The screws are coming undone

The end? Or another beginning?

2009-12-16T07:37:22Z

Played through chapter four of Shade Impulse.

Well, I was wrong. Looks like Chaos has been defeated already after all. Thus is the end of Story Mode. The ending cutscene was really pretty. :D Oh God, Squenix has the best graphics EVAR. The heroes all look so beautiful with all that detail. The graphics whore in me was absolutely drooling.

I wouldn't say it's the end of the game, though. A new sub-mode opened up in Arcade Mode, Chaos gets added as an opponent in Quick Battle Mode, I gained access to the Duel Colosseum, and Shantotto and Gabranth's stories were unlocked. Plus, I still have a lot of fighting to do if I want to max everyone out. I've decided I want to raise every character's level up to 100, just so I can have the satisfaction of having done so. I'm such a geek.

Speaking of my geekiness, I posted everyone's battle-beginning lines a while back, but now that Chaos is an opponent in Quick Battle Mode, voice data for him is now available in the Theater, too. So, since I did it for everyone else, I'm gonna do it for him, too.

First, what he says at the beginning of each fight.

vs. Warrior of Light: Light will never purge Darkness.
vs. Firion: Your nightmares shall be dark!
vs. Onion Knight: You are too young to know the Abyss.
vs. Cecil: Your bonds will be swallowed in Chaos!
vs. Bartz: The mortal desire for power knows no limit.
vs. Terra: Destruction is what you truly long for.
vs. Cloud: I can see the weakness in your heart!
vs. Squall: No lion can crawl out of the Abyss.
vs. Zidane: Your arrogance will be your undoing.
vs. Tidus: I will put an end to your endless dream!
vs. Garland: Let us close the infinite cycle.
vs. the Emperor: Recognize how insignificant you are!
vs. Cloud of Darkness: Nothingness is but a part of Chaos.
vs. Golbez: Your sins will haunt you forever!
vs. Exdeath: I control the Void you so desire.
vs. Kefka: Sleep in emptiness, crooked clown!
vs. Sephiroth: Unleash the hatred that seeths within you!
vs. Ultimecia: Time does not exist in Chaos.
vs. Kuja: Only I can end the dissonance.
vs. Jecht: I find comfort in your bestial instincts!

And, since fighting him is always a three-part ordeal, the opening line is unique for each opponent (as shown above), but the same two lines always kick off the second and third parts.

Second encounter: Hope does not exist.
Third encounter: You cannot surpass me!

Keith David voices Chaos. Hee. :D

Lastly, the lines each of the other characters say upon facing off with Chaos. Unlike other Quick Battles, it's not just your opponent who speaks at the beginning of each fight. With Chaos, it could be either him or the character you're playing as who says something.

Warrior of Light: Brave spirit! Come to me!
Garland: You and I share the same fate!
Firion: My dreams will never fade!
The Emperor: You're unfit to rule anything!
Onion Knight: No matter the odds, I believe in myself!
Cloud of Darkness: Even Chaos shall be consumed!
Cecil: My comrades only strengthen my blade!
Golbez: I care not for Harmony nor Discord.
Bartz: Let's finish this, one-on-one!
Exdeath: Discord is but one piece of the Void.
Terra: I won't sit back and do nothing!
Kefka: The sweet scent of death...!
Cloud: I won't waver anymore!
Sephiroth: To slay a god...
Squall: Don't waste your solitude!
Ultimecia: You are another victim of Time.
Zidane: Now, this is a production!
Kuja: Chaos! Ah...what a lovely word!
Tidus: This might be the end...
Jecht: Been a while since I fought anyone this big!

Chaos doesn't have any victory or defeat lines, or any encounter lines for manikins or Arcade Mode, as you can only fight against him, not as him. Kinda sad. Then again, I would think fighting as a god against mortals would be awkward. It'd be unrealistic if he was on equal ground with mortal characters of the same level, and if he had strength worthy of a god, it'd be too easy to win. So...yeah. I guess it's for the best.

Sorry for my geekiness. I'm sure no one here cares about video game dialogue besides me. Oh well. I posted for my own benefit, then. :P

P.S. Oh, after completing Story Mode, you can buy extra battle BGMs from the PP Catalog, one from each of the ten games. They're lifted directly from the soundtracks they come from, unlike the other BGMs, which are rearranged and rerecorded for Dissidia. The one from FFVI is "Dancing Mad," complete with Kefka's laugh. T3h win. XD

EDIT: Sorry, astrokittie, but I found no instance of Kefka calling Sephiroth a mama's boy. He did call him a sadist with a god complex (look who's talking), but no mention of mama's boy. It's probably better for Kefka's health that way.

I'm addicted to Crack(ed)

2009-12-14T23:08:26Z

Ahahahahahahaha. I just had to share these Cracked articles.

6 Adorable Cat Behaviors with Shockingly Evil Explanations
LOL. I'm a cat lover and I know cats are douchebags. If I've ever told you about Nickel--the cat who thought he was a dog--you know what I'm talking about.

6 Lord of the Rings Characters Who Totally Dropped the Ball
Okay, I adore these movies, but I'm not the kind of person who can't enjoy mockery of things I like. And if you think about it, the points brought up do make a lot of sense.

TWATLIGHT MUST DIE

2009-12-14T21:27:46Z

Played through chapter three of Shade Impulse. The bosses were Ultimecia, Sephiroth, and Garland. As expected, the loathing is still seething between Cloud and Sephiroth, and Ultimecia's dying scream was rather chilling.

The Warrior of Light said that he has no memory of who he is or where he comes from. He doesn't even know his own name. That's gotta suck.

Now that all the villains have been defeated, I wonder what's going to go down in chapter four. The heroes are going after Chaos in ernest now, but I don't expect them to catch up to and defeat him so quickly. I guess we'll just have to see.

And on a completely different topic, I just found out that the game Scene It? has a Twatlight edition. WAT. There's, like, two movies. Two. Movies. I can understand an edition of Scene It? for a TV series (especially a long-running one) or a movie series with several installments (or at least a complicated plot), but two movies? Two badly-written, one-dimensional movies? That's pathetic. I'm usually annoyed by pointless cash-in attempts anyway, even with things I like, but this is just incomprehensible. D:

Daily German & French: December 7th - December 12th

2009-12-13T21:29:46Z

Daily German
Monday's German word:
Stein (m. noun) - Stone.
Mir fällt ein Stein vom Herzen. That's a load off my mind. (lit.: A stone is falling from my heart.)

Tuesday's:
Reich (adjective) - Rich.
Er ist steinreich. He is filthy rich. (lit.: He is stone rich.)

Wednesday's:
Arm (adjective) - Poor.
Sie is arm wie eine Kirchenmaus. She is dirt poor. (lit.: She is as poor as a church mouse.)

Thursday's:
Menschenrechte (pl. n. noun) - Human rights.
Die Menschenrechte sind unantastbar. Human rights are inalienable.

Friday's:
Potsdam, Deutschland (Potsdam, Germany) - Potsdam lies on the bank of the river Havel, just south of Berlin in the German state of Brandenburg. Up until the end of World War I, the city was a royal residence of the Prussian kings. One of these kings, Frederick II (also known as Frederick the Great), built the celebrated Schloss Sanssouci (Sanssouci Castle), a popular tourist attraction with its Rococco interior and beautiful gardens. In 1945, Potsdam was the site of the famous Potsdam Conference, in which U.S. President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (and later Clement Attlee), and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met to discuss the future of postwar Europe. Today, the site of the conference, the twentieth-century Cecilienhof palace, is a hotel and museum. Potsdam is also known for its extensive film studios in Babelsberg, which were founded in 1911. Films that were shot in Babelsberg include Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927), Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel, 1930), Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002), Enemy at the Gates (2001), and V for Vendetta (2005). Visit www.potsdam.de.

Saturday's:
Kerze (f. noun) - Candle.
Wir zünden eine Kerze an. We are lighting a candle.

Daily French
Monday's French word:
Fromage (m. noun) - Cheese.
Ce fromage est bien fort. This cheese is nice and strong.

Tuesday's:
Goûter (verb) - To taste.
Voulez-vous goûter le vin? Would you like to taste the wine?

Wednesday's:
Savon (m. noun) - Soap.
Il devrait se laver avec du savon. He should wash with soap.

Thursday's:
Sensible (adjective) - Sensitive.
Fais gaffe, il est très sensible. Be careful, he's very sensitive.

Friday's:
Geste (m. noun) - Gesture.
Elle lui a dit, sans parler, avec seulement un geste. She told him without speaking, with only a gesture.

Saturday's:
Huile (f. noun) - Oil.
L'huile brûlait pendant huit jours et huit nuits. The oil burned for eight days and eight nights.

Forgotten English: December 7th - December 12th

2009-12-13T20:36:49Z

Monday's forgotten word:
Cockstride (noun) - The length of a cock's stride. "The days are getting a cockstride longer." --Thomas Darlington's Folk-Speech of South Cheshire, 1887

I'm Late, I'm Late... - On this date in 1732, London's Covent Garden Theatre opened. The anonymous American book of etiquette, Manners That Win, Compiled from the Latest Authorities (1884) described how being "fashionably late" may have arisen: "Our practice of arriving late doubtless grew out of the habits of the English. There, a gentleman or lady of rank may have several engagements in a single evening--going from dinner to opera, and from opera to several balls. In England, therefore, a late arrival might mean that the necessities of these social demands were so great that an earlier arrival was impossible--an indication of social importance. In America, where no such meaning could attach to it, the adoption of such a custom is absurd, especially when it is a great inconvenience to men who are not gentlemen of leisure like the English aristocrats but men of business who need plenty of rest. If we must copy customs from abroad, let us discriminate between those suited to our mode of life and those which were meant for an entirely different state of things."

Tuesday's:
Anti-centenarianism (noun) - Opposition to the assertion that the persons from time to time reported to have died aged a century or more had really attained to that age. --Edward Lloyd's Encyclopædic Dictionary, 1895

Death of Henry Jenkins (c. 1501-1670), an extremely long-lived Englishman whose legendary 169-year lifespan fell within the reigns of nine monarchs, from Henry VII to Charles II. Edmund Fillingham King's Ten Thousand Wonderful Things (c. 1853) recapped Jenkins' life: "He remembered the Battle of Flodden Field, fought between the English and the Scotch [in] 1513, when he was about twelve years old. In the last century of his life he was a fisherman, and often swam in the river after he was a hundred years old. In the King's Remembrancer Office in the exchequer there is a record of a deposition in a cause taken in April, 1665, at Kettlewell, Yorkshire, where Henry Jenkins of Ellerton-upon-Swale, labourer aged 157 years, was produced and made deposition as a witness." Robert Chambers' Book of Days (1864) mentioned that Jenkins was acquainted with one Peter Garden (1644-1775). Their combined lives spanned three centuries.

Wednesday's:
Chubb (verb) - To lock. Unchubb, to unlock. From the well known make of lock [by Charles Chubb (1772-1846), English locksmith]. --Paul Tempest's Lag's Lexicon: A Dictionary of the English Prison, 1950

Death of Joseph Bramah (1749-1814), Yorkshire inventor of a beer dispenser, a printing press for bank notes, and above all his famous locks. Robert Chambers' Book of Days (1864) wrote: "One particular lock made by him, having sixteen small pieces of mechanism called 'sliders,' was intended to defy lock-pickers [by establishing] odds of 6,227,019,500-to-one against any person unprovided with the proper key." In 1851, long after Bramah's death, an American locksmith decided to take up a long-standing 200-guinea challenge to open one of Bramah's legendary locks, promising to do so within thirty days without seeing the key. According to Chambers, "Mr. Hobbs began on [July] 24th. For sixteen days spreading over a month, he shut himself in the room, trying and testing numerous bits of iron and steel that were to enable him to open the lock. On the 23rd of August, Hobbs exhibited the padlock open." Despite a controversy over contest rules, a committee certified his untying of the proverbial Gordian knot.

Thursday's:
Capful of wind (noun) - (1) A light flaw which suddenly careens a vessel and passes off. --Admiral William Smyth's Sailor's Word-Book, 1867 (2) This phrase for a little wind, hardly sufficient for moving a sailing ship, arises from the following legend: Eric, King of Sweden, was so familiar with evil spirits that whichever way he turned his cap the wind would blow. Hence, his cap was said to be full of wind. --Edwin Radford's Encyclopædia of Phrases and Origins, 1945

Feast Day of St. Eulalia, a patroness of sailors, who was invoked to ward off nautical misfortune. Henry Reddall's Fact, Fancy, and Fable (1889) explained another common expression, "shot in the locker," once used by seafarers: "Lockers are compartments in ships of war for the reception of the shot. They are placed at the base of the mainmast so that the weight of their contents may help to steady the motion of the ship. When a sailor, to express being without money, says he hasn't a shot in the locker, it is equivalent to saying that he is like a ship which has expended all her ammunition."

Friday's:
Americaness (noun) - A female American; a woman of American birth. --William Craigie's Dictionary of American English, 1940

A Fond Farewell - On this date in 1936, England's uncoronated Edward VIII abdicated his throne and slipped quietly into exile in France after less than one year of "rule." In his radio-broadcast abdication speech to his subjects, he acknowledged the twice-divorced American Wallis Warfield Simpson, whom he preferred to spend his time with, saying, "At long last I am able to say a few words of my own. You must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love."
Once, when he was still the prince of Wales, Edward was nearly netted in a nightclub raid in Texas. But members of his entourage hustled him into the club's kitchen, disguised him with an apron and a chef's hat, and made him appear to be cooking eggs until the pandemonium died down.

Saturday's:
Knick-knackatorian (noun) - (1) One who keeps a knick-knackatory; a dealer in knick-knacks. Knick-knackery, knick-knacks collectively. --Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1908 (2) Nicknackitorian, a dealer in all manner of curiosities, such as Egyptian mummies, Indian implements, antique shields, helmets, &c. --[London's] Annual Register, 1802

Feast Day of St. Lucy, a patroness of salespeople. The commonly heard term "knick-knack," from which the abovementioned expressions were created, came from knack during the first half of the 16th century. John Heywood's Playe Called The Foure PP (c. 1545) spoke of "needles, thread, thimble, shears, and all such knacks." A few decades later, Thomas Tusser's Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1573) referred to knacker as "a maker of small work." Knacker became more widely used, describing such professions as "one that makes collars and other furniture for cart-horses," according to John Ray's South and East Country Words (1691). The term knacker also indicated salvagers of old buildings, workers in slaughterhouses for old horses, and even gatherers of animal droppings.

Falling one by one

2009-12-09T16:12:13Z

Played through chapter two of Shade Impulse. The bosses were Kuja, Cloud of Darkness, Golbez, and the Emperor. I was kinda surprised you face the Emperor in chapter two. He's the one who seems to be the most of a threat to the world, yet he's defeated halfway through Shade Impulse. I expected him to be around until at least chapter four, if not afterwards.

So, I'm probably wrong about him being the most of a threat to the world. He was just the most vocal about his ambitions. Joy. ~_~

I was so sad when Kuja disappeared. Zidane wanted to help him, but Kuja literally pushed his hand away. And then as he faded away, he looked so regretful, and yet he seemed almost blissful, as if he was finally being released from a life of torment. I always fall for the tragic figures. :(

I'm wondering what the final confrontation between Cloud and Sephiroth will be like. Definitely nothing like Zidane and Kuja's, but I'm curious as to how Cloud will act toward his former hero, and how Sephiroth will respond. Probably with a mutual hatred, as always. ~_~

EDIT: Bah, I found a dead pixel on my PSP screen. D: It's not really noticable, but when the screen fades to white when transitioning from play mode to battle mode and back again, it sticks out. Damn.

Back spasms, migraines, toothache...my life is wonderful :D

2009-12-08T22:11:34Z

I am sick to fucking DEATH with my teeth giving me problems. It seems like no matter what I do, they just keep decaying. I have teeth that I think now have more metal in them than tooth material. I have several open cavities that haven't been treated, because my insurance ran out for the year. I've had fillings crack and fall out--or just fall out because the tooth around them got eaten away. And even if I didn't have crappy teeth, they'd still be ugly (big, crooked, and uneven).

I'm seriously considering going to my dentist and asking for dentures. I inherited my dad's soft teeth, and he had a full set of dentures by the time he was 28. I might actually beat him by a year or two. I think my teeth are technically still "salvagable" at this point, but I know I'm going to need dentures eventually if they keep doing what they're doing. I'd rather just pull them all out now. I don't see the sense in going through so much more pain and spending so much more money on repairs when they'll just have to be taken out in the end anyway. Plus, the risk of infection is only getting bigger the longer my teeth are rotting out of my mouth, and I'd rather avoid that if I can. Tooth infection can pass into your bloodstream and affect your liver, kidneys, and heart. Worst case scenario, yes, but I don't want to chance it.

If you're wondering what prompted this post, I've been fighting a horrible toothache for the past week or two. It's so bad it's making the teeth in the opposite jaw hurt, too. Combine that with the recurring migraine I've acquired from work and all the stress that goes with it, and I've been absolutely miserable. I love the Christmas season (minus the craziness at work), but I'm unable to enjoy it this year because I've been in so much pain. :(

I should talk to my dad. He'd be able to explain the pros and cons of dentures to me and help me make a decision. I mean, he's had the damn things for over 30 years, and all.

Daily German & French: November 30th - December 5th

2009-12-07T08:29:04Z

Daily German
Monday's German word:
Datum (n. noun) - Date.
Welches Datum ist heute? What is the date today?

Tuesday's:
Monat (m. noun) - Month.
Heute ist der erste des Monats. Today is the first of the month.

Wednesday's:
Schnell (adjective/adverb) - Fast, quick(ly).
Das ging schnell. That went fast.

Thursday's:
Langsam (adjective/adverb) - Slow(ly).
Immer schön langsam. Easy does it. (lit.: Always nicely slow.)

Friday's:
Überraschung (f. noun) - Surprise.
Was für eine Überraschung! What a surprise!

Saturday's:
Erwarten (verb) - To expect.
Das habe ich nicht erwartet. I didn't expect that.

Daily French
Monday's French word:
Fier, fière (adjective) - Proud.
Nous sommes très fiers de nos enfants. We are very proud of our children.

Tuesday's:
Genève, Suisse (Geneva, Switzerland) - Geneva is Switzerland's second-largest city, located on Lake Geneva on the western edge of the country, near the border of France. It is home to many international organizations: The UN's European headquarters, the World Health and World Trade Organizations, and various non-government organizations. The natural beauty of the city's surroundings are striking, with nearby mountains towering over the city and lake. One of its most famous landmarks is the jet d'eau, or water-jet, that shoots more than 100 meters into the air where the lake empties into the Rhône River. Visit www.ville-ge.ch.

Wednesday's:
Santé (f. noun) - Health.
C'est bon pour la santé. It's good for your health.

Thursday's:
Où (adverb) - Where.
Où se trouve le centre-ville? Where is the downtown located?

Friday's:
Sourire (m. noun) - Smile.
Il a un beau sourire. He has a lovely smile.

Saturday's:
Se détendre (verb) - To relax.
Pour te détendre, tu pourrais regarder la télé. To relax, you could watch some TV.

Forgotten English: November 30th - December 5th

2009-12-07T03:47:30Z

Monday's forgotten word:
Spondulicks (pl. noun) - A term for specie, or money. It would appear to have some connection with Dutch spaunde, "chips," slang for money; and there is a word oolik, bad, wretched. The term probably originated in New York in perversion of these words. This term has become common among English turfites. --Albert Barrère's Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant, 1889

Feast Eve of St. Eloy, a seventh-century patron of goldsmiths, coin collectors, and metalsmiths. Eliza Leslie's Behavior Book (1859) warned readers about one of the many forgotten hazards of travel: "Carry but little money in your pocket. Be cautious of taking banknotes in change--they may be such as you cannot pass. If they are offered to you, refuse them and insist upon gold or silver." Edward Lloyd's Encyclopædic Dictionary (1895) referred to this safer form of money as effective money, "a term used on the continent to express coin, as distinguished from paper money." But coins could also be adulterated. Although once punishable by death, clipping or garbling--the filing of the edges of coins--was practiced long after England's Royal Mint began issuing supposedly clip-resistant coins with a specially milled edge in 1663.

Tuesday's:
Draw it mild (verb) - An admonition to one inclined to exaggerate or use explosive language. The allusion is to beer. "A pint of beer, Miss, and draw it mild." --Edwin Radford's Encyclopædia of Phrases and Origins, 1945

250th Birthday of Guinness--Cheers! - On December 1, 1759, Irish history was forever changed. At age thirty-four, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease for a small brewery at St. James Gate, in Leixlip, County Dublin, at £45 per year. Guinness's marketing literature described its modest factory: "The Brewery then consisted of a copper, a kieve, a mill, two malthouses, stables for twelve horses, and a loft which could hold 200 tons of hay." From humble beginnings, it rose to become Ireland's largest brewery, and it's now the world's largest stout brewery, producing 300 million pints annually. In 1862 Ireland's traditional harp was adopted as the Guinness logo, symbolizing the unique bond between Guinness and the Irish. At least nineteen different variants of Guinness are sold worldwide. The alcohol percentage ranges from 4.1 percent in "draught stout" and "canned draught," to 8 percent for "Special Export Stout," which is sold in Belgium.

Wednesday's:
Overcrapped (adjective) - (1) Surfeited. --J.F. Palmer's Devonshire Dialect Glossary, 1837 (2) Given to gluttony, overeating, &c. --James Barclay's Complete and Universal Dictionary of the English Language, 1848

The word is related to Latin crapula, which meant excessive eating and imbibing, along with the unpleasant aftereffects. Crapula was itself adapted from a Greek forerunner.
Americans Outquaffing Europeans? - On this date in 1837, English naval captain Frederick Marryat noted these liquor-related observations along with his explanations, which were assembled and published two years later in A Diary of America: "I always did consider that the English and the Swiss were the two nations who most indulged in potations; but on my arrival in the United States, I found that our descendants, in this point most assuredly, surpassed us altogether. Impartiality compels me to acknowledge the truth: We must, in this instance, submit to a national defeat. There are many causes for this: First, the heat of the climate, next the coldness of the climate; add to these, the cheapness of liquor in general, the early disfranchisement of the youth from all parental control, and lastly, the pleasantness, amenity, and variety of the potations."

Thursday's:
Baskwather (noun) - Dry, withering weather. The wind, when such prevails, blows out of the east and northeast, just as it blew on the prophet Jonah when it withered his gourd. --John Mactaggart's Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824

Birthday of Cleveland Abbe (1838-1916), generally considered to be the father of the US Weather Bureau. After an early career as an astronomer, Abbe spent the rest of his career as meteorologist-in-charge of the US Signal Corps. As early as 1869, he issued the first public weather forecast in Cincinnati, afterwards stating prophetically, "I have started that which the country will not willingly let die." Two years later he was appointed civilian assistant to the chief signal officer. Abbe headed the forecast division, preparing weather forecasts he called "probabilities" based on his scientifically gathered data. In 1916 he reflected, "My boyhood life in New York City impressed me with the popular ignorance and also with the great need of something better than local lore and weather proverbs."

Friday's:
Beer-heading (noun) - A mixture intended to revive flat beer. --Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1888

Feast Day of St. Barbara, a patroness of brewers. Frederick Hackwood's Drinking Customs of Old England (1909) described Oxford's upgraded brewing standards: "In 1434, it was placed on record 'how great evils arise to the townsmen of Oxford owing to the negligence and dishonesty of the brewers of ale.' Whereupon the brewer was made to swear most solemnly on the holy evangelists that he would thereafter 'brew ale that was good and wholesome so far as his ability and human frailty' permitted him. That there might be no possible doubt as to what constituted good ale, the university authorities proceeded to lay down minute directions concerning the methods of brewing employed in that city. Notwithstanding these precautions, it was found impossible to enforce these bylaws, [and] in 1464, the commissary ordered that a brewer named John Janyn should refund the sum of eightpence to Anisia Barbour, to whom he had sold a cask of ale for twenty pence. Said the judgment, 'In our opinion and that of others who have tasted it, it is nor worth more than twelvepence.'"

Saturday's:
Keelfat (noun) - A cooler; a vessel in which liquor is set for cooling; from Saxon cœlan, and fat. --Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon of the English Language, c. 1850

Prohibition of Prohibition - On December 5, 1933, the failed American ban on alcoholic beverages--the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution--was repealed by passage of the Twenty-first Amendment. During the preceding thirteen years, Americans regularly flouted the law by buying "bootleg" liquor from overseas, and they also became proficient at making their own. "Bathtub gin" is perhaps the best-remembered form of homemade booze, but several other forms appealed to the do-it-yourselfer. With the help of a former assistant attorney general, California vintners came up with a legal winemaking kit that allowed consumers to create drinkable wine containing up to 15 percent alcohol. Marketing was so successful that California grape-growing acreage increased sevenfold between 1919 and 1926. Defunct breweries followed suit, legally offering a partially brewed beer wort that was easily completed at home. Likewise, moonshine stills crept out of the mountains and became common basement fixtures around the United States.

Back to Dissidia

2009-12-02T08:22:47Z

Played through chapter one of Shade Impulse. Played through it ten times, to be more specific. I wanted to go through it once with each character, as it's a little different depending on who you're playing as. I think there are four chapters in this part of the game, which means I'll be playing through a Shade Impulse chapter no less than forty times in all. ~_~ Oh well...

Kefka, Jecht, and Exdeath are the bosses in chapter one. I don't know if they're just down for the count now or if they're actually dead, but the scenes that play after defeating them seem pretty final. I don't think we'll be seeing those characters anymore. In Story Mode, that is. There's still the Arcade and Quick Battle Modes. ^_^;;

And, just like in FFVI, Kefka waxed poetic after his defeat. A philosophic clown. I love it.

My stomach actually clenched after he disappeared. It's horrible, what was done to him to make him the way he is. Damn you, Gestahl. D:<

The ramifications of swine flu

2009-12-02T08:08:08Z

Daily German & French: November 23rd - November 28th

2009-11-30T09:41:32Z

Daily German
Monday's German word:
Zu Hause (adverb/adjective) - At home.
Ich bleibe zu Hause. I'm staying at home.

Tuesday's:
Bonn, Deutschland (Bonn, Germany) - Located on the Rhine River near Cologne, Bonn is an important political center in Germany. From 1949 to 1990, Bonn was the capital of West Germany. Although Berlin was officially named the federal capital of unified Germany in 1990, it took many years for all the government offices to be moved there, leaving Bonn as the seat of the national government until 1999. Bonn quickly filled the void left by Germany's government by renovating Langer Eugen, a former federal building which was officially handed over to the United Nations in 2006. As a new UN Campus, the facility houses twelve of the thirteen UN offices in Bonn, many of them involved in sustainable development issues. Bonn is also the headquarters of major global communications companies, including Deutsche Post AG, a logistics and postal services company that also owns DHL. Deutsche Post's Post Tower has emerged as one of Bonn's new iconic buildings. However, a significantly smaller building in the Bonngasse has attracted tourists for decades: The birthplace of classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who was born in Bonn in 1770. Visit www.bonn.de.

Wednesday's:
Köstlich (adjective) - Scrumptious, delicious.
Was für ein köstliches Mahl! What a scrumptious meal!

Thursday's:
Dank (m. noun) - Gratitude, thanks.
Vielen Dank! Many thanks!

Friday's:
Bei (adverb) - With, at.
Ich bin gern bei Euch. I like being at your house. (lit.: I like being with you.)

Saturday's:
Gemütlich (adjective) - Cozy, comfortable.
Es ist so gemütlich. It is so cozy.

Daily French
Monday's French word:
Célèbre (adjective) - Famous.
Qui serait aujourd'hui la chanteuse la plus célèbre? Who do you think is today's most famous singer?

Tuesday's:
Pneu (m. noun) - Tire.
J'ai crevé un pneu. I blew a tire.

Wednesday's:
Allumer (verb) - To ignite, to turn on.
Cette salle est trop sombre. Puis-je allumer? This room is too dark. Can I turn on the lights?

Thursday's:
Dindon, dinde (noun) - Turkey.
J'ai mangé trop de dinde. I ate too much turkey.

Friday's:
Restes (m. pl. noun) - Leftovers.
Aujourd'hui on commence à manger les restes. Today we'll start eating leftovers.

Saturday's:
Neiger (verb) - To snow.
Est-ce qu'il va neiger cet hiver? Is it going to snow this winter?

Forgotten English: November 23rd - November 28th

2009-11-30T08:34:36Z

Monday's forgotten word:
Music-smith (noun) - A mechanic who makes the metal parts of pianofortes, &c. --Edward Lloyd's Encyclopædic Dictionary, 1895

Forerunner of the Jukebox Unveiled - On this date in 1889, Louis Glass debuted his hybrid recorded-music-playing device in San Francisco's Palais Royal Saloon. He expanded on Thomas Edison's wax-cylinder phonograph by appending a coin-receiving slot, which broadened the application of this home tune-player to public venues. But the mechanism was hardly perfected at its introduction, as the customer's nickel only prompted a behind-the-scenes cylinder-jockey to manually retrieve the coin and activate the only recording available that day--one such as "The Rip Van Winkle Polka."
But over the next decade or so "listening parlours," often sporting half a dozen or more manned phonographs with individual "listening tubes," began appearing across the United States. The true jukebox, with its appeal to crowds, would have to wait a whole generation until the Roaring Twenties for its heyday. Likewise, wax cylinder technology for recording music was quite primitive, requiring one or more musicians to perform music for each cylinder produced.

Tuesday's:
Stranny (adjective) - Wild; excited. --Jabez Good's Glossary of East Lincolnshire, 1900

Wild Guess - According to Joseph Haydn's Dictionary of Dates (1841), around this date in 1725, "Peter the Wild Boy, a savage creature [was] found in the forest of Hertswold [near Hamelin, Germany]. He was found walking on his hands and feet, climbing trees like a squirrel and feeding on grass and moss. At this time, he was supposed to be thirteen years old. [England's George I] caused him to taste all of the dishes at the royal table, but he preferred wild plants, leaves, and the bark of trees, which he had lived on from his infancy. No human efforts of the many philosophic persons about the court could entirely vary his savage habits or cause him to utter one distinct syllable. He died in February, 1785, at the age of 72. Lord Monboddo presented him as an instance of the hypothesis that man, in a state of Nature, is a mere animal." But eventually, after being looked after as a curiosity in England for more than fifty years, it was determined that Peter was simply mentally retarded and had been turned out of his home by an uncaring stepmother.

Wednesday's:
Convertine (adjective) - Inclined to be converted; [1600s]. --Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893

Baptism of John Evans (1770-1799), who as an idealistic Methodist from Caernarvonshire, Wales, set out to find a long-lost tribe of Welsh-speaking Native Americans rumored to be living near the headwaters of the Missouri River. In his native Wales, Evans heard a ridiculous tale that the Mandans were descendants of Welshmen who had discovered America in 1170. Driven by an urge to convert these countrymen and improve their miserable lives, Evans secured funding for his expedition from the Welsh Methodist Church.
Anticipating the Lewis and Clark expedition by eight years, Evans set out in April 1795, but he returned home the next year after an 1,800-mile sojourn. His journey resulted in the charting of a stretch of the Missouri, which was of some help to Lewis and Clark. But he later wrote to a friend in Philadelphia, "I am able to inform you that there are no such people as the Welsh Indians." Dejected, he died in New Orleans a few years later, reportedly from alcohol consumption.

Thursday's:
Gentleman turkey (noun) - Mock modesty of the Western states requires that a male turkey should be so called. --James Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms, 1877

Thanksgiving History - In 1863 Abraham Lincoln decreed that Thanksgiving was to be observed nationally on the last Thursday of November, and it was so until 1939. Franklin Roosevelt modified that date slightly for certain years by proclaiming instead the fourth Thursday of November as the national holiday of Thanksgiving, but not all states followed suit.
FDR's idea prompted a few outcries, such as this one by a Charles Jones, published in Bedea opera de temporibus (1943): "As I write these words in New England Thanksgiving approaches. Friends from home may undertake a pilgrimage to Connecticut to share a turkey with me on their Thanksgiving, November 23rd. But in these waste places [outside New England] in this barbarous land, children must attend school all day and miss the great midday feast which our tradition prescribes. No question that principles and traditions are at stake." In 1941 a formal act of Congress made the fourth Thursday date official.

Friday's:
Satyriasis (noun) - (1) Immoderate venereal inclination. Satyriasis hydrophobica: immoderate venereal appetite as a symptom of canine madness. --John Coxe's Medical Dictionary, 1817 (2) As it occurs in females, it is the nymphomania furibunda. --Richard Hoblyn's Medical Dictionary, 1859

The Devil Made Him Do It - On this date in 1762, after recently arriving in London from his native Scotland, Samuel Johnson's biographer and best friend James Boswell added these candid observations to his journal after a complex religious experience: "I went to St. James's Church and heard service and a good sermon on 'By what means shall a young man learn to order his ways,' in which the advantages of early piety were well displayed. What a curious, inconsistent thing is the mind of man! In the midst of divine service I was laying down plans for having women, and yet I had the most sincere feelings of religion. I would imagine that my want of belief is the occasion of this. I am therefore given to love, and also to piety or gratitude to God, and to the most brilliant and showy method of public worship."

Saturday's:
Feaze (verb/noun) - To vex; to be in a feaze is to be in a state of excitement; still commonly colloquial in the States, especially in Virginia and the South. It was used formerly in the same sense as tease, as in teasing wool, but more particularly applied to curry-combing. "I'll pheeze you," says Christophoro Sly [in The Taming of the Shrew] meaning that he will vex the worthy hostess by staying--like teasel [burrs] in wool. Another authority regards it as derived from the Anglo-Saxon fysan, used to denote the rapid and noisy movement of water, and from which we get the modern fizz. --John Farmer's Americanisms Old and New, 1889

Stir-up Sunday - The last Sunday in Trinity, with the name coming from the first two words of the Anglican service known as the "collect." Schoolboys, growing excited by the prospect of the winter holidays, irreverently commemorate it by "stirring up," pushing and poking each other. Rev. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia (1830) remarked that housewives in Norfolk are reminded by the name, with just four weeks remaining before Christmas, to stir up the ingredients for their Christmas mincemeat pies.

Mindless consumerism at its finest

2009-11-28T05:39:16Z

I survived Black Friday. I got home several hours ago, but I've only now got up the energy to post about it. I woke up at 3:00, got to work at 4:30, and clocked in at 4:45. They opened the doors at 5:00, and then after that it was pretty much all a blur. I finished an eight-hour shift (eight and a half hours, if you count lunch) at 1:15. I can't believe I worked an eight-hour shift and was done that early in the day. It didn't feel like eight hours, either. It went by so fast, but then again, I was so freaking busy that I had no concept of time passing. It may have seemed to go by quickly, but I was still exhausted by the time I was able to leave. My throat was sore from ~~talking~~ shouting at guests all day (to be heard over the racket, not to be mean), and I wanted a treat for working like I did, so I got my mom and myself some ice cream at Food Avenue.

The line that formed in front of the store before opening was jaw-dropping. It started at the entrance doors (duh), went all the way along the front of the store (and you know how big Target stores are), turned 90 degrees and stretched down the last row of parking spaces all the way to the Target sign at the far corner of the parking lot, went around the sign and continued on down the sidewalk. I heard another team member saying that it was the longest Black Friday line she's seen in her six years working at Target. This is a two-edged sword: Good for our bottom line, bad for the sanity of our team members. When they unlocked the doors--to the cheers of the shoppers waiting outside--I swear the line was coming in steadily for twenty minutes or more. At one point, I looked down the front runway (what we call the main store aisles) toward the electronics department, and it was just solid people all the way down. I was surprised anyone could move in that mob.

At its longest, the line for the cash registers went down the runway leading from the front of the store to the fitting rooms in the back corner, went all the way past the men's department and into toys and sporting goods, and then doubled back on itself so there were people on either side of the runway between chemicals/home storage/pets and toys/sporting goods. That's just insane.

I'm glad I was behind one of the cash registers. I don't know if I would have survived if I was working out on the floor. _-_

Daily German & French: November 16th - November 21st

2009-11-23T10:00:24Z

Daily German
Monday's German word:
Geheimnis (n. noun) - Secret.
Das ist ein Geheimnis. That's a secret.

Tuesday's:
Schweigen (verb) - To be silent.
Ich schweige wie ein Grab. I'll be as silent as the grave.

Wednesday's:
Jung (adjective) - Young.
Man ist so jung wie man sich fühlt. You are as young as you feel.

Thursday's:
Kalt (adjective) - Cold.
Es wird langsam kalt. It's getting cold.

Friday's:
Regen (m. noun) - Rain.
Es sieht nach Regen aus. It looks like rain.

Saturday's:
Regenschirm (m. noun) - Umbrella.
Nimm einen Regenschirm mit. Take an umbrella with you.

Daily French
Monday's French word:
Dakar, Sénégal (Dakar, Senegal) - Dakar has retained much of the prestige it earned by being the capital of French West Africa starting in 1902. It was one of the major centers of the French colonial empire and remains a financial, political, and intellectual hub for francophone Africa. To some extent, the city's importance began with the slave port on the island of Gorée, used by the Portuguese and French from the fifteenth century. In addition to French, the culture of Wolof, an important international language, is centered in Dakar, and the city is a transportation hub and a religious center for West African Islam. Dakar is also famous for a rich literary tradition in French and an important music scene. Visit www.dakarville.sn.

Tuesday's:
Esclavage (m. noun) - Slavery.
L'esclavage a été officiellement aboli en 1848. Slavery was officially abolished in 1848.

Wednesday's:
Portugais(e) (adjective) - Portuguese.
Tu veux manger portugais ce soir? Do you want to eat Portuguese tonight?

Thursday's:
Ananas (m. noun) - Pineapple.
Il faut découper l'ananas. We need to slice the pineapple.

Friday's:
Bain (m. noun) - Bath.
Je vais d'abord prendre mon bain. First I'm going to take a bath.

Saturday's:
Baiser (m. noun) - Kiss.
Donne un baiser à ta mère. Give your mother a kiss.

Forgotten English: November 16th - November 21st

2009-11-23T09:13:18Z

Monday's forgotten word:
Lerry (noun) - A lecture; a rustic word from lere, learning, lesson, lore. --Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon of the English Language, c. 1850

Birthday of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) - In 1882, Wilde arrived in New York to begin a coast-to-coast lecture tour. The journey was sponsored by Richard D'Oyly Carte, producer of Gilbert and Sullivan's new opera Patience, which Wilde was to promote. Ever ready with an eyebrow-raising remark, Wilde reportedly remarked, "I have nothing to declare except my genius," when asked by US customs officers about his luggage. Wilde's talks, which he often delivered in a velvet jacket and button-kneed knickers, also caused a stir among Americans. In a jab at America's nouveau riche, Wilde also went out of his way to pooh-pooh "art for its own sake." In New York City, a photograph of the writer was reproduced and used to advertise Ehrich Brothers' department store without Wilde's permission. As a result, a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement erupted and worked its way to the Supreme Court. The justices sided with Wilde and his photographer, creating a precedent that is still cited in modern copyright tussles.

Tuesday's:
Brazzil (noun) - This word, as far as I know, only occurs in the two following phrases. "As hard as a brazzil," is an expression of frequent occurrence to denote any kind of unusual hardness. If, for example, the bread is overbaked it is said to be baked "as hard as a brazzil," or if the housewife cannot break her Bath brick [a cake of abrasive clay used for household polishing] easily, she exclaims, "It's as hard as a brazzil." The other expression is "as fond as a brazzil." Here the word brazzil probably means a low, impudent girl, in which sense it is sometimes used still. -- Rev. M.C.F. Morris's Yorkshire Folk-Talk, 1892

Feast Eve of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a 13th-century patroness of bakers, who was canonized after turning bread into roses. In 1637, in his Via Recta: The Right Way of Living, physician Tobias Venner wrote of a coarse confection known as "one-way bread": "If the grossest part of the bran be separated by a searce [sieve], and rye flour or rye flour and barley flour together be added, there will be made a browne household bread, agreeable enough for labourers."

Wednesday's:
Fish-whole (adjective) - As sound as a fish; thoroughly sound or healthy; [early 1200s-1600]. --Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901

Health Care's Hoop-Jumping History, a tradition of needless paperwork, requisite referrals, and denial of benefits due to technicalities, may date back further than many realize. On this date in 1672, for example, the London Gazette helped to ensnare in red tape sufferers of a malady known as king's evil who were intent on petitioning Charles II for relief. The Gazette's bureaucratic bulletin stated: "His Majesty has commanded that notice be given that no persons whatsoever do come to be healed of the King's Evil unless they bring a certificate under the hands and seals of the ministry and churchwardens of the parishes where they inhabit [stating] that they have not been touched before. And His Majesty requires that the ministers in the respective parishes keep a constant register of such persons to whom they give these certificates." King's evil, a "scrofulous swelling" of the cervical lymph nodes, was so named because every reigning English monarch, from 13th-century Edward the Confessor through Queen Anne, was believed to have been capable of curing it.

Thursday's:
Londonoy (noun) - A Londoner; Chaucer. --James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855

A London Perspective - The following advice from 12th-century monk Richard of Devizes might have served as a warning to James Boswell, who first visited London on this date in 1762: "All sorts of men crowd together there from every country under the heavens. Each race brings its own vices. Whatever evil thing that can be found in any part of the world, you will find in that one city. Do not associate with the crowds of pimps; do not mingle with the throngs in eating-houses; avoid gambling, the theatre, and the tavern. You will meet with more braggarts there than in all France. Jesters, smooth-skinned lads, Moors, flatterers, pretty boys, effeminates, pederasts, singing and dancing girls, quacks, belly-dancers, sorceresses, extortionists, night-wanderers, magicians, mimes, beggars, buffoons--all this tribe fill all the houses. Therefore, if you do not want to dwell with the evildoers, do not live in London."
Even seven centuries later, in A Study in Scarlet (1888), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle referred to London as "that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained."

Friday's:
Footful (noun) - As much as can be grasped with the foot. --Noah Webster's New International Dictionary, 1952

Birthday of Tobias Venner (1577-1660), an English physician and apothecary who offered suggestions for healthful living in his book Via Recta: The Right Way of Living (1620). As late as 1893, when Alice Morse Earle published Customs and Fashions in Old New England, apothecaries and "chemists," as they are still called in Britain, often compounded medicines with less accuracy than is used today. Earle wrote, "They did not measure the drugs with precision, nor were their prescriptions written in Latin, nor with cabalistic marks. The asbestos stomachs and colossal minds of our forefathers were above such petty minuteness; nor did they administer the doses with exactness. 'The bigth of a walnut,' 'enough to lie on a penknife's point,' 'the weight of a shilling,' 'enough to cover a French crown,' 'as bigg as a hazelnut,' 'a pretty draught,' 'the bigth of a turkey's egg,' 'a little handful,' 'take a pretty quantity as often as you please'--such are the lax directions that accompany these old prescription books."

Saturday's:
Callifudge (noun) - A trick; a hoax; a swindle. --Francis Taylor's Folk-Speech of South Lancashire, 1901

Piltdown Meltdown - On November 21, 1953, a hoax known since its announcement exactly forty-one years earlier as "Piltdown Man" was denounced as "a crude forgery." On the day the discovery was first announced, in 1912, the Manchester Guardian heralded the "finding" of an orangutan jawbone and a nearby modern human skull in a gravel pit near Piltdown, East Sussex, as the "missing link" and "the earliest known man." It announced proudly, "The experts will not venture an opinion as to his date, but most probably he lived millions of years ago." After the hokum was exposed, a hunt was begun for the merry pranksters who had perpetrated the fraud. Codiscoverer Charles Dawson, after whom the "fossil" was named Eoanthropus dawsoni, or "Dawson's Dawn Man," was implicated, but he died in 1916, before this embarrassing case could be fully investigated. Some researchers concluded that Dawson had the help of an accomplice--possibly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

A catalogue of dumbassery

2009-11-18T10:25:34Z

Okay. I have a lot of annoyances in my job on a daily basis. Some days are worse than others. Since the Christmas season is coming up, I'm positive I'll be getting annoyed at work a lot more often than usual in the coming weeks. As a form of preemptive catharsis, I thought I'd list the things I dislike the most or that happen the most often. Not that I dislike my job (I don't), but there are several things about it that get on my nerves, not to mention bruise my already battered opinion of human intelligence.

Some of these are only minor annoyances, while some of them fucking piss me off. The order they're listed in has nothing to do with their level of annoyance. I'm just listing them as they come to me.

If anyone reading this is guilty of one or more of these things, note that I don't mean any personal offense. But keep in mind I still think you're an idiot for committing these crimes against common sense.

--Returning things with the packaging demolished or missing. Is it really that hard to not tear the packaging to shreds? Or keep the packaging until you figure out if you need to return it or not? Now I have to either defect out the often perfectly good product or figure out some way to repackage it in a way that'll make people still want to buy it. Oh, and by the way, some things can't be returned at all if there's no packaging, receipt or not. Tough luck.

--Returning clothing without the tags. I can understand if you washed it once and the thing disintegrated. That happens sometimes. But if you're returning it because it simply didn't fit, or you decided you didn't look good in it, why are the tags taken off? You're perfectly capable of trying on clothes without taking the tags off. Believe me, I do it all the time.

--Telling me you don't have your receipt like it's no big deal. Uh, hello? I need proof of purchase in order to make a return. It says that on the back of the receipt and the gigantic sign with the return policy hanging from the ceiling. Are you really that clueless, or just illiterate?

--"Losing" your receipt, or making me (and everyone in line behind you) stand around and wait while you try to find the receipt among all the crap in your purse. Or, better yet, trying to find the right receipt in a pile of about a zillion others. How hard is it to keep your receipts organized? I have one place in my purse for receipts, and one place for them at home. Once I get a couple receipts in my purse, I enter them into my check register and then put them in their place at home. Even though I hardly ever return anything, these are my financial records. I might need them in case of a problem with my bank or identity theft. I find it hard to believe that anyone could be "too busy" to keep their receipts organized. It takes, like, a minimal amount of time if you do it regularly. And if you don't keep them organized, at least know where the right receipt is before you walk up to the returns desk. Don't come all the way from home and then stand in line and then decide it's time to dig it out from the black hole you call a purse.

--Bringing things back to us after the receipt has expired. Look, we allow returns up to 90 days after purchase. That is three months. You're telling me it took you longer than three months to decide you didn't want or need this thing? And don't tell me you've been "too busy." You cannot get me to believe that more than three months have gone by without any time available to come to the store for five minutes and do the return. Especially since most of these people have come back to the store to shop again at least once in that period of time. You couldn't bring it back then?

--Telling me you didn't know the receipt expired. Give me a fucking break. What store in the world allows returns for an unlimited amount of time? Every goddamned store I've ever been in gives you a certain period of time to bring things back, and after that you're out of luck. If you didn't know that, you must have been living in a hole for your entire life.

--Getting mad at me when I tell you I can't give you a refund for an open CD/DVD/video game/computer software, or exchange it for something else. My hands are absolutely tied in this. It is not store policy but a copyright law that I can only exchange open CDs, DVDS, video games, and computer software for the exact same thing, and I have to open the copy you're getting in exchange so it can't be taken back to another store for a straight refund. It's so people don't take these products home, rip them off, and then get their money back by returning the hard copy. Get that? It's to prevent theft. You may not care about obeying the law, but I do. And even if I didn't, I have four security cameras trained on the service desk, there are coworkers and supervisors around constantly, and the computer system keeps records of every transaction done during the day. Someone is going to see me doing what I shouldn't. I'd rather not lose my job over something so stupid, thank you.

--Making a show about how you think our policies are stupid, or acting like it's my fault you can't get what you want. I did not make these rules. I'm only here to enforce them. Even if I don't agree with the rules--and I usually do agree with them--I can't go against them. I could get fired if I did. Rules are there for a reason, and they apply to everybody, not everybody except you. I'm not going to risk my job to keep your demanding ass happy. You're not that special, sweetheart.

--Demanding to talk to a manager the instant I say I can't do something for you. Of course, I have to call a manager over if you want to speak to one, but 99 times out of 100--more like 999 out of 1,000--the manager is going to tell you the exact same thing I just told you, and you won't be getting what you want with them any more than you did with me. There is no "manager override" where I work. They aren't allowed to break corporate's rules any more than I am. The only pleasure I get out of this is the vindication I feel when my boss backs me up, especially if the customer is being bitchy. Take that, jackass.

--Being loud and demanding, period. Look man, throwing tantrums might have made your half-assed parents give you whatever you wanted, but it's not working with me. All you're doing is making yourself look like a spoiled, selfish child. And you do realize I can have security throw you out if you act threatening toward me, don't you? Thought not.

--Pulling the "customer is always right" bullshit. I don't care how right you think you are, but there are things I can do and things I can't. I'm not going to do the things I can't do just so you can be "right." I had this woman literally tell me that the customer is always right, word for word. I almost laughed in her face. Needless to say, she didn't get what she wanted, even after speaking with two managers.

--Asking, in a very patronizing tone, if I'm new. It's like they're thinking, "Oh, she's a newbie, she doesn't know anything," or, "Oh, she's new. She doesn't know it's okay to bend the rules." Do you seriously think they'd put someone unfamiliar with store policy behind the service desk? The service desk isn't just for returns, it's for all kinds of things involving company policy. I know what's allowed and what isn't. Hell, I know more about some things than my bosses do. If there's only one thing I can't stand, it's being condescended to by some know-it-all. Seriously, I want to scream when that happens.

--Asking me to call another store, or several other stores, for something they could easily call about themselves when I'm obviously busy and there's a line behind them. You know how to work a phone. CALL THEM YOURSELF.

--Asking me to go out onto the floor to check a price, fetch an item, or something like that. Often when there are other people in line waiting to be helped. I'm usually the only one at customer service. What makes you think I can leave the service desk and go running around the store for you? I can walkie someone out on the floor to do it, but I myself can't. C'mon, that should be obvious.

--Asking if this is customer service. I'm standing behind a long desk at the front of the store with several cash registers on it, huge signs with "GUEST SERVICE" and the return policy hanging above my head, and oftentimes a line of people waiting for me to help them. Could it be any more obvious?

--Walking up to the desk and asking me questions when I'm in the middle of helping someone. You see that line of people there waiting their turn? Get in back of them. Most of these questions are not that important, and as you can see, I'm already helping someone. It's rude to just butt in, jeez.

--Asking if you can have cash back when I've just given you the refund options, and cash wasn't one of them. If you could have cash back, I would have said so. Some forms of payment can't be refunded in cash, and no, a manager cannot override that. If the computer doesn't give me the option for something, there is no way for anyone in the store to do it. Yes, there is a "call for override" option, where I get an onscreen speed dial number to reach the call center for returns and exchanges, but I don't think I have ever once gotten an override code. Sorry, folks. It just ain't gonna happen.

--Saying you should get cash back on your credit purchase because you paid off your credit card. Uh...what? Are you serious? Our computer system has no way of knowing if you paid off your card or not, so anyone could say they paid their card off and get cash back if that were possible. Even if you did pay your card off, that doesn't change anything. We can only issue refunds in the same method the items were paid for, or you can have store credit. I don't see what is so difficult to understand here. This applies even if you paid with a store credit card and then immediately came to the service desk and paid your card off in cash. Some people do that to accumulate rewards points yet avoid a credit card bill. I'm cool with that. That doesn't mean I can refund your credit purchase in cash. Duh.

--Giving excuses for why you couldn't/didn't meet our return policy, like that's going to make me suddenly do what you want. Look, I don't care why you did or didn't do this or that. If there was a way I could help you, I would have mentioned it up front. I'm not withholding information just to mess with you. I could get fired for that. Nor does our policy allow for overrides or bypasses if the customer gives me certain excuses. Again, whining may have worked with your parents, but it's not going to work here. You're just not that important.

--Arguing with me even when I offer to make an exception for you. Our return policy states quite clearly that we need a receipt for all returns and exchanges. Period. End of story. However, we are allowed to make limited exceptions. Notice I said limited. We can only return items without a receipt if they're under a certain dollar amount, we can't guarantee the full price back for every item, each customer is only allowed up to a certain total value of no-receipt returns per twelve months, and the refund has to be in the form of store credit. We could follow our written policy to the letter and not allow any returns or exchanges without a receipt. Instead, we offer a little leeway if you don't have a receipt or it's been longer than 90 days. But no, that's not good enough for some people. According to them, we should let them return anything they want without a receipt for full price and give them cash back. For crissake, how stupid do you think I am? Also, the rules for returns sans receipt are not posted in the return policy because it is an exception to the return policy. Acting like I should only do what's posted on the signs doesn't do you any good, because then I'll refuse to do anything for you without that all-important receipt. I don't care how entitled you feel you are, I can only make exception within certain parameters. Deal with it.

--Asking why you can't have cash back when all you have is a gift receipt, or no receipt at all. Here's why: If it's a gift receipt, you weren't the person who bought it, and if there's no receipt, there's no guarantee you're the person who bought it. Therefore, we're only willing to give you a refund that allows you to buy something else from us. That makes perfect sense to me. I don't know why it doesn't make sense to you.

--Asking why our no-receipt return limitations apply when "it's a gift." Oh, come on. You could say anything is a gift. And by the way, if it is a gift, then you probably don't know how much was paid for it, how it was paid for, or even if it was bought at this store. Why you think the item being a gift means you can sidestep the return policy is beyond me.

--Telling me you're going to competitor X to buy a replacement, or that you already did go to competitor X to buy the replacement. I don't know how to make this any clearer: I DON'T CARE. If you're trying to make me feel like my store is inferior, or something, can it. I couldn't care less about that.

--Saying you shop here all the time and that you've spent X amount of dollars with us. What, so spending a certain amount of money means you get special treatment? Sorry, but we don't keep track of how many times each customer enters the store, or how much money each customer spends. There's just no way to do that. Even if what you say is true--and I'm betting there's at least a 50% chance it's not--you're not entitled to do or get anything more than any of the other people shopping with us. We don't have "preferred customers." And even if we did, I'd prefer just about anyone over the likes of you.

I think that's about it. Anything else I can think of is too minor to be mentioned. This post got a lot longer than I thought it would. I think one reason they stick me behind the service desk so often is I have a high level of tolerance for stupidity. My mom has been in social services for close to twenty years now. I think I got my endurance from her.

Daily German & French: November 9th - November 14th

2009-11-15T21:45:26Z

Daily German
Monday's German word:
Berlin, Deutschland (Berlin, Germany) - Berlin, located close to the Polish border, is the largest city in Germany and its capital. The city has been an influential center in Europe for hundreds of years, from the time of the Kingdom of Prussia up through the Nazi regime. Following a tumultuous twentieth century, through two World Wars and the Cold War, Berlin has been revitalized with new, modern architecture and a vibrant cultural scene. A center for nightlife and the arts, the city has numerous clubs, bars, galleries, museums, and festivals. Berlin hosts the Berlinale in February, one of the most attended film festivals in the world, the renowned Berlin Jazz Festival in the fall, and the Art Forum Berlin, a trade fair for contemporary art. The Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), commissioned by King Friedrich Wilhelm II in the eighteenth century, is a symbol of the city, as is the slender Fernsehturm (TV tower), built in the 1960s. Although most of the Berlin Wall has been destroyed, a cobblestone path currently marks where it used to stand. Visit www.berlin.de.

Tuesday's:
Lang (adjective) - Long.
Das ist schon lange her. That's long ago.

Wednesday's:
Sich erinnern (verb) - To remember.
Erinnerst du dich? Do you remember?

Thursday's:
Zeit (f. noun) - Time.
Das waren noch Zeiten. Those were the days. (lit.: Those were the times.)

Friday's:
Haben (verb) - To have.
Hast du Zeit? Do you have time?

Saturday's:
Immer (adverb) - Always.
Für dich habe ich immer Zeit. I always have time for you.

Daily French
Monday's French word:
Addition (f. noun) - Check, bill.
Est-ce qu'on peut avoir l'addition? Can we have the check?

Tuesday's:
Cave (f. noun) - Cellar.
Les meilleurs vins sont dans la cave. The best wines are in the cellar.

Wednesday's:
Char (m. noun) - Tank.
Cette voiture est aussi grande qu'un char. This car is as big as a tank.

Thursday's:
Télécommande (f. noun) - Remote control.
Qui a caché la télécommande? Who hid the remote?

Friday's:
Nombril (m. noun) - Navel, belly button.
Sa chemise montre son nombril! His shirt shows his belly button!

Saturday's:
Pamplemousse (m. noun) - Grapefruit.
Je mange un pamplemousse tous les matins. I eat a grapefruit every morning.

Forgotten English: November 9th - November 14th

2009-11-15T20:28:50Z

Monday's forgotten word:
Carriage folk (noun) - Gentry. --Granville Leveson-Gower's Glossary of Surrey Words, 1893

Lord Mayor's Day - The original election day of the City of London's mayor, dating from 1189, is today confined to lavish processional and inaugural ceremonies. On this date, the Lord Mayor proceeds to and from Westminster in a fabulously ornate, horse-drawn, red-and-gold coach stored in the Museum of London, which replaced the Lord Mayor's barge in the 19th century. He is accompanied by his aldermen, representatives of the numerous guilds, and other dignitaries in what is sometimes called the "Lord Mayor's show."
C.E. Humphry, author of several late-Victorian books of etiquette, once took London's Lord Mayor to task for a flagrant impropriety: "I once saw a Lord Mayor of London enter his carriage before his wife, who scrambled in after him as though well accustomed to do so. One does not expect the refinement of good manners from civil dignitaries, as a rule, but this little action told the spectators more about the man than they would ever have found out in the newspapers. They at once perceived that he was unversed in the ways of good society."

Tuesday's:
Urk (noun) - A small child or diminutive person. Fairies were formerly called urchins. --Thomas Sternberg's Dialect and Folk-Lore of Northamptonshire, 1851

Birthday of Martin Luther (1483-1546), influential German religious reformer. In a posthumously published 1569 Table Talk, Luther spoke of having personally disposed of a changeling--a creature substituted by fairies for a human infant, but with some difficulty: "Eight years ago there was a changeling in Dessau which I have both seen and touched. It was twelve years old and had all its senses so that people thought it was a proper child, but that mattered little for it only ate, and that as much as any four ploughmen or thrashers, and when anyone touched it it screamed. When things in the house went wrong it laughed and was merry, but if things went well it cried. Thereupon I said to the Prince of Anhalt, 'If I were ruler here, I would have this child thrown into the Moldau, that flows by Dessau.' But [he] would not follow my advice. I then said they ought to cause a paternoster to be said in church, that God would take the devil away from them. This was done daily at Dessau, and the changeling died two years after."

Wednesday's:
Carptor (noun) - For cutting of meat, persons of rank kept a carver, who was designated the scissor, or carptor. --Eliezer Edwards' Words, Facts, and Phrases, 1882

Feast Day of St. Martin, for whom geese served as both a nemesis and a symbol. According to tradition, Martin hid in a barn to avoid being made a bishop but was exposed by a honking goose. He reportedly died in AD 400 from eating goose, and since then roasted goose has traditionally been eaten on Martin's feast day.
The anonymous book of manners The Perfect Gentleman, or Etiquette and Eloquence (1860) included these carving terms for the fastidious host: "In the seventeenth century, carving was a science that carried with it as much pedantry as the business of school-teaching does at the present day, and for a person to use the wrong terms in relation to carving was an unpardonable affront to etiquette. Carving all kinds of small birds was called to thy them; a quail, to wing it; a pheasant, to allay it; a duck, to embrace it; a hen, to spoil her; a goose, to tare her, and a list of similar technicalities too long and too ridiculous to repeat."

Thursday's:
Betterave (noun) - Drunkard's nose, a nose with "grog blossoms" or a "copper nose," such as is possessed by an "admiral of the red." --Albert Barrère's Argot and Slang Dictionary, 1911

Birthday of Edward Vernon (1684-1757), English admiral. As the story goes, Vernon was the recipient of his crew's derisive nickname "Old Grog" due to his oft-donned cloak made from grogram, a coarse-textured woolen fabric resembling that of modern pea-coats. As a result, grog may have come to indicate spirits diluted with several parts of water, as required on Vernon's ship, instead of the full strength rum customarily consumed by sailors.
But Charles Mackay disagreed in his Dictionary of Lowland Scotch (1888): "Grog was known and named long before the days of Admiral Vernon, and was in common use in Scotland as well as in England as croc--afterwards corrupted into grog. The word croc in Gaelic signifies a horn, used in districts and in houses where glass was too expensive for purchase, and in time croc came to signify the liquor in the horn. Hence, the word grog has no more connection with the grogram of Admiral Vernon's suit than it has with the man in the moon."

Friday's:
Codpiece (noun) - A part of the male dress, formerly made very conspicuous. --Robert Nares' Glossary of the Works of English Authors, 1859

Feast Eve of St. Homobonus, a patron of tailors. The triangular codpiece, which looked something like an oversized and ornate jockstrap, was used to exaggerate the male genitalia. Cod was once a synonym for bag and, by extension, the scrotum. From the 1540s until the 1580s this clothing accessory, known to the French as a boastful-sounding braguette, was not uncommonly sported by European aristocrats. Over time, the padding and animal-bone framework increased to ridiculous dimensions giving the wearer the appearance of permanent sexual arousal.
This curious pronouncement of virility was even sported by royalty, including Henry VIII, who added one to his suit of armor. Now on display at Windsor Castle, it was believed to bring fertility to barren women who touched it with a pin. Even Henry's nine-year-old son, soon-to-be-king Edward VI, can be seen wearing one in a portrait. This bizarre, multifunctional fashion reached its zenith of popularity in the 1560s, when it was used occasionally to support flagpoles in marching processions.

Saturday's:
Moon's sphere (noun) - In the Ptolemaic system, the moon was fixed in the innermost of nine spheres which revolved around the earth. A Midsummer Night's Dream. --C.H. Herford's Notes on the Works of Shakespeare, 1902

Death of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), German Renaissance astronomer, teacher, and astrologer, who narrowly escaped being burned at the stake. He is remembered for his three laws of planetary motion, which are still used to predict motions of stars, planets, comets, and even spacecraft, but he is also credited with writing the first science fiction story, Somnium. In this footnoted, posthumously published work, which he worked on over four decades, he attempted to explain how the heavens would appear to someone observing from the moon before the advent of the telescope. Somnium's story involved a four-hour flight to the moon, which was "most difficult and fraught with the greatest danger to life." The characters encountered monsters in a terrain closely resembling earthly topography, but the author correctly mentioned that the earth remained fixed in the lunar sky without appearing to rotate. Had he left his widow better off financially, this work might well have been forgotten.

WALL OF PEOPLE

2009-11-13T10:15:09Z

I'm going to have to be at work at 4:45 in the morning the day after Thanksgiving. Instead of the service desk, I'm going to be cashiering. I've never been anywhere near a store during the door-buster sales on Black Friday. Last year, I had a mid-shift--which is the best possible shift on Black Friday, 'cause you neither open nor close--and the year before that I had a closing shift, so I wasn't around for the madness and mayhem of the morning. I similarly lucked out in my Black Friday schedules in past retail jobs, too. In summary, two weeks from today is going to be a brand new (and likely traumatizing) experience for me.

The good news is I'll be getting off at 1:15, and I won't have to be back at work until 4:00 the next afternoon. I'll have plenty of time to rest up before the crazy-busy four weeks that are the Christmas season.

This'll be my fifth Christmas season working in retail. One Christmas I was at Suncoast Video, one I was at K-B Toys, and this'll be my third at Target. I figure if I've survived it four times before--including one time in a fucking toy store--I should do so again. At least I hope so.

Daily German & French: November 2nd - November 7th

2009-11-08T21:19:06Z

Daily German
Monday's German word:
Wählen (verb) - To vote, to choose.
Ich gehe morgen wählen. I'll go vote tomorrow.

Tuesday's:
Stimme (f. noun) - Voice, vote.
Jede Stimme zählt. Every vote counts.

Wednesday's:
Gewinnen (verb) - To win.
Wir haben gewonnen! We won!

Thursday's:
Gratulieren (verb) - To congratulate.
Ich gratuliere! Congratulations! (lit.: I congratulate!)

Friday's:
Zu (adverb) - Too (as in "too much").
Das geht zu weit. That goes too far.

Saturday's:
Ärger (m. noun) - Nuisance, annoyance.
So ein Ärger! What a nuisance!

Daily French
Monday's French word:
Jouer (verb) - To play.
Il joue du piano. He plays the piano.

Tuesday's:
Maître(sse) (noun) - Master/mistress, teacher.
Il joue bien parce qu'il a un bon maître. He plays well because he has a good teacher.

Wednesday's:
Tunis, Tunisie (Tunis, Tunisia) - Located between the Lake of Tunis and the Mediterranean Sea, Tunis is the capital of the small North African country of Tunisia. Tunis is near the site of the ancient city of Carthage, and was taken over by Muslims in the seventh century. For a long time it was one of the richest, most important cities of the Muslim world, and later, it was occupied by the Ottomans, the Spanish, the British, and finally, the French in the nineteenth century. Today it is a vibrant city, representative of French-speaking North Africa, with a "medina" in the inner city: the labyrinth-like old inner city with narrow, winding streets and covered passages. Visit www.commune-tunis.gov.tn.

Thursday's:
Thé (m. noun) - Tea.
Je préfère le thé au café. I prefer tea to coffee.

Friday's:
Vague (f. noun) - Wave.
Près de l'océan, on entend le bruit des vagues. Near the ocean, you can hear the sound of the waves.

Saturday's:
Embouteillage (m. noun) - Bottleneck, traffic jam.
Désolé pour mon retard. Il y avait des embouteillages! Sorry I'm late. There were traffic jams!

Forgotten English: November 2nd - November 7th

2009-11-08T20:01:28Z

Monday's forgotten word:
Scrunchins (pl. noun) - Remnants of food; broken meat; remains of a feast. --Rev. M.C.F. Morris's Yorkshire Folk-Talk, 1892

All Souls' Day - In England, kitchens were kept warm and food was left out overnight for those unhappy departed souls who were believed to return to visit their homes.
A happier custom is found in Alice Morse Earle's Customs and Fashions in Old New England (1893): "One very pleasant and friendly custom that existed among these kindly New England neighbors [was] if invited guests were unable to partake of dinner festivities, or if neighbors were ill, for the hostess to send a taste of her viands to console them for their deprivation. This truly homely and neighborly custom lingered long in old New England families under the very descriptive title of 'cold party.' Indeed, it lingers still in old-fashioned towns and old-fashioned families. In earlier days, when a noble dinner seemed to be the form of domestic pleasure next in enjoyment to a funeral, a taste of the dinner was truly a most honorable attention, and a pleasing one."

Tuesday's:
Purser's pound (noun) - The weight formerly used in the navy, by which the purser--an officer appointed by the lords of the admirality to take charge of the provisions and slops of a ship of war, and to see that they were carefully distributed--retained an eighth for "waste," and the men received only seven-eighths of what was supplied by the government. --Admiral William Smyth's Sailor's Word-Book, 1867

Sir Francis Returns, but Then What? - Robert Nares' Glossary of the Works of English Authors (1859) reported on the aftermath of Sir Francis Drake's famous ship, the Golden Hind, following its return on this date in 1580 from a perilous three-year circumnavigation of the globe: "The ship in which he sailed round the world was, by order of Queen Elizabeth, laid up at Deptford, where it long continued an object of admiration. For some time it appears to have been usual to make parties to dine or sup on board. When it was so far decayed as to be necessarily broken up, a chair was made of one of the planks and presented to the University of Oxford."

Wednesday's:
Latibulize (verb) - To retire into a den; [from] Latin latibulum, a hiding place. --Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828

Social Security's First Beneficiary - On this date in 1939, Ida May Fuller became the first beneficiary of monthly American Social Security payments. Born in 1874 on a farm near Ludlow, Vermont, Miss Fuller grew up in nearby Rutland, before moving to Brattleboro. She worked under the Social Security payroll deduction system beginning in the spring of 1937, when she earned about $150 per month as a legal secretary. This entitled the government to take out a grand total of $24.75 over those three years. Fuller filed her retirement claim on November 4, 1939, recalling later, "It wasn't that I expected anything, mind you. But I knew I'd been paying for something called 'Social Security' and I wanted to ask." In January 1940, at age sixty-five, she started collecting benefits, and she lived to be one hundred years old. Fuller's claim was the first on the first "certification list," so Social Security check number 00-000-001 was issued to her in the amount of $22.54. Her thirty-five years of benefits totaled $22,888.92--nearly a thousand times her contributions.

Thursday's:
Backrackets (pl. noun) - Fireworks. --J. Drummond Robertson's Glossary of Archaic Gloucestershire Words, 1890

Guy Fawkes Day? - Cheshire, no less than the rest of England, is starred from end to end with bonfires on November 5th, supposedly in honour of a past event of which few could give the date and details. These fires are not, in fact, due to a zeal for Protestantism or to relief at the failure of the Gunpowder Plot 300 years before. They are due to the fact that tradition dies hard, and for countless centuries the people of this country have been accustomed to light fires about the time of Samhain, or All Hallows. The decree of Parliament in 1606 that November 5th should be kept as a holiday in thankfulness, and to mark their "detestation of the Papists," merely gave a new reason and a new date for a custom ages old. The "Papists" who let off fireworks and prepare bonfires as cheerfully as anyone else today are quite right in doing so if they wish since the celebration has nothing whatever to do with them or, strictly speaking, with any other Christian. --Christina Hole's Traditions and Customs of Cheshire, 1937

Friday's:
Creave (verb) - To pilfer stealthfully. It seems to combine the meanings of English slang crib and Cheshire creem, to hide. --Thomas Darlington's The Folk-Speech of South Cheshire, 1887

Feast Day of St. Leonard, a patron of thieves. Thomas Harman's A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursetors (1567) described a particular type of female thief, known long ago as the autem mort: "These autem mortes be maried women, as autem in their language is a church; and they be as chaste as a cowe I have that goeth to bull every moone, with what bull she careth not. Some wyll go with children of ten or xii yeares of age. Yf time and place serve for their purpose, they wyll send them into some house, at the window, to steale and robb, which they call in their language 'milling of the ken.' There is one of these autem mortes, she is now a widow of fyfty yeares old. She goeth about with a couple of great boyes, the yongest of them is fast upon xx yeares of age, and these two do lye with her every night, and she lyeth in the middes. She sayeth that they be her children, that beteled be babes borne of such abhominable bellye."

Saturday's:
Dorbel (noun) - A dull-witted pedant; a foolish pretender to learning; from Nicholas Dorbellus (c. 1400-1475), a professor of scholastic philosophy at Poitiers, and a follower of Duns Scotus, whose name gave us dunce. --Joseph Shipley's Dictionary of Early English, 1955

Dunce Day, a humorous modern renaming of a commemoration of scholastic theologian John Duns Scotus (1266-1308) who died on November 8. Ironically, the expression "dunsman," the forerunner of the current term "dunce," was derived from the name of this Scottish philosopher, whose logical brilliance earned him a place in medieval university textbooks. Following his death, a group of followers tried to continue his work by attempting to explain a number of hair-splitting theological notions, including the Immaculate Conception. They were eventually overwhelmed with ridicule and branded "dunsmen." Over time, that epithet was shortened to dunces, from which came the familiar "dunce-cap" once used to humiliate schoolchildren lacking aptitude or manners. Franciscan philosopher Nicholas Dorbellus developed his reputation by further expounding Duns's teachings.

Is that a dragon on Terra's crystal? O_o

2009-11-08T10:37:58Z

Played through Terra's story. Y'know, for someone who's so timid and hates fighting, she's quite the little warrioress. She may look like a defenseless waif, but she can be a real bitch in battle. And she has a LOOOOOT of hair in esper form. Wow.

Kefka's so fucking awesome, and his VA did a really, really good job voicing him. I still like a certain long-haired pretty-boy better, though. :P

I've noticed that no one every says "Warrior of Light" or "Onion Knight" out loud, except for the narrator. I wonder what their real names are. I mean, they gotta have real names. I really don't think they have "Warrior of Light" and "Onion Knight" on their birth certificates. That is, if they have birth certificates in their Medieval Europeanesque worlds.

I think of the Warrior of Light as a Lucien or Lucius, but that's so terribly unoriginal. I suppose he could be a Lucan or Lucanus. Same meaning, but not as common. Or, he could be named Luca, which has appeared in a couple Final Fantasy games already. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean "light", though it's similar to names that do. Hm...I almost wanna write a fanfic about him. Maybe a fluffy little one-shot of him returning from defeating Chaos in the past and being reunited with Princess Sarah. That'd be cute. :)

Another Dissidia post

2009-11-08T06:18:42Z

Played through the Warrior of Light's story. You have to fight a boss battle on every level. Joy. You go up against Garland, Sephiroth, Ultimecia, the Emperor, and then Garland again. The Warrior of Light draws opponents like flies, it seems. Maybe it's because he shines so much. They're like a swarm of moths, or something. _-_

I finally got to see Shantotto and Judge Gabranth in a cut scene. Too bad I can't unlock them as playable characters yet.

Terra's the only hero(ine) left for me to play. In fact, I might play through her story later tonight. Then it's off to Shade Impulse for me.

I know I'm taking an incredibly long time to play this game. I'm just having too much fun in Quick Battle and Arcade Modes. XD

One of the attacks you can learn as Cloud is Omnislash Version 5, the final attack he unleashed on Sephiroth in Advent Children. As he lands and catches his sword, he says, in a very deadpan and insincere-sounding voice, "No hard feelings." I LOLed. ILU, Cloud.

Am I invisible, or just annoying?

2009-11-05T19:23:09Z

I've been feeling really pathetic lately. The only time I get out of the house is to go to work, no one ever calls or texts me just to talk, whenever I call or text somebody I hardly ever get any response, I still haven't gotten up the guts to tell the guy I'm crushing on that I like him (he doesn't seem interested anyway), no one responded to the meme I posted last week, my mom stopped just shy of calling me ungrateful the other day, and my dad keeps blowing me off when all I want to do is watch a movie together.

I don't want to talk about this with anyone, because whenever I try to voice my frustrations, whoever I'm talking to, friend or family, always makes it out to be my fault. They say I should get out and initiate things myself. I do. Or at least I try. And why should I always be the one to get things rolling? No one ever tries to initiate anything with me. Why can't I be on the receiving end at least once? It seems no one even thinks of talking to me unless I open my mouth first.

They say people who hurt themselves are crying out for attention. I'm starting to wonder if even that will accomplish anything. Probably not.

EDIT: Okay, I lied. I've been asked out a couple of times in the past. But it's always been from complete assholes who act like I should be grateful they're even talking to me, or it's complete losers who are desperate to touch anything with breasts. On one hand, I feel like I shouldn't have rejected any of them, as beggars can't be choosers. On the other hand, I still have some modicum of pride left in me. I'm not that desperate. Yet.