So once this project is done, I can get dollars. And add this to my resume, and talk about all the Drupal modules I’ve built. In theory, this might make someone else want to hire me? We’ll see about that.

I’ve got a fabulous idea for a new website. It will involve cute food, it should be relatively easy to execute, and it will give me something to design as well as something to build with Drupal. I think I’ll have a better shot with getting development jobs if I hunker down and focus on a specific area, and at this point I’m liking how Drupal works and would like to get as proficient in it as possible.

Dollars!
Oh wait, that’s related to work, hah! Liberty does not give me many dollars. However, I am currently wearing a bra I can usually only wear in the summer, which is good. For those who are not me and/or don’t gain weight like me, this means that Liberty is saving me from the winter weight gain I always get. I really like working there, too. Some people get really excited seeing me out there with my sign. And surprisingly, it’s really rare to get obscene gestures. Usually every other time I’m out there, someone will flick me off. Once in every 8 hour timespan is acceptable, I suppose.

I blame Liberty for my cold. My never-ending cold, which remains at a low-grade “headache plus weird nose” status. See, it’s those free cookies. I cannot resist eating the cookies, and neither can all those disease-ridden children that come in attached to their parents. Liberty has an excellent set-up for people with kids: a little table with coloring books, other books, etc. plus those darn cookies.. And I’m sure I ate a cookie which was already touched by some germy kid. Le sigh.

Anime!
We finished the first season of Bleach. Definitely mixed feelings on it. I really like Chad and wanted to see more episodes where he was the focus. I wanted to see more background development on the characters – like the fact that Rukia is 40+ years old and stuck in this teenager’s body in a strange world. All we got about this was her not being able to stick a straw in a juice box. I really wanted to learn more about her situation. I mean, maybe it comes later, but at this point she’s not even on Earth anymore, so I’m not sure of the likelihood of this. I also don’t like the Hollows. Sometimes they stand around and talk to Ichigo and others in cunning ways, sometimes they stand around and make grunting noises like animals. Also, they like standing and waiting patiently while the main characters have dramatic conversation. Does not make sense. Anyhow, we may come back to Bleach later on, but for now we’ve moved on to other stuff.

Started watching Revolutionary Girl Utena last night, watched the first two episodes. I’m lost for a lot of it, but that’s pretty normal. It’s got some pretty interesting stuff going on so far (not the least is the song in the middle of both episodes singing about trilobytes, the Apocalypse, etc).

In other news, I need a tea vat with a drinking tube that just follows me around everywhere, it would be magical.

I finally beat Oasis on Insane. Were this 2004, when the game actually came out, it would likely be much more exciting. Nonetheless, Oasis has provided me with months of gameplay, and was totally worth the $6 I paid for it. On a similar note, rumors have it that a version of Civilization will be coming to Facebook this June. Aside from my occasional Scrabble obsession (and whenever someone flings a Pathwords invite at me), I’m not a big Facebook gamer. Yoville got tedious, and I haven’t logged into my account in months now. There’s a bunch of others (Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc.) I signed up for, played once, and then promptly forgot about. I think a problem with these games is that they’re mostly about doing the same thing over and over to acquire more stuff and build your character. None of which is all that interesting to me. One thing that is immensely interesting, however, is Civilization.

Job prospects = still slow. Didn’t get the job I interviewed for this past Friday. They might have a temporary use for me for a project that may or may not happen, however, which would be nice. I’d like to get more hours at Liberty, as though the pay is meager, it’s actually pretty fun to jump around by the side of the road all day long. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this healthy in the middle of winter before.

I wish another Chick-fil-a would open up out here. This is because I want to do another First 100. Preferably without the blizzard this time around. I also really just want to eat chicken constantly, because it is so freaking good.

I finished reading “Jonathan Norrell & Mr. Strange” by Susanna Clarke recently. It was fabulous, a very British early 1800′s take on magicians and magic, quite long and involving with quirky characters, I highly recommend it. I’m currently reading “Nature Girl” by Carl Hiaasen, which is quite funny.

Finished watching Evangelion. Apparently the ending was poorly executed due to budget issues, and I thus need to see a movie called “The End of Evangelion” for proper fulfillment. I really liked the concept behind the ending, and we can hopefully get our paws on the movie sometime soon. Started watching Bleach, am enjoying it but with mixed feelings. The more it veers away from the “I need to kill this giant Hollow” plots, the more I like it.

Oh yeah, I totally scored some free fabric off of Craigslist. Giant bag, some scraps and some decent-sized pieces. I’ve got a pair of black shorts with a drawstring that never really fit me right, and I’ve got this great idea to convert it into a skirt, adding some fabric to the bottom in ruffles or something. I’ve got plenty of fabric to do this, now it’s simply the matter of locating said shorts. There’s this black hole that follows me sometimes, and likes eating things I’d prefer not to have eaten. I picked up a tank top from Old Navy with the final dregs of my gift card, and as a tank top it’s entirely too long, but with some fabric on the bottom it would make an awesome dress. I need to find a fabric really similar to the tank top’a fabric to execute this, however. Now, once I have made these items, I need to find or create circumstances where I would actually wear a skirt or a dress. Pants are just such a nice default, but it’s a shame that I keep making all of this crap and never wear it anywhere for the most part.

Oh yeah, crispy chocolate in my near future. Old Towne Arvada is having some sort of chocolate festival, whereupon I will enter items into their cookie contest and, with any luck, will win a giant pile of chocolate. Which would be good timing, as our Christmas chocolate is slowly running out!

I’ve recently discovered the joys of a magical manga series about cooking called Oishinbo. I don’t generally get into manga for some reason, but this one is particularly exciting. Probably because it makes me really hungry, the food in it is drawn particularly well. Apparently they made it into an anime back in the 80s, but it was never translated into English. The manga started being published again this year, so maybe enough American types will get into the manga to make it financially viable to translate the anime into English (I’d be happy with either dub or sub).

Watched the Passion of Joan of Arc, which was made back in the late 20′s, complete with intertitles and orchestra for sound. It was really good, and caused me to sit and read the entire Joan of Arc wikipedia entry afterwards. It also caused me to look up the history of breastfeeding. See, I found it interesting that, in the film at one point, there is a closeup of a baby being breastfed, nipple and all. And I’m not too knowledgeable about older movies, but as far as I knew, they didn’t go in for nudity and such back then. So after a cursory glance on the internet, it seems that breastfeeding in public was pretty normal up through the 1940s or so, and then at some point after that it became seen as scandalous or something. It’s generally considered legal to do now, but you can still get harassed by random people and asked to cover up and such. My brief poking encountered a case where someone was asked to leave a theme park for doing it in public, and another commented on the fact that she was breastfeeding in an area where children are present. Which is weird, since as children and all, it wasn’t that long since they themselves were probably breastfed. And if you’re gonna have your kids exposed to nudity, wouldn’t that be a good way to do it? Since the kids are more likely then not already learning via semi-nudity from advertising and media and such that breasts are sexual, it seems good to also include opportunities for your kids to learn that they’re functional?

And speaking of breasts, I’ve been having a fabulous last several months, in that the vast majority of my bras fit. As long as I don’t get glued to the front of this computer for the duration of the winter, I will hopefully continue that trend. It’s kinda useful to be really new to a place and not know much of anyone, well, useful in the lack of Christmas junk food being slogged at me, which I am generally more then happy to eat because it is delicious.

And on a final note, Nanowrimo is going more or less ok. Am at 13126 words right now, need to get to 15,000 by tomorrow night.

Recently spent a glorious couple of days watching Boogiepop Phantom. I really liked the series and need to find more anime like that to watch. Would also love to cosplay as Boogiepop if I get the chance.

Drew and I went to Fallout last night, the theme was “Rain”. Sprinklers and a hose were set up at random places on the ceiling, and lots of people danced around in swimsuits, which was really fun. Then, there was the rather large guy with black swastikas taped to his nipples. Later, I noticed he had a friend, wearing a t-shirt with a swastika on it. Both of them seemed to be socializing quite normally with random other people. Every time I noticed this, I kept thinking of this random pin I got back in high school from some college or another that was trying to recruit me. The pin said, “Don’t be so open minded that your brains fall out.” Fallout, being a private fetish-type club, is a safe space for people to express themselves in ways that they might not normally be able to openly express themselves in other circumstances. It seems that this isn’t always a good thing, and I really hope it’s not housing a burgeoning neo-nazi subculture.

And on a final note, we have gone from two cats to one cat. Velutha died this morning, from feline AIDS. She’s been sick for awhile, but it wasn’t until a few days ago that this actually became apparent. It’s hard to tell when you have cats: there’s been more food in the bowl lately, so we knew either one or both of them was eating less. I thought it might have to do with it getting warmer, though, and maybe them eating less to compensate for the heat. Velutha has also been sleeping a lot lately, but she’s always slept a lot. It’s kind of just what cats do. She’s gotten thinner, but it’s only been recently that we’ve noticed that it was significant, as she’s always been thin and didn’t really have all that much weight to lose in the first place. Then she started oozing something from her mouth the other day, and Drew took her to the vet. They confirmed the AIDS (along with lymphonia, I think), and he brought her home along with several medications. This morning, we go to find her to administer the medications and she is nowhere to be found. After an hour of searching we find her dead, under the bed. I suppose at least she got to be close to us as she died, even though we had no idea she was under the bed. Apparently, this might have been something she started out with. She was the last cat in a litter born in a barn, the rest of her siblings eaten by dogs. She was slightly mangled herself and covered with fleas when Drew’s cousin took her in. We only got her four years ago, and she was eight or nine years at death. Anyhow, it’s sad, but it’s probably for the best that it happened now. She would have had to spend about three days in a car pretty soon, which wouldn’t be fun for even the healthiest of cats.