Happy New Year!!!!11

[leene_chan]

Let's tear this place apart!

I spent New Year's Eve playing Japanese Phantasy Star III and drinking amaretto sours. I took a break at five of twelve to see how Dick Clark was doing on New Year's Rockin' Eve. I'm still holding a grudge that they wouldn't let Glambert perform. So instead, we have to settle for gawking at Botoxed J-Lo and her skeletal husband?

What was she wearing under that fur coat, anyway? O_O

Heh heh heh...I was playing PS3. Kristen had played it through twice already, so I'm doing the marry Lina/marry Luise (Alair) route. I finished PS4 two weeks ago, and now I'm determined to squeeze every last drop out of that Phantasy Star Collection disk. I hadn't played PS4 in about twelve years and remembered it being this huge, epic RPG...when in reality it is fun, straightforward cheese that's only about 20 hours long. It's also the only PS game that features kanji in the text. =_= I almost had a seizure during that final dungeon, though. All those flashing colors. O_o

PS3 has the reputation of being the worst in the series, but really, I think that prize belongs to PS2. ::cackles:: Kristen has been trying to get through it on Very Easy with a FAQ, but after every play session she says she wants to throw the game in front of a bus. I wonder how long she's going to last with it?

I'm actually enjoying PS3 quite a bit, the same way I enjoyed ::gasp:: Saga Frontier. I can't believe how much character dialogue they cut out in the English version. I don't know if it's because they were having trouble with the character count, but the localization hurt the game, badly. Also, if the player's instinct is to marry Marina(Maia), they'd be shafting themselves in the long run. Ain(Ayn)'s quest isn't as interesting as Rein(Nial)'s, and Fighter!Luna(Kara) sucks big time. I wanna fight the guy with huge lime-green hair...

I've been plowing through the books I got myself for Christmas. So far I've read Let The Right One In by John Ajivde Lindqvist (B+ vampire novel, pretty good for the genre but still too conventional, it was hard to keep track of the huge cast) and Tove Jansson's The True Deceiver (A+ adult novel by the author of the Moomin series). I had started Madeleine L'Engle's Walking On Water, thinking it was mostly a book on writing. It's actually more like 85% Jesus, 15% writing. She has a very liberal view of Christianity which would only offend people who have absolutely no tolerance for other people's opinions. Still, the hyperactive preteen inside me would rather read something more fast-paced now. I guess I'll pick it up again later.

The holidays this year have been all about cooking, cooking, cooking. No one is coming over today and we're still having roast beef. ::laughs:: I for one am glad to see 2009 go. It wasn't as bad as 2008 (my brother breaking his femur and all that jazz) but heaped on the stress all the same. I was grateful for the cool summer, but none of our herbs flourished and the groundhog ate everything else. ;_;

I haven't thought much about New Year's Resolutions. I'll just do what I did last year, but better. I'd like to write more and talk about writing less. I'd like to improve my sewing. I'd like to get Lucas to go in the car without having a kitty hissy fit. I'd like to be able to do one real push-up (not the cheater wall push-ups I've been doing for years). I'd like to stop visiting blogs (note, no one on my friend's list is included here), websites and watching TV programs that make me angry just to put a spark into my life. I don't need that stress and negativity, to hell with indignant, self-righteous rage!

I want to make French-style macarons. I want to become a patient listener. I want to stop judging people so quickly and getting offended when they don't live up to my expectations. I want to read books without skipping every couple of sentences. I want to stop commiserating and start having fun with people. I want to fix up my garden. I want to make homemade soup at least twice a month...

So many resolutions. I have a lot to think about. ^___^; Hope everyone has a nice holiday! Here's another picture of my cat.

Comments

[leviosa8.livejournal.com]

He's got such beautiful eyes!

I hate negativity in the media too. I try to keep away from that as much as possible.

Good luck with your resolutions!

[leene-chan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I don't think there's a single person in my family on either side that has blue eyes. I joke that Lucas has all the good looks in our house. XD

I'm thinking of keeping a rubber band around my wrist and snapping it whenever I feel tempted to look at that stuff. I used to think that anger was preferable to boredom, but not any more!

I hope you're having a nice holiday! ^_^ Isn't it Spanish tradition to throw grapes up in the air and catch them in your mouth as you're counting down the seconds?

[leviosa8.livejournal.com]

And he seems to know it!

I confess good wank is tempting sometimes, particularly to see how there are still reasonable people out there that know how to counter-attack or kick the morons' asses. But when it's just vitriol and negativity and, like you said, self-righteousness... No. Thank. You.

I am... not having any holiday. ^^'' Freelancers are stuck with deadlines even on Christmas and New Year. But even if I am a bit exhausted, it's fun.

No, no! I don't know if there is a Latinamerican country that does that, but in Spain we have them inside a recpient and we just put one in our mouth with each "gong" of the bell. One for each gong of the 12th hour of the last day in the year. The trick is to eat them before the New Year arrives, so that your wish comes true. : )

[leene-chan.livejournal.com]

::cackles:: I think I must be remembering wrong from Spanish class. I'm probably confusing it with this game that my hairdresser's son was playing one night when she was cutting my hair in her home office. He was throwing up grapes in the air and catching them in his mouth and he started choking. O_O I had my glasses off and all this hair in my face when her older son started screaming "Call 911!" because the younger one can't breathe, and eventually the grape popped out, but God...I am not a nice person. I was going to run.

Sorry you couldn't take any time off! I guess you have to enjoy the little moments here and there...anyway, holidays here are just me and Kristen cooking dinner and everyone eating it. At least the food's good, though. o_o

[leene-chan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yesterday was the first day in a long time that the light was strong enough for me to photograph him without the flash. I'm at least figuring out that if the focus light thing makes him blink, I should adjust the focus, wait a couple of seconds and then take the picture. ^__^

Happy New Year to you, too!