The usual "I'm still alive!" post
Sooo...since I have some time to spare right now, why not update my LJ? Y/Y?
My last remaining guinea pig, Cameo, died early Saturday morning. I'd post up a picture of her like I did when her sister, Ginger, died in August, but I don't have any here with me on my laptop. So I'll edit this post when I get back home on Thursday (early weekend = YAY!). But wow. 6 years, 9 months. Almost the maximum lifespan of 7 years! I'd say she lived long and well, wouldn't you agree? :)
R.I.P. Cameo
~July 2003 - March 2010~
Not going to lie. It feels stange looking at the cage and not seeing anything there. At least when Ginger passed, Cameo was still there moving about as usual. But now, it's just so empty. And out of habit, I still look over at the cage everytime I go to the kitchen, and then I'm reminded that they're both gone. And if the cage is ever used again for another guinea pig or 2, it won't be happening for a very long time. My mom can't handle the death cycle anymore.
It was super tough on me when my first guinea pig, Teddy, died about a year and a half after I got him. He was so young compared to these two. But I guess that's because we got him from a pet store. These 2 we got from a friend of our neighbor who had bought a guinea pig, Honey, that ended up being pregnant. She had 3 babies: 2 girls, 1 boy. I was originally only supposed to get one, but one of my parents suggested that I take both girls (I want to say it was my mom, but I don't remember). And my ex-friend got the boy and named it S'mores. I heard from snacksonsnacks that he died like 2-4 years ago. And Honey also died like 2-3 years ago, so both of mine outlasted them by quite a bit. I'm assuming it's because we cared for them their whole lives (minus the first 2 weeks, which they needed to spend with Honey because of the milk they needed from her and stuff), rather than them being at a pet store for a few months. Not all stores seem to know how to care for them properly. Most stores I've been to use this pine stuff for the bedding, but that's actually bad for their respiratory system. I don't get why everyone still sells the stuff when it's been proven to be harmful to them.
But yeah, we used that with Teddy for awhile until we heard it was bad, and switched to something else. But since we already knew about that the second time around, Ginger and Cameo always got safe bedding. And obviously they didn't come into contact with a bunch of other guinea pigs that could've had diseases. The only issue that either of these had was that Ginger had a tumor in one of her nipples, which was only known when she got a checkup like 3-4 years ago when I noticed that she seemed a bit sick. But the doctor said guinea pigs can live with a tumor in them without a problem, and that ended up being the case with Ginger it seems. Other than that, they were healthy and well fed. Honey's owner always remarked at how large they were compared to their mother. XD
Anyways, I'm thinking about re-watching Rockman.EXE again one of these days. Not sure why, but I always seem to end up wanting to do this like once or twice a year. XD But knowing me, either it'll get put off and never happen, or I'll start to watch a few episodes, but then get sidetracked by other things and never finish. If I do, I probably won't bother watching anything beyond Axess (except maybe Beast since I have a few subbed episodes that I haven't watched yet). The original series and Axess are both so much love. ♥ Speaking of EXE, whatever happened to the EXE OSS game? I know it's been out in Japan for a few months, but I haven't seen any info about it coming to the U.S. I wonder if it will. I've been itching to replay the EXE games for the longest time (even though I haven't completed a single one of them after all these years), so playing the first game on DS would be nifty~ If anyone on my friends list *cough*rend_dxormizunosakura*cough* knows anything about that, let me know? The only EXE related sites I visit are Rockman AMV and Rockman.EXE Online. I really should just go to Protodude's Rockman Corner since it seems like most, if not all, Rockman fansites use him as a source. XD
Video games are awesome as usual. Since last time, I bought all of the games that I was planning on getting. I'm pretty much near the end of Pokémon SoulSilver (got my 16th badge yesterday, so I just have to fight Red, and then it's all just catching the rest of the Pokémon like I usually attempt to do), I'm still in case 4 of Ace Attorney Investigations (I play from time to time when I'm not focusing on homework or SoulSilver), and I'm very early on in Endless Ocean: Blue World (the part after the first dive where Oceana runs off).
The launch day for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver was craaaaazy. I met up with mizunosakura at Nintendo World (but MUCH later than I planned because my phone alarm decided to be stupid and wake me up an hour late even though I turned my phone off/on when the time jumped ahead an hour for DST to correct the time, thinking that the phone alarm would know to go off at 6:30 like I wanted it to), and we got the games there. (But I guess me showing up late was okay because I didn't have to be creeped out by the Munchlax guy for nearly as long as everyone else who was there. XP) They gave us the pre-order figures, and we also got these cool nylon bags for free. :) And I bought myself a Mew Pokédoll and an Altaria figure...only to realize later that I had already bought an Altaria figure before, which I didn't remember at all for some odd reason. ^^; But it's okay because I gave it to sinxcosxtanx, which I'll get to later~
But yeah, then we headed over to Toys R Us for their HGSS event (since Nintendo World decided to be stupid and have their event the weekend AFTER the game release >_<) and got TONS of free goodies from there. :D Stickers, coloring sheets, t-shirts, Pikachu visors, a DS starter kit thingy (with 2 styli, 2 cartridge cases that hold 4 games each, and a screen cleaner)...and I think that's it (aside from the free poster promoting Pokémon Rumble that I think they had for a few months before the event). We also signed up for this Pokéwalker walk thing (which was how you got most of this free stuff) where they had Pikachu-shaped footprints outside the store that you followed with a random person who explained the functions of the Pokéwalker. There were a bunch of people taking photos and filming all of this, but I haven't seen a single photo or video from the event online anywhere. But if you find a photo from the event of a bunch of people with a costumed Pikachu, we should be in it. XD (Unless if they took multiple photos of people with Pikachu, which is quite probable.) What was weird was how pretty much everyone who worked at TRU had NO CLUE what we were talking about when we asked them where the event was. I think I just suck at phrasing questions, because Jen had to clarify what we were saying to them all, and THEN they understood what we meant. XD; But even so, they sent us all over the store, and eventually we found out it was outside, not inside. Honestly, why don't staff members know the information about their events?!
Anyways, inbetween the craziness, I forgot to mention that I bought 2 plushies: 1 Cleffa plushie for Jen as a way to repay her for the preorder deposits she put down on HGSS for me (thank you so so so very much for that~ ♥), and 1 Wooper plushie for me because OMG WOOOOOPERRRRR~ ♥ I also wanted this ADORABLE Swinub plushie they had, but I was running SUPER LOW on money after all of the stuff I had bought that day. I'm sure I'll get one eventually, because I think Nintendo World sells the Swinub one too even though it's one of those Jakks Pacific plushies (just overpriced). But yeah, AFTER the craziness, we headed over to the Hard Rock Café for lunch (but Jen left her bag full of games and stuff at TRU when we decided to sit down for a bit to rest, so we headed back, found it untouched thank goodness, and went back on our way to Hard Rock). All of the food was tasty. I haven't eaten a burger that delcious in a long time. :) Of course, the only burgers I really eat anymore are the ones here at college (and occasionally burgers at restaurants when I'm at home), so I guess that might have something to do with it. XP But yeah, after that, I was dropped off at the train station to head home. Thank you SOOOOO MUCH for the awesome day Jen~ ♥ You, your mom, Roxanne, and your cousin (whose name I'm blanking out on right now >_<;) were all so nice! T~T
I'm still way behind on TV shows. Psych, Burn Notice, The Office, and possibly others that I'm failing to remember at the moment. The only shows I've managed to keep up with are How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, and Lost. (And Pokémon DP if we're including animé here...but not really since #PocketMonsters is like 3-4 episodes behind on their subs, which annoys me to no end since they had been so good at staying on schedule with releases for quite awhile. I used to just watch the RAWs on Youtube when they came out, but I'd rather wait to fully understand an episode rather than to speculate on what's being said until the sub is out.) Lost has been pretty good lately, especially last week's episode, OMG. I will feel a little disappointed if the 7 remaining episodes aren't as awesome as that one. Poor Richard. My heart goes out to you, man.
Oh, and I found out tonight that my roommate watches Detective Conan. Well...technically last night because I noticed what was on her laptop screen when she left the room for a bit, but I asked her if what she was watching was in Japanese because I recognized the language, and obviously she said yes. So yeah, I thought mizunosakura would find that tidbit slightly interesting~ ;) Too bad it seems like she doesn't watch any other animé from the sound of things. Or maybe she does and I just don't know it yet. But I'm thinking she watches that because I get the feeling that she just likes to watch lots of dramas and stuff based on what her Chinese movies/shows sound like.
What else... OH! I went to another Patent Pending show on the 20th. But in this case, there was this big 2 year anniversary event thing that Beast Attire, a clothing company, had from the 19th to the 21st. So my friend and I saw 75+ bands play shows 3 days in a row. It was pretty cool. We got to see some other bands from previous shows that we like, such as Set Phasers to Stun and Valet Parking, and we got to hear a bunch of other good bands that we hadn't heard of before, like Lacerda and Score 24. And we got TONS of free stuff from bands handing out stuff to people to advertise. I'm pretty sure I ended up with at least 6-8 CDs by the end of that weekend. XD (I bought like 3-4 of those, but still. :P) Anyways, because so many people wanted Patent Pending to play a bunch of songs that they couldn't play during their set, Joe did an acoustic set in the hallway at the merch table. It was amazing. ♥ And a part of it should show up somewhere on the DVD they've been planning for god knows how long (the first time we heard about the DVD was May of last year, so... XD), which means this is like the 3rd time we've ended up on it. XD
But yeah, we also got to meet Duff Goldman, who you've all probably seen on Food Network's Ace of Cakes. His band, ...SoIHadTo..., played on the 21st. They were cool. It's not often that you come across a band that plays music without lyrics with that kind of sound. It reminded me of my dad's guitar sessions where he just plays songs without singing and uses a bunch of wah-wah pedals for different effects. And the percussionist used a chicken shake! I LOVE the chicken shake! :D But yeah, I got the band's CD (which you should be able to find online to purchase if you look up the band), and my friend got their poster (which also had a link for a digital download of the album) and had all of the band members sign it. If I weren't a sucker for physical CDs, I would've gotten the poster instead because it was the same price as the CD, and technically came with the same music as the CD. But whatever. :P We've got one of each thing, so I'm cool with that.
And FINALLY, I forgot to mention my other trip to NYC during spring break on the 18th. I went in to visit 2 art museums for my art classes. The Met was boring as usual, and the Museum of Arts and Design was awesome. :) The exhibit I had to go see there was really impressive! :D Afterward, I went to Nintendo World to buy more stuff. XD I got Ho-Oh and Lugia Pokédolls, a Mantyke figure, and I bought the issue of Nintendo Power that I missed getting in the mail because I waited too long to renew my subscription. It had HGSS for the cover story, so I OBVIOUSLY needed it. Because I bought all of this Pokémon stuff, the guy who rang me up gave me another nylon bag like the ones from the HGSS release day. :D I gave this bag to sinxcosxtanx along with the duplicate Altaria figure that I mentioned earlier. She works at a Gamestop, so she snagged the giant "Coming Soon" HGSS posters that they had in the store windows. She gave me the Ho-Oh one since she kept Lugia for herself, so I decided to give her something in return for the awesome poster. :)
...I spent WAY too much time on this update. But I think it covers just about everything I've wanted to say on here for over a month now though. XD I'LL ATTEMPT TO POST HERE MORE OFTEN AGAIN SO THAT THESE DON'T KEEP TURNING INTO JUMBO POSTS.
See ya! ;)
~Melissa~
EDIT: Added in the picture of Cameo.
My last remaining guinea pig, Cameo, died early Saturday morning. I'd post up a picture of her like I did when her sister, Ginger, died in August, but I don't have any here with me on my laptop. So I'll edit this post when I get back home on Thursday (early weekend = YAY!). But wow. 6 years, 9 months. Almost the maximum lifespan of 7 years! I'd say she lived long and well, wouldn't you agree? :)
R.I.P. Cameo
~July 2003 - March 2010~
Not going to lie. It feels stange looking at the cage and not seeing anything there. At least when Ginger passed, Cameo was still there moving about as usual. But now, it's just so empty. And out of habit, I still look over at the cage everytime I go to the kitchen, and then I'm reminded that they're both gone. And if the cage is ever used again for another guinea pig or 2, it won't be happening for a very long time. My mom can't handle the death cycle anymore.
It was super tough on me when my first guinea pig, Teddy, died about a year and a half after I got him. He was so young compared to these two. But I guess that's because we got him from a pet store. These 2 we got from a friend of our neighbor who had bought a guinea pig, Honey, that ended up being pregnant. She had 3 babies: 2 girls, 1 boy. I was originally only supposed to get one, but one of my parents suggested that I take both girls (I want to say it was my mom, but I don't remember). And my ex-friend got the boy and named it S'mores. I heard from snacksonsnacks that he died like 2-4 years ago. And Honey also died like 2-3 years ago, so both of mine outlasted them by quite a bit. I'm assuming it's because we cared for them their whole lives (minus the first 2 weeks, which they needed to spend with Honey because of the milk they needed from her and stuff), rather than them being at a pet store for a few months. Not all stores seem to know how to care for them properly. Most stores I've been to use this pine stuff for the bedding, but that's actually bad for their respiratory system. I don't get why everyone still sells the stuff when it's been proven to be harmful to them.
But yeah, we used that with Teddy for awhile until we heard it was bad, and switched to something else. But since we already knew about that the second time around, Ginger and Cameo always got safe bedding. And obviously they didn't come into contact with a bunch of other guinea pigs that could've had diseases. The only issue that either of these had was that Ginger had a tumor in one of her nipples, which was only known when she got a checkup like 3-4 years ago when I noticed that she seemed a bit sick. But the doctor said guinea pigs can live with a tumor in them without a problem, and that ended up being the case with Ginger it seems. Other than that, they were healthy and well fed. Honey's owner always remarked at how large they were compared to their mother. XD
Anyways, I'm thinking about re-watching Rockman.EXE again one of these days. Not sure why, but I always seem to end up wanting to do this like once or twice a year. XD But knowing me, either it'll get put off and never happen, or I'll start to watch a few episodes, but then get sidetracked by other things and never finish. If I do, I probably won't bother watching anything beyond Axess (except maybe Beast since I have a few subbed episodes that I haven't watched yet). The original series and Axess are both so much love. ♥ Speaking of EXE, whatever happened to the EXE OSS game? I know it's been out in Japan for a few months, but I haven't seen any info about it coming to the U.S. I wonder if it will. I've been itching to replay the EXE games for the longest time (even though I haven't completed a single one of them after all these years), so playing the first game on DS would be nifty~ If anyone on my friends list *cough*rend_dxormizunosakura*cough* knows anything about that, let me know? The only EXE related sites I visit are Rockman AMV and Rockman.EXE Online. I really should just go to Protodude's Rockman Corner since it seems like most, if not all, Rockman fansites use him as a source. XD
Video games are awesome as usual. Since last time, I bought all of the games that I was planning on getting. I'm pretty much near the end of Pokémon SoulSilver (got my 16th badge yesterday, so I just have to fight Red, and then it's all just catching the rest of the Pokémon like I usually attempt to do), I'm still in case 4 of Ace Attorney Investigations (I play from time to time when I'm not focusing on homework or SoulSilver), and I'm very early on in Endless Ocean: Blue World (the part after the first dive where Oceana runs off).
The launch day for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver was craaaaazy. I met up with mizunosakura at Nintendo World (but MUCH later than I planned because my phone alarm decided to be stupid and wake me up an hour late even though I turned my phone off/on when the time jumped ahead an hour for DST to correct the time, thinking that the phone alarm would know to go off at 6:30 like I wanted it to), and we got the games there. (But I guess me showing up late was okay because I didn't have to be creeped out by the Munchlax guy for nearly as long as everyone else who was there. XP) They gave us the pre-order figures, and we also got these cool nylon bags for free. :) And I bought myself a Mew Pokédoll and an Altaria figure...only to realize later that I had already bought an Altaria figure before, which I didn't remember at all for some odd reason. ^^; But it's okay because I gave it to sinxcosxtanx, which I'll get to later~
But yeah, then we headed over to Toys R Us for their HGSS event (since Nintendo World decided to be stupid and have their event the weekend AFTER the game release >_<) and got TONS of free goodies from there. :D Stickers, coloring sheets, t-shirts, Pikachu visors, a DS starter kit thingy (with 2 styli, 2 cartridge cases that hold 4 games each, and a screen cleaner)...and I think that's it (aside from the free poster promoting Pokémon Rumble that I think they had for a few months before the event). We also signed up for this Pokéwalker walk thing (which was how you got most of this free stuff) where they had Pikachu-shaped footprints outside the store that you followed with a random person who explained the functions of the Pokéwalker. There were a bunch of people taking photos and filming all of this, but I haven't seen a single photo or video from the event online anywhere. But if you find a photo from the event of a bunch of people with a costumed Pikachu, we should be in it. XD (Unless if they took multiple photos of people with Pikachu, which is quite probable.) What was weird was how pretty much everyone who worked at TRU had NO CLUE what we were talking about when we asked them where the event was. I think I just suck at phrasing questions, because Jen had to clarify what we were saying to them all, and THEN they understood what we meant. XD; But even so, they sent us all over the store, and eventually we found out it was outside, not inside. Honestly, why don't staff members know the information about their events?!
Anyways, inbetween the craziness, I forgot to mention that I bought 2 plushies: 1 Cleffa plushie for Jen as a way to repay her for the preorder deposits she put down on HGSS for me (thank you so so so very much for that~ ♥), and 1 Wooper plushie for me because OMG WOOOOOPERRRRR~ ♥ I also wanted this ADORABLE Swinub plushie they had, but I was running SUPER LOW on money after all of the stuff I had bought that day. I'm sure I'll get one eventually, because I think Nintendo World sells the Swinub one too even though it's one of those Jakks Pacific plushies (just overpriced). But yeah, AFTER the craziness, we headed over to the Hard Rock Café for lunch (but Jen left her bag full of games and stuff at TRU when we decided to sit down for a bit to rest, so we headed back, found it untouched thank goodness, and went back on our way to Hard Rock). All of the food was tasty. I haven't eaten a burger that delcious in a long time. :) Of course, the only burgers I really eat anymore are the ones here at college (and occasionally burgers at restaurants when I'm at home), so I guess that might have something to do with it. XP But yeah, after that, I was dropped off at the train station to head home. Thank you SOOOOO MUCH for the awesome day Jen~ ♥ You, your mom, Roxanne, and your cousin (whose name I'm blanking out on right now >_<;) were all so nice! T~T
I'm still way behind on TV shows. Psych, Burn Notice, The Office, and possibly others that I'm failing to remember at the moment. The only shows I've managed to keep up with are How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, and Lost. (And Pokémon DP if we're including animé here...but not really since #PocketMonsters is like 3-4 episodes behind on their subs, which annoys me to no end since they had been so good at staying on schedule with releases for quite awhile. I used to just watch the RAWs on Youtube when they came out, but I'd rather wait to fully understand an episode rather than to speculate on what's being said until the sub is out.) Lost has been pretty good lately, especially last week's episode, OMG. I will feel a little disappointed if the 7 remaining episodes aren't as awesome as that one. Poor Richard. My heart goes out to you, man.
Oh, and I found out tonight that my roommate watches Detective Conan. Well...technically last night because I noticed what was on her laptop screen when she left the room for a bit, but I asked her if what she was watching was in Japanese because I recognized the language, and obviously she said yes. So yeah, I thought mizunosakura would find that tidbit slightly interesting~ ;) Too bad it seems like she doesn't watch any other animé from the sound of things. Or maybe she does and I just don't know it yet. But I'm thinking she watches that because I get the feeling that she just likes to watch lots of dramas and stuff based on what her Chinese movies/shows sound like.
What else... OH! I went to another Patent Pending show on the 20th. But in this case, there was this big 2 year anniversary event thing that Beast Attire, a clothing company, had from the 19th to the 21st. So my friend and I saw 75+ bands play shows 3 days in a row. It was pretty cool. We got to see some other bands from previous shows that we like, such as Set Phasers to Stun and Valet Parking, and we got to hear a bunch of other good bands that we hadn't heard of before, like Lacerda and Score 24. And we got TONS of free stuff from bands handing out stuff to people to advertise. I'm pretty sure I ended up with at least 6-8 CDs by the end of that weekend. XD (I bought like 3-4 of those, but still. :P) Anyways, because so many people wanted Patent Pending to play a bunch of songs that they couldn't play during their set, Joe did an acoustic set in the hallway at the merch table. It was amazing. ♥ And a part of it should show up somewhere on the DVD they've been planning for god knows how long (the first time we heard about the DVD was May of last year, so... XD), which means this is like the 3rd time we've ended up on it. XD
But yeah, we also got to meet Duff Goldman, who you've all probably seen on Food Network's Ace of Cakes. His band, ...SoIHadTo..., played on the 21st. They were cool. It's not often that you come across a band that plays music without lyrics with that kind of sound. It reminded me of my dad's guitar sessions where he just plays songs without singing and uses a bunch of wah-wah pedals for different effects. And the percussionist used a chicken shake! I LOVE the chicken shake! :D But yeah, I got the band's CD (which you should be able to find online to purchase if you look up the band), and my friend got their poster (which also had a link for a digital download of the album) and had all of the band members sign it. If I weren't a sucker for physical CDs, I would've gotten the poster instead because it was the same price as the CD, and technically came with the same music as the CD. But whatever. :P We've got one of each thing, so I'm cool with that.
And FINALLY, I forgot to mention my other trip to NYC during spring break on the 18th. I went in to visit 2 art museums for my art classes. The Met was boring as usual, and the Museum of Arts and Design was awesome. :) The exhibit I had to go see there was really impressive! :D Afterward, I went to Nintendo World to buy more stuff. XD I got Ho-Oh and Lugia Pokédolls, a Mantyke figure, and I bought the issue of Nintendo Power that I missed getting in the mail because I waited too long to renew my subscription. It had HGSS for the cover story, so I OBVIOUSLY needed it. Because I bought all of this Pokémon stuff, the guy who rang me up gave me another nylon bag like the ones from the HGSS release day. :D I gave this bag to sinxcosxtanx along with the duplicate Altaria figure that I mentioned earlier. She works at a Gamestop, so she snagged the giant "Coming Soon" HGSS posters that they had in the store windows. She gave me the Ho-Oh one since she kept Lugia for herself, so I decided to give her something in return for the awesome poster. :)
...I spent WAY too much time on this update. But I think it covers just about everything I've wanted to say on here for over a month now though. XD I'LL ATTEMPT TO POST HERE MORE OFTEN AGAIN SO THAT THESE DON'T KEEP TURNING INTO JUMBO POSTS.
See ya! ;)
~Melissa~
EDIT: Added in the picture of Cameo.