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.