Updated:
Laurent - Bookbinding (July 10)
Desmond - Luca!praise (July 11)
Paige - 'Pond Creature' Sighting (July 12)
Hector - Crime Scene Cemetery (July 12)
Laurent - Fruity Smells (July 13)

Nothing bad happened today, I'm just hormonal and moody. I've been going back and reading old journal entries from high school, which is definitely masochistic.

Eh. Anyway, I've been watching the Gold Cup with dad lately. Originally it was just for Laurent's benefit, but now I actually don't mind watching the USA games. I doubt I'll branch out and watch other countries, though.

I bought dad and I each a shirt from here, dad the cryptid one and the alchemy one for me. Hector approves of the latter, of course.

Today I went with dad to get him a new cell phone, because he's had the same one for about ten years (the salespeople at Sprint were very amused when they saw dad's old phone, haha). He wanted a phone for business in case he'd have to travel, so he got a really neat Palm Treo Pro. As a sort of impulse buy, I got a new phone too, just because it was fairly cheap ($49). I got the purple Lotus which is super-pretty, and it has picture messaging which my old phone didn't have (or at least I couldn't send pictures; I could only receive them before). It has a GPS too and all sorts of other neat things, including a really nice camcorder. So I'm excited :D I've been playing with it lots today.

One unfortunate thing is the 'send' button on my new phone is exactly where the 'backspace' button was on my old phone, so a couple times already I've hit that on accident and sent people typo'd, half-written messages, haha. Oops. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon though.

I'm okay now, but things were pretty tense earlier in the day. Mom was very stressed out to the point that it was turning into anger, and she was just lashing out at people. Things calmed down later in the day, though, thankfully. Meh, I'll just be happy when everything is settled.

I have to remember that the Gold Cup starts tomorrow night. Laurent will want to watch it. I have to journal post for a few of my characters tomorrow too, but I think I'm too tired for it tonight. Today's been busy.

Oh, I forgot. Dad, mom, Kenny and I all went to the St. Louis Zoo on Wednesday. That was fun though we didn't stay too long because Kenny wanted to leave. While there though, my digital camera broke - something's wrong with it display that causes all pictures to be almost completely black save for some purple-ish streaks through it. I've had that camera since 2004! I guess it lasted pretty long considering. Canon said they could fix it for $89, but I figure I may as well buy a new one if it's going to cost that much.

Updated:
Laurent - Soccer (again) (June 19)
Laurent - Confed Semifinal (June 27)
Laurent - Confed Final + Perfumery (June 30)

He's evidently really talkative lately. But he's amusing so it's fine.

( Family woes )

I have been drowning myself in video games primarily to escape the stress. I bought Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for my DS and the car chases are proving unfortunately difficult. Also, chat RP is good. I've also purchased a bunch of beads so I'll focus on jewelry-making once they arrive in the mail. I really miss school. I need to keep busy.

Yay, dad's getting me a horseshoe today. Sooo looking forward to that. I'll take pictures because Jessi is grossed out by them, haha :)

Updated:
Paige - Lake Champlain Sighting (June 15)
Laurent - Soccer (June 16)
Desmond - Observatory (June 16)

My sinuses are acting up again, gah. It's not so much the sinus pain that's bothering me as much as the fatigue. Whenever I have sinus pain, it's always accompanied by this insane urge to just sleep all day. I hate it because I have no energy to do anything but just... sit. And sleep. I am taking the non-drowsy medicine but it's not really helping.

Gotta remember to list a couple more things on Ebay today.

Mom and dad have tickets to go see John Edward next week, haha. So they're going to St. Louis for the day and I'm staying home to watch Ian and Kenny. Mom's pretty excited about it.

Updated:
Desmond - Sire Snark (June 10)
Laurent - Chinatown (June 13)

Mom wanted me to make a rosary as a gift for Springfield's current bishop, because he's moving in a couple weeks to become the archbishop of Omaha. She bought these high-quality malachite beads for me to use, and they were really awesome. I was stupid and forgot to take a picture before she dropped it off to him. Oh well.

Another of my rosaries sold on Etsy tonight too so that made me happy :) I don't even use rosaries myself, but for whatever reason they're just really relaxing to make, heh.

Last night kind of sucked. At about 2:30AM I opened the first floor bathroom door and noticed it was completely flooded. Ooookay, I thought, and went right up to wake up mom and dad cuz I didn't know what to do. We found out that water had also begun seeping down into my dad's office/computer room which is in the basement, right below the bathroom. Thankfully no electronics were damaged, but lots of papers and books were really water-damaged. And it was really good that this was clean water and not sewage-y water so the only smell down there is the sort of musty smell from the water mixing with all of dad's old books that had been stacked in piles on the floor. We have one of those deep-cleaning carpet vacuums that suck up water, so dad used that on the carpet in there and filled the thing four or five times I think :\ Dad, mom and Ian all worked to move everything out of the computer room while I watched Kenny upstairs. Dad thinks he knows what the problem is now and that he can fix it. Hope so!

Tomorrow would have been my grandpa's birthday, so mom wants me to go on a few errands to pick up some things for my grandma. Mom wants to make grandma a cake, so I have to get ingredients for that, then mom wants me to pick up a couple CDs to give grandma too.

I think I'm going to get my cousin Becky to get me a job at Goodwill where she works, haha. I'm to the point where I am beginning not to care where so long as I have a little money coming in (though I still refuse to work in food. I just have a paranoia about it x_x).

Dad and I finished watching season 2 of Carnivale tonight, and I was very disappointed to have it end. It really did end too soon, lots of things left open, but it was an awesome series regardless and I'll definitely be buying it in the future. I found it originally by randomly browsing for things to watch on Netflix, and opted to add it to my queue. I'm glad I did!

I highly rec for those who like their TV shows to have a rich mythology, an intricate storyline, and a wealth of fascinating characters.

For those who haven't seen it, here's a trailer for season 1. Season 2's even better, though!

Full Name: Laurent Hall
Birth date: December 2, 1966
Death date: December 29, 1992
Race: Vampire
Clan: Daeva
Bloodline: Gulikan
Covenant: Ordo Dracul
Rank: Dedicated Scholar of Pain
Real Age: 42
Age Appears: 26

( Full Profile )

(Tell me if there's anything that needs changing, Jessi~ It's open for editing. Maybe we can work some already-existing relationship out or something. Lemme know :3)

'Believe' is such a weird word choice to use; I'm sure everyone believes it's possible. As for whether or not everyone personally strives for it, I'm sure the question was meant to address that. Or at least that's how most people seem to be answering it. I don't really talk about this much in my circle of friends because I feel like the minority and don't want to offend anyone. Not that I would try to offend anyone, but I might say something and someone would interpret it wrong. So in preface, I'll emphasize that I'm really, really not trying to do that. No matter what I hold as an ideal, if you hold true to something different, then I respect you for that.

I had never even been exposed to the idea of polygamy until I became an avid internet user. No one I had ever known was in anything but a monogamous relationship. My parents are still happily married after twenty-two years and I see that interaction every day. Of course they miff each other off on occasion - I think it'd be impossible for anyone not to get in an argument now and then - but they always work through it because they care about each other. Both sets of my grandparents were together until one of the pair passed away, and after that, neither of them remarried because their partner was it for them. My grandma still gets weepy all the time because she misses my grandpa, and after having him there for fifty-four years, I really can't blame her in the slightest. The only one of my aunts and uncles that have ever had a divorce was an uncle who divorced his wife because she was always constantly drunk, so much so that she was unable to take care of their kids. He remarried and has been married ever since, and all of my other aunts and uncles who have been married are still together.

( This is sort of long. )

( And now for something completely different. )

It's been unexpectedly busy lately, just with tons of errands to run. And Kenny got sick yesterday, so I had to go pick him up from school, etc etc. Here are my grades, though:

Fundamentals of Investigation - A
Intro to Forensic Science - A
Intro to Creative Writing - B
Intro to Teacher Education - B

I finished reading Blood Brothers recently. I'd been reading it off and on for the past few weeks in between classes at school, but I really liked it. I've read several other books by that author, and I've liked those too.

Dad and I also watched the first four episodes of the second season of Carnivale. After we finish with it, I'll have to find something else for us to watch together, haha. DwtS is ending tomorrow night too, and that's something that the two of us watch together as well.

I've been slooowly working on Laurent's profile between things. I'm really hoping to finish soon.

Oh, yes. If anyone wants to see my ears, ( here they are. )

Finished writing my CV for the internship. Going to have mom and dad proof-read it, then I'm going to finish the layout for it, then I'll mail it off on Monday. I'm going to take a picture of it when I'm done, because I'm pretty sure it's going to be fabulous, haha. You'll seeee.

Also, now I've definitely decided I want to make a character belonging to the Ordo Dracul. I just think it'd be interesting because my other vampires belong to a covenant so group-focused and equality-focused, and it might be interesting to play a Dragon in contrast who is more self-focused. Plus the Dragons aren't as politically-focused as Carthians are. I just have to think very carefully about his interests/personality/etc. so that he'll have something in common with someone else. Or at least have interaction potential with others, heh. Though in terms of bloodline, neither of the ones I picked out before would really work for this so I have to through them out. But that's okay.

And I have a PB in mind. I started looking for pictures of new people today, and ironically, the one I liked best was the very first one I looked at, hah. The pictures of him are in a flash thing so I have to make screenshots to get the pictures, and I can't make screenshots until I get photoshop, so I'm installing that now.

Dad and I got through disk four of the first season of Carnivale last night. What I think is awesome is that for the last four episodes, mom's been watching with us. She complains "This show is disturbing and weird and I don't want to see it" and yet she sits there and watches it completely through anyway, haha :D

Today I'm going to finish up my CV for the summer internship, so it can be mailed Monday. I'm reeeally hoping I'll get it :) Have to wait and see.

My computer's being a bitch. This version of Windows won't let me install any software made for operating systems before XP. Yes, I've tried compatibility mode and all of that, but they still won't work. So I can't play VtM: Redemption, or the Gabriel Knight games, or anything like that. But dad did get me Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon recently, and since I hadn't played it yet, I installed that and played completely through it last night. The game's puzzles are impossibly hard. There's no way to complete most of them without consulting the walkthrough word for word.

However, it did get me pondering for RP ideas. And so I got the Ordo Dracul source book and am going to read through that today. If I like it, I might have to let a future character be part of that covenant. I might be interested in the Lancea Sanctum too though. I don't knoooow.

Because of various reasons, dad and I are stepping down from being MUFON investigators. Here's the e-mail my dad sent to the head of Illinois MUFON: ( Click here )

He sent us back this reply, which made us both LOL last night. ( Here )

He's just in serious denial that there's issues or something. But, whatever; we tried to give a lot of constructive feedback, and the fact that it was pretty much ignored just makes us all the more reassured that our decision to step down was a good one.

Updated:
Greg and Desmond - Scene about Luca (April 27)
Desmond - Private Entry (April 28)

I've had ideas for new characters lately, heh. This post is mainly for Jessi to help me, but other people can chime in if they have an opinion.

( Bloodlines I Like )

( PBs I Like )

Sooo... thoughts? Or do you have something else in mind I might be good at? Those two bloodlines were immediately appealing to me.

I've felt horrible most of the day. Mainly sinus pain, and whenever my sinuses hurt, it's always accompanied by drowsiness so I slept way more than I should have, meh. So I didn't get ANY writing done yet. I fail so hard.

However, I have completed an outline for myself, so I know exactly what I have to write. I have fourteen hours to write it, so I should be fine. Though as lame as it sounds I think I need to take another hour or two-long nap first, gah. I hate sinus stuff because it always makes me feel so damn tired and sluggish.

I have a feeling I'm going to like my story, though. I'll definitely post it once I'm satisfied with it, after my classmates offer up their critiques. My writing class is so pitiful now, though. Two more people seemed to have dropped, so there's... five students in the class now? Something like that. Yeah.

Also, I need some help. Ian is looking for the name of the singer/song of a particular music video. He doesn't remember the lyrics, but it's a female vocalist. In it, she has a cheating boyfriend. There is a scene at a bar, wherein the singer fights with the ex-boyfriend's new girl while some superhero-type guys beat up on her ex. I think I've seen the video at some point too, I just have no clue who the hell it is. He says he's really hankering to hear this song, so if anyone can help me out, that'd be awesome.

Updated:
Desmond - Let the Right One In (April 16)
Desmond - Conversations with Strangers (April 18)
Desmond - Silence (April 19)

Lucaaaaa, he's attention-needy :( Help.

I have to write a 5-8 page fiction story for Thursday, about anything I want. I don't know what to write. See, for all the other assignments in my writing class, I wrote them the day that they were due. I have a feeling this time isn't going to be any different, heh.

Yesterday I got a new copy of XP again, not from Ebay this time, so it does actually work now. *chuckle*

Yesterday I also did my FAFSA, too. I think it's weird that my parents still have to fill out part of it even though they're not going to be paying for anything x_x I think this is the last year they'll have to do it though. I'm definitely going to be in school three more semesters at least.

Also, I registered for classes! My fall schedule will be as follows:

Monday/Wednesday
Understanding Other Cultures 12:00-1:40PM

Tuesday
Women, Gender, and Society 6:00PM-9:30PM

Online
Social Stratification
Adolescent Culture
UIS Speaker Series (with four on-campus visits during the semester)

Updated:
Desmond - Prison Food (April 2)
Desmond - Name (April 3)
Desmond - Days of the Week (April 7)

There's an opening for college interns at the museum, paid and 3 months long during the summer, so I'm going to apply. The point of it is basically to allow students a chance to get experience with research and dealing with the collections. I'm going to design an awesome curriculum vitae to send in. I'm happy they're accepting more than one person, because I always have more hope when more than one is chosen, heh.

Thursday was Ian's birthday. He's 19 now, which means next year he'll be 20. That's so odd to me.

Dad and I have been talking about going to yoga classes again. The last time we went to them together was my senior year of high school, and I really miss it. Though the upcoming class series is on Tuesday/Thursday, and I'd have to miss several because of school. We might wait until the next series starts in June so I won't have to worry about it. Plus I know that my school classes are Monday and Wednesday nights in the fall, so it wouldn't interfere with that either.

Speaking of school classes, registration for fall classes starts April 16th. The classes I hope to enroll in are: Adolescent Development; Understanding Other Cultures; Introduction to Archaeology; and The Sociology of Death, Dying, and Bereavement. This is the first time I can really remember being this excited about my college classes. When I was a little kid I always had this fantastic, idealistic dream of being like Indiana Jones when I grew up. In high school, I applied to get into a college classical archaeology progam but was turned down. I'm not necessarily interested in specifically just archaeology now, but regardless I feel as if what I'm doing is... right, I guess? It feels good and I'm really excited about it, so I'm going to do my best.

Also, when the next training dates for the UIS Safe Zone Program roll around, I'm going to go to those and then apply to be an Ally. I'll probably join some other club in addition to that, too; I just feel awkward for having done nothing at RMC, and I'm sure my resume suffers for it, so I want to make up for that at UIS.

I'm just hanging around waiting for people to wake up. It always makes me happy to see Kenny's face light up when he sees what the Easter Bunny has brought him.

Blizzard totally punked me here. For a few horrifying minutes I thought it was actually real. DAMN YOU, BLIZZARD. That is an insane amount of work to put into a joke, haha.

Updated:
Hector - Otto (April 1)

Yesterday I fininshed applying for the transfer student scholarship, and while I'm kind of doubting that I'll get it since so many people are applying, I figured that it couldn't hurt to try anyway.

I want to register for classes, but can't. I've gone back and forth with tech support and the admissions office, and they're trying to figure out why it's not letting me register. I hope they figure it out soon though because I'm so excited about the classes I'm going to be taking in the fall.

Finished watching Diary of the Dead yesterday. The end was particularly unsatisfying. I want to know what happens to people at the end of movies like this, and so often they don't tell you. Annoying :p

Jessi and I started working on the rule list for the RP room. Exciting :3

HI :D I'm back. It was soooo fun in Chicago. I want to go back like... now, haha.

When we got there, Becky, Kayla and I attempted to find Rock Records, but discovered that it had gone out of business or something. But then we ate at the Merchandise Mart, then went to the Hello Kitty store because Kayla wanted to. Then we went to People Play Games, which was SO cool. It's all old consoles and games. I checked to see if they had the first Gabriel Knight game, but they didn't, woe. Afterward, we went to Chicago Comics, which was neat, but I'm not really that into comics. Becky was excited to go though. Our final shopping place on Saturday was The Alley, which was awesome. Their collection of jewelry was nice, but I didn't get anything because I shouldn't buy more until I'm at my goal size, heh.

Then we headed over to Sub-T for the concert. We were the first people there besides the bands. We weren't sure if we were supposed to be going in or not, haha. So we did, and were told to get out. Unfortunately it had started raining by then, and the wind was horrible, so we had to huddle in a doorway next door to semi-escape the elements. The doors didn't open at 5 as planned, and when they finally did, all of us were annoyed and wet and freezing, hah.

But the concert itself was awesome. I had never heard Par Avion before but I really liked their music, so I picked up their CD after the concert. Femme Fatality wasn't my favorite, but I liked watching them. They were very touchy-feely with the audience, hah. Comasoft was last, and they were awesome. They use an ungodly amount of fog, so it's difficult to get pictures, but I managed some:
1 (Duke was very happy when Jay came out in military garb, LOL)
2 (Note the sparkly nail polish, haha)
3
4

Bailey is sort of infatuated with Jay, mostly because he looks kinda like a younger version of Michael, hah.

Music:
"One to One" - Comasoft
"Say It All" - Comasoft
"Love Me Digital" - Par Avion
"Zombie America" - Par Avion

After the concert, we went to dinner and then slept. Then got up in the morning and shopped more at Woodfield Mall. Then went to dinner at Giordano's for pizza which was SO YUMMY. Then came home :D

The garage sale went really well over the weekend :) Sadly I've since spent some of my earnings. I had to get a new pair of tennis shoes because the ones I have now are falling apart, and I didn't want to wear something that would hurt my feet this weekend. I leave really early Saturday morning to go to Chicago, and don't get back til maybe 11 or midnight Sunday night.

It's supposed to rain in Chicago on Saturday though, so I had to go buy an umbrella too yesterday. We have a couple umbrellas already, but... er, they're none I'd want to be seen in public with. You know, like umbrellas with portraits of William Shakespeare on them and stuff. But my mom loves ones like that, hah.

Have to write a few critiques for tomorrow's writing class, on the creative nonfiction assignments that a few of my classmates wrote. I have so little motivation because I'm ready for the weekend! D:

OH, and: Comasoft is having a pre-concert online radio show thing, but it's at 6PM tomorrow ;_; Which is the start of my second class. I can't skip class, so I'm sad.

I finished watching the first season of The Lair today, and before I leave for my trip I have Diary of the Dead to watch. I like Netflix :D

Updated:
Hector - Secrets (March 17)

SciFi Channel to Become Syfy - How stupid :D

I got a Twitter account recently but didn't really post in it until today. I don't know how much I'll use it. But, erm, Bailey really wants a Twitter account, hah. Bastien doesn't have the means to use Twitter; Hector's not really that big of phone user; Greg's not really interested; Desmond wouldn't do it by himself. But Bailey finds it very shiny and wants to play with it. Gah XD

Dad wants me to enter the Blizzard contest :p Oye. Though I actually have been playing Diablo II again lately. Currently I'm leveling a little more before I go to face Diablo himself. The problem is that I haven't read any of the Diablo novels, so if I write, I'd have to base it solely off of in-game stuff.

Things I didn't get to yesterday and some new things:
_x_ Contact program rep at university to set up a meeting
_x_ Mail Ebay package
_x_ Mark prices on clothes for garage sale
_x_ Figure out what I'm going to write my paper on

ESPECIALLY THAT LAST ONE, OH GAH.

Edit: ( *sigh* )

Edit Again: GAH. Twitter is deleting all of my messages. It's frustrating :( The first day I actually start using it and it's removing all my posts. And yet Bailey's are all still there just fine. I don't know why mine are disappearing.

Friday was Kenny's birthday :) He turned 15. Mom and I went over to his school to bring cupcakes and cookies for his classmates, along with a pinata filled with candy and small toys. His teacher invited us to stay for a while, so we watched the kids play with the pinata outside, which was fun to watch. The kids in his class are so friendly, and we got to meet his new aide finally. She was really nice, and got him a present which was sweet. Then later at home we had a cake and gave Kenny presents and whatnot. He had a lot of fun on Friday.

I threw together some userinfos for my character journals just because I was bothered by the blankness. They're really boring at the moment, so I'll have to find some way to make them more interesting.

Ack. I'm having a garage sale in two weeks, and I have nearly nothing gathered for it. Since this week is spring break from school, I'll have plenty of time to work on getting things together, though. And the week after that is my trip to Chicago for the concert and shopping :) I'm excited.

Oh, yeah. I have pink-ish hair now, thanks to Jessi :D He mailed me dye ♥

I ordered Otto; or, Up with Dead People a week ago, and I hope it arrives soon because Hector and I would like to see it, haha XD