I have shiny FMA stuff! Like the 2005 manga calendar! And a Teeny!Taisa (as we have been calling him) plushie. And that awesome huge Roy and Ed poster me and Jo and Marina were oogling at AE. And apparently there's a state alchemist watch in the mail, as well as an FMA artbook of my choice. And I got Godiva hot cocoa (Yeah, bad pun ^^) and an IOU for contacts. I <3 my friends so much.

We also wandered around Boston and had sushi and I bought stuff for other people ^^

A belated happy birthday to Tokyo-Tower, which is two, and has a new layout (it's doing slightly odd things in IE in 1024x768 in the non-pop version, I'm working on it), and a new layout here, which is a redone version of my New Year's layout two years ago ^^

I'd post photos from my new camera...but I'm kind of dead tired right now ^^; I'll do a big photo post when I get home from New Year's stuff Saturday - will be gone until then, although I'll probably log on and check e-mail and stuff.

<3 all you guys, happy New Year ^^

Safe, tired, have shiny new camera, but also had one of those days where it feels like everybody else is having fun without you. I'm going to sleep, just wanted to let people know I'm back.

Last post from the South, we're leaving here at six am tomorrow for our flight home. I'm secretly rather glad, because I can't sleep well in this house, all the blankets are too small, and I feel really out of my element down here - I'm not good in places without trees. Real trees, I mean, palms don't count. Anyway. Found Roy gloves for $7 total on E-bay, so I just went ahead and bought 'em ^^ Other than that, not much going on. Talk to everybody when I'm home in the good ol' North.

Yep, we watched the first Star Wars movie today, and damn, do I still love the original trilogy ^^ Perhaps I'll break out the second and third tomorrow - RotJ will be mentally dissected, costume-wise, because nobody it seems has shots of Han Solo's outfit there online, and that's the one I'm doing. Also did card-making stuff today, I like how they came out ^^

Because everybody else is doing it, I have to sparkle over my presents ^^ I have the Star Wars DVD boxset! Squee! Which I am, of course, more than happy to share with anyone who comes over ^^ I have pants! Pretty much all the same cut, but they fit. And a black men's button down ^^ I think Roy is infecting my wardrobe - I'm wearing a pair of the black pants (boot-cut, somewhat low-rise) with the shirt tucked, the sleeves rolled up to about my elbows, and the first two buttons undone. And damn, do I look fine ^^

Also got a nice blue hooded sweatshirt, which is plenty big and soft on the inside, which I needed, and cute cat pyjamas. Which trusting me, I'll almost never wear ^^; But they're cute.

And, in the internet world, I got this shiny shiny tasty Hughes/Roy icon from and someone gave me an unintentional gift by providing a copy of Ken and Daisuke's Shopping Carol, which I've been looking for for a while now ^^

So much love and hugs to everyone! <3 you all

...As it is past midnight here on the east coast ^^ Not much more to say, other than lots of love for all you guys, and people who I have phone numbers for will probably get random phone calls the 26th <3

Made it safely, remembered why I hate traveling with my mother - so disorganized >< Have internet, albeit on severely laggy computer, will probably not be on anytime other than at night. Found cellphone, only to leave it and my wallet at home while my mom was bitching at us to hurry up. Had okay Spanish food for dinner with really excellent cheesecake for dessert - chocolate swirl with Amaretto raspberry sauce...sooo...goood.

Um. I was going to say something else, but I'm too tired. Will sleep now and possibly post more after shopping tomorrow.

Leaving for Florida in the morning, may or may not post from there - I have no idea what my grandparents' internet access is like right now or if anybody will permit me to use it. May or may not have my cellphone with me, I want to bring it but I can't find it because Someone moved it. 'Someone' here either being my mother or one of my friends, because I know I left it on a counter in the kitchen Friday, so it was whoever cleaned up.

Don't particularly want to go, as I have way too fucking much to do here, and I don't want to listen to my grandfather's conservative political bullshit, but I wasn't really given a choice. Back on the 28th if nothing else.

(Also, on a slightly more cheerful note, Star Trek = love. Geeky love, but love none the less.)

Quick update-thingy, which knowing me will spiral wildly out of hand. People (by which I mean Claudia, Mara, Yuumei, and Michelle) came over this weekend, and we cooked and watched FMA and went outside in fancy all-black and probably scared people at the supermarket - although, I was probably actually one of the worst ones, in full suit, vest, tie, and fedora ^^ Yes. I have a hat for Roy now, yay. Which means just the gloves, a non-fugly haircut (mine is too long right now and I hate hate hate it ><), and make-up stuff. As Roy is vaguely asian and I am so not.

There was also ear-nibbling and singing - I know all of Roy's part to his and Riza's duet, and Claudia knows all of Riza's, because we are dorks. I think it has been stuck in everybody's head for the last three days now, and possibly spreading - apparently Michelle has been tormenting her family with it.

And my mother keeps yelling at me for not having my liscense yet, and for not working on my research project, which pisses me off because I am on vacation, and haven't even been able to sleep past noon yet, because people keep waking me up and making me do things. Occasionally they are nice things, but yesterday it was the dentist, and I have another cavity, which my mother yelled at me for as well.

Also, holiday/Christmas cards and presents are going to be late because I am a Bad Person, and school has been making everything enjoyable sneak up to me in the worst ways possible and I have nothing done. Life bites sometimes. I'm going to sleep now because this is getting horribly disjointed and rambly.

...Mostly because I'm too sleepy to write much more ^^;

Have hat for cosplay, it looks nice, my hair is all gel-filled as a result (It's too long, I was trying to make it look vaguely Roy-like to try the whole thing on). I am largely pleased.

I was also showing Michelle some of the Japanese eps of FMA that I had on my computer, and noticed that in 15, Marco says the Ishbal war happened 13 years ago. What does this have to do with Roy? The realization that Roy was _really_ young during that war. The manga at least puts his present-day age at 29, which most people seem to accept as anime-canon too. Thirteen years would put him at sixteen, if you give a year or two of fighting before the state alchemists are called in, eighteen. Which made me go '...Wow.' Although, it does explain a few questions I had about his motivations for some things.

As for the character file...I <3 it, although it is definately crack XD It starts off with a song that sounds a lot like some of Sei's character songs from the TB soundtracks. As in, wonderfully cheesy 80's pop that grows on you so much XD And then there's the sort of 60's-ish piece that I don't really know what's going on in, but it's not bad. And then...then there is the Roy/Riza swing duet XD Which I am in love with, even if I'm kind of 'Eh' on Riza's singing voice (it's growning on me). But now Roy is totally going to be associated with Sinatra and stuff in my brain. Which isn't nessecerially a bad thing ^^

And totally randomly, Michelle and I were also rewatching dub ep 5, and Travis wins (Winz XD?) for the annoyed, 'I am thirty seconds away from setting you on fire' Roy. Because it was so perfect, and made me laugh, and then later attempt to imitate it to Michelle before she had seen ep 5, just to share how much I loved it ^^

And now, Night Watch and sleep ^^

Mostly because I'd hate to end the day with that last grumpy post ^^

Things cheered up after the oral presentations, which I actually did fairly well on - only missed one thing, which Becca noticed and asked a question about so I could talk about it ^^ Also came home to find a wonderful Christmas card from Skuld which made me happy, especially because it had cute chibi Sephiroth/Cloud doujin stationary in it too ^^ And then got to say hello to Jesse, who is enjoying much nicer weather than I am up in Canada ^^

Then I lazed around and Claudia and I discussed Riza's boobs XD All in all, a good afternoon.

Got ten hours of sleep last night, but am still tired. This displeases me. However, Michelle brought in her little Roy figure, so I've been alternating between petting it and shaking my fist at it and accusing it for things. All I've had to eat today as sugar, that's probably the best explanation for this.

Also, Hyungjoon, our wonderfully sarcastic class VP, laid the verbal smackdown on Volfson yesterday. He was doing a math presentation, and trying to sound all superior about how he was 'teaching us a lesson' because he made a mistake that nobody caught but my math teacher. Hyungjoon raised his hand and said 'Look around, and ask us if we care.' It was beautiful, especially because it was what everybody was thinking.

Bah. School bites. I have to give an oral presentation on my Research Sem project in half an hour. Grr. *wanders off to go look at shiny things for the last ten minutes of study*

I've been sort of switching between feeling accomplished and proud of myself, and utterly worthless this weekend, and it's getting annoying, which is why I'm going to bed after writing this, even though I've only been up for six hours. I blame Research Sem, I think. And possibly the fact that I haven't done any of my Christmas shopping yet or cards or _anything_ ^^;

However, at least two or three people have bugged me to do that wishlist meme, so here, I give in, you people win ^^ There may or may not be more than ten, I'm not counting.

Read More?

I've more or less spent nearly the last four hours working on physics homework. And I'm still not done. Half of my answers are different from the book, and I don't know why, and I don't get centripedal acceleration at all, and our teachers never explain anything. I'm frustrated to the point where I'd like to set my book on fire and laugh maniacally or something, but it's a hunrdred dollar textbook, and thus I'm sure my mom would be less than pleased. Physics is a tool of evil, and not the good kind of evil at that.

*deep breath* Okay, calming down now. Had two minor amusesments on the way out of school today. One was being snarky with Michelle at Alex Volfsson, who is pretty much a living definition of 'whiney bitch', even if he's a guy. He wanted a ride up to the main campus with us, Michelle finally conceded mostly to get him to shut up, I think. I also had my brain slip into vaguely formal mode when the director (No, not principal - we've got one of those, he's annoying. I have no idea what Mr. Salvatelli's job actually entails) of the math/sci program I'm in asked if Michelle and I were leaving - I think my exact responce was '...It is noon, is it not?', which is totally unlike something I'd usually say unless I was intentionally being more formal. It was odd, but it amused me.

Anyway. Had a fairly nice evening last night, other than the fact that I couldn't fall asleep and thus stayed up until one am working on layout stuff instead. Which means that hopefully my poor domain will finally have a new layout ^^; Also talked to Jesse, who it turns out is very cool, for a while.

And, damn, there was something else interesting I wanted to talk about, but now I can't remember it. Oh well. I think I may go play video games or do something that doesn't have to with rotational motion or Kepler's Laws for a while.

Have been assured that I'm not actually failing Research Sem, as apparently you really have to do nothing to fail, so on top of getting a full eight hours of sleep last night, I'm actually having a fairly good day so far, even if the weather left us with a sad, sad excuse for snow.

As far as episode five of the FMA dub goes, I continue to be fairly pleased. Hawkeye was spot-on, although there was a minor subtitling error (and yes, that's confirmed to be an error, they're officially using Riza, not Liza), Travis did an excellent job with Roy, although some of the script lines in the conversation between him and Ed made me cringe a little, and apparently Falman's first name is Vato, which amuses me way too much. The only one I was kind of 'Ehhh' on was Hughes, although I think he may just have to grow on me, and possibly be a little more spastic - Hughes is one of the more distinctive voices in the original. We'll see next episdoe, I suppose.

Anyway, not much going on other than that. We got a tree that hasn't been decorated, I had a strange dream with dub!Hughes in it last night, I have an FMA marathon planned for the weekend after next. More ego-boosts to come later, but for now, she is the greatest Hawkeye EVAR (*poke* ^^)

Yes, I've managed to drag myself away from FMA for long enough to post ^^ School still bites, physics tries to own my soul, I'm probably failing Research Sem right now, and while I <3 my precalc teacher so much, I'm not doing so well in his class too. We also have our first person heading back to their sending school - Cronin couldn't handle it, and is leaving sometime this week. I've taken the stance that yeah, I may fail half my classes, but I refuse to give up. I love my stubborn streak ^^

And now, for the weekly cosplay update ^^ I got my Yuna-sleeves finished off last week - just need to add the beads to the end of the ties. They look good, but if my arms get any more muscular, they're not going to fit any more, because I accidently made them just a touch too tight. Next up for that costume - the dreaded obi. I also got my vest for Roy finished, and it looks really awesome if you ignore the slightly messy buttonholes. I even got the fit right first-try, which I'm rather proud of. Michelle and I went out shopping today, so I also got a very nice deep red tie for it - 100% silk for $10, no less.

Which leads me to my next ramble, which is mostly How Cool My FMA Group is Going To Be ^^ Which is, of course, very cool. So far we have me as Roy, Mara as Ed, Claudia as Hawkeye, Mel as Hughes, Winter as Winry, and Michelle as Lust ^^ And damn, does everyone fit their parts so neatly - right down to the heights and personalities, even, except me who's an inch and a half too tall for Roy, and Mara, who isn't quite angry and guilt-ridden enough for Ed (Which, uh, isn't a bad thing - Ed has Issues o.o). I can just imagine the way the interactions will play out at cons, this is going to be so much fun ^^ The costumes will probably kill me too, as I'm the most neurotic one and also the designated Person Who Builds Things for our group, but I love the looks of the uniforms so much, it'll be worth it. I may also Ross at some point, because I kind of liked her and Claudia want to do some fun girl-on-girl photo stuff. Plus, women with guns = yay!

And hopefully now that I have that squeeing out of my system, I'll stop talking about it all the damn time, and cracking short jokes at Marina's expense XD;; (I'm sorry, really <3) I could ramble for even longer about fandom stuff, but this post is already reaching essay-length, so I'll save those for another day ^^