Random things I like that have nothing to do with football.
Because I need a positive post after today's Stats quiz, ugh.
1) My engagement ring (link to Amazon selling of the setting), because OMG. (links to crappy webcam pictures.) Yes, that is a full carat round solitaire. No, I have no idea how he afforded it. There is an American quarter for reference, and I'm holding a pink DS Lite. (See #3.) I've talked before about the proposal being AMAAAAAZING, and the ring definitely matches. I am constantly distracted when I wear it, which is probably not a good thing, haha.
2) My beastly computer. It is actually custom-made by a friend of mine, who sold it to me when he decided to work on a new one, but it is still one of the best out there - very reliable, and more than powerful enough for all the things I play. Its case is lovely - all black, but one side panel has a Plexiglass cutout so you can see inside (all lit up in blue). The panel also slides out (no screws required), so it'll be very easy to upgrade once I can afford it. And, y'know, Internet access is always so nice~.
3) My pink DS Lite. Yeah, yeah, girly as hell, but I LOOOOOOVE Nintendo games. I love that it has GBA compatibility, that it can take a beating, that it's small enough to fit just about any bag and that I am the only one in the Nerd Society to own a pink one, so it always stands out. It has lasted me through four Pokemon games (FireRed and Emerald in the GBA slot, plus Pearl and HeartGold), my only imported game (Osu Tatakae Ouendan, the game Elite Beat Agents is based off of), The World Ends With You, Scribblenauts, and of course my favorite game in the world, Final Fantasy VI. One day I'll own a 3DS, but I might wait for its second incarnation, who knows.
4) My homebrew-compatible original PSP. I paid for a battery hack when I got it, and it has paid itself handsomely since. I think the PSP is a horribly underrated console; granted, a number of its games fail, but it has so much hardware-based promise. And Adam's a Monster Hunter nerd, so I'm required to love it. XP Seriously though, it is my music player of choice, my emulator of choice, and I do play regular PSP games on it as well (Star Ocean, Crisis Core, Dissidia, Work Time Fun, Untold Legends, various Final Fantasy remakes). [Speaking of emulation, I'm currently working through Earthbound right now. SO MUCH FUN.]
5) This lip butter. My lips are basically the only thing I like about my face, except for one fact: they are dry, ALL THE TIME. This stuff goes on like velvet and saves them for hours, which is more than I can say for anything else I've tried. (Burt's Bees Replenishing Lip Balm, which I used to use and sometimes put on top, I ran out of SO FAST - it felt amazing, and then I'd need more in an hour. DRYNESS, I HATE YOU.) Don't believe the colors on the screen, though. Quince is my ideal color, and is a lot less loud in real life; Plum, which I'm using now, is not quite that dark (but still pretty pigmented). I'll honestly probably try the colorless/Guava next, though. This *should* be at Sephora, though I haven't checked; I found it at Ulta hiding amongst the skin care products. BEST TEN BUCKS ON BEAUTY PRODUCTS.
6) My pastry blender. Seriously. Cheap, simple, strong as an ox. I like that it's metal, so I can stick it in the fridge before working pie dough to keep things cold. And yes, this is how I make pies and biscuits. THERE ARE NO OTHER OPTIONS FOR SOLID FATS INTO PILES OF FLOUR. I think I make at least three or four pies a year, and God knows how many batches of biscuits, so it adds up, and quickly. I've also used it for mashing potatoes, mashing bananas for banana bread, and roughly crushing pecans for my intensely amazing pecan chocolate chip cookies. If I am forced to have any "specialized gadget" in the kitchen, this is it.
7) My giant box of origami paper. So much pretty, so much awesome, collected over the years - plain colors, floral designs, geometric designs, traditional kimono prints, foil papers, iridescent papers, even a few sheets of rayon mesh (to see through layers, such a neat effect) and handmade washi (a sort of mulberry paper) with gold and silver foil flecks. Much of this is in multiple sizes, too. The washi is my favorite - it handles like a dream and looks utterly gorgeous. Last Valentine's Day I actually broke it out to make a pair of Kawasaki rose pins, one in red and one in white, and we wore them again on the day of our graduation/engagement. If at all possible, one of those pins will be integrated into my wedding attire as "something old", as the superstition goes.
8) My handcrafted chainmaille dice bag. Actually, mine is better because mine wasn't ordered from the Internet, but actually made by a friend as a birthday present. Mine is probably just barely bigger than the Medium size they display, and is made of anodized aluminum in red, and while I don't have the lovely chainmaille end tags they use, I got to choose my cord (velvety, also red.) All of my dice are red, by the way - it's a personal superstition thing, haha. (Seriously, EVERY TIME I have rolled a non-red d20, I have rolled under an 8. This includes dice given to me in RPG events, dice borrowed from friends, and random dice borrowed in stores and Nerd Society.) It will last me forever~, and I truly platonically love the friend who gave it to me. (Incidentally, he also attached a lifetime warranty, so if shit ever happens to it I can just get it fixed. I love owning handcrafted goods.)
9) My weird and wonderful book collection. High-level origami books (Origami for the Connoisseur, Roses Origami Math, Extreme Origami, Origami Omnibus), Neil Gaiman paperbacks and comic books, math textbooks of almost every type, Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks, and a strange but lovely set of manga. I need to get my hands on a copy of Neverwhere and the short story collections before I start collecting volumes of Sandman (though I do own The Eternals and Marvel 1602, both gifts from a Marvel fanboy friend of mine.) I will never sell my math textbooks (though I do lend them to friends), and refer to my high school calculus textbook more times than I care to admit. I used to have a bigger manga collection, but gave away a lot of them to my high school library and some ended up meandering their way to Adam's little brothers. What I do own is pretty special to me though, like an original 80's Ghost in the Shell release. It may be image-flipped and censored, but it's bigger than your average manga so you can see the art so much better, and the commentary by Shirow about cyberpunk and information security, decades before household Internet, fills me with glee.
10) My hat. I know, it is not hat season yet in Florida, which is why I nearly forgot. And it wasn't described as a "fisherman hat" to me when I bought it from a flea market, haha. But it is well worn and very comfortable. Oh, you see the cord braided around it? Yeah, there's a paper crane attached to mine by that cord, because I am typical. When the season comes, I live in this hat.
...I hope this has been exciting for you!
1) My engagement ring (link to Amazon selling of the setting), because OMG. (links to crappy webcam pictures.) Yes, that is a full carat round solitaire. No, I have no idea how he afforded it. There is an American quarter for reference, and I'm holding a pink DS Lite. (See #3.) I've talked before about the proposal being AMAAAAAZING, and the ring definitely matches. I am constantly distracted when I wear it, which is probably not a good thing, haha.
2) My beastly computer. It is actually custom-made by a friend of mine, who sold it to me when he decided to work on a new one, but it is still one of the best out there - very reliable, and more than powerful enough for all the things I play. Its case is lovely - all black, but one side panel has a Plexiglass cutout so you can see inside (all lit up in blue). The panel also slides out (no screws required), so it'll be very easy to upgrade once I can afford it. And, y'know, Internet access is always so nice~.
3) My pink DS Lite. Yeah, yeah, girly as hell, but I LOOOOOOVE Nintendo games. I love that it has GBA compatibility, that it can take a beating, that it's small enough to fit just about any bag and that I am the only one in the Nerd Society to own a pink one, so it always stands out. It has lasted me through four Pokemon games (FireRed and Emerald in the GBA slot, plus Pearl and HeartGold), my only imported game (Osu Tatakae Ouendan, the game Elite Beat Agents is based off of), The World Ends With You, Scribblenauts, and of course my favorite game in the world, Final Fantasy VI. One day I'll own a 3DS, but I might wait for its second incarnation, who knows.
4) My homebrew-compatible original PSP. I paid for a battery hack when I got it, and it has paid itself handsomely since. I think the PSP is a horribly underrated console; granted, a number of its games fail, but it has so much hardware-based promise. And Adam's a Monster Hunter nerd, so I'm required to love it. XP Seriously though, it is my music player of choice, my emulator of choice, and I do play regular PSP games on it as well (Star Ocean, Crisis Core, Dissidia, Work Time Fun, Untold Legends, various Final Fantasy remakes). [Speaking of emulation, I'm currently working through Earthbound right now. SO MUCH FUN.]
5) This lip butter. My lips are basically the only thing I like about my face, except for one fact: they are dry, ALL THE TIME. This stuff goes on like velvet and saves them for hours, which is more than I can say for anything else I've tried. (Burt's Bees Replenishing Lip Balm, which I used to use and sometimes put on top, I ran out of SO FAST - it felt amazing, and then I'd need more in an hour. DRYNESS, I HATE YOU.) Don't believe the colors on the screen, though. Quince is my ideal color, and is a lot less loud in real life; Plum, which I'm using now, is not quite that dark (but still pretty pigmented). I'll honestly probably try the colorless/Guava next, though. This *should* be at Sephora, though I haven't checked; I found it at Ulta hiding amongst the skin care products. BEST TEN BUCKS ON BEAUTY PRODUCTS.
6) My pastry blender. Seriously. Cheap, simple, strong as an ox. I like that it's metal, so I can stick it in the fridge before working pie dough to keep things cold. And yes, this is how I make pies and biscuits. THERE ARE NO OTHER OPTIONS FOR SOLID FATS INTO PILES OF FLOUR. I think I make at least three or four pies a year, and God knows how many batches of biscuits, so it adds up, and quickly. I've also used it for mashing potatoes, mashing bananas for banana bread, and roughly crushing pecans for my intensely amazing pecan chocolate chip cookies. If I am forced to have any "specialized gadget" in the kitchen, this is it.
7) My giant box of origami paper. So much pretty, so much awesome, collected over the years - plain colors, floral designs, geometric designs, traditional kimono prints, foil papers, iridescent papers, even a few sheets of rayon mesh (to see through layers, such a neat effect) and handmade washi (a sort of mulberry paper) with gold and silver foil flecks. Much of this is in multiple sizes, too. The washi is my favorite - it handles like a dream and looks utterly gorgeous. Last Valentine's Day I actually broke it out to make a pair of Kawasaki rose pins, one in red and one in white, and we wore them again on the day of our graduation/engagement. If at all possible, one of those pins will be integrated into my wedding attire as "something old", as the superstition goes.
8) My handcrafted chainmaille dice bag. Actually, mine is better because mine wasn't ordered from the Internet, but actually made by a friend as a birthday present. Mine is probably just barely bigger than the Medium size they display, and is made of anodized aluminum in red, and while I don't have the lovely chainmaille end tags they use, I got to choose my cord (velvety, also red.) All of my dice are red, by the way - it's a personal superstition thing, haha. (Seriously, EVERY TIME I have rolled a non-red d20, I have rolled under an 8. This includes dice given to me in RPG events, dice borrowed from friends, and random dice borrowed in stores and Nerd Society.) It will last me forever~, and I truly platonically love the friend who gave it to me. (Incidentally, he also attached a lifetime warranty, so if shit ever happens to it I can just get it fixed. I love owning handcrafted goods.)
9) My weird and wonderful book collection. High-level origami books (Origami for the Connoisseur, Roses Origami Math, Extreme Origami, Origami Omnibus), Neil Gaiman paperbacks and comic books, math textbooks of almost every type, Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks, and a strange but lovely set of manga. I need to get my hands on a copy of Neverwhere and the short story collections before I start collecting volumes of Sandman (though I do own The Eternals and Marvel 1602, both gifts from a Marvel fanboy friend of mine.) I will never sell my math textbooks (though I do lend them to friends), and refer to my high school calculus textbook more times than I care to admit. I used to have a bigger manga collection, but gave away a lot of them to my high school library and some ended up meandering their way to Adam's little brothers. What I do own is pretty special to me though, like an original 80's Ghost in the Shell release. It may be image-flipped and censored, but it's bigger than your average manga so you can see the art so much better, and the commentary by Shirow about cyberpunk and information security, decades before household Internet, fills me with glee.
10) My hat. I know, it is not hat season yet in Florida, which is why I nearly forgot. And it wasn't described as a "fisherman hat" to me when I bought it from a flea market, haha. But it is well worn and very comfortable. Oh, you see the cord braided around it? Yeah, there's a paper crane attached to mine by that cord, because I am typical. When the season comes, I live in this hat.
...I hope this has been exciting for you!