Look what I just got in the mail!!!



You can't tell from the photo, but the cover has foil parts, so the background is shiny. It's beautiful!

Thank you Matcha!! ♥♥♥

I love Halloween!

More kids came by this year. As I recall, the weather last year was kind of sucky somehow (it rained until seven o'clock or something like that), but this year it was great. I watched a few Halloween movies on TV and tended the door. /o/

During my time watching Halloween specials, I discovered there are actually some very good (and thankfully very tame) children's movies for the occasion. I particularly liked The Halloween Tree.

I kind of destroyed my leg at Tae Kwon Do on Thursday, though, so having to sit down and get up so frequently friggin' hurt. Ow ow. We didn't finish the class properly because the grandmasters from the US Chungdo Kwan were here, and... yeah. Ow. Those muscles seem to be mostly okay today, but now different ones hurt just from having to walk a little differently to accommodate the injury. We had 86 trick-or-treaters this year.

Anyway, I wore my Norma cosplay all day and felt like a huge dork. It was pretty cool. I went downtown to do a couple of things (with my cape!) and I was easily the most noticeable thing for several blocks because of the yellow. Once I got down to the mall, I was no longer conspicuous, since they have trick-or-treating there and tons of kids went. There was even a kid dressed as Micheal Jackson.

Though I got a couple of compliments on my costume while I was manning the door in the evening, none of the kids actually knew what I was supposed to be. Later, I went out to a Halloween party with some friends. I had some full-size chocolate bars in my purse for anyone who openly recognized my outfit, but no one did, so I got to keep them, haha. I tried.

I'd really like to do a group thing for Halloween next year and have thought about convincing my friend and his wife to do a Batman-Robin-Batgirl trio with me. I'd get stuck being Robin, but I'll cope. Someone told me they've seen people dress up as The Penguin, and I had no idea anyone ever did that! That's so cool! There was this guy wearing clothes made of bubble wrap, and one of the people I was there with told me what the movie reference was, but I forget. Something about nerds and communicating with aliens. There was also a trio of Rainbow Brite characters. They were so colorful!

Long story short, Halloween was great and people make awesome costumes. I hope everyone had a good one!

I'm really excited for Halloween! \o/

But onto this post.

My friend, who is really, really amazing at coloring with markers, was drawing with me today and she offered to color the first lineart I managed to finish while I was there. I was pretty happy about that. I was going to have her color on this one, since I finished it first, but I'm a derp and didn't draw it on the right kind of paper. :'DDD

( Cut for image. )

Under the next cut, I'm going to draw some obvious parallels, which means vague Star Ocean 4 spoilers. To be honest, these are barely spoilers at all because I was so purposefully vague. Should be safe.

( Luke Mode is a Go. )

Remember how I said Star Ocean 4 was two discs long? Well, I was wrong.

It's three.

Wut.

I would have just told you all this in a letter back, but that takes like a week, so have some preliminary fangirling instead.

Eeeee, I got the best letter ever today!! Thank you, Azzy! It has Shinigami, brotherliness, Rhys, Angry Rita killing Karol, Estelle being pretty, Anise and Ion and a chainsaw, andandand just... just...

SQUEE.

How did you knowwwww.

Because it's not like Sage is not one of the most predictable people on earth or anything.

ANYWAY, EVERYONE CAN NOW CONFUSEDLY SHARE IN MY UNBRIDLED ENTHUSIASM. \o/

I moved up a tier in violin! \o/

I'm holding the bow the proper way now, and not the learner's way. It definitely feels different. The distribution of balance feels weird because now there is a long thin piece of wood between my fingers rather than the huge block of wood that is the frog. It seems lighter this way, though, which is probably a good thing. I think you get better control holding it like this.

Anyway, I said I got Star Ocean 4 (The Last Hope) for my birthday, right? Well, now I'm going to nerd about it. There's minimal talk of the plot, so I'm spoiling absolutely nothing that can't be found in the instruction manual.

( No Spoilers! )

I'm going to stop there because ow, I have a headache. OTL

This one is really long since I covered a lot of significant stuff since the last post.

( Wow, he really *is* crazy! )

Next time, I'm going to talk about Star Ocean 4 because I got it for my birthday and I'm really enjoying it.

Guess who's nineteen?

My birthday was on Saturday, which also means I was nineteen on the nineteenth. That's legal drinking age in Canada, so I got to go out to a pub for my birthday party. It was nice! My parents got me a really pretty dress as a pre-birthday present, so I wore it when we went out. It has the best sleeves ever. They're bell sleeves! I lovelovelove them. I even got a free shot at the pub because it was my birthday, except I had to drink it without the use of my hands.

Yeah.

Also, I did not get hammered. I had three drinks and could still walk in a straight line, so it's all good. I had a nice time and my awesome friend took some really good photos for me. One of my sisters who lives out of town also happened to be in town for the weekend, and I think that's the first time (that I can remember) she's been here on my birthday. :>

Anyone who's been to my house when it's someone's birthday can tell you that we always get a really big cake, but because of all the people that came over afterwards, we went through it a lot faster. We also gave some to my friend to bring home to her boyfriend, since he won't be 19 until December and wasn't able to come out with us. It was a 1/2 sheet cake and now there's like an eighth of it left.

Oh! And thank you guys for the various "Happy Birthday!"s I found dispersed throughout my f-list when I went through it today! You're awesome! A couple of people sent me virtual gifts, too, which was nice of them. Thanks, guys!

HEY. HEY AZZY. THIS INANE LJ POST IS JUST FOR YOU.

( Cut for a page-stretching photo of a chainsaw. And I'm not kidding. )

Through my absolutely terrible indoor photography, it's difficult to see why this chainsaw is awesome. The display case it's on top of is about six feet high. The chainsaw is almost as long as the height of the display case. Maybe I'm just stupid and don't know how big chainsaws are normally, but this one is like more than five feet long.

Sadly, I lacked another person to use as height comparison, but you get the idea.

Suddenly August gave way to September and it's been pouring rain. I like rain, though, so it's okay! :>

I decided to do that image meme thing that's been popping up on my f-list. Minor page stretch.

( I DON'T LIKE YOUR PLAN. IT SUCKS. )

This is the internet, so somebody's got to sympathize with this.

You know when you decide not to buy something/save a file/whatever because you're convinced you can just do it later and it will still be there? And then it isn't? I did that! Aaaaaaargh. There was, like, this one piece of fanart I loveloveloved to pieces and I checked it out a couple of times over on DA, but now it's not there. That, or my 5+ searches were just incredibly frivolous, which is seeming less and less likely.

Whyyyyyyy.

That's happened a few times with pictures I liked. A-at least my bad luck in that regard hasn't yet extended to purchasing things, since I tend to be really "OH GOD BUY ON SIGHT THEY MIGHT NOT HAVE IT LATER" if I know I need it.

You guys, you guys!!

Okay, so, as you know, Final Fantasy Dissidia is out in English now. That means Zidane has a voice! Vivi got one in Kingdom Hearts 2, but that doesn't suffice for my extreme FFIX prejudice. A-anyway, for anyone who doesn't want it/isn't going to/can't get the game, go listen. Zidane sounds... well, a lot like Tidus, actually, but considering the voice wasn't all that made me hate the wanker, I really don't mind! Kuja takes a little more getting used to, though. I expected him to sound a little more airy, but as long as he laughs stupidly during the fight (and he does), I can put up with that, too.

On top of all that, they kept all the old tracks and stuff and it makes me so happy. Hearing the FFIV boss theme during Cecil's opening with Golbez, and the IX boss theme when Zidane fights Kuja is just icing on the cake. Icing, I tell you.

So, the other day, there was a little get-together at my friend's house. We set up his Xbox 360 outside so we could play under the gazebo thing, and we were discussing what games we should bring out.

ME: Do you have Street Fighter 4? Because I really want to play that.
FRIEND: Nope.
*other friend shows up a while later*
FRIEND 2: Hey, why didn't you tell me we were going to play Xbox? I would've brought Street Fighter 4!
ME: 8[

Anyway,

it's exactly a month until my birthday (on the 19th)! I'll be 19, which is legal drinking age in my province.

\o/

Also, in my ponderings, I came to discover that herons will actually land and nest in trees. That's kind of a freaky thought. They're like four feet tall. I'm not sure how I'd feel if I was walking along and looked up to see a four foot fall bird in the tree above me. I think my reaction might involve screaming and running. They're pretty, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about being that close to one (especially within dive-bombing range). There's one down at the waterfront sometimes; he just chills out on a log and fixes his feathers. I never have my camera on me when he's there, though. I want to take a picture of him. :C

Here's a picture of another great blue heron if you're interested. Obviously it's not my photo, but it's a nice shot. :>

Um, firstly, I'd like to apologize to anyone who likes Tidus, because I kind of bash him a lot in these things. Nothing against you, though! Think of it as being playful teasing. You have to admit he's kind of a dork. I still think I'd like him a lot more if the game had no voice acting. Anyway, onward!

( Seymour is Bride-Shopping )

I didn't pass any other particularly notable scenes, but now I'm around 20 hours into the game, so I'm getting there! :>

I'm into a more Rikku-centric part, too, from the looks of it. Wakka will have to man up to his Al-Bhed phobia.

I was out of town for a couple of days and I still find it surprising that a place four hours from where I live can be so much warmer. It seems cool here by comparison now. Wtf, Okanagan. Anyway as for the fandom-relevant parts, while I was there, I got to go to two places of awesome nerding.

Comic book store! \o/

EB Games! \o/

There are neither of those things in the town I live in, so suffice to say, hanging out in them makes me feel really dorky and happy. In the comic book store, I acquired for myself a Crisis Core figure of Aerith and an FFX figure of Auron. (Apparently there aren't figures of Kimarhi and Lulu in that set, which I find kind of weird.) It's the first time I've ever really seen figures like that of characters I recognize. When I went to a con, I saw tons of Gundam and generic anime girl figures, but this store had, like, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, which is more in my league. Anyway, the figures are really detailed and cool and I'm really pleased with them!

At EB Games, I managed to hook myself a copy of Persona 3! It's the extended one (the FES version or something?) and I got it brand-new for a good price. Everyone and their dog has seriously been bludgeoning me into playing Persona 3. I looked for P4, too, but they didn't have that. The icing on the cake was the fact that the store clerk who found the game for me even told me it was really good and that I should buy it. I plan to start it once I finish either FFX or Grandia III. :>

I had a good time while I was gone and I really got to enjoy the sun and everything. Getting to hang out at a hotel's outdoor pool just makes it really feel like August. |D

I love you guys! Comments enabled this time only because Yuki punched me into it. I mean it. I keep meaning to write drabbles about other Abyss characters, but I love Ion so much and he's so horribly misrepresented in fanfiction that I always feel compelled to do something about it. Anyway, I bypassed by horrible bias for the sake of this drabble and plan to write at least one more Jade+Dist thing sometime. \o/

...it's so hot in here. Aaaaaah. *dies a little*

I'll probably find a whole bunch of hideous grammatical mistakes and typos in these when I read them over coherently. Derp. I know they're in there. Pretend they aren't!

Title: The Divide
Author: sagesoren
Series: Tales of the Abyss
Characters: Jade & Dist (?!)
Rating: G
Warnings: Jade is in it. 8|
Also, spoilers for Jade's backstory.
Summary: For yukidragon!
You were always weak.

(This was experimental and does not count as our trade unless you're in the mood for a mini drabble war.)

( There was always something about him... )

Title: The Sound of Waves
Author: sagesoren
Series: Soul Eater
Characters: Maka & Chrona
Rating: G
Warnings: Again, only if you know nothing about Chrona. Still using "he" for a pronoun, but feel free to read it as "she" if you so desire.
Summary: For my LJ BFF azkun, to ease the searing pain of that badfic. D:
She was his ocean. Maka/Chrona.

Um, this came out a lot lamer than I intended it to. Oh, and there's some tense flopping because I felt experimental. 8|a

( And there's that sound again. That feeling. )

The "You Should Write..." Meme!
Sage's Thread



My playing has been kind of sporadic because I have family in town and our visiting schedule is all over the place. Mostly I just run around and level grind a bit when I have a little time because I have become a little too attached to playing with the sphere grid.

( Luca, Blitzball, and Djose )

I am now about eight hours into the game! I'm not sure how much more of it I'll blog; maybe just stuff I think I can write something interesting for, because I'm really not very funny. We'll see.

As I've mentioned before, I've been trying to kick myself through Final Fantasy X. I played a little bit of it before, years ago, and I know what happens in the course of the plot, but this is my first time really playing it. However, I hate Tidus like burning and whined to my friend that it's too hard to play it when I don't have someone around to do "audio commentary" to. It takes my mind off the fail parts.

So my friend suggested I blog it instead! Anyway, I was already around three and a half hours in, so this is pretty much going from there. I won't blog all my playtime from here on out because that's cumbersome, but some here and there could be fun, so here goes.

Basically only read if you've played the game or don't mind potential spoilers, I guess. :>

( From Kilika's Great Hall to the S. S. Winno. )

I... I was super pep-talked by the end of Eternal Sonata. I will be open-minded. 8Db

Mooched from karthur. I find stuff like this really interesting for some reason.

Anonymous commenting enabled and IP logging disabled, just in case anyone wants to ask something but is embarrassed. Go for it! :>

So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me, something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about, or something you've always been curious about but have never asked, or something completely silly that you'd like me to answer for kicks. No limits on the range of questions, either: ask me anything you want to know about, whether it's a fannish opinion or a question about a fic of mine or trivia about my real life or my thoughts on events in the offline world.

Ask away. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you!