So, happy belated Annual Turkey Holocaust, everyone. I don't know about you but I played a LOT of Final Fantasy while cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Cooking a big holiday dinner all alone somehow isn't as fun when not sloshed.

In case you're wondering where I got off to, my computer imploded, but it got better. Finally. After almost the entire month. My e-mail, DA, and LJ inboxes are all exploding.

I'M DRAWING AGAIN. IT FEELS SO GOOD I COULD CRY. I know it's silly to think so but I feel like I have my new girl to thank. She was an emotional impulse buy I shouldn't have made, I didn't WANT to make--god knows I didn't want to get another animal right now--but the first time I saw her it put a spark in me and I started working again like wildfire. Brought her home the next day and I haven't slowed down since. God bless the little mysteries in life. I named her Arcana, for them.

Dee says that he is going to walk again whether the doctors like it or not, and THAT is the Dee I know. If you pray, put one in for him, would you?


Watch out, world. I feel alive again.

So, it's my birthday. I'm...26, or something like that? I burned my hand horribly, but I guess that's my Token Mandatory Birthday Disaster. Through this, however, I have learned something truly valuable about myself. One of those deep personal revelations that can change a person's life forever.


I can use power tools left-handed.

I am still here. It's more noticable some times than others. Work has been kicking my ass. I lost the job I had but picked up another one doing heavy construction and just...tired. So tired all the time. It pays a lot less than my last job but I basically got the position by underbidding a mexican for it, so.

Art block is giving me twitchy hands.

All of my kids are still okay (even Oddball seems to be making a recovery from his Big Scary Ratpoison Asshole Owner Adventure and has stopped vomiting and started eating reasonable sized solid food! Huzzah! Now with 10% fewer seizures!) but I remain paranoid. I was planning on trying to breed 'Lendae and Sin again this year, but I may still be too afraid of putting my snakes together after that scare.
Especially since the local petstore recently had a problem with dead boas. As in, last week. Just when you start breathing again, right?

Saving for my sister's wedding is going...okay. I'm pretty sure I'll have the money in time as long as nothing major comes up, knock on wood cross your fingers etc.

Government eval went okay.

I have shoes that are shoes. This makes me happier than it probably reasonably should. The ability to get new shoes when you need them has for years felt like an indicator of financial stability to me, weirdly enough. Kind of like the ability to have hot water.


I guess there's still a lot of shit in the fan, but I feel less buried under it and more like bulling through the crap is working again. And I'm looking forward to NaNo. Birthdays suck, but NaNo has made Novembers manically perky for me, so huzzah!


And now I have work to get to so later.

It's been a pretty shitty month. Trueman and Dama are dead, and I can't get any information on what happened. I still don't know if my other kids will be okay and I'm living in constant terror that I'll go to check on one of them and they'll have just died. The university won't get back to me, and isn't picking up my calls. I've been fighting with my mother. I've been informed that I'm about to lose yet another job. My dad is coming down sick. Our rent is going up. The upstairs neighbors are keeping us up at all hours with their incessant noise, half the plumbing in our building has ceased working, and management doesn't seem to care about either. One of my closest friends found out earlier today that he may never walk again. The government is beating down our door for a 'status review', whatever that means. And on top of all that, I still have to save for my sister's wedding; she says she'll never speak to me again if I don't come. Oh, and my shoes are more 'duct tape' than actual 'shoe' right now. So if I drop off the internet for a while, you know why.

But I just spent the last few hours listening to all the Salieri I could get my hands on. And I feel so incredibly, sublimely relaxed that at the moment? I really don't care.

Thank you, Salieri. I needed the breather.

The necropsy said it wasn't catching so why the hell is Dama dead now too?

Dama is--was, christ--Delle's baby girl. I got her that snake for our anniversary. I have no idea what's happening here. I'm trying to get in touch with the the University of Georgia's veterinary research wing, which is what the vet recommended.

I'm fucking terrified my snakes have IBD and are all going to die.

I have never felt so all alone out here as I do right now.

I just got the results in from Trueman's necropsy.

The good news is that he didn't have anything my other snakes could catch, so I can resume breathing normally again. He also didn't have any injuries of any kind internally or externally, which means I don't have to feel guilty about putting in goatskull, which for a while I was afraid he might have injured himself on.

The bad news is I don't know what DID happen. No injuries, no sickness, nothing wired funny on the inside. Everything came back negative. For all the vet can see, he just...died of nothing, I guess. It's strange and frustrating. I was hoping I could at least find some closure from the results.

I guess I won't get that. But I am relieved to know that my other kids aren't at risk.

http://news.aol.com/article/missing-boy-richard-chekevdia-hidden-in/657405?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fmissing-boy-richard-chekevdia-hidden-in%2F657405

This story. Not just the story itself, though I highly frown and WTF at that as well because damnit if you're going to drag things to court and divorce and custody battle it out, you should at least be adult enough to own up to the court's decision--but dear god, the COMMENTS it is getting.

The fact that people think the father must obviously have been abusive because otherwise she definitely wouldn't have run off with the kid is just...what? The fact that people are saying the father's status as a former police officer and member of the National Guard as proof that he's abusive or up to something is just...what? What is wrong with people? And what the hell is with this gender-based double standard? The woman is the one who broke the law, but the man is the one being painted as Snidely Whiplash; more than that though, you know that if the man had been the one to hie off with the kid and hide him for two years under the same circumstances that these same assholes would be calling for his blood. You know it because when it happens, they DO. No one questions it. No one wonders if the mom might not be batshit insane or abusive or a fucking drug dealer or part of an elaborate conspiracy with the obviously corrupt court or any of this bullshit. It is always the fault of the father, whichever end of the incident he happens to be on.


....Maybe I'm just bitter because of how my parents' divorce went. Maybe I've just had too much personal experience with how much perfectly reasonable, much more mentally and emotionally healthy, much more capable men are shafted by the goddamn hyper politically correct system and the "fact" that All Men Are Evil Especially If They Have Ties To Military Or Law Enforcement, But Women Are Blessed And Blameless Saints and getting left in the hands of a batshit insane bitch who can't even keep her own life straight, let alone those of her children.

I don't know. I know that bad fathers and bad cops happen, sure. I know that. I know that corrupt courts happen too. I'm not living in a fairy tale and I know Shit Happens. But Jesus Rollercoaster Christ, have we really decayed to the point that we think that's the norm? These people make me sick.


....I'm going to go watch something happy with bright colors until I feel less of an urge to curbstomp the next living human I see.

First off, I want to thank every person who kept on telling me to take more pictures of Trueman. I really do. Sometimes it got a little annoying and I would think 'fuck, shut up, I'll get around to it', but thank you so much for being so persistent. If you hadn't, I wouldn't have as many pictures to remember him by.

Trueman died today. My little baby boy. I had him out at three, and he was fine. He was perfectly normal and healthy and acting the way he always had--which admittedly is a little weird, but that's part of what was so endearing about him. And then around ten I went to feed the kids, and he was dead. I have no idea what happened. He was just curled up inside of his goat, dead. I have no idea what happened. There were no signs, there was no warning. It's not like he was sick or the temperatures or humidity were wrong. He just...died. And I don't know why.

I've realized that I've met some really wonderful people through my snakes. When I called the nearest snake vet at about twenty after ten, he offered to actually come out and pick his little body up. He's going to perform a necropsy to make sure Trueman didn't have anything that might spread to the other snakes. He says he won't charge for it. Said that after I picked up the tab for Oddball and took him in seizures and all, it only seemed right that someone should do a good turn for one of my snakes too...even if it was too little too late. And it was just really good of him to come all the way out here in the middle of the night. Not because I couldn't have taken Trueman's remains in myself tomorrow--today, whatever--but because I really needed the company from someone who wouldn't tell me I was blowing this out of proportion. Because this was one of my kids. He was my moody kid who croaked like a frog and swallowed baby mice alive when I let him and sometimes looked at me like he was trying to kill me with his brain, but he was my kid and I loved him.

I think I shouldn't accept animals as gifts any more. Abayomi and Trueman are the only two 'live gifts' I've ever had, and they're the only two of my animals I've had to watch die before they'd really had much of a chance to live. And it breaks my heart so damn hard. Maybe there's a correlation and I just shouldn't accept animals as gifts any more.


Goodbye, Trueman. You put rainbows in my life even if only for a little while and reminded me once again of how weird and wonderful the individual can be. I hope wherever snakes go when they die, they have a nice goat skull for you to sleep in and love.

ANON MEME

AND

YES, ANOTHER YGO GX KINK MEME


Disregard all of this; I am a loser. Lawl.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i59cCJG4daI4jhJOdZimRftV0Chg

It probably says something about me how much this annoys me. Just: NO.
NO NO NO.

You do not remake Harvey. Go watch it again. It does not need to be remade. You will never ever ever find anyone to cast in the lead who can follow Jimmy Stewart's act. The man does not exist. Leave the classics alone and for fuck's sake, Hollywood, write some new material. I'm tired of you raping mine and my dad's childhood.

Assholes.

How's this for an 'idiot abuses animal' story--

So, this fellow has a pet ball python, like so many people do, them being incredibly popular and easy to acquire at just about any pet shop ever. He also has a minor rodent problem in his apartment complex. Now, to solve the rodent problem, he puts out rat poison...and then strikes upon the brilliant idea that, now that he has all these dead rats, he won't have to buy food for his snake for a while! So this fucking idiot starts feeding his snake the poisoned rats. Obviously the snake gets horribly, horribly sick, and so the guy takes it to the vet. Good news--his pet can be saved! But when he hears what the bill will be for this multi-night stay at the doc shop, the intrepid idiot owner cuts and runs, leaving his pet high and dry. Three weeks they waited for this guy to come back, and three weeks they held this snake while they had the space. Bless their hearts, at least they took care of the poor little python even though no one covered his tab. Recently, someone brought in a peach throat monitor in need of bone surgery, which means their lonely overnight space for reptiles was no more.

Which is why I am currently babysitting the shakiest, bitiest, most vomit-prone ball python on the planet. Pretty sure he's wrong in the head. He keeps trying to strike his water dish or rolling over onto his back and twitching up into arc shapes like he's having a seizure. According to the vet though, this is 'recovered', and he was much worse when he came in.

PET STORES. YOU NEED TO START SCREENING THESE PEOPLE.

I recently discovered that one of the seven or so little restaurants of various Asian flavor around here--hilariously, one of the Chinese ones--has sake.

I should know better by now than to drink the stuff. It tastes like getting punched in the jaw, and though it never seems to get me drunk (I'm a giggly, noisy, clumsy drunk who thinks everything is hilarious, but I never act differently at all after drinking sake) but it always, ALWAYS gives me the worst bitches of hangovers ever. And they never go away. Jesus, someone shoot me. Never, ever again. I say that every time

I needed a drink today because I talked to my mother, because she pissed off my father. One of my sisters is going to get married--as usual I'm the last to hear about these things second only to dad--and dear ol' mom is trying to keep dad out of the ceremony. She doesn't want him walking his girl down the aisle. Oh no, mom wants that lawyer she married just a couple years back (who used to be my dad's best friend, I might add) to take the 'father of the bride' role.
No one has bothered to ask my sister what she wants, which is neither of them to do it. But the shitstorm is already pretty big and the wedding's still a year away. Fucking ridiculous. I hope they don't scare her into running off to Vegas to get hitched by an Elvis impersonator or something.



...Totally unrelated note.
I'm thinking about selling my hair. Everyone keeps bitching at me to cut it, and you know, you can get some pretty good money for long, untreated stuff like I've got. My mother keeps telling me if I cut it off I should give it to a charity, but God knows we could use the cash, and it's not like it won't grow back. I donno. Maybe I'm just not in the mood to listen to her just now.

I know I just disowned this show. But apparently it really, really doesn't want me to break up with it. Because OH, DIVINE.

RESERVING THIS SPACE FOR LATER SQUEALING LIKE THE FANBOY WITH A CRUSH THAT I AM.

I mentioned once that I would watch the show just for Divine regardless of anything else. I think I may amend that to 'I will still watch episodes with Divine, but only episodes with Divine, because, eeeeeee, Divine'.

5Ds episode 63:The Strongest Earthbound God! Wiraquchasca

...Uhm.

So. This apparently the assrapage of Wiraqutra and Chasca into one entity. This alone I could possibly live with. Okay, so it completely throws the entire basket of Moche vs Nazca easter eggs out the window; my day is made more sad but I could still have lived with it with minimal eyerolling and geek angst.

But correct me if I'm wrong, Fandom Who Has Actually Been Paying Attention To This Show Lately--the Earthbound Gods are evil/wicked bad beings and rulers of hell and darkness who were sealed in the earth, right? And they raise the vengeful dead to act as their zombie meatpuppet vessels/walking temples, for the sole purpose of doing terrible terrible things to those that wronged them and/or maybe destroying the world. Unless something has changed while I've been not watching, they are The Bad Guys. And I heard something about a super-special-awesome King of Hell. I'm assuming that's the 'strongest' of the EBGs.

So what the hell gives with using a couple of SUN GODS--a dawn-borne protector of virgins (Chasca)who also happens to be a goddess of stars and the 'angsty artist' light-making creator god who is constantly mourning the plight of his creations (Wiraqutra)who wasn't even willing to hurt people when they tried to kill him--for the penultimate ruler of vengeance, evil, and generally bad stuff? Mythology FAIL, writing staff. SUPER HUGE MYTHOLOGY FAIL. I really expected better out of these writers. They'd given me no reason not to. What's next guys--the Crimson Dragon is really Chalchalcha? Ffff.

I've been saying for a while that 5Ds' is junk whose only redeeming feature was its ability to make me smile with easter eggs. This is the first time easter eggs have made me want to bash my head into a desk until I get a concussion.

[ETA: This could all possibly be un-failed by turning the whole thing into a giant reference to the ancient disaster and the gods accidentally locking themselves in Pacaritambo when they tried to escape it and then finally being guided out of it only to find themselves assaulted by those who had come into power as gods in their absence, and the EGB are not actually evil, just oldschool and angry. But still. Wiraqutra??]

Dear Politics:

Please stop turning people into frothing-at-the-mouth balls of nerves and rage. I would like to be able to talk to my friends and family again without it turning into World War III. While you're at it, why not remind people that the rights of freedom of speech and religion go both ways, and that if someone says or believes something another person has an equal right to tell them that they disagree? And vice versa.

Also, stop making democrats and republicans act like complete douchebags to each other about who gets the presidency or saying unholy terrible things about each other based solely on their party affiliation and not their personal merits, words, or actions. Seriously. Fucking stop it.

I Used To Love You, But This Really Isn't Working Out,
Me

----

According to the recent list of potential warning signs for domestic terrorists and dangerous political extremists, my father and I are almost 10 for 10. All we need now is a Ron Paul bumper sticker. It's hilarious and sad and seriously, people, what the hell? Aren't the people of a country theoretically supposed to be all on one side?

Icons picked by pdutogepi

1. Reply to this post, and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee


FFFFFFFF. Anyone who has ever heard me say almost anything about GX probably has a fairly good idea why this icon exists. Hint:it's because I'm a complete nerd The series spent a lot of time dropping 'subtle' hints about its seasons following alchemic progression and Judai as the Mercurial Fool/Progressive Entity, but about the time Judai's friends became his dragon's claws and he started running around all gold-eyed and uber right before the series' false ending, I realized that lines had been crossed and icons needed to be made.



It started as a joke about the Chavin drug-cult references sprinkled around Darkness, the Seven Stars, and Fubuki himself--and how HAPPY~! Fubuki/Darkness seemed all the time, about everything. I don't remember EXACTLY what the joke was at this late date, but it was funny enough to spawn an icon at the time. Also, I love the purple suit and swear to someday cosplay purplesuit!Fubuki. Batpig has sworn to go as littlereddress!Asuka if I do, and we will be BUCKY AND ASURYN, and it will be EPIC



From a 'thirteen days of Christmas' series of humorous Organization XIII fanarts. Saix had the seven swans a-swimming, and the picture of little moonrage berserker Saix chasing those poor birds around somehow made me laugh harder than pretty much anything. I didn't like the KH games much, but I DID like Saix. Really no more complex than that.


Traumatized Cornsnake came from a comic someone put up on the reptile forum I frequent. Happy Cornsnake says 'yay! dead mouse for dinner!', and then in the next panel is wearing that utterly horrified expression up there as the mouse rises and utters a zombielike 'brainssssss'. I have the mouse as an icon too, but at the time I needed an icon to express utter trauma and Traumatized Cornsnake fit the bill. Also, cornsnake. They are so lovable.


The Giant Fuckoff Hummingbird God from 5Ds pictured in this icon is named 'Aslla Piscu'. In Quechuan, this can, and was probably meant to, be translated as 'little crow', but the same words also mean 'little penis'. And my sense of humor never graduated highschool. =D The phallic beak doesn't help. Oh, Freud would have a field day with this shit!

Breath of Fire is one of my oldest and dearest fandoms and I've recently discovered that the internet is keeping the love alive and well also, creating Garr porn. That this even exists is both delightful and very, very wrong. I'm actually writing fanfiction again. Crazy shit. With luck it'll get me back to drawing, too. I need to make icons for this fandom like, last year. Rumors of a sixth game have my caged inner fanboy squealing and flailing like mad, you have no idea.

Still job hunting. I got a call back and interview on one possibility, so my fingers are crossed for that. Hopefully I won't be stuck sitting around at home going stir crazy much longer.

And on a note completely unrelated to either of the above, I have some pictures of my girlfriend's anniversary gift.
( Give me a snake and a camera and I will waste everyone's time. )

To end on a political note--
Anyone other than me hitting one of the tax day tea parties?

On the list of things that make me roll my eyes and laugh, a person who uses the handle 'rare fandom' writing FMA fanfiction of all things is pretty high. Seriously.


New rainbow boa is definitely, definitely Trueman, I have decided upon feeding him. I'm feeding him live pinkies see, like Brian suggested the first couple of weeks, and he doesn't constrict them. No. He just stares at them until they stop moving. And swallows them while they're still alive. This is not normal boa behavior at all and I'm sure he's going to be very, very disappointed when I switch him over to prekilled.


My girlfriend is talking about moving to Texas into a 'guild house' with a bunch of her friends from WoW. You have no idea how mixed my feelings are on this.


I think I initially had something of substance to post, but I've forgotten it. Bah. I need to find a new job before house fever drives me batty.

So, the anniversary went fairly well. My gift was a hit, so thanks to those who advised me to listen to my gut and get her the ball python. I THINK I've gotten her to cut back on WoW too, though the fact that I have no truly reliable means of monitoring her time in-game makes it a little hard to tell.

Anyway.

It was a beautiful day today, so I brought my new little rainbow boa out onto the porch to take a few more shots in (gasp) natural light. He seemed to enjoy himself, and while the light is still apparently a bit too strong for RAINBOWS EVERYWHERE, it's amazing how much more true to his colors these photos are than the last batch.

( I'm still not sure if his name is Kuyichi or Trueman, though. )