Link Ranking

So for the fun of it I have compiled a list of Links, and I will describe them, which game they're from, and rank them least hottest to hottest. Just cause.

But before we begin, if anyone makes a plushie of this I am so buying one. It is a Remlit, and they change based on if it's day or night. And they make the most adorable noises! Like a cat's meow and it's the sort that makes you melt.

My First Sour Dough Hamburger Buns

I used this recipe, and I used the drop-down menu at the top to change the serving size from 8 to 4. Instead of trying to use half an egg I just used a whole one. *shrug* Little extra egginess never hurt anyone. I did not use freshly fed starter as the site I got all my sour dough info from says to use it after it's poofed some, but I realize why it wanted you to use freshly fed starter, it was because you let it sit for two hours. Mine sat for two hours and did nothing. I imagine a freshly fed starter would poof. Honestly I don't think it made much difference as my pictures will show you. I know the recipe talks about kitchen aids and bread makers, but you know what? You don't need all that fancy equipment. I stirred with my hands and I kneeded the dough about 5-7 minutes. Then I broke it into four pieces and shaped into rounds. To be cute for Victor's sake I carved Atari symbols into the tops.

Here they are freshly shaped, topped with peanut oil (cause my butter was hard and I didn't feel like waiting for it to soften up), and sesame seeds.

2 hours later.

I baked them for about 20-22 minutes. The recipe calls for 15-18 but my oven bakes slower than normal ones so I always have to add about 5-8 minutes to any baking time.

Here's one cut open. They rose too tall so next time I'll try making them flatter and shortening their raise time. I actually hadn't meant to let them raise for that long but I was busy playing Skyaward Sword and didn't get to making the hamburger patties till the 1 1/2 hour mark. Otherwise they were perfect.

Christmas

Here is what we got for Christmas. I got the Snape poster, the mythosaur patch, the mythosaur window cling, the Revan book, and the socks. Victor got the Street Fighter IV 3DS game and the Michael Jackson Circu Du Soil or whatever cd. The candy is mostly mine but I suppose Victor can have the mint truffle kisses and some of the 3 Musketeers.

Me! I wore my hair up in a slightly altered version of Torin's Greek-Inspired hairdo. I forgot to get pictures of it as a whole, but basically it's a side-part with three braids done at the front, a knot bun in back, and the leftover hair put into three twirly buns (I did three cause it worked best for me!) and then the three braids I ran around my head and pinned. I put two sparkly pins in. One to hold things in place and the other to hide a messy spot. Since I'd done it in the mirror I was confused about where my part was and spent the whole day showing off my sparkles to people.... which was funny cause I always pointed to the wrong side of my head! I didn't realize the sparkles were on the other side till much later. Also I did eye makeup! A bit of purple. I never really wear makeup much.

Had a good Christmas. I made pancakes with the sour dough starter, and I think they tasted no better than any regular pancake but Victor really liked them. We watched Black Adder's Christmas Carol, then went to go spend time with just about everyone. Emily's back to her old self and I'm happy for it. Her bubble-headedness rubbed off on me for just about the whole day and we had a lot of fun. We ate a good dinner and watched a movie then had dessert and played Uno. It was snowing pretty bad as I went to go home but it never amounted to anything.

PIctures of Bookcases

 Atton on the bed.

Boney plays with the scratching post.

Boney on the couch.

I decided to clean up today. Here's the movies, wii games, gamecube games, choose your own adventure and such, and magazines. After the picture I moved the garbage can and broom and stuff into that corner.There's wii accessories spread across the top shelf.

 

Here's the bookshelves. I have them author's last name A-Z across the top two shelves of the tw bookcases here. And then the taller books are A-Z across the bottom shelf of the two cases. My Harry Potter books are at the end there because I have so many other HP style books like Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages and The Great Snape Debate, and I wanted them all together. I couldn't justify putting them all under Rowling. My Indiana Jones books are all under I for Indiana cause I wanted them together as well. The little tv is for things like the Atari 2600. So far the only other gaming stuff set up are the Wii, N64, and the SNES/NES twin. Though we've only used the Atari and Wii so far.

 

And here's another angle. The shelf on the end goes as such: Top shelf has my Diaries books (Dear America, Dear Canada, and Royal Diaries), then Victor's Naruto books. The middle shelf has a few American Girl history books, and a few medium sized non-fiction books like a boy scouts handbook and a Monopoly book and such, then come some more anime books and various comics such as Peanuts and Far Side. The bottom shelf has all the rest of our non-fiction books. Mainly science and archeology. There's some geology books and historical books (mainly medieval).

Sourdough Starter Update

Pictures behind cut so as not to take up a lot of room on the main page, so...

Skyward Sword

I got to play Zelda Skyward Sword tonight for the first time!!! The non-spoiler review is that I very much like it. There are a few things that are weird. Savepoints, for one. Really? Save-points? Really? *sigh*

I don't like having to point the wiimote at the conversation answer. You know like how someone says "Hey, Link, can you help me with this?" you have to point your wiimote at your answer! I just know I'll mess that up at some point.

Also, any girls hoping for another Twilight Princess-style Link is out of luck cause this Link ranks pretty low in my book. He ranks lower than the OOT Link even. It's his lips. They're just... weird. Squinty-eyes at the corner are weird too but that could be cause they're above the cloud line and the sun glares? Dunno. But he is one ugly Link. Twilight Princess Link is pretty hard to top, though.

On the subject, who gave Zelda bangs? It's weird but not really so horrible. I'm actually kinda used to it now.

I like how they made the bird symbol more relevant and integral. I have the bird + triforce symbol on a tshirt, so that makes me happier cause now it has more meaning.

The wii motion plus is awesome. You know how you can always slice signs? Well when you slice them now they break the way you slice them. If you go diagonally up they break diagonally up then fall apart! Also, the spin attack is sooo much easier than it is in Twilight Princess. In Twilight Princess if I ever did a spin attack it was totally by accident.

I guess I haven't really played long enough to have any real spoilers. I do have one minor one ahead here:

Mia is adorable! The sounds it makes make you want to hug it and love it and give it everything you can! So cute! It was heart wrenching when it turned evil at nighttime (I actually jumped when it turned around and had red eyes and was growling at me) and I had to attack it! I felt horrible as I threw it over the ledge, but it started flying and I felt better.

My new pet

This is my first sour dough starter! 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup wheat flour, topped with plastic wrap secured with a hair tie (for lack of a rubber band). I started this at 9:30 tonight, so tomorrow at 9:30AM I'll be able to see if there's progress. I read that in colder climates it can take a while to get started so if nothing's happened I can wait till 9:30 tomorrow night and see if there's any activity. There should be bubbling, so we'll see. Right now it smells like bread dough. I read that sometimes it can smell pretty bad at first as the microorganisms fight it out to see if yeast gets started growing or not. I call it my pet cause you have to feed it twice a day. eek! You can put it in the fridge once it's stable, though, and feed it once a month. The masking tape is to mark where the level is right now. I wrote "mixed" on it to show when it was first mixed. When I feed it I'll mark that too, so I can track it's growth.

Suck it up, Katie!

So today is Star Wars Day, which I'd always been under the impression was May 4th. It was a year or two ago when this started. Apparently some little girl decided to cash in on being "teased" for liking Star Wars. Somehow this every-day story of a child being picked on for their likes (which happens to, well... everyone at some point) got on the official Star Wars site under the title of something along the lines of "Girls like Star Wars too" or some such. And instead of everyone shrugging and saying, "One or two kids at your school said something vaguely discomfiting? Yeah, that happens, it's life, get over it. If you think this is hard wait till you're an adult!" they said, "Gee, golly, really? How horrid! We must rally behind you and label today Star Wars Day forever more! The day when people world-wide wear Star Wars shirts to show their fandom!" Really? I mean, really? How lame. I could see if the kid's friends wore Star Wars shirts for one day to show their support. But all Star Wars fans everywhere? What about all the other kids who have been picked on for Star Wars related reasons? I bet this is a slap in the face to everyone who didn't get this kind of support, you know, the ones who didn't cash in on it, cause they weren't rich or related to someone important. Which, come on, is really the only reason she got any attention. Seeing as Star Wars has been around for 34 years we have a rather long span of time for kids to have picked on each other, so wouldn't that mean that by now we'd have 365 days of "Star Wars Day"?

I refuse to wear a Star Wars shirt today. Some people might even say that by posting this at all I'm bringing attention to it. But I realized I've never posted my extreme irritation at this.

Picture Time

The cats help us set up the double-stacked bookshelves on December 5th!

The shelf pegs are too big so Victor helped me squeeze them in.

"I can has box now?"

This is the start of the December 6th pictures. The bookcase did not stay like this. At some point I moved the books down to the other shelves and used this one for movies and Wii games, bottom shelf is now for magazines, and the Choose Your Own Adventures there on the second shelf up is still that way.

Christmas tree! The filing cabinet has my sewing patterns in the bottom two drawers and the top one has scissors, needles, fray check, pins, machine feet, and other assorted sewing tools.

Here is how I attached the two bookcases. 

And here is how they are attached to the wall. (this is on top)

Here's the corner by the door where we have the board games.

The outlet sticks too far out so I bought a 3.5" picture frame at the dollar store and tore off the backing. Fits great and looks elegant.

Now these ones are from December 7th. I put a bookcase on top of the tv cabinet.

Boney on Victor's truck.

Atton on Victor's truck.

Taken on December 11th. Boney sometimes puts his paw on his face when he sleeps. To block out light?

Bonecrusher on December 12th.

Boney and Atton.

I attempted to make candy canes but I believe I ran them too hot. They were unmanageable and cooled before I could pull them. So after they dried we chipped them out of my cookie sheets and into this bowl. I did get one reasonably longish half-way twisted stick, but the picture is on my mom's camera. The chips taste good!

This is from today, the 14th. My somewhat cluttered kitchen area. It's a little better now than it was earlier. The bucket has flour in it and it's out cause I made peanut butter cookies last night and braided egg bread today. We have the propane for the stove in that cubby next to the stove behind the dish drainer. To use the stove top we set the stove on the floor. I have cleaners in the cabinet under the stove. The cats adore that cubby next to the cabinet so I'm leaving it empty for now. I have two bookshelves next to the sink stand that I have dishes and cookware on, for now. I'll double stack them at some point and get something larger to put between them and the sink stand.

Bit of an update

I know it's been a while. I wasn't going to post until I had pictures and I keep putting off taking pictures because I want everything to look good first. Well, I'll just post a text update for now and see if I feel like taking progress pictures sometime.

I got bookshelves in and arranged as I did previously post pictures of. But now I've filled them with books, movies, wii games, and cds. I have tall food-stuffs on top of the double-stacked bookshelf (like juice, oils, etc). I have a bookshelf on top of the tv cabinet and has light food in it like Helpers and macaroni and cheese and brownie mix. The stove is now where the water jugs were. I have a little end table in front of the cabinet that has a dish drainer and dish pans on it, as I discovered the sink is too big. I have bookshelves next to that. I think my eventual plan is to get a cabinet thing (not sure what, I don't have anything in mind so I'll have to browse) to put next to the end table so I have a larger counter space and an area to store larger kitchen things. Then I'll double-stack the two bookshelves I have now. I'll have to browse the kitchen space makers and stuff Wal-Mart has to see if anything pops up and says "I'll be usefull!"

After the kitchen is set up I'll bring in my sewing machine and serger and make those curtains I keep saying I'll make

I started repacking things from boxes into crates. So far it's just been misc stuff that was in boxes I unpacked, like shirts and some of my Star Wars vhs sets. And the various Atari 2600s and their controllers. Tomorrow I'll start one of various dishes I won't be needing right now, like these mini-plates I guess are meant for deserts. And the large Halloween cup I have. And a Batman kiddie cup I couldn't pass up a few years ago cause I knew by time I had kids and they were old enough to use it I either wouldn't be able to find it again or it'd be expensive.

I keep meaning to bring in the large tv cause I think I know where to put it but I want to test and see if it fits. Also after the mini-tree we have on the filing cabinet (which is at the end of the line of bookshelves under the window) comes down I'm going to move the bookshelves down and the cabinet over so that it is between the tv cabinet and the bookshelves and we can set the little tv there so Victor can play his Atari.

It is a good feeling to empty out boxes and burn them.

In order to keep the lettuce from freezing we put it in a bag right in front of the door and this is the best I've ever had it keep! I've had it in front of the door since Tuesday and today, Saturday, it doesn't even have a hint of brown on it and it tastes fresh, like we just bought it today! So perhaps when I used to store lettuce in the fridge I was actually killing it? hm.

Also, had a stupid Random Event happen at Neopets and now my Xweetok is a baby! AUGH! Now I have to pay nearly 100,000NP to buy a paintbrush to get her back to normal. I guess if I have to pay a ton of Neopoints for a brush I'll go ahead and see if I want to paint her any other color. She used to be red. Now she's a pink and purple baby, ick. Someone on the Help forums told me I could trade her as baby pets are worth something but I dunno. I don't think I'd really want someone else's pet because they would probably have a stupid name and I don't really have a different kind of pet in mind that would be my "dream pet" that I could trade Lexia away for. I just don't know. It's not like I'd be losing out a lot cause I've been reading books to my Quiggle so it's not like I'd lose a ton of book readings. I just don't know what to do. For now I'm using Bofett (my quiggle) as my main pet and moved Lexia to second. I wonder what people would be willing to trade for her. I don't want to advertise that I would trade her away but I think I am curious about what I'd get for her.

Also, I tried to see the Lunar Eclipse this morning but I guess we were just barely not close enough. I know people in Idaho saw it, but I didn't. Either the moon had passed the horizon or it was too cloudy. I'm guessing it had passed the horizon. It's alright. I tried around 7:50, which was just at the very edge of it anyway.

Walls, Floors, and Furniture.

This picture is from 11/12. A progress shot of Victor laying down floor tiling. 

Here's one from the 13th.

And another.

I got home on the 27th, and the place was trashed. Apparently Victor had decided not to clean or organize at all while I was gone and the house was a total disaster with cans and garbage all over and piles of dirty clothes in random places even though I'd left him laundry soap. I spent all day Monday and some of Tuesday fixing this and yesterday we were able to bring in the book shelves. I still need to find pegs for the shelves, though. While I was gone Victor and Steven brought in the couch which I guess I don't have a picture of. We put it right in front of the stairs. I see I also need a picture of the entrance-way. I put up a coat rack and an end table.

Here is the wall before I put the shelves in.

The shelf on the left is going to be stacked on top of the shelf on the right, I just need to see if I have anything to connect them with to make them stable.Then my sewing cabinet is going to go next to that bit of bookshelf you can see in the very bottom left.

Here are the other shelves.

Here is my old tv cabinet. It will become a part of the kitchen. My plan is to get back three of the brown bookshelves I gave Emily and stack one on top of the tv shelf and put the other two against that wall there in front of the tv cabinet. I'll space them apart a little and hang the sink between them. I will take the top off of one and drop the stove in onto the top shelf. At least this all works out in my mind, I just need to get everything set up and see if it fits.

The hole the tv should sit in is just the perfect size for two water containers! We just need to bring in another one to put next to this one.

Games Master Level 5

So at Neopets Team Brains won. Yay! I got a top level trophy. And I got the extra bonus for completing all the events on the days they were released.

Yesterday's final challenges were easy. They all counted toward each other. It had Faerie Cloud Racers (tron lightcycle racing basically), Spinnacles (a kind of 3-in-a-row color matching game), and Super Hassee Bounce (two characters on a see saw and you bounce each other up to collect points and stuff). And those were on one challenge together. Spinnacles was hard because you have to point-farm, which takes forever. But those three games counted towards the "send scores in 3 different games with a hardness of 4.0 or higher", so I completed that one just by playing the first challenge!

Then it had three games from Shenkuu you had to play and if you played the puzzle ones you beat the other challenge of playing 3 different puzzle games. So those counted towards each other.

Then all the games you played for the entire event counted towards the last one of playing 60 games. So you really didn't have too many extras left to play after all this to get that one.

Easier than last year I think! Course they weren't doing a "Play for AAA to get higher score" or "if you don't want hard scores play for Abigale". This year all the scores to beat were the same and the event was centered on Brains vs Brawn and what kind of game you're better at. If I'd chosen Brawn the GMC would have been so difficult for me and I don't know that I would have won.

Well, the next expected event is the Advent Calender, so that's it for Neopets news on this blog for a while cause, unless I get a really awesome prize, I won't be recording my prizes.

Spacerocked is actually very fun

The GMC was alright. They wanted me to get 1,024 points in Suteks Tomb (offbrand bejewed type game), which is easy as my high score before yesterday was 5,000. Well, yesterday I beat my old high score and got one of 8,000!!! :D

The other games were simple, like Snowmuncher and Piper Panic. But they had Garl's Great Escape on there which was awful. Apparently it's the glitchiest game on Neopets. I struggled but managed. It was very wrist-straining.

Today's games were nice and easy. There was one that wanted me to get 3,000 on a game I'd never gotten more than 600 on. Eek! And today I was only getting scores of, like, 200. But I read a few tips and soon enough I was scoring 9,000. It's actually pretty fun. Spacerocked is what it's called. You shoot a rock out of a slingshot and it can either bounce to a stop, hit a pipe or lava pit and die, hit good guys and green glowing blobs for points, and at the end you can hit a spaceship to pass the level and gain even more points. What I was missing was hitting the boost button when my rocks started to slow down and stop.

Tomorrow is the last day. And so far I'm on the winning team. So yay, I'll probably get a trophy. It depends on what games they throw at us and the scores needed for them.

I'm also glad I didn't join Team Brawn cause they have had some really hard games, and a lot I've never even played before, or only played once.

Been playing games

I haven't posted in a bit but I've been busy with the Games Master Challenge! So far all the scores I've needed have been easy. One day it was 17,000 in Neopian Battlefield Legends, and I never score lower than 125,000. So that was good. But so slow. That game takes, seriously, 20-30 minutes a game. And I had to send score 5 times! So it got to the point where I ended the game early when I got to about 20,000.

And one day was Crises Courier, which I don't really like but for the Daily Dare I had to get 3,500 so the score they wanted of 700 was beyond easy.

Also, I love that they keep throwing Kookia at us for these challenge events. For the Daily Dare you got the score you needed after two levels, for the GMC now you can get the score in half of the first level. Super easy!

Today looks to be a bit of a challenge cause I'm not very good at any of the games I have to do today (though for the Daily Dare I have gotten 2-3 times the scores required of me today) and I haven't even played one of the games ever. So we'll see!

Also, I've been playing Batman: Arkham City. omg if you think Arkham Asylum is fun this is even better! You get to grapple and fly to your heart's content! There's just so much to do and so much to see and so many side missions! Plus you get to play as Catwoman sometimes which is awesome.

I went shopping today. I had printed up a 25% off your entire order coupon and I went for the sales. I got some yarn, cookie cutters, patterns, buttons, thread, and ribbon and it came up to 38 dollars with a savings of 106 dollars!!! So that made me very happy. I got fatigued and hungry in line though. I hadn't eaten since 4:45 this morning and I was in the store between 11 and 12. Bret let me get off early, and I don't care about the loss in hours cause I get a whole day of holiday pay, I'm pretty sure, cause I didn't work last Thanksgiving I think and I got paid for it anyway. Besides, my coupon expired at noon and the savings were well worth the 2 hours and 15 minutes I lost. Cause, think, 106 dollars in savings compared to about 25 dollars lost.

Anyway. I'm tired. And hungry. So I'm going to have some food, read the comics, then work on the GMC, then play more Batman!

Making fun of a video

5 Items That Are Better Old Than New.

This video is supposed to be showing what items are better old than new. It starts off with our host using an electric beater. She's "struggling" with one of the beaters and is supposedly having trouble getting it out. She then easily and simply pulls it out, realizes this, and shoves it back into the mixer before moving her hand away and letting it "fall out" into the bowl. Somehow this is her excuse for using a hand beater. The problem with hand beaters is that generally all you can find are egg beaters which aren't very good for mixing up anything thicker than pancakes or cakes in general. The handles are strenuous to hold on to and make your hands ache.

Next on her list are fans. She says older fans with metal blades work better than fans with plastic ones and that you can find metal blade fans for "30-50 dollars" online, which is "half the price of a new fan". Wait, what? Is she for real? On Amazon alone I just found 6,195 Results when I searched for fans under 25 dollars. Huh. Who in their right mind would pay 60-100 dollars for a fan, old or new?

Then she talks about sewing machines. Yeah, older ones do work well. However, it depends on what you're doing. Some people don't like making buttonholes by hand, others like the ease of a machine stitched button hole (and if you're making clothes to sell it's much faster to let your machine do it). What if you want the various stitches new machines come with? Also her claim is that new Singer sewing machines start at 150 and run up to 500 dollars while old machines can be found for 50-150. So I went to the Singer official site and did a search. I found ten machines under 150 dollars. And, really, it's not fair to use just Singer. You can find Brother machines for 60 dollars brand new and they're actually pretty decent looking, with a bunch of stitches and buttonhole makers.

Then she goes on to talk about furniture. If you happen to find a good deal on something at the thrift store, fine. But I see nothing wrong with buying assembly-required newer furniture. She makes fun of people having to put it together as if it's hard to follow directions. I could put together furniture in my sleep and have been putting it together since I was a child. It's really not hard. All it really requires is the ability to read directions. About the only stability and quality issue I've ever had is the backboard on bookshelves. They're flimsy and not pretty and my only consolation is that they're hidden by whatever's on the shelves so it doesn't matter much. But if you're moving and you need to take it apart a bookshelf's backboard won't stand up to too many reconstructions. Some new furniture looks very nice and you might not even know it was something you had to put together. Really all depends on your taste, if you prefer older style furniture. Or if you're rich you can go to a store and buy these things pre-made.

And then she talks about cast iron cookware where older ones work better. It was my understanding that a cast iron pan needs to be seasoned. Thus older pans are very seasoned and cook very well wheras new ones are, well, unseasoned and therefore impatient cooks won't spend the time necessary with them which leads to the belief that they're not as good, when, in 20 years, these pans that are new today will work as well as the 20-year-old pans of today. At least as far as my understand of cast iron goes.

Audio Equipment is next. Well, gee, I sure hope those audio systems from the 50s and 60s can play my cds.... Bet they can't hook up to ipods and mp3 players either. Speakers, if found cheap, maybe, if their sound isn't tinny and staticy. I really don't know much about speakers in general.

In general this woman just really gets on my nerves. Check out her "how to feed a family on 15 dollars a day" video for more annoying but amusing "helpful information".

Brrraaaaaiiinnsss

So today on Neopets the Games Master Challenge has started. I was a Level 8 Games Master in last year's event. This year they're changing it up a bit. Usually you can get one of two scores, an AAA score which is always much harder to reach than the Abigale score. Well this year you either pick AAA's team or Abigale's team, but the scores needed are the same. AAA's games, however, will focus on puzzles and logic as he's the leader of Team Brains. Abigale's Team Brawn will be full of action and adventure games. I joined Team Brains. The link will show you a picture of my pet but currently my Team Brains sign is broken, everyone's is and they're fixing it.

Anyway, today's challenge for Team Brains was Kiko Match II, which is just a basic timed memory match game. You had to score 100 to qualify. Which I did easily. My high score is nearly 400. For additional points to help your team you can send score 5 times total, with scores of 100. So I did.

The bonus challenge today was to add three games to your favorites list, so I did. And, again, you can do it 5 times to help your team so I did. It was annoying because I didn't realize your favorites list has a limit so I was merrily adding away and then found that I didn't get any prizes so I had to go back and figure out what happened, delete some games, and add others. So now my favorites list is a complete mess and I'll have to resort it at some point. It's alright, I don't really use my favorites list often.

In other news: This is hilarious! Warnings: Language and slight spoiler for Skyward Sword.

Review: 25th Anniversary Zelda CD

Normal sound will never be enough to satisfy after this heaven for the ears.

Each song is chilling. Each song is hero-worthy. Each song is breath-taking. This is a level of epic beyond words.

• The first song is titled simply "Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary". It is mostly unfamiliar to me so I must assume it's music taken from the NES games which I have not played so much, or Skyward Sword which I have not played at all.

• Next we come to Kakariko Villiage - Twilight Princess Theme. It is a beautiful rendition of the Kakariko Villiage song and has it's own heroic epicness.

• The Wind Waker Symphonic Movement is not the disappointment I fear everyone will anticipate. I happen to like Wind Waker. It is a sort of medley. For anyone who's heard the Legend of the Hero song from another collection don't get your hopes up. I love that song on it's own, and when this one started it starts in the same way and I got all hyped up and was a bit let down when the Outset Island song started. But I was hardly upset for long as this is a very good song and showcases a lot of the good music from this game. The title song made me bouncy.

• Afterwards we have Gerudo Valley, which is totally not as boring as it sounds. Either I never paid attention whenever I was in Gerudo Valley or this music is from a game I haven't played cause it was as unrecognizable as it was astounding!

• And in case all this adrenaline is tiresome we have the Great Fairy's Fountain Theme thrown into the middle which put me into a state of relaxation and contentment previously only experienced during Michael Jacksons Human Nature.

• Twilight Princess Symphonic Movement was next. It was beautiful, it was heroic, it was adventurous, it was... breathtaking.

• After that was Legend of Zelda Main Theme Medley, which I heard before on Victor's 3DS. It was even better the second time around. Truly awe-inspiring.

• Then... a song I have never heard before and neither have you. Ballad of the Goddess from Skyward Sword. It promises that this game will be everything the other games have been and more. It promises action, adventure, heroism, fate, everything these games are.

Even the parts of these songs I either didn't remember or never heard had a definite Zelda feel to them.

The only thing missing is a "Symphonic Movement" for Ocarina of Time. I am a little surprised they had a 10 minute Wind Waker song and yet Ocarina of Time got nothing. I was under the impression that Ocarina of Time was the fan-picked favorite?

Anyway, excellent job to the orchestra and writer and leader. Well done! Very well done indeed! To think all this effort was put into something they gave away for free! (well, free if you buy the game...)

If it wasn't packaged into the game I would gladly have bought it as a single on it's own for 10-15 dollars. So even if you don't want Skyward Sword I highly recommend seeing if anyone on ebay is selling the cd by itself cause, trust me, if you're a Zelda fan... you want this!

Here's the video of the Main Theme Medley:

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! *bounce bounce* ^_^

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword @ Nintendo.com

I love my golden wiimote! I love the packaging! I love the new cd I have yet to try out! (Saw a preview on Victor's 3ds so I know the cd will be awesome) ....do I love the game? Won't know till Sunday at the soonest!

I got a pleasant surprise when I picked up my pre-order from Best Buy. I guess there was a deal running where you got a 10 dollar gift card. I don't know if it's because I pre-ordered it there or if it's because I bought it there at all. But it made me happy.

Fallout 3 Motion Sickness

I've been sick since Sunday. I've drank a lot of orange juice and it might be helping? It usually does, and I know it helped my throat. I think my head's less stuffy than it was earlier today or yesterday, so that's good. I felt like throwing up the other morning I was so miserable, my eyes hurt and my sinuses were warm and throbby. But I am much better now.

I believe I have fixed Fallout 3. I never used to be able to play more than a half hour to an hour without getting motion sick. Victor and I were talking about it and he asked me how I feel when playing Bad Company 2. I feel alright with that game, I never really have issues much. Turns out Bad Company uses a FOV (field of vision) of 80, and Fallout uses 75. So all I had to do was open a console (you hit the ~ button, but not on caps, I guess it's called the tilde key but I always called it "squiggle key") on Fallout 3 and type in FOV 80 and it worked! I just played for almost two hours without hardly any motion sickness! XD

I must say this for Fallout 3... I love wandering the wasteland. I hate exploring the city. None of the subways take you where you want to go, and you get lost so easily. I can't find my way anywhere, and once I've been somewhere good luck getting back there! I was trapped at the Mall (the area in front of the washington monument) for the longest time. I even went and explored several subways but they all led me back to the Mall! But now I think I discovered a way out. I stumbled across the congress building and ran around inside for a while and found a way out the other side, but I'm done playing now so I didn't explore that new area. I know, I could warp. But I hate warping. It feels like cheating (though it isn't) and you miss stuff that way.

Currently I'm trying doing the quest about the Rangers, where the leader is in the ghoul city of Underworld. I don't really have an issue with ghouls, so they treat me well. And I was going to go to their camp but I'm having issues navigating the city. I need to go find a detailed map and directions. Cause the map on the wrist-computer (forgive me, I don't remember what it's called. In my mind I call it "tab" cause that's the key you use to bring it up) isn't very helpful.

1996 Emma

Just got done watching the 1996 version of Emma.

Firstly, let me express concern over what's going on with Ewan McGregor's hair. It was awkward and ill-fitting for him. Ewan McGregor usually looks good no matter what he's in but he just didn't fit in well in this movie at all. A lot of his non-Star Wars movies are actually pretty bad, and while this movie was good he was bad! lol

Secondly... I think I need to read the book again. I don't remember it nearly so well as I should. Emma was a very, very good book. It has what I think is the most romantic scene I have ever read, and the two characters were doing nothing more than walking side by side and talking. I think this version did a fairly good job of conveying that. I honestly can't review this version because I don't remember the book so well. I think it was a bit like the Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice; you need to have read the book to really get it.

Mr. Knightly had eyes you could fall into, but I think he looked younger than he should have. Remember, he is supposed to be 37. I also think they made Harriet stupider than she should have been, too. Did they purposefully choose an actress with such a large body frame as compared to Gweneth Paltrow so as to show her as being of lesser station? Because a bigger frame means more oafish which equals simplicity of mind?

Of the 4 available versions this is supposed to be the best, or second best. There is a BBC variation I want to watch that is supposed to be good, better than the 1996 one. I have high hopes for it cause the BBC variation of Pride and Prejudice was so good, but we'll see. The hair in this one was pretty, if a bit lopsided at times. Costumes were good. They seem to have lost one of Mr. Martin's sisters, I was certain he had two of them.

One of my complaints is that they kept jumping, like, they had Emma say, "So I guess I'll say...." then it jumps to her when she's saying it for real. I also didn't like the commercial break cuts. I get it, they wanted to show when she jumps from idea to idea about men, but it didn't really work too well, I think. I also didn't like how Mrs. Elton talked directly to the camera as if to shove her character at us to make sure we got it.

1408

I just watched the Directors Cut of 1408. I didn't watch it in it's entirety because I do not do bathrooms or mirrors. I covered my eyes whenever we were taken anywhere near a bathroom or mirror.

It's only been in the last year or two that I have been capable of going into a bathroom at night without either a curtain covering the mirror or the light on, door open in both cases, and regardless of curtains light on if door is shut. I am not about to go back to how I was just because horror films like to use bathrooms and mirrors. Anyway, my fear of mirrors and bathrooms asides this movie only had one bad bathroom scene (that I didn't watch but I heard, and from the sound of things it wasn't actually too horrible). It had a scene that was sort of like a mirror scene, only it kinda wasn't (person across the street, mimicking movements, attacker behind other person becomes real person behind character) and that made me cover my eyes as well. It did, however, have a mirror scene that I actually shrieked at. It was totally out of nowhere and I shrieked and then laughed and then cried. I hate mirrors. I really hate mirrors. I only have two mirrors at home, my little hand mirror for seeing the back of my head when I do my hair (which I keep in my hair toys crate), and my wall mirror which I do not hang but leave down and either facing the floor or the wall when I'm not using it. I hate mirrors. Also, while they make mention of a maid who stabbed her own eyes out while trapped in the bathroom (lovely! Two of the top three things I'm most scared of! Mirrors are 1st, then bathrooms, then eyes being gouged out), we never see her ghost or images of her or pictures or anything.

The movie was alright, I haven't read the book. I think the scariest part of the movie (other than the mirror) was the buildup. It was all about buildup, and while things did happen, the tension was worse than just about anything that did happen. Also, apparently there are two endings, which I didn't know till later, but that's why I specified that I watched the directors cut, to show which ending I got. I'm still a little creeped out and teary, but I'm alright. I also got the 1996 Emma to watch so I might do that in a bit here to help me calm down and relax. Today's hair washing day so I will have need to be alone in the bathroom later. Yes, I know nothing happened in the bathroom in this movie but I'm still going to be scared and probably try to go as fast as I can. I'm waiting till Timmy comes home before going in to do it.

Welcome Back

Working for Bonnie next two weeks, and some this week. They're making me remember why I left. So today it's like, "Hey, the night guy in dairy who hurt his back earlier this week isn't working today and we've known that for the last four days and didn't get anyone to cover for him and we had no one in dairy last night so can you close receiving early and work a 10-hour shift today to do help out in dairy?" -_- I wound up doing 9 1/2, 5-6 of which were in dairy. I'll just have to catch up receiving next week. So this plus my 9 hours yesterday and then working regular 8 hour-shifts the rest of the week (and a little over on some days) I probably have 43 hours this week. But it is so nice not to have to worry about dairy. None of it is my concern anymore. Night guy out with a bad back and it looking like he isn't coming back... in November? If I was still in dairy I'd be working 10-hour shifts every day and coming home to curl up and cry till bedtime and I'd be going through each day on the edge of tears. Soooo glad this isn't my problem. November is the most horrid month of the year as it is.

Victor has painted the downstairs of the house and it looks beautiful. He started laying the floor tiling yesterday. So far I don't have pictures of these things. He's not a camera person. He took one of the priming and that's it. I reminded him last night that I want pictures of the painting and tiling.

Comparing Movie Posters

We all know what these two movies are about...

..so, dear Lord, do I even want to know what this one is about?

Four or five days worth of mudding and taping.

Here are two walls after taping and three coats of mud. I have also sanded here.

Here's another corner shot.

 Today Victor is going to start priming the walls and then over the next few days he'll paint them.

Arm Pain

I mud and taped the ceiling downstairs today. It was horrid. My shoulder quickly cramped up and I had to take several breaks. The cut on my left hand (I sliced it on my desktop computer last Friday) hurts again. I got mud under my fingernails. My neck hurts. And I was so mind numbed and achy that I actually took a nap around 4:00! I never take naps. Even when I lay down to do so I can't. I don't really care that I did a really bad job of smoothing the mud because we are wallpapering the ceiling. Yes, that's right. We are buying pre-pasted wallpaper and sticking it to the ceiling. We already have a pattern picked out:

Finished Drywalling!

 Atton in front of the dresser, which we've got at the foot of the bed.

I did the drywall next to the door. Still need to do the small bit at the top there, which I forgot about till now.

Then I did this wall.

Here's the corner.

Poor measuring. At least it'll be covered!

This is the last piece. Except for that small piece above the door we're done with drywall!

Victor and I mounted the panels up on the frame. Taken from the window.

You can see the wood shed back there, Victor put the tarp over it. Taken from the door.

This is how I wore my hair today. I see one of my sticks was too far down but that's ok. Basically it's a sock bun, then I tied a hair scarf around it under all the loose hair then I made a braid using the rest of my hair as one piece and the two pieces of scarf as the other two strands. At the bottom I tied the scarf off and wrapped around the bun. I finished it off with hair sticks. This is after I'd worn it all day.