeell, being summoned in to work frickin' constantly for the past month has taken its toll. I'm sluggish, cranky and having a hard time sleeping. Which means I'm screwing up a lot at work, too, and that makes me hate the place more. One botched table wasn't my fault so much as bad luck carrying plates out, but it had me charged two hundred dollars anyway. As in, my supervisor asking me to present my Visa type of "charged two hundred dollars". Major insult to injury. And today, Chef asked me if something's wrong; it's not like me to be the order-mangling failure I've been lately.

So I'm looking for another job, because while I love talking about food and making people happy with it, this restaurant's management is utter chaos and everything is more demanding than it needs to be. I'm thinking something in retail would be nice. Something where an off day isn't as soul-crushing as in food service. The local Chapters apparently has a position open, so let's see if anything comes of the application I sent in. Books are relevant to my interests, after all!

In other news, we downloaded the Eragon movie and watched it with the Rifftrax. Every bit as hilarious as I expected, although Dash needs to tinker with programs to get the audio sync exactly right for future Rifftrax viewings. I love how the ZOMG BLOCKBUSTER BASED ON JEENIUS BESTSELLING BOOK Eragon is just as cheesy, cliched, plot-holey, poorly acted and generally stupid as the no-budget 70's garbage movies the MST3K team more typically tears apart. Here's hoping for a Twilight Rifftrax!

I've been grinding a lot in TWEWY because that's fairly mindless and entertaining. So sue me if I like buying more girly clothes to dress the male leads up in. And if I get Beat's attack stat up to ridiculous uber-god level, it won't matter that he likes to stand around in drake enemies' fire attacks, drooling and wondering where the HP's at, yo! No, seriously, Beat's as smart as a bag of hammers and he makes me so happy!

And now, hmm. I think I'll idly conceptualize characters for a bit. Name origins are funtimes.

2:35pm: I watched WALL-E again the other night with Mom and Dad. At the time I first watched it, I guess I gushed all over the place about the beautifully subtle execution of the story, and boy, I still wibble up. But watching the deleted scenes on the DVD made me think more about the themes.

( On feminism and robots in love. )

I think too much about these things, but hey, I like to pick good stories apart and see why they're moving.

1:49am:

3:31pm: I deleted a bunch of entries from this journal, if anyone's wondering where content went. Just felt the need to clean up my annoying old whining and make my online presence a little more professional. And I'm concerned about professionalism because I'm going to be putting my journalling time into something more productive than bawwwwing about my daily life, yessir, I've started one of those authorly blog things. Hee, the word blog just amuses me, it's all, "OMG NEWFANGLED TECHNOLOGY STUFF".

Fandom stuff and the odd daily babble can still go here, I guess. LJ is once again invited to bite me, once I tie up my loose roleplaying ends.

Oh, and after months of dragging my feet on TWEWY, I'm past Joshua's annoying week. OMG, you guys. Beat is stupid and I love him. XD Possibly because he kinda reminds me of Zell from FF8. Mostly because he's stupid, though.

2:55am: I've been saying for a long time that I need to watch Stranger Than Fiction, the movie about a character who can hear his author narrating his life. So I rented it.

( Vague plot spoilage, if you're worried about that. )

Bottom line, though, it's a movie with a cool premise and lots of great moments, I liked it. Even if it needed a more ruthless writing team.

7:46pm: I got all prettied up for work, went in, and ... boggled everyone because I fail at schedule-reading and I don't work tonight. Sweet, a surprise free evening! What better to do with it than a photo adventure? :D

( Hell yeah randomness! )

Aaaaand while I've got the camera out, I bought a cute Shiki-ish hat today. And my last haircut involved a reference pic of Shiki. Ehh, hmm, where's the closest stuffed animal ...



He's NOT a pig, he's the king of the Koopas.

'Kay, done. I'll be doing stuff for the Wright-A-Thon if anyone needs me. :D

7:01pm: It's horribly late, but it's finally here, guys! My posting of all my awesome Otakon pics! Err, well, some of them, anyway. Better to do this than let it rot away any longer.

( May contain beatings, the fresh scent of lemons, and/or music power. )

8:54pm: [[Scene: Pyra and Dash walk out of the theatre from seeing Kung Fu Panda.]]

Pyra: "*still drinking ginormous movie root beer* Pretty awesome movie."
Dash: "Yeah. Hang on, my foot's asleep."
Pyra: "So, kick something. Oh, hey, know what'd be funny? Putting Redd White in some kinda Red Green parody."
Dash: "THAT'S the first thing you say after the movie?! You don't get a BIRTHDAY this year!"
Pyra: "*choke* Th-- Th-- Th-- Th-- Th-- Th-- ...BWAAAAAAAWWWW!"
Dash: "Redd's not even funny! 'Today we're going to duct tape something together to kill a lawyer with.'"
Pyra: "*hacks, swallows* Why don't I get a birthday?! D:"

3:06am: Got back my Live Long And Marry review. It had some useful input on why people are finding Remedy's beginning boring, so I'm inspired now to tear the beginning apart and rewrite it. I also have another healthy dose of fire to get published and prove to the world that non-humans are capable of depth. No, actually, "no one does that" is not an acceptable argument against the validity of an all-non-human world.

In other writing news, I'm still spending too much freaking time on the PW kinkmeme, and I'm prodding at stuff for the EBA meme. I'm also reeeeeally happy with how my RP Diego's zombie-battling stint went. Killing my darlings shouldn't be this fulfilling! <3

I need to get to bed soon, if I want to use Sunday coffee shop hours for writing instead of sleeping. But ... I also need to cook something with that rhubarb in the fridge. Hmm.

Also identified all the songs from the lyric meme, last entry. If you're into that.

4:08am: Chocobo's Dungeon uses tunes from the Playstation era of FF. Which is awesome. Also, Chocobo himself is so cute he sends me into utter seizures of squealing glee. He rolls into beds! And sits at café tables and drinks tea! And duckpaddles around ponds! And fishes by tying the line to his BUTTfeathers! I'm not playing it, Dash just calls me over once in a while to watch a cutscene (and make his ears bleed from the squeeing, I guess).

I have prodded TWEWY a bit. I just heart Shiki more every time plot stuff happens, or something.

Just felt like putting some actual yappity content here! :3 Now if you'll excuse me, my RP Diego is currently fighting zombies with a golf club, and Dash the golf expert assures me the thing won't last forever. (...Seriously need to make myself some Diego icons.)

6:42am: Hey, y'know what I haven't done since completing Tempo? Have a lyric-spotting party! Or meme, or whatever. (Just so you know, I have to skip past about ten billion Phoenix Wright songs and lyric-free DDR tunes and SNES video game soundtrack delights when I do this. You're wonderful, Fragrance of Dark Coffee, but now is really not the time.)

1) Hit shuffle on your playlist and pick the first thirty songs to come up.
2) Write down a line of the song (try to avoid using one that contains the song title).
3) Have your friends comment and see if they know the songs. (NO CHEATING!)
4) When someone guesses correctly, strike out the line and list the correct name of the song next to it.

( Time's up! Here're the answers. )

3:42pm: Regarding the last case of Trials and Tribulations:

Delcat42 (3:05:08 PM): I'm worried about Maya.
Kalpakatana (3:05:35 PM): She's Maya, she'll be fine.
Delcat42 (3:05:54 PM): What gets me, though, is that it's not a solid door, it's BARS.
Delcat42 (3:06:05 PM): She should be able to yell/whine through.
Delcat42 (3:06:25 PM): And an effort should be made to roll the individual ingredients of a hamburger through the gaps.
Kalpakatana (3:07:01 PM): *snerk* Yeah, but somebody should've called an ambulance for Mia, too.
Delcat42 (3:08:02 PM): I'll bet you aces to assholes the only way she's keeping from succumbing to her hunger is 'round-the-clock EBA intervention.
Kalpakatana (3:08:28 PM): To help her do WHAT, catch bats to eat?
Kalpakatana (3:08:48 PM): Dash offers, "Can't I just walk out through that big hole Chieftain made in the wall?" "NO."
Delcat42 (3:09:14 PM): Like the Material Girl level, only darker and slimier!
Delcat42 (3:09:54 PM): Maya: Hey, boys! (flashes Mia-boobs)
Bats: *FALL DEAD OF AMAZEMENT*
Maya: Too much?
Kalpakatana (3:10:22 PM): Watch where you're pointing those things!
Delcat42 (3:10:33 PM): A two-gun salute!
Kalpakatana (3:11:49 PM): So when Edgeworth stands across from channelled!Mia for a whole case, is that like catching bullets in his teeth?
Delcat42 (3:12:36 PM): If by "bullets", you mean "nipples", then yes.
Kalpakatana (3:12:44 PM): Hot.


In other news, last night I found a baby pigeon that fell out of his nest onto the busy downtown sidewalk. Scooped him into a box, and he died before I could figure out how to feed him or what the hell wildlife-helpingy place is open at ten PM on a Saturday. Sir Pteradactyl of Mini-Pyra-ington rests in peace in a pile of icky alleyway garbage now. Better place. *nod*

Also, frig, I KNEW starting to roleplay would eat my writing time. But the pantsless Diego compels me. And I got a review for Remedy that made me laugh so hard I think I broke my spleen (like "you forgot to mention the word 'dragon' so we know what those dragon things are" type of hilarious).

Bus adventure time, the 'rents are at camp and their cats need foods!

9:10am: I've lost interest in TWEWY for the time being, mostly because Joshua is a douche and I want to punch him in the face every time he talks. Instead, I'm playing a lot of Final Fantasy Tactics. It's a game of masochism for me, because:

A) It's just a hard game, the kind where you're sure the AI is using loaded dice. Either that or the programmers know you touch yourself at night.
B) The disc must be scratched, mine freezes an awful lot.
and C) The plot is the "medieval nobility backstabbing each other over politics" type that I have nothing but contempt and impatience for. The cutscenes are all, "Blah blah Lord Whatever is plotting against Regent Whoever to have Some Noble take over that throne but blah blah blah more names blah blah layers of conspiracy blah blah." and I'm like, "*mash Circle button* Wake me up when I can kill stuff, plz. 9_9"

But hey, dragoon-monks + summoners = win, so I'm happy. I think this second playthrough attempt, Wiegraf might not make chowder out of me.

Just for kicks, I crunched some numbers. I've been in Phoenix Wright fandom for just over a year and in that time, I've written about 120 000 words of fic. For reference, that's the size of a novel that probably needs aggressive editing. Now, To Each A Tempo is about 71 000 words of that. So you could also argue that I've written almost a novel's worth of Elite Beat Agents fanfic, and I'm therefore batshit insane.

Speaking of novel, I aim to have ten thousand words written and typeset by the end of the month. And I've put up the first few chapters on YouWriteOn.com again. Partly to see if my non-humans are aaaaaaadult enough yet, partly because Margaret Atwood's literary agency keeps tabs on that site and hey, dream big.

Wow, I just zoned out there. Maybe I'll take a nap.

12:23am: Dash has gone to his parents' place for the weekend. You know what that means?

Time to party naked!

...Well, okay, I'm washing out the inside of my fridge right now and hopefully I'll type up some of Remedy's handwritten draft pages before I pass out. Only occasional interludes of debauchery, then!

3:10pm: So, with my lappy in for repairs, I've had limited Internet access and no portable word processor. Which is surprisingly good for my novel progress! I just curl up in a booth at the coffee shop with a binder across my knees and write old-school. With ready Internet access, I was easily distracted by researching random plants and name origins and stuff, whereas now I'm just like, "SCREW IT, I'll figure it out later! :D" I'm getting a few front-and-back pages done daily. Writing smutty fic on paper is just weird though, hee.

I'm also enjoying this not-dicking-around-with-Internet-timesinks-for-most-of-my-day thing. I'm well into The World Ends With You and enjoying it quite a bit (and resisting the urge to cosplay Shiki). Also well into Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman, which is about a woman sucked into a sixties "well, guess I'd better get married now, everyone else is" marriage, but I trust Atwood not to let it turn out lame and she isn't disappointing so far.

OH, and you know what you guys should do? Vote in the Court Records Original Character Contest! I entered Chef Cherry LaFlamme from To Each A Tempo, but there are other intriguing characters to check tickyboxes for!

Okay, time to put on pants and go drink coffee and write about weasels!

11:39pm: Gamecubes are redundant when there's a Wii in the house, so I traded that and the crack-I-got-bored-of Animal Crossing. Got fourteen dollars. I ... think trade-in value has gone to utter shit in the last few years, which makes my childhood cry. That was how I rolled as a kid -- one console nobly sacrificed to afford the next one, games rented and binged on instead of bought. Transient, y'know? Gosh, does that ever explain a lot. Um, back to the point, video game trade-in is even stupider because city law forces the local EB Games to check a drivers' licence before accepting trade-ins. ONLY a drivers' licence. No other piece of ID is valid. At least they're not fussy on whose licence it is and they took Dashie's, I was pissed off enough as it was with the hassle needed to make use of my trade-in peanuts.

Aaaaanyway, I've been craving an RPG, so I picked up The World Ends With You. Action RPG, whatever, close enough.

( Early impressions! Get 'em while they're picky! )

Bleeeegh, I hardly got any sleep 'cause Steve had a vet appointment. This vet was filling in for the usual vet and seemed reluctant to say much of anything, but Steve's feeling better with these antibiotics and shots and has another shot in two weeks. My point is that I'm sleepy and it's bedtime. ...I think.

But before I crawl off to bed, check out Brawl Taunts and its sequel More Brawl Taunts, me and Dash have been laughing ourselves stupid over the Pokemon Trainer bit.

1:38am: Is can be Anime North con report time nao! Yaypants!



I'm only a furry at conventions, I swear to god! (Dashnir, on the other hand? Total furfag. All catgirls all the time with this guy. XD)

Right, so I got, like, no sleep Wednesday night 'cause I was struggling to finish the Daryan costume, and I guess that worsened whatever bug was chewing on me already. I had no strength left in the morning and gave up finishing the Daryan hair and BAWWWWW I was gonna let the cosplay group down! Boy, was I ever sick and unhappy on the car ride to Toronto. I was triggering my mom's spidersense that her only child is in peril, I was that pwned. Ghhh. But after checking into the hotel, me and Dash basically took it easy and I finished the cosplay as best I could. And there was sushi dinner and I was okayish again. :D

Once the hairpiece paint was dry on Friday morning, we were in Daryan and Gumshoe cosplay to ... do nothing. Anime North basically doesn't start until Friday evening, WTF. So we sat around in public playing our DSes so I could spring Elite Beat Agents on any stranger who seemed halfway interested. Word of mouth! That's how Ace Attorney did it!

Anyway, the rest of Croik's AN Takeover Army arrived that afternoon, including our party members Gefrierpunkt and Justine. Lots of neat costumes and antics, you guys.

After sufficient wandering around and drawing attention with the Daryan hair, I changed out and my game of choice became Deliverer of Evidence. I'd scamper up to a Lawyer!Phoenix cosplayer, chirp, "Mr. Wright? I'm glad I found you! You'll know what to do with this when the time is right!", give him a random piece of junk (paper clip, plastic cup, spark plug Gef found in the parking lot, etc.), and run off. The best one was where I gave the Phoenix a package of crackers -- Gumshoe!Dash went up to him a few seconds later and was all, "Hey, pal! D'you have anything to eat?" The Phoenix said he didn't (complete with shifty eyes), and I died of giggles.

OMFG speaking of dying, the AJ:AA group was just gathering outside the hotel when someone mentioned seeing an Agent Chieftain cosplayer. I was all, "WHERE?! :D" and chased Chieftain down across a parking lot shrieking a request for permission to glomp. And he braced for impact and caught me and swung me around so my Daryan hair fell off and ... eeeee! XD I'm not sure why Chieftain cosplayers in particular make me such a squealing idiot of a fangirl but eeeee!

On to Saturday morning. *flail* The Ace Attorney photoshoot! This epic freakin' thing in the parking lot lasted almost two hours, and had more goofy choreographed pictures than you could shake an index finger of justice at. Gosh, was the Daryan costume ever fun! Everyone was hypnotized by the phallic hair and compelled to stroke it (which makes it awesome that I only had wig hair painstakingly glued onto the back spikes, leaving most of the length touchable. Hi, gift horse!)

And then folks hung around our hotel room for a bit and I fed everybody waffles (with real Canadian maple syrup WOOOOO), and ... IDK, stuff. I always end up being really lazy at anime cons, I don't bother going to panels or screenings or anything even if they sound cool. It's just geeky Halloween with cool merchandise for me and Dashie. So we have more fanart wallpaper for our apartment now, plus my awesome Bowser plushie. You can't have him 'cause I loves him.

Refound the Phoenix cosplayer who got the Highly Plot Significant spark plug.
Me: "Did you use it when the time was right? :O"
Phoenix: "I ... guess? ^_^;;"

Aaaand we took it easy for Saturday evening. Watched Dashie's Sonic Underground DVDs, wandered and pimped EBA/Ouendan to random strangers, good times. And my mom picked us up on Sunday morning before we got to do anything, but we had fun while we were actually there! I love fandom, especially of the Gyakutard variety.

Pictures? Well, here, have Dashie's photodump. He deleted most of the duplicate photos and that's why you can't see that he took ABOUT A BILLION photos of my leather-clad ass! :Dd We also got prints of most of the Ace Attorney main characters, Spar from Breath of Fire 2 and Aeris getting iStabbed.

And that's our Anime North! I dunno, I'd go again, I guess, and adjust arrival/departure time accordingly because it's a rather different creature from Otakon.

I'm going to be focusing on the novel now. Moreso than the past few weeks, since AN prep was been distracting me. *cleansing sigh* It's time for willpower, Pyres, let's get this thing done.

10:09pm: I saw Iron Man and it is more badass than freaking everything. <3

Also, Dashie's plotting to make a lolcat TCG. Further bulletins as events warrant.

5:05pm: Kinkmeme anon? Yes, you.

You win freaking everything. XD Have an Internet full of porn and waffles. I'm curious as to whether I know you but random mousies are cool, too.

If the prompt-filling author happens to see this, it should go without saying that you win too, buddy.