An · Erraich

Ahem.

For your reading pleasure, a rant.

Here we go.

Your vet is not McDonald's, they are not serving you as quickly as possible, but as well as they can for the sake and health of your pet. If this is quick, then that's good, but if not, be patient.

Your vet does not come with a money back guarantee. She does the best she can with the knowledge she has based on what you tell her and what she can deduce from the animal. Sometimes what she tries does not work. Sometimes she has to try something different. That's the way it is. Get over it.

Your vet is a business, but it's not a store. We're not an auto repair shop, we're not selling perfect animals and we're not here to open your dog up and see what's wrong. We're also not selling custom made animals. If you can't deal with the fact that your cat is going to claw your furniture, your dog is going to chew your shoes, and both of them are going to pee, poo, and barf all over the carpet, then get a goldfish. Although I have to warn you, you're going to have to clean the tank from time to time.

Your vet is not Walgreens. Don't call after not bringing your animal in for like 5 years and expect her to give you whatever antibiotics or pain medication or narcotics you want. Also, don't expect her to cheerfully allow you to buy all your heartworm prevention, flea control, etc from some online black market highway robbery (yes, those places, 1-800-Petmeds and other like them, are STEALING from the vets, who already are severely underpaid) when you haven't had the decency to even vaccinate your damn animal in a decade.

Seriously.

I am feeling pretty darned good today, with very little to worry about for once.

Abbey left on Tuesday to go to a short term, live-in rehab program. I will miss her very much, as we are unable to have any contact with her for at least several weeks, but at least she is getting the help she needs. And with any luck, my mom will be able to stop worrying a little. I'm worried about *her*.

I am going to begin what will hopefully be a successful workout regimen over the next three months or so, in preparation for having to get into that Sloth dress for the FMA cosplay at Jacon. I would like to look decent in it, not just okay. It's a beautiful dress, actually, and if I can make it look really great, that would pretty much rock. ^_^

CJ's gonna be Hughes. He has plans to have Destiny draw a "tattoo" of his "daughter" on his chest. XD

Spring break is coming up next week, than heavens. I am going to stay at Dad's beach house in Ormond for a couple days, which is exactly what I need, after all the drama over this last month. CJ had it right when he said he thought I'd just "had a really bad month." It hasn't been the best overall.

Other than that, not much to tell. The journal has been quiet, but that's because my life has been so focused on things that take too long to type out. O_o I don't know where I'd be without earthdragonette to keep me sane. But, boy do I miss talking with her on the actual phone.

Finally, wish me well on that biochemistry test I took yesterday. I am worried about that class, but I busted my butt to study for it, and I will be sad if I don't do well. I will be sadder if this class prevents me from graduating at the end of this semester. I am so tired of being in school. >_

Why, oh why, oh WHY do I have such an obsessive personality?

I watched two episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist. TWO. And Roy Mustang was only in ONE of those episodes.

And now I am completely and totally on a Roy Mustang/Travis Willingham trip-and-a-half.

But, GOD they're awesome.

I was in such a good mood today. SUCH a good mood. Then I went Christmas shopping. Actually, the shopping was okay, except that every three minutes I had to listen to my sister bitch about the fact that she can't go and flit around with her effed up friends. (Which, as my brother and I pointed out, is rather her fault for being stupid and getting punished in the first place.) Then after, she came and stayed at my house for a couple hours whilst my mom was out shopping for us-the-kids. My sister was happy for one epsiode of House...then the bitching began. When is she getting here? What's taking her so long! OH MY GOD, I'm all tired and stuff!! Then my mom came, and was tired and frustrated and wanted a hug, which Abbey had to be *PROMPTED TO GIVE HER*...

I am just so sick of this teen-angst bullshit. Like she's the first kid in the universe to get grounded. Who the hell cares that she doesn't get to be with her stupid redneck friends? Maybe she shouldn't have lied about where she was going and blah blah blah. I'm sick of her melodramatic bullshit, and I'm sick of the self-righteous stick she has up her ass. It makes me want to beat the shit out of her, but I know even that wouldn't do any good. "OMG, guys, I was only being the biggest bitchwhore in the history of the world! It's not like I *did* anything! Why can't she just get out of my life!" Ugh. I know she'll get over it. She always gets over it, and she pulls this shit every like...I dunno, full moon or something? But what the *hell* is she thinking pulling it at Christmastime? My mom has no family, she has no husband, she has no parents. She has her children. We're it. How can she be so goddamned self- centered!

::Sigh:: Obviously, this isn't my problem...except that it *is*, because everyone makes it my problem. Everyone wants to tell me their shit, and what can I say, "No mom, you can't talk to me?" It's not like she has anyone else to effing talk to.

Christ.

On Falconer's new cd, "Northwind."

Can we say political commentary, anyone?

I squish it much. Mathias's voice is audio secks. Stefan is teh god of guitarz. I am a happy fan.

So in the wake of the Eragon movie, there's a tremendous backlash, not only at the film, which was admittedly lacking in many ways, but also at the book. There's a rant to follow, so I'll cut it. Read if you like.

( Follow me to the bitching... )

I'm going to see Eragon this afternoon. ^^ I'm *very* excited, and hopefully will not be at all disappointed. I don't think I will. I think they have put a tremendous effort into this film, and I appreciate the number of relative unknowns that are in here. I always feel like casting unknown actors means you cast them for their talent, rather than for their star power. Because, let's face it: start power does *not* equal talent. (Paris Hilton, anyone?)

Wai. So sleepy. Did not sleep well last night, and had to be in Micanopy by 7am for work today. O_o At least I got to leave at one. Small favours, I suppose. Longer post once I've seen the movie, no doubt.

Thought on continued reading of House!fics:

To say that Gregory House took a halting step towards someone is not only an overused image, but it has almost no meaning for the character. He's crippled in one leg. He walks with a very dramatic limp. *All* his steps are halting. Try harder next time.

Thank you. I must study now.

Considering how long it's been since I posted, there is so much I could say. But for now, as it is late and I really should in fact be asleep or at least reading microbiology, I will say only that:

1)Halloween yay. I have red contacts for my vampire costume. Yay.

2) Final Fantasy 12 in, like a DAY. I cannot even begin to contain myself.

3) I effing LOVE the book Eragon. And now I cannot contain myself for the movie, which comes out at Christmas. Eragon is teh Hot. (Refer here to my icon.) You will go to the website and you will see that I am right.

http://www.eragonmovie.com

Beware of a lot of flash, so possibly quite a load time if your connection is slow. Watch trailer. See images. Love the dark brown eyes. Julie, I predict that you will dig Murtagh on site, but I haven't gotten to him yet in the book, so I can't vouch for him. Only for Eragon. ^^

That's all for now. I hope tomorrow I'll be able to catch up a little better.

Hmm...Day two of my week off before I have to go back to school. I found out last night that I did indeed pass all my classes, and so I am quite pleased. I would have loved to get something better than a C+ in fizix, but I suppose at least it's a C+ and not just a C or a C-. In the worlds of fizix and organix, one must take what one can get, it seems. The only one I'm really really annoyed with is lab. B+? The hell? I got like a perfect score on pretty much every lab report. ::flails::

Anyway, though. Week off. And, I found out Laura from work is in my summer class. Looks like we'll be palpating cow vaginas together. XD I love being pre-vet. Shweeeeeeeet.

So yeah, overall, I'm feeling pretty good, despite the fact that I'm going to have to get used to waking up between 5:45am and 6:45 am throughout the entire summer, and anyone who even remotely knows me knows that 1) I am not a morning person and 2) I do not do well on sleep deprivation. Pray for me, all.

In the world of Things I Frequently Obsess Over: I saw the E3 trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots today. Uh? I am increasingly convinced that Hideo Kojima drops large amounts of acid before penning the plots to these games. The first one invlolved a floating telepathic teleketetic crazy man in a gas mask. The second involved what for all intents and purposes was a vampire, plus some immortal beings who apparently were created from the patriotism of Americans or some shit like that. The third one had a ghost who led you down a river of all the people you've killed throughout the game. The fourth? Who the *hell* knows. Questions: Why is snake suddenly older than Col Campbell? Why has Meryl not aged a day? What the hell is Naomi whining about *now*? Will Quinton Flynn's Raiden own me as much as he did in MGS2? The answer to the last is looking like yes, since he's apparently become the crazy amazing hyper cyber badass ninja. Who kills Metal Gears all by himself. On the downside, he Looks Stressed. On the upside, his hair is still long and platinum, and his eyes are still really pretty. And the Stressed Look actually kinda gives him an Air of Yoshitaka Amano, not unlike the cg rendition of The Final Fantasy Warrior that appears in the Origins version for PS2. And of course, Amano makes me all gooshy. So.

Another thing: Gankutsuou is becoming so good just about now...but I will say no more, because I plan to make Julie watch it. ^^

Finally, I got the new volume of Red River (Anatolia Story) in the mail today. I was hoping it would make me happy, but actually it't just depressing me! The main couple is *sucking* at life!

If you don't know, Red River is an historical/fantasy/romance manga I'm reading, about a girl who gets pulled back into the ancient Hittite Empire by some freak-ass Queen who wants to use her as a sacrifice so she can cast a curse on all the royal family except herself and her son so her son can become king so she can have power blah blah blah political intrigue blah blah. But of course Yuri, the girl, it rescued by Kail, the third prince, and he takes her under his protection, and tries to send her back but then gets thwarted several times and then they fall in love, enter Unresolved Sexual Tension.

It was plastic wrapped and imprinted with the "Parental Advisory" stamp, which made me all hopeful that they were *finally* going to Do It. Because let me tell you, the sexual tension between those two at this point is enough to stop a semi. Plus, we're already in Volume 12. I mean, come on. Touya and Aya had done it by volume 7. By volume 12, I'm pretty sure they already had that baby on the way. GET WITH THE SHOUJO PROGRAM. So anyway, Yuri's becoming all horribly depressed because one of their dear friends framed *herself* for the murder of the King and was hung (She did this so that Yuri would be absolved of any suspicion....because she wanted her to marry Kail and maybe dispel some of this sexual tension and freaking MAKE BABIES OR SOMETHING). But Yuri's all freaking out, and so she wants to go home, because she can't take all the killing and betrayal and whatnot. I'm trying to cut her a break for this, because she has been through a lot so far, and she's held up remarkably well, especially for a shoujo heroine. She even learned to use a sword, ride a horse, generally take care of herself to some extent (gasp). But I have to admit, she is starting to irritate me. She's being WISHY-WASHY! She's *never* wishy-washy! It's why I liked her so much! Because she's like "This is rough! And it sucks! But I will be brave, and do what I wish, and achieve my goals!" and I'm like, "Yey! The feminist movement!"

But now she's all wishy washy. She's all, "Oh...I really love Kail and stuff...but you know...I should go home. Oh, parting with him kinda makes me feel like my heart is being slowly consumed by rabid weasles, but it's really the thing to do."

Meanwhile, Kail isn't doing much better. He's gone all freaky man-possessive. Turns out the parental advisory is because he practically *daterapes* her in one scene, and poor Hadi (her handmaid/confidante) has to come beg him to freaking *stopitwhatthefuck!?*. I am mostly forgiving him as well, because it sort of stems from a bad dream, and then he like weeps over it afterwords, but...I dunno. So everyone's pretty much sucking at life, and of course the next volume doesn't come out until July. :deep sigh: I know she's not going to go come, since there are 28 volumes in all, but you know...it's a pretty shit place to leave it for two months, imho.

Rabid weasles, eh? See what happens when I get up so early?

Actually, I'm not having such a bad time of it. The real thing is simply that I am dreading the fact that I have to go out and get the rest of my IP data this week. I'm gonna try and do half today and half tomorrow, and then I'll finish the writeup tomorrow and Thursday. It's just that the first half of it was so BORING and TEDIOUS, it makes me want to *weep*. Plus the semester is over in just over a week (next Wednesday) and I am so READY. I am very glad that I only have one final on finals week, and at least it's on Monday, so I'll be finished early. Then after that it's a couple weeks off before I start in on Intro to Animal Science. I'm going to have to learn to get myself up in the morning like I did back in high school, because there's a decent chance I'll be working in the am on the days I'm not in class, and they just decided yesterday that they'd like us to get there half an hour earlier than we open on weekdays, which means I have to be in Micanopy at *7:00 am* when I work in the mornings. ::Weeps:: Oh well, I'll suck it up. I did it for four years, I can do it again. I'll be investing quite a bit in those Doubleshot Espresso things, it looks like. XD

And then my Julie-chan will come, and it will be GOOD. Oh, the GOODNESS it will be.

I saw Christina Watanabe today, a very old friend I've known since 6th grade, but have sort of fallen out of touch with over the last year or so. She offered her sympathy over Andy, and pointed out that boys are stupid (which I've noticed recently). Andy has been alternatingly all right and completely retarded. We're trying the friend thing right now, slowly, just over the phone so far, because I think both of us would regret losing the friendship we had before we had anything else. We can still talk very easily about things that we used to chat about, like games and movies. But then occasionally he will get into "us" and usually say something insensitive and stupid which makes me feel rather like shit. I guess boys really are stupid. Even my dad can't explain them to me, and he's been a boy for sometime by now.

What can you do?

First of all, please see This post on the Riku Fans LJ community. Beware of the need to change your pants/reupolster your chair. You may not want to look at this if you're in a public place, as it may cause you to hump the computer screen. It is not actually Riku, but it *is* a Naked (though covered) lifesize sleeping Sephiroth. Julie, we will find this store when you are in Japan. WE MUST!!

I. LOVE. HIM.

Well, it's been...4 days of being single, and I think I'm doing fairly well on my own. Of course, it's hard. It sucks like crazy. But...I'm getting through. There's a lot of up and down. I'll be okay, and then I'll start to feel depressed. But, at least there are the okay bits as well. I've been trying to keep myself busy (Kingdom Hearts 2 helps a lot with that ^^), and to think of the good things.

I actually talked to Andy on Sunday night. The first part of the conversation was pretty much me ranting at him about how stupidly he handled the whole thing and whatnot. Which he took like a...well, I would say like a man, but...

But the second part was actually just us talking, like we used to, about movies and stuff, particularly V for Vendetta, which is a really excellent movie, btw. That was cool, actually. It made me feel pretty good, because I know I would miss having him to chat with almost as much as anything else; we always had *really* great chats, and it made me feel like maybe we could still be friends.

I almost said "I love you" when we hung up...but even that didn't make me feel too sad, somehow.

I am so frustrated-yet-vindicated right now.

Okay, for anyone who doesn't know: For the last few days, I've been dealing with this really stupid problem at school. Basically, they won't let me register for classes because they want me to agree to graduate as soon as possible (which would be fall). I want to extend it to the spring, because I would have to take several very difficult classes all together in order to graduate in fall, and I *really* **REALLY** need to boost my GPA. Taking Microbiology plus a lab that meets twice a week, *plus* biochemistry, *plus* Animal Physiology, with a lab that meets for four hours, is not going to be conducive to doing well in *any* of these classes. I wanted to spread them out over the next *three* semesters, rather than just over the summer and fall. Plus, I only wanted to take one class over summer, because I wanted to be more open to do stuff with earthdragonette when she comes to visit. Well, after talking to an adviser at the Academic Advising Center, and emailing with the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, I was no closer to getting what I wanted. They just kept hardnosing, "Graduate in fall, graduate in fall." They told me I still couldn't register, though, until I went to talk to Dr. Wolff, the Zoology Department's undergrad advisor. So I went this morning.

This is where the vindication comes in!

He completely agreed with me! He said it was ridiculous for them to try and force me to take that many challenging classes together, and he agreed that I would do much better, and much more likely to give my GPA the boost I need, if I spread the courses out. Luckily, his word should be the last, and I should get to just take the one course over the summer, plus just two in fall and two in spring. I am so happy! Now it's just a matter of waiting for the Dean to respond and remove the hold so I can register.

IN YOUR FACE, UF BEURACRACY!!!

(Booya)