miss-behaved.net

2 days until I’m off to Las Vegas, Nevada. This will be my first flight without my parents, so I am a bit nervous on having to do everything myself: drive to the airport, pay for parking, park, get to the plane in time. Oh, and all at 4:00am, since my flight doesn’t leave until 6:00am.

I’m super stoked though. It’s SOE’s Fan Faire, a game convention for their MMOs. So I’m gonna see tons of Storm Troopers, Jedis, and Princess Leias, I’m sure, due to SOE’s Star Wars Galaxies (regardless of how much it sucks now). I’m going to have tons of pictures with me posing.

I have no wiggle room for time, though. Five days after I get back from Vegas, I move into my dorm, and three days after that, I start classes. I am so nervous — mainly that I’m forgetting something, that I’m missing an item from my list of must-haves. I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten everything on my list, including the small, last-minute things like toothpaste and laundry detergent. Any tips on something I should bring to my dorm, something most people don’t think of until they get there? Throw it out there for me!

I’ll be sending my love in Vegas, and much posting will ensue.

I haven’t died, I just got back from a weekend trip to Washington, DC with my dad and a couple of friends, Corey and Michael. There are quite a few pictures and I’ll upload them to Flickr soon.

Thursday night, before we left for DC in the morning, I went and saw the Dark Knight with Corey and Michael. It was absolutely amazing. Heath Ledger played an excellent Joker, and in my opinion, he overshadows the Jack Nicholson’s Joker. Christian Bale was, as always, fabulous, and Gary Oldman was a dream. This has to be my favourite movie of this year.

I also scored some DVDs in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart. (I h8 h8 h8 Wal-Mart, but what can you do?) I got Knocked Up, Hard Candy, Harsh Times, 20 Films by Alfred Hitchcock compilation, Spaceballs, American Psycho, and Dracula (1992). Sweet balls! Can you tell I love Christian Bale?

So now I have two more trips planned before I head off to college (oh my God, college, oh my God): Pembroke, GA to visit my sister and Las Vegas, NV for a video game convention. Yay for staying busy!

When I was working at Yankee Candle, there was a woman who worked there (God, I cannot remember her name, though). She was very sweet — always willing to listen — and I was having problems with my ex. Since we had a lot of downtime at Yankee, we got to share a lot of personal things about each other and generally got to know everyone else pretty well. We were restocking candles and I went on a tangent.

After hearing my relationship issues, she said to me, “That’s nothing ipecac can’t fix,” and schooled me in the way she keeps her husband in line: “It makes them throw up all day long.”

I laughed, because it was way over the top and I figured she was kidding.

She nonchalantly placed a candle on the shelf.

And that’s how I learned about ipecac.

So only half of my pictures on Flickr really tell the story that is my Texas vacation. I faced my fears, I defied gravity, I completed some of my 101 Things. But since I forgot to bring my new camera’s battery charger with me, I had a limited window that I could take pictures. So I saved it for the mostly important things. Oh, did you know they don’t have sweet tea in Texas? How ass-backwards is that?!

Charles came along with me (no surprise there), and we visited my family, most of whom I haven’t seen in about six years. We went to Six Flags for about twelve hours one day, but we also went to the JFK Museum on another, and I purchased a reprint of one of the newspapers that announced his death. (I want to start collecting those too!) Then the Dallas World Aquarium, where most of my pictures take place. And — here’s the big one — Zero Gravity. Oh my God, Zero Gravity. I am terrified of heights, if you haven’t learned already. Terrified. But we did all five thrill rides, surprisingly: the free fall (”Nothin’ But Net”), the Skyscraper (with Charles), the Texas Blast Off (with Charles), the Skycoaster (with Charles), and the bungee jump.

Bungee jumping doesn’t seem hard. In fact, we thought it would be the easiest thing. But, to be honest, it’s the hardest. On everything else, someone else lets you go, drops you, or lifts you up (in the Skycoaster, but you rip your own cord). On the bungee jump, you have to climb the stairs yourself and leap off the edge yourself. Being terrified of heights, I couldn’t fathom jumping off a ledge like that willingly — and in fact, I almost backed out. You’re told to cross your arms and jump, but I kept crossing and uncrossing my arms. I nearly jump off and catch myself, but I eventually suck it up and just lean forward.

Charles, on the other hand, got to do it twice, for free. We got videos of us bungee jumping, and she didn’t film him the first time, so he got to do it a second time for the camera. And he looks so ballsy, ’cause he just jumps off the second time with no hesitation.

I am so glad I was able to go down to Texas and see my family, especially since it’s been so long. Texas will always be home to me.

I went and got my palms read. And, apparently, this is what’s going to go down:

I’m outspoken and I share my feelings, good or bad. For the past three years, I’ve had a dark love energy. She asked if I had gotten out of a relationship recently; I said yes, back in October. She said that I’ve been unhappy or depressed since the breakup. She said that there’s been a female surrounding my ex; I clarified that he cheated on me with another girl and he’s still with her. She said that this relationship won’t last long between the two; he only wanted something fresh and new, but he will want to enter my life again after I’ve long moved on and getting involved with my career.

It’ll take three years for my dark love energy to go away, but I will meet my soulmate this year. He’ll be in his twenties, business-oriented, and the initials J and T are important. (Hey JEM TURNER!) Oh, and to stay away from any Ms. She asked if I was making a big move. I said yes, I was moving to San Francisco after college. She said that the move will be very good for me, that Memphis is bad for me. She asked if I was going into the medical field, because I am surrounded by it. I said no, maybe a long time ago, but my dad works at St. Jude, my best friend wants to be a nurse, and his sister is going to be a doctor. Weird.

So yeah, $30 well spent, maybe.

I just realized what my general fandom is. I love steampunk. Professor Layton and the Curious Village. The airships from Final Fantasy. It’s coming together, why I liked these things so much. Why wooden computers are so cool to me — and why, even though I don’t like anime, I loved Howl’s Moving Castle. This might be a bid odd to some, but this is an eye-opener for me. I had heard of steampunk, had a general idea of what it was, but never to this degree. This is what my collection should be; the long-awaited decision I have been meaning to figure out.

Now I just need to start my collection.

And I hate Mountain Dew, because Pepsi Co hates me. I have successfully drank every single one of the new flavors of the “Dewmocracy” — God damn, I hate saying that — and not one of them were good. You know what? I liked Game Fuel; I love Code Red; and LiveWire. (And being a gamer — by default — you have to drink Mountain Dew, which I’ve had no complaints about in the past.) Even Pitch Black, if any of you know what that is. I enjoy Mountain Dew products.

Not anymore, dear reader.

I have concluded that, not only did these “Dew Drinker” designers market ipecac to the general public, Pepsi and friends want you to feel like you’re involved. You know how you can get involved? By giving real money. To real corporations. Almost as crazy as that sounds, that’s exactly what you’re doing.

Hey, check it out! We get to pick the new flavor of Mountain Dew! In our Dewmocracy! If you look at the SuperNova with bloodshot eyes, it kinda looks red. And the Voltage is blue! So if you vote for SuperNova, you’re a Republicac. And if you vote for Voltage, you’re a Dewmocrat!

Enough of that — I’m pretty much going to describe the way that Revolution, Voltage, and SuperNova taste for you. The best way I can, without puking. (I should get paid for this.)

Revolution: I like wild berries, especially drinks flavored like wild berries. And thankfully, Revolution is the only one out of the three that isn’t “charged” or “blasted” with another completely different flavor. Wild berries. It must be good, right? Hell no. It’s less sour than Voltage and SuperNova, and it tastes like an alcoholic beverage, which is very depressing, since you’re not drinking an alcoholic beverage — and you should be, if you’re drinking this by choice.

Voltage: This is disgusting. On the outside of the bottle it claims to have a “raspberry citrus” flavor. All I taste are blue-raspberry balls with caramelized sugar, topped off with some good ol’ fashion  loss of dignity. It smells like it is going to burn my nose hairs off.

SuperNova: SuperNova tastes like a hot chick you’re making out with who had way too many pomegranate martinis and you’re totally scoring tonight — or so you thought. She just puked in your mouth, buddy. It says there’s “strawberry melon” in there, but I don’t taste strawberry, and I sure as hell don’t taste melon. If you ask me, strawberries and melons go well together in drinks just like bleach and Drain-o go well together in drinks. I know why they call this SuperNova — instead of a “stellar explosion,” you get an explosion of brain cells, wondering why you actually spent money to drink this crap.

You hear me, Mountain Dew? I fucking hate you.

I added a new class to the five I’m already taking: Intro to Sociology. My adviser recommended it since it was an easy class, but from reading the grades on Grade My Professor, it doesn’t look that easy. But I don’t want to just have a class I can just sit in and get a good grade. I want to actually work for it. I’ll be getting up bright and early Monday through Friday now, having three classes everyday, including my Elementary Italian I night class.

I am going to have to take a class at Southwest Community College since it isn’t offered at the University, an Intermediate Algebra course (which I’ve never claimed to be good at *frowny face*). Thank God I only need one math credit!

In other news, I have been working on four designs for Dinstuhl’s, a candy company here in Memphis, which has taken up a bit of my time, and then next weekend, on the 28th, I’m heading off to Dallas, TX to see my family! Oh, and go to Six Flags. Oh, and bungee jump. Oh, and Medieval Times. (I am bringing my laptop, however — so you won’t be entirely rid of me. Hey! Stop crying!)

Today is the beginning of my #16 101 Things in 1001 Days: Go vegetarian for a week. Charles and I are upping it and making it two weeks, though. Hannah is vegetarian, so I am a bit nervous, as I have seen her eat and what she has to do in order to eat sufficiently.

I guess that’s why it’s called a challenge, though, right?