Because it's too easy to pick out all the bad things and feel bad, and FUCK THAT.

GOOD 2016 THINGS:
-I paid off my student debt from undergrad and enjoyed a solid six months of being in the black
-I accepted my offer to Current University, committed to law school and made all my financial arrangements, so I haven't had to worry about money since September (Money is currently a problem for Future Me)
-I found a way to quit a job I didn't enjoy doing anymore
-I got to move to a new city and I really like living here, and aside from the drama of my stupid ceiling (which no longer leaks!) I lucked out on finding my new apartment
-Moving went very smoothly and was fairly cheap
-I've managed to maintain contact with some friends from the last city in the new one, which is not a thing that happens as often as I'd like when I pick up and move
-I've formed a bunch of new friendships and I am glad I know these people
-I own Alien on bluray now (this is a big deal)
-I took responsibility for my health issues and sought treatment like a fucking adult and that has gone pretty well
-I tried a realistic approach to the challenges of going back to school full-time and I dealt pretty well with the stress, and learned what to work on for next term
-I got involved with extracurricular things at school--I BECAME A JOINER!--and that's helped me feel more engaged there, which is a great contrast to Past Me, who had to focus a lot more on side hustles for extra money as a student
-I did a pretty good job of keeping up with housework and other boring adult stuff (and eating regularly!) even when I was stressed out by things
-I took up curling
-Turns out I'm pretty good at law school, which is a huge fucking relief

Come at me, new year. I'll fight.

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I bought an item; it was brand-new, cost the upper limit of what new items of that type cost. It didn't have all the features it was supposed to have, but I was assured that more features would be released in coming months and I'd have the complete thing I made my initial investment in. These features would mostly cost more money! But I knew this going in and I weighed the pros and cons and decided I was nominally okay with this, because I liked previous products from this company quite a lot. Eight months later, I found out (through word of mouth) that the company had discontinued support for the item I bought and I was never going to get these promised features that I was willing to pay a little extra money for, unless I bought the original item all over again and then additionally paid for the features.

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This entry was originally posted at http://waketosleep.dreamwidth.org/2015/09/09/thankyougamedevelopers.html. ( comments)

Whoops! A whole month and a half went by again. Things I've done:

- Began and then swiftly ended a relationship;
- Discovered the joys of Dragon Age Inquisition's multiplayer (I'm Waketosleep on PS3);
- Finished reading The Stone Gods (verdict: it was okay. Not my favourite writing style);
- Played Uncharted. All the Uncharted;
- Started writing an Uncharted fic for the amusement of myself and my friend who lent me the games;
- Agreed to start working on a comic with the same friend;
- Started scripting the comic (tonight!);
- Spent lots of time on Twitter. I'm on Twitter every day seriously;
- Discovered Empire, holy shit Empire;
- Work work work. I have a second job again. Work work;
- Bought one of those power strips with the master outlet and its minion ones! I put it on my computer. It seems to work;
- Did not really work on that Steve/Bucky fic I started. Hmm.

But hey! Writing! Original things, even! Script-writing is a unique challenge.

What's up with you, gentle readers?

This entry was originally posted at http://waketosleep.dreamwidth.org/86414.html. ( comments)

OH HEY it's Wednesday and I've been reading books again! In between work, bowling, playing Dragon Age and Saints Row, and apparently now being in a relationship. Anyway, meme time:

What I Just Finished Reading

The Song of the Quarkbeast and The Eye of Zoltar, the most recent two books in Jasper Fforde's nth series, The Last Dragonslayer. I think his game is slipping a little. They were entertaining books and I got through them quickly, but the plotting wasn't his best. I do, however, like Jennifer Strange and that there are other awesome female characters, particularly in Eye of Zoltar. He's dropping plot threads left and right, though. Like, will Jenny's being a Berserker ever be a plot point again? He keeps hinting about it in each book and then it never really gets pursued again. Ditto Zambini. Maybe he sucks at YA novels. Maybe he should finish a series. I still happily read all his books, though; I might be due for a reread of Thursday Next at this point. I'm just glad I got these ones from the library.

What I'm Reading Now

I just started The Stone Gods, by Jeanette Winterson. Like I think I actually got five pages into it before falling asleep last night (not a reflection on the book). I'm reading it because I was told there would be some romance, and I wanted a fantasy romance a la Hundred Thousand Kingdoms to read (Jemisin's follow-ups didn't thrill me). I dunno, we'll see how this goes.

PS. If you have a fantasy novel bodice-ripper to recommend, hit me up.

What I'm Reading Next

Truthfully, the answer to this question is probably 'Steve/Bucky fic'. /hangs head

(I've also started writing one. It's a little different from what I've been reading.)

This entry was originally posted at http://waketosleep.dreamwidth.org/86261.html. ( comments)

While I don't do New Year's resolutions, it probably can't hurt me any to do a little annual reflection, can it?

I think we've universally decreed that 2014 was garbage. If anyone had a good year, they're not admitting it. I personally had some aggravating health and financial problems, friend and family drama both, and then decided to complicate my life again with dating, which had predictably poor results.

So let's pick out the good things that happened, so I can move forward with a more positive attitude!

-I got a new job that allows me to live somewhat above the poverty line;
-My new job is a constant source of terrimazing stories and I have made some friends there, and it also changed my perspective on several important issues somehwat, which is never a bad thing;
-I was pushed to look for a new place to live and am now on my own in a small but frankly cute and comfy apartment that is very close to work, and it has improved the quality of life for both me and my cat;
-I completed, put up for sale and MANAGED TO SELL MORE THAN ONCE a crochet pattern I developed, so I am a totally legit designer now;
-While I had a long lull with other life events dragging me down, I've started writing again;
-Dragon Age: Inquisition made me really happy;
-I cook now;
-My health has improved because I'm working with my doctor to diagnose and fix some of my persistent issues and that's going okay;
-I reconnected with some old friends and we have Made Plans;
-I stopped playing the 'maybe' game and wrote the LSAT, so now I have a score of 164 to work with if I do decide law school is going to happen when I'm out of my financial hole;
-I remain single, settled, and happily free to do whatever the fuck I want.

I'm coming into 2015 on a high note. Happy New Year!

This entry was originally posted at http://waketosleep.dreamwidth.org/85812.html. ( comments)

I coach 5-pin bowling. It's pretty common at bowling practices, especially youth ones, to incorporate a fun, team bonding activity on the lanes that also sneakily encourages skill training (and more sneakily, lets the coach see how members of the team perform under pressure). There are a bunch of common ones but everybody's favourite, partly due to being easy to get into, is Hangman. It's a lot like the word-guessing Hangman game you play on paper, except failing to hit whatever pins are standing on the lane is what gets your little hanged man gradually drawn/filled in (there's a variation where clearing ALL the pins in one ball gives the guy who went before you a mark). It's a competitive game but it's easy to keep the competition friendly; I always see teams have a lot of fun with it.

Well, apparently a coach recently complained to Sport Canada about the game (which in the Community Coach package is included in the appendices as 'Lynch Your Opponent' but it's Hangman). They complained about its being unethical due to the imagery of killing your opponents.

Sport Canada came down in agreement with this and now the game has to be removed from all Community Coach resource packages. An email got sent around about it. So apparently it's now unethical for me to use this game as a coaching tool with the competition teams I coach.

Guess what! I'm still fucking using it.

Discuss: are competitive games with watered-down gruesome concepts unethical in sports? How would you handle this?

This entry was originally posted at http://waketosleep.dreamwidth.org/83929.html. ( comments)

nix_this and I tried to sit down and watch some Sherlock S3 today. We made it less than five minutes into the first one and then watched two episodes of Lucy Liu's Face instead. No regrets!

We might try again with alcohol some other time. She couldn't even stay invested in the ridiculousness and she has a gigantic crush on Martin Freeman!

This entry was originally posted at http://waketosleep.dreamwidth.org/82148.html. ( comments)

Figures I'm a day late with my last December Meme post. OH WELL, HAPPY JANUARY.

I don't really do new years' resolutions and I haven't for years and years; I tend to just make goals as I go along. But here we go: a goal for 2014 that I stand a chance of accomplishing! I have not one but two original crochet patterns I've been working on and hammering out/waiting for my crochet betas to finish and give me feedback on. So I'm going to try and get them both up for sale on Ravelry this year. As a bonus, a friend and I are discussing getting a vendor table at the local geek expo this year (it's in the fall) and if we do, I intend to have both patterns ready for sale there, along with some other things I can sell if they're ready to go.

That's it. That's what I've got.


(As for the posting meme, I enjoyed doing it and also all the conversation that got stirred up through the month! I might do it again this year. Or at least start posting more in general to this journal. Yay!)

This entry was originally posted at http://waketosleep.dreamwidth.org/81594.html. ( comments)

Depressing post ahead! ...Although I've grown more lax about it in recent years, I historically try never to celebrate my birthday ON my birthday. Since my birthday is really close to May long weekend in Canada, it rarely matters, but generally I do try to stay in on the actual day and do nothing more strenuous than eat (and go to work sometimes, although I've been known to come down with a bad case of birthday flu at retail jobs in the past, taking the day off from dealing with the public as a present to myself).

The reason I don't do this is a silly one: superstition. There was a five or six year stretch before I like to think I wised up, where TERRIBLE SHIT happened on my birthday. The first such incident was my fourteenth, when my dad and brother got in a fight with the shitty next-door neighbour and got banged up for assault (and B&E in my dad's case, although that was a legal technicality, not him actually ninja-ing his way into the dude's house like you'd imagine). They spent that night in the pokey! Fond childhood memories.

Another year, my truck broke down spectacularly on a busy road and I had to hobble it into the back lot of a strip mall until we could get it towed to a nearby shop--transmission problems. That put a crimp in my plans for that night.

Another year, when my birthday fell on the Thursday before the long weekend, my parents, who I was still living with at the time, informed me Wednesday that they were going to leave Thursday for a camping trip, so they could get to the site they wanted early. I was like, but my birthday. And my mom said, yeah? What about it? No cake for me that year! I spent it at my friend's house playing Soul Calibur and hoping it rained or snowed or something.

Those are the terriblenesses that stick out in my memory. Always on the day of my birthday. So I started staying in that day. Maybe doing something a different day, but I've started letting it pass without acknowledgement more and more. Although sometimes my mom does make me cake. If they're not camping.

(Note: the standard birthday cake in my immediate family is a two-layer chocolate--like a devil's food box mix, my mom is lazy--frosted with chocolate and with lemon filling between the layers.)


only one post left on the masterpost unless you have a burning question

This entry was originally posted at http://waketosleep.dreamwidth.org/81051.html. ( comments)

I have an easy answer to this one. When I was seven, Santa brought my brothers and me a Super Nintendo, bundled with Super Mario World.

A truer love has never been seen.

Actually 20 years later, that fucker still works AS FAR AS I KNOW, but I was the last one at home with it and I was like, so this is coming with me, and Mom was like, no it isn't. I don't think she even plays it, it's tragic, but my best Christmas present ever should have been a no-takebacks one. Dammit, Santa.

(I still have all the games I loved, Mom having her own that she kept, just no console to play them on. I think I'm going to splash out the $70 for the Retroduo console so I can get back to playing NBA Jam as nature intended.)


HE'S ON FIRE in the masterpost


PS. Christmas was good. I ate too much but have no regrets. Also, apparently nail stamping is going to be a thing I do now, thanks old roommate.

This entry was originally posted at http://waketosleep.dreamwidth.org/80890.html. ( comments)