And I Quickly Recovered

I'm listening to music right now, so if the mood in this post jumps around a lot then just blame that. I really need to learn not to try and type when I'm tired and emotional. I'm going to keep my last post up simply because someone actually commented on it. I have no idea who you are, but once again, thank you.


I have some (crappy) pictures that I took of some of the snow that's happened over the past few days. Most of them are out of a car window so they are probably blurry. I'm actually not sure yet since I haven't put them on any computer. I'm on my desktop right now, but will be uploading them to my laptop, so I'll add some after I post this and switch over. Update - Here they are:



This is the day after the blizzard. We didn't get near as much as I thought we would. 



This was on some other random snowy day the other week.



Side of the highway.



Exit off the highway.




I haven't really been watching movies lately which disappoints me. My dad has been sleeping on the couch in the living room (where I like to watch movies), so I've basically been playing WoW instead. Which is quite a bad idea. The other week I watched:





Which has got to be the most depressing movie in all of existence. I find it interesting that the picture says "Edited Version" when the one I watched was the "Unrated" one. The guy in the right corner actually looks a lot like someone I know personally, which highly creeps me out. I have yet to review this movie, nor rate it and I probably never will simply because....HOW?! How do you rate and review a movie like this? I knew nothing about this movie when I watched it, and I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not.


The movie I have from Netflix right now is:





Oh how nostalgia has overwhelmed me while watching this. The version my dad and I are watching is the concert one from 1996. I remember renting the VHS of it from the library when I was around eight or nine, but most likely even younger. We only watched about 45 minutes of it tonight. Don't want to lose all the magic in one night.


I need to start utilizing the "Instant Watch" function of Netflix more. I did that tonight by watching the first two episodes of this anime about two hours ago:





It is definitely different, that's for sure. It shocked the hell out of me when I started the first episode and English was the language I heard. It's a series that I was previously unaware of, so I was quite surprised that there was an English version of it. There's 26 episodes and I think I'm going to attempt to watch two episodes a night. Each episode is only 23 minutes long, so it shouldn't be that hard, right? Right?


Each episode is a different story, but the character you see in the picture is the main guy in each one. At least it seems like that's what's happening. It's heavy on the symbolism and some of the dialogue might make you go "Wait, what?" at first. I think it's going to be worth watching though.


I took the most pathetic test today. Since the blizzard was on Wednesday I had to reschedule my Personal Health class test to today. In class the teacher said that most people complete it within an hour. Well...over the past few years my test taking speed has decreased a crap ton, so I figured I'd end up taking the full hour. Wrong. I finished the test within twenty minutes. I could not believe how quickly I went through the test. I even noticed that four or five of the questions were ones that had been on the two quizzes we had taken already. Now if Calculus could just be that easy....


.....and speaking of such, there is no way I will be able to take the test tomorrow. I have class in the morning and then I work the rest of the day. I emailed my teacher at around seven, I think it was, asking if I'll be able to postpone it until Monday. I know he allowed a lot of people to do that last semester, so hopefully he'll ok it. I seriously hate when everything decides it needs to happen all at once.


I actually received a postcard from Postcrossing the other day. I have no idea why I got one since I haven't sent one out in quite a while. It's inspired me to try to get into it again, one postcard at a time. The last postcard I sent actually hasn't arrived yet for some reason. It has three or four days until it expires too. I just hope it didn't get lost among the insanity that is the post office. Here's the PC I received though:



It's the first postcard I've gotten from Russia, at least if I'm remembering correctly. I think it's awesomely adorable. And yes, I think I love alliteration.


I know I've been quite terrible about keeping up with posting what I've received in the mail lately. If I miss posting anything, which I probably have a lot by now, then I apologize. I did get an ATC in the mail though for the I Love Narnia ATC swap on Swap~bot:





I'm also in a Dollar Tree Valentine's Card swap, and have received two of the four cards, but I think I'm going to wait until I have all of them before I scan them and post them. I wish I had places in my room to actually display all the lovely things I've gotten.


Besides playing WoW like an idiot, I've been trying to play some other games as well. I've been extremely awful at saving my money lately, so I've acquired a few more games:


 


I still need to play the first Bioshock, which I started at my cousins last week. So overall in the past two weeks I've only played an hour of Darksiders and about two to two and half hours of the first Bioshock. I am completely terrible at managing my time so that I can fit in everything I want to do.


Darksiders is actually a lot different from how I thought it was going to be even after reading the reviews. I've barley played it, so I don't really have an opinion on it or anything like that yet. I'm loving the short time I've played Bioshock though. My cousin watched me play it and was just "WAT" the whole time through it though. He needs to play better games.


Since this seems to be turning into a beast of a post I believe I'll try and stop here. I'll upload all the crazy snow pictures and try to get them up here ASAP though.


By the way, don't watch Requiem For A Dream.


EDIT - Because I can here's some kitty pictures:



Charmin giving my grandpa some love. 



Jack likes to play Peek-A-Boo on the stairs.



And finally, Charmin being a fatty. 

Not A Very Good Post

I never seem to keep up with anything like I hope too. I haven't been feeling the greatest lately either, so that doesn't help my lack of updating. I'm not going to post any pictures this time, or anything like that. I guess I just kind of want to trudge through my thoughts a bit and see where I end up. 


I don't remember how many days ago it was, but I started talking to a friend again that I had cut out of my life back in September. I thought if I slowly started to talk to them again that we could end up in a good place between us like we had been at one time. They seemed to take it completely differently though and quickly displayed every reason that forced me to stop communication before. They acted like it was a switch that I could just turn on and everything would be normal again, but I can't do that. 


I'm also in another confusing situation. At least for me it is. I don't really want to type about it on here even though it's probably what's been on my mind the most. I don't really know how to react to it either. I always get pushed to break my promises to myself and for the first time in my life I'm keeping them. My fear is that my past is going to ruin what could be awesome in my future. 


For some reason I've felt extremely lonely this month. It doesn't help what's going on in my life right now at all. My hours have been cut at work as well and the past two weeks I've only worked a total of two days. My focus at school is already going down, but I'm trying to get to the Wellness Center as much as I can to work out. I'm hoping it's just the fact that it's Winter, that's disrupting everything, but I don't really know. 


Since it's Sunday I'm browsing Postsecret and there's a picture I found on there that I believe everyone should see:





And I couldn't agree more.


Usually reading anything on Postsecret is extremely depressing, but at the same time I enjoy reading people's thoughts and secrets and feelings. It shouldn't be unusual to hear people speak the truth, but it is. 





Not every "secret" has to be a huge life changing event. Appreciating the smallest of gestures can mean more than anything. 


Here's a picture and comment that went together that I find quite amusing:





Comment: I imagine that, if he exists, "God" talks like Gordon Ramsey. I think it would be hilarious. Him looking at us from up there, screaming: "YOU BLOODY IDIOTS!" 






After going through a lot of the posts on this site, you see the same secrets popping up again and again. You know, I really hate what fear has done to us all. 


I don't know why I'm actually going to post this. I'll probably delete this whole thing later. I guess I almost feel like the only emotion I should portray to people is happiness. 

And It All Begins Again...

Sure enough, it's time to head back to class. Today was definitely not the greatest day I've ever experienced. Actually the past week has just overall been a little bit crazy. I'm actually quite surprised at how well I've been handling it all.

First off I'm sure I've said a million times on here so far that I had a meeting with Best Buy's General Manager about my employment. Well...it turns out that they wanted to keep me so I am now a permanent employee there. He even said that they didn't have any openings, but that I performed well enough that they wanted me to continue to work there. Another seasonal cashier employee was hired as well. She was actually who I considered my "competition" for the season, so it was cool to find out that we were both hired. I've seen a few of the seasonal employees that did not end up staying though, and it's weird to see them in the store when I'm working since I feel bad and like I'm flaunting it in their face or something.

When the GM told me that he wanted me to stay at Best Buy I actually almost started crying right on the spot. I expected to go in there and be told that they simply didn't have enough room. I mean...that actually turned out to be true, but apparently it didn't matter as much as I thought it did.

All of that happened on Wednesday, so I ended up working the opening shift Thursday, Friday and Saturday which is 10a-3:30p. That is so early to me and I wanted to wake up two hours before my shift so that I'd be properly awake and everything when I got there. Saturday was also a meeting at the building. We had to be there by 7:30a, so my morning shift was not the greatest. It also snowed like absolutely crazy the night before, so barely half of the employees were able to make it to the meeting. Since it looked like a blizzard outside we also barely had any customers, so luckily I was able to leave early and was out by 1:30p.

Now here's where another story begins...My dad picked me up at Best Buy in what looked to be a brand new car. Turned out it was a 2008 used vehicle from a dealership that he was testing out. Now we've been down to one vehicle for a little while now since the van crapped out on us. Before I was told that we couldn't even afford a $2000 car, but now all of a sudden we have a $10000, 2009 Hyundai Accent. I'm not happy at all about my grandmothers purchase, especially since she complains about money problems constantly. Way to add more debt to your worries.

The other thing that seriously sucks about the car is that it's an itty bitty front wheel drive car that can't drive for shit in the snow. We have no truck, now have no van, and are down to only having tiny cars that can barely hold a grown man. I'll try to take pictures of it tomorrow if I remember.

I haven't really received anything lately except for today. I was surprised to see an envelope addressed to me in the mail since I wasn't really expecting anything yet. It was for a group I'm in on Swap-bot. In the forum for the group we posted a wishlist and then each member has to send someone something on that person's wishlist.  I received a beautiful PC and some recipes that I should try out soon. Here's the PC:


It's from ladyaries7 and the PC isn't that bright in person. I don't know why my scanner is obsessed with bright colors. I really do love the postcard though. It's similar to one that I actually found downtown here.

I've only watched two movies since my last post. My dad wanted to watch a movie from 1971 called Two-Lane Blacktop, and that was here for about four days I believe, so there hasn't been time for many movies to come in since then. The two I watched are:

  

The first movie I've seen many times, but it's been ages. It was pretty neat to see it again and it's still a very good family movie to watch as well. The second has Nicolas Cage in it and the guy that did Hiccups voice for the animated movie How To Train Your Dragon, so that was why I originally wanted to see it. I remember when it came out in theatres that people weren't really saying good things about it. It turned out to be pretty decent and I definitely enjoyed all the magical elements in it. The end wasn't the greatest though and zoomed right by, but damn, Nicolas Cage is hot as hell as that character and I normally don't like him at all.

This week is going to be pretty intense for me it seems, but luckily one of the harder days is past. I'm taking four classes this semester, so my schedule as far as that goes is this:
Personal Health: MWF - 9:10a-10:10a
Calculus II: MW - 6p-8:40p
English 101: TR - 2:30p-4p

I also am taking Total Fitness II, but that doesn't have a set schedule. I wish my college would hurry up and get everything in the system though so I can get my pre-assessment for the class done so I can start working out asap. I really want to get to the Wellness Center at least three times each week. I definitely want to make some progress this semester.

This schedule would be pretty ok, but now that I'm working as well it's going to increase the difficulty. For example I had my morning class today...and then my shift at BB started at 10:30a. I got out of work at 4:30p, which gave me enough time to change, eat dinner and then head out to the college for my night class. I got home from that at just about 9p and have just been kind of relaxing so that stress doesn't overwhelm me. I really cannot afford to get sick again, so I'm glad my body has been holding out so well these past few months. I just need to take the time to relax and calm down so that it doesn't get too extreme or anything. Wednesday is going to be a repeat of today though, so I'm sure that'll be some deja vu.

My schedule at BB for the rest of this week is:
Wednesday: 10:30a-4:30p
Friday: 10:30.a-4p
Saturday: 3:30p-9:30p

All the day shifts I've worked the past week have been extremely dead. It's almost a shock going from the holiday season to almost nothing. Saturday night should be the busiest day of the week, so it should go alright. I also get to sleep in, so that will definitely be welcome.

This semester is basically going to be me trying to balance school, work, and me time. I have a new friend that I've been hanging out with a bit and it's been really nice to get out of the house, although most of the time we just come back to my house to play video games. That's completely alright with me though. It's nice to have someone to talk too and hopefully I'll be able to expand my social circle a bit.

At my shift today it was so slow that I pretty much just talked to the other cashier that opened the whole time.   We talked about dinosaurs, paranormal stuff, cars, and a lot of other random stuff. Best Buy certainly doesn't allow me to be shy and I'm interacting with so many people. It's awesome and I think that's why I haven't gotten sick.

I believe I'm going to stop here. This post is probably not the most coherent one I've posted. I'm extremely tired, need to get to bed and my thoughts have been kinda disconnected the past few days. I've also left out a lot of details since I simply don't feel like typing forever. Ah well, I'll try to include more stuff tomorrow.

It's About Time I'm On My Desktop Again

Yep, that I am. The bad part is that I have no idea what's actually new that I've gotten this past month. I definitely need to try to keep up with scanning and dating what I receive so that my memory issues aren't as ridiculous.


ANYway, I do have four things I'd like to post on here. The first is a postcard I received through Postcrossing. It came in the mail a few days ago when it was still 2010:



It's from a Chinese college student who's studying in Canada. I think it's funny how misshapen Michigan looks.


This next one is also a postcard that, if I'm remembering correctly, I received earlier in December. I don't think I've posted it yet and I'm far too lazy right now to check. Someone from Sendsomething.net sent it to me, so I'll need to check out their profile soon to see what kind of PC's they're interested in:



It's kind of amusing to me that the picture is of falls in South Carolina. My mother just moved down there on Thursday. That's a whole other story though.


The last two things I want to post today are both ATC's that I received in swaps. This first one I wasn't expecting since it came as an extra in a Thanksgiving card swap:



Daydrifter is who created this card and it definitely was a surprise. It's really beautiful.


The second ATC is from a Dark Tower Series swap. Stephen King wrote the series, which is seven books in all. Bluemonkeymama created this one and it's awesome as well. The picture is kind of messed up since some things are 3D and there is a reflection since it's in plastic. I would have taken it out, but I have before and almost couldn't get it back in! The background also isn't as dark as it appears in the picture:



I'll try to take a picture of it later to replace this scanned image.


I should be getting back into more swaps soon, so more pictures will definitely be posted. World of Warcraft is still keeping me occupied, but last night there were some technical difficulties going on with the game that the creators, Blizzard, had to address.


There were authentication errors going on, which made it quite difficult to login to the game and once in game things would freeze and you'd get disconnected easily. At first I thought something was wrong with my internet, but pretty quickly there was a message from Blizzard on the login screen saying that they were trying to identify the problem.


This was all fine except right before they posted the message I was attempting my first dungeon with a group of people. Things were alright at first until it started freezing and finally I got disconnected. Since logging in was being stupid as well I gave up.


Since then they've figured out what was wrong and everything should be fixed. I haven't really had any issues today when I was playing, so hopefully it'll be smooth until the next issue pops up. Right now I'm just trying to figure out where the hell to go to in the game and how to get there. Here's all the things I had to purchase to be completely up-to-date on the game:


 


Thank God for Christmas sales. I paid $9.99 for the first, which is the original game + the first expansion: The Burning Crusade. The second I got for $20, while I believe it's normal price is still $40. The third and final expansion (for right now at least) just came out in early December, but I got ten bucks off of it, so I paid $30.


The newest expansion brings two new races to the game as The Burning Crusade did: Worgen and Goblins. I created a Worgen Warrior the other day and have only played it once, so it's level nine at the moment. Their start is quite different from the others I've played and the added cinematics are interesting. I'm thinking I picked the wrong class since I'm not really enjoying it at all. I didn't want to make another paladin though. It's definitely time to make my Tauren Hunter.


I really want to watch another instant movie tonight, but I'm completely unsure of what I should pick. Right now I'm leaning towards this movie:





I still haven't seen it yet and the reviews that I've read so far are praising it quite a lot. A cute family movie is probably what I need right now too. I also don't want to watch something really long, so this fits the bill quite well.


Don't be surprised if there's a review of it up by the end of tonight.

It's A New Year Already!?

Damn. I agree with whomever says that each year goes by faster than the one before. December especially flew by insanely fast. I think work distorted my perception of time. 


Speaking of work...Friday was my last day. I got to end the year with losing my job. Oh joy. I have an interview with the General Manager on Wednesday, but I know that there are no cashier spots opening up. Every seasonal employee does the interview, so we'll probably be told how well we did over the holidays and things of that nature. I'm extremely sad to see it end. I really enjoyed the people there. 


Yesterday night wasn't very exciting. I actually took a nap shortly after I got home since I was stupidly tired. About an hour and a half till midnight my grandma and I went over to my cousins house and snacked on chips, dip, and drank some sparkling grape juice I picked up. We watched the ball drop in New York on the TV and then I played WoW till four in the morning. Haha. 


One of these years I want to go to New York to bring in the New Year. The atmosphere seems amazing and just seeing all the people and music would be extremely awesome. 2012 would be a good year to go there since it'd be after the whole "world is ending" thing. 


I haven't really been on my desktop yet, so I'm still unable to update with postcards and swaps that I've received. I'm actually trying to get back into swapping and sending postcards more since I almost stopped over this past months. Everything slowed down though from the holidays. 


I did watch an instant movie through Netflix on my Wii tonight though. It's a foreign movie that came out in 2008 in Sweden. Obviously the actors/actresses talk in Swedish, so I watched it with the English subtitles. America just did a remake of it though that came out in October (I believe it was) in 2010. Here's my review:





I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. 


Since the English version of this movie was released all I've heard is that the original is a lot better and a must see. I have not seen the English version, so I am unable to compare the two, but Im not extremely impressed with the original. I had absolutely no problems with watching a movie in a foreign language. The subtitles were easy to read except in a few snowy scenes. White on white isnt exactly the greatest. 


One thing that I believe took away from the movie was the way the scenes flowed. They were choppy and sometimes I caught myself saying "What just happened?" Some snippets of scenes I didnt understand and actually read a bit about it so that I could fully understand the movie. The snippets were shown so quickly that I really had no idea what was even shown. 


Overall it was an alright movie. I think they should have thought about how they were going to move through the plot more carefully so that more necessary information was included. Id recommend it to anyone who enjoys old vampire laws, a slower pace, and books turned into movies.


I headed over to Best Buy today and they almost didn't have the movie I was looking for again. There was three or four left and today was the last day it was on sale:





I saw this movie in theatres when it first came out. It's definitely really good and I'll probably be watching it tomorrow or within the next few days. I also watched Beauty and the Beast last night, which was quite a nostalgic ride. 


There's only about a week left of winter break now, which means I really need to get in gear to buy my textbooks. The college reopens on Monday, so I'll most likely get everything ordered then. Other than that things are pretty mellow right now. 

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR!