Two Things I Forgot to Mention Last Night

The first: Super Effective. It's one of the funniest webcomics I've ever read. This one makes me crack up laughing every time I see it:



It's an awesome mashup of two things I adore: Pokemon and Gurren Lagann.

The second: at game night this weekend, we listened to a lot of Weezer, and decided it would be ok if the apocalypse happened, so long as the Blue Album was playing. It brought me back to teenage years and simpler times. They also played some Foo Fighters, which always makes me smile. I need to get my finger back on the pulse of all this music I like. I heard something about Incubus having a new album. When did that happen?

Ok, time to get to work! These evaluations aren't going to scan themselves.

It's Monday Again Already?

Damn! And to make matters worse, it's 1 am on a Monday, and I have to be at work in 7 hours, and I'm pretty much wide awake. D'oh!

The last week in review...

-As I mentioned in the previous post, we watched the VGAs last Saturday night, the 11th. It was pretty good, but there weren't really too many games that came out this year that I was absolutely in love with. Next year, though...that's another story. Next year is going to be completely crazy, and the premieres at the VGAs made that even clearer than ever before. For me, personally, January is going to be crazy - Lost in Shadow, LittleBigPlanet 2, and Dead Space 2 all drop that month. In March, F.3.A.R. and Crysis 2 come out on the same day (!!!). Killzone 3, Resistance 3, Uncharted 3...the list just goes on and on. It's going to be some year. I can't wait :)

Also, Mike gave me one of my Christmas presents early - an HDMI cable for my new tv!



-Sunday was Drexel's Holiday party. I've gone pretty much every year since I started working at Drexel, but this year we just had too much going on. Mike was studying his ass off for his exams, and I was trying to finish Final Fantasy: the 4 Heroes of Light, so we chilled at my place and then headed to his place.

-Monday I went to work, rushed home, had some dinner, and then went to IndyHall for a meeting with the OCMFers, which was awesome. Mike came, too! Afterwards we went home and watched Inception again. We were going to head to Movie Monday to see it at the Troc, but we had sort of an emergency meeting in which we had to take care of some serious business, so we just watched it at home instead on my nice new tv. It was awesome, even the 6th time around.

Oh, and also, I got a special package in the mail:



-Tuesday I went to work, came home, watched some 30 Rock with Mike, and then worked on 4 Heroes of Light all night. Also I bought a bunch of games on sale Monday and Tuesday - Modern Warfare 1&2, Bayonetta, Dante's Inferno, and Darksiders for 80 bucks total. Amazon needs to STOP having sales immediately :P.

Did I mention these cookies are freaking awesome?



-Wednesday was Mike's last final for the term, so after I was done work, we headed to Landmark and celebrated - not just him being done his last final, but also him being halfway through law school :) it was awesome. We head to his place afterwards and passed out super early.

-Thursday I went to work and then afterwards I was feeling super crampy and horrendous so we headed back to my place, watched 30 Rock, and I played 4 Heroes of Light for the rest of night, mixed in with some codblops.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, about two weeks ago I discovered one of our local food marts sells Ramune, an amazing Japanese soda. We usually stock up when we go to Maido, but lately I've just been grabbing a few there. They're SO good! This one is definitely one of my favorites, Lychee:



-Friday I called out of work because I was still feeling absolutely horrible. I vegged around all day and did nothing. We got an awesome package in the mail - our friend Ryan sent us some video games for Christmas! I got Picross for the DS (WOO!) and Mike got White Knight Chronicles.



We met up with the OCMFers for a little while to discuss more options about the event we're planning, and then I headed right back to bed. I played some more 4 Heroes of Light and codblops, and we watched some 30 Rock.

-Saturday we had to run some errands but I was still feeling mega-sluggish. We did end up running to Kmart and striking out for nearly everything I wanted to get, so we got some essentials like cat litter and some random food items and then escaped. I was feeling delirious around so many people. We went home, got ready, and then headed to Kristen and Dave's for game night with them and Chris and his friend Jen. I forgot my heart monitor and wanted to punch myself in the head because I was afraid to have any alcohol at all without it D:. Stupid, stupid mistake. We got home pretty late and I was up late playing more 4 Heroes of Light. Oh, and we took some cute pictures while bundled up waiting for the train to go home:



-Today was really nice - we woke up, had breakfast, watched more 30 Rock, and did some stuff around the house - I did a lot of cleaning and Mike went food shopping. We've been using Hulu Plus on the PlayStation which is pretty cool. We're up to season 5 of 30 Rock - we're almost caught up completely. When we're done, we're going to watch this season of the Office, and then I'm not sure what - maybe Dexter. Who knows! We did a lot of stuff all day, interspersed with some FF and codblops, and Mike's been playing a lot of WKC and Dante's Inferno. We've also been skyping with Ryan and his girlfriend Bri the last few days as well, which has been kind of fun, too :) After we did a lot around the house, we packed up some stuff and headed to Mike's place for the night. I got a shower and now I'm doing to a little writing and then we're going to head to bed.

Weekly wrap-up:

Currently playing:
PS3 - CoDBlOps, Dead Nation, Scott Pilgrim
DSi - FF:t4HoL, Crazy Sudoku

Currently reading:
Kill Screen, Volume 1
Moby Dick

Currently watching:
Inception
30 Rock

Current favorite t-shirt:
tie between my two new Kill Screen t-shirts - both pictured above!

VGAs Tonight!

Tonight is the VGAs (Video Game Awards) on Spike TV. This has become something of a tradition for Mike and me. We watched it in 2008 and had a drinking game where we took shots whenever we were disappointed. Last year, we went to a bar to watch it because I'd cancelled Comcast and we didn't have cable anymore. This year, we have cable again, but didn't realize we didn't have Spike until this afternoon. Luckily, we just got the new digital box, and were able to call and upgrade our channels easily.



I'm really looking forward to the awards this year, mainly because I am excited about world premiere trailers (like whatever craziness Naughty Dog is going to have on hand for Uncharted 3!) and also because Neil Patrick Harris is going to be the host. That's when you can tell something has gotten totally and completely mainstream - when NPH himself is hosting it, haha. But really, Mike and I always have a great time watching it, and I'm really excited about it tonight. Right now our biggest decision is: should we order out, or make dinner? I'm leaning towards making dinner just so we don't have to spend money, but ordering pizza is sooo easy and delicious. Durp. But yeah, I'm really excited to see what the VGAs have in store tonight...especially Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, and Arkham City...along with whatever secret surprises they're going to drop on us.

In other news, Thursday I worked and went to a nice appreciation reception in the afternoon for schedulers. The food was omg so good - scallops wrapped in bacon, coconut chicken, some sort of parmesan risotto fried balls of amazing, etc.



Afterwards I headed to Mike's place and chilled out and mostly watched 30 Rock, played some codblops together, and played more of 4 Heroes of Light. Friday I worked all day, then came home and got ready to put on my heart monitor. I'd had plans all night but ended up cancelling them all - my friend Tina was having a happy hour at 4:30 but I knew I couldn't make it home in time. Cardionet was supposed to call at 6, so I made sure to have all the prep stuff done by about 5:45. I had to set up the wires and pads and start charging the monitor itself. I waited...and waited...and waited, but by 6:30 still had no call. I called the number and they said they were running behind. By the time they called me, it was after 7. It took a little while to get it all set up, and I was so frazzled by the end that I didn't feel like leaving the house to go to Eric's book release party (for his awesome book - Textual Healing. Go buy it!). We ended up vegging in, watching 30 Rock, playing more codblops and 4HoL. Mike made an awesome dinner that was delicious <3 and we even went to bed at a reasonable time.

Here is what part of the heart monitor looks like (and no, I can't update my heart's statuses to Twitter, unfortunately - Jake and I tried today):



I got up pretty early this morning and washed the giant mountain of dishes and made us some breakfast. We had our typical Saturday morning, eating breakfast and playing more blops and watching 30 Rock. I had to cut it a little short to get ready for my meeting with Jake and Tristin and Grant at UArts at 1. We're trying to get a gaming event together for May, and the location is finally falling into place (no pun intended). After we looked at some rooms, we chilled in Grant's car and talked for ages, laughing our asses off about random shit while talking about logistics for our event. During that time his battery died :P. Whoops. Some nice woman randomly gave us a jump, and then we all went our separate ways. I came back here and worked on 4HoL, taking a break to go to the store for some food for dinner tonight, but came back here still wanting to order a pizza. I'm really hungry though, so I think I'm just going to start working on cooking us up some dinner right now :)

I'm not sure what's going on tomorrow - Mike might have some family coming into the city, and Drexel's also having their holiday party, which we've gone to the last two years. I could also stand to do some laundry and get some cleaning done around here, but I feel like I'm saving most of that for the 10 days we have off over the break. I'm still reeling from this term. Oh, and I found out my grade - I got an A+! My numerical grade was a 97, hot damn. All that hard work paid off. 4 courses down, 11 more to go! I'm feeling pretty great about it all right now, even though I'm not sure if LIS is what I want to do, or if I want to switch to IST or something else that might be more lucrative. As always, there are so many decisions...

Also, I've started to already thinking about my New Years' resolutions. I don't usually have any, or I make a weak last-minute attempt at it, but this year I think I'm going to really try to stick to it. One important thing is that I want to get back out of debt. It seems that every year I either find myself climbing out of it, or at the bottom of it. This year is the latter. So I think that one sure resolution is going to be that I won't buy any additional games, books, or movies until I've played, read, and watched all the ones I already have. And I have enough to keep me occupied for well beyond a year...possibly an entire decade. Also, I don't think I should ever buy another t-shirt. I STILL have yet to unpack from PAX. Last year, I got 23 t-shirts (21 of them free); this year, I beat that record - I can't remember the number, but as soon as I unpack, I'll post about it. That's another thing to save for the break...

Ok, time to get some dinner done! Look at me, two blog posts in a week! Also I think I'll keep a log in here of all the stuff I'm playing, reading, and watching as well...

Currently playing:
PS3 - CoDBlOps, Dead Nation
DSi - FF:t4HoL, Crazy Sudoku
Wii - New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Currently reading:
Kill Screen, Volume 1
Moby Dick

Currently watching:
Inception <3
30 Rock
VGAs :D

Current favorite t-shirt:
Candy Corn Vampire <3

Another Month Bites the Dust

To say I've been busy in the last month would be an egregious understatement.

Highlights include:

-Mike and I had our 2-year anniversary dinner on November 5th, and it was lovely. We got dressed up and went around the corner to a nice Chinese food place we love.
-The next day, we went to the annual Amblers Halloween party, which was a blast. We had good beer (some of which Brian made), won some beer pong, ate delicious foods, and hung out with awesome people.
-I pre-ordered Scott Pilgrim on blu-ray. We watched the shit out of it.
-that Friday, the 12th, we met up with my friend Stacy and some of her friends at Mad Mex for happy hour. I hadn't seen her in a few months, and it was awesome to catch up. I love her. <3
-we skipped Barcamp on the 13th - too much homework and other crap to do - but we did make it to the kickin' afterparty, where we celebrated my friend Ray's birthday and generally had an awesome time with Ray, Mel, Jake, Amanda, Tristin, and Renae.
-we saw Aqueduct at the Trocadero on the 14th, and David hung out with us afterwards, because he is the coolest dude ever. <3
-on Monday the 15th, we went to the Geekadelphia Scott Pilgrim Movie Monday at the Troc. I dressed as Envy Adams. Edgar Wright later tweeted our pictures. It was a pretty epic time.
-later that night/early the next morning, I woke up with heart palpitations - the worst yet - and went to the ER, AGAIN. It was horrendous. I haven't had a sip of alcohol since.
-I laid low until Thursday the 18th, when I attended TEDxPhilly for Geekadelphia. It was a beautiful and unique experience. It wore me OUT. I was supposed to do a lot that weekend but cancelled to try to catch my breath and get some homework done.
-Thanksgiving week was just how I like it: low key, quiet, and full of food. I played a lot of video games, too. I also finally caved and purchased a Wii - the red collector's edition that comes with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It was $199 with a $50 gift card on Amazon. It was totally worth it.
-Monday the 29th I gave myself a pep talk. I'd been feeling sort of down and depressed about the health stuff and also about homework and video game reviews piling up. I told myself everyone gets into funks, and that I should probably just start chipping away at my to-do list. I started that day and began to feel better immediately.
-On 11/30, Dead Nation came out. I played A TON of it. It is awesome.
-Wednesday, December 1st, we had a Philly game devs meeting (the OCMFers). It was the longest meeting we had, and the most beers drank. We had a lot of great ideas. It was just what I needed.
-Thursday was the department holiday party, which was relaxing and fun.
-Friday night and all day Saturday were spent finishing up my homework and doing my final. I was successful in both endeavors, which cut my term by a week. I was THRILLED. No more school 'til January 3rd. :D
-on Sunday, we went to my mom's - she and my stepdad wanted to give me my Christmas gift early. It was a television - the exact one I wanted. We brought it home and set it up and it's. GORGEOUS.
-On Monday, I left work early to see my doctor to talk about the heart monitor she had me wear in October, my recent ER trip, and what my options were. She encouraged me to still see the cardiologist, and also to listen to my nutritionist's advice and get tested for celiacs.
-Last night, Mike and I watched the Inception blu-ray, which I pre-ordered so long ago I had to go to the "6 months or older" orders tab in my Amazon account. It was my fifth time seeing it, but my first time with the wedding band knowledge. It was beautiful, elegant, and subtle. It was perfect.
-Today, I left work early and went to the cardiologist and talked to him about my options. He thinks it's stress related. They did an echocardiogram and want me to wear a heart monitor for 2 weeks just to be on the safe side. I also went to the lab and got the bloodwork done. I came home, did the dishes, made some dinner, and set up my new Wii. When Mike got here, we ate dinner and watched 30 Rock, and then played some CoDBlOps, and then I played some NSMB Wii and then more Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, which I'm reviewing for Gaming Target.

General stuff:

-The Walking Dead is so worth watching. I've loved the comic for years and I'm so glad it's getting so much attention.
-We're tearing through 30 Rock - we finished season 3 tonight. I can't wait to be caught up, but we're not sure what we're watching next - maybe Dexter?
-We've been playing a lot of CoDBlOps. 'Nuff said.
-I'm trying to finish up Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, but it's proving to be tedious. I'm hoping I can get through it.
-I re-read the Scott Pilgrim books as well as Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer. I also finished up The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Excellent books all.

Writings you can read:

For Gaming Target:
-I reviewed God of War: Ghost of Sparta for the PSP, and
-I also reviewed the FANTASTIC Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!

For Geekadelphia:
-I loved TEDxPhilly;
-I interviewed Alison Haislip from G4TV; and
-I wrote about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' viral marketing campaign.

I think that might be most of what's been happening. I'm so relieved that school is done - I can't even adequately explain it. But the stress is at a point where I need to re-evaluate everything. I've also been doing a lot of cleaning up in the apartment, and I think i'm going to get some new furniture to try to fit everything better. And hang up my posters. And...you know...unpack from PAX. It's only been 3 months.

OK, time to play some video games. I will try to update this more frequently - I do still want to post some pictures. Stay tuned. :)

PS - I just hit platinum status in my Club Nintendo account. Shit. Yes.
PPS - I also started knitting again.
PPPS - I am slowly getting to all the things I've pre-ordered in the last few months. I finally played Katamari Forever...and beat it in two days. I also beat CoDBlOps quickly and I'm addicted to Dead Ops Arcade. Pokemon's on hold until FF is done, though I've been sneaking in Crazy Sudoku here and there.