Backend of Forever

This week has been incredibly long. School things are starting to wrap up, and my focus has finally turned almost entirely to completing my thesis. Once that is written, I will have to put together my final presntation on my thesis, but I don't think that will take too long to put together. The hard part, I think, will be memorizing what to talk about, since we are on a strict "no notecards or presenter view" rule. I managed to squeeze in some reading for Project Readathon, as well! I am super excited I was able to do that.

This weekend, I went home. My brother and his wife had a housewarming party on Saturday and I really wanted to be there. Lately, Dragon AGe Girl (DAG) has been incredibly clingy. She  gets really upset thinking about how I am leaving in May and she still has two more years. I figured I would be nice and invite her along (my brother said it was fine). I am kicking myself for it now. It was a very long, aggravating, unpleasant weekend. Before we left, she agreed to leave the drama at school, and to refrain from any references to Dragon Age or roleplaying for the entire weekend. The entire four hour drive home she was on her phone doing her online roleplay. All evening she was on her phone, and ignoring attempts my parents made at conversation. Friday, she and I went to a mall and she just HAD to go into GameStop and point out all of the copies of Dragon Age games and bitch about "why would people trade in such a perfect game?!" I told her not to, but she ended up buying a used copy of Dragon Age Origins and gave it to me. I have no desire whatsoever to play the game, but now I feel obligated... Joy. Anyway, that night, we went to hang out with my friend Draco for a little while. As much as I love Draco, I love him less and less with each passing month. He has goten very sex-obsessed over the past year or so, and literally every conversation has to come back to it. DAG is very prudish and inxperienced, and get very easily embarrassed. I asked him beforehand not to bring it up, but he literally spent the four hours we were over there going on about it, making jokes, hitting on DAG, hitting on me yet again, and more, even when I would flat-out tell him to stop. DAG played into it and was trying (and failing) to make sexual jokes, too, and would keep going when I asked her to stop. The whole evening just seemed to be an inappropriate waste of time.

Saturday was my brother's housewarming. We arrived a little early to help them finish getting ready. I was busting my behnd helping my sister-in-law finish getting all of the food ready and set out, and where was DAG? Standing right in the middle of the kitchen, glued to her phone, and in the way. Didn't even notice us asking her to move. I finally had to put my hand in front of her phone (eliciting an angry scream of protest) and tell her to go sit at the table out of the way if she wasn't going to help. For the entire first half of the get-together she was glued to her phone and wouldn't even notice me trying to talk to her. I love my brother and his wife, but I don't care at all for their friends and it gets awkward, so I was looking forward to having someone to talk to... May as well have gone alone. After a little while, we moved to the basement and started playing darts to pass the time until my parents wanted to leave (there was nearly no parking, so we went together). It was fun at first, but after a couple of rounds she started shouting Dragon Age quotes at the top of her lungs "for luck." Seriously, what the fuck. We were surrounded by well-respected, sociable adults. And here she was shouting random things that made no sense to anyone but her at the top of her lungs. I nearly died of shame for being the one to associate with her and bring her along. I honestly thought she was better, not to mention she agreed no Dragon Age comments this weekend. We see how well that turned out. Fast forward a touch to Saturday night. She, my mother, and I were the only ones home, so we decided top lay a dice game called Tenzi. My mother had to tell her to put her phone down 4 freaking times in the 20 minutes we were playing, and eventually even my mother, who has the patience of a saint, was fed up with it.

Over the course of the weekend, both of my parents and my oldest rother had all asked me wtf was her problem and why was she on her phone all the time. It was incredibly rude. Oh, and she didn't even make an attempt to clean up after herself. After meals, she just left her dishes where she had been sitting, not even a "what should I do with my dishes?" She left her belongings all over our kitchen counter, including her jacket that is covered in literal horse shit because she wears it to the barn all of the time. She left her towels all over the bathroom, when I told her that when she was finished she could set them in the dirty hamper in the laundry room 10 steps down the hall. She was an all-around rude guest!!!

The entire 4 hour drive back to school was the loneliest time I have ever had to make that drive. She was STILL glued to her phone. Still. For the entire trip.

Never again.

TV Shows: I made a little more progress in Supernatural. I finally made it past the Leviathans, at least. Now I honestly have no idea what's going on. I really wish the show would jsut end already, but I am determined to keep going because I said I would. I am excited for the fourth season of the Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show that just dropped on Netflix. I also got all caught up on All Hail King Julien, and was actually disappointed with the fourth season. I feel like they traded in the funny for a multi-episode story, and it didn't quite pan out well at all. Oh well, gotta try things to see how it goes, and learn from it.

Over the past week I managed to watch all of Extras. It is a British comedy from the mid 2000s and lasted for only 2 seasons and one christmas special. It was written by and starred Ricky Gervais, who played a down on his luck guy who is always an extra, and who has a terrible agent that can't get him any roles. Each episode has at least one famous actor or actress in it. My favorite episode, hands-down, was the Kate Winslet episode. She did fantastic, and I laughed the entire way through. If you enjoy Britich comedy, I highly recommend the first season of the show. Season 2 and the special just weren't as good quality, in my opinion.

Another show that I recently finished and don't think I have mentioned is The IT Crowd. It is another British comedy. I have tried watching it beofre and didn't care for it after one episode, but it has been a few years, so I tried again. The first episode or two can be a bit slow, but things do pick up, and it gets very entertaining. Plus, the two main guys remind me of some old friends I used to have, so it added another layer for me. If you have ever worked in a tech support field I definitely recommend it. There are some really good jokes hidden in there, and the cast did an awesome job.

Movie: This morning I watched The Benchwarmers. I am not usually one for "bathroom humor", so I wasn't expecting to like the movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. There was a lot less of it than I expected, and the main cast did a great job making the characters funny, with a hint of believability when it was needed. Plus, I sectrely enjoy baseball (I was raised with two brothers who played and a father who coached), so I enjoyed it.



Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Missed a week, I know. I can assure you that nothing terribly thrilling has happened in my little corner of the globe. My last week of classes before break was average, though my last riding class was a lot of fun. I was the only one who showed up, so it was a private riding lesson. I was on Kip, who is very well behaved and well mannered, even if we don't quite communicate well (long story short, we are both crooked, which makes us go sideways a lot). My instructor worked a lot on my lower leg position and strengthening, then we had some fun with music. She put on the Game of Thrones theme and had me cnter around. The goal was to get my horse to canter to the beat, and I managed to accomplish it by the end. It was so much fun! I was exhausted by the end, but it was very much worth it.

I have been on spring break since two thursdays ago. I go back to school tomorrow. I really don't want to. It's been so peaceful and uneventful this past week and a half. No elephants living above me, no roommates filling the air with nauseating smells, no annoying children calling me to complain about each other... I'd say it was close to Heaven, but I would be lying. Living with the family has its own set of problems. These problems, however, are more familiar and I have learned how to cope over the years, so I will take it over the school situation.

We moved into this house two summers ago, less than a week before I moved for school. My belongings are still in boxes from the move, because I have not stayed here for more than 2 consecutive weeks since then. Since I will be moving back in come May, I started trying to at least sort my boxes and tidy up what everyone else has dumped into my closets over the years. Apparently my rooms have become storage for things no one knew where to put... Last I checked, we had a guest room, so I don't know why they didn't put this stuff there. I have very little furniture, and 2 rooms to fill. When we moved, I was given a bedroom that is half of a jack-and-jill thing, so there is a bathroom connecting my two rooms, if that makes sense. The second room is more of an entertainment room, and where I spend most of my time. It has my computer, all of my game systems and games, and all of the DVDs I have. I have some books, but only one bookshelf. I am hoping to get more shelving for in there, and at least a night stand for my bedroom when I finally move in. Really, the second room is mostly for my gliders to play in. Since I can't take them to school with me, Mother has been caring for them for me, and that is the one room in the house that they are allowed to run free in. I managed to glider-proof it, but I still want to make it more glider fiendly when I move in, and add platforms and stuff for them higher up. Right now they are mostly stuck on the floor... not a natural place for tree-dwelling ceatures. Decided I will also be donating quite a bit of my wardrobe to GoodWill in May. Most of it either doesn't fit or I don't want to keep it. I really would like to overhaul my wardrobe entirely once I get a job. Maybe get a new shirt or two per week for a few weeks until I have more clothes I will actually wear. Most of my wardrobe in my closet is stuff I have had since high school. I graduated seven years ago...

Gaming: Between bouts of cleaning and organizing, I have managed to get in a fair bit of gaming. Since I have had my desktop for a bit, I sarted Stardew Valley on Steam. I really enjoy farming games. I know, I'm a loser. But at least I am a happy loser. I got a fair bit into it, but decided to set it aside until May because it requires a fair bit of note-taking on my end and I will probably forget what I'm doing by then and will have to start over. I have also been playing Horizon: Zero Dawn and am truly, madly, deeply in love. The game is absolutely gorgeous! Don't believe me? Check out my media tab in my gaming twitter: https://twitter.com/Gamerfly793/media No spoilers, don't worry. I have managed to get just about every collectible, and have finished most side quests. I think that I am probably 3/4 through the main storyline, but I don't want to look it up to find out because I don't want to find spoilers. I will say that the story is frightening, but very intriguing. It is scary-close to reality, but also provides hope in a way? I know that doesn't make sense, but if you play the game it does. I keep getting lost on purpose just to find places to take photos of the gorgeous landscape. I am also loving the main character, too. They gave her a believable and unique personality, not the usual heroine stereotypes where she is either upbeat and high-strung, or all serious. She is humorous and about what you would expect form a 19 year old who was raised an outcast by a very caring father figure. It has led to some amusing bits of dialogue with a certain male character.

It's been a long week. Not bad, just long. The beginning of the week went by normally, without much to note. The excitement was all over the weekend.

On Thursday after classes, I went home for the weekend. It's about a four hour drive, provided weather and traffic are agreeable. I usually stop at a gas station around the halfway mark where the regular employees now know me on a first name basis, haha. I made it back around 9 that night, and was able to get to sleep at a decent time and even got to sleep in Friday morning. It's amazing how much better one can sleep when their roommates aren't blazing in the living room and the upstairs neighbors don't decide to have an ugly breakup at 2 in the morning. I won't miss this. At least on Friday I was able to get a little bit of work done for my thesis. Friday evening I went out to dinner with my parents. I think this was the first dinner with the three of us where no one shouted or argued or complained about the food or anything... It was a nice outing. After dinner we went to see the Lego Batman movie. It was awesome!!! I'm not really into the whole superhero thing, but I absolutely love the humor in the Lego movies. We were all laughing the whole way through. I definitely recommend it if you liked the Lego Movie, whether you care for superheroes or not.

Friday, I met up with my best guy friend (let's call him Draco) for lunch. We went to Chilies, which seems to be our thing lately when I am in town. He filled me in on the latest with his relationship (his girlfriend is a couple states away, but might be visiting in a couple of months!), and I filled him in on how my most recent one ended and the aftermath. Then we got to talking about past relationships and I had a heartwrenching realization. My most serious relationship, I was engaged to this guy (let's call him Cloud). He was in the army, and long story short, the distance coupled with the fact that he wanted to party in the present instead of save for our future, was what made me end things. When we got engaged, we wanted to wait until he was out of the military to get married. It hit me when Draco and I were talking that this summer was the summer when Cloud and I were planning to get married... Not to mention, we officially became a couple on Valentine's Day of that year. So 5 years ago Tuesday... and then this summer... It's just been scratching at the back of my thoughts all week, especially since Cloud's best friend (Dante, who also became one of my best friends), recently hit me up and wanted to be friends again. When Cloud and I broke apart, I backed up out of all of the relationships I'd made with people he knew, out of respect for him. Dante and everyone else understood. Now 5 years later Dante hits me up like no time has passed and we are still best friends... It's been screwing with me. I just wish I could forget all of it. I don't regret it, but it does stop me at times from being able to move forward.

Anyway, after Draco and I grabbed lunch, we went to his friends' apartment. He is going to be moving in with them tomorrow (Monday) and we were helping to clean up the bedroom that the other friend had just moved out of. That explanation probably makes no sense. 3 of them were living together, and one moved out last week, so Draco is moving in now. We went to help clean up because the guy who moved out was SUPER disgusting, and it's a bunch of guys, so they wanted a chick to help. I'm excited to visit in a few weeks and see if the place still resembles anything close to "tidy".

Saturday night my parents threw a small get-together called a "wine-in". For those who don't know, it's pretty much an excuse to get out of the house in the winter, drink wine, and enjoy the company of friends. There weren't many people, but the ones who came were really great. I have never been big into wine, but I did learn a fair amount and even found one I like! I also had the chance to talk with my aunt and uncle. I love them, but only in the last year or two have they finally started to see me as an adult, not just their little kid niece. We talked about my little cousin's gerbils, my other little cousin's existential crisis, and they even asked me for job advice since my uncle is considering trying work at the warehouse that I used to work at. Overall, it was a really nice evening!

Drove back up today (Sunday) and found out from Dragon Age Girl that I missed a lot of drama over the weekend. Kind of glad I missed it. Something about one guy pretty much PMSing and being an ass, the Tweedles' mother visiting and laying into them for living in filth (which they do, they never clean and it's disgusting), and Tweedledee getting a call from the CDC telling her that she needs to get her pet rats tested for some super contagious disease going around. Really glad I passed all that up for an enjoyable, if unproductive, weekend.

TV/Movies: I finished Glee last weekend, and have replaced it with One Tree Hill. I am on season 2 episode 14 already. It's not terribly exciting, but it is an ok drama for background noise. Plus, the cast isn't too bad to look at, either. I haven't made much progress on Supernatural, as I haven't had much time to actually pay attention to a show.

Gaming: In gaming news, I haven't played too much lately. I did go bumming arouns space a bit, which was nice. I have really missed Destiny, and since I made the move and took Church off of my friends list, space has been much more open and inviting. Sure, it sucks not having a fireteam to do strikes, nightfall, and raids, but I love the game for the worlds and lore, so I don't mind. While I was home I even played some Age of Mythology. I decided to start playing through the New Atlantis campaign, which has been pretty cool so far. I have never played the extra campaigns in AOM before, just the main one.

It's been a long week. I'm starting to think 2017 will just not be my year.

I started research on my senior thesis. I have narrowed down my focus to the use of pZP/reZP to control the population of wild and feral horses in the American Midwest. So far I think it is pretty interesting. It works the same as a vaccine, but the end result is a temporary immunocontraceptive. In most cases, the effect is temporary and by the following year the mare is able to foal again. What I have found helpful and rather cool in my research is that this method has been used on white-tailed deer and African elephants for decades.

( It's been a long weekend. )

Also! I made the decision - nay, commitment! - to getting into better shape, including eating better. At school I can't eat very well. At all. But I am trying to make better choices when I can. For instance, I have been trying to eat salad for lunch once or twice a week instead of the usual hot dog (it's either one of those or a tuna sandwich). I have a lettuce intolerance, so I can't have salad very often, but once or twice a week seems ok so far. I have also downloaded the 30-Day Fitness Challenge app and have been keeping up with it. I'm only on Day 3, but I am really set on sticking with it and seeing how much progress I make by the end.

Gaming: I finally finished FFXV. In its place I have decided to focus on the Thief Remaster for PS4. I enjoy stealth games a lot, and so far this one is, in my opinion, rather easy. I have the difficulty set to normal, but I can still sneak up on enemies incredibly easily. The voice acting is good, individually, but it is very easy to tell that they never heard each other's lines or really recieved any context to them. I am mildly interested in the story so far, and am curious to see where it goes.

TV/Movies: I haven't seen any movies this week. I have been keeping up with Supernatural (I am on S5:E20), slowly but surely. I really feel like I am forcing myself to sit down and keep watching. I hope it gets better soon. I am also on Glee S5:E2. I am not liking it a ton anymore. I feel like after season 3 it started getting... preachy? It feels like it was shoving morals down my throat relevant only to the week that episode came out. I also have to say, I watched the school shooting episode and was frustrated. It is a sensitive subject to start with. For what they made the show to be, it was far too real and made no sense in the long run of the show. Nothing really changed after it. *spoilers* When Sue tried to give her fake explanation for what happened, I was begging for them to just stop, end the episode, and go back to what they were doing before. Then they made it worse when they gave the real reason. Who it was and why she did it made next to no snese to me. It was like they wanted to make a big statement, so they picked a sensitive topic, a side character of an arguably minority group, and gave her just a dumb shallow reason to bring a gun to school. Anyway, I'll try to stop here and not keep ranting about it. I rather enjoyed the first three seasons of the show. I have to say, though, that I didn't like how they stuck with the graduates after they left the school. The show is about the club, but when you spend over half of the episode on people in other places it takes time away from the original purpose of the show. Anyway, I enjoy it enough to keep watching, so watch I shall. I think there is only 6 seasons total, so I am close, anyway.