I'm bored :p

National Day today so it's a day off. I had a day off yesterday too because the factory is on shutdown. So it was a 4-day weekend and we got crappy weather, like we've been having for 2 weeks. I'm usually unaffected by weather. I guess I am nowadays.

This afternoon we went for a bicycle ride. The sun was shining. We were about 2 km away from home when we spotted this huge black cloud. We stopped. *thunder rolls* "Guess we'll have to return home". As we were coming back lightining was crashing and as soon as we stepped inside the garage, huge drops of rain started falling. That was just in time. It's been like that for the last 2 weeks. There's no way to do any sort of outdoor activities because rain and storms just keep coming every hour or so.

Dad and I still managed to go for a ride on Friday night despite the menacing sky. It was worth it though, I saw plenty of birds and we even saw a turtle laying her eggs by the side of the cycle trail!! I know we have to let nature have her way but there's was some big chunk of gravel where she was trying to dig so we removed it to help her out. I wish I had my camera with me.

I'm bored. I'm craving to play some Fire Emblem but all my games are home. I'll bring them back when I move out next weekend. I've invested more time into Puzzle Quest Challenge of the Warlords. Does this game ever end?!?!?! I've been playing it for over a year, and I have a feeling I'm not even half way through it yet.

We had more violent weather. On Tuesday it was so bad that we had a 6-hour power outage! Again I thought the dreaded tornado of my nightmares had come. It was snowing leaves and branches and lightning was striking every few seconds. It didn't last too long, thank goodness. Some villages west of here got it worse, with 2-inch big hail, ancient trees uprooted and roofs swept off. The city where I live (not here @ my parents') was also struck pretty badly. They showed on the news some buildings with brick walls that had fallen down. Imagine, it isn't even summer yet, and we've only had 3 days of warm temperatures. Summer sounds promising...

On a completely different topic, as I was running errands with mom, I saw Sarah Brightman had a new album out. When I returned home I looked it up online and it's been out since January! I *really* am behind on everything that happened in the world during last semester -_-" I checked it out on the iTunes music store too, and it's 10$ cheaper than buying the actual CD! So I'll download it from there when I return home. Too bad though, I really liked the cover art. Oh well. Cover art isn't worth 10$.

We finally start hearing a bit more about Fire Emblem DS. It's been given the title "New Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light" (I wonder if they'll rename it when it gets translated, Americans don't seem to find long titles appealing... but then we've had "Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean...then again it was a bit of a flop ^^" off-topic). It's going to be released in Japan on August 6, which means we probably won't be getting it until Spring next year. I'm making a prediction here: it's coming out in February. Why? because so far Fire Emblem games have always came out in the middle of semesters :p

I have entered a bird photography contest. My chances of winning are super-slim, as I'll be measuring myself up against the province's best. I still wanted to give it a shot. Who knows... I have submitted three pictures. I'll post them here when I return home (that's a lot of pics I need to post, lol).

Oh, and guess what? The love calls of our frogs have been heard!!! A female has arrived Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning there were eggs! :) I took a picture of it that I'll post... when I'm home, ha ha. They're already starting to change shape though, that's surprisingly quick. I guess it has a lot to do with the water being hot from all the sunny+hot weather we've had.

Aaaahhhhhhhh.... *delighted sigh* we've had such a great weekend, it was too good to be true. After the horrible, endless winter (it was still snowing a month ago), after all the crappy weather we've had since, SUMMER FINALLY ARRIVED!!! Woohoo! :D It was HOT and sunny, awwww it felt so good, it felt like heaven. Saturday especially, I spent a lot of time outdoors, reading, taking pictures, just being glad to be alive on such a beautiful day.

We paid for it yesterday night though. One of my biggest fears is to someday see a tornado heading straight for the house, and for a moment I thought that day at come. Rain and violent winds suddenly came out of nowhere, it hit all of a sudden. I rushed to shut the windows close and I thought I saw through the trees something large, high and grey... O_O In my panic I actually gave such a strong slam to the window that the frame cracked and broke. But in the end it was just some strange colum of wind and rain. It lasted for about 5 minutes and it stopped just like it started. I hate that kind of weather, it scares me to death :p

I *almost* got a job. Actually, I refused two jobs last Thursday, can you believe? One was two days a week as a receptionist, doing Mondays and Fridays. No thanks. The other one was a job as a "verification clerk" for some delivery service company (whose name starts by "Pur" and ends by "tor", not to name it ^^"). I was going to work from 1 to 9 pm, alone in an office, verifying data and stuff. Low-paid, too. So, again, no thanks. I just decided that I'm better off unemployed than accepting any boring job just for the sake of saying I have one.

I started watching Vampire Knight last week, up to episode 3. Episode 3 saved it, because I thought episodes 1 and 2 were so-so. The fangirls are especially annoying, and I was glad there was no fangirl scene in ep. 3. Good(-looking) cast of characters so far. And Mr. Cross can't help but remind me of Günter from Kyou Kara Maou, both in looks and personality ^^ So all in all I like it so far, I'll definitely watch some more.

Now THAT is something I wanted to do for months, but actually never had time before (that's what my life is all about :p) to figure out how to do it. The previous layout was something I chose quickly and never changed since then. I didn't want to create something from scratch, because customizing LJs is nearly impossible to do with free accounts. So, this is actually the Oddities theme and I replaced the header pic with my own.

Why Naesala? I'm not a Naesala fangirl, but he's one of my fave Fire Emblem PoR/RD characters (I've always had a thing for the bird tribes ^^). This is his Radiant Dawn artwork, and I stole the background from a Path of Radiance wallpaper. The lyrics are from Loreena McKennitt's "Courtyard Lullaby".

Years ago, I was a fan of a band called Grant Lee Buffalo. If the name doesn't ring a bell, maybe this video will:


So I really liked their album, and I listened to it often, and one day, horror! I dropped the CD on the floor. When I picked it up, it had bad scratches on it. It never played again. My stereo wouldn't play it, my CD player wouldn't play it, my discman wouldn't play it. There was nothing to do. I still held on to it, thinking maybe someday I'd find a way to make it play again. And today, so many years later, as I was going to store it in a moving box, I decided to give it a try in my Mac. I thought I could at least rip the one or two tracks that were unaffected by the scratches. The first track played fine, then the second, then the third... IT ALL PLAYED FINE!!!! I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't. It was dead, there was nothing to be done about it, and now it was playing like new! I don't know if it has anything to do with the CD player being vertical, or if it's just that lasers are better than they used to be, but goodness, isn't that amazing? :) I could finally listen to that album again after 13 years.

I have finally started reading the Escaflowne manga that I purchased months ago. I finished reading vol. 1 today. I have to say that I am surprised, it isn't what I was expecting. The manga Hitomi isnt that annoying (though she sometimes ends up half-naked for no reason... it's shonen after all), the annoying one is Van, whose name is Burn in this translation. He is acting like such a spoiled brat! And I thought he was bad enough in the anime series... So far the plot is similar, but different enough from the anime to feel like a different story. I'd say the manga is to the anime what the movie is to the anime. Roughly the same characters with similar backgrounds, but not exactly the same personalities.

On a different topic, rumors of Skies of Arcadia 2 being in production are surfacing again. Part of me wishes that it's true, and part of me wishes it will never happen. I'm afraid a sequel would ruin the spirit of the original (look at Baten Kaitos 2, I'll never swallow this one). If they do make a sequel, I hope it won't be a direct sequel with the same characters. I wish it would take place long before or after the original.

Yesterday at uni was great. In my group there was a girl who was in cegep with me 5 years ago. We recognized each other instantly, but we couldn't tell when and why. Then we talked and we realized we were together in that horrible Arts course I once had! It was nice to talk again. The other people in the group were quite shy as usual. At the end though a mother and her daughter asked me about the best neighborhoods to live here in the city. I gladly told them the same way I wish someone had told me BEFORE I moved in here. And I insisted on staying away from the neighborhood I'm currently living in (only 50 days before I'm leaving, yes, I am counting). I also gave them my e-mail addy, saying they could write to me if they any questions. Nice people.

I'm a bit anxious about starting the new job tomorrow. I just hope it won't keep me from sleeping.

I need to work on my LJ. I've said that before. I need to kick myself in the butt and do it this week. Change the layout, make icons. I'm also thinking of making it entirely friends-only.

My plans for today abruptly changed when I got a phone call for a job this morning. I'm going to start working on Monday at an architect office downtown. They say it's a small family business, so I guess that will be interesting (unless they're all a pain, ha ha). So I went shopping to buy some new office-suitable clothes. When I bought lunch I paid with a 5$ bill and the cashier immediately examined it: "It's a fake!" I'm all like... ??? o_O how can you tell? She showed me the difference. The people who make counterfeit money really ARE talented. I never would have guessed. It touched and, at first glance, looked just like the real thing. She says fake 5$ bills have become quite common lately. She gave it back to me... and I managed to get rid of it by paying with it in a store, eh eh. It was 10$-something, so I slipped it unnoticed under another 5$ bill. That cashier never noticed. Heck, it's not my fault I ended up with a fake bill in my wallet. Another person will get it and find another way to get rid of it.

Working for uni tomorrow morning. It's the welcoming day for all those who signed up for an education degree starting next Fall. I am going to be a guide, and take a group of people around the faculty, making some stops where they will learn about the courses and internships that we have. I did it last year, too, it was quite fun.

I said I'd post here again at the end of March. And look, it's already, almost, the end of April!! As you've probably guessed, April wasn't the laid-back month we expected to have after all. It's been just as bad as the rest, and the rest was bad enough!!

So I'm just posting this to let you know that I'm still alive. My last, final exam is on Wednesday next week, then I'll finally get a chance to live a little. I'm going to spend a few days at my parents' place right after to catch some rest. Then, I'll be able to start posting here again and keeping up with you guys.

So take care until then everyone, I miss you, and I'll catch up with you all very soon!

Or maybe I should say "studies first" as I have no life during semesters. Anyway, I'm posting this to let you know that I'm taking a bit of a break from LJ until the end of March/early April. And here is why:

1. This semester is organized "in reverse" compared to a normal semester, where the rush is at the end of it. Because we almost don't have courses in March (Spring break followed by two weeks of internship), almost all the work we have to do has to be handed in before March. So basically, even though the semester just started, we're already in a sort of end-of-semester rush. We'll be left with almost nothing to do in April (seriously).
2. The internship: as I was telling  badmadnad, I don't know where it comes from, but I'm determined to do absolutely everything I can to make my internship a success. Maybe the kids will still be monsters, maybe everything I try and do will fail miserably, but at least when I look back, I know I will have done everything I possibly could. However, this is very time-consuming, as I have a lot to prepare and organize.
   
3. Relocation: as you know, in July, I am supposed to share an apartment with J. and a friend of hers who's coming here to study at uni. Notice I wrote supposed to. Before the holidays, she started acting impatient and mean towards me. I blamed it on the end of the semester, since we were all sick and tired. However, she's still the same now that we're back. I don't feel like living everyday with someone so grumpy. *sigh* We'll need to have a discussion next week. Apartments for July will start being advertised in about a week or two, so a decision will have to be made. I know she will be mad at me and blame me for a million things. I used to think she was mature, and that she was a good friend. What a disappointment. Anyway, whether I'm moving in with her or not, I am leaving this place, so I will have to dedicate a lot of time over the next weeks to look for a new apartment. I don't want to be relocating again, but this place is way too noisy, plus I'm tired of living in a ghetto.
   

So the next two months and a half will be quite a roller-coaster ride for me. I know it will be hard, I know it will hurt, I know I will curse the day I decided to study education at uni (I already do), I know I will come home crying at the end of the day, BUT I WILL DO IT. Just you sit back and watch. At the end of March, I will post here again and tell you my internship is finally behind. I will tell you I worked hard and I am proud of the results. I will tell you I found a good place to live.