She meoweth quietly

Not sure if I've used proper Elizabethan verbs in the title, but hey - it makes sense in my head. That's all that matters, right?

Sometime around 5:20 or 5:30 this morning, I woke to the sound of a puking cat. Mouse decided to vomit on the carpet, so I grumpily got out of bed and cleaned it up.

Then, at six, the dogs wanted to be let out, and as I was putting them outside Mouse proceeded to meow quietly, yet still projecting her voice (who knew that seven-ish pounds of grey-and-cream fluff could meow that loudly?), as she demanded to be fed. I had to turn on the kitchen light because she kept shoving her face in the way as I was trying to feed her, and it was too dark in the kitchen to see what I was doing.

After the dogs were in their beds and the cat was fed, I tried to get back to sleep when the unexpected - and the unbelievable - happened: a silver fish fell off the ceiling and landed on me.

After some screaming and flailing, I got rid of the nasty thing, and decided to give up on sleep and make coffee instead.

I've gotten a lot of sorting done this week for the yard sale, but I don't know how much more sorting I can get done today as I'm so tired. I may just go through my trunk and then sit on my behind and play Katamari. I should watch my library DVD, though, and go to the library to take overdue and due stuff back, and pick up my holds.

Wow, a lot of my sentences are run-on. I must be tired.

My cat is an alarm clock

I woke up this morning to hear two things - somebody in the shower, and a dog whining to be let out - followed by a third: my cat, Mouse, meowing pathetically to be fed her wet food.

At around 5:52 AM.

Because my cat doesn't understand the concept of time.

So, I let the dogs outside, gave the incessantly meowing cat her food (she tried to follow the dogs outside twice; I had to shoo her away), put the dogs back in their beds, and tried to get back to sleep. Then the person in the shower let the dogs out again, and Smiles (our Jack Russell) came downstairs and jumped on my bed. We had a bit of a snuggle until I decided to finally get up.

So, in short, I'm a bit tired. I have to sort out things to sell for when we do a yard sale, so that'll be fun to accomplish when I'm slightly sleep deprived. I think I might sell the Klutz scrapbook I have, because it's a bit young for me now. It'll break my heart to do it, but I think I have to. And anyway, I can always use the mini scrapbooking kit I have, as well as buy a nicer one from Michaels.

I also have to cull some magazines. So far I've set aside a bunch of knitting magazines to sell, and I'll probably sell all of my Cricket magazines as well as my other magazines from the same publishing company. Again, my heart breaks to do it, but they're young for me, and they're taking up a lot of space.

As far as knitting goes, I haven't picked up my sock in some time. I don't want to start the heel unless I feel I'm awake enough, and I always seem to want to knit in the late evenings. I should probably work on finishing my Ravenclaw scarf, too - I think I'm on the last, or maybe the second-to-last stripe, then it's just weaving in ends and doing the fringe. The scarf is huge (I'm not sure if it'll fit under my winter jackets), but if nothing else I can wear it around the house. I think the pattern is supposed to be huge, though, because I remember reading some comments on Ravelry that were mentioning how big their scarves turned out to be. I suppose too big is better than too small, though.

My reading is going slowly, but I'm making headway in The Hunger Games. My goal is to finish it before the DVD comes in at the library for Mom to pick up. The only trouble is that I may not get to read my library books before they have to go back, because I want to put my focus mainly on The Hunger Games. I can always check the library books out again, though: the newer catalogue has a "recently returned" list, so it's easier to find stuff you just had out.

Not a fail, but a win in progress

So this summer, for the Ravellenic Games, I started my first sock. I haven't done the heel yet, so there's no way I'm getting to the finish line, but that's okay - I'm still happy that I had the guts to start a sock. I'll get them finished eventually; I don't want to rush and make a mistake and have to rip out inches of sock and arrrggghh. I've already had to rip out eight rows of 1x1 ribbing for the top of the cuff because it was too loose. But since redoing the cuff, it's looking good.

In other news, I think I'm finally becoming a gamer again. I'm reading walkthroughs, I'm looking up game titles on Wikipedia, and I'm making lists of games to buy "someday". I might go shopping for used PS2 games soon, because I have none of my own. It's exciting to think about that, because before I could only buy games for the PSone, because I didn't have a PS2 at the time. I'm also thinking of digging out my PSone games and picking up where I left off.


It's a great feeling.

I especially want to start playing Final Fantasy VIII again, because I got stuck trying to find the lunar gate when I last played it. But with the help of a good walkthrough (which I may have bookmarked; I've taken to bookmarking my favourites), I think I know where I need to go. I also want to dig out Final Fantasy Tactics, because I never did unlock everything. That, and it's a fun game.

Well, that's about it. If you know of any good PlayStation 2 games, feel free to comment! ;)

This is why I'll never be a secret agent

I'm not gonna lie: I suck at being stealthy.

I was playing Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (a sequel to the original FF VII), and I was at the part where you have to control Cait Sith, a cat with a Scottish accent and a happy-go-lucky demeanor, through a mako reactor without being noticed by guards. I think I lost count of how many times Cait Sith was KO'd because of my lack of sneaky-ness.

I've never been good at stealth missions in games. I think it's because I get so caught up in the game that I squeak loudly in alarm when I have to edge past a guard. In fact, while watching my brother play Metal Gear Solid I can recall recoiling slightly when he had to sneak around guards. I would make a terrible secret agent.

Speaking of Metal Gear Solid, when I loaded my saved game today I noticed that the Cait Sith segment of the game was titled "Solid Cait". And yes, I giggled :)

Dirge of Cerberus is one of those games that makes me jumpy, because of the enemies popping up out of nowhere. (I punched open a cargo crate today, and a lizard creature was inside it. I kid you not.) Right from the start of the game you have to be on your toes, which is a lot for someone who's used to playing turn-based role-playing games. I think the last game I played where you had to move both yourself and a camera was Spyro the Dragon, many moons ago.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of the gameplay, though. When I checked my status, my accuracy rate was considerably better than when I started. Now, if only I could be stealthier...

An update, and some shameless squeeing about Dirge of Cerberus

Hello there :)

So I haven't posted in a while, again. But I may have more time for blogging, as my course is finished (and I passed!), and I may not do the August Camp NaNoWriMo after all. Recently, I've been getting stuck and un-stuck in video games - right now, I'm stuck on Star 7 in Katamari Damacy, I need to find some pearls to buy something in Beyond Good & Evil, and I'm stuck on the boss fight in Edge in Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.

Phew.

First off, Katamari is awesome, but I can't seem to get past the seventh "make a star" level, and I don't have any more constellations to do. Until I can get the hang of "Make a star 7", I may just work on making my constellations bigger. Having to deal with the King of the Cosmos doesn't help - every time you fail a level, he yells at you. It can get on one's nerves.

Beyond Good & Evil is excellent fun. I keep having to consult a walk-through, though, which makes me feel lazy. I'm glad it's making me think a fair bit, though. A game that's too easy is no fun at all.

I've already said a lot about Dirge of Cerberus, but I'm going to blog some more about it, because it's just too awesome. A lot of people hated this game because of the gameplay, but I'm enjoying it, even though it can frustrate me. Even so, when I finally got past a part of Edge (a town in the game) that I had been stuck at, instead of thinking, "Thank god that's over!" I was thinking, "YES! I did it! *happy dance*"

I still haven't started played Sly Cooper. I'm kind of saving that until I finish a game, because I don't want too many on the go at once. I'm also itching to pick up Final Fantasy VIII again, because I got stuck in it trying to find the Lunar Gate and never did try it again.

Anyways, that's what I've been doing lately. I'll try to blog more this month :)

I have a zit on my chin

Yes, it's a bit of a weird title, but it's true. There's a zit on my chin and it's driving me nuts.

The bulk of my course homework is done, so now I have more time for blogging and other various things. I'm still way behind on my Camp NaNoWriMo, but I don't mind too much - I can always finish it in July, I suppose.

Also, we had my siblings and their significant others over for a barbeque. It was nice. We have some burgers in the freezer now. I'd have one for dinner if I hadn't had one for lunch... what am I going to have for dinner?

This post is getting boring. I shall post again, hopefully soon, and hopefully with more interesting things to say.

So... I'm kind of a bad shot.

I recently started playing Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, the spin-off game from that little game with the spiky-headed blonde guy ;) I had been reading the game's manual for ages to get a feel for the controls, then went through the game's tutorial (never again!!!), and then began the actual game. I have come to some realizations about me and Dirge of Cerberus:

1. I can't shoot. No, seriously, I can't. Granted, I'm getting better, but I'm still pretty crappy at the gameplay. Final Fantasy VII was a turn-based RPG, so going into a game where you're shooting and melee-ing your enemies instead of the 'my turn, your turn' system is a bit daunting.

2. Manuals are not always complete. I had to find a walk-through to figure out that you can break open boxes with melee. Why wasn't this in the manual? (For the record, if anyone needs a good site for walk-throughs and hints, I highly recommend GameFAQs . The walk-throughs on that site have saved my skin umpteen times, and they have just about every platform listed there. I can't guarantee that they'll have pages for every game, but it's a good starting point.)

3. Vincent looks damn good in a suit. Seriously, play through the tutorial and check out his suit. It's lovely. Although, I'm not so sure I like his haircut in that get-up.

4. Configuration changes everything. If you're a bad shot like me, tinker with the weapon settings. I changed the sight to 'automatic' and slowed down the camera speed, and I'm happy with the results.

Okay, I need to be doing something more constructive. Later!

edited to add link for easier-ness.