Can't resist the (ahem) holiday icon.

I hate having all-day headaches from hormones. Added work drama does not help matters (none of it is particularly poised to suck me in, but I ended up staying late to deal with it because teenagers are stupid, stupid creatures sometimes). And I have meetings all tomorrow morning so heaven knows how all that's going to play out. I also need to do chores around the apartment and start packing (yay for book boxes!). And all my instincts want me to be a slug all weekend since it's my first weekend without class.

I pretty much aced the grad class, btw. I'm beginning to think that the insane writing program I was involved in during undergrad has given me an unfair advantage in grad school. And then I cackle because I rock so hard.

Downside is that grades won't be available on transcripts until December when the regular semester ends, which means reimbursement paperwork will have to wait 'til then. Nuts.

I can say that I am definitely liking the 2003 Astro Boy series. Picked it up on Sunday when I was out with The Girl as a bit of a YAY CLASS IS OVER present to myself. It doesn't come in subtitles, but the voice-acting is about regular American cartoon normal, which means it's not Oscar-winning but the actors didn't phone in their lines in one take like some anime dubs. They picked a really weird one for Dr. Tenma... he reminds me a little of a phone sex operator. XD I've noticed some of the romanizations of the names are different, and the 2003 series lacks some of the really depressing moments of the 1980's version.

Miso has been dubbed adorable by one of The Girl's coworkers.

I am envious of the NaNo participants, but realistically there's no way I can participate this year with moving and packing to do on top of my usual insane workload. I might still get off my butt and write something, though. It's been an age since I actually sat down and wrote stories, and doing a little comment flashfic for glitterbats makes me want to do something cool again. Maybe when this all-day headache goes away.

I'm having fun being a paladin. I'm going to spec her holy and take healing for a spin, since I enjoy being DPS and tanking definitely drives me up a wall. I haven't healed in years, though, and my last healie character was a shadow-specced priest, so this will be interesting. Moose even quit Demon Soul in disgust and rolled on my server on Alliance side and is considering bringing his badass prot warrior over and faction-changing to play with the rest of us gaiz. Hey, his tank will have a healer if I can settle down and play for a while.

( The coffe's not the only thing that's hot! )

Title Ref, since it's too good not to drag out occasionally.

I think I can add Astro Boy to my official list of fandoms (TM).

We did end up seeing the latest movie incarnation last night. It was actually a nice round of fun. I do agree with the other criticisms that Donald Sutherland's performance fell pretty flat, in that adult-trying-too-hard-to-be-relevant-to-kids sort of way, but the other guys were pretty fine, even if that made Dr. Elefun outrageously British. (And I'm sorry, he'll always been Ochanimizu-hakase to me.) When I heard some of the voice acting crit I went in expecting something along the lines of the Escaflowne dub, though, so my expectations might have been lowered.

In all, it did a competent job of following what I have managed to figure out is the basic Astro Boy sort of mythology. (My only other reference is the 1980's Astro Boy, though. I'm actually considering getting the 2003 animated series now too.) It did have an overlay of pretty stock Hollywood Kid Movie Hero's Journey Plot in there, but it still managed to capture that undertone of alienation and trying to fit in that runs through the anime. Parts are, in fact, about as dark as the series itself got, which is kind of a feat in a US kid's movie. (Though between this and Where the Wild Thing Are I'm kind of seeing a revival of unflinching storytelling reminiscent of the kid's movies of the 1980's-1990's before everything suddenly got sanitized.) Heck, they even managed to do the entire backstory on screen which if you know Astro Boy's origin story might raise your eyebrows.

I was even happy since it did manage to feature one of my two favorite characters after all-- Daddy Mustache got about a zillion minor cameos (they decided to translate him as Mustacio-- or however you spell that). Uran wasn't in it, but I didn't expect her to be as she was a later addition to the anime's cast, at least in the 80's Astro Boy.

It is sad, though, that of most of the stuff out right now or that I want to see in the near future, more of it is PG-G level than not. (Though I totes want to see Avatar now.)

Tomorrow I may or may not be seeing the new Astro Boy movie with The Girl. We know going in that it's going to be hella Americanized, and a lot depends on how bushwhacked we both are by the end of the day. It does, however, make a good excuse to show off Uran-chan. Alas, she is not in the new movie. Which is a double-alas since they'd be obligated to give her superpowers too in the Girls Can So Kick Butt Law of the mid-90's

I have also learned today that Miso is a nut for tuna fish, to the point of repeatedly trying to climb into the sink in order to lick the dishes for the PRECIOUS PRECIOUS REMAINS OF TUNA OM NOM NOM.

And holycrap the new layout is full of ALLCAPS.

Materials

3 5oz cans of tuna (15 oz total)
1 12 oz package noodles, cooked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
a bit less than a pint of cream, to moisten
brick of frozen corn
brick of frozen green beans
brick of frozen peas
crapton of grated Parmesan that's been sitting in the fridge
convenient breadcrumbs or panko to coat the top

Process

Combine all ingredients but breadcrumbs in a 9 x 13 pan. Or in a bowl if you're smart, which you will then pour into the pan.

Cover the top with breadcrumbs.

Bake at 325 for 25 min or until happy. (you want the veggies to still have a bit of crunch)

Eat and congratulate yourself. And fight the cat for it.

• 20:40 Nooooo I am stuck playing Cafe World!
• 20:56 I miss photoshop. Making icons is harder in GIMP.
• 21:05 zzzzzzzzzzzz

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I am going to make tuna noodle casserole this week.

I couldn't find any recipes that had the stuff I have on hand, so I'm going to riff off the ones I did find and see where it gets me. Wish me luck.

• 20:43 I has a friendbar. Maybe it will give me an edge in Farmville. Yes I am that addicted.

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Things I have managed to do so far this week:

-- See Where the Wild Things Are and bawl like a baby
-- Catch a case of the lurgy that I'm still not 100% free of... stupid chinese place
-- Start playing WoW again after getting tremendously sick of Aion's lagging and getting intel about some of the grind-tastic mind-numbing grinding in the later levels (hey, I played the free month at least)
-- Start a draenai paladin on a new server, just for kicks (and 'cause pallies aren't the trainwreck warriors still are)
-- Write a decent draft of the paper I have to have for class and send it to my awesome helpful librarian to take a look at it
-- Get the paperwork turned in for ~*~moving~*~
-- Get bus tickets to New York on 12/12 for me and The Girl
-- Order a pretty wreath to support some helpful teenagers and their music program (I've been getting one every year, and the things last from early December pretty well into January, so it's worth it!)

Things I still need to do in the near future:

-- Finish catching up with work since the lurgy put me a little behind
-- Get cash to buy that pie I ordered from those helpful teenagers
-- Clean the apartment for the pre-moving inspection
-- Get more sicky food D:
-- Get another underbed storage box to keep the terrorist cat from climbing into the box spring in the future (he managed to rip a hole in the bottom and I'd rather he not rip another one.. and I can always use more boxes at this point)
-- Get boxes so I can pack AUGH
-- See Astro Boy and hope that it's going to be as cute as the trailer suggests
-- Finish class in two weeks ZOMG FINALLY

• 22:17 I am the worst twitter person in the universe. Last tweet in August? Ouch.

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I am attempting a cooking experiment in my crock-pot today while also using the time to do errands and do my best lump impression. I shall probably post something if the cooking bit works out-- from the way it smells now, it will either be awesome or suck terribly. THERE WILL BE NO MIDDLE GROUND.

I'm working through the paperwork for moving in November. I have a pre-move inspection scheduled for the 26th which means I have cleaning to do this week in addition to working on the last bits of stuff for my class, which ends at the end of the month. It's actually kind of exciting to be moving because I want to into a bigger space than I had before.

AND THEN I will hopefully be going to New York on the twelfth of December. Assuming there are spaces still left on the bus.. but with any luck I'll be going on an epic date with The Girl.

I have a feeling it's going to be an insane next few months. But then I'm kind of angling for quiet on the actual holidays and perhaps even staying home for a change with my insane cat.

The weather's been pretty unremittingly cold and rainy lately-- it feels like it did last December, if you want to be honest, so I figured I'd break out some of the Christmas music I have sitting in the computer and give them a listen, since I'm planning on waiting a bit before putting up decorations this year. Here's hoping this set of holidays will be good. :3

I spent today working on a paper and goofing off on Facebook and then selling football tickets to a cold a rainy game. (I'm pretty sure we lost.)

Today has been not too bad of a day off. Though I have to get up early tomorrow and do class. Boo.

I love screwing around on Facebook. I have discovered Farmville and the world will no longer be safe for cows!

Also, pictures of things coming to Flickr eventually. I have to go through them and do some cropping and ask people about wedding pictures and you know the drill.

Oh yeah, I went to a wedding on Sunday. :D katimus_prime and roflcopter_down's wedding to be precise. It was totes awesome. And I bawled like a baby at parts because it was OMGROMANTIC. And I have no idea what sort of wine was in the wedding favor.. help?

I got my hair dyed on Saturday but I can't find a decent non-blurry picture of myself with the new hair. :| I may have to coerce The Girl into taking a few when I see her again. It's purple-red and given the fact that it has universally been proclaimed awesome, I might just have to keep it that way for a while. Just because.

Of course, now I'm back to the rat race because I didn't decide to take vacation today. Blerg for transitioning back to hectic work schedule. I get a yay since I'm off Friday, but I'll likely be spending it on college work so boo anyway. Not to mention the mountain of paperwork from my actual job that I'll need to read through. sigh.

I am trying to talk The Girl into moving in with me in November when I move apartments. Wish me luck. :3

Fall is definitely here. The air is crisp like apples that have been in the fridge for a bit and it's been gloriously windy like it hasn't been in quite a while. The trees are just beginning to turn colors, though none of them have quite managed to put on the firey colors of late autumn just yet. This year I think I'm actually optimistic for snow. Nice romantic dustings of it and a good freezing blizzard that shuts down the schools for a week. I'll take working a little extra in June.

I'm going to move apartments in November. Right around Black Friday so I'll probably be incommunicado for a while. I don't know-- it depends a lot on how smoothly the transfer goes for my phone and DSL service and how smoothly the transfer of my stuff goes. I have all the stuff, so that's not going to be a problem. It's a bit bigger and while I'm expecting to pay a bit more than I do now, it's worth it since I'm gaining quite a bit of square footage and an actual kitchen equipped with a dishwasher.

I haven't had a dishwasher in years and I loathe handwashing dishes with a purple passion. This is a big deal.

I'm not going to get to cook Thanksgiving dinner, obviously. I did order myself an apple pie assembled raw and ready-to-bake by a bunch of teenagers. It's really funny since the majority of the takers for the class that's providing the pies are male. And hot damn those guys can cook. They are a nice bit of extra credit to the gender. Since the pie will keep for a month and I signed up for late October delivery, I plan on eating pie on my last night in the packed-up apartment. Possibly with either ice cream or whipped topping. This is not an unhappy thought since I'm sure I'll end up getting turkey and all anyway with the family, just probably in town rather than up where they live. The local diner puts on a reservation-only Thanksgiving feast, so I think I'll be well taken care of even if it is just me.

Work goes on. I'm having fun with it. A little bushwhacked, but that always happens when I have to deal with a hundred or so essays that I have to read carefully. I'll catch up tomorrow or Friday with the rest and probably just stay late Monday too if it comes to that. I don't have class this weekend, but I do want to devote some time to straightening up and working on the big paper that will be due for my class in a few weeks. Even with the late-phase-class crunch looming, I am glad now I chose an accelerated course. It means I'm free in November to pack and clean for the move!

And since I have managed to come full circle, I shall sign off now.

And don't ask me about NaNo. I'm debating it.

Yatsumi v 2.0 is officially spreading the gospel of her boot up someone's ass. Aion released today, and so I was able to put in my awesome serial code, my digital collector's edition upgrade (suck it, Game Stop), and set up my payments so I don't have to keep mucking about with game cards. Yats is ascended and level 12 and OMG I MISSED BEING ABLE TO PWN THINGS. Gladiators kick ass.

There will probably be screenshots and other sundry images later when I'm done drooling.

Symantec has also generously let people beta test Norton 2010 for free, so I'ma go install that. Booyah.

And then I shall knit!

The Crud is mostly gone but now I have post-nasal drip on a scale I haven't had since I was a little girl. I'm seriously staring down the barrel of at least a week of hacking cough. NOT FUN.

And now I'm going to bed because omg tired. Stupid hacking cough.

Dragon chart, homes.

OMG GAIZ I OFFICIALLY HAVE A FEVER.

So I am officially STAYING THE HELL HOME tomorrow with this crud thing. Since usually when I get sick my temperature goes DOWN and not UP.

And my brains always goes first, which is why I am LOVING THE CAPSLOCK RIGHT NOW.

Peace y'all.

I've managed to completely destroy an attempt at making the "easy" french apple tart in the Barefoot Contessa book I have. It's my first actual total destruction of a Barefoot Contessa recipe-- I've managed to screw them up, but at least the screw ups were edible.

My apartment smells of burnt sugar and I am zapping a TV dinner for dinner. (Thankfully, that was my plan to begin with.)

I do believe I might have to leave the complicated stuff to the pros, at least until I can get to a place where the oven/stove is not freaking tilted.

Seriously, it's not level and all the butter and sugar in the tart ended up sliding into one corner and turning into gunk. I didn't notice how much of it had migrated until the end since I've gotten so used to the sight of something gooking up in one corner of a pan. I may in fact need a new baking sheet if all that carbonized sugar can't be removed. :|

On the plus side, I have ice cream still and the local store of grocery does have a mean baking department so I might be able to fulfill my cravings for something appley after all. Maybe I'll even go all out and get an apple pie.

I am taking the plunge and posting pictures of myself on the internet. In my Flickr of all places!



It's a year old since I have very few actual pics of myself, let alone ones that turned out fabulous. I'm usually behind the camera annoying the crap out of everyone.

On the other hand, I got rid of my Facebook a couple of days ago. I made it back when Facebook first started and was limited to people on college campuses, went through the obligatory rush of friending and joining groups, and then proceeded to ignore the thing for years since I had other things to do besides yawp around on Facebook. And then I deleted it since I couldn't remember who half the people I friended even were and most of the people I did know hadn't updated in a couple of years either.

I am considering creating a brand new account and going from there, just because it appears to be a pretty big shiny deal these days, but we'll see. I'd rather whine about my life in my journal most of the time like I did back when I was a stupid young thing. (Though admittedly, I didn't even start online journaling until I started college, so I managed to skip most of the worst of the Teenaged Angst phase.)

Anyone else on Facebook and actually use it? I could use some of the down-low.

Also: the floor at work is killing my feet. Man what a difference being on the ground floor makes!

• 21:21 I can has bugbite on my foot? WTF?!
• 23:09 I just finished the 50 book challenge! And it's only August!

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• 16:55 is.gd/2CyIG In case anyone wonders why I changed the licensing on my flickr, the link is why. No assholes allowed to use my pics!
• 18:40 So I made pork chops. And they weren't cooked through. And then I zapped them. They were tasty.

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Hi, I am still alive!

Work is going worklike. I'm staying late most days finishing things, since there was some wonderful copier drama that's still sort of sorting itself out.

I am going to knit myself a new scarf. I bought yarn and needles today and I'm partway through making yarnballs. If I'm lucky I might get things cast on and get the first row done tonight.

Had a minor scare with the heater, so I ended up doing something grownup and getting myself renter's insurance finally to cover my stuff. Everything's fine-- it was a non-gas weird smell that the maintenance guy said was most likely some dust or something falling and getting toasted by the pilot light. Which has, by the way, been shut down until I need it when it actually gets chilly, just to be on the safe side. The smell's gone now after I aired the place out, but it was still quite a bit of a scare.

Renter's insurance is actually remarkably cheap, though I am probably going to cry when I see my credit card bill at this rate. :|

And now I am going to go play with yarn and sleep, since tomorrow is another day.

• 17:43 ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz I wish I could get my sleep figured out already.

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