Fiddle-Dee-Dee, Said Scarlett

I had terrible nightmares last night. I suppose it was the zombie apocalypse, but the zombies were...strange shadow creatures. Except they were solid and had grisly detailing to them. I remember this one really big one, with all this blackened and crusted gore around his mouth. There were thousands of them, and a handful of human survivors trying to hide out and avoid them in this old hotel/school. Like I think it had been an elementary school that was converted into a hotel. I don't know. But I almost died quite a few times, lots of other people did, and until I was able to take control of the dream, I survived by hiding in an elevator cage with a mess of shadow zombies trying to break in. Once I was able to exert some control, I managed to limit the number and make them slower, but that wasn't enough and even fleeing into a lake on a boat didn't stop them.

Luckily, on Christmas morning, they all melted.

Yeah, I don't know. Other than I had a lot of cough medicine yesterday, plus shrimp. I'm going to blame them. It was one of those that leaves me shaking and not wanting to get out of bed - especially because it wandered close to HH territory, during a bit where I thought I was awake and stringing Christmas lights in my room to protect me - but finally Millie started barking and I had to. I'm fine now, except still feeling a bit drained and shaky.

Man, I just have to say that Twitter is really proving itself as a valid fandom platform. If you're not aware of the current Criminal Minds debacle - that's so insane and was handled so badly that a) the cast didn't even know and b) I didn't even believe it at first - the network has decided to fire Aj Cook and reduce Paget Brewster's role. Yeah, WTF? JJ and Prentiss are two of the most loved characters on that show, not to mention incredible female role models. But anyway, the bulk of the Save the Ladies campaign is happening on Twitter. And it's kind of awesome to see fans rallying in real time. I just hope that we're heard. I'll miss the show, it's one of my favorites. But I can't keep watching if they go through with this sexist, idiotic and insulting move.

Mmm, it's nice to be back in bed with my laptop.

My father believes I have the flu, as it continues to linger quite spectacularly. I still think it's just a nasty cold that has found easy prey in my weak, soft system. I've never been able to fight off illness well, and with age it has only gotten worse. I am ripe for the teeming masses of viral marauders, I'm afraid.

I dreamed of Ganondorf and sacrificing John Travolta for a rare, hard-to-find Transformer. It was for my mother.

I am simultaneously playing three games right now, and feeling something of my old self. I've already spoken on SH:H, now I'd like to take a few moments to discuss the others:

Left 4 Dead: I think the word that best sums up this game, for me, is 'fun'. I'm terrible at this game, I will confess now. I shoot my teammates more often than I shoot zombies, I have no concept of how to control the camera angles, I still don't know how to pick items up, but I don't care. There's simply something remarkably satisfying and enjoyable about shooting things with wild abandon.

I do like the set up of the areas, though. Despite my utter failing at the game, it's very well made and designed. The zombies are varied and interesting, from their design to their methods of attack, and even how they die. It makes shooting them that much more entertaining. It fills me with glee. This is the game to play when there are frustrations that need venting. Mindless shooting of slack jawed, pus filled urban horrors. What better to improve the mood?

Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility: If you are a Harvest Moon fan, you cannot miss this installment of the sleepy, life-simulation series. It is by far the biggest and most in depth of the games, with countless options in all aspects of the game. The farming remains the same, though the crops choices are nearly limitless. Already, in two months I've grown corn, tomatoes, strawberries, breadfruit, melons, cocoa, potatoes, onions, hibiscus, oranges, herbs, and crops that currently escape my memory. And there are far more options than that. Livestock includes the usual fair, but added in are silk worms, ducks, ostriches, and some even more rare and bizarre creatures. Rather than one town, there are now a multitude of islands you can traverse, all offering unique pleasures and sundry.

And the bachelors and bachelorettes! As usual, there are around 8 or 9 to choose from. But added to the usual dull litany of giving gifts daily and waiting for conversation to change, the chosen recipient of your affection can now ask you on dates, randomly drop by your farm, and give you surprise gifts and letters. And the Wiimote makes simple tasks into something much more. The fishing is akin to LoZ:TP, simple but satisfying. The tool set is not immediately handed to you, so you must venture out to seek out townspeople to trigger events.

This game makes you build friendships and interact with townspeople. It's impossible to progress without doing so. The plot is far more intricate and in depth than any other HM, but still revolves around the Harvest Goddess and her sprites - which are just as annoying and ultimately useless in early stages of the game.

I also have No More Heroes, which I'll start once I'm done with SH:H. And we have Obscure. So I am one content gamer right now.

I was going to babble about RP stuff, but I think I've already bored my Flist to death with my console game ramblings! I'll have to save that for another post, I'm afraid. Besides, it's nearly 11 and I haven't even gotten out of bed yet. I need sustenance and my morning absolution.

I had bizarre and somewhat disturbing dreams last night. And I know exactly why I did, which I'm thankful for, otherwise I'd be a paranoid ball of angst this morning.

I essentially had a nightmare that I was pulled into a trial sort of situation by a bunch of people on my Flist, and my 'artistic merit' was up for debate. I was stripped and shoved into the middle of this circular room surrounded by the jury, and told I was a terrible writer, I was a terrible person, I would never amount to anything, that nothing I'd written was good and people were only humoring me because of my disabilities. I was told I was a disgrace to every single person who ever called themselves a writer, and it was time I paid for my crimes against the written word and those who read it.

Then it gets rather nasty and unpleasant and I'll spare you the details.

This is what I get for reading Stephen King before bed. I was reading a piece that dealt heavily with author insecurity and accusations, after reading one of King's essays on writer's paranoia and how he feels about poor reviews. Still, it was terribly unpleasant.

We're going to be getting snow and wind up to 60 MPH today. I'm going to spend the day baking and RPing, I think.

Forgive my whiny emo earlier, it's just I've only been up for two hours and already it's been One Of Those Days. There was crap I really didn't want to deal with on the answering machine when I woke up, it's still wet and stormy, and my paranoia launched into overdrive.

Now that I've had my morning mocha and smoke, I'm feeling better.

Lost power last night, which meant I essentially sat in the dark for a couple of hours listening to Nights With Alice Cooper. That man is born to be a DJ. And he knows his audience oh so well. And since it was Friday night, he played a lot of off the wall, rare recordings which I always enjoy.

I'm catching up on RP stuff! There's leftovers so I'm not cooking, I did laundry last night, I'm saying 'fuck it' to the cleaning, and my hands are in no shape to sew or anything like that. And as I said, I've got some exciting plans this nightshift! (And no, none of them involve the new areas. :D)

I had very bizarre dreams about James and Henry last night. Something along the lines of...James moving into apartment 303, and the two of them went bar hopping together, and talked about starting a band....

I don't know.

I'm so not getting my Silent Hill fic done by the 16th. I knew I wouldn't, but that's okay! It'll be finished and posted eventually.

I should eat. And see about finding room for my Getbackers DVDs, because I sort of want to watch that today - or at least have on in the background the episodes I've already seen.

I have to finish cleaning today, but my mother's sick, so I really don't know how much I can get done. Well, there's very little I can do about that. This also means no Goodwill today, so I am stuck waiting to get my summer wardrobe next month sometime. Which is a bit distressing, as I'm going to Seattle next week. Where I will be outside in the heat. My Hello Kitty pajama top and bondage pants won't exactly cut it for being out and about.

These last few weeks have just been littered with all manner of problems and setbacks. I'm mostly numb too it all, at this point. Because I am seeing good friends soon, both within days and within the week. So I can't be letting every little thing get me down.

I do worry about making it through the summer without my back and arthritis and stomach rendering me an invalid, but there's nothing I can do about that. I'm still ridiculously off my feed, and I don't know when I'll be back to normal. I apologize in advance if I turn into a raging bitch in the next few weeks.

I have some sewing to get done today, too. Just a little bit, it shouldn't take me more than an hour or so. Got caught up on RP stuffs already, planned dinner, started laundry....

I swear, I had dreams about Henry and Steve from Ghost Hunters last night. I don't know, it was in a bar, and someone was saying they'd make the perfect couple, and we should set them up together. I have no idea where that came from, at all.

I should get to work, and see if my mother needs anything. I'll be about, on and off!

Man, today is just... an awesome day of awesome. And apparently I'm giddy. I can buy that. The strangest things are making me just laugh out loud. Not even actually funny things, things are just hitting me funny.

My mother went so far to ask if I'd been smoking up, because I'm sitting here at my computer writing something fairly typical - just some note taking fic type stuff - and a sentence I wrote just struck me as funny. And I started laughing. And then a particular song came on and I just lost it, doubled over, cracking up.

And my mother asked what was so funny, so I read her the sentence, and she just stared at me wondering what was so damn funny about an uncleaned cat litter box. Honestly? Nothing. I'm just in such a good mood. An honestly good mood. Which is wonderful, since last night I was still bizarrely emotional and weepy. O.o

WHICH REMINDS ME! talia_speaks, clearly we've been talking too much, because you have invaded my dreams in bizarre and unexpected ways. I had this dream that me, you, nijawial and your boyfriend - I don't think it was actually classicyuppie, it was just some generic guy - were at a con. And I'm pretty sure some folks from Scrubs were involved, but they weren't pivotal. Like I think we were all hanging in the room - which had bunk beds - and JD came over asking to borrow a computer chord.

ANYWAY! Somehow...you, me and your boyfriend ended up in some kind of polyamorous relationship. And I fell asleep on the floor, and you were on the top bunk, and he picked me up and tried to put me up there with you, but I was too heavy and he left me on the edge and you were like 'dude, she's gonna fall off!' and then I did, and I woke up and was confused, and that's when there was some kind of zombie attack.

I have bread dough rising and paint drying now. Is a good day.

Messed up dreams last night. Something about magical winter gnomes and evil foster parents and attending the presidential debates with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but we got kicked out because we were down front and we kept whispering and giggling. And then it was my birthday but all I got was a box of skinned heads.

I think I'm about halfway through Silent Hill 4. I... am very torn on how I feel about it. I love the characters. I love the storyline. The graphics are beautiful. I actually like the controls, though the first person controls are still a little touchy.

I just wish there was more action. More monsters, more fighting, more puzzles, that sort of thing. And that the worlds were longer. I just got back from Hospital World, and I'm not liking the apartment now. So I'm really not sure where this game falls on my hierarchy of SH games. Other than, you know, better than three. ;)

I got caught up this morning, huzzah! On posting, at least. I know I have a ton of emails to respond to, and I'm not ignoring anyone, I'm just enjoying taking a bit of a vacation from the intarwubs. Even Fey-Fey needs a break. :D

I'm beginning to think that all my recent health problems are not just from my monthly problem. Mainly because it's Monday, and I'm still feeling sick. I think it may be some sort of flu. All I know is it's a bit annoying.

I had a dream where I was spending Halloween with nijawial, chaneystarr and ranchangrnl. Apparently ranchangrnl and I were an item. I remember at one point, while we were getting ready to go Trick or Treating or something, I asked her if her husband would mind and she said 'no, it's fine'. It was very odd. And we got lost in this college campus place, trying to find an auditorium. It was sort of like that one Buffy episode - there were kids running around, but real demons and goblins, too. Not surprising, considering I'm threading with two different Buffy characters over at damned. (Angel and Anya. And there's actually some bonding going on! It's good!)

Mmm, bizarre dreams.

Vistas has installed four 'vital updates' in the last 24 hours. WTF? I wouldn't mind if they weren't the automatic kind where all of a sudden your computer's restarting and taking half an hour to configure and you're left going '...what happened?'.

I've officially picked up Rena over at ReWritten. She's got a journal and everything. Now she just needs her beloved brother! ;)

Mrrr. I really get frustrated when I'm trying to RP with someone and they just... don't give me anything to respond to. It's worse than threading with myself. :/

( And Now That Clamp Meme, Gacked From Everyone )

Between damned and RL, my brain is essentially saying 'murgle murgle poot'. Seriously, my brain is being eaten. And I keep forgetting to ask people important things - or I'll remember when they're away and I'm not talking to them anymore. *headdesks*

I've been having a lot of trouble writing recently. Having more vivid and in depth dreams, though. Like last night, I had a dream that shadawyn and I somehow unleashed a race of college aged, slack jawed zombies who could say two words: 'brains' and 'dude'. They terrorized some college, but luckily, Andy Warhol showed up and led us through some secret underground tunnels where we could see the zombie's true plan - stripping Washington of its natural resources. Not to worry, because we found the secret underground chamber full of parakeets and frogs, and we set them free and...um... that fixed everything.

I really need my brain to work. I've got my advent fics to do. And hopefully I can get like... more than fifteen minutes of free time between posting and whatnot to actually make some progress.

Thank god I'm not doing Nano. I'd probably feel like an even bigger failure if I were.

Okay, so it's not morning, but thanks to multiple nightmares last night, I slept until around 12:30 once I finally got uninterrupted sleep.

I woke up gasping and shaking over fear of giant, black widow spiders that could exist both in the real world and in cyberspace. One of them was trying to tear out my throat. Further nightmares followed when I tried to get back to sleep, including a horrific one about the Jerome trip. Luckily, I doubt there are sorcerer pirates anywhere in the area, or that any of us would be attempting to smuggle ancient artifacts to a French police officer.

In a bit of good news, I'm getting a new laptop tomorrow. My dad found a great deal at Best Buy, so by tomorrow afternoon I should be back set up like normal.

I have this plotbunny for a horror themed HBC fic, but it a) accepts Book 3 as canon and b) draws heavily from book 3, so I don't know if it would be of interest to anyone. (Despite me explaining the marauding lizard men to chocomimi and ranchangrnl.)

I have ham in the oven. And as soon as I have my scanner set up, I'll be scanning and posting my recipe for orange spice pound cake.

I should probably go and do my laundry and clean my living room. But I kind of just want to be apathetic and make Death Note and FMA Halloween icons. I really should get on my All Hallows fic. Since I need to rewrite a bunch of it.

Mrr. Maybe it'll come out better this time. I'm....really not happy with it.