Let's Get Fit

Yay! My dad got m a Wii Fit for my birthday today! I really like it so far. I got a profile for myself up and running, and John made one as well.

I'm less than happy with the results of my first test, but I did the hula hoop one and it was super fun! I liked it a lot, even though it took me a minute to get the hang of it.

John is doing some strength training right now, and it's kinda fun to watch.

It's interesting: John did much better on the BMI and weight stuff, but since I did much better on center of balance and stuff stuff, my "Wii Fit Age" is only 30, while his is 36. Hmm.

Goal Completed

Today is my second anniversary with John. ( <3 ) Shortly after I woke up, he made me breaded lemon chicken for brunch (since I woke up around noon.) After a little bit of running around, I managed to find some matches, and we were able to have a romantic candlelit lunch. Shortly before a thunderstorm. :D

Goal #73: Complete.

Completed Goal!

I completed a new goal yesterday! I finally decided that I was done with looking for Sound of Music and West Side Story and found them online. Then I watched them. So goal #26 - Watch four classic musicals is now complete.

West Side Story: I really liked this one. Though the beginning was SO LONG. The drippy opening credit shot was five minutes. It is a little bit dated, of course. The gangfight thing at the beginning was really funny to watch. Neither gang seemed that bad, really. They both just wanted to hang out. Not like gang movies that come out now.

Sound of Music: I've seen a lot of parodies of a lot of parts of this film. OH MY GOD, IT'S SO LONG. I mean, it's really good, but it's hella long. The middle part, when the kids go from hating her to loving her, went much faster than I expected. I would really like the soundtrack for this movie.

'Nother Book!

I went camping with my dad early this week, and my sister brought the third book in the series I've been reading. It's actually a trilogy. I can't remember the name of it, though. The book itself was called The Reckoning. It was so good! I loved it! I actually started rereading it immediately, which is something I don't think I've ever done. I'm also currently drawing fanart of it. The last novel I drew fanart for was .. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Which came out a while ago.

Bookssss

I thought I posted this a while ago, but the servers (or something) were messed up, so we couldn't post new entries. Anyway.

I finished two more books! I finally finished Wicked, by Gregory Macguire, and just last night I finished The Awakening, by Kelly Armstrong.

I liked 90% of Wicked. The first 90%, to be specific. It was the same issue I had with Gunslinger, actually. It was a normal plot for most of the book, and then bam! Philosophy. Not really what I wanted. I think that the Wizard being her father was meant to be more of a shock. Even though I haven't seen the play, I'm much more familiar with that version of the story because I know the music so well. It was.. really not the same story. :<

As for The Awakening, I still really like this series. (The Summoning being the first book.) Trilogy, I suppose. Technically. But it's about a group of kids from age 15ish - 16ish who all have some sort of magical power. It's aimed at highschoolers. But I really like them! They're super enjoyable to read. There's one book left, The Reckoning, I believe. Ellie owns it, and she's gonna loan it to me as soon as she can.

This brings my total book count up to 35.

Two Major Purchases!

Yay! Over the last week or so, I completed two different goals, both in the "Major Purchases" category. My older stepbrother bought himself a new TV a couple weeks ago, so he gave his old (still very nice TV) to my little sister. She then gave me her old-but-still-nice-and-newer-than-mine TV. It's got wonderful picture, sound, and it's got all the right plugins. I don't need my VHS workaround anymore! :D

And, second, I finally spent my Detour money on a Wii! I'm so excited! I was originally gonna wait until after E3, but after research and advice, I went with one of Gizmodo's Deals of the Day and got it with free shipping, plus a 30$ game credit, which I spent on a dance pad for DDR3. I've also got Raving Rabbids and Super Mario Galaxy waiting, as well. I'm thrilled. I'm probably gonna ask my dad for the Wii Fit for my birthday or something.

Also, I finally started actively working on my 'get in shape' goal. I exercised yesterday a whole ton, and I plan to keep working at it until it's done.

#4, #30, and #50

I made some pretty big progress today!

First, I completed goal #30: Drink one bottle of water every day for a week. I really love drinking water, but I have a hard time carrying the bottle around with me, especially with my bag so full of school things already. I have it clipped to the bag via a carribeaner, but it always bangs the bottle into things all the time. :/ But, I finished the goal! I think I'm going to try and locate my bit (half liter) bottle, if only because it doesn't make a silly noise when I drink out of it.

Then, early this afternoon (technically late this morning?), Virginia and Amanda (mostly Amanda) taught me how to use Bare Essentials makeup. I know that the brand is spelled differently, but I can't remember how it's done right now. But the makeup was really easy to do, once I saw it done. I'm going in early next week to buy my own starter kit, so that I'll have the stuff for Detour.

Finally, after doing makeup stuff, we all went out to the cross stitch store in Minnetonka, and I bought a little starter kit thingy! It's Pooh and Eeyore, and it's super cute. I've been working on it for a couple of hours, and I've got nine rows done! Well. Nine rows of Eeyore. But still! Its fun!

Goal #100 - Bake a Layered Cake

Goal #100 is complete~! :D

Me, John and Laura baked a layered cake on Monday, March 22. We had a lot of fun making the batter and frosting and stuff. We didn't make enough frosting to cover the cake, though, and we didn't make it thick enough, so it looks like this terrifying green liquid oozed over the top layer of the cake.
Also, something is wrong with John's oven, and it doesn't heat up when it says it has. So.. the oven wasn't hot enough when we put the cake in, so when the cake came out, it wasn't done. We caught it on the top layer, but not the bottom. So the top layer was done, but fell apart, and then the bottom layer was whole and nice, but not cooked all the way through. xD

The parts that were baked all the way were delicious. I intend to post pictures once I find my camera cord.

Goal #22 - Read 50 books

I finished The Gunslinger, by Stephen King, about ten minutes ago. It's the first in the Dark Tower series.

I thought it was.. okay. I didn't really like the ending. It went along for most of the time, and I really liked it, but then it got all.. religion-ey at the end. There were a number of allusions, and I don't think I like them.

I'll probably read the next books in the series, but only because I already own them. My dad and stepmom bought them for me when I was.. 14? 13? I'm glad I didn't read them when I got them. I got a good chapter in, but it just isn't meant for someone that age.

Little Shop of Horrors

I finally found the right version of Little Shop of Horrors!

I thought it was funny that the only characters who could actually sing were the three chorus girls. Also Rick Moranis WAT. I love him. :D He's such a dork. I really like Audry and how she spoke, but OH MY GOD, I could not stand her singing voice. Which is sad, because I really liked her songs!

It was very much not what I expected. I didn't know anything about the story before I watched it. I thought it was about like.. early high school kids, first of all. And I thought that the whole shop was full of magic plants.

Overall I liked it, and I'm glad I saw it, but I wouldn't go out and get the soundtrack. Unless they got people who can sing. Then I might. ...Maybe.

84 - Reach Rank 20

I did it! Last night I finally hit rank 20 in WARhammer!

I started out the night at rank 17, and I was questing around and doing stuff in the very bottom of Ostland (OH MY GOD, I HATE T2), when John came to meet me on his Swordmaster. We completed the quests I had in the bottom of T2, then went to Altdorf for some reason that I can't remember, then went to the bottom part of the Elf zone's T2. We did some questing down there, when we realized that I'd get more experience if me and John weren't in a party together.

We also almost soloed a public quest, right at the beginning of High Pass? Basically, if we'd both been a level higher, we would have done it. We did do one public quest, inside of this HUGE building that I can't remember the name of. And a slayer, arcmage and a knight showed up, so we did the PQ together. I ended up being #1 contribution! Yaay! We had possibly the best healer I've ever encountered. Not that that's saying much from me, but she was really good. John was considering inviting her to the guild. I think his game crashed or something, though, so he didn't get a chance. I don't really remember why. But! I had hit rank 20 during that last PQ, so after letting myself die (so I'd be sent back to the Warcamp), I flew off to Altdorf and bought myself a spotted horse mount. I'm so happy.

I'm also finally out of Tier fucking two. :D

Fables

So I was thinking the other day.

I realized that Watchmen is officially considered a "novel." And I figured that if Watchmen is, why can't other graphic novels? So, from here on int and retroactively, I'm going to include graphic novels in my book count.

So those first six Fables books I read? Yeah. Those count. I'm now halfway done with goal #22: Read 50 books.

Brain Age

I ended up going to Game Stop yesterday (after groceries. Ugh.) and bought a used copy of Brain Age 2! After spending 20 minutes trying to figure out how to delete save files (before I realized that the internet probably knows), I created my own, did my first couple of Daily Training exercises and a Brain Age check, then moved on to the Sudoku~

I'm already 11% done. I bought it less than 24 hours ago. =3= I really missed it, ok?

For anyone curious, my starting Brain Age was 45. I took another test today, though, and it was down to 42. Turns out I've still got reflexes, especially when it comes to Sign Finder. My first time playing in several months, and I got 29 seconds. Not quite as good as I used to get, but passable. It's a little upsetting, though, that I don't have my old graphs for the trainings. I really liked going through all of them and looking at my progress. :( I guess I could always try to be bad at Sign Finder?

John is making a profile tomorrow, on my copy. I'm excited to have someone to compete with!

Working Away...

I'm working on things, I really am. General update, GO!

I'm actually taking a break from cleaning my room right now. I'm going to clear off my chair and put as much of it away as I can, then I'm going to put all of my laundry where it belongs (either in the closet or in the "to be washed" pile). The biggest issue here is that since my chair has been my I-don't-know-where-to-put-this-oh-I'll-just-put-it-here-for-now spot for... months, there's a lot of stuff on it. >.<

I subscribed to WARhammer last week! I'm really happy I did. I'm having a lot of fun with it. It's my first time playing an MMO, and I really like it. I helped John create a guild the other day, too, which was really neat. I'm at level 14 now, with like 60% of the level done. I'm gonna consider this goal complete when I hit 20 and buy my mount. :D

There's a good chance that I'll buy Brain Age 2 within the next few days, so I can finally start over on my Sudoku goal. >.<

I started reading Dracula the other day, too. It's really creepy, but since it was written so long ago (and I'm reading the original version, I think. The original English version? I dunno), the English is really weird sometimes, and it can be difficult to understand. I have to read 1.8 books per month in order to get this goal completed on time. I'm hoping to finish more than that this months, especially since I've been getting into the habit of reading before bed when John isn't over.

I used an Intous 4 for the first time the other day, and I'm really not sure if I like it. I really don't think I like how the buttons are laid out. :/

I'm planning on getting a better TV as soon as I can transport it home. When that happens, John and I are likely to buy a Wii together, 75/25, since I want to keep it at my house.

Aaaaaannd..... yeah. That's all I have to say for now. Better get cleaning, I guess.

Goal #11 - Clean My Room

I've been working on my room today! I threw out an entire garbage bag worth of stuff, and I've filled most of a second. The area next to my bed (the floor) is basically clear now, and I put a box of papers under the bed for storage. Holy shit, having a real bedframe is sooooo nice. I feel so much better not sleeping on the floor every night. It's even got shelves! I'm so glad that my dad kept the bedframes from when we were kids. I think this one used to be Ellie's frame from the bunkbeds she used to share with Jack. Anyway, there's still a ton of work to do, but being able to physically see the progress I'm making makes me much more optimistic about it. I think that within the next couple of days, I'm going to go through my clothes again and do a major clean-out. I have a lot of clothes from high school (and earlier!) that are either too small or I just don't like or wear anymore. I gave Nate back seven (seven!) shirts the other day. I have to figure out what I'm going to do with Ivan's clothes. I'm going to keep some of them, in storage or something, but I don't know what to do with the rest of them. I asked John if he was interested, since they're just about the same exact size, but he wasn't interested. Which makes sense, really.