Jo and I are leaving tomorrow (well, later today, whatever) for NYC. We'll be back Wednesday or Thursday, we haven't quite decided yet (depends largely on how far our money goes). We probably won't have any net access, unless we track down a net cafe somewhere, just because we're planning on staying at a really cheap hostel somewhere. I will, however, have my cellphone with me, and on most of the time, so if anybody wants to get in touch, the number is here (locked post, if you can't see it, I probably don't know you and thus you don't get my cell number, sorry). Will post photos and adventures when we return!

I should totally be asleep right now, as it is five am and I am incredibly tired, but I know if I don't, I won't get around to it later, and it is probably worth posting about. Jo and I went into Boston today, and managed to not get totally lost finding the Riverside station, despite missing the exit at first because we were talking (note to people visiting from outside the area - the Riverside T station is easy to get to, has a huge lot, and ridiculously cheap parking). Headed into Boston on the T with a crowd of Red Sox fans going to a game, and decided to hit the Museum of Science first. We basically stayed until closing, because the exhibit halls are awesome, and while I've seen a lot of it before, it's been a while, and the MoS never gets old.

We left to grab a quick bite to eat at the Cambridgeside Galleria, and then did the requisite throwing of a tea bag into Boston Harbor (okay, the Charles River, but it's close enough, damnit). And yes, there will be photos with a slightly more coherent explanation later. We then headed back to the museum to see an IMAX showing - Greece, which I thought was okay. I'm not so big on the history ones, but it was the best thing showing, and Jo liked it, so it's all good. We opted to explore a little before finding dinner, and wandered through the MIT campus, played super-cheap DDR (and augh, I suck now, I'm so out of practice), and up through Central Square, where we got drinks at the Starbucks.

Then we finally headed up to the North End, and after a little exploring (I'm used to being in Boston with people who know the city better than me, honestly), we found a nice little Italian restaurant, and Jo learned that at real Italian restaurants, the portions are huge. I've known this since about age six, so I had no trouble finishing my pasta (fetticcine alfredo, mmm), but we brought half of her's home. We did a bit more wandering, and discussed a whole bunch of S_F stuff (which may end up deserving it's own post later, because I <3 S_F), and continued discussing it on the T and then in part on the car ride home, among other things.

Then I mostly just played the original RE for a while and came to the conclusion that Chris is a huge idiot, Wesker's voice actor is the only one who isn't a total moron, and nobody can escape the power of Capcom's terrible one-liners.

Someone on my flist posted something that gave me the overwhelming desire to listen to my favorite love songs. Unfortunately, this would probably wake Jo up, and I really should be alseep myself. So instead, I'm going to share them with you all, because I've actually been meaning to for a while. My three all-time favorites:

Vienna Teng - Harbor
Frank Sinatra - The Way You Look Tonight
Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love

And now, off to attempting to sleep.

...Because I have to be up again in eight hours almost entirely so I can get Jo up in time for her job interview, because my clock is the one with the alarm.

We went to see NIN in Hartford Tuesday night, which ended up being really awesome. We had the super-cheap seats (which were actually super-cheap - $25), which I learned are open-air at this venue. This kind of sucked when it started to rain, but ended up being pretty good when it started to thunder, because at that point they let us into the regular seating, which was a lot closer. First opening act sucked (Peaches), second would have been pretty good if they weren't eardrum-splitting loud (Bauhaus). Then NIN started, and I had a surprisingly good time. I'm only a really, really super-casual NIN fan (the tickets were so cheap I couldn't really say no), and even I had a good time - knew, oh, probably about half the songs they played really well, and a handful more sounded vaguely familiar. It probably helped that a lot of the songs were the really well-known ones - I mean, who hasn't heard 'Hurt'? The visual stuff was also really well done, so if I didn't know the song, I just kind of went 'Oooh, pretty colors'.

Today was spent largely playing video games, along with a two am walk, and visiting Grace at work. Not much else. I

...And as always, 'short' ends up being 'long' for me when it comes to posts. And that walk really tired me out, I think, because I'm feeling a bit incoherent.

Jo is here, although her plane was an hour late getting in. I managed not to get lost going to Providence, mostly because Grace and Anthony randomly decided to go with me and thus could look at directions while I drove.

And now it is four am and I am fucking tired, so I'm going to bed. Probably won't be around much for the next two weeks online, although I'll check e-mail and probably LJ at least once a day, because I am a sad nerd.

After giving it some thought, I'm not going to make it to AE this year. I really really want to go, but it's too much for me to spend on top of Yaoicon and Jo coming out, and it means more spent for my parents, as well. Hopefully I'll see a bunch of you at Yaoicon, and if not, I'm fairly certain I'm staying out there for most, if not all, of winter break, so I'll see all of you at some point.

Sorry, guys :\ I was really hoping I could get it all worked out, but the more I look at it, the more I go '...No, I shouldn't spend that much money'. Because it'd be around $400 for me, and probably an extra $100 or so for my mom, because I'd be flying from Boston instead of Toronto. Ugh, stupid money. Ruins my plans XD;

Is it just me, or does Dark Nation look like some sort of strange dog/cat/tentacle monster hybrid? I would assume this to be Hojo's work, except Squall is the only one in FF-verse to know what the hell a lion is, so their fauna can't really judged by normal standards.

Also, this site has some beautiful Rufus fanart (it's under 'LOG'). And before you all start going 'Ew, Rufus/Reno' (I know the way my flist swings when it comes to Rufus pairings by now XD; ) there's some really nice stuff tucked away in there, too, and I say that as a great big Rufus/Tseng shipper. Also has assorted other FF7 guys, but mostly Rufus.

And I found the other half of my pants pattern, which is yay, but now I can't find my favorite pair of pants. Which I was planning on wearing tomorrow. Argh. They may have ended up in Ben's room somehow - I'll check tomorrow.

Big important question time! Who out of my friends is coming to Anime Evolution, and more importantly, which of those coming to AE are not also coming to Yaoicon? I have the possibility of going to AE, but the schedule is kinda bad, because it's two weeks before UBC's move-in day, so I have to pay to stay on campus in between, which is only $25 CDN a night, but it adds up. I'm definately going to Yaoicon, though, so I'll see at least some of you guys there, but I'm trying to decide if AE is worth the extra $300+ it'd be for me to go, and I have to decide in the next two days or so. I can live with the missed cosplay opportunities (I'll just talk people into photoshoots later. And by 'people' I mostly mean Jo, because I need a Leon, damnit), but the people-situation is different.

Also, opinions wanted! Mostly because I think it's a good idea, but it'll only work out if other people think so too.

Yeah, I know, I'm kind of spammy today. Anyway, someone on the little_details comm posted a link to this, and I went 'Dude, that's an awesome idea!'. Except that it seems to mostly be for original characters in original or historical/real world settings. And honestly, where's the fun in limiting it to just that? So what I'm thinking could probably best be summed up as 'penpal RP'. In essence - one of my characters, original or canon, would be a penpal so someone else's character, again original or canon. I think doing them cross-canon would be more fun than within canons, although I may have to instate some basic rules to deal with the multiverse-stuff. E-mail is the easy default for this, although I'm personally willing to do pen and paper with someone I can trust with my address (pen and paper is fun, because you can fool around with handwriting and paper and decorations).

I've done stuff like this before, mostly within my little cosplay group, and it's been lots of fun (I have the best birthday card in the world somewhere, from Cain and Maryweather to Alexis). Soooo. What are other people's thoughts on this? I want opinions here ^^

And while I am at it...*shameless pimping*

Snaps Cup! My thread is here, and I'm replying to everyone that posts on my flist, and a few that aren't. Spread the love!

...of 'Things Cocoa Hates'!
-People who post gigantic images, and then don't warn about them. If your image is bigger than a thousand pictures in both directions...tell me, please. I'm running broadband and that thing is killing my computer. I hate to think of anybody running something older/slower than I am.
-Sketch. I don't care how good he is at props or whatever, his ego needs to be taken out back and shot. It's getting really, really annoying.
-My restlessness. I'm exhausted because I haven't been sleeping well this week, but I know if I try right now I'm going to be staring at the ceiling for three hours.
-Not being able to find the front half of my damned pants pattern. If I had it, I could at least start on Fujin and get something done with my restlessness, but no, it's disappeared off somewhere.
-The fact that people keep saying they're going to post on S_F, and then don't. ARGH. The Midgar thread has been dead since the end of February. Either post, or kill the damned game.

...Yeah, I know, I'm being grumpy and bad-tempered. Comes of working two nights in a row which I don't do often, I think. I'm going to go make a cup of tea and then attempt sleep, and I'll likely be in a better mood tomorrow.

Apparently the Boston Cosplay Picnic was this past Saturday and I didn't know. I am...more annoyed about this than I really should be, possibly because it's almost five am. I went fabric shopping, and bought stuff for Fujin on impulse (both FF8 and KH2 versions, too, because I couldn't make up my mind). Spent more than I probably should have, but they'll be good experimenting costumes because they're both simple enough I'm not going to get really frustrated with the design aspects, and I can play around with some new techniques before using them on bigger projects. Plus, KH2!Fujin's outfit is really cute - will totally wear that outside of cons.

I honestly should have gone to bed hours ago, although I guess it's nice that Asher's got a shiny new default icon - finally managed to get something worthwhile done with that image. Next up is new layouts for various things, either because the current ones have been up forever or because the current ones suck and when I look at them I feel vaugely embarassed they saw the light of day.

Oh, anyone interested in running the S/S fanlisting? I'm not active at all in X fandom any more, and as such, I'm not really interested in running it anymore, but I'm still a little attached and would much rather see it go to someone I know.

EDIT: Also, I have a Reliant K song stuck in my head augh.

So, finished Final Fantasy 8 tonight, just under two years after I first started it (I'm totally serious), so I figured I may as well stuff my babbling about that and my now somewhat overdue babbling about Kingdom Hearts 2 into one post. FF8 first, then KH2.

Read More?

Why do I keep shifting into present-tense when I try to write fic? I think this may be Tseng's fault, as for some reason Midgar-verse stuff works really well in present tense, and I've had a bit of Tseng-fic floating around in my head for a while. Unfortunately, this doesn't work so well for RE crack-threesome fanfic. Claire/Ada/Leon FTW. Also, three-way conversations where nobody can actually see anybody else are hard to write.

And I ate a whole bag of marshmallows, and now I'm really, really awake. And still hungry, too. And while the remixed Axel/Roxas FST is really, really good, I shouldn't be listening to it on repeat, because I've had it stuck in my head all week already.

Apparently the position of Aquatics Director at my pool is cursed or something. We've had five different people now in the three years I've worked there, if you count the one that never actually showed up for the first day on the job. Yeah, Dana resigned, which makes me sad, because he was pretty awesome. So Kelly, previously the Assistant Aquatics Director is taking over - hopefully she'll last a little longer. And...scuba class? You're all nice people, really. But they don't pay me extra to stand around ten minutes after closing while you haul your sorry asses out of the pool. It's not my fault you all came twenty minutes after your class was supposed to start (sadly, there isn't much I can do about this other than glare a lot).

And I'm all twitchy right now, like I should be doing something, but I don't know what. I tried making some new icons for Asher, but my icon-skills feel like massive amounts of suck lately. It probably doesn't help that the original drawing is colored pencil, which looks great on paper, but doesn't scan well, and edits worse, and I am so not hardcore enough to try to CG it.

...Actually, I haven't shared that yet, have I. Here, have Asher being bad-ass with his gigantic Leviathan tattoo. I took photos of myself for references for the pose, and I'm quite happy with how it came out, because I am not incredibly talented in the art department (well, 2D stuff anyway. Give me fabric and I'm good).

And I am weak and apped for Tseng somewhere. And I think I may end up cosplaying KH2!Squall, because I am unable to resist his hotness.

You know you've reached a whole new level of nerdiness when you hook up the little tv right next to the big tv so you can watch X-Files re-runs and play Final Fantasy at the same time. Which I just did for three hours, and wanted to do for another hour (two-part episode, argh!), but staying up until five am watching tv = bad plan. Oh, and I beat KH2, so there will be another post on that later, when it's not twenty past four in the morning.

And much ♥ to Skuld - she knows why.

EDIT: I declare coffee/Asher OTP. Also possibly Jack/everyone, because Jack is like that.

Ew ew ew I want people I hate out of my fandoms now. Mostly because the only way I can go on pretending they don't exist is to avoid the fandom (it's one of several reasons I don't hang out in FMA fandom any more), which I don't like doing.

And I have largely being sitting around on my ass and watching too much late-night tv (Mythbusters and X-Files re-runs, yay!), playing more KH2, and reading Seifer/Squall fic because I haven't yet exhausted the good stuff of that like I have Turks-fic. I also totally need to strand myself with no internet, because I have all this ficcing I want to do, but every time I sit down at the computer to do it I get distracted by the internet. I wish the video card on my old laptop wasn't fried; that would do nicely right now.

And to end this on a non-grumbly note, a huge

Happy Birthday!