Credits: refuted

I plan to add on a little more to my Nano before bed, work a little bit on my sewing, and then bed. But first this entry and a shower, yes, both of those are important. Well, the entry not so much since I didn't do much today but I did shoot hoops again and I'm sore. Did it for another 40 minutes and was thinking, ah, didn't work out as much, not sore. But then a few hours later I was like, opps, yeah, soooorrreeee. Gonna build muscle this way, I'd better! Just gotta remember to stretch afterwards as well to regain my flexibility, and to not buy cheetos again because I seriously can't stop eating those. X(
Okay, showered now and am just going to try and finish up a bit more of my NaNo. Going to make myself hit the end of the chapter because that means that I can finally start writing new stuff tomorrow and I love writing new stuff it turns out. I just like world building way too much to be normal so I love that for my first story I choose to just have my character running around one of the countries in my (main) alternative world. A little worried about the flow of the story but since the main thing disrupting the flow is all the explanations for how the world works (and, if this all works out, these will just be vote incentives on TWC that I draw up with my tablet, note to self, remember to bring the dang thing up so I can practice) so I'll cut them out anyway. And since explanations/scenery porn fill up the word count I have to add them in. XD Okay, back to work, signing off!

Hahaha... yesterday went to Anime Hanabi Day 1. Didn't cos lol... despite actually, if I had searched meticulously enough... I could have cosplayed. XDDDD Since I really thought I lost that hair clip but it didn't! Sorry Gyp XD I guess I owe pipol who never seen me in that costume aside from those at last year's Cosfest as well as 'Con Besar' Kakakakakakaa. (But then if I did, I probably won't show the others that Ixacise routine Hahahahaha~ I'll hahahaha 'dread' CF later XDDD)

Today going there again... helping some people. Can't remember dy how much I recycled Ryuuta. LOL. I need some new shirts that I can use for Ryuuta as well as Otoya, Kagami, Wataru, coughTendoucough, KenzakiLOL!, Ryunosuke...

Closet FTW~

Poland... where do I even begin? I hate starting from the beginning when my life now revolves around something else, so I will just skip what's been happening the last few days (in brief: recovering from cold, recovering from the 12 hr time diff, slowly figuring out the fact that I really need to get proper food and finding out HOW, preferably with least effort, and lots of non-nanoing and non-thinking moments where I'm just trying to absorb my new existence). There.

Okay, so... today.

I woke up and had nothing to do the whole morning, or so I think, so I bummed around on the internet, did nothing, and half-effortedly tried to figure out those trams/buses schedules and routes (mostly failing). Then, my, uh, sort of manager-person (the one who essentially recruited, organized and got me here) came and I had her explain the basic routes. Then we did a lot of walking (I am in Szczecin, which appears to require a lot of walking, not sure about the rest of Poland) and KINDA learnt some of the bus stops... although unfortunately, it appears that not all of the bus stops for going OUT to places are the same for going BACK, so I will probably have, and kinda did have today, a problem with getting BACK to my flat.

(Oh yes. I am renting a room at a flat, as it turns out. My 'neighbours'/'flatmates' are two quite friendly men and one Polish girl who gets back tomorrow, but who I haven't met yet.)

Okay, so me and said friend-manager went about half of the route when she says she had to go, and I was to take the tram the rest of the way myself. And I was thinking, 'ohhh noooo there could be just SO many things wrong with this' the whole time (not just getting off the wrong stop or even getting on the wrong bus or the wrong direction and ending up... somewhere). Anyways, luckily, it turned out okay. Although I stopped by to get something to eat at this Galaxy mall place, and had one of my first major culture shocks... aka the stress of ordering food. (Because it was 2.30pm and I still hadn't had lunch). And then second stress was finding a place to sit, because I didn't know how to say 'takeaway' in Polish so I had just heavy, vulnerable-to-being-dropped plate with fried I-don't-know-what things on it. And the food court was absolutely PACKED, which made it just that more overwhelming because I wouldn't have minded sitting in a corner to eat by myself except I couldn't find a corner. Eventually, shooting confused/hesitant looks at people, I sat down in a seat on one of the tables (tbh, even now I have no idea if the seat was actually free or I had just sat down and the young man was too shy/polite/Englishless to tell me to go away). And then I had to rush-eat because I had to meet someone at 3pm (while man is joined by his friend, and they're having conversations in Polish while I just looked at the wall trying to act invisible) and ate about half of what I ordered, which wasn't even very much. And then I was confused about what to do with the (still half-full with food) plate. And right when I had pulled up some courage to ask the nice boys next to me, they got up, said "Do widzenia" (goodbye) quite politely and left. And I was like.. arghhh... And then this lady who was about to sit down (did I mention this place is PACKED? It was only later that I found out people eat dinner here at 3-5pm) sort of gestured at the bin with a few stray McDonald's tray so I headed there. I suppose I didn't really have to care so much about the damn plate (WTF? It's not like I've never been to a foodcourt before...) but then I felt a bit hesitant because I was holding a really nice, proper plate, and I didn't know if I should be dumping it with the McDonald's crap when I couldn't see any other of the nice plates being put there. And so I tried asking, I tried to say "Prosze" (excuse me) about seven times, and either I was too quiet, or I was being completely ignored. Though eventually, I was gestured to just dump the plate there, then interrupted by some other random staff (who must've been telling me off for something in Polish, god knows), and then when she left, that same lady shook her head and just gestured for me to leave the plate there. Anyways, arghhh. So that was a vague resemblance of lunch.

(Dinner? Bread and apple and water. OMZG. it sounds even more hermit-y when I put it this way. It's nice bread, I assure you. With cheese on top. i didn't even finish it, actually. And... you know... apples are really cool. And well... water is what i have the most of in my room? Also what I need most? OH! I just remembered. I also had a crazy lemon-orange Indonesian drink today. It was a hot drink, super-sour (good for my throat, me thinks!) with some sugar, and it came to me in a glass with a piece of orange balanced like a lid on the cup, and little white blocks of something (I still have no idea what it was, wax maybe? It could very well have been marshmellows, but I erred on the safe side and didn't taste it) on top of that piece of orange, which was BURNING this crazy high flame on top of the glass. Basically, we watched the flame die out, before I could actually have my drink. Anyways, THAT was awesome. ...Although now as I write this, I'm now also thinking and hoping that bits of small/disgusting/brown-black stuff in the drink, were NOT remnants of a candle. Yes, I bit it and took it out of my mouth.)

Also, I think today, I finally became more aware of people... staring. It's like... wow. How do you respond to that? Stare back? Pretend you didn't notice them staring? Dress in cosplay and sing a song? (I opted for pretending...) I mean, this is like the third day (or second day and third night) but before, I had one or two other friends around me, who talked to me in English and who didn't make me feel all different to them. Except by myself, AND if I'm lost or unsure of where I'm going etc, it can make me feel kinda... anxious...

Gah. Culture shock for you, I guess. That aside, I'm sure it'll get better when I a.) pick up better survival Polish, b.) feel better about stuff like eating out and transport.

Sooo... all that aside, I did have fun. The people looking after me (all uni students) here are incredibly nice, friendly, and much better in English than I will ever be in Polish. They showed me around some lovely places in Szczecin, were humble in terms of 'of all the places you could've gone to, why Poland? why choose Szczecin? etcetc'-- my answer: Poland sounded so AWESOME! Although I think I couldn't communicate my reasons as effectively as I could've.) After taking me touring (restoration of a castle from the middle ages! AWESOME COLOURFUL HOUSES EVERYWHERE!)

And then I had another crazy moment because neither of my tour-guide buddies knew WHERE I lived, so I, uh, was dropped off at this station, where I somehow caught the bus home (WITH MUCH INITIAL CONFUSION, BECAUSE I HAD NO IDEA WHERE TO FIND THE BUS GOING IN THE REVERSE DIRECTION... So I took the long-but-not-actually-too-long circle home.). I did try to call my manager-person-friend, and then three minutes in the phone call, my SIM card ran out of money (I THINK... don't read Polish D:)... already... *shakes head* It could've been a real emergency, lol...

Oh yes. I finally got home (found my way! yay!) and then what happens. I can't freaking get inside my flat. There is something wrong with either a.) my key-turning, doorknob-pushing abilities, or b.) it is a really crap old door with really crap keys. Will you believe it, I STRUGGLED with that door (my fingers began to smell metallic) for about an hour. In the near-dark. Making rattling key noises on the door. Pulling and pushing the door. Using my cellphone light to try and see the keyhole (not that it helped work out what was wrong). Until a passerby going up the stairs saw my struggle and kindly helped out. WHY IS IT THAT DOORS DONT OPEN FOR ME?!?! This happened yesterday as well, where both me and another buddy could not get the freaking door open. I don't know how we got there in the end, how it happened, or how it hadnt happened... pure coincidence.

I do think this is a rather complaint-filled, unnecessarily melodramatic blog (I mean, it's not THAT hard to eat food etc) but I guess this shows you how I am adjusting so far. Fairly well and quickly, considering, I hope. I mean, I got here on Thursday night and on Saturday I ride a tram, a bus, AND explore a mall in central, all by myself? And I managed to get home? I am freaking awesome. (Now, if only I familiarise myself with those bus schedules so I can actually work out what time I need to do things...)

Random thing of note: I have a really pretty bus ticket photo ID. I have no idea how it happened, but it can't have just been me because even my mum commented on it when I waved it over webcam. xD;;; Yeah, well, I was surprised to look somewhat pretty, I guess. *feels very proud of it* I would post a picture, but lately, I'm suspecting that I left my Camera-to-Computer cord back in NZ. (Gah. Last minute packing for you.)

One other comment, it's still autumn here so not that cold. Feels a bit like NZ winter actually, if not Auckland then sort of Wellington/South-Island-ish. Cold but in a wonderfully fresh way. One other thing I am still trying to get used to is the fact that it's so DARK by, what 4.30pm. I keep thinking it's really late, or it's dinner time, or I'm really tired. (Although now, it is actually 12am...)

I will be public transporting myself to the kindy on my own to start work on Monday, have to somehow get up and arrive by 8am in the morning, I hope a.) I don't get freaking lost, b.) I don't freaking freak out and/or screw up 'on the job', c.) I will find my way home (damnit, some bus stops are apparently in different places depending on which direction you're going). I know definitely the route THERE (in map-theory), but I will be wandering around the streets to find the stops that will take me BACK. And I know i'll be getting up extra-extra early, because I can't read/follow/work-out schedules and times to save my life.

Veeery long blog, but I guess this makes up for all those times I HAVEN"T been blogging?

Since the weather was so nice today (and apparently this is still "below average" temperatures, dang November is nice in the south!) I finally got my basketball re-inflated but I had to walk to the gym closest to me (which is half way up THE STEEPEST hill on campus, no comparison, my legs started aching by the time I got up there) but since they didn't have the right pins for it I had to walk back across campus to the Rec Center (also on top of a hill but not so big, seems to be a rule that the gyms have to be in hard to reach places, the women's gym is on the third floor of the student union as well anyway) and they were able to blow it up. Then walked back to the dorm, played a bit of horse with some guys since they were already shooting on the hoop (I lost first but did a lot better than I thought I would after not touching a basketball in three years) and then did some free throws. I had forgotten how nice it is to simply dribble around and shooting, very active and fairly calming. I actually wonder how good I would be at sports these days, I was decent back in middle school and haven't played anything since so my reflexes are better at least. Plus I've been getting into, at least slightly, better shape with all the walking I have to do. So I'll probably shoot hoops again tomorrow and try to do it most days where the weather is good again. Plus I'll try to get in the habit of going to the gym in the winter, maybe I can figure out how to work a treadmill, need sweatpants though, and shorts that aren't ones I've outgrown....
Other than that and laundry I've done almost nothing today, I saw District 9 (which was alright, the plot still followed the typical story line but a bit more convoluted but it was better than some of the movies I've seen recently) with the gang tonight so that threw off my sense of time (that and the coke, really can't drink that stuff after 5:30....) so I haven't even worked on my NaNo, guess I'll marathon that, my English paper and sewing tomorrow. Could work, got enough Project Runway to bribe myself with anyway and I'm still just filling in details to the NaNo. Gonna need to churn out 3000 or 4000 words though, scenery porn time!
Yawn, signing off, gonna go to bed in a few minutes, zzzz......

I MARCH FORWARD!!

Yes I do.

I stayed up til' 3am last night (this morning) working on a math portfolio. I've never stayed up til' that time of the... morning before. >.> I'm dead tired now actually, so after this entry, I'm gonna go get myself some sleep. I'm so glad it's Saturday tomorrow.

Anyway, the work is still coming at me like mad, but I can deal with it. I'm just here to say that I kinda miss my long hair. XD

I was looking through a few of my own photos when I realised that, damn, my hair used to be kinda long. XD



Well, now it's much shorter. I know I showed you guys some photos before, but those were IMO pretty bad shots of what the hair is *supposed* to look like before... I sleep and wake up and it messes up for the rest of the day... which is... um, no time of the day. Well:



This photo was taken right after I got out of the hairdresser's one month ago. It actually looked decent back then. XD I just can't (be bothered to) get it right again these days.

Anyway, that's all for now. Feeling kinda sleepy, shall retire and sleep til' noon!!

 It's over. My most dreaded period of open book exams is over. Now for the final take home exam then i'm done for this semester.

I went into my crim exam with 3 hrs of sleep today and obtained a headache half way. However, i still managed to finish half an hour early. =) The test was straightforward yet hard. Got very frustrated at trying to find defences for these drug offenders. I think i screwed that question up. Oh and i "told" one of them that he was charged with trafficking when in actual fact i had no idea what the federal police was going to charge him with. =/ Am annoyed at how i spent a few hours yesterday typing up property offences notes and there were no questions on it. =/ Same goes to complicity. =/ 

Contracts was a lot easier than i thought. I had fun thinking up arguments and way to get the client out of their dud deals. However, throughout the exam i managed to forget the parties names, so instead of writing Pete i wrote Peter and another party, Mavis i kept wrote Mervis. So yeah, there's four parties in that answer instead of two . Hmmm

And as for LAS, our teacher basically gave us the issues and all we needed to do was to write about them. LOL

Now for my 3, 1000 word essays. *sigh* I hate essays.

Between headaches from the weather fronts moving in (seriously, how does a few hundred miles away hurricane give me an incurable headache?!?) and the following wet weather in general (blah, lethargic) I haven't done much writing at all over the past few days. Behind on the NaNo as well by a few thousand words, I plan to bribe myself tonight with the promise of Project Runway afterwards (and sewing but Project Runway is more of a reward, especially when the sewing in question is a pleated skirt).
Sooo, what did I do, Sunday I was just tired with paper writing and got outside since it was such a nice day. Did a bit of exploring around Boone with Olivia, managed to find the library on my first try with only a vague memory of seeing a library sign when my mom and I got turned around two years ago, yay me? But alas the library wasn't open on Sundays (I went in the afternoon thinking it was our best bet but nope, this is the south after all) and Olivia and I once again tried to find the cemetery. Still haven't found it and now I want to find it just so I can say we finally succeeded, may just go to Google maps now and get a overhead layout of the town....
On Monday it started to cool down and I had such a bad headache that I turned in early. I had two excederians to no effect and by the time four hours was up (I'm always super careful not to OD) it was too close to bed for me to risk taking what was essentially half a caffeine pill shot. I suspected it might be a weather system moving in since the pain was not going away but I wasn't able to confirm that until Tuesday morning when I woke up and discovered that the world was wet.
Aside from the Monday was pretty awesome. I was walking from health class to JCC when I saw a normal looking guy pop up from a manhole, turn around, and help a second normally dressed guy out. Sooo random, gonna check out that manhole the next time I walk by just so I can wonder some more what they were doing. And after JCC I was walking across Sanford and I saw a group of people and four of these people were running in a circle with a wide swath of cloth around them while yelling "RUN FASTER!" It reminded me of those elastic resistance bands we learned to use back in 8th grade P.E. It was all quite random and made my life feel suitably average. XD Knitting club was fun too, since one of the ear warmers I had my eye on didn't sell during the sale the club president (who made it) just let me keep it and I've been wearing it for the past few days since I don't really have any other hats to wear. Worked on knitting my scarf and man I forgot just how tedious scarf knitting can be, I'll probably try to start another project around Thanksgiving as well to keep me from getting too bored (actually found a hat pattern in the style I wanted, with a few adjustments, plus it uses the same sized needles I already have).
Tuesday started way to early for me, like, a bit before 2 am early. I had gone to bed around 10:30 since my head was hurting so much and my roomie went to bed not long after so it wasn't like I had just drifted off to sleep. But my crazy-ass neighbors were running around and yelling so loudly that I woke up (and was in a seriously bad mood since the headache wasn't going away, something about "I will cut those bitches five ways from Sunday"). Plus my roomie, whose an even heavier sleeper than me woke up as well, add that to the fact that we were probably both in deep sleep you can get an idea of how loud they were. Took me awhile to get back to sleep and when my roomies alarm went off around 7 I actually jolted awake and threw myself into an upright sitting position. I was so tired, plus the fact that I hadn't done any of the readings for English, that I just reset my alarm for an hour later and went back to bed. The extra hour really helped my head, my headache was essentially gone when I left for Global themes.
Anime club was interesting that night. Our theme for the week was "anime set outside of Japan/Asia" and since I had just loaned out Princess Tutu and wanted to save Eureka 7 for giant robot night I had nothing to bring. Apparently no one else did either so we ended up watching our last resort, this movie based on one of the Resident Evil video games (with TONS of previews) and, since it didn't have a Japanese language track, we also ended up watching it in Thai. XD Oh boy, we made no pretense of trying to watch the movie, mock as much as you like and we probably set a new record for innuendos, especially in the not subtle category. In fact, the movie was so loud that the group next to us couldn't hear their speaker (apparently he was a quiet man) so one of them came in and nicely asked us to turn down the volume. Shame since it isn't a zombie movie/game if it isn't at top volume, just doesn't feel the same.
Wednesday was wet and yucky. All the wet, dark weather has been making me lethargic and then it got kinda windy on Wednesday as well so I had to put up with that as well. I was still using my umbrella but I felt a little silly about it since it was only a light rain, but it was still heavy enough to mess up my glasses so I needed it. Also got worried about it blowing inside out but it's a pretty sturdy umbrella, it can take a few weakened hurricanes. Got some NaNo writing done (found some awesome pictures of Russia that helped keep me going but I think I need more music again) and was late to health class because my TA again. She's just not that good at explaining things, especially because I seem to be one of the smarter kids in the class while honestly some of this stuff is confusing the heck out of me (if you're a smart kid the teachers don't go step by step, they skip some since the assume you get it, nooooo you don't! well, if you're a wannabe smart kid like me and not an actual genius).
Today, Thursday, has thankfully been drier but the windy is still pretty nippy. Glad for that ear warmer but I'm thinking that I need to sew some fleece to the underside to make it even warmer. Kinda got my English paper reviewed, kinda since we were rushing a little, I had just read 3 pages single spaced with barely a pause, and my group just doesn't focus on a whole lot at once, usually just a few places. Plus we started getting into stylistic differences actually, two of the girls in my group always introduce their sources before they use and cite them while I usually try to work the quotes into the paper and make the authors a non-issue, I want to call attention to my arguments, not the studies that I base my arguments on. Also hard to tell if this is even a research paper, how do you even write an english research paper?
( Friend issues, again )

Exactly 3 months ago (Aug 13th), I had The Case of the Mysterious Yolk. Today, I popped an egg out of its shell to receive this:



Lovely. Now it's the Case of the Mysterious Egg White. Is there a nicer term for "egg whites" anyway?... Off to Wikipedia!

...

... Ahh yes, there we go.

---

So it's now


The Case of the Mysterious
Albumen/Glair/Glaire/Cytoplasm.
In an obvious contrast to the pitiful albumen (how do you pronounce it anyway... ... off to dictionary.com!), the yolk is rather humongo. Perhaps it's considerably of a normal size to most of you out there, but with the size of the eggs I've been eating lately, it seems as if I hit half the jackpot when I cracked this one. Half... or maybe no jackpot after all, considering the insufficient glair to actually make it look like a real sunny-side-up.



... Sigh. Look at me, rambling on and on about an egg.

LOL...

Considering that this chapter was a new one-shot plot in a series of one-shots ficlet, I guess technically it's a new story. So yeah... I did chapter 6 despite chapter 5 is still WIP. I'll go back to Chapter 5 (as well as Chapter 10 -and maybe the Asumu omake- yeah I know... why the hell that I write chapters out of order?) once November's over.

The Faiz arc took MUCH longer than either Kabuto or Hibiki (yeah... I <3chayang<3 this fandom so much) chapters are. 5 K! It felt so long since I manage to write a 5K shots. Glad to know I haven't lost my touch.

Something to do while I go crazy over my main Nano story. See...? It took me so fast to write a fanfic rather than original ones~ But then again, for this particular arc... I had a LOT of background data to write from~ 

That aside.... Hide-away album had been SO INSPIRING~

Aaaaaaa...it's kind of frustrating when I had to hurt my favourite character. XOO
But hurrrrrrrrrrrrrr..... things I do for the sake of plot movement XOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Aaaaa I need a Kiba Icon.........

I've begun to be really amazed by dA, despite my hate for them for very blurred underline of CC and Fair Use Policy, and how you differentiate from them.

Anyhow.

Previously I've stated I want a camera, I've even asked in my Facebook.





But a chat with Preethi reminds me how sexy iMacs are.





Sex. Big sex. I can have technology orgasm if there's one in front of me right now.

But now now. Do I really need it? I'll think about it.

So about another Sexy Babe of Technology: Canon Powershot S/SX series or EOS.
But I haven't really did the research. But it's the quality I really adore.

(Kinda like an unforgettable blog entry by Kenny Sia)

The thing is - which camera is best for me? I want quality... And I want to cam whore.

Oh well. A girl's a girl.
I'll update you with my research.


Updates:

Canon Digital IXUS doesn't look bad. I'm leaning towards Cameras. So, what do you think?

I swear, if I got a camera, I'm doing a 365.

One of those days I spend my lovely evening skipping my beauty sleep and catching up with Yvette.
I wonder why she doesn't call herself Michiru anymore.
We had lunch together as usual and ate at the mamak stall near by.


Times went by.
Skies are going grey, and it's gonna rain.
I caught some pictures of the beautiful sky.



I sometimes wished I have an amazing camera.

It would look so awesome and professional, not to mention getting it up in my art resume.

~-*-*-*-*-~

Oh dear, I miss him so much.
I miss him so much I can melt in his arm when he hugged me.
I can write thousands and thousands of words describing my love for him.
That never ending affection, lust and longing.

I just wish I don't care that much so I can be a bit light about it.
But my heart is heavy.

x-posted @ Explore in Neptune

Yeah I decided to post this part separately.

( fandom etc )


This entry makes me want more time.


EDIT: Oh and. Lol I was going to post pictures wasn't I. Well the ones I took are abandoned in my camera, the ones my aunt took are abandoned on the CD (I haven't looked at them yet myself), so...w/e?

wow i got significantly lower than ppl who also don't speak in class. wth!? i got 0 cp for like 3 weeks!?!? wth?!!? gosh hard work doesn't pay off. i did summaries/the readings every week and yet i get 0 for my effort.

For all who followed this fic, sorry for being late in posting new chapter.

Chapter 14: A Kick and a Drink
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4277046/14/
words: 7133

Status           : WIP
Pairings        : Mikan x Natsume
Summary      : Mikan and Natsume's wedding, how she dreams about it and how he ruins it.
Fiction Rated: T
Genre            : Romance/Humor
Total Words  : 47267

Warning: long chapters.

Here's a link for chapter 122 scans fully translated
http://v1.mangafox.com/page/manga/read/34/gakuen_alice/chapter.95480/page.1/
Just thought it might be useful
PS: It's really good

And here's the summary (sorry if it's a bit long, over 1000 words)
(gakuen alice chapter 122 summary)