my moral standing is lying down

Sooo.... my throat is all sorts of fucked up. You know that talking louder thing that happens when you get drunk? Well, I don't know if I was screaming or what, exactly, but I'm all squeaky and whispery when I talk. It's actually pretty hilarious as I keep forgetting and then suddenly laugh or try to say something to my roomie and it comes out silent for a second or two before my voice squeakily kicks in. SRS LOLZ PEOPLE.

Completely unrelatedly, Rian Johnson's tumblr for his new movie, Looper posted a pic of JGL, Noah Segan, and Lukas Haas!!! BRICK REUNION IN NOLA!!!! This made me all sorts of *flail* and happy because you guys may or may not know how much I love Brick!

on my tumblr:


( ...and now, for some AWESOME fanart (haha, not by me) )

Um, yeah. That's all I've got for now. I'm supposed to be posting my Sex Is Not the Enemy fic today, but I don't think I'll be able to until later. IT HAS BEEN GIVING ME ALL SORTS OF TROUBLE. =/

ETA: I just saw that paperflower86 is selling her papercuts. I made this post about 12 hours after she'd posted her sale and didn't know about it til now. AND AND AND the Arthur/Eames papercut I love hadn't been claimed. WELL IT IS NOW. IT IS CLEARLY THE UNIVERSE'S VALENTINES DAY PRESENT TO ME.

So, as poorest of poor timing tends to go, I have gotten horribly sick -- just when I'm supposed to be helping my parents out, staying at their place, etc. Instead, I have to stay away from their place, so as to not get my father sick. =(

In addition, I feel like death warmed over.

I know I've had a fever on and off, but I haven't taken my temperature because I know it's not too high. The last 2 nights I've taken Nyquil, which I suppose I must thank for allowing me to sleep most of the way through the night. But I also have it to thank for having the weirdest dreams I've had in a while. The first night (Monday) brought repetitious and disturbing dreams. Tuesday night's dreams brought thoughts of people from long ago. People I haven't thought of for the longest time (like an Asian girl named Connie, who I knew in the third grade) and associations I haven't made for equally as long (I always think of white polka dots on a black or red background whenever I think of her). Among other very odd situations.

I stayed home yesterday because I just couldn't bring myself to move. But I watched some movies during my convalecence:

Cypher. REALLY interesting. Not unpredictable, but interesting nonetheless. Unfortunately, I don't have the mental capacity at the moment to describe the film, so I'll just leave you with the link to the wikipedia page.

Tango & Cash. I just love this buddy-cop movie from the early 90s. Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, and great comedy.

The Golden Child. You just can't go wrong with late 80s-early 90s Eddie Murphy. Stop-motion animation of a dancing Pepsi-can-person? Yes, please. Not sure which came first, but this was a MUCH better version of Big Trouble in Little China (with many of the same actors, even).

The Machinist. Christian Bale is a crazy man. He starved himself for the role, and boy is it disturbing. I enjoyed the film, though I'm ambivalent about it as it seems to be an "all-wrapped-up" version of a David Lynch film. I appreciate the confusion, time-skipping, illusion, allusion, and such -- but in the end, I didn't feel like there was much to think about. Everything was explained. It was kind of disappointing.

If you haven't already seen images from this movie, check it out. They're really all Christian Bale. For real.

Just booked (pre-paid in full) a hostel for the trip to London at the end of March.

I was a fucking idiot and put it on my debit card instead of on the credit card I intended to use. Luckily, I have some extra funds which I can move around a bit.

Still, jeez, I'm out of it. Even after sleeping for 12 hours last night. I skipped class and got home at 6pm, was asleep by 6:30pm, and other than waking up every few hours for a couple of seconds each, I slept all the way through til 7am this morning.

Which brings me to... my stupidity of the last several days.

Monday was mostly a relaxing day, but I must have already started coming down with a cold because I barely ate all day. 4.5 hours after waking up, I decided I'd have half a bag of chips & guac from Chipotle. And then half a baked potato and some chicken nuggets a little later. That's it. All day. Not my usual fare.

Stayed up til 4am on Monday night. Somewhat stressful conversation and only 3 hours of sleep later, and feeling like crap from all of the above. Plus a continued lack of appetite and headache. Rushed home to return the car to NJ. Discovered, when I tried to take out some money from the ATM, that NONE OF MY CARDS WORKED. So I drove over to borrow some money from parents, and realized I didn't need the money I had come to borrow -- because YOU CAN TAKE FDR NORTH TO THE GW BRIDGE INSTEAD OF THE TRIBORO. Therefore, NO TOLLS. Yeah, you can see exactly how on-top of things I was.

Finally made it to NJ, later than anticipated, and pretty hungry, with a headache. We went out for dinner, and despite the fact that I felt like I was starving, I didn't really eat that much, and that headache did not go away until I took some painkiller for it.

Left NJ -- not under the best of circumstances, but again, I maintain that I was not in my right mind -- at midnight and got to Port Authority 30 minutes later. Waited for the E to take me straight home. But since the E didn't come, and a D came instead, I figured, what the hell, I'll take this to 7th Avenue and wait for the E there.

Does the D even go to 7th avenue?

Ask me if I even cared.

So it stopped at 50th street and then at Columbus Circle. I got out there and walked west. Realized my mistake, turned around and walked east. Finally, gave up and said "Screw it; I'm taking a cab." Cab from Columbus Circle to home was only $16. NOT BAD. Got home at 1am, asleep by 2am.

However, yesterday at work I was even more out of it. Continued lack of appetite and general malaise. I realize I should not have lunch with coworkers in this state. I sound like an idiot. Hopefully they recognize that I was super exhausted (after all, I did tell them about my super exhausting weekend), and won't hold it against me.

So that brings me full circle, with 12 hours of sleep last night, but still feeling out of it today. Better than yesterday, but still. I should take a day off and get my shit together, but I feel guilty because I just had a 4-day weekend.

...

In a small bit of good news, I got the new Buck-Tick album this morning, which I am really looking forward to listening to on the way home tonight. Please to not be disappointed!

There were a few book and movie reviews I've been meaning to post for the last several months. And it's unfortunate, because I don't remember so much about them anymore. Not to mention, there's probably something I've forgotten that I wanted to post about.

( reviews within )

As for last weekend -- Johncon was pretty darn awesome! =D It was actually the perfect weekend to be out there. It must have been 5-10 degrees cooler out there than in the city AND (more importantly) there was a pool! =D Lots of pool-related fun occurred, including noodles and swords... and other foam phalluses? (Is "phalluses" the plural of phallus?)

In any case, extreme fun was had! Thanks so much, John, for hosting us (and for inviting me)!

Also? Various barbecued meats were YUMMY!!!

In addition, the rental car I got was a Ford Fusion. It had a sunroof. Which was pretty cool. AND a 6-CD CHANGER! That could READ MP3 CDs! So the playlist was awesome.

Joe and I made a music exchange -- he lent me his 311 Best-Of CD and I gave him a copy of Warp 11's Red Alert. Joe and/or Morgan -- you should let me know what you think!

The only bad thing is that Sunday I woke up with the beginnings of a cold that totally hit me by the time I got home Sunday evening. Went to work Monday but stayed home from work Tuesday. I started to feel better some time after lunch yesterday. And today I've felt pretty consistently well. I still have a cough and congestion, and I'm still a bit more tired/achy than usual, but I'm definitely on the mend. ^^

This weekend was lots of fun -- I think it might have been even better had I not been somewhat sick, progressing to coughing my lungs up when I finally got home last night. Picked up Vince's car on Friday night, which was the MUCH better idea rather than Saturday morning. My mom was really adorable -- she loved Vince's little red 95 Chevy Beretta and wanted me to drop her off at her appointment at Continental on my way to pick up Judy from the train station in that area. Which worked out. And it was very cute. I love my mom, but I rarely think of her as cute, so this was a refreshing happenstance.

We were on our way by 10am and got to Katie & Kelly's place at 1pm. It was a nice steady drive with no surprises. We went over to Genericon at RPI and snuck in. ^_~; We went into one of the lecture-style rooms where they were just finishing up the "masquerade". Some comedian (who'd been there at NYAF, apparently) did his (mostly unfunny) bit while they tallied up the judges scores. We left about an hour later after they announced the winners. All in all, I think that was a great experience. Especially the not-paying part. =D

After eating we went back to their place and spent the rest of the time inside, where I got to ooh and aah over their "Bob Moon" cosplay outfits and wigs and such. They described what their NYAF skit was supposed to have been -- which I really hope they end up doing next year 'cause it was great! Then there was drinking and pong and other games and no pointing and not saying "you" are REALLY difficult to do when you aren't drunk, much less when you are!

We were on the road by 4:30pm on Sunday, which worked out really nicely since we picked up Vince at Penn Station and everyone got to be driven back to their respective houses, so it was very convenient for everyone. However, I felt bad because on the drive back my sniffly nose turned into serious coughing and Vince dubbed his car the sick-mobile. Which was pretty accurate. I hope he doesn't get sick, that'll make me feel horrible!

Went to sleep not too long after getting home, but it was a little difficult to get myself into work today. Just wanted to stay in bed. It's only 12:30 now and I'm barely doing any work and feeling like crap. I'd stick it out til like 4pm and then go home a little early but I have Japanese class tonight. I'm sure that's going to be great. I'm looking forward to the class, but I haven't studied at all, so it's going to seem like I don't know shit and to top it off I'll be sniffly and coughing the whole time. Lovely.

I won't have too much time to rest this week, and Judy and I have to work on cosplay for Katsu this weekend. But I'd better kick this sick by Katsu.

On an unrelated note, I'm kicking myself for totally forgetting about the ceremony to retire Leetch's number on Thursday. I guess I would have missed it anyway because of NA, but I would have tried to catch replays or whatnot later that night. =( Luckily, the NYR site has some videos I can watch. I really <3 Leetch. Also, the All Star game sounded like an interesting one; too bad I missed that as well.

[edit: Messier's emotional-ness is SO CUTE!]

First of all, this weather is freaking crazy.

So there was Rock Band on Friday night until the wee hours of Saturday morning. It was loads of fun. Drums are HARD. But only if you insist on playing the base pedal yourself. LOL, if you have someone else playing the base pedal while you do the drums part, it isn't so bad. ^^; Also, I really prefer the RB guitar over the GH guitar. I like the fret buttons a lot more. I think. I did the usual drive-everyone-home thing, which I don't mind. However, I think I made my cold worse by not having enough rest. I think I went to sleep at around 5:30am. =/

Saturday and Sunday I stayed home re-watching season 3 of House with Maryann. I intended to go to Anna's photoshoot on Sunday, but I was really not feeling well enough to go anywhere. I don't think I stepped foot out of the house almost all weekend. ( more about House season 3 )

Angelica oh-so-kindly gifted me with two books I was dying to read; one of which I read over Sunday and Monday (when I stayed home from work and basically slept and read all day). Captain's Fury by Jim Butcher. Book 4 in the Codex Alera series. Finally, the big secret revealed! To whom, you ask. Well, I'm not going to spoil it for anyone who happens to be reading the series. It was very enjoyable, though maybe not quite as good as the third book in some respects. I enjoyed the plot developments. I think my only disappointment was that there was just not enough of Tavi (the protagonist) in this book. Which is odd, because there was quite a bit from his POV, but I was really left feeling the lack. What we did get of him was very, very good. But it wasn't enough to be satisfying. On the upside, the parts that are other characters' POVs where much more interesting than they have been previously. I may have to just wait a while and then re-read it. I do enjoy where the series is going, and I also love all the secondary and tertiary characters, which continues to prove that Butcher is only getting better.

The other book I read once I was done with Captain's Fury was Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. ( more about Ender's Game )

Still reading: Watchmen. Also, Ender's Game has gotten me into a sci-fi mood, so I'm re-reading David Weber's Honor Harrington series (book #1: On Basilisk Station). My original copy is seriously falling apart from how much I've re-read this book. I bought another copy last year, but I think I may have lent it to Will... I wonder if he still has it. Hmm.

Oh! Jim Butcher's next Dresden Files book, Small Favor will be out in April. Can't wait!! =D

Thursday night was not a pleasant experience. I must have eaten something bad because I was puking and other things all night long, like every two hours. This carried over, every two hours, into Friday morning. I finally stopped around 5am or so, I think. I spent the rest of the day Friday napping uncomfortably on and off, with a huge headache and nonexistent appetite.

People still did come over on Friday night, which was nice, and fun. Got to play Guitar Hero II with a group, which was also lots of fun. Wish I could have felt a little better at the time, but it was still fun. By 1am I was pooped, though, and had a nice, deep sleep until Lene woke me up at 8:15am. (Unfortunately, I had to work today.)

Still feeling pretty weak, but so much better than Thursday night/Friday.

Haven't seen Chris & Victor & the bunch for quite a while... is any get-together going on for the holidays?

I'm sick. (Physically.) That cold I was coming down with earlier last week exploded (along with my head) over the weekend. I missed the AnimeNEXT Staff meeting I was planning on going to on Sunday, which sucks. But I will endeavor to attend the other ones. I'm not major staff, so I don't think it's that big a deal that I missed it, but still.

Friday went to see V for Vendetta with Liz, Maryann, Juliet, Will, VICTOR AND CHRIS. =D They drove into Queens and went to a yay still-cheap theater with us. =D It was unfortunate that Chris had to work early the next morning 'cause it would've been nice to have a little more time to talk about the movie and stuff. The movie was pretty good! There were some parts that were a bit eye-rolling, but overall I really enjoyed its message and V was cool -- the type of character I've been wanted to read about lately (a bad good-guy).

Ultraviolet was AWFUL. I was going to say that it had a horrible, horrible plot, but there was barely any pseudo "humans vs vampires" plot to be had! It was choppy and pointless, and normally I'd say it wouldn't matter because Milla Jovovich is so pretty, but I really like her better with shorter hair, so even that wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be. Does anyone know if Ultraviolet is based on an actual comic series? If so, does it have an actual plot?

Anyway, Saturday I felt really crappy and had a difficult time going to sleep. Sunday I woke up at 10am and couldn't get back to sleep, but I did nothing but vegetate and watch TV. Well, I did type up something for Joe, but it was actually a LOT more comfortable than going to Angelica's house to do it. I sat on my couch, in the recliner seat, with my laptop on the rolley chair with my USB keyboard plugged in and propped on a pillow in my lap. LOL.

The title of this post is mostly unrelated, but that I'm vaguely obsessed by SDK lately. I want some good KyoxYuya fic. Or Gen fic! Anything good, really.

I caught it on the way back to NYC from Japan. I was fine that Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday I had a sore throat, but since I had a screaming match with my mom on Wednesday night, I thought hoped it might be that. But no. Friday I woke up with a fever, runny nose, coughing: the works. Went in to work for an hour and a half until Fay showed up to relieve me, then went home and mostly slept. However, Liz's semiformal was that day, so (being a nice older sister with a driver's license) I drove back into the city with her dress and accessories. And my co-worker, Karen, was nice enough to meet up with her to help her put her hair into cornrows! Oh, they're so cute! I'm going to post a pic as soon as I can get them off the camera and onto the computer.

I was feeling a smidge better, but mostly wanted to see people. Maryann came over and we spent several hours looking at most of my pics from Japan (including Angelica's, Will's and Yoshi's), and talking about things that happened in Japan, and what it was like for her in Germany with her (apparently awesome) family. I'm glad that she and her family got along so well. I can only imagine being slightly uncomfortable around any family that I might have in Indonesia. I gave her her gifts and showed her some of what I picked up. Of course, I told her about the BT concert and the dramatic chase scene afterwards. We talked and talked and talked, and it was sooo good to see her again! And I drove her back to her house at around 1am (for she had work the next day, poor girl).

I stayed out from work again on Sunday (yes, bad me), but by then I was coughing up lungs and various other innards. Which, of course, means that I missed the prom-theme once-a-month goth-dance-club meet. I feel very cheated because I was really looking forward to going to the goth prom with louiex as my date! =(

Liz and I randomly decided to watch the Smallville Season 1 DVDs Lene lent to me. And goddamn it, Lex really pulled me in. Damnitdamnitdamnit! There really is a lot of pseudo-slashy canon stuff in there! It makes the heart swell. We saw 10 episodes and decided to call it quits around 3:30am -- so as to get a bit of sleep, you understand. Because yes, I went to work today. On 3 hours of sleep and much mucus. Lots of fun.

Feeling mostly better today, but it's been a long day for me and I think I have a slight fever again. Luckily Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my days off. So I can sleep late tomorrow and hopefully recover enough to work on Thursday and Friday without blowing my nose so much that my face gets red (and yes, it did).

Saturday is Raquel's birthday party which I really want to go to! Angelica's not going, which is again, not surprising. I'd invite Lene or Maryann, but Lene's going to Nebraska on Saturday, and besides which, the club is 21+ only, so neither of them would be able to get it. I need to find a few older friends who like to go dancing. Normally in cases like this, I'd ask Raquel. But she's the birthday girl. Or Leo. But he's in Florida.

::groan::

But that seems to be just the tip of the iceberg for the past month. My whole family was sick while we were moving our crap from our apartment to our new house. It was a pain in the butt, let me tell you! I tried to write in this LJ several times, but something always happened to prevent my writings from being published! The first time, I got kicked off AOL, so the window closed -- along with several paragraphs I had already written. I was so pissed that I just couldn't bring myself to re-write it or anything, so I turned off the computer. The second time was when we finally had the computer set up in the house and I was typing in Internet Explorer, so if AOL kicked me offline, I'd still be able to save what I wrote. That's when I accidentally brushed the restart button, so I lost it anyway!

In any case, I was sick at the beginning of the move, but seemed to get better. My parents and sister, though, got worse. I was feeling great.... then I got sick. It hit me a few days ago; I was dead tired and even fell asleep for an hour or two during the middle of the day -- that's how I know I'm sick, 'cause I never fall asleep during the middle of the day unless I'm sick. And now I'm all stuffed-up, runny-nosed, coughing up lungs every few minutes. It's yucky.

Not to mention, I lost the earring I had in the cartilage of my left ear for a few months, so it took me a few days to get to an earring store (Claire's) to buy another one. Angelica put that one in, and she said to tighten it when I got home 'cause it was a little loose. But I forgot to 'cause I wasn't feeling well (oh, did I mention that my wisdom teeth are cutting again, which gives me a massive headache, and the right side of my lower gum is swollen?), so I woke up the next morning and it was gone again! ::sweatdrop:: So then I get all mad at myself 'cause I'm spending a fortune on stupid earrings. Not even pairs of earrings, but single ones! So I decided the next day I'd have to go buy another one and tighten it this time. But then -- lucky me -- I found the one that I'd lost the second time, and put it in my ear and pushed it down a little so it wouldn't fall out.

But that wasn't such a good thing, I guess, because it started hurting when I leaned on it in a certain position, so I had to go get a different one anyway. But by this time I had decided to get an earring like Angelica's, where the whole hoop goes through the hole and the ball is what connects the two ends of the hoop. So we went to the village on Monday and I got one (after much protest 'cause I'm a scaredy-cat when it comes to pain, although I do have a high pain tolerance... I make no sense, but I guess that's nothing new). So the ball that I got was a black one. But I meant to get a red one. I was just so worried about the pain of having my hole stretched (please no hentai comments!) that I completely forgot about wanting a red ball and just asked for what I already had, which was a black one.

The reason I wanted a red one was because of a dream I had had earlier in the week about being in the village and wanting to get my ears pierced with a hoop with a red ball, but wondering if Angelica would be mad if I went and got my ears pierced without her, so I ended up not getting them pierced. It felt so real. LOL. When I saw her the next day I asked her if she'd have minded, and she said no, so that was kinda like a go-ahead, I guess.

So I got the black ball instead of the red one. It's okay, I guess. I'll try to see if I can get a red ball without the hoop. ::shrugs:: But about an hour before I got the new hoop put in the cartilage of my ear (which is now throbbing, but not enough to really bother), I got a second hole in each of my earlobes. Little gold stars with white sparkly fake-diamond things in the middle. I don't normally wear gold 'cause I like silver much better, but they were stars and I really like stars, so it's okay. It's only for about 2 months, anyway. I think I waited for 3 months before changing my cartilage piercing, so 2 months should be fine for the lobe piercings (which don't bother me at all, actually, except for the inital burning sensation which only lasted 5 minutes anyway).

But that's not all!!!

The day after I got really sick (which was last Tuesday, I believe, 'cause Angelica and I were supposed to hang out Wednesday, but I still wasn't feeling well enough to really go out), I actually felt a bit better. So it was Wednesday when I sprained my ankle. ::sweatdrop:: I'm not normally this much of a klutz. (Shutup, Angelica.) Yes, I do tend to sprain one of my ankles, on average, once a year, but all this stuff doesn't normally happen all at the same time! Oddly enough, this ankle sprain isn't so bad. I've been able to walk on it almost as if I hadn't sprained it, but it's still a bit sore in certain positions.

Yesterday, after going to the village to do my ear-care package, (Oh, btw, the cartilage hole-stretching didn't hurt at all when the guy did it, but it's been throbbing in the background since a few hours after and all of today), we went to Burlington Coat Factory to buy me a coat. After an hour or so of intense deliberation which included me trying on 2 different long wool coats several times (one gray, one black, slightly different styles), I decided I'd hold onto the gray one and go look to see if they had anything else I'd like. Angelica wasn't quite happy with the gray one, so she oh-so-subtly led me over to some faux sherling jackets. (Did I mention that she really likes faux sherling and has an intense hatred for long wool coats that she hides only half as well as she thinks she does?)

So there was only one that I could possibly have considered because it was this navyish/blackish/grayish color and all the others were tan (eewwww) or green (eeewwwww). Those are sooo not my colors. Even if they were, I just couldn't wear anything that light or bright. I'd go crazy. (Crazier?) Anyway, the navy/black/gray faux sherling just happened to be my size. Lucky me 'cause there was only one of them. Apparently Angelica tried it on, but it was a bit too small for her. (Baka. Were we going coat-shopping for her or me, I'd like to know!) But anyway, I ended up getting it. It feels a lot warmer than the wool would be. But I had just gotten used to long coats 'cause I had been borrowing my sister's long wool coat this past winter.... so now I have to get used to a jacket again. It's nice though, so I forgive Angelica for being a sneak.

So today I hung out with Angelica the whole day. It was nice. I got some money that was waiting for me at the post office, so I didn't even use the $50 that was in my wallet. Maybe I should have, though. 'Cause I lost my wallet somewhere in the library on 40th Street and 5th Avenue between 3:30 pm and 6:00 pm, but didn't realize it until 7:20 pm. Did I mention that they close at 7, so I couldn't go back? Hidoi, ne?

So I'm going back tomorrow morning. Hopefully some kind person turned it in. (I'm not counting on it, though. After all, this is New York.)

I feel like I should be reading that children's book that everyone seemed to have read to them in 1st grade, Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Unfortunately, I don't own a copy.