I finally finished Uncharted: Drake's Fortune last night after only a few months of play time.  I started my second go through on hard mode to unlock more rewards and get the trophy, but I honestly don't think I'll be able to make it through the "Crushing" setting.  I had difficulty getting through normal!  Truth be told, I'm actually quite bad at games.  I love 'em, but can easily get stuck on sections others call "fun and challenging".  I call them "distressingly difficult".
I also have this unfortunate habit of not finishing games.  I have mild perfectionist issues when it comes to games, too, so I don't end the story until I've completed all of the side quests and things.  For example, I STILL haven't finished FFVII (yes, 7, you read right) because I can't beat the American monster.  The final boss will be a piece of cake I'm sure, since all my characters are level 99 and I have EVERY piece of equipment and maxed out materia, but I haven't finished the game since I started playing it 9 years ago.  I've got a long list of hella old games I'm still playing, actually.
I think I either have to learn to let it go, or spend way more time playing games.  At this point I'm leaning towards quitting my job and playing more games.

Any hints on beating that American monster would help...

Really good movie, well written, great acting.  Had me cringing and laughing and almost crying (but mostly cringing).  Boy am I glad I don't live in India.  At least not the slums part.  I bet the India Tourism Board is less than happy that this movie is doing so well.  If I ever visit the Taj Majal, I'm taking my shoes with me!

Have you ever been fully conscious during a dream?  I'm not talking about being aware that you are dreaming in the dream, or even able to control your dreams, though that's cool too, and has happened to me before.  I had a strange occurrence the night before.  I slept very well for the first 3 hours of the night, then woke up and proceeded to lay in bed trying to sleep until about 7:30am.  At this point, I could feel myself finally falling asleep, but instead of drifting into unconsciousness, I felt my brain slip into a dream scene, like I went directly into REM sleep without the usual precursors.  The result was that in addition to being present in my dream in teh usual dream sense, I was also a fully conscious 3rd person observer of sorts.  it is difficult to accurately describe...

At first I was driving a car, but paying no attention to the road and instead looking at the interior.  The dream me was contemplating the interior features of the car and thinking how if there is an apocalyptic event, this would be a handy car to have.  the conscious me was thinking that it's a good thing this is a dream, otherwise I would have surely crashed.  Shortly following in the dream, something happens that sends the car flying in the air.  The dream me is busy experiencing that roller coaster/free fall feeling, while the conscious me is thinking, Oh great, I just got back to sleep and now when the car lands in this stupid dream I'm going to wake up.  But the car didn't land; instead the car scene dissolved into me comfortably lying in bed, at which point the dream me was noting how soft and comfy my dream pillows were, and the conscious me was marveling at how the brain can fabricate such realistic sensations like touch in a dream scape, such that one might understandably not be sure if one was dreaming.  Truth be told, I wasn't sure if I was still asleep at that point.  But then my father walked into my room, chumming it up  with a flamboyantly gay man carrying a little dog (similar to non-drag Nathan Lane in Birdcage, but I think modeled after one of my clients.  Oddly enough, the man's partner brought the little dog into the office the next day!).  Anyone who knows my father knows the unlikely nature of this scenario, thus the conscious me concluded that I was certainly still dreaming.  Dream me was petting the dog and conscious me wished I were petting my cat instead, when in walks my cat!  But of course my cat was scared of the dog, so while dream me was busy holding the dog so it wouldn't chase my cat away, conscious me realized that she was controlling the dream in a second-hand kind of way.  I couldn't control events, but I could alter the general flow or introduction of characters, kinda like a choose-your-own-adventure book.  So conscious me decided to try to introduce my other cat George who died over a year ago, so I could pet him again in what my brain would perceive as a realistic fashion.  At that point dream me knew George was right outside the door, and tried to look, and conscious me was scared my dream would distort him into a monster or something.  But dream me could just see his little black paw when some lady in jeans and a flannel shirt stood in my way, indicating that I couldn't leave my room.  Conscious me wanted her to at least stand to the side so i could see the cat, and dream me started waving like mad and yelling in a muted voice you get in dreams when you try to yell but can't.  I just managed to catch a glimpse of George's face with this "What the hell do you want?" expression (which he often had in life), and then I woke up.

Sorry for the length, but isn't that weird?

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
ate a persimmon

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't make New Year's Resolutions.  if I need to change something, i should change it, no matter the date

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My sister, in March.  (she's due again this April!)

4. Did anyone close to you die?
not very close

5. What countries did you visit?
Didn't leave the country

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
ummm, an Xbox 360 maybe? or a clean room

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
12/13/2008 - I ate a persimmon

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Eating a persimmon

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not eating a pomegranate.  Also, not cleaning my room.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
yes, several minor illnesses, but avoided surgery this year!

11. What was the best thing you bought?
a PS3

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My Dad, for buying persimmons

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and sad?
My nephew, for refusing to taste a persimmon

14. Where did most of your money go?
Retirement fund and taxes

15. What events did you get really, really, really excited about?
AWA, and eating persimmons, and Christmas

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
How Far We've Come by Matchbox 20 (same as the rest of y'all)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder?: Happier, but I wasn't particularly sad last year
thinner or fatter?: no real change
richer or poorer?: my pay increased slightly, but so did my taxes, so the same

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Video editing, room cleaning, and persimmon eating

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Working (though I'm happy for the pay it brought me)

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it at home with my family

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
My sisters and my friend Stacy

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
mmm...  close but not quite

23. How many one-night stands?
What kind of girl do you take me for?!?!  (that's a no, BTW)

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Burn Notice

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No, I actively refuse to hate people.

26. What was the best book you read?
Kamikaze Girls

27. What was your greatest musical discovery or rediscovery?
No real change in my music scene

28. What did you want and get?
a PS3 (my Christmas present to myself)

29. What did you want and not get?
an xbox360, but I didn't have time to play it anyway

30. What were your favorite films of this year?
Bolt, Iron Man, and Reign Over Me (which came out in 2007, but I saw it this year)

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I went to work and had apple pie.  Most likely older than you! (Q#+1)

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
having my room cleaned by the organization fairy, tied with eating more persimmons

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
fashion?

34. What kept you sane?
My family and friends, and persimmons!

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most/least?
I don't follow celebrities, but I fancy persimmons

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The election

37. Whom did you miss?
My friend Tara, she would love persimmons

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I didn't keep a tally of everyone I met at Acen and AWA, but those guys!,  you would also love persimmons

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008
A Persimmon can be eaten like an apple!

40. Do you have any lost feelings of others?
I'm not sure what this question is asking...

41.Quote a song that sums up your year:
"Even when it's out of sight, the sun shines night and day."
Persimmons!

Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

If it were okay to trade names, I would give away this Yanki name without a second thought and go get a more suitably Lolita name for myself.  But that is not how it works.  I've heard you can change your name if you can get a court to agree that it interferes markedly with your leading a normal life, but in my case it's obvious an appeal for a name change would be rejected.  I don't think "It's a Yanki name" would appease a court of law.

And the crazies come out in droves.  I shouldn't say crazies, I guess.  Almost all of my clients and patients today were quite reasonable, but there were so MANY of them.  In a normal week, in addition to my normal (usually booked solid) appointments, we might see 1, maybe 2 emergencies.  Today we saw 6.

SIX!!!

That is 4 more than 2, and it's only Monday!  Hopefully it was the Columbus Day holiday contributing to the craziness.  But one client did inform me that tomorrow is the full moon, which explains the craziness.  I said I'd be extra careful to avoid werewolves, and she gave me a funny look, but I might have deserved it.  This exchange was after the following conversation, in which she asked if her dog's spastic behavior when we tried to take his temperature meant he had been abused or mistreated around his hindquarters...

"Maybe, but just because a dog doesn't like to be touched doesn't mean he was mistreated.  I mean, a lot of people don't like being tickled, including myself.  I flail violently when people try to tickle me.  That doesn't mean I was mistreated....   Well....  Actually I was, but you know what I mean.  Some people just don't like it."

Her brow furrowed a little, and I'm not sure if she was digesting the point I tried to convey or realizing that her vet was a little unbalanced.  I later told her (grown) daughter that my sisters tickled me until I couldn't breath at a young age, and have been forever scarred by the experience.  She nodded in understanding, but I think I scared her mother.  It was near the end of the day and I was punchy.  And she's a frequent flyer client so I tend to be a bit less proper around her. 

SIX!!!!

I'm not really in trouble, but I have to do a bunch of stressful, time consuming stuff.  If you're curious, ask me next time you see me and I'll go into a long winded semi-comprehensible explanation.  It'll be a blast.

I also haven't been around because I'm still playing TWEWY, though mostly just leaving the DS on in mingle mode.  And I'm playing through Okami a second time, because that game rocks.  I tend to enjoy games where you play as a wolf.

My new computer is functional and I think kicks ass, but I haven't taken the time to get my video editor fully functional on it, hence the absolutely no editing.  Well, that and the time suck of my job, and my family, and my gaming addiction, and legal troubles.  Legal troubles suck, yo.

I think my dad is watching Family Feud downstairs....

Burn Notice is coming on soon, so I'd better skedaddle.

Wow, skedaddle didn't set off the spell check, but didn't, an actual contraction in the English language, did.  Isn't it ironic?  Don't ya think?  (Isn't set it off, too, but don't didn't.  This spell check is whack, yo.)

Edit: ARRRGHHH!!!!  Stupid tennis...  Burn Notice isn't on again because of stupid tennis.  Tennis is stupid.

So, you might be wondering what I've been doing.  Actually, you probably aren't, but I'm gonna tell you anyway.  Have I been working on the AMVs I promised people I'd work on?  Have I been cleaning my room or finishing my new computer? (I just have to set up the BIOS, BTW)  No, I have been doing none of these even semi-constructive things.

Instead I have been playing The World Ends With You.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, it is a strange little RPG for the DS by SquareEnix, difficult to describe in even the basic terms.  You play as this kid in modern-day Shibuya, fighting monsters called Noise in what is called the Reapers Game by collecting pins that give you special psychic powers and buying clothes at stores that give bonuses much like any other RPG.   You also have to fight for both you and your partner simultaneously.

It's addiction rate is roughly equivalent to that of crack.

I've been loosing sleep playing this game, and am, in fact, jonesin' for it right now.  My biggest worry in the world is that there are no other active DS's around to "mingle" with, so I can't evolve some of my pins the way I'd like to.  If you understand that last sentence, you probably also understand the addiction.  I might have to wait until AWA to do so.

I've surpassed a record.  I spent 5&1/2 hours performing a single surgery today, which bests my previous "best" time of 5 hours.  Luckily the dog did well under anesthesia, and there were no major complications.  The surgery itself was just more extensive than anticipated.  It was an anal gland removal, in case you're wondering. 

If you don't know what anal glands are, consider yourself lucky.  They are what the skunk uses to produce its signature scent.  Dogs and cats have them too, and in the wild they are used to help mark territory and the like.  In the domestic animal they serve to make your dog scoot and leave nasty brown stuff that smells like rotten fish oil on your couch.  They can also become infected, rupture and serve as a general annoyance and occasional serious health issue, as was the case for the aforementioned dog. 

So all is well, though I didn't get lunch until 4:30.  On the plus side of a long surgery day, I only had to see 1 appointment.  Guess what it was. 







No really, guess.







I'm serious, you'll never guess.







It's so ironic, you won't believe it.








...an infected anal gland.

Just got back from the movies.  Very well done.  Scarlett Johansson plays timid very well.  But the projection was aimed a little too low, so the very bottom of the movie was cut off.  Not a big deal, until the end, when they have the little "what happened to them" part, and it freakin CUT OFF THE CONCLUSION!!!

I want my money back.

It would say "King Henry VIII separated from the Catholic Church and..."  We just filled that one in ourselves. 
...and established the Anglican Church
...and had a big party
...and married lots of women
...and ate lots of pork
...and beheaded lots of people.

All of the above are true, except the pork one cannot be historically verified, though it probably is true.

Now I'm sitting here Wikipedia-ing Thomas Howard - Duke of Norfolk to find out what the hell happened to him.  It seems he is one of the few characters who was not beheaded.

I'm entering a journal!  the LJ page told me to.  It said my journal was empty, and that was very sad.  So to make the world a less-sad and therefore happier place, I'm writing something non-sensical.  I'm not sure if all these hyphens are appropriate, but I'm going with it.  I enjoy writing in complete sentences, and rarely use anagrams, though there are exceptions.  I've got stuff to do, so I'll be signing off now.  TTFN!  (Winnie the Pooh anagrams are completely acceptable in my book.)