Obey Zolac!

So, I failed out of mini-wrimo pretty quickly. When I signed up in October, I didn't know I was about to jump back into RPing, and my new game started on the same day and... yeah, I've basically had no interest in anything else. And technically it's writing, I'm writing so much every day in the game, but... RPing is not what I need help with. Mini-wrimo is supposed to help me with my prose fiction projects, and it's not doing that for me this year. I can't even bring myself to care, because oh my god this game is too much fun, why do anything else, ANYTHING. ELSE.

In RL stuff, beginning of the month was also my second anniversary with Forrest. We did a nice little day trip to Makalawena, which is a GORGEOUS but hard to get to beach in Kona. The following weekend we had a little getaway to a cabin in Kalopa State Park.

Last weekend was crazy busy with dancing, climaxing with THE Glenn Miller Orchestra and all of us Hep Cats showing up in force to teach and perform and be awesome on the dance floor. I got all dolled up in my new red dress and did my hairs and make-up all period and wore my cute vintage-style dance shoes and felt SO FABULOUS. Look! (I'm on the left.) And look again!

Again, mostly my energies have been wrapped up in Snowblind. I am having hella fun, these people are my people, by which I mean TERRIBLE PEOPLE, I've never felt so warmly welcomed so quickly in a game, and I'm constantly crying laughing in the Snowblind plurks, everything is shame boners and severed toes and how many snowbos can we cram into the shower at once, and also how can I murder my character today?

Today what had me crying laughing was this plurk thread; I've filed all the serial numbers off and done some minor editing and I hope they don't mind me reposting this without permission, but.

( Honestly, this needs to be saved for posterity. )

So anyway, that's my life lately. What up, nerds?

Lauren came over today and we had our Cooking Awesome Food and Listening to Awesome Music party. We enjoyed the musical talent of such artists as Arcade Fire, Dr. Dog, Girl Talk, The New Pornographers, Sea of Bees, Mersault, Menomena, Mumford and Sons, The Decemberists, Patrick Stump, Kristeen Young, and Trampled By Turtles. We also enjoyed listening the sweet sweet voice of Stephen Fry, watching The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, and playing biology-themed Bananagrams ('dissection' for the motherfucking win!).

Foodwise, we made Pumpkin Halwa: kabocha, almonds, cashews, craisins, saffron, condensed milk, etc, rolled into little gooey balls of tasty. We also made– and omg_alchemist veterans will appreciate this– orange zest brownies. Or, Three-Orange Super-Special Brownies, using orange zest, orange essence, and some chocolate-dipped candied orange peel we just happened to have lying around. They are just as amazingly delicious as Clara and I always thought they would be. T_T We also tossed together a pretty amazing soup at the last minute when we realized halwa and brownies did not a dinner make, comprising a whole pile of random things in the kitchen, including turkey broth, chicken, kabocha, two kinds of potatoes, a turnip, a leek, mushrooms, celery, parsley, garlic, ginger, shoyu, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and hot peppers. It was meant to be stew, but I'm not complaining.

Basically, for a rainy January Saturday... pretty freaking perfect.

So, update on what I've been up to since my last post.

( Cut for EPICALLY LONG ESSAY containing my deep, passionate love for Ok Go, the Northwest Folklife Festival, a truly terrible movie, the Schmoopy Vampire drinking game, and a meme, among other things. And lots of caps lock. )

Okay that's it OHMIGOD I need to sleep now. TT_TT

It's March 21st, which means it's Dick Grayson's birthday! At least, until they change the canon again. ^_^ So, happy birthday to the bestest Robin that ever was! *huggles him*

Richard's here hanging out, which is good fun. Last evening Dar made pasta from scratch, and the most amazing pasta sauce the world has ever seen, and really fantastic bread, and chocolate pasta, also from scratch, which we ate with strawberries and syrup and the caramel sauce she made and walnuts. IT WAS AMAZING I ATE SO MUCH OF IT AND THEN MY TUMMY HURT. Lauren came over as well and we watched Top Gear. It was good times.

Today (well, technically yesterday) it was beautiful (!) and sunny (!!) and warm (!!!), so Richard and Lauren and I went hiking in Forest Park, which was fabulous.

Then we had our Aphelion poker log, which was the most amazing epic failure due some stupid flash caching glitch that has been plaguing AIM for months. In 2 1/2 hours we managed to play one hand of Texas hold-em. Of course they started out with lots of banter and bickering, so there was that... we got partially through the hand and Hatter showed up, but she couldn't get into the chatroom. Lauren tried to invite her, and as a result got booted as well and couldn't get back in either. We spent half an hour twiddling our thumbs while she tried and failed to get in; eventually she made a new username and got in with that. By this point, however, it was almost bedtime for Paula, so we had to scramble to at least finish the one hand.

Meanwhile, in-game, the hand was also kind of a dismal failure. The flop was king of hearts, two of clubs, six of spades, the turn was queen of spades, and the river was a five of spades. I forget what everyone else had in the hole, but Robin had a ten of spades and a seven of clubs, and everyone had similarly dismal pocket cards; Church had the best hand with a pair of sixes. So the result was that everyone checked all the way through until the river, when Robin decided he could bluff having a spade flush and put fifty cents in. And he got away with it too... earning a grand total of fifteen imaginary cents (the small and big blinds, imaginary because they have no actual money to play with so the chips are worthless) and Church's track pants. ...YAY.

...So we're going to try to continue tomorrow, and we're all downloading Skype as a backup plan in case AIM hates us again. -_-;;

So. Stuff that's gone on since my last post.

The weekend before last, Dar, James, and I went to CC Slaughters, a nightclub in downtown Portland. A gay nightclub. So I can cross that off of my Lifetime To-Do list.

...It was a very gay nightclub. And it was AMAZING. This is my new favorite place in Portland. We got there at 10 to discover that they had $1 drink specials from 10-11, so we ordered as many as we could. Even better, there were free lollipops. It didn't take us long to befriend some gay boys... first an awkward but cute guy named Andrew, then the more flamboyant and outgoing guy who was flirting with him. I was amused to see that the dance floor was empty for the longest time, but as soon as they put Lady Gaga on it was packed. We danced with some guys, we danced with some girls, we met a lot of people but by now I've forgotten their names. I got a lot of compliments on my hair, my outfit, and my dancing, so that felt good. The group we ended up hanging with (a couple of the guys were kind enough to watch our stuff) seemed to be of the general opinion that I was adorable. ^_^ One of the two girls we were dancing with initially that adopted us into the group had the hots for me, and was very disappointed when she discovered in a whispered conference with James that I was, in fact, straight. But just to be sure she double-checked with me. XD; ...I felt kind of bad, actually. The story of my life: Angela, Breaker of Hearts.

I dirty-danced with Dar, and James, and handful of strangers of both genders. ...And then there was that one guy, The Slut. We spent the whole night watching him have sex-with-clothes-on with half the people on the dance floor, both genders. Then he got his hands on Dar. Then he got his hands on ME. I... I'm not sure I can articulate what that was like. That was definitely the dirtiest I've gotten with anyone, ever. I was completely dominated. ...I-I don't think I'm technically a virgin anymore. @_@

So anyway, that was a lot of fun. This past weekend involved a tsunami scare in Hawaii (nothing happened, the waves were tiny) and a trip to the Japanese Garden on Free-Admissions Day. We thought this was a fabulous idea since it had been such a mild winter, and all the flowers were blooming, and it was such a gorgeous day. ...Unfortunately, half of Portland had the same idea. The calming, peaceful affect of the garden was somewhat ruined by the noise and mobs of people EVERYWHERE. ...Oh well. And then Lauren and I went to the Jonathan Coulton concert, which was freaking EXCELLENT. Paul and Storm were the best opening act I've ever had the pleasure of seeing, and were worth half the ticket price by themselves. Seriously, I busted a gut laughing. And JoCo was, of course, amazing. And the lady who was doing the lights wins my eternal affection, because she was a snarky little firecracker. She'd do all these clever little visual puns with the lights, and when JoCo and Paul and Storm started joshing with her, she showed them who was boss by turning the lights out on them and threatening to crush them with the projection screen. Also the audience was amazing and outgoing and witty and fun.

...Also how did I not know that "I'm Your Moon" was about Charon and Pluto? IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW!! I loved the song before and now it's even better. And Lauren still wins for independently making the astronomy connection a few hours earlier when she suggested it was a good Aphelion theme song.

Speaking of Aphelion, if the addition of Carrie's Master didn't make me happy enough (you and he are brilliant, btw! <3 <3), my exploits on dear_mun have finally paid off, because I-pin's mun succumbed to temptation and joined the game! (Unfortunately, I immediately lost the game right after.) This is brilliant because I-pin is adorable, and with both her and the Master there will be lots of fun time-travel shenanigans. And I'm pleased for Robin, because now he has someone his own age to talk to, and we already know the two of them make good friends, and he has someone to spar with, and he has someone to be all impressed by his egotistical awesome self, and she's a girl, and she's cute, and once he's gotten over Starfire things are going to be HILARIOUS. ...Seriously, it's hard enough already to keep him from unintentionally flirting. ...NAUGHTY DICK GRAYSON. *swats him with a rolled-up newspaper* DOWN BOY.

...Speaking of segues dear_mun, Robin's been talking to a Sophie Hatter, an Aziraphale, and an AMAZING Marvin. Robin also felt the need to complain about his weird-ass mun. ...What? Is planning out the progression of my character's puberty really that strange? ...Okay, yeah, it kind of is. ^_^;; But he finally got to talk to a Tim (animated! :DD) and a truly excellent Joker, and there was a little Aphelion get-together with Richard and the Master as well.

......I have an interview at Parry Center on Wednesday. OH MY GOD WISH ME LUCK. I want/need this job like burning. T_T

Okay, stuff that only I care about and has no relevance to the real world, but I've been musing about recently. I realized recently that the odds of my Robin ever interacting with his Batman in an rp scenario are astronomically small. Because he doesn't technically exist. Batman never appears in the Teen Titans canon. Which means that no one will ever want to play him.

...How incredibly soul-crushingly depressing is that? A Robin forever without a Batman! i_i

EDIT: Completely unrelated, stole this from Ryan. Every post is repost repost. Too Late to Apologize, Declaration of Independence-style. GUYS. THIS IS PRETTY MUCH THE MOST EXCELLENT THING SINCE EVER.

Quick LJ update, since I've been missing for a little bit. Let's make an itemized list again, those are fun.

1. Lauren and I greatly enjoyed hanging with Melissa and her Dad in Corvallis. We watched all of the RT shorts. It was fun. The falconry meet was also fun, if a bit fail. Tiny children thought Penny was cute, which was observant of them. We followed the longwingers in an attempt to see a successful duck hunt. ...Attempt, I said. The winter meet is supposed to be the duck hunters' meet, but as Randy said, there was a lot of trying, no dying. The weather was gorgeous, which meant the ducks weren't sitting on the ponds... we spent half the day just trying to find them. When we finally did, bird was doing a good flight, but just as flushed the ducks, a FUCKING BALD EAGLE CAME OUT OF NOWHERE and tried to eat the bird. (Becca, I blame you.) Next pond full of ducks, excellent flight, nice stoop... but out of all the lovely ducks on the pond, bird wanted the FUCKING CANADA GOOSE. Damn near got it, too, but not quite. All of the other birds were completely fail, except for the last flight, which knocked some feathers of a duck, but didn't quite manage to kill it. A pheasant and a pigeon died in completely unsatisfying ways, and that was it. *sigh*

2. The reason I haven't been on LJ is Aphelion started up. YAAAAAAAY!! It's been gobs of fun so far. Starting roster: Robin (Teen Titans), Church (Red vs. Blue), Tex (Red vs. Blue), Edmond Dantes (The Count of Monte Cristo), Sam Carter (Stargate), James May (Top Gear), and Richard Hammond (Top Gear). Poor Becca's being eaten by her thesis etc. and had to immediately put Sweets (Bones) on hiatus (;_;) but when she comes back it will be AMAZING. And Lauren's bringing in Shadow (Sonic the Hedgehog) this weekend, and Carrie's got the Master (Doctor Who) on reserve, and the addition of these two will only increase the awesomosity. :DDDD

3. After playing phone tag with Dan for a week and a half, I succeeded in speaking to him. He was born in Hawaii, was a kid in So Cal, and has lived in Portland since he was 10. He has a cat named Lincoln who he found as a kitten on the side of the road and rescued from certain death. He loves music, likes to sing, enjoys karaoke, and just joined a band as a singer. He likes dancing, and Dante's. He currently makes money playing poker. ...We have vague plans to meet up sometime.

4. Having James May and Richard Hammond in Aphelion finally got me watching Top Gear, which I've been meaning to do for months and months. AND NOW I CAN'T STOP. I seriously love this show guys. T_T

5. The Saints made it to the Super Bowl. HELLS YEAH can I pick a winner! GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX!!

That is all, carry on. *goes back to watching Top Gear, the BEST SHOW EVER*

Robin's talking to Edward Elric, Heather Morris of Silent Hill, and Wendla Bergmann from Spring Awakening. ...OMG. Anyone remember when I was in that play? So much love for this person.

Faye's talking to a really excellent Crowley.

That is all.

So the A.F.I. concert was great. The opening band, Ceremony, had kinda boring music, but I found their personalities enjoyable, and I had a front-row seat for the ridiculousness that was the mosh pit. Dar and I had fun hanging out with Grant, and chatting with the awesome people around us about Portland and A.F.I. and how sweet it is to have a Hellboy tattoo. Like, seriously, pretty much the whole crowd was great.

Then A.F.I. came on the stage, and a bunch of douchebags mowed me and Grant over on the way to the stage. Like, seriously, I thought I was going to be trampled to death. I have a bruise on one knee, and a big strawberry on the other.

A.F.I. was AWESOME. They played a really excellent set with most of our favorite songs, and they were lots of fun to watch. Especially Davey. Omg Davey, ilu. I had tons of fun jumping up and down and beating my fists in the air and screaming along to the songs with the rest of the crowd. Towards the end of the set the crowd shuffled this guy next to me, and he was loud and exuberant and happy, and he apparently thought I was hot shit because he started putting his arm around my shoulders. In a happy, companionable way. But totally also in a "hitting on hot rocker chick" way. I didn't mind... he was so happy! So I put my arm around his shoulders, and we jumped up and down like lunatics and danced and were happy. Dar kept being all, *elbowelbow* "HE'S CUTE!" *elbowelbow*

The very last song they played, at the end of the encore, was Silver and Cold. OHMIGOD YAY. I had been waiting and hoping all night, so when I heard the opening chords I screamed like a maniac. Happy Dude turns to me and is like, "THIS IS THE SONG THAT GOT ME INTO THIS BAND! :D" and I'm like, "OHMIGOD ME TOO! :D" ...So I rocked the hell out and screamed every line of that song with great enjoyment.

The music stopped and the lights came on, and Dar's like, "Get his number OR ELSE." So I hung about awkwardly for a few seconds, and sure enough he asks my name, and gives me his (Dan), and asks if I'd like his number, since we have the same taste in music and all. ...Which was classy of him, we thought. So I said sure, and now I have his number. ...And now I'm going to have to call him. OR ELSE. And I think I totally will. Like, I dunno, why not? How else am I going to meet guys in Portland?

Dar and Grant and I dropped by Dante's to grab some pizza and sodas. We sat outside and listened to the Karaoke From Hell inside... karaoke with a live band, which sounds pretty sweet, actually. ...Some of it was pretty atrocious, but this one chick did a good cover of Come Together, by The Beatles. We watched as some bums across the street had a fight, and a whole pile of cop cars showed up. But then we were done with our pizza and getting cold, so we left. And that is all.

Robin is talking to Rose Wilson. This should be interesting. Also, I posted with him at sixwordstories, for a change of scene and more aphelion_rpg advertising.

...PEOPLE NEED TO APPLY. TT_TT

So I can find the threads later, if I want...

Robin spoke with Wooster, the Fifth Doctor, Uhura, and Laurence Dominic.