Hectic Times

Hello!! So I'm once again failing at updating my blog, but with going on two posts a month, I'll be making another one here in a couple of days considering there's only a few days left in February (3 to be exact). I guess I didn't really update, because a lot of things have been happening, plus I didn't read the latest chapters of Skip Beat! until last night. I know, I deserve a great big FAIL stamp!!

So, I guess to start off with what has been going on in my life. Well in the start of February, I tweeted about something and said that I was going to blog about it the next day. Well, I never did (sumimasen). What happened was when I got off work at 10pm, my car wouldn't start. I tried to call a number of people, but couldn't get a hold of anybody. Well, I did get a hold of Billy and Curtis, but their car was broken and getting fixed, so they couldn't really do anything to help me. After an hour and fifteen minutes, I got a hold of Bea, and she thankfully gave me a ride home. It was a horrible night. Not only was it cold, but the windchill made it feel 10 degrees lower and it started snowing like thirty minutes into me starting my car. It really sucked. The next day my Mom came out, gave me a jump, and followed me home. My battery had drained because I had tried to start it so much. Yeah, it was a pretty much horrible night. There was definitely a good ten to fifteen minutes where I kind of lost it and started crying hysterically because I felt like I was going to freeze to death or get hypothermia and be stuck in the snow at school and have to walk around the next few days in the same clothes. Well, I started crying after like my fiftieth phone call and nobody had still picked up the phone (this was before I called Billy & Curtis). What my Mom said when I talked to her the next day, was that I was also probably scared because I felt like there was no one to "save me" and I think that there was some of that mixed into my hysterics as well.

Well, I guess continuing on my car, it was running fine after that, until the other afternoon. I went to go to work and it wouldn't start. Billy & Curtis came over and tried to jump it, but this time I wasn't lucky enough to have it just be the battery. So now I've been riding the bus. I have to walk a bit to get to all the different stops and to get to where I'm going and such, but so far it hasn't been too bad. Although, there is a late night bus (9pm to 2am) that is really nice because I get off work most days at 10pm. Unfortunately it only runs Wednesdays through Saturdays. So I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do next Monday and Tuesday when I get off work. Also, the buses don't start early enough on Saturday for me to get to work on time, but thankfully Billy said that her or Curtis could give me a ride this week. Billy and Curtis, you guys (as well as Bea) have been my life savers this past month!!

Another big happening this month is I attended Genghis Con. It's a gaming convention (my first convention besides NDK) and I actually enjoyed it a lot. Billy and Curtis had invited me a few months ago, and luckily I was able to go!! I had a lot of fun! We headed down Thursday night because we had games that started early Friday Morning. On Friday I played two Savage Worlds Games, one Deadlands and one Cthulhu. The Deadlands game was a lot of fun and I think I'm going to look more into the Savage Worlds system, especially with the Deadlands expansion. Deadlands is a weird west setting, so pretty much a Western movie that has zombies, but the zombies have motor functions like control of their needs and being able to talk and walk about like normal. Well, not all of them are like that, but there are some. The best part of the game though, was our GM (game master/the person who sets up the story and moderates what we do) was one of the people that developed and created the Deadlands expansion for Savage Worlds. It was a really neat experience to have my first time playing Savage Worlds to be one of the creative minds from their company.

The Cthulhu game was also a lot of fun. We were laughing and as all gaming sessions I've had, created a lot of inside jokes. It was pulpy and the only downside was I ended up losing all my sanity. The only person that was trained to try to help people if we were to lose sanity, was only me. But then again, that's the sort of thing that happens to us Browns. (My mother's maiden name is Brown, so when things like that happen we tend to blame it on our "Brown Blood") We were really looking forward to Saturday's games, but unfortunately they didn't really turn out too well. The first game we had was a Zombie apocalypse game. The system was new and had a lot of rough spots, but on top of that the gm kept trying to play our characters for us. It was more like a boring story time instead of gaming. Both Curtis and I only rolled dice once, which is definitely not a good thing. The other game we had was supposed to be a Harry Potter Home Brew, but it turned out to be larpinglarp (live action role-playing). The saving grace to Saturday was that I got to visit the shop where Curtis works and ended up buying the card game Munchkin, but the Kung Fu edition! We also went to Five Guys (my first time) and it was really good! It's a burger place that's similar to Smash Burger! I also did a lot of shopping at Chessex and over all three days spent almost $100 on dice! I got some really cool sets though and some cool Japanese number dice. Oh, I also got some Roman numbered dice for Derek!

Sunday, we had another two games. We started out checking out really early, and then headed to our first game which was Star Wars! I had a lot of fun (as always) playing this game! The guy played a lot of Star Wars normally, so it was really nice that he already had little tricks and things known (very similar to the shortcuts we've used with Derek's campaigns). The really nice thing about it though, is that he's thinking on continuing the story over the next few conventions so players can get all of it. If I go to the next one (it's very likely), then I'll most likely be playing Star Wars again! The second game we had was a new system (for us) called A Faery's Tale and we played a Princess Bride-esque story. The system is made for young gamers (like ages 8-12), so it's simplicity was really nice. I really like the set up too and think that it would be good for one shots and very easily to manipulate for different stories and settings. After that game, we headed home! It was a lot of fun, and I don't feel that my money was wasted at all. It just sucks that my car broke a few days after. >_<

Let's see, what else do I need to update on? Oh! Skip Beat! So there were actually two chapters that came out this month (170 & 171)!! It kind of did a small time jump so at first I was a little confused. Kyoko is finally starting to realize something though! Another one of her boxes opened, but she sealed it back up. I'm thinking that this is a box that has emotions of love and happiness though instead of hatred and her little demon things! And as always in the first few pages Kyoko has me laughing my butt off (and at work)! I'll post for the picture the face of Mouko as Kyoko realized she was there and came running towards her (I'll number the boxes for those who might not know the progression in Manga, plus I've combine 2 pages)!! There was also more of Rory! This time he was dressed up as an Egyptian pharaoh to try to convince people that it'll be a good idea to send Kyoko and Ren to Egypt for a vacation! It was great! I wish that it came out more often. Ummm...Dark Moon is coming to a close, so Kyoko and Ren won't be working together on that drama anymore. At the end of chapter 170, there is a huge party. I don't remember who it was, but because of Kyoko's excuse that she couldn't go because of her attire (just a high school uniform), he dressed her all up in make-up and a fine dress (the Cinderella treatment). It ended with everyone noticing her walking into the party. I should also mention that she actually didn't want to go to the party and it was because she was afraid of seeing Ren as herself. When she's working, she was able to just completely absolve herself in the character, but she wasn't sure how she could handle seeing Ren as herself. Especially since she's been having issues with this new box (because of him).

So I think that's all for now! There are fangirl things to add, but since I'm not quite exactly sure what'll happen in the next few days, I'll leave that for something to post then. A sneak peek is that I'll be ranting about Super Junior M's new mini-album and Arashi's new single Lotus. For the parting gif, I'll do a SJM teaser!! Also, I have some drama rants to cover as well (mainly Korean)!! So until we meet again through the internets (hopefully within the next few days)...

Ja Ne~
Stasi