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.
I'm going to start this post off by saying that the missing cat I talked about in the previous post was found shortly after. I went into the kitchen at around 9 P.M. on Saturday to give my diabetic cat her insulin shot and heard Jack meowing and scratching at the garage door. I was so happy that I cried. She's fine and was her normal self immediately, so all is well in that aspect.
This past week has been a mix of ups and downs so far. I've been barely getting any sleep, but that's mostly my fault by staying up until four in the morning talking and playing games. Today was a dozy though.
I had to wake up two hours earlier than normal since I had an interview with Best Buy. I was pretty happy about the interview until I started getting ready. I couldn't find anything I was looking for, none of my dressier clothes fit, and to top it all off I was being yelled at by my grandmother. So needless to say I wasn't too happy with how the day started when I headed to Best Buy.
When I got there I found out that it was basically a free for all. Anyone could come in and have an interview, so I really don't understand why they bothered to call me. There was 8 or 9 people sitting in a little area they had designated, so I had a seat with them to wait until my name was called.
The interview itself was short and all they did was ask designated questions and wrote down my answers. The interviewer said over the next few days they're going to compare notes and chose who they think will work the best. Considering a ton of people were interviewed I highly doubt I'll get a call back, but at least I had something I suppose.
Besides that about the only other good thing that has happened so far this week is that I got a 91/100 on my first Calculus test. Apparently the average score was a 78/100, so I did really well and am highly pleased with it. The teacher also said that our class was weird in that people either did really well, or failed. All I know is that what we're going over right now seems really pointless and no one's understanding much of it at all.
I think this will be about the middle of the post, so I'll update with the postcards I've received. These ones are from Postcrossing:
This one is from Japan and since I don't know any Japanese I have no idea what it says. I also don't know anyone who speaks/writes it, so I guess I'm kind of out of luck with this one.
From the Netherlands
From Arkansas (USA) I really like how the moth looks.
From Finland. My scanner messed it up, so it looks a lot better than that.
I thought I had some from Swap-bot as well, but I guess I've already posted those on here. Ah well.
Anyway. I'll now get back to why this day was terrible besides what I've already said. I had a little bit after the interview until my Sculpture class so I took a little nap. Got to class alright, blah blah. We had to wait about 20 minutes before the teacher showed up. We were all about to leave when he walked in. Everyone seemed to either be really tired (like I was) or just not into doing any art today. I slogged through the 50 minute drawing we do almost every class and then started on my 2nd sculpture. After an hour and a half I just wanted to leave, but there was still 45 minutes of class left, so I asked if we didn't want to do anymore if we could just be done for the day. He agreed, so that was really good and I was happy since I'd be able to get home early and just sleep for a while. Apparently the world didn't think that was a very good thing.
I get to my car and leave the college. I take the highway home, but am only on it for 2 exits until mine comes up. I was in the center lane and sped up a little bit so I could get past the car in the right lane before merging into it and then getting off at my exit. Right as I'm about to put my turn signal on I smell something terrible and BAM! instantly smoke has filled the cab of the car and I can barely see. I immediately turn on my turn signal and just swerve to the side of the road. I'm glad I didn't hit any cars or anything, but I panicked. I put the car in park and turned it off and got out of the car as quickly as I could.
I stood a little away from the car and called home. My grandma answer, but I could barely hear since I was on the highway so I just told her where I was and to come get me. She took forever to get there even though my house was only four minutes away. But she got there and we popped the hood and there was no smoke. It didn't even smell like anything weird either. However, it still smelled absolutely terrible inside the car.
My grandma called home to see if my dad was there and he had just gotten home so he came out there. So there we were with a 1978 Oldsmobile (Mine), a little sports car (Grandma's) and a huge van (Grandma's but dad drives it) on the side of the highway trying to figure out what happened. My dad used to be a mechanic, so he knows what he's doing and looked it all over. He didn't notice anything wrong with it so it turned it on. It started up fine and there was no smoke, so he drove it home while I drove the little car and my grandma took the van.
On the way home it was fine, but we've been having problems with the heater core in it for a few weeks now, so my dad thinks that finally gave out. He doesn't want me to drive it tomorrow, which I am grateful for, but it definitely scared me. I've never had anything like that happen before. I'll probably use the incident to reinforce that I'm cursed. Haha.
Other than that things have been pretty ok. I feel less stressed and actually have the opportunity to go do something I've been wanting to do for a few years now: go to ACEN. That stands for Anime Central and is a huge anime convention in Chicago. It isn't until May, but planning early is definitely something you have to do. I'm skeptical about it though since I doubt I'll still be talking to the person I'd be going with by then, but who knows.
Another fun/annoying thing I did last night/today was download and play the Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow demo. That was a bitch to download. When it first started it was just about midnight last night. According to the time it said it would take it should have finished by around 4 in the morning. I only paid attention to it for the first 20% before going to bed, so at the rate it was going, the time seemed accurate. Well...I checked it at 11 in the morning and it was at 93% I have no idea what happened during the time I was sleeping and at my interview, but that download was taking way too long. Luckily by the time I was home again it was finished. I only played it about 2 hours ago though.
I'm not sure where in the game the demo starts you off at, but Gabriel (the main character) already has a boat load of skills and abilities. His weapon is also a whip and for some reason that thing can hit enemies from extremely far away. It makes the game seem way too easy since you can just keep mashing the buttons and kill everything.
My favorite ability/skill though is the Dodge Roll. Gabriel rolls so quickly and far that you can just keep doing that and nothing can hit you. Where it started me off I had to fight some werewolves and then a werewolf boss. For the boss fight I just kept rolling all over the area and then jumping and doing the aerial combo.
I've read that the boss fights can be really hard, but with how the fights are done I honestly don't see the difficulty. My only playing a demo doesn't really show me much, but hopefully without all of those abilities there's a challenge.
The graphics are definitely really good although I did notice some things that seem off. How Gabriel runs is an example, it just seems really strange and awkward. When I was fighting something I didn't notice it though since things move a lot faster, but just running up to things and stuff like that it's highly noticeable. The scene the demo also started on, it was raining, but how everything looked wet was really strange. The horse Gabriel was riding was definitely messed up. It almost looked metallic and a lot more reflective than it should have been for just being wet fur. I'm probably being too picky, but for all the hype about it I almost have to be.
I doubt I'll ever play the full game of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, but if I do it'd definitely be a long ways from now when it's discounted. I'd probably just play it to see the environment since what I have seen of the game is pretty damn beautiful. Hopefully the graphics live up to those standards and not what I've already witnessed with the demo.
I think I'm going to start this post off with the good things that have happened recently. Craigslist actually came in handy and got me back in the saddle, literally.
I've been wanting to get back into riding horses again after taking a year long break for school, job searching, etc. I don't want to just take lessons once a week. In fact, I'd rather not have to pay to ride at all. I actually posted an ad on CL stating that I would like to work on a horse farm in exchange for being able to ride. I never got any responses, but last Saturday or Sunday I saw an ad about a lady who owned a horse farm that had broken her ankle. She was looking for an experienced rider to ride two of her Thoroughbreds.
I sent her an email about my experience with horses, but wasn't really expecting anything since I hadn't ridden in a year. Well she responded and we exchanged a few emails until she gave me her number. The next day I called her and we set it up so that on Wednesday afternoon I would come out to her farm and ride her schooling horse, so we could see how I was doing before riding the more spirited ones.
Wednesday came and it was so nice being in the saddle again. Once I asked the horse to trot and starting posting I could definitely tell that I wasn't in that good of shape anymore. I rode that horse for a little bit until they brought the calmer of the two Thoroughbreds out. She told me prior about the "bad" things the horses would do on their off days, but it was really nothing compared to what I had dealt with before.
I mounted the horse and rode about the same amount of time as the first. This was definitely more of a "get up and go" type of horse, but I like that since they don't take much encouraging to change their gaits. I rode the horse at a walk, trot, and canter. The only time the horse got over excited was when I asked him to canter one of the times and he took off at first. He was very easy to bring back down to a walk again though.
Overall I really enjoyed it and am hoping to go back out there tomorrow. When I first left the farm I wasn't sore at all, but a few hours after I got home I was definitely feeling the burn. It's not Saturday and I am still a little sore in some spots from it. It's definitely worth it to be doing something I love again though.
Now is where I think I want to put in the Postcards I've received. Putting the pictures in the middle of the post seems like a good thing to do. These first cards are from Postcrossing:
From Canada
Karleby, Finland
England
U.S.
Minsk, Belarus
I really like this card. It looks like it was done with watercolors.
These next two PC's are from Swap-bot and the Fall Leaves PC Swap:
I really love this card. It was handmade and it's laminated, so it's all shiny. Haha. I'm not sure if that's the way it goes, but it's how I prefer it. I really have no idea why I like it so much, but I do.
Ok. Now is when the sad stuff that's happened comes out. I think I'm going to copy and paste most of it since I've told the story several times now. Here it is:
I got home from class yesterday at a bit after noon and was informed by my grandma that one of our three cats, Jack (female), has been missing for around an hour. All of my cats are indoor cats and most of the time they are in plain sight. They are really friendly and mainly sleep on the couches or our beds. If Jack ever is hiding and I want to pet her or whatever I just call her name and she'll appear.
I was feeding one of my other cats when my grandma told me, so I grabbed the treat bag and started to shake it and called for Jack. Nothing. I tried upstairs. Nothing. I thought it was odd that she wasn't coming out of hiding, but didn't think much of it then. About an hour later I start looking for her since I'm getting a little bit worried. I spent a few hours going through every single place in my house several times trying to find her. Still nothing.
At this point it's about 4 in the afternoon. Jack has never been out of sight for this long, so of course I'm getting even more worried. I ask my grandpa, who is always working on stuff outside, if he left a door open or anything to where Jack could have gotten outside. He doesn't know for sure, but he thinks the door might have been open a little bit, but that he was working right next to it all day.
Now Jack has only been outside several times and that's only because my dad's stupid and let her out. When she was outside she would go right into the garage and just wander in there since she seemed pretty scared about being outside of the house. So it really makes no sense to me that she would go outside in the first place, let alone run away.
I went outside though and walked around and called her name. Our backyard is a ravine, so I spent a lot of time over there listening for any movement and stuff. Nothing still. We also live right next to a busy road, so that has me extra worried since she could very easily get hit by a car.
It's now 8:10 P.M. the next day and there's still no sign of her. I've posted an ad on Craigslist stating that she's missing and put a few pictures up on there as well. I really don't know what else to do since we've looked everywhere around here. On Monday I'll probably check some animal shelters and places like that for her. Another thing that has me really worried is the weather. It's been really cold and rainy all day, so I want her here and in the warm house. Everything about this situation just sucks. Here's two pictures of her:
I just really hope everything turns out ok. I don't need more stress and craziness right now.
Well things have definitely flipped around a bit since my last post. I decided to decline the job offer and really looked at community colleges that offered what I was looking for. I refuse to pay an insane amount of money for the same knowledge and experience I'd get at someplace cheaper.
To my surprise there is a community college in Iowa that looks absolutely amazing. It has everything I want in every aspect and non-residents only pay $10 more per credit hour, which is crazily cheap compared to a lot of the colleges and universities I looked at. It even has on campus housing. There are two other community colleges that I wrote down to keep looking at. One is also in Iowa and the other is in Wyoming. They both appear to be very good, but I really fell in love with the first one. What sucks though is that I'll probably have to wait until next fall to attend due to housing most likely being full. I am definitely going to email them though to make sure and ask whatever other questions I have.
I am definitely pleased that I have decided to pursue what I love. The main issue is getting to the college and adjusting to not living at home or being near family. It will probably be a major shock, but hopefully I'll be fine. Another problem is paying for it all. The Pell Grant will be able to pay for the classes and books and things like that, but as for housing, that's almost the cost of the classes so I'll have to apply to as many scholarships as I possibly can.
I've also received two postcards since my last post. This one is from the Netherlands for Postcrossing:
And this one is from Finland for the site Sendsomething.net:
There really isn't much else that has happened. I am actually enjoying Calculus, which blows my mind since all throughout school I absolutely loathed any type of math class. However, I have to take the first test within a week, so we'll see how I'm doing then. I'm in a few postcard swaps right now, so I should have more PC's to post here soon.
Oh, I've also been playing Pokemon HeartGold and Castlevania for the N64. I am on such a Nintendo kick right now it's ridiculous. Castlevania is surprisingly really fun, but stupidly hard. "HAVE FUN WITH THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE" is pretty much what you can hear the creators saying at one point in the game. With Pokemon I get completely addicted to it and will end up putting way too many hours on it. I just do not know when to put it down, but my lack of a charge cord has already interfered with that. It feels really good to start playing games again.
Now I just need to start reading all the books I have...
