THOR IS HERE

I came home from breakfast with the grandparents to find SC2 on my doorstep. Now all I need is my brother to bring himself and, more importantly, his gaming-capable laptop home so I can get in on the action! Hahaha, this is ridiculous. I've been anticipating this release for months now, knowing very well that once I got it, my computer wouldn't be able to handle it.



Since I can remember, I've lived with the bare necessities in life. Even when it came to entertainment, I simply shared toys with my brother while growing up. But now it's becoming increasingly more difficult because we're in different places. Like I said before, PC gaming is a little awkward for me, but it would be much more convenient than having to lug around a console everywhere I go. Plus, I'm starting to feel like I've been missing out on a lot. Which is why I've started tossing around the idea of having J build me a rig in the near future.

Once again, money is the limiting factor. It's not that I can't spare several hundred dollars right now, but the sheer fact that I don't need to spend it prevents me from acting on this new urge. SOMEONE HIRE ME ALREADY.

crashing

Yesterday was absolutely amazing for two reasons:

Inception
After we left the theater, I kept telling J, "My mind is blown." The movie kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, though it really wasn't as confusing as people made it seem. I feel like the term is becoming interchangeable with "making you think a little even after the movie's over." That's not to say I didn't miss out on a few details myself, but that's the kind of richness that made watching it a satisfying 2.5 hours of my life. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing it again. Probably not in theaters though, since a ticket goes for about the price of a kidney these days.

Day[9]'s SC2 Launch Party
Twelve hours of board games, console games, SC1 LAN, live-casting, and being surrounded by enthusiastic SC fans. The voice actors for Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay were there too, which was an exciting surprise. Even better when we introduced ourselves and stepped up to take a picture with them, and Jim Raynor's actor jokingly said, "If only I had met you before Kerrigan." XD We got to say hello to Sean, meet QXC, and play some matches in the LAN room. Unfortunately, J and I only stayed for nine hours (what else would we have done with that time?) before my poor, overstimulated brain started giving out on me.

*****

Spending fun-filled weekends with J gives me such a high. But now that he's back in SD, I can't help feeling a little empty. It's more than just about missing him though. Now that he's gone, I have no choice but to return to reality, and honestly reality's been on the boring side lately. He's kind of like my drug. I think moving in together would solve this, but I have a few hurdles to jump before that can happen. Like finding work in SoCal.

My copy of SC2 is currently in Santa Fe Springs, CA! Hurry up and get here already!

here, there, everywhere

Waiting for J to finish his business in downtown so I can meet him for dinner. Feeling pretty restless. Played Wii tennis for the first time yesterday and woke up sore from it. Haha, apparently I was treating it a little too much like real tennis. Seriously though, I've sunk to an all-time low if a Wii game has given me a workout...

Currently reading Anna Karenina and not certain whether I like it yet. I'm less than a third of the way finished, but still not very much has happened. I want to see more scandal! XD

paranoia

I couldn't tell you when it started to happen, but as I got older I started getting a lot more paranoid. Some of the things I do are common sense, like checking over my shoulder when I'm walking alone, keeping my purse tucked tight under my arm (if it has a shoulder strap, then I wear that across my body), and never carrying more cash/cards than necessary.

It's when darkness falls that my paranoia spills over into borderline-crazy territory. The wall of my room that separates me from the outside is also what makes me feel so exposed to it. I keep the window up just to let in some air at night, but then the leaves in the alley rustle and sometimes I swear they start to crunch as if someone's stepping on them. Most likely it's just a stray cat or something, but still.

Several nights ago, just when I began to drift off, I thought I heard a noise in the living room and then footsteps outside my door. I bolted up and strained to listen, then convinced myself that it was nothing but couldn't shake the unease. I spent a couple minutes laying in bed deliberating over what course of action to take should it turn out that there was an intruder and cursed myself for not keeping something with lethal potential in my room. As it turns out, the noises just came from one of my parents getting up to pee.

I blame this whole episode of heightened freaking out on another incident that occurred a few days prior, where my land line was tied up for at least half an hour by an unknown caller. I picked up the first few times, but gave up on that when the other end only remained silent every time. Nevertheless, my mind went into horror movie mode and I started looking out all the windows to see if someone could be watching me. I finally had to unplug the line when I got tired of hearing the phone ring. Do people still actually do prank calls? But that also begs the question of why we still have a land line. Hmm.

In sum, I seem to be rather fond of self-induced heart attacks.

wet dreams

Last night gifted me with some really intense sex dreams, involving someone tall, dark and presumably handsome. I actually can't recall what he looked like because his face was lost to the transitional blackout as my mind moved to the next dream...and this all sounds like a drunken hookup now that I think about it.

It was a welcome deviation from what my subconscious has been giving me lately. Most of the time, my dreams aren't based off anything that happened to me during the day, but I do have an idea of what might have been responsible for planting that particular seed in my subconscious.

Naughty fanfics + Hormones + Sexually Deprived = Mind-blowing sex dreams

And for the first time in two weeks, I woke up to a cool breeze and overcast weather, as opposed to stifling heat and blinding sunlight. J calls me a vampire and I don't bother to deny it. But come on, mild weather & hot consensual sex or extreme heat & pirate rape? I wish everyday could be 70 degrees.

Unless one of these two is the pirate in question.

not-so-sweet dreams

I'm going to blame the heat for giving me dreams of the fucked up variety every single night of this past week. The following are some highlights from the more recent ones:

#1: Heading out to sea in a little rowboat and preparing to dive down to the seafloor to retrieve what must conceivably be something very valuable. Seems I was invincible or something because I was wasn't worried at all about the crushing pressure at those depths. And a breathing apparatus would've been superfluous because I was going to grow gills once I hit the water. Harry Potter, anyone?

#2: Getting my dance on at a club. Almost got in a fight with a heavily made-up tranny for kissing J, but got into an argument with a friend instead for introducing the tranny to him. lol wat?

#3: Getting violated by a PIRATE but having no recollection of it within the dream. I have no explanation for this but am glad there was no traumatic material to haunt me even after waking.

#4: Sitting in a room with a few people, a little confused as to where I am. I turn to my left and find Sasuke staring at me. And somehow I know he is intending to kill me. I can't remember if he succeeded or not. WTF.

That last one was probably inspired by a trailer for FF13 Versus I watched earlier that day.


I bring this up because, don't you think Sasuke and Noctis look alike?


Older Sasuke by Annie Hill on deviant art

It's too bad Sasuke has gone to the dark side. And it's going to be a while before FF13 Versus comes out, if it ever does. I'd rather dream about them violating me than pirates any day, if I had a choice in the matter...

childhood games

Oh my goodness, I found this the other day and it is amazing. Makes me want to play Link's Awakening all over again! But I seem to have misplaced the game...

I've been wanting to play my Pokemon Red or Silver again, except the games can't save anymore because the internal batteries are dead. SADNESS ;_; My Gameboy is getting all dusty from non-usage.

A dusting-off was quite necessary.

People are telling me to just download an emulator. What, and render my button-mashing thumbs obsolete? BLASPHEMY!


I don't know, maybe I just like compact things, or maybe it's just the illusion that I'm doing something different when I hold a controller or my Gameboy (since it allows me to step away from the computer), but PC gaming feels a little more awkward to me. Then again, I don't have that much experience with it so it could just mean I need to play more on the computer. lol Yeeeah.

shun the non-believer, shunnn

An interesting story about atheists came out a couple days ago, which you can read here. Basically, people who were baptized when they were younger (and consequently had no say in it) wanted to symbolically reverse the procedure in a mass de-baptism ceremony, which featured a blow-dryer marked "Reason and Truth."

The most common response I've seen to this article so far has been something like, "If they're atheists, why do they even bother with de-baptism?" To call these people atheists might be a bit misleading, as the term connotes an indifference to religion because there is a lack of belief. At least, that was my understanding of it. It might be more accurate to call them anti-theists because they're trying to make a statement against a religious practice (and Christianity in general, I suppose?). I mean, they're not really reversing anything by taking a blast of hot air to the face. It's really just for the "shock value," as someone in the article puts it.

I asked J about baptism once. Taking it from someone who got baptized himself, the ceremony is simply a display of faith. But the issue at hand isn't exactly baptism; it's religion versus "Reason and Truth." Even if that's the case, I think reconciliation is possible between the two. However, it requires being open-minded toward both worlds, which unfortunately is not always possible for some groups.

I lost my train of thought because I'm really bad at multitasking. So in conclusion, when it comes to religion, South Park has the right idea.

Season 5, Episode 4, if you must know.

first blood

Last night, I had my first taste of a real SC2 match and it was glorious. I'm really bad at it, but I'm hoping almost everyone else is too so I won't have to look like such a loser when I actually play against real people.

The colossus is tentatively my new favorite unit. lol Don't they remind you of the tripods from War of the Worlds?

Except these are nicer-looking :P And have four legs.

And it's so satisfying to watch them burn through units with those sexy thermal lances. lol!

Burning!

Ten more days until it comes out!

summer movie-going

Movies are always a nice little distraction, and once in a while it seems worth it to actually pay for one. As I said before, Eclipse was not one of those movies but sometimes it's more about the experience of going with friends :P Anyway, some movies I've been wanting to see and others that it would've been nice to see...

Predators (or Predator 3)
Back to the jungle, where the whole franchise started. And unlike the AVP spin-offs, this is actually rated R. lol If you're going to have two alien races fight each other to the death, how can you keep it at PG-13?

This came out last Friday and I still haven't seen it. Unfortunately, my attempts to solicit a viewing partner over fb were futile, so I may just have to resort to other...more unlawful methods. Is there nobody I know who can appreciate ridiculous sci-fi horror? Laaame.

Inception
Directed by Christopher Nolan, the same guy who did The Dark Knight. I wouldn't be surprised if I have trouble finding someone to see this with too. But maybe J can hold off on it until he comes to visit me, and then we can go together. Or maybe I just need to make new friends. That seems to be a better long-term solution.

Toy Story 3
More for nostalgia than anything else, this one's on my list. I heard it was really sad, which was to be expected, but I haven't read anything about it and it's been ages since I last watched the first one (I don't think I ever saw the second one, come to think of it...) I'm sure I'll catch this one eventually when a friend's dad *mysteriously* acquires a copy.

Despicable Me
I'm not sure what to say about this one. It seems very cute, but I don't normally go to the theater for just cute. This would've been more for the experience of going with friends. All of them wanted to watch this together, but I wasn't able to go because of a conflict. Meh, I'll catch it eventually. Apparently it even overtook Eclipse at the box office last weekend. lol Now there's something I didn't think was possible.

dejected

It's nearing that time of the month and that means I'm getting irrational and emotional. On top of that, the weather's actually getting hot enough to make even ME sweat, which is never an improvement to any situation.

Nothing is better at bringing up a girl's mood than a bowl of ice cream. Normally, I already have a propensity to consume absurd amounts of dessert, but on days like this...it's almost frightening. lol Good thing I started running again yesterday. Not sure when I got so lazy and unmotivated. I used to be such a workout junkie. It was absolutely unforgivable for me to skip a day. My high school track coach would be ashamed of me right now.

I need a good cry. And another bowl of ice cream.

lemonade

My skin is very fickle, but it also needs a lot of work because puberty super-fucked me over. As such, I've renewed my efforts in trying to take better care of it.

I have implemented exfoliation 1-2 times a week into my routine. Previously, I used St. Ives Apricot Scrub but that seemed to be a little too harsh because I always broke out afterward. Upon Kandee Johnson's recommendation, I switched over to good ol' sugar and lemon juice. Easiest thing in the world, and the ingredients are easy to obtain :) In my case, my mom just raids the neighbors' lemon tree under cover of darkness, but sometimes the devil in her takes over and she's gutsy enough to do it by day. No, no, I can assure you that this is okay. Because they don't know about it. Come on, they don't use them anyway :P

My skin has seen some slight improvement since I started doing this about a month ago. Persistence pays off :)

hairy (nsfw)

Everyone's been talking about Patrick Mohr's show at Berlin Fashion Week. I won't even pretend that I understand it. It probably has something to do with that whole "ugly-pretty" thing Tyra mentioned on Top Model, but most people just seem to think it's pretty weird. And (lol forgive me :P) pretty ugly.

They just couldn't leave well enough alone.

aubergine

It hardly needs to be repeated, but ugh--YouTube is amazing. So much useful information at your disposal! Yeah, the same can be said about the Internet, but now you can imagine how awesome that must be. Anyway, I digress.

I was clicking through some Gordon Ramsay videos, and "aubergine caviar" caught my eye. What in the world is aubergine? I thought. So then I'm watching him give his introduction, and then he pulls out a freakin' eggplant. How anticlimactic. Leave it to the British to use a pompous word like "aubergine" for something that can plainly be called "eggplant." lol But I rather like it.

Eggplant will invariably remind me of one thing every time it comes up, and every time I can't resist telling the story to any poor soul who is willing to listen because it's nearly the stupidest thing in the world.

One silly night, three years ago, I was chatting online with The Woman and somehow we got on the topic of eggplant. I asserted that it looks pretty gross when it's cooked, at least in the ways I've seen it prepared, but also added a disclaimer about never having tried it so I can't speak for its taste. Something along the following lines ensued:

"Hey, you better watch what you say next time because eggplant happens to be one of my favorite foods."

"Well, you can say it's your favorite food, but I still think it looks gross."

This looks delicious to me now, but tell me it doesn't look a little like tentacles.

The argument starts to escalate after a little more back and forth as neither of us would yield. Then, as if trying to concede and put the whole thing behind us (read: make me shut up):

"I guess it's just because Americans aren't as exposed to eggplant dishes."

Bitch PLEASE. Cooked eggplant looks like slimy tentacles because I'm too "American"? lol So then we started arguing about the degree of my Americanization. There were tears, angry tears on my end. We didn't speak for a bit, I took a walk, then I called to apologize. Bleh! In retrospect, I almost wish that had ended the relationship. It really was that stupid.

But I had the last word several months later, oh yes. When he insisted that he had to talk to me in person and handed me 8 pages (some front and back) detailing my flaws, our problems, and away messages he didn't understand, I broke up with him and the poor fool cried. I know, I'm a bitch.

skin deep

If I got a dollar for every time my mother has told me that "pale is beautiful," I'd have enough money to rent my own place indefinitely. But then there goes my primary source of income. Oh, Life, you bastard.

Nearly every time I decide to wear shorts on a warm day, she feels the need to remind me that "being pale will make even ugly people look beautiful." Or something like that. lol What is she trying to tell me here? Is it even possible to stay pale in SoCal? Maybe if I stayed indoors every summer, but what on earth would I do that for? You'd think that after having spent more than a decade telling me this and seeing that I refuse to wear jeans in 100 degree weather, she'd give it up. That, and the two years of high school tennis that left me ten shades darker after every season.

Besides, I'd just look pasty...and all my skin imperfections would show up more vividly. Anne Hathaway and Christina Hendricks can pull off that ivory-skinned look, but they'd probably burn if they tried to go any darker :P

Apparently, CH is naturally a blonde? I like redheads more, but that's just my preference :)

Concerns about sun damage and skin cancer aside, I can stay in the sun for a pretty long time without burning. Although, I recently learned that you can get sunburned without feeling any pain...if you touch an area that was exposed and it leaves a red mark, it's supposedly evidence of sun damage. Better not to risk it and just use a sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15. The higher the SPF the better, but only to a certain degree. Some articles say anything higher than SPF 50 yields a barely detectable increase in protection, while other sources place the cap at SPF 90.

This one smells sooo good, it could double up as perfume!

Anyway, I firmly believe that almost anything is fine in moderation. Having a light tan makes me feel a little less like I've spent the last year in a cave. Plus, can't do without that vitamin D :)

switching

I'm all caught up on the Naruto manga and faced with the same dilemma I had with watching just the anime...I have to wait for a new chapter every week now ;_; On the bright side, at least there's another thing I have to look forward to every week. Or another thing that will drive me crazy with an insatiable thirst for knowing WHAT COMES NEXT. Such is the trouble with getting caught up in a series that hasn't concluded itself yet.

I'm told I look like Karin. I rather agree with that.
I have no rights to this picture. Masashi Kishimoto, please don't sue me.

I fear that I have been too lax and carelessly allowed my nerdy self to overstep its boundaries in real life. Confound you, Facebook mini-feed, for announcing to all and sundry my intention to attend the SC2 launch party (and for making it so complicated to keep certain things private)! I gave FB the benefit of my doubt and thought this little detail could have escaped notice until a friend posted on my wall, asking if I am indeed a SC fan. Not wanting to snub her, I proudly declared my allegiance to the Protoss race. Ah, the social complications of having "nerdy" interests...


J tells me that I should be proud of my "nerdy" tendencies and embrace it as a part of who I am. If only it were that simple...! Or perhaps I'm only making it complicated. But I feel like there really are a lot more social variables to deal with when flaunting "atypical" interests to people who may not necessarily enjoy them the way I do. For example, among my best friends, one can definitely appreciate "nerdy," while another one seems to be neutral, and another will tease me about that side of me if I allow it to come up in conversation. It's not a huge inconvenience to me, but I've learned to simply mute that side of me to avoid any comments when I'm with her. I can never be too sure that she's NOT tacitly judging me. lol That's my main issue with most girls...you can never say what you really mean for fear of the fallout.

On the other hand, I am usually inclined to pick gender-neutral names when I need to create IDs on the internet. Everyone is under the impression that it's overwhelmingly composed of males, but I'm sure a disproportionate amount of females comprise the online gaming community. Those who are like me and prefer to game incognito are probably thinking, a) "I don't want to get harassed, I get enough of that in real life," b) "If I reveal myself, I'd be considered an attention whore," c) "I want people to respect me for my awesome skillzzz," or a variant d) "I suck at this but I don't want them to think it's because I'm a girl."

Fortunately, my most recent experiences with divulging my gender online have not invited any unwanted attention. There are communities who can keep it polite, and maybe even (dare I say it?) chivalrous. It's strange to say it, but I keep my gender to myself out of a certain fear. An analogy may not be necessary, but it's like women who work in male-dominated environments. They're expected to exhibit traits that are considered masculine while preserving some air of femininity. It's such a fine line to walk that I'd rather just choose a side, and I've chosen male-ness.

At the end of the day, this blog is my safe haven to talk about this stuff as much as I want without the anxiety that comes with having to decipher the telling looks of un-like-minded friends. Bless the Internet and its anonymity, for better or worse!

noodles

I was laying in bed, sinking into my soft comforters and hoping to absorb more heat from my surroundings (I have, like, the heat capacity of water) when I became painfully aware of how jiggly I've gotten in the past month. So I started thinking I should go for a run or something. But then I was overcome by the urge to blog about food...which is obviously more important.

When I had the midnight munchies yesterday, I immediately jumped on my newly acquired bag of Mama brand Tom Yum instant noodles. I normally don't eat spicy if I have other alternatives, but these are pretty delicious and really hit the spot if you're craving a really flavorful soup. lol Unfortunately, it doesn't come with all those extra ingredients pictured on the packaging. Just the noodles and seasoning, but it's still great considering it's instant noodles.

While we're on the topic of instant noodles, the most delicious brand I've ever tried has to be Mi Goreng, made by Indomie. These aren't soup noodles, but if you're looking for something really flavorful then these are freakin' amazing. I can't even describe how delicious they are. Again, they don't come with all that fancy stuff on the front, but the noodles are really all you need.

And now, for the ultimate noodle-eating experience...you must go to Daikokuya. It's a small chain with locations in Little Tokyo, Monterey Park, Hacienda Heights, and Costa Mesa. They don't offer a wide selection of dishes, but they're famous for their mouthwatering ramen so that seems to be what most people go there to eat, myself included. For $8.50, you get a huuuge bowl of ramen, bean sprouts, scallions, and a soft-boiled egg, all swimming in a rich, savory broth that they apparently prepare 24 hours in advance. Oh, and arguably the best part--two or three strips of fatty pork that practically melt in your mouth.

(Picture taken from Yelp)

I've eaten at the Little Tokyo and Hacienda Heights locations, but I have to say that the ramen tastes better in Little Tokyo, though the difference is only marginal.

Now that I've gotten started on talking about delicious food, I might continue this next time and share some other places I've discovered with J this past year :)

rage

Waiting to get picked up to go gay clubbing at Rage!

UPDATE

Major events of the night:

• Carrot Top drove up and stopped to get cash from the ATM in the parking lot. We took pictures with him. Crazy!
• Ran into Steven without intending to meet up and started dancing with him. "My friends think you're hitting on me." "Oh PLEASE!" hahaha What a great coincidence!
• Big black tranny crept up next to our circle and STOLE my friend's bag, accused us of stealing his/her ID after said friend went through tranny's purse, and the tranny left the club in a huff but met up with friends outside the entrance. NOT FUCKING COOL. We didn't see him/her take it, but s/he totally did.

That's the last time we're going to Rage for a while.

circle circle

lol This article showed up on Digg today and I thought it was funny that they were trying to blame Lady Gaga for the circle lens trend, inspired by her Bad Romance video, when I thought this had been a long-time trend in Asia, way before anyone knew who Lady Gaga was?

The article also seemed to give YouTube makeup guru, Michelle Phan, a bad rap for teaching people how to use circle lenses. I've been watching her videos since 2007, and though I think she's gotten a bit commercial as of late, I suspect it's just part of business. She seems to enjoy cosplaying too, which I'm not going to complain about :P In the video mentioned by the article, she's also sporting a much nicer version of my nails from an earlier post.

eclipse

In other news today, I actually blew $10 to watch Eclipse with the ladies. (How is it that a matinee can still cost $9.75? Hooow?) I guess the movie did as much as it could with what it was given. This was the best book in the series, partly because the action was a little more exciting relative to that in the first and second books. But mostly because there's more Jacob time. I certainly didn't mind that during the movie XD In all seriousness, I felt this song from the movie captured very well the poignancy of Bella coming to terms with two major events in her life--realizing she loves Jacob and breaking both their hearts because it's not enough to make her leave Edward, and leaving everyone in her human life behind to become a vampire.

I heard Breaking Dawn is coming out in two parts. I have no idea how they're going to portray all the horrifying kinds of fucked up that happen in that book while still keeping it PG-13, but I'm pretty curious to see how it'll translate onto the big screen once it's done. Probably won't shell out money for it next time around though.

teeheehee

I got way too excited when I heard that a SC2 launch party is going to be hosted at Harvey Mudd College on the 26th. And then I took my giddiness to whole new levels of ridiculous when, after some persuasion from J, I sent a Facebook message to the host, who happens to be a top American player, inquiring about logistics and received a response in which he not only answered my questions but also insisted that he has met me in real life before because he recognized my name and face. This was quite plausible because a) I was attending another one of the Claremont Colleges while he was still there and b) I was not into the SC pro-gaming scene so I could have met him and forgotten about him, ignorant as I was at the time. So anyway, he sent me a friend request, which I happily confirmed before proceeding to bask in the dizzying afterglow of my fanaticism.

THE END.

Exhibit A shows what I DON'T look like even while in fangirl mode.

independence day

Happy July 4th, everyone! After a day of gluttony at a family gathering, I came home and set up camp in front of my laptop. My part of town sounds like a veritable war zone as everyone seems to be trying to one-up everyone else with their exploding displays. Gave me some colorful entertainment while I was out though :)

I decided to take a break from the mayhem, but the boyfriend and the brother are still in the midst of a gaming session two feet away. lol Yes, I suppose it's a small LAN party. We've been doing this for the past three nights, but unfortunately all good things must come to an end. They're both leaving tomorrow :(

Not actually from tonight, but from Disneyland three years ago :P