Winter holidays with the family, life, etc.
I actually really sleepy, but Nur is close to the end of this Castlevania: Lords of Shadow DLC, and I want to see the ending, so…
I'll put parts under cuts, because you all know how I ramble!!
Had an early Christmas celebration with my family. Got some seriously lovely things, like a Chrome messenger bag, a neat desktop dragon sculpture made out of bike parts (my Adam Jensen figure seems to like it, he's riding it right now), and tickets to see the live How to Train Your Dragon show. Gaaaaaah, so neat!! Made eggs benedict (Christman Family Style) as a family like we do every big holiday and that was deeeeelicious. Nur came over that evening for dinner and I left the next morning with my family to go down to SoCal to spend actual Christmas with my mom's side of the family.
I'm… very different than all of my mom's side of the family (with the exception of one cousin), so it's a bit hard for me to "properly" communicate with them sometimes, but I think I didn't have as much trouble this time! Though I always joke that I'm the bottom of the grandchild totem pole, I guess my grandma told my mom several times that it's so nice that I'm such a happy child. Cool, I like that. =) It was a little sad to be with my grandparents, because they're getting older and slowing down and all that, but hey, they're great-grandparents now, they have every excuse to slow down a bit!! Got to see my cousin's new baby too… the kid didn't like me, but his name is Connor, so he'll have to learn to like me because I SHALL TRAIN HIM TO BE AN ASSASSIN WHEN HE IS OLDER. (What, watching too many AssCreed 3 Let's Plays? NAWWWWWW!!)
Injured myself weirdly a couple times while I was staying at my grandparents' place. Clumsily scraped a chunk of knuckle out, cut the inside of a finger… but then I slit one of my middle fingers on a PIECE OF GLASS WHILE PICKING UP MY PENS. I had my pens and pen case sitting on the ground next to the fireplace and I went to scoop them up and BAM my finger is throbbing and there is blood coming out at an alarming rate. I was afraid one of my pens had rebelled, but no, there was somehow a FREAKING PIECE OF GLASS mixed in with them. How it got there, I don't know.
Spent a few days (with my family) at an aunt's house and that was cool too. She's a good cook, so we ate really well there. On the last night we watched Brave and people seemed to like it, so… that's good? Ride home was fine, seeing my kitty after five or six days was bliss.
The day after we got back from SoCal, I had to take my laptop to the Apple Store for repairs. The screen on him has been going off randomly. It would only happen once every few weeks, so it wasn't a big deal and I was planning on getting it fixed after a big rush of work I was about to start. So of course, the problem decided to amp up. During our trip, the screen turned off four times in one afternoon. Yeaaahh… And OF COURSE, as soon as I have an appointment to take him in, I get scripts for books I needed to work on. Well, took him in, they decided to give him a new logic board, and it was about a 5-day repair job. T^T;; Nothing I could do about it! They took my good boy and I had five long days that I had to spend not doing the work I really needed to. Oh, but thank goodness for Apple Care. It would have been a ~$550 repair bill, but it didn't cost me a penny since my laptop is still under Apple Care. Wooooooo!
I decided to spend my first laptop-less day going to see Rise of the Guardians again. It was great. Loved it even more than the first time. Most of the other days were me just sitting around, not doing anything I should have done with my free time. I read a lot of fanfic and doodled a lot of stupid things. On the following Saturday, Nur, Noah (my brother), and I participated in the Real Escape Room in San Francisco. Basically you're in a group of 11 and you get locked in a room and have to solve a ton of puzzles in order to find your way out. The room has clues hidden all over and you have to figure out what clues should be used for and sometimes the clues themselves form the puzzle. It's REALLY fun and REALLY hard. Our group didn't make it out, but we were fairly close!! Last time I checked, only 1 out of the 37 teams that had attempted the room so far had made it out.
On Sunday, Nur and I went to San Jose to see the live How to Train Your Dragon show my little sister got us tickets for. I made a Toothless hoodie for it and had fun playing with a little girl in line. Turned out that my sister, her friend, and two young neighbors had tickets for the same show, because the dad of the kids (my sis is their babysitter) knew someone and they had box seats or something? Unfortunately, the show was cancelled. The previous show had a mechanical malfunction and it wasn't fixed in time for our show. I was really sad, but I felt especially bad for all the families there. They refunded all our tickets and parking, so yay. It was the last San Jose show, but to try to make it up, they offered tickets at half price for the shows in Sacramento. My sister got Nur and I tickets for a show tomorrow. Yaaaaay, very excited.
On New Year's Eve I went to see Rise of the Guardians…again… this time with my little sister. I still loved it, but I don't think my sister did. At the end, she was like, "that was… cute" as she raced to check her text messages. Bummer. Oh well. Had a low-key New Year's Eve with my parents. Made delicious surf and turf and they were in bed at about 10. Nur and I headed back to our apartment and I barely stayed awake until midnight. The next day, Nur, my parents, and I went to see the Hobbit (3D 48fps version) and was… pretty disappointed. The footage looked too… bright and sharp, the 3D was kinda ugly and overdone, the CG wasn't as good as I was expecting, and the story just draaaaaggggggged at points. And I got irrationally angry at the dwarves for acting like asses in Bilbo's house. I don't know, I was just really pissed off by that. XD;; That's all my stupid opinions though… I didn't really like the Fellowship of the Ring the first time I saw it, but now I love it, so maybe the same will happen with the Hobbit. Oh! I did really like Martin Freeman as Bilbo though. I don't like Bilbo, but I loved his portrayal of Bilbo.
Got a call that my laptop was all fixed up, so we picked him up after and I got back to work the instant we got back to the apartment. So many volumes to get done this month! I had Nur wake me up at about 6am each day (he leaves for work about then) so I could get in a couple extra hours of work in the morning and made sure I put in a few more hours each night. I set some goals, awarding myself another trip to the movie theater if I reached all my goals by lunchtime Friday (I could feel myself quickly going crazy from the immense amount of work and long hours). I met the goals on Thursday, so I took half of Friday off. Yes, I know, if I have so much work, I shouldn't take any time off, but I really needed a break. I didn't do anything on those other days except work from before sunup to well after sundown. Giving myself a goal like that let me think, "well, this seriously sucks right now, but there's a big shiny treat at the end if I can get through it!" And it worked! So Friday afternoon I biked to the movie theater and got myself a ticket to see, yes, Rise of the Guardians for the fourth time. It was interesting… I got there a bit after 1pm for a 1:40pm showing and noticed that the 1:05pm Wreck-It Ralph showing was sold out. That movie has been out for a couple months now! A sold out showing seems… weird, especially in the middle of the day. I was only the third person in the theater for my movie, but shortly after the room started to fill. FAST. Turns out that the 1:40pm Rise of the Guardians showing sold out too! I was happy (I want the movie to make a bajillion dollars!!!), all the other times I went, the theater wasn't NEARLY that full! When I mentioned it on twitter, people mentioned that it's probably parents taking their kids to one last movie before their winter break is over and they have to go back to school. That makes a lot of sense, but I still find it strange for two movies that have been out for a while to sell out like that!
Spent the rest of the afternoon in a nearby Starbucks sketching and left for home a wee bit too late. It was getting pretty dark out when I got back to the apartment! Was hoping to have a very Rise of the Guardians day, because my RotG calendar and art book were supposed to arrive today, but no such luck. (The tracking on the package says it's still out for delivery. HMMMM.) Still, my half-day off has done wonders and I am feeling recharged and ready to get all sorts of work done. I think I might have one more terrible and long week, but then things might lighten up a bit. I hope.
Oh gods, it's midnight and Nur finished the DLC ages ago and I've written like six boring novels and I really should be sleeping. Good night, all!!
I'll put parts under cuts, because you all know how I ramble!!
Had an early Christmas celebration with my family. Got some seriously lovely things, like a Chrome messenger bag, a neat desktop dragon sculpture made out of bike parts (my Adam Jensen figure seems to like it, he's riding it right now), and tickets to see the live How to Train Your Dragon show. Gaaaaaah, so neat!! Made eggs benedict (Christman Family Style) as a family like we do every big holiday and that was deeeeelicious. Nur came over that evening for dinner and I left the next morning with my family to go down to SoCal to spend actual Christmas with my mom's side of the family.
I'm… very different than all of my mom's side of the family (with the exception of one cousin), so it's a bit hard for me to "properly" communicate with them sometimes, but I think I didn't have as much trouble this time! Though I always joke that I'm the bottom of the grandchild totem pole, I guess my grandma told my mom several times that it's so nice that I'm such a happy child. Cool, I like that. =) It was a little sad to be with my grandparents, because they're getting older and slowing down and all that, but hey, they're great-grandparents now, they have every excuse to slow down a bit!! Got to see my cousin's new baby too… the kid didn't like me, but his name is Connor, so he'll have to learn to like me because I SHALL TRAIN HIM TO BE AN ASSASSIN WHEN HE IS OLDER. (What, watching too many AssCreed 3 Let's Plays? NAWWWWWW!!)
Injured myself weirdly a couple times while I was staying at my grandparents' place. Clumsily scraped a chunk of knuckle out, cut the inside of a finger… but then I slit one of my middle fingers on a PIECE OF GLASS WHILE PICKING UP MY PENS. I had my pens and pen case sitting on the ground next to the fireplace and I went to scoop them up and BAM my finger is throbbing and there is blood coming out at an alarming rate. I was afraid one of my pens had rebelled, but no, there was somehow a FREAKING PIECE OF GLASS mixed in with them. How it got there, I don't know.
Spent a few days (with my family) at an aunt's house and that was cool too. She's a good cook, so we ate really well there. On the last night we watched Brave and people seemed to like it, so… that's good? Ride home was fine, seeing my kitty after five or six days was bliss.
The day after we got back from SoCal, I had to take my laptop to the Apple Store for repairs. The screen on him has been going off randomly. It would only happen once every few weeks, so it wasn't a big deal and I was planning on getting it fixed after a big rush of work I was about to start. So of course, the problem decided to amp up. During our trip, the screen turned off four times in one afternoon. Yeaaahh… And OF COURSE, as soon as I have an appointment to take him in, I get scripts for books I needed to work on. Well, took him in, they decided to give him a new logic board, and it was about a 5-day repair job. T^T;; Nothing I could do about it! They took my good boy and I had five long days that I had to spend not doing the work I really needed to. Oh, but thank goodness for Apple Care. It would have been a ~$550 repair bill, but it didn't cost me a penny since my laptop is still under Apple Care. Wooooooo!
I decided to spend my first laptop-less day going to see Rise of the Guardians again. It was great. Loved it even more than the first time. Most of the other days were me just sitting around, not doing anything I should have done with my free time. I read a lot of fanfic and doodled a lot of stupid things. On the following Saturday, Nur, Noah (my brother), and I participated in the Real Escape Room in San Francisco. Basically you're in a group of 11 and you get locked in a room and have to solve a ton of puzzles in order to find your way out. The room has clues hidden all over and you have to figure out what clues should be used for and sometimes the clues themselves form the puzzle. It's REALLY fun and REALLY hard. Our group didn't make it out, but we were fairly close!! Last time I checked, only 1 out of the 37 teams that had attempted the room so far had made it out.
On Sunday, Nur and I went to San Jose to see the live How to Train Your Dragon show my little sister got us tickets for. I made a Toothless hoodie for it and had fun playing with a little girl in line. Turned out that my sister, her friend, and two young neighbors had tickets for the same show, because the dad of the kids (my sis is their babysitter) knew someone and they had box seats or something? Unfortunately, the show was cancelled. The previous show had a mechanical malfunction and it wasn't fixed in time for our show. I was really sad, but I felt especially bad for all the families there. They refunded all our tickets and parking, so yay. It was the last San Jose show, but to try to make it up, they offered tickets at half price for the shows in Sacramento. My sister got Nur and I tickets for a show tomorrow. Yaaaaay, very excited.
On New Year's Eve I went to see Rise of the Guardians…again… this time with my little sister. I still loved it, but I don't think my sister did. At the end, she was like, "that was… cute" as she raced to check her text messages. Bummer. Oh well. Had a low-key New Year's Eve with my parents. Made delicious surf and turf and they were in bed at about 10. Nur and I headed back to our apartment and I barely stayed awake until midnight. The next day, Nur, my parents, and I went to see the Hobbit (3D 48fps version) and was… pretty disappointed. The footage looked too… bright and sharp, the 3D was kinda ugly and overdone, the CG wasn't as good as I was expecting, and the story just draaaaaggggggged at points. And I got irrationally angry at the dwarves for acting like asses in Bilbo's house. I don't know, I was just really pissed off by that. XD;; That's all my stupid opinions though… I didn't really like the Fellowship of the Ring the first time I saw it, but now I love it, so maybe the same will happen with the Hobbit. Oh! I did really like Martin Freeman as Bilbo though. I don't like Bilbo, but I loved his portrayal of Bilbo.
Got a call that my laptop was all fixed up, so we picked him up after and I got back to work the instant we got back to the apartment. So many volumes to get done this month! I had Nur wake me up at about 6am each day (he leaves for work about then) so I could get in a couple extra hours of work in the morning and made sure I put in a few more hours each night. I set some goals, awarding myself another trip to the movie theater if I reached all my goals by lunchtime Friday (I could feel myself quickly going crazy from the immense amount of work and long hours). I met the goals on Thursday, so I took half of Friday off. Yes, I know, if I have so much work, I shouldn't take any time off, but I really needed a break. I didn't do anything on those other days except work from before sunup to well after sundown. Giving myself a goal like that let me think, "well, this seriously sucks right now, but there's a big shiny treat at the end if I can get through it!" And it worked! So Friday afternoon I biked to the movie theater and got myself a ticket to see, yes, Rise of the Guardians for the fourth time. It was interesting… I got there a bit after 1pm for a 1:40pm showing and noticed that the 1:05pm Wreck-It Ralph showing was sold out. That movie has been out for a couple months now! A sold out showing seems… weird, especially in the middle of the day. I was only the third person in the theater for my movie, but shortly after the room started to fill. FAST. Turns out that the 1:40pm Rise of the Guardians showing sold out too! I was happy (I want the movie to make a bajillion dollars!!!), all the other times I went, the theater wasn't NEARLY that full! When I mentioned it on twitter, people mentioned that it's probably parents taking their kids to one last movie before their winter break is over and they have to go back to school. That makes a lot of sense, but I still find it strange for two movies that have been out for a while to sell out like that!
Spent the rest of the afternoon in a nearby Starbucks sketching and left for home a wee bit too late. It was getting pretty dark out when I got back to the apartment! Was hoping to have a very Rise of the Guardians day, because my RotG calendar and art book were supposed to arrive today, but no such luck. (The tracking on the package says it's still out for delivery. HMMMM.) Still, my half-day off has done wonders and I am feeling recharged and ready to get all sorts of work done. I think I might have one more terrible and long week, but then things might lighten up a bit. I hope.
Oh gods, it's midnight and Nur finished the DLC ages ago and I've written like six boring novels and I really should be sleeping. Good night, all!!