Surprise Visit

I had another odd dream last night. This time it was about lizalou. I suppose that makes sense because I was thinking about her last night as I finished up working on the DVD's I'm sending her. In my dream it was Memorial Day weekend and she had decided to come back to visit because of the three day weekend (that, on the other hand, makes absolutely no sense). In the part I remember the most, we were hanging out and talking and eating food (big suprise there--I'm sure it was my idea) and lizalou had that look on her face that meant she had a secret that she was waiting to reveal at the most opportune moment. Finally, she said, "Remember that movie I was telling you about?" Earlier in the dream she had mentioned a movie named CCI (stupid huh? That's the name of the company we share office space with) that had been filmed in Japan. "Well," she said with that mischievous grin of hers, "I had an English-speaking role in that movie." She was all excited about it because it was actually an American movie filmed in Japan and would be played in theatres in the US.

It was stupid on so many levels. Number one, lizalou doesn't like to act, though I think she could if she tried. Number two, lizalou wouldn't be excited about an American movie, only a Japanese one. Though, I suppose if it were filmed in Japan she would have likely been playing opposite Japanese actors and that would have made her happy. And number three, what the hell? But that's dreams for you...

No offense against lizalou because I've been really missing her and it was nice to see her, even if it was only in a dream, but I had kind of been hoping that I would have a Dante dream last night. I started writing a Dante scene for my story right before I went to bed and was looking forward to sweet dreams. ;) Which reminds me, I feel I must announce to all the Capcom people who I'm just sure would bother to find my blog and read it, you guys really need to make a Devil May Cry movie and you need to cast Josh Holloway as Dante. He's perfect for the role, and if you miss this opportunity, you'll regret it. I'll get down off my soap box now.

Self-Conscious

I had a really strange dream the other night. I don't remember much about it except that it included theCallowQueen and Big-Bold-D (probably because I had just seen them the night before). It also included a girl I was friends with in High School. I'm sure she showed up because I've been so addicted to Rent lately and she was a big fan of the musical. But anyway, we were all in this huge hotel—don't ask me where it was located because I don't know—and we were exploring all the labyrinthine corridors and found this hidden swimming pool. We ended up sitting down on the loungers by the pool and I was sitting in between CallowQueen and Big-Bold-D. Then they pulled out identical tiny cameras and leaned toward me, zooming in on my nose. I swear they were only a few inches away from me on either side, but their cameras were zoomed all the way out anyway. I just sat there, asking “Hey, guys. What are you doing?” But they didn't respond and kept focusing on my nose.

I woke up shortly after that, wondering what the hell that was supposed to mean. I'm not self-conscious about my nose or anything, so why were they looking at it so closely? I looked up “nose” as a dream symbol and this was one of the interpretations I found:

“To see your own nose in your dream, signifies a conscious effort to achieve whatever endeavour you chose to undertake. The nose represents energy, intuition, and wisdom. Alternatively, the nose symbolizes curiosity. You dream may suggest your need to learn more about a situation at hand.”

I'm still at a loss to interpret this bizarre scene though becuase of the extra layer of my friends looking at my nose... Oh well. Sometimes a nose is just a nose. :)

Secrets Don't Make Friends

Last night Shivaindis came over and we watched Ouran High School Host Club. I'm even more addicted to that series than I was before. The anime is just as much fun as the manga, and I'm hooked on the opening song. I really need to extract it or find it somewhere soon... Anyway, Shivaindis was on a roll with quotes, mostly inspired by Kingdom Hearts II and the 20 Ansems. Her interpretation of the crazy plot of Kingdom Hearts resulted in this statement: Wisdom + Handsome = Ansem. She also noted that KHI x 6 = KHII because there are 6 times the Ansem. It's sad but true. During the course of the evening she also revealed that if she were a seiyuu she'd totally play little boys, and that "you don't want to have to clean up after hell." She was definitely on a roll.

Along the way, she also gave me a great idea for a wallpaper series featuring various characters along with the phrase "Secrets don't make friends." This prompted me to search for some DeathNote artwork because Light is perfect for this particular series. I finally found a really nice site that had an archive of DeathNote scanlations. It took me awhile to devise a way of saving the images because they had protected them pretty well. I was almost to the point of just taking screen captures and piecing them back together in photoshop when I tried "copy image to clipboard" and found it worked.

I found a good picture of Light to use, but I also found myself rereading some of the story. I haven't been reading the more recent chapters because the absence of L just makes me sad, but I was getting toward the end of the scanlation archives and it suddenly occured to me that the story was ending. I was relieved in a way, because it was driving me crazy that it just kept going and going like the Energizer bunny. I was also relieved to find that the scanlations went all the way up to the end of the series (whew) because I didn't want to be stuck on a cliffhanger again. The ending satisfied me. The outcome was as perfect as it could be sans L, and I liked the poetic justice of the way Kira met his end. It was an unexpected surprise to read the end of DeathNote today, but certainly a pleasant one. Now I just need to write that DeathNote fanfic I started a long time ago...

But I have another fanfic to focus on first. In fact, I should get back to writing on it now. I'm multitasking by working on the KHII DVD I'm making for lizalou and writing on the next chapter of Libera Me while my Mac is processing files. Wish I had that Mac Mini though--I bet it would process those files in half the time. ;)

Speaking of Libera Me, though, Shivaindis gave me some excellent ideas on it as well. She was just a fount of inspiration last night. All I'll say is that I doubt anyone would have expected to find David Hasselhoff in hell. That's really not the bulk of the inspiration, but I just thought it was a funny thought. Ah, David Hasselhoff. We rewatched the Hooked on a Feeling video of his again on Friday at work. That thing kills me. He is such a freak...

Bugged

I have a story similar to theCallowQueen's story from a couple weeks ago.

Though I don't like spiders or roaches or other creepy, crawly creatures that have exoskeletons or feelers, I can generally handle their presence calmly and dispose of them without screaming and crawling up the walls. Still, I don't like it when I find a water bug or roach or spider in my bedroom or bathroom. It really gives me the jibblies. This is where I sleep and take showers and walk around barefoot and exposed; I don't want to have to tip toe around and examine every surface before I step into the shower. I have a vivid imagination and when I see one bug I instantly think there must be many more lurking in every shadowy corner of the room--and did I just feel something crawling on the back of the neck? You get the idea.

So, yesterday morning I woke up bleary eyed and stumbled into the bathroom without my glasses on. I paused when I saw what appeared to be a black fuzzball in the corner. It looked like fuzz from my rug or perhaps from the throw blanket in the other room. I didn't think much of it though and focused first on emptying my bladder. But then, as I sat there looking at that half-dollar-sized black spot on the carpeting I realized it had a very regular shape for a fuzzball. It was starting to look less like an inocuous soot ball from Spirited Away and more and more like a huge, creepy, crawly spider.

I finally decided to investigate further, though I don't know why I didn't go back into my bedroom to get my glasses--maybe because I was afraid it would crawl away and I would be left wondering where it went and when it would come out to play. So, I got down on my hands and knees and got closer. It was such a dark brown that it was hard to see any details, but I finally saw a leg twitch and promptly freaked out. It was big--the biggest spider I'd ever seen inside the house--and it was ugly, with thick, monstrous legs. It was kind of bunched up, so who knows how long its legs would have been when they were extended... Ewww...

So, I looked for something to attack it with. I remembered that I had put a spider trap behind the toilet a few months ago because I had found a large water bug in the bathroom and it freaked me out (but not as much as this spider did). It's extremely sticky, so I started to tear part of it off to use against the vicious spider and discovered that a large bug had met its end in the trap already. I did not need to know that. But still, I vanquished the spider but kept its slightly squished form to demonstrate my bravery to my mom.

Normally, mom is unsympathetic about bugs in my bathroom. She's very logical about the fact that my bathroom is in the basement and that there are often bugs in bathrooms, etc, etc, etc. But when I showed her this monster spider she flipped. "That's the grossest spider I've ever seen! It's huge! That's it! I'm spraying the basement. I'm pulling everything out, emptying the closets and everything and spraying. That's disgusting!" I was relieved that she was so eager to do something because I didn't know if I could sleep with the thought of bugs lurking in my room.

So, true to her word, she emptied everything out and sprayed until the carpeting and walls were damp. I felt slightly safer and less creeped, but boy was there a mess for me when I got home. It took me all night to clean it up, but it was worth it. I can rest easy again. I didn't ask mom how many bugs she found in her extermination because I really DON'T want to know, but hopefully there won't be anymore for a long time to come.

Stress Recovery

The last couple of weeks of my work life have been rather stressful. We've been busy to the point of being nearly overwhelmed, and I came home from work last Friday feeling like I was going to drop dead on the spot. Luckily, I didn't. Still, recovering from stress is about more than just getting some extra sleep. It's about sitting for awhile and doing nothing, clearing your mind completely and just letting yourself be. Exercise is a quick fix for stress because it helps you get the frustration out immediately, but it also has a couple drawbacks. First, when you're really stressed it's often because you're really busy, so you don't have time for exercise. And second, sometimes you are so exhausted from stress that you feel physically exhausted as well. That was me last week.

After another crazy day of last minute client demands on Friday, I came home and knew what my remedy would be: video games. At first I had been thinking about playing a little Devil May Cry and bashing the hell out of some demonic nasties (while watching Dante show off his hot self), but then I decided I should play a little more Kingdom Hearts II since it had been over a week since I last played it. I knew I was going to have to replay a little because I hadn't saved my last bit of progress, but replaying it wasn't a problem since a lot of cool things happened all at once the last time I played.

I had been astounded by how many awesome plot points were revealed in quick succession, including some Final Fantasy characters' appearances and the Tron level (Bruce Boxleitner! YAY!). But I had no idea that the revelations had only just begun. I think my brain 'sploded before the night was over. I'm not sure how I feel about the story they're setting up with Cloud and Sephiroth (and their voices are disappointing to me...) but the scene with Cloud and Squall (Leon) standing back to back fighting (this isn't a spoiler really because part of it is in the intro, though I doubt neowolf will even read this so why am I worried about spoilers?) was so awesome! Then there was the battle with literally 1000 enemies (the body count was up in the corner), and the surprising deadly turn of events with one of the main characters. I was totally freaking out. (Yes, I was freaking out over a game. We know I'm a geek already). Can you picture it? It was midnight or so, I was the only one awake in the house and I'm sitting there in the dark getting gushy about a Disney character. Pretty pathetic, huh?

Though I was excited to play this game in the first place, I had no idea it would be this complex. It makes sense considering how long it took them to release the thing. Shivaindis was telling me that rumor has it the head of SquareEnix freaked when he saw the game in its final state because it has enough story for ten games. That is so true. I don't have a lot of hope that they will actually wrap up the intricate plot since Kingdom Hearts 1 didn't really make sense in the end, and makes even less sense now. Still, I love the fact that there are so many diffferent bad guys that the bad guys are fighting each other as much as the main characters. It gives the game a lot more depth. I love the Organization XIII guys too for mostly shallow reasons because most of them are really hot.

Then I worked on importing more of the video from KHII to send to lizalou on Sunday and relived the angst of Roxas' story in the beginning and realized all over again how much I like him. I want to know what happens to him already! Poor kid. I guess I'm now officially completely addicted to this game.

But for now it's back to work... and stress. Oh darn. That means I might have to relieve my stress all over again.

Really?

I don't know if this could really be considered Engrish becuase it's not bad English exactly. It's just weird. We ordered a Japanese puzzle box to use in a proposal here at work and included in the instructions was this warning:

"The Personal Secret Box is not edible. Never put it in your mouth."

The box is about 4"x4"x6" and made of wood. Why would you try putting it in your mouth?!