Because all I can say about the plot at this point is: "Christ, this shit is bananas!" Zero Punctuation style.

Plots, counter-plots, counter-counter-plots, time travel, clones, fate, trying to screw with fate, self-fulfilling prophesies...

I don't think even egc was this confusing, and that's saying something.

If it turns out that ( spoiley spoil spoil ) then I am so officially done with this series because WHAT THE FUCKING HELL, CLAMP.

Says the Fridge Logic that hits me after I wake up, but it was still a nifty dream in which I was the nursemaid for the village elder or something--it wasn't clear, but the baby was blond haired, blue-eyed, and frickin' huge.

Then the village got attacked by...um...enemies of a vague and shadowy nature. Big ambush, arrows on fire, and the enemy had some kind of lion-faced wizard who almost saw through my invisibility, but he got called away to help fight elsewhere.

Roommate thinks the lion-faced guy might mean something. We'll see, I guess.

Nevermind. Turns out my inner naysayer was right and I wasn't qualified for this job.

So not looking forward to telling my Mom about this.

...but I figured it was about time I put myself on Facebook and Myspace.

Just let me know who you are when you friend me, because I only know most of you by your online handles.

http://www.myspace.com/dot_warner17
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?=100000097808296

Remember how I said I needed to get my life together, or else?

Well, now you guys get the lurid details.

( TL;DR )

Let's get the negative points out the way first.
1) Boring, slow-starting B-plot about the Trials and Travails of Whats-His-Face In College. (But at least there's a lot more robot on robot action this time and the humans have properly been relegated to supporting cast status.)

2) The action bits are what amounts to a glorified ad for the US military. America Saves The Day, whoppee. And isn't it nice that they got destroy unambiguously evil enemies? (It does look cool, though. Like in any Michael Bay movie, even the explosions have explosions.)

3) I saw 7-year-old kids in the audience, and though most of the time they thought the movie was cool, there were points where it got pretty damn scary, too. And damn, Optimus Prime is fucking hard core! Lots of death on all sides of the conflict. (Still damn cool, though.)

4) Camera movement still a bit shakey and nausea inducing, but at least the animators got to show off quite a bit more this time.

Overall, definitely worth watching in theater.

Looks like I might have to read up on PHP and cascading style sheets.

...but why have I convinced myself to write my own Wordpress theme? I even want to do tag-based differential coloring if that's possible.

But now it's definitely official: if I can't find stable work before I graduate, I'm going to have to move back in with the parents again.

...guess I'll just have to fake it 'til I make it, because the little naysayer voice in the back of my head is already predicting that I'll be giving up my one best chance at doing something with my life.

I've been requested (long story) to write some stuff "at a sixth grade reading level".

...what's "at a sixth grade reading level"?

Something tells me I should have done more research, no matter how much I feel like my intelligence is being insulted when I read YA fiction. (And this is not just now as a grownup, either, I was always too smart for my own good.)

FRIENDSLIST PEOPLE! HEY! LISTEN!

I don't ask for your opinion on stuff often (insert whiny wangst about how nobody reads my journal and I'm so unpopular waaah), but this is one of those times that I'm going to shamelessly beg for input because I need it.

I have somewhat given up on the idea of having a fully bilingual site for the time being, but I at least do want to translate all of my works into Chinese so I can practice and show off my abilities.

At the moment I'm toying with three possible setups:

1) Separate pages for Chinese and English
Advantages: Each side would be self-contained and not intrude on the other. I could even have different layouts for each if I really felt like it.
Disadvantages: Updating both would be kind of a pain.

2) English content in its entirety, followed by Chinese content
Advantages: Everything on one page for easy updating.
Disadvantages: This would effectively double the length of all current pages.

3) English content, followed by Chinese content either sentence-by-sentence or paragraph-by-paragraph. (This is the current layout of the pages that do have Chinese content. This one, for example.)
Advantages: You can see how my translations compare with the original.
Disadvantages: Sentences don't necessarily translate that neatly, and people without the fontsets/encoding and/or can't read Chinese would have to skip a ton of gibberish text.

So they tied the knot (finally!) yesterday.

We didn't give them too hard a time about it, though there was a little bit of light-hearted ribbing about Billy officially joining the ranks of the P-Whipped. And since they do competitive dancing, there was a lot of showing off on the dance floor.

All the moms in attendance got misty-eyed, of course. (Us kids were joking that the ceremony was more for the parents than for the happy couple, because they'd been pretty much together since college.)

And since both of them work, they're probably going right back to the daily grind after the weekend's over. (At least they took the week before the wedding off so they could get some rest.)

So I dropped my knee straight into an ant's nest (species uncertain, but given my luck those little buggers were fire ants) and now I'm nursing at least 50 little lumps that itch and burn and burn and itch.

The itch.

The burn.

The itching burn.

The burning itch.

Hopefully, this means Mom won't make me do yardwork again for the rest of the time I'm here.

On the random occasions that I do think about dating and getting married and stuff (gasp, yes, I do ponder those kinds of things, I'm not immune to the Big Questions of Life Like When Are You Getting Married I Can Hear Your Biological Clock Ticking From The Next Continent Over Yeah I've Got One Of Those Moms No I'm Not Bitter Why Do You Ask), I like to amuse myself imagining either getting a traditional Chinese wedding (though I wouldn't ask my dad to carry me down the red carpet, since the poor guy is massively out of shape and he'd probably have a heart attack if he even tried) or just eloping in Vegas or something and then telling my mom afterward (though I think I'd have to build a nuclear-proof bunker first).

Then I remember that 1) I'm still single, 2) I don't really want to spend the effort into maintaining a relationship, and 3) I'm not even looking to begin with.

Then it's back to fanfic land.

Other than TV Tropes, I've also been ruining my life on a number of other free*-to-play sites, and in the interest of sharing my misery, I'm going to post the links.

http://abs2.igg.com/ - A Ragnarok Online clone in all but name, though it has the advantage of allowing you to travel between locations without having to fight anything if you don't want to. There's also some kind of "rebirth" option, but I have no idea if that means you can have multiple job classes on one character or not.

http://breadnbutter.outspark.com/ - A micro-managing game in the vein of "Diner Dash" and other similar clones. All of the resource gathering, ingredient making, and finished product manufacturing are in the form of mini-games. Some of them are fun, but others are sadistic and the time limits are way, way too damn short. I haven't played enough to know whether you can unlock new mini-games once you've leveled up enough, or you have to purchase the rest of them via the game points.

http://fo.igg.com/main.php - A real-time strategy game with flying ships and stuffs, except it takes minutes and hours to build, upgrade, or manufacture anything (unless, of course, you pay to get items that can accelerate the process). It's more something you run in the background than something that you play continuously.

http://www.nodiatis.com/ - A Dungeons and Dragons type of massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Combat is turn-based, and you can choose to ignore the Player versus Player side if you don't feel like running from Player Killers. There's also a nice anti-grinding function in which you don't gain experience or stuff as fast once you run out of "rested time".

*except for all those neat little extras that of course cost real world money to buy

Just some notes on things I've been bouncing around in my head because I do want to try some other stuff besides drawing prompts:

* Concept Space Calendar - This one's been on my to do list since forever, but I've never gotten around to doing it.
* Tarot Theme Deck - While I don't believe in the tarot as a fortune telling device, the archetypes are useful as art inspirations. Of course Concept Space is a prime candidate, but a Biblical Tarot would also be hilariously ironic.
* Full version of the story I have plotted of which I'm only doing two minutes of teaser for my thesis project - Right now I see this as a Choose Your Own Adventure Visual Novel, but I don't know how I'd pull that off with my current blog-style page layout. This one will obviously have to wait until after graduation.
* Concept Space the Webcomic - At this point it's still very much a pie in the sky idea, but I don't want to give up on it. Another one of those "after graduation" projects.

Round 6 of the myocs100 Prompt Table Project having come and gone, I decided it was time to try a new prompt table from art_100.

( Da List )

Still going to do the 3-a-day thing, though perhaps I should also do at least one a day if I don't feel like doing all 3.

And because I'm too lazy to update this prompt table, just follow the link above and see the results there.

I...um...don't really get it. Is there some kind of friends filter? 'Cause otherwise, I am totally not comfortable with opening my life that much to total strangers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIBNOAvUQU&feature=channel_page

Very loose translation, with little attempt to preserve meter or rhyme:
At five in the morning in China,
the sound of prayer can be heard
For restoration and peace leading to unity and triumph
At five in the morning in China,
the sound of worship can be heard
for all to love with sincere hearts
and serve China with one spirit
At five in the morning in China,
the sound of prayers can be heard;
they fly over the many mountains and waters
and melt the ice-cold hearts:
[a prayer for] no more chains
no more wars
a blessing for China to turn back the hands of Fate
and another good Harvest [for the Lord].

Case in point: I'm still very slowly growing out of that whole "Project A is boring. I wanna do Project B instead!" That's all fine and dandy when Project A is, say, "revamping my website for the umpteenth time so it looks pretty", but not when Project A is "finish Thesis Project" or "pay attention at work".

Being a grownup means I have to bite the bullet and do things I don't like because, frankly, what kind of job pays for sitting around doing whatever the crap I feel like?

(Though if there are, I'd sure like to know. :P)