Blah @ MindSay

I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. I am off on Thursday. 

The night before last I took a Hinder CD and a Disturbed CD, hopped in the car, opened the sun roof, drove to Bel Air and blasted "Indestructible" and "Inside the Fire" among other amazing songs.  I forgot how much I loved going out at night.  Mark was at work and for some reason, I feel very uneasy being at home without him... Not super very... I'd just rather be out...  Even if it's by myself.  Which is okay. :)  Going to Kohl's was a lot of fun... I didn't get much, just a few bras that actually seem to fit me (YAY) and some pj pants and boxers for Mark.  He seems to love them, and that makes me happy. :)  I don't get out too much, unless it's going to work.  And it just seemed... free-ing.  Just going out... doing what I love to do (smart shopping at Kohl's. ;) )  and I even got to have half of a guilt-free cigarette.

That reminds me... I think someone swiped my cigs yesterday.  They're GONE!  Either that or I left them on the bench... probably the latter.  God damn it.  But I need to quit... So does Mark.  And as soon as he starts his chemo on tuesday that'll be it for me... I  need to be strong for him... and I can't wave a cigarette in front of his face when he's sick and dying to have one and he knows he can't... or just doesn't have the stomach for it but he still wants one.

I close at Target tonight... which isn't that much of a problem.  2-10:30... typical close.  Same as last night.  Hopefully tonight will be better though.  Last night was just short of insanity on the front end. hahah  It'll be fun, I think.  It should be soon as soon as it gets darker, and there will be plenty of people in costume. :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Today was a weird Sunday - not like my usual routine.
Nana and grandad are on holiday somewhere at a camp down south - so I didn't get my Sunday roast today.
Instead, I got a greasy English breakfast. Mam was shouting me at about 12 to come down - she'd made me a fried egg, sausages, a bit of bacon and a slice of toast. It was a nice change, I suppose.

Afterwards, we watched some Come Dine With Me and a DVD's worth of Desparate Housewives.
And unlike most Sundays, I didn't spend all day playing video games - I actually don't think I played any. :(

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Today is my daddy's birthday. I wrote him a card and bought him an indie-rock compilation CD. It has bands like: The Fratellis, Kaiser Chiefs and Klaxons - bands that I know he likes to listen to when he's driving.
 
I've gotten sick of getting to the bus stop stupidly early and having to stand about - so I've set my alarm for 15 minutes later. It only takes me 5-10 minutes to get ready, if that, because I usually have everything laid out ready for me needing it the next day. My plan has worked, and today I was only stood about waiting for 5 minutes or so. It gives me a margin so I'm not waiting forever, and I have a low risk of missing it entirely. Mmmmyes, I am a logical and resourceful downright genius. :P
 
Media Studies today was a "coursework research" lesson.
In effect, for the entire thing I was just mooching around on Wikipedia for inspiration. I know WHAT I'm going to do, I just need a band to do it about. An essay either about a music video and how the conventions are used, or a big analysis of their song lyrics. My production will be a music video, if I do it well enough. If I end up fucking it up, I have a print option as a back-up plan.
 
Only problem is finding a damned band.
I want it to be one I like - Rammstein, King Diamond, Metallica, Silverstein - I'm going down that route. I just need them to have released an album in the last 3-5 years (and Rammstein is just starting to push that with 2005's Rosenrot, if next year 2010 counts) - whereas the music video looks like it can be made to a song of any year, it just needs to be 5 minutes or less, it can't be over.
That rules out Precious Jerusalem. Not that I'd know what the hell to do for the video like. :)
 
Metallica's lyrics are a bit dark... Rammstein's are really complex or about really obscure subjects... Silverstein's are all emo and suicidal... King Diamond is just downright fucked up... This looks like it shall be rather difficult...
 
(I seem to be saying "downright" a downright lot in this blog. :P)
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
English was reasonable. It opened oddly - Angela sort of suggested I sit with Jack, and he's a fucking arse - so I just shook my head and said NO. It caused a weird reaction. :)
As a starter piece, Angela had us drawing GINGERBREAD MEN HOLDING BALLOONS.
Then we proceeded to write key words IN the balloons. I felt sad so I made my gingerbread man sad too. I drew him an icing sad face with a tear on his cheek.
It was an okay lesson, it just made me sad because we were thinking back to our childhood, the games we played and such. 5-6 were sad years for me. 5-15 as a whole were pretty wank, to be honest.
 
I met up with Shelly during the lunch break and I ate a bag of Mexican chilli McCoys and a big Aero bar. I felt really shitty so I was sat at the table tearing the Aero wrapper into tiny pieces. The caretaker gave me a weird look, but I assured him I'd dispose of it when I was finished.
Shelly could see I was sad, so she tried to cuddle me, but it didn't make me feel much better. We were discussing people and events that depress me, so it was obvious she couldn't.
I was proper thirsty too, because I'd forgotten my bottle of water.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Photography pissed me right off.
First off we had Shelly suddenly getting in a pissy mood herself - but this was likely due to Paul being a right arsehole. Michelle said he's looking for any excuse to kick Shelly off the course. He was a twat to her last year as well, but he's even worse now. Apparently she distracts me - no, if anything, I distract myself. And I distract her more than she distracts me.
 
The whole lesson was a "peer marking" session. Seriously fucking shit. We all had our icons work up on the walls (mine was on the whiteboard because I hadn't printed it) and we had to basically wander around the classroom with sheets of paper, writing comments, constructive criticism and giving them marks out of 10.
 
I was quite reserved when I marked Michelle's - because I quite like her. But I don't know the others in the group, and they're sort of twats to me. Oh, and they're strangers - I'm very rude to strangers I've noticed.
So my critique of theirs was a bit more harsh. Roxy's was okay, pretty close to Michelle's - but I was really harsh with Johnny's. He deserved it though, the prick. He gave me 4/10.
 
AT LEAST YOU COULD TELL WHAT MY FUCKING IMAGES WERE OF!
 
I MAY HAVE USED THE SAME OBJECT TWICE, BUT AT LEAST MY ARRANGEMENT WASN'T WANK! EVERYONE EVEN TOLD YOU IT WAS WANK.
 
AT LEAST I VARIED IN COLOUR! IT WASN'T ALL BLACK AND BROWN.
 
Capital letters rant over. :)
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I got home, I played Guitar Hero: World Tour.
I was mainly getting scores for the new free DLC I'd never played. No wonder they give these songs away for free - they're ALL shit!
The only two decent free ones are Grave Of Opportunity and Electro Rock.
 
Then I attempted to give Guitar Hero 5 another try.
OH, THERE'S HOPE FOR IT NOW. :)
 
Yes, the career has merged so it's one for all of the instruments, instead of 4 separate ones... BUT.
There's a new feature - instrument challenges!
 
Each song has a different one, so one would be drums while another is bass, vocals, guitar or whole band.
They're things like 'hit 200 snare beats' for drums, 'whammy sustains for 1 minute' for guitar and the best one that I proper OWNED: 'hit 300 notes using only UP STRUMS' for bass.
I did it on Expert too. :P
 
I'm going through the career mainly on Expert bass, getting the scores, then switching to the other instruments for the challenges. There's even gigs where you can choose your own song - including DLC.
So I chose Jessie's Girl on Expert lead and scored 100%. I had to hit as many chords as I could, but there wasn't enough in the actual song to get the diamond rank. I'll have to try it again with something more complex.
 
I also like the fact that 100% FC gets you SIX STARS.
100%s are optional, but they earn you more stars and they're ever so sexy. You also can't tell what instrument and level you've done the song on - so you could have gone through the entire thing on Beginner and nobody would know.
But I'm making it fun for myself with Expert bass. It is really easy though, compared to Greatest Hits.  
 
Yes, the quickplay is a bit wank - it only shows one score instead of 5 for all the separate levels. The interface is still a bit shitty - and you can't give custom characters fucking beards!
I've been wondering for ages now why Ashley Darwin and Dudley Boone look so fucked - it's because they have BALD FACES.
I have my four custom characters set up as the band on-screen. They look so sexy together. I don't think I've ever seen it before. :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


 
The only glaring bad things about today was what occurred with my mam at about 12AM and the fact I ate WAY too much at nana's and rendered myself with an upset stomach.
 
Mam and dad were both on early starts, so I went there at about 9:30. I hovered about in the kitchen for a while, talking to nana and grandad, then I directed their attention to Play.com.
They'd been asking me what I wanted for my birthday and I'd had the idea when I was in the car of them getting me a CD and a game from there. Nana is a bit funny about inputting her details onto online stores, but grandad doesn't seem to be arsed - after all, he's a teleshopping addict and the possibilities of theft are the same, thereabouts.
 
So after I'd reassured nana it was safe - the amount of stuff I've been ordering with mam's Egg card recently proving it - I made them an account, saying they could use it if anyone else wanted DVDs or games for Christmas presents, for instance.
 
Shelly was going to order Abigail II: The Revenge for me, but apparently it's been out of stock for ages and if she had, I wouldn't have gotten it in time for this weekend, so. Either way, I ordered it for myself with grandad's card. It's still out of stock, so I'll just get it when it comes. I can wait.
They always spend £20 on everyone, so with the £12 I had left, I got Final Fantasy VII: Dirge Of Cerberus. It was one game on my wishlist that stuck in my mind of being £12. :)
 
After I'd sorted this, I was nominated to sort out their "Solitaire saving problem" - which just looked to be a saved game that wouldn't go away. I did what I could.
 
When I was leaving the bedroom to go back into the living room, grandad took my hand and slipped me £30. I was confused as to why - then he said it's because they apparently give out more for 18th and 21st birthdays. Can't be bad. I thanked him and put it in my pocket. I'm going to save it. My birthday money, I'll halve it - spend half on games and keep the other half in case there's anything I need it for.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nana didn't have any green beans this week, so I had peas instead.
I can't decide if I like peas or not. They have a proper bodged flavour. I can tolerate them, but I wouldn't say they're proper nectar, like green beans are.
 
Ash hates peas, Shelly loves them and I can tolerate them. Ah, another thing we all share a different opinion on.
 
After we'd eaten, nana and grandad sort of took it in turns to play Solitaire. They'd swap around every hour or so - nana would clean and grandad would watch the football while the other played.
I was laid on the bed continuing with Super Paper Mario.
 
I finished off chapter 7 - which wasn't as daunting as a task as I'd first predicted.
What a fucking weird twist though! I'm glad like, Luvbi was a right slag. :)
 
I think after 10 hours of gameplay, I've actually developed a small liking for this game. I'm still not rating it 4-star-excellent on my Backloggery, but it's risen from a 2-star-decent to a 3-star-good.
I got annoyed with it when I was at the 78th level in the Pit Of 100 Trials and I got killed by some bastard shadow monster. I had no sodding mushroom shakes left and I was miles away from the next level, so the fuckers ended up killing me and I wasted like an hour of my life in that hole.
 
Sigh, that happened all too often in Paper Mario: TTYD too.
 
So I swapped to Spyro: Enter The Dragonfly.
I really expected it to be shit - as all the new Crash and Spyro games after the PS1 era got sucky, but it's surprisingly decent.
 
Saying that, it's technically Spyro 4. Crash 4 was good too - but after the 4th one, it started getting shite. (Not counting the spin-off games like CTR and Crash Bash, of course.)
 
Some of the dialogue is fucking weird.
Nana thought the pigs on the island level were amusing - and we were both like WTF at the tiki idols who do the drumming and sing in their weird tiki talk. Funny at first, but then it got very vexing.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nana went mental with the tea today though.
Along with the usual sausages, crackers, cheese and cakes - she did a 9" pepperoni pizza as well.
So I had a slice of that along with my usual stuff, but maybe I drank too much apple juice.
 
I was okay until about 10PM when I got home. Then I got the growly stomach and realised I had an upset stomach. So this led me to take the gut-dehydrating tablets to make a natural cork up my arse. :)
 
I took a shower, straightened my room - then I played a few gigs on Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits.
I did a few songs on vocals, mainly the newer ones that I've recently learned. Electric Eye and Beast & The Harlot, for two. :D
 
Then I switched to bass. I played it on medium so I could finish those songs that don't have scores. I was surprised at myself, I only cocked up one song, and that was via an overstrumming accident.
How I like the shiny 100% stars.
 
Mam was in my room later on, insisting she make an account on Twitter so that she can follow Eddie Izzard.
She just didn't seem to take it in when I said "Mam, I've never used Twitter, I NEVER WILL. I know NOTHING." - she kept on asking me how she did things.
HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?! PRAY TELL!
 
This is where Dixie learnt two lessons:
 
1. Never set your MSN to show the last part of your last conversations.
2. Never ask mam to respond to someone on MSN for you.
 
I asked her to tell Shelly that she was on the PC, but our last conversation section was there - namely me expressing my distaste about being kicked off the PC and being spoken to like shit - via my exclamation of "Mam's a cunt" - thankfully, it didn't implicate either of our mams. So I danced around the point and said I didn't know if it was directed at her or Shelly's mam.
 
She was all high and mighty and was like: "MURR, WHY WOULD IT BE ABOUT ME?"
For a second, I felt like saying to her: "BECAUSE YOU ARE A CUNT SOMETIMES...??"
 
- But I didn't.
 
It was strange. As soon as mam started being all pissy, my stomach upset started up again. I got the burny bowels and the squeezy intestines and I needed to go and explode again. I wonder if it was rendered by my uncomfortable emotions. Thus leading my stomach to also become uncomfortable to mimic?