BLOG -- Recap of October

October... well... despite how busy things were for me, this was a very sucky month for me. I spoke too soon when I said there was little drama in my life, 'cuz now I am sorta drowning in it. Well, maybe that is an exaggeration, but that's how I feel. I won't mention or talk about this again in future blogs (sorry, but I find this to be too personal even for this space), but I'll say this: I hope that in the end, friendship will prevail -- that's all that matters to me.

Outings/Events in October:

- Celebrated my friends' birthdays x3. 

- Celebrated a relative's birthday... and the relative did not show up... >.>''.

- Briefly attended the Creativ Festival to support my sister who had a booth there.

- Attended a friend's bridal shower.

- Met up with my friend's friend for the first time. It was okay -- no commonality in games, though, lol.

- Went shopping with friends (a shopping day with friends is very rare for me).

- Stayed over at my sister's place x1.



- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn achievements / news: 
-Participated in a cosplay event with my main character. It was kinda stressful, but really fun. I'll post some pics up whenever I get around to grabbing them from my PS4.
-Got Monk, Ninja, Machinist, Dragoon, and Paladin classes to 50 for my main character. Lots of leveling, haha.
-Changed my main character's race. I consider it my Halloween "costume". My main character's look is now on one of my alts.

Exposures:

- (Restaurant) Kimchi Korea House -- This is a Korean place with pretty yummy food. I fairly enjoyed the takoyaki dish I ordered from them.

- (Restaurant) WVRST -- I don't know how to pronounce this place, but they serve various sausages / hot dogs and fries. They're supposedly really known for their duck fat fries.

Finished...

Watching:

- (Movie): A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master -- This is pretty cheesy. Besides the character deaths, I was able to sleep pretty well that night (this is very rare for me after watching a horror movie).

- (Anime): Heaven's Memo Pad -- This was an okay series, though I felt very disconnected from many of the characters. I only kinda felt anything around the last few episodes.

- (Anime): Children who Chase Lost Voices -- Umm... I did not enjoy this very much...

- (Anime): Canaan -- I had no idea that this was based off the game 428 until I read the credits (428's been on my radar for a long time, even though I know nothing about the game). Overall, I didn't have much care for the series, but I felt strongly for Santana and Hakko's story.

Playing:

- Nothing at this time.

 

Reading:

- (Novel): Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead -- I did NOT like this book. I lost a lot of respect for Rose halfway through. The ending also felt very rushed. What a way to end a series... *sigh* XP

- (Novel): The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky -- I liked it... and I hated it. At times it felt too immersive, when I really didn't want to be looking at the world through the eyes of a 15/16-year-old guy. I liked that it made me think, but it also challenged a couple of beliefs that I hold very close to me. In its own small ways, this book has unhinged me, hahaha.

I've gone into a bit more detail about the book in my movie review: http://ironixgirl.blogspot.ca/2012/10/reviewthoughts-movie-perks-of-being.html

Currently... 

Playing (not all at once):

- (PS4): Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below
- (PS3): Borderlands 2
- (PS3): Steins; Gate   
- (3DS): Bravely Default 
- (3DS): Liberation Maiden 
- (3DS): Fantasy Life
- (3DS): Senran Kagura Burst
- (GBA): The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition   
- (PSP): Persona 
- (PSP): Crush
- (PSVita): Persona 4 Golden
- (Wii): Fortune Street 
- (PS2): Atelier Iris 2 
- (PC): UnEpic  
- (PC): King's Bounty: The Legend
- (Mobile): Dragon Quest

Watching:

- (TV Show): The Walking Dead (Season 5)
- (TV Show): Orphan Black (Season 3)  
- (Anime): Yu Yu Hakusho (don't remember)
- (Anime): Shakugan no Shana (Season 1 -- Episode 19)
- (Anime): Log Horizon (episode 3)
- (Anime): K-On! Season 2 (episode 3)

Reading:

- Nothing at this time. 


That's it for October. Here are a few pics I took this month.

 One of the Christmas tree displays at the Creativ Festival. 
Those hedgehog decorations are so cute.

Duck fat fries. I liked the taste. Smooth and salty, lol.

Mmmm... Takoyaki... <3

Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to comment if you have anything to say, and have a good rest of the weekend! I should have another blog up tomorrow :)

BLOG (PERSONAL) -- My Upcoming Busy Week

Now, I know in my last entry I said that this week should be a non-personal and more general entry. Well... I feel I haven't prepped enough for the blog I had in mind, so a personal entry strikes again! In all honesty, my mind's been thinking a lot and I haven't been able to think of anything to blog about this week, except for what I mentioned above (that I feel isn't yet ready).

So, without going too deep into my soul -- I kinda feel I've been baring that too much lately -- I'll briefly note some things that are happening for me this upcoming week. And again, this entry might not be very interesting to you.

- Meeting up with friends to celebrate their birthdays. This is happening to me twice this week. Initially, I accidentally booked both celebrations on the same day, hahaha... but I quickly realized what I did and fixed it. One thing I was hoping to do for one celebration was watch Attack on Titan (Live-action) - Part 1 in theatres, but it won't happen anymore. Oh well, lol.

- Going clothes-shopping for the upcoming Winter season. This is pretty straightforward. I just wish it was a simple thing for me. Often all I want are plain, one-colour, warm clothes without any fancy designs or patterns. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong shops, but it is soooo hard for me to find clothes like that.

- Going dress-shopping for a friend's upcoming wedding. I wish I could just wear one of my gothic lolita dresses to this. My friend's wedding is coming up in about three weeks, so I don't have much time to find something I like and is cost-effective. If I think 'I could have bought a PSVita / Wii U / PS4 with this money!', the dress is most likely too expensive, haha.

- Meeting a friend's friend for the first time. When my friend told me about him, she said she really wanted to set us up. When she said that I instantly said NO. For me, I don't really believe in dating / being in a romantic relationship without first being friends. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me (maybe I will touch on that another time). But -- and especially since she is vouching for him and says he is a gamer -- I am open to at least meeting him as a friend. I also stressed this multiple times to her friend in case the message didn't get through. If anything, I may make a new gamer friend, which is nice since I don't have too many gamer friends (or just friends in general. But I am fine with that.).

- My Final Fantasy XIV subscription running out. Well, my FFXIV subscription is expiring around the end of this month, and I will let it expire for 1-2 weeks. Even though I've been staying at Part 3 of my new year's resolution involving FFXIV... I... really need to put my focus on other things and other games. My gaming / DVD / manga / novel / music collection isn't going to play / experience itself... and I think I need to be away for a while anyway. FFXIV is NOT my World; it is A PART of my World. Hahaha, there is definitely a distinction there.


And that's it for this week. Thanks for reading! I'll try to get the blog I wanted up next week... if I can find the time between all this to prep for it!

Take care and have a good week! :)

BLOG (PERSONAL) -- Some Silly Things I Used To Do When I Was Young -- Part 1

So every now and then (well -- maybe very often, hahaha) I think back to my past -- how I used to be, what I used to do. Sometimes I smile warmly, thinking 'Ahhhh... I really thought about this back then. I like it, hehehe'. Then other times, I cringe, thinking 'Oh my... I actually did this??!! I can't believe I did this!'

So this entry will be about the latter. It might not be cringe-worthy to you, but when I think about the context, or even just what my mind might have been going through at the time, I can get so embarrassed, hahaha. I'm listing this as Part 1 in case I ever do a Part 2. I guess I should also mention that this may not be interesting to you, since it's... all about me.


-I used to write poetry for my friends. Yes. I did this. Even for my guy friends. They were often silly rhyming poetry, but still... what guy would really want and appreciate poetry from a girl while going through elementary and middle school?! I probably freaked them out or made them uncomfortable, but I didn't think that. I thought I was being a friend, hahaha. Below is an example, if you can stomach it (yes, I keep all my old poetry, even these ones... lol *sigh*):

      [insert guy name], [insert guy name], [insert guy name]!
      Don't stop being nice, because uhhh...
      I'm sorry, [insert guy name], I couldn't find a rhyme,
      But I don't care, if I take a very long time.
      You're worth all the time I have,
      The seconds, the minutes, the days,
      There's too much for me to say.
      Have fun in your life, but I know that you do,
      One kind of fun to me is... you!

Thank goodness I was more selective / considerate of who I wrote poetry to when I reached high school. And... in case the above was your first exposure to my poetry... I've written better! You can check out this older blog entry with what I think is better poetry, lol.

-I used to write letters to anime characters. I don't exactly cringe when I think about this, but this is something I think I've told maybe one person about. I don't even think my sister knew about it, but I could be wrong. I just remember feeling embarrassed, even while writing them. I guess you could say they were like fan letters to certain characters, me expressing my admiration for them. I don't remember when I did this -- either around elementary or middle school. It's possible I wrote those letters because I just didn't have anybody to geek out to at the time. 

I would share an excerpt, but... I can't seem to find them! I'm hoping really hard that I've just hidden the letters somewhere (since I was very embarrassed by them) instead of just throwing them out. My usual nature would be to hold onto my old writings, but I had a phase one year where I went, 'I don't need this'... ><''

And in case you were wondering, I wrote letters to: Polly Esther from Samurai Pizza Cats, Goku from Dragon Ball, Gohan from Dragon Ball Z, and maybe Trunks from Dragon Ball Z.

-I used to give excerpts of my old journal entries to my close guy friends. When I think about this... I... I... what the heck was going through my mind when I did this?!! Now, it's not like I gave these guy friends old journal entries every day. It usually happened if the friend was transferring schools the next year. On his last day, I would include some excerpts with a good-bye letter. Did I do this because I wanted to be remembered? Did I do this because it was my way of saying 'You always have a piece of me -- we'll always be friends'? I... honestly have no idea. 

Now, if you are wondering why I did this for my guy friends and not for my gal friends... well... I was lucky enough that almost all my close gal friends stayed in the same high school. The one close gal friend that transferred schools -- we still kept in contact regularly, so I did not feel I had to give her anything like that.

-I used to jot down topics when phoning my friends. I don't really cringe at this nor feel embarrassed. This is just a weird tidbit that -- hmm -- I don't think anybody knew about this! It's possible that I could still be jotting down topics now if I still had phone conversations. But I don't have phone conversations with anybody anymore. This just tells me that even when I was young I sucked at verbal conversations, hahaha.


That's it for this blog. What sort of silly things did you do when you were young (that you would dare to admit)? ;)


Thanks for reading! Next week's blog should be something non-personal and more general, hopefully. Take care and have a good next week :)

BLOG (PERSONAL) -- Some of the Things I am Thankful For

Well, with Thanksgiving coming up soon in Canada, I figured I'd list some of the things I am thankful for. I think this list would be more of the little things instead of the "usual" things, like having easy, affordable-ish access to food or living in an area with low crime rate (I don't know if the latter is true -- just listing an example). I think those sort of things are a given, so I won't list them.

I am thankful for...
- This computer I'm typing on. I guess by now it is really outdated, but it was a Birthday gift years ago, and I am really thankful for it!

- Buying and installing a door lock on my room. Things used to go missing every now and then when my room didn't have a lock, so I'm glad it's there.

- Being alive. There is still so much I want to do and experience, so I'm glad I'm still kicking it, despite how much uncertainty I feel for my future.

- The things that greatly affected me while growing up. I may blog about this in the future, so I'm not elaborating here.

- Anime being more mainstream. I am glad that more and more people no longer perceive anime as just pornographic media.

- The easier acceptance of "nerd culture". I'm not sure if this is true all over, but I feel it where I am.

- My favourite video game companies being alive still and kicking. Please still be together and intact for, like, the rest of my life. <3

- Myself. It's weird for me to admit it, but for the most part, I do like myself. My shy and quiet personality, my core values, my passions, my beliefs -- I like it all and I don't want to change it. My self-confidence / self-worth could use a boost, though, hahaha.

- Being out of my "booze" phase for a couple years now. I think I save more money when I don't drink -- money that I can spend on more video games! Hahaha.

- The invention of chips. As I often like to say, chips are my second love. <3

- Having a very drama-less life. Any kind of drama I experience these days is either online (very rarely now) or in the workplace. It's kinda nice not sweating over any or many issues, except maybe my lack of time and my gigantic media backlog.

- My friends. Yes, this is a given, but I'm saying it anyway. I'm not always the best at staying in contact... but friends are very precious to me.

- You (the reader). Here is my sappy thank you to you, the reader! Even though I always say thank you at the end of my blogs, it's just not enough, hahahaha. My sincerest thanks for you taking the time to read my thoughts and words. There is no way for me to describe just how appreciative I am *bows* <3
 

Again, thank you for reading! Next week there will be no blog -- I am using the Thanksgiving weekend as an "excuse" to have more time for myself. But really I already know that October will be somewhat busier than usual for me, so I know I will need that break, hahaha >.>''

Anywho, take care, and have an awesome week! :)