brookiki

Okay, so two pieces of background: I've been playing WoW for a while and Blizzcon was last week. It revealed the expansion, there was Q&A, cosplay and dance contests, and a concert by a band made up of Blizzard employees. fayoreix2 and I got the pass, so she watched most of it on the computer. 99% of it was good.

( Why Blizzard's guest artist's homophobic video is not only offensive, but dangerous. )

And that's why this whole thing with Blizzard is so disgusting. Did Blizzard employees accost gay players and make homophobic remarks designed to hurt and upset them? No. Did they set up a situation that reminded them once again how their very existence is so disgusting to some people that it's the worst insult they can come up with? They did. And that casual decision is what helps convince teenagers that being gay is literally a fate worse than death.

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I like a mix. I like to give people a general idea of what I want (assuming, of course, they want me to do that), but it's no fun knowing exactly what you're going to get. My parents have tended to do that more and more as I got older and it's really not fun to have to tell someone point blank "I want a PSP for Christmas" or (even worse) to be told to pick out your own gifts and just get them with no wrapping paper and zero ceremony.

I feel the same way on giving. Nothing makes me happier than surprising someone with a gift that they really want. The problem, though, is that I need a vague idea of what they want to pick something out. If not, I'm just guessing at random ideas or, even worse, buying the gift I would want. That works for certain people if there are common interests, but a couple of aunts had a very frustrating practice of giving something their daughters would want and then telling me this when they gave me the gift, which made me feel like I had even more pressure to appropriately like the gift.

Gift giving practices have changed a bit in my family, which means fewer obligatory presents for relatives whose interests I'm not familiar with and fewer presents for me that felt like someone just picked out the first reasonably appropriate thing. Now, the gifts I bought were, for the most part, gifts that I really wanted to buy and so I can be excited about giving the gift because I'm confident it's something the person really wants. And, for my part, I know that the gifts I'm given were given freely and without a sense of obligation and sometimes resentment. It's really a much better trade off, I think. Fewer gifts, but more meaningful gifts.

Bill the betta did not make it through the night. I think I've finally stopped crying for now, but we'll see how long that lasts.

Here's the memorial song for his namesake, so..... Maybe naming him after the character that didn't survive L4D was a bad call, but we loved you, Billy Bo Bob.

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As someone who is not only into the Harry Potter fandom, but who has also been reading legal blogs and Tweets about the issues related to the new TSA decisions, I feel there's only one acceptable response to this:

People are idiots.

The tennis club where I did a group session a year and a half ago sent me a brochure this summer. The session I did last spring was great and I really enjoyed it, but things got a little crazy with scheduling this year and I wound up not doing it. I decided to try to do it this year, so I called about doing a clinic. The problem is that I'm what I would classify as an advanced beginner, based on past experience (lessons as a child, a couple of years playing in high school) and the only classes offered were either beginner or intermediate. I talked with the guy who did placement today and the problem was really that it wasn't possible to predict the make-up of classes. A beginner class might consist of absolute beginners or people who were fairly proficient but came for a brush up. He told me that he had taught beginner and intermediate classes back to back and sometimes the beginners played better than the intermediate. Based on all that, plus the fact that I'm out of shape, I signed up for one of the beginner clinics. He also told me that since it only lasted seven weeks, I could always move up after that.

That's the good news. The really great, awesome, beyond wonderful news is that I've also convinced Ashley to take it with me. That way, the two of us can practice together. I'm really excited about this and I can't wait until it starts on Tuesday.

The other thing that I've been meaning to mention is that I started voice lessons three weeks ago. This is another continuation of something I did earlier. A few years ago, I did voice lessons in undergrad and I wasn't that crazy about the experience. I like singing, but the professor was really demanding. I found out later that the reason that he had openings for a non-music major is that the voice majors all tried to avoid him. Still, I would have done it for another year, but the didn't have room the next year for non-majors. Guess the majors lost their survival instinct that year.

Anyway, I've meant to do it for ages. Several family members sing well and I'd just really, really like to get good at it myself. I had to really work up the nerve for it, since I don't really know how my voice sounds. It's funny, because I guess most people either know they can sing or know they can't. After my first lesson and her evaluate, she was fairly positive about my voice, so I feel like maybe I can actually make some progress with it. I don't have really high hopes, but maybe just a little extra confidence?

So far, I've mainly worked on "How Can I Keep from Singing?" It has some higher parts, so I don't always hit the notes and when I do, I feel like I'm really squeaky/screechy. I really like the song, though. I'm also going to work on Caledonia and Amazing Grace. I absolutely love the song Caledonia and I'm really excited about doing it next week. I still have to pick a version of Amazing Grace I like.

Also, funny story:

Ashley and I went to Ollie's to check on their closeout yarn. So far, so good. We were browsing and came across the furniture. We stopped at a desk that we were a little skeptical about. Ashley started to say "Well, it looks sturdy, but I wouldn't pay much for it." At the same time, I was reaching up to open a drawer. (I touch everything in stores.) So, here's how it actually played out:

Ashley: Well, it looks sturdy.

Me: *surprised squeak as the front of the drawer comes off in my hand*

Then we both laughed hysterically at the timing.

Good times, good times.

I think I can safely say that I love to cook. Today, Ashley and I weren't feeling well and she suggested getting some soup for dinner. I immediately went for my cookbooks to find a decent soup to make instead. I'm not a huge fan of canned soups, mainly because I just don't think they taste as good as homemade stuff.

One thing I've been wrestling with is a cooking budget. I'm working on cutting back on my spending overall and I've started keeping track of my spending. I plan to try to cut back 10% a month. I consider cooking a hobby, too, though, so watching my grocery budget is interesting. Since I like trying new and different recipes pretty often, can I just use some entertainment money for grocery money?

Tonight's recipe was just Vegetable Rice Soup. ( Here's the recipe. )

I feel really good after eating it, since we had pizza Friday and curry last night and it was just a little much.

We also saw Scott Pilgrim tonight in a theater that was built a couple of years ago. I haven't been there, but it was pretty nice overall. The seats were comfy and it was nice and empty, which is always a positive.

I took the first part of the bar exam (the essay part) today. It was rough, for various reasons.

First, I had to get up early this morning, which absolutely isn’t my thing. I’ve been working on readjusting my sleep schedule, but so far, it isn’t happening. As a result, I had trouble sleeping, so I went over some essay questions and hints last night while watching Cartoon Network and finally turned the lights off at around 3:30. The alarm was set for 7AM, since there was an option of filling out a card to have breakfast delivered at a certain time. Unfortunately, they were running behind so even though my breakfast was scheduled to be delivered between 7-7:30, it didn’t show up till 7:46. Registration was supposed to start at 7:50 and end at 8:15. The good news was that I only had to run down to the hotel lobby.

I only had a few minutes to eat breakfast and ended up accidentally knocking a glass of water on the floor. It broke and I didn’t have time to clean it up, so I had to leave Ashley to deal with it.

I was a little worried about getting there on time, but I felt a lot better when I saw two other people carrying computers and plastic bags...and they had no idea where to go. At least I could read the schedule.

Anyway, the organization was a MESS. The registration was supposed to start at 7:50 and apparently no one was there. It was supposed to end at 8:15 and at 8:15, there huge line and people absolutely filling up the hall. To further complicate things, there were various lines for different last names (A-C, D-H, etc) and no one knew this at the back so they weren’t feeding in properly... It was miserable. It was crowded and hot and overall awful.

Finally, at around 9, everyone ends up in the exam room...BUT apparently a good chunk of people weren’t computer savvy enough to start the exam software. So cue about half an hour of people waving their red sheets (sign for tech support) to get help. I suppose part the problem might have been computer problems, but mainly? I think that a lot of people were unable to follow basic instructions. “WAIT! WHAT DO THEY MEAN BY TYPE CLOSED IN THE BLANK AND CHECK THE BOX THAT CONFIRMS CLOSED?”

Anyway....the exam FINALLY starts. That went okay. Six state specific essay questions in three hours... The problem kicked in about midway through the exam. We were taking it in a ballroom with at least two hundred people....probably more. I assume that under normal circumstances, people moving around in the ballroom would have led to things getting pretty hot. However, when all those people are sitting quietly, it gets pretty cool. They had the air conditioning up really, really high and everyone was freezing. The guy sitting across from me kept rubbing his hands and blowing on them. I think the temperature was between 50 and 60.

I was pretty cold during the lunch break and it was cut short because of the delay in registration. So basically, I had time to eat and thaw out a bit, then head straight back down.

After lunch was the multi-state exam...and it was even colder. I was so cold that I had trouble concentrating and when I finished a little over half an hour earlier, instead of going over the answers and trying to get something else written, I gave up. I was miserable and I decided to cut my losses and head up to thaw out, get some rest, and work on my multiple choice exam stuff.

When I got up to the room, I felt like I had been out in freezing weather. It took over an hour to warm up and my arms and legs were icy. I took a quick nap and when I woke up, I had a fever. Of course.

I’ve took some Aleve and Ashley and I went out to Olive Garden for dinner (She treated!). After that, we hit Half-Price books for a few minutes and then hit Meijer to pick up a few things...namely a watch and something to wear tomorrow. The problem is that I can’t wear a jacket or hoodie with pockets, so that limited my options. For instance, I have three great hoodies and none of them worked because they all had pockets. We found a lighter hooded sweatshirt with no pockets and a heavy sweater. If they’d had gloves, I swear I would have bought them, too.

With any luck, I’l be able to get through tomorrow. I’m really not sure what’s going to happen with the exam at this point, since now I’m just feeling sick and tired. Still, I’m going to go over a few things, chill out, and take the exam tomorrow. In about eight hours, I’ll start the exam and in sixteen hours, it’s all done.

I just REALLY dread it.

I'm supposed to be studying for the bar, but I happened to check my phone and saw a Facebook update. My jaw dropped.

Here's the backstory:

Back when I got into FB aps (I'm over them now), I found out that you couldn't get anywhere without a huge mob/clan/whatever in a lot of games....so I started doing some random friend adding. I cleaned most of them off, but I kept a few (mainly because we were gifting back and forth on a few applications).

Recently, someone on my friends list started making really bizarre updates. Stuff like I have decided I am not going to 1)think about sex 2) play with myself 3) watch guys on cam 4) surf the alternative underground or 5) be slutty, for 24 hours. *looks at watch*, lots of stuff about BDSM sex, and her yaoi website. I didn't really think anything of it...mainly since I had her confused with another person who I had added for an app, talked to a few times, and seemed cool.

Today, I received an event invitation from her. Not surprisingly, I was wary of what it was. Then I opened it and what do you think it was? The launch of Taming Riki. Then there was a click.

So, a few years ago, I was looking for Ai no Kusabi fic. I came across her stuff....which was basically a lot of S&M fan fic with a few touches of shota for added flair. Well-written, but definitely disturbing to read. Not a big deal, except for the fact that somewhere along the way, she started her "Kira's Elite" group or something like that, which meant that you paid her for access advanced access to her fan fic. But, being the reasonable person she was, people in lesser developed countries could apply to her and get free early access for the fic. There was also talk of her self-publishing. I can't remember the whole story, since I lost interest.

But somehow, I ended up randomly friending her on FB for an ap.

The only thing that bothered me is that she's been on there for a while and these updates started pretty recently...the yaoi stuff and the sex stuff. So, that had me wondering, until I did a bit of googling. Turns out that there was some drama because sometime last year, she got religion. Here's a link to a timeline and Yahoo group emails from her. She's apparently bipolar, too, which explains some of the more erratic behavior.

But seriously, how weird is it that I somehow ended up as a FB friend? I'd love to remember which app the add came from....

I was taking a break from bar studying (which I'm actually doing) and came across a blog with this entry:

I recently learned from a friend of mine that he took a class over the summer, Commercial Paper or Secured Transactions or one of those stupid UCC courses. I asked how it went, and he shrugged. I prodded further, and he revealed that he only showed up on the first day and for the final exam, despite the fact that there were only six people in the class. He even received an email from the registrar two weeks before the class ended, asking if he planned to take the exam. "Of course", he replied. He then arrived a half-hour late for the final, which he didn't bother studying for, save for skimming an old outline, and received a C+. "Totally worth it", he said.

I thought I was a bad student. He sets the bar for all of us.

My response to this was "And this is EXACTLY why attendance policies suck."

(And I get to use my law school tag for one of the final, if not the final, time.)

On an unrelated bar note, the lectures frequently use hypos that use various fictional characters. I find myself getting annoyed when they don't follow canon. For instance, on the Contract hypo where Dr. House hired me to paint his house? Everyone KNOWS that House doesn't own a house.

I was discussing water bottles with hemisphere and the subject of stainless steel came up, specifically that metallic taste some people notice. I haven't had a problem with it myself, so I'm inclined to think it's some sort of genetic trait or something.

That said, I found a tip for getting rid of the taste at eHow. In case the page goes missing later, here are the steps.

How to Get Rid of a Metallic Taste From Stainless Steel Water Bottles by Karren Doll Tolliver

1. Wash the stainless steel water bottle in hot soapy water and rinse well.

2. Mix enough of the distilled or filtered water in equal proportion with the vinegar to fill the water bottle. For example, if your water bottle is 16 ounces, mix eight ounces of the water with eight ounces of the vinegar.

3. Fill the bottle with the water and vinegar mixture.

4. Allow the bottle to sit undisturbed overnight with the vinegar-and-water mixture in it.

5. Pour out the water-and-vinegar mixture and rinse the water bottle well. The metallic taste should be gone. If the metallic taste comes back, simply repeat these steps to get rid of it again.