Fear the Crab

My trip to school on Tuesday was.. eventful. First I dropped off that lab account application, and they told me it’d be ready in 5 or 10 minutes. So I think, “Cool” and head to the lab to check up on it. Lo and behold, there’s a class using the lab, and according to the schedule sheet, the lab wouldn’t be open until 1800! Being that it was only 1330, I wasn’t going to stick around and wait. I went to the Academic office to make an appointment, and found out that they only take same-day appointments (which is very strange, considering that they’re appointments). I guess that’s like a first-come, wait-to-be-served kind of deal. They gave me a phone number to call, and maybe I’ll call tomorrow. Since I couldn’t get an appointment, I went to the other computer lab to meet up with a classmate, and we hashed out some of the math homework. I don’t think we really learned anything, though.

Then I spent an hour in traffic. I hate traffic.

Tomorrow will be the second day of class for me, which feels funny because it’s already been two weeks of school. I’ll have to turn in my homework assignments, and I hope I’ve done them correctly, printed them in an acceptable format, and answered all pertinent questions. I guess I’ll find out.

In AC news, I paid off my final house. I hear if you keep depositing money in the post office, you’ll get a nifty prize. I also tried some of those trading codes, and they seemed to work, sorta. One item was said to be for another person, so I’m wondering if Maile mistyped my name or town by accident. It didn’t matter, though, as it was for an item I later got on my own. Tomorrow will be the day I try to send things to people other than Maile. George wants a whole bunch of Modern furniture, which will help him towards his series collection, and also a couple of old-school NES games. That’ll be a lot of codes for him to type out.

The day started pretty badly. I woke up with this stabbing pain in my side. I first thought it was gas, but it didn’t go away. It felt like there was a rock or something inside my abs.

Then I picked up Maile before I went to work, so that I could drop her off at her mom’s workplace. Along the way, there were a lot of stupid drivers, the kind of people who just don’t understand the concept of “right of way.”

Work itself was okay, except that stabbing pain was still there.

Called Maile during my break, and as we talked, something evil happened on her Animal Crossing game. Goes down like this: Maile was visiting my town while I was at work. She finished some errands and some fishing, then she talked to the Porter to get back on the train to her own town. The Porter saved data in my town, and as it saved, she handed the controller to her brother. As soon as he touched the controller, the screen went black, and the System menu appeared (the one where you can set the time, fiddle with the memory card, “Press Start” to play a game, etc). The Gamecube itself was not touched, and by the brother’s account he had only pressed the R button when it happened. And as the manual would explain, my girlfriend’s character lost all her items and her money when the game restarted. Both towns seem fine (items she dropped in my town are still there), but the real puzzler is why the game reset like that in the first place. I don’t think AC has a soft-reset function (aside from when playing the NES games), and even if it did, I doubt pressing only the R button would cause it. I have no idea how or why it happened, and as a result I have no clue how to prevent it from happening again.

Then I came home, and I have to do homework. At least that stabbing pain went away.

Irene still surprises me. She told me that she didn’t really like the movie Schindler’s List because “it was a black-and-white movie.” If that weren’t bad enough, she also said she doesn’t eat soba because “the noodles are brown.” I told her that she’s bordering on close-mindedness. To say that a movie is “okay” simply because it’s in black-and-white isn’t a very strong argument. If she told me the acting was panned and the storyline was something out of a magazine, then I’d seriously consider her point, but just because the movie’s not in color boggles the senses. I wonder if there are a lot of people in the world like that?

In Animal Crossing, I finally caught that friggin’ bee. I immediately gave it to Maile so that she won’t have to go through the stress. Now I just have to catch my own.

Maile and I are planning a double-date dinner with Irene and Tolkien. This was a spur of the moment kind of thing, and I don’t even know where we’ll be going. I do know it’s some yakiniku place called Million, but I’ve never heard of it. It’s for a Tuesday, since both myself and Irene have the day off (and no school), and both Maile and Tolkien finish school around 1630.

In Animal Crossing, I finally got the golden shovel. I don’t know what’s special about it aside from the gold color, but it seems whenever I randomly dig in some place I get a bag of money. There’s no mark on the ground to signify there’s anything there, too. It just appears. Wow. Maile has already paid off her debt for the current house expansion, and so she added a basement. Already she’s planning the theme for her carpet, wallpaper and furniture. I’m starting to consider buying the Gameboy Advance because of the extra options enabled for Animal Crossing, but I still must consider the cost benefits, whether or not it’s worth shelling out the bucks for something I may only use sparingly.

School starts on the 13th, but I will only go to school one day a week. That’s a programming class, ICS 212, and it’s from 1800 to 2040, so hopefully traffic won’t be too bad and there will be parking in the structure. The other class I’m taking is the math class, ICS 241, and it’s an online course, which will greatly benefit my work schedule.

I am officially addicted to Animal Crossing. Maile is also addicted, which is good because that means we can visit each others’ game towns and get cool stuff. Who would’ve thought that such a simple game could be so time-consuming? Of course, school will start next week, so that will probably mean we won’t have as much time as we used to, but hopefully we’ll still be able to see each other, even if it’s not because of the game. I should hope a game wouldn’t be the only reason we’d see each other.

I’m slowly getting used to working a long shift. It’s only been one week since the store switched back to a 7-hour day, but after a year of 4-hour days, it sometimes feels so strange. I think what really helps me get through the day is the fact that I can talk with my friends.

Irene was thinking of returning to bangs for her hairstyle. I remember she used to have arcing bangs, if that’s how to describe them. I’ve never been good at describing hair. George mentioned today that his car is messy, and so he drove one that was “less messy.” Had some cute kids running amok in the store; it’s like a trip to the zoo.

After work I went over to Maile’s house, and we played Animal Crossing for a couple of hours. The game is a lot of fun, and it’s even better when you have other friends you can involve. There’s a lot more one can do when there are other towns to visit.

Today’s word(s):
Ineffable
Infalliable

I haven’t been posting that often, mainly because of the holidays, and also because my brother is visiting and using my computer to while away the time playing games. I also got Animal Crossing for the Gamecube, and it’s a very fun game. I already know two other people that have it: Maile (which is uber cool!) and George (tres bien!). I’ve already visited Maile’s town, and I came to find out that when I got back to my town, someone from my village moved to her town. In that person’s place is someone new, and I’m assuming right now that this person is from Maile’s town, but I won’t know until I confirm.

I dreamt I was watching George play a video game, when it seemed as though I were watching it up close and personal. I was in the game, and the characters were moving around me in a Mario-esque type of way as they tried to get to a certain location while monsters flew by and around and dropped nasty things. One of the monsters dropped something in my direction, and then I saw a medical team arrive to treat any infections incurred by what the monsters dropped. As the characters were being treated, I looked down at my right forearm and saw what looked like two gray slimy earthworms sticking out of my skin. I tried to pull them out, but they was embedded deep as I could feel the tugging within my arm. I went up to that medical team, and one of them assisted me by literally hooking both earthworm-type thingies with small wires, and pulling them out with some device. The ends of those things popped off with no pain, but now it meant that I could remove the parts inside my arm. Even though my mind was telling me not to do it, I squeezed out my right arm like a toothpaste tube, and this black sticky substance oozed out, followed by six small rubbery nubs, like pencil erasers. I remarked to the medical team that the stupid things left six roots in me, and they seemed pretty surprised.

There was a second part to my dream, that of me being incarcerated in a strange prison. My dad worked at the prison, which meant he had to watch his son spend time in jail. My mom and my sister visited me, and my sister wanted me to help her with her doll collection by getting and sending out the various dolls I would be able to get from prison. What’s weird is that we were all haole, and I don’t have a sister. It felt pretty real, though.