A bit overwhelmed

Ok, so good news -- I was able to go in and change the amount I owe on my tutition payment plan to what I currently owe. I made the first payment on Friday (it's not due till Sept. 1st, but Friday was my last payday before then so I wanted to get it dealt with early); it just hasn't been posted to my bank account yet (it might not till tomorrow, since it's the weekend right now). It will be $180 a month in payments, which is doable but still tough. But it sure beats $630 a month. It's a little less stress.

School starts tomorrow officially, for me on Tuesday. It's going to be tough semester, I can feel it. But somehow, by the grace of God, I'll get through.

I got an e-mail today giving the meeting times for the CWCW (creative writing club); I don't know if I'll be able to make them this semester though with my night classes and all. That stinks.

Lately, I feel like I just haven't been at my best. I think I've been overwhelmed in the last month with this financial stress, as well as not getting much sleep with all these early working shifts. On top of this, I'm thinking of going to that anime con and the idea of cosplay scares me. I got some suggestions from the forums at Cosplay.com (which I was finally able to join):

~Fuu from Magic Knight Rayearth



~Sheena from Tales of Symphonia



~and these three other characters I've never heard of:

Jihl Sabaat from Final Fantasy XIII




Marianne from Code Geass



and Cornelia, also from Code Geass



I'm leaning towards Fuu, especially since there's going to be a CLAMP cosplay gathering at Animé Los Angeles so I would be able to meet some people with similar interests. But I am afraid I would have to make the blazer and skirt, and I have no faith whatsoever in my sewing abilities. Plus, how the heck would I make the sword? I found a tutorial where someone made Fuu's sword, but it involved a lot of woodcutting I don't know how to do.

I also considered, if I did do Fuu, going as Fuu from the Rayearth OVA, where she wears a different outfit and headband and is distinguished as a Knight only by an Exsphere-like orb on the back of her hand. Here is a picture to give you an idea (you can't see the orbs here though).



So, in short, I am totally lost and overwhelmed on this. I'm not even familiar with three of those suggestions, as I said. I've never seen Code Geass and I haven't played Final Fantasy XIII, or most of the FF games for that matter, though I confess I like the look of Jihl. She kind of reminds me of Relena Peacecraft from Gundam Wing (another person I could potentially cosplay, though I never was too much into that show). I looked her up; she's the antagonist of that game apparently.

Just looked up Cornelia and Marianne; they're the Second Princess and Empress of the Holy Britannia Empire respectively. Funny, I pictured Cornelia as more of just a general. The royal (or at least noble) thing for Marianne I deduced from the picture.

Speaking of Relena, another character that looks like her is Mitsuki Sanada from Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, a series by the director of Tenchi Muyo:



GAHHHHH! I need to stop this. Idea overload. This is what makes me overwhelmed; I get overstimulated sensually (via the senses, not in a sexual sense) and then my brain starts going at like lightning speed, and then the anxiety and worry kick in.

Maybe I just shouldn't cosplay. Save myself the misery of worrying about who to cosplay as and how I'm going to get the outfit together if I can't sew and don't have a lot of money and only about 4 1/2 months.

But if I go to an anime con sans cosplay I will look like not only a total newbie but also like an idiot. Even if I just go for a schoolgirl cosplay or a kimono (like this nice one in peppermint green that I saw in the CLAMP Mokona's Okimono Kimono book that I got at Comic-Con) I'm going to look weird. I won't fit in.

There are characters from the lesser-known series I know that I might be able to do, but no one would recognize me, and that's just as bad.

I wish I had the money to just commission a costume, but I don't, and plus I couldn't enter the masquerade at ALA with it I don't think. Not that I have to do the masquerade of course; that might be part of my stress too. They're having a non-competitive fashion show where you can show off your costume too.

*Sigh* I just don't know what to do, and I can't stop thinking about it. Hopefully, school will distract me, but probably not. As Scott McGillvray (of HGTV's Income Property) would say, I need help.

I suppose I could pray, but does God care about this sort of thing? With floods in Pakistan and poverty in Haiti (the Carlsbad campus of my church, which I go to, is supporting a missionary effort in Haiti right now), would he really care about my cosplay worries? It seems petty.

I suppose he does. I was just reading the passage in Luke where Jesus tells about a persistent widow who kept bothering a judge till he agreed to help, and he said our prayer should be persistent like that. And mine hasn't. But I suppose it's worth trying, though I feel like an idiot for doing it.

Dear Jesus, please help me right now. I would like to go to this convention in L.A., as you know, where it is typical for people to dress up in costume. But I don't know anything about dressing up in costumes - except for Halloween - or how to make them. It's got me really stressed out. Please, help me calm my worries so that I can approach this with a clear mind and have faith that I can make some reasonable decisions regarding this. My worries are clouding my ability to make decisions about this and also overwhelming my mind. Peter said to cast our cares on you, so in this case I'm going to do that. It might seem like a weird thing to pray for, but I'm totally lost. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Ok that was a very awkward prayer (I'm out of practice, I'm afraid) but I'm glad I did it.

I'm going to go eat lunch now. An empty stomach doesn't help one's judgment either.

Financial aid development, work, The Sky Crawlers, cosplay

Well I have had a development regarding my financial aid. I've been packaged, but only for a Pell Grant, meaning I still have to pay $722 out-of-pocket this semester. But I don't have $722 right this moment; it would take me quite some time to earn that. Don't know how it's going to work out. Best option right now appears to be keeping the Sallie Mae plan but changing the amount I owe (since according to their records, which date to before I was packaged, I owe the whole tuition/fee amount of $2,522), which would bring my monthly payments down to maybe $200 a month or something over 4 months. I'm going to call Financial Aid (or maybe go there tomorrow after work, since I need to buy a couple books anyway) and see what my options are and how soon I have to pay this amount. (Technically, I should've paid it already, but I got a fee deferment). So the stress isn't over yet.

Dang nabbit I just want to be solvent. It's like I finally got paid after being in the red, then I came near the red again because due to overdraft fees I had less money in my account than I thought I did. Then I got paid again but had to buy my books (the ones that were less online; there are a couple that aren't much different in price at the bookstore as they are online, and the third one I didn't order as it is optional so I'm going to wait and see if I really need it). Then this week I got paid, but I had to pay rent. Soon, I'm going to have to buy my bus pass again and pay rent again and have my automatic-withdrawal church tithe taken out again. I just need to get to a place where I can afford to transfer money to savings, which I can't really do right now. Not a lot anyway.

There. I just transferred $50 into my savings account. It's not a lot, but it gives me a cushion. If I transfer a little bit into there out of every check, I can maybe build up my savings again. That's what I did when I was saving up for a new laptop. Of course in that case I had $300 to start with thanks to the budget surplus checks. I'm going to try to bring my own lunch to school and work more often as well. That will cut down some on expenses, since I know from doing a chart of my expenses via Quicken Online that a majority of my money goes to food. I'll have to buy food to put in the lunches, but if I plan right hopefully that won't cost much. Don't know what I'll do for dinner on school nights (since I have night classes). Maybe I'll get popcorn or something that is filling, doesn't need refrigeration, and is easy to carry around. I'll try to limit the snacks I buy. It'll be hard, but it has to be done.

I was supposed to be off work today, but at 6:30 this morning one of the Key Carriers called my cell asking me to come in. So I went in for a few hours, actually staying a bit late to try to help bag for Petar, one of the checkers, who had a long line. Most of the time though was spent on the primary reason they called me in, to deal with the 25+ carts of cardboard in the back room that needed to be baled. This guy named Robert from produce helped me for a while, but eventually he got called off to work frozen so I was left on my own. I also got behind because at one point the receiver had to make a bale so I had to get out of the way. I pushed the empty shopping carts up front, took my break, and then had to help bag for the ridiculous rush we had. (The lines were so bad customers came up to me complaining. When customers start complaining, you know it's bad). It reminded me somewhat of this game I have on my iPod called Supermarket Mania. Basically it's like Cake Mania or Diner Dash in that it's a simulation of a typical supermarket and you basically have to keep everything stocked so that the customers stay happy. The less customers who get mad and leave, the more money the supermarket makes and the closer you come to progressing in the game. Oh and you also have to stop thieves from time to time and clean up after either angry customers who leave their groceries or rowdy teenagers who mess up stuff. You're probably wondering Why does she have a game about working in a supermarket on her iPod when she already works at one? Isn't that boring? Not really. The game is a lot easier to figure out than my work is. At some point though, I did get back there and managed to finish just in time. Then, as I said, I stayed a little late; I left after about a half hour over though because the lines had died down and I was afraid the manager would be starting to wonder why I was still there. He didn't seem too concerned though.

Gah it's so hot in my room! It's like summer finally caught up with us over here in SoCal.

I just watched an anime movie I got from the library. It's called The Sky Crawlers and it's directed by Mamoru Oshii, the director of Ghost in the Shell, a series I know very little about, other than that it involves robots. Basically, the film is about the Kildren, eternally young fighter pilots who are continuously going out into the sky to fight very realistic but seemingly pointless dogfights with planes from a rival arms company. There is no war going on; it's just that, as one character explains, mankind is so used to war that they can't live without it, hence the dogfights with the Kildren. The catch with the Kildren is that they cannot die unless they are killed in battle. People seem creeped out by their eternal youthfulness too. The main character is a Kildren named Yuichi who becomes curious about the previous owner of his plane but can't get sufficient answers from the people at his new base. He also ends up falling in love with his childlike commander Suito Kusanagi. It was overall a little hard to follow. Not exactly my kind of thing. The film was also odd in that during normal scenes, the characters spoke Japanese, but in battle they spoke English, with a few German words (like "zwei" for 2 and also "doppel") thrown in for good measure.

With things more or less set for me to go to Animé Los Angeles in January - it looks very likely I will get the days off, but I still have to register and get a hotel room - I am trying to decide whether or not I am going to cosplay, and if so, as what character. At most anime cons these days, it seems like cosplay is almost expected. I already am bandying about cosplaying as Princess Pluto (the Princess version of Sailor Pluto from Sailor Moon), Pokémon Ranger Solana, and Maya or Mia Fey (from the Phoenix Wright game series). Today as I was baling cardboard I considered cosplaying as a Code Lyoko character, probably Aelita since I like her the best and also because it would be pretty easy (I think) to find a short pink wig around Halloween. I would probably cosplay as her in her casual clothes from seasons 2-most of 4, which consist of a purplish jumper, a pink long-sleeved shirt with a hoodie-esque collar, dark pink knee-high boots with white tops. She also has pink eyebrows and little pom pom things that hang down from her collar. Though I guess her Lyoko outfit is also doable and probably more recognizable. Just now I Googled "Aelita cosplay" and all the pics were of her Lyoko outfit. The pic on CosplayLab claimed the outfit was made in 5 hours. But it looked like it was a kid who was wearing it. But somebody on Cosplay.com did it who looked more like my age. Basically I'm considering doing something simple and then pairing the wig with a simple kimono or yukata (a lighter sort of kimono made of cotton) for Sunday, since that day's theme is "New Year's Festival" and I want to look the part. Plus I have a few different fans I could use with that sort of thing, including a real Japanese fan my uncle bought me (well, it's from a shop in Narita Airport, but that counts, right?). I also have an Asian-looking sunshade/parasol I bought at a booth at the beach last year. I found a yukata set just now for $79.99. That sounds like a lot, but it comes with a yukata, an obi (ribbon belt), and geta (traditional sandals worn with a kimono or yukata). Still I imagine I can do that for cheaper. I saw geta on sale at Comic-Con for like $10 a pair. I almost bought them too.

Hmm this site has plus-size yukatas. Promising. They give you a fan for free if you order both a yukata and a geta/obi set (which comes with a pair of geta, an obi, and a waist belt called a koshihimo that holds the yukata in place under the obi). Nice. They have some nice tabi socks (socks you usually wear with geta) too.

Hmm there are several sites selling yukatas, but they're all super expensive. Why is cosplay so expensive dangit? I suppose I could get something similar around Halloween if I buy a mass-produced geisha costume, but it might not be as nice. And they might not have my size.

I tried to join the forums at Cosplay.com in hopes of getting some suggestions (everyone's favoring the Princess Pluto one over at Miss Dream, and I'm still unsure whether I'll do that one) but for some reason didn't get the activation e-mail. Grr.

I think I'm going to take a walk. I need fresh air. Bye for now.

Cosplay, cons, websites, school

I'm trying to determine whether I can get time off for a con I got a flyer for at Comic-Con. It's called Animé Los Angeles, and it happens from January 7-9 of next year. The timing is good because I won't be in school then, so I won't have to waste my allotted vacation time for the year by taking a whole week off. It's close enough for me to not have to fly. Plus for $40 registration (for the whole weekend!) plus a special deal of $109/night for the con hotel (the LAX Marriott), it's a steal. But my fear is that this weekend falls within the blacked-out holiday week for New Year's. If it does, I can't request the time off.

Anyway, according to the flyer, there are several cosplay-related things going on (including the usual masquerade). So this has gotten me thinking about cosplay. I have never cosplayed before. I don't think I have the time (or money, for that matter) to commission a costume from one of the many online cosplay costume makers. I wish there was still that costume shop in Vista that I rented costumes from a few times; it closed down though. I might be able to get some pieces cheap when Halloween comes along, I guess. Like a wig. I was reading this "Beginner's Guide to Cosplay" by the girl who runs the Team Rocket fansite Trsrockin.com and she gets pieces from thrift stores and stuff. I think they warned against this in the discussion of cosplay on the Miss Dream podcast (#9 I think). But I would rather not spend a ton of money, especially because of my recent money scare.

I have long considered cosplaying as Sailor Jupiter, since I somewhat physically resemble her. But she's not my favorite Sailor Senshi or anything. Other possibilities I've thought of are Angel Lily (my favorite character from Wedding Peach) and a Pokémon Ranger. The last of these appeals to me most, though I'm not quite sure how to pull it off. I could carry my plush Piplup with me (since Piplup is a possible Partner Pokémon as of Shadows of Almia) and I wouldn't need Pokéballs since Rangers don't carry them. The hair would be problematic; both female player characters in the first two Ranger games (I don't know about the current one) have those spiky ponytails on top of their heads, kinda like Misty does (except Misty only has one, and these girls have two). I guess it could be done with ponytail holders (of which I have plenty, since I have to put my hair up for work) along with LOTS of pomade or some bobby pins to keep them up. Probably pomade (or spiking gel in this case). They have a "cosplay emergency station" at this con, so in the event my hair gets messed up, I can go there to get someone much more skilled in hairdressing than I to fix it. I might need to carry around whatever reference picture I use for my costume (if, hypothetically, I were to wear this costume) just in case so I can show whoever's fixing my hair/wig what I need to be looking like.

I am very glad they will have free snacks and drinks at this con. It will save me money at least. I wonder what the dealers' room will be like.

Gah I shouldn't be thinking this right now! I don't even know if for sure I am going yet!

Money is another issue. I will probably be able to afford to go provided I don't have a money crisis between now and then and I don't have to pay payments on this stupid tuition plan I signed up for to buy me time till I get packaged for my financial aid. (I'm still waiting for confirmation that said packaging has occurred). But I will definitely have to watch my spending and make sure I have money in savings just in case since my bank charges high overdraft fees. (To anyone just starting to have your own bank account: if your bank offers overdraft protection and you even think for a minute that you might need it, TAKE IT. It comes in handy).

On the website front, things are going slow. I was late on both Song of the Week and the site updates roundup this week for Myu Corner, for example. I did work on my clip list for Liquid Mercury, my old Sailor Mercury fansite I'm going to revive. I also transferred some old Mercury pictures (including a ton of scans) from a CD I had with a copy of an old folder on it to my laptop. Other than this, nothing. I think my fervor is not what it once was. Then again, I've been working really early shifts for the last month. So I'm probably really tired.

I hope my hours change soon because school starts on the 30th, and I have to take night classes this semester to get the classes I need. Plus Mum has made it clear that she doesn't want to have to take me to work early after having to pick me up from school the night before. So I'll have to work on that.

That's all I can think of to write about. Goodbye for now!

-- Posted from BlogPress

Financial aid, web stuff, Comic-Con freebies, etc

I am fed up right now with my school's Financial Aid department. I filled out my FAFSA by the priority filing date and turned in all the required paperwork before the first fees due date. Yet I already got dropped from my classes once and had to re-enroll (because my financial aid paperwork, which I turned in a couple days before the fees due date, hadn't finished processing yet) and when I called them today to find out what was going on, since I'd been receiving incessant e-mail reminders of the upcoming second fees due date (on the 5th), they said I didn't have a fee deferment on record and they couldn't tell me whether my stuff had processed. Darn FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) I guess. (Not that the guy I talked to gave that as the reason, but it makes sense). Worst case scenario is that I will have to get a loan, which even if it's only for one year of college will probably still take me years to pay off. The Financial Aid guy recommended Sallie Mae, but I already know from my mother's bad experience with Sallie Mae over her student loans that I don't want to get a loan through them. My mother says there are other options for loans though. But as I said, that's the worst case scenario -- hopefully, I'll get the same grants as before and be covered for the school year. Plus if I get grants until I (hopefully) graduate next spring, I'll graduate college without owing a dime for my schooling (since you don't have to pay back grants). Granted (ha ha no pun intended), I won't be done with my web design certificate (since I just started that last spring and can only really take 2 classes at a time on top of my CSUSM workload). But I suppose I can work at Stater Bros. for a little longer till I finish that. If I'm still working there by the time I graduate college, I'll have worked there almost 4 1/2 years. (Wow).

I've been working a lot on websites this summer, mostly on Myu Corner since I post updates for it weekly -- a Song of the Week update on Thursdays (which apparently some people doubt will work in the long-term, according to some comments that never saw the light of day because Akismet marked them as spam; to be honest I have no idea how many myu songs there are and I would very much not like to try counting them all, so I don't know how long that feature will be able to go for) and a Moonkitty.net-inspired site updates roundup on Sundays. I also made a personal site/domain hub that I liked when I made it but then disliked soon after. I like the idea of a personal site but I also recall the thing I read about the personal site being dead. Most people's personal sites now are their blogs (and in fact, I listed this blog as my personal site for a long time). I just can't figure out how to make one work. I want to use my personal domain as a hub for more minor sites that don't need their own domain though, like the LAR Productions website (though if LAR ever goes pro or at least gets big, I'm going to get the site its own domain). I am starting to think something along the lines of Frozen Wings or the "Tour Guide's Sites" page on Bunny's Tour Through the Silver Millennium would be better.

As for other sites, I have been ignoring my writing site improvement (which isn't officially live yet), though I am collecting feedback from some people on it which I intend to try implementing ASAP. I closed Pctroupe.net, my PotterCast Acting Troupe fansite, because I was grasping at straws trying to get news to post there (even after the live show with the Acting Troupe). I haven't started working on my planned sites, like Sparkle Moon, yet. I hoped to get that done in the summer, but work has interfered a lot, I think.

I went to Comic-Con a couple weeks ago. It was pretty fun, though I admit going even three of the four days was somewhat exhausting, even though due to my reliance on public transit, I was only able to stay for like five hours each day. Plus I spent WAY too much money, resulting in me being nearly broke last week and this week, since I didn't get paid last Friday because I took Comic-Con week as vacation. I did like going more than one day though; it feels like you get more out of it in a way. I have already begun planning for next year, since I was vastly underprepared this year. I'm going to try to get a four-day pass again, get a hotel (probably in North County near a train station since the convention hotels are super expensive) so I can stay later than the bus schedule for the bus by my house allows, and budget my time and money more wisely. One way I know I can budget my time is to explore beyond the exhibit hall. Let me tell you: one day in the exhibit hall is really enough, unless you know someone you want to see is not going to be there all four days. Not much changes from day to day, other than that you might see booths you didn't see the day before (this happened to me on the second day because I'd been in such huge crowds the first day I didn't see much). I am going to try to hit the panels, the film festival, and the anime showings more next year -- since, aside from being a nice escape from the crowd (unless you're in a really crowded panel) are all free to go to as long as you have a convention badge.

While I did spend a ton of money at the con (and frankly didn't buy that much), I did end up with 149 freebies (I counted), most of which I picked up on Saturday, my last day and the day I was trying desperately not to spend more money. I swear, there are people just dying to push a freebie in your hand at this con. I got things like temp tattoos (and a rather icky but semi-intriguing comic called Penny for Your Soul about a Las Vegas casino hotel run by demons) that I didn't even want. One of my freebies is even worth something now: my free sampler of Eragon, obtained from the Random House booth, which now bears the illustrious autograph of Eragon's author, Christopher Paolini (if I'd known beforehand he was going to be doing a signing, I would've brought my real Eragon books, but I didn't know, so I had him sign the sampler instead). I went through my freebies today to decide which ones I wanted to save and which ones I didn't -- and there were a lot of ones I didn't, probably ones I grabbed on a whim but didn't really look at. I didn't even keep any of the magazines I got for free, including the collector's cover edition of TV Guide with the Big Bang Theory cover. I did read through them before tossing them. I didn't get much from the special TV Guide (not like TV Guide is deeply intellectual reading anyway), though from it I was able to get an idea for the extremely complex plots of The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural, shows I do not watch and don't have much interest in watching. I did tear a few pages out of the others that I found interesting.

The one freebie that did pique my interest perhaps more than the others was a flyer for Animé Los Angeles, a con happening next January. (Their use of the accent above the "e" in "anime" reminds me of the early days of anime fandom in the US, when everyone was doing that). I was not aware this con existed; I figured there were no anime cons in LA other than Anime Expo. From the FAQ-style info on the back, I was rather intrigued. It actually sounds like a con I would want to go to. It's only for a weekend, and it's right after New Year's, so I wouldn't have to work around school (because I'd be on semester break) and thus wouldn't have to waste my available vacation time. It's at the LAX Marriott, which is convenient should I decide to fly to LA rather than take the train (my other option). You can get a deal on the hotel and the price for the actual con is really reasonable ($40 for the weekend, or $35 for students or military until September 30; they also provide a limited-time code to use to get 10% off). I'll have to think about it.

Oh and among the interesting things Animé Los Angeles has to offer is something really out there: Cosplay Chess. Basically real cosplayers are the pieces in this chess game and they actually put on an act when they are "captured." Even if I didn't participate, I'd want to watch.

Oh and Gina Biggs is the Artist Guest of Honor because of her webcomic "Red String." But guess what else she's known for? The long-lived Sailor Moon fansite Bunny's Tour Through the Silver Millennium! It would be cool to meet her.

I am considering starting a blog about my experiences as a female gamer. I was thinking also of maybe having a similar one about reading, but then decided there are blogs enough about that. Someone on the writers' forum I'm a part of mentioned how the gaming community is mostly unreached for Jesus (as part of a post regarding Westboro Baptist Church people picketing outside of Comic-Con with signs that say "God Hates Nerds"...gah, when will these people stop?), and that gave me a different spin on it. I don't know if I could make it work as a ministry though. That's one of those things I'd have to seek God about.

Speaking of blogs, I got an e-mail today granting me full writer privileges over at Family of Moonlight, a Sailor Moon fan blog that I sent Comic-Con pictures to and wrote a Comic-Con 2010 overview for. Sweet! This just goes to prove what I read a while back in an article about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) where they mentioned that one way to get yourself out there is to do things for people. That's what got me my staff position at Miss Dream; I offered on their forum (where I am an active member) to scan and translate the French Sailor V manga, since I own it. I also offered to translate their lyrics translations into French. The manga thing was originally just going to be a joint Myu Corner-Miss Dream project, and the lyrics thing a sort of freelance affair, so I was quite surprised when the head of Miss Dream deemed me worthy to join their staff. I am happy that both of these sites have given me these honors. (Gah, there's no way to say that without it sounding arrogant. Oh well).

I have been thinking about cosplay too, mainly because of Comic-Con and also because I just added a cosplay-item-selling site to my links at Myu Corner. I don't know who I'd cosplay as if I went to an anime convention. I suppose you don't have to cosplay (I've never cosplayed even at Comic-Con), not to mention that the amount of characters I could pull off is limited, but it's fun to do. If I did Sailor Moon, I'm thinking maybe Sailor Pluto, one of my favorite senshi, or Sailor Jupiter, who I somewhat physically resemble. Technically, Mercury is my favorite senshi overall (Pluto being #2) but I've never really considered cosplaying as her. I guess it could work. Pluto and Jupiter work because I am tall and have long hair like them. Plus they are selling a really nice Garnet Rod at the aforesaid cosplay site, a lot nicer than my idea for a homemade one (making the key sides and the top with the orb in it and sticking them on a long broom handle). Other than that, I'm a little stuck for ideas; most of the female characters I can think of with my figure (5'8", 200+ lbs, with a chest) dress rather scantily, and I'm very uncomfortable about showing more skin than is necessary. The only option I can think of is Chun-Li from Street Fighter (I certainly have the thighs for it). Any suggestions are welcome.

Other than web stuff, I've been playing some video games. It's taking me forever to beat the second battle on Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love. I finally figured out how to beat the main battle, but I keep losing to the extremely powerful boss Kokuryu, who pilots the dragon-like robot Kusakage. I've played the battle 6 times. Maybe I'll get lucky sometime.

Okay I can't think of anything else to write. My parents will probably leave soon for their home Bible study, and when they do, I'm going to try to watch Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief downstairs where there's a DVD player (I can watch DVD's on my laptop, but I've found I enjoy watching DVDs on a TV screen I can sit far from more than watching them on the computer). Goodbye for now!