MapleGlobal

So, my addiction to MapleStory forced me to go to MapleGlobal. Now that I’m there I’m really happy. Since it is US based I was able to buy some cool stuff for my character. Since I have joined I have made lots of friends. Yay.

Graphic Design

I have a to make a book using a theme of images and quotes and here are the ones I have come up with. Tell me if you like any of them. I used American Proverbs and water images.

A dose of adversity is often as needful as a dose of medicine.


A tree never hits an automobile except in self defense.


All men are not cast in the same mold.


Bad news travels fast.


Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.


Bad the crow, bad the egg.


Close, but no cigar.


Don't cry over spilt milk.


Don't judge a book by its cover.


Easy come, easy go.


Even a dog knows the difference between being stumbled over and being kicked.


Good fences make good neighbors.

Ryo

Today my fish Ryo died. (Today being 4-26-2007). The earliest documentation I have of him is from 11-19-2004 and by that point I already had him for about a year. That means he lived about three to four years which is really good for a betta.

To tell you the truth, he has been dying for a long time now. A while back he had stopped eating but managed to make it somehow. He was known to be the King Kong of Bettas because he was so large. It already feels really weird not having him next to my computer. I told my friend that I will never get another betta.

Originally I got my betta Warrior so that I would still have a connection to the breed even after loosing my precious Ryo but then Warrior passed away before Ryo. (Which is understandable since I bought him knowing he had a sever case of tail rot) So now I am betta-less but still have two lady rats so my love will be poured into them instead.

Lots of people don't understand why people really mourn their dogs and cats much less me and my fish. I was even one of those people who thought fish were stupid pets until I got him. After spending a great deal of time watching him grow and have temper tantrums I feel like I got to know a friend so now I take the time to think of him.

Banned For Being An American

So, now that the year is finishing up my friends and I are getting more and more anxious to start seriously playing MapleStory’s MapleSea. I’ve been playing for about a month and I really like it but I just haven’t had enough time to devote myself to the game. Well, my friends and I all consented that it was time to take a brake and play last night and for some reason we couldn’t. We knew there was going to be a server update so we just gave it some time and kept trying to log in every hour but we were never let in. I wasn’t to worried about it and I was even looking into getting some a-cash finally. After two failed attempts in the past to get a-cash I was finally getting serious. Then, today, just as I was about to head out my friend called.

It seems we aren’t the only ones who can’t log in. On the game’s forum it has announced that all players from Europe and US can no longer play. They said that there is a MapleStory made just for us. I knew about it. It’s called MapleGlobal but it has lots of hackers and my computer just wont let me download it. So when we chose MapleStory we purposely choose MapleSea to avoid hackers and cuz we love people from other places and since MapleSea is in English we figured there was no harm in joining it.

Well, even MapleStory knows that MapleGlobal has hackers and apparently they have lumped all US players in a ‘hacker’ stereotype and banned all of us to keep us from hacking MapleSea. I think that is really stupid but I can understand where they are coming from but they did a lot of things really wrong.

1) They banned us without any notice whatsoever.

2) People spend US money called a-cash on this game and many people have spent anywhere from 10-500 dollars on this game. When they purchased that money and then items Asiasoft and MapleStory made an agreement that those players would have those items for 90 days. This agreement has obviously been broken and many people are upset.

3) They banned IPs but there is a way around it. Something about Proxys? I don’t know anything about a Proxy (other than the anime Ergo Proxy) but you know who would?? HACKERS.

So if please give me two seconds more of your time and sign this petition so I can go back. I really liked the game and I really want to keep playing.

http://www.petitiononline.com/mapcpet/petition.html

Close Quarters

I believe when two people are forced to live together in a small space bad things will happen. Most people deal with this their entire life. First you have your family, then roommates at college, then your spouse. Right now I’m in the college phase and I have to say it’s not pretty.

My roommate and I haven’t gotten along that great the entire year. Now, in about a week, she is going to be moving into an apartment and out of the dorms. I’m very thankful for this because that means I’ll have the room to myself during finals week but it also means that our room is filled with boxes. She has taken it upon herself to already start purchasing the stuff for her apartment and storing it here. Other than that there are the daily inconveniences of living together.

Just the fact that we live different lives and have different waking and sleeping times sucks. Her seat is in front of our bedroom door so this is also sucks for both of us. Her because she has to deal with me scooting past her and me because she never scoots up to let me pass and while I don’t consider myself in the fat category the space she gives me to pass her is ridiculously small. Then, the TV. I use the TV three times a week. Monday at 9 for Heroes. Wednesday at 10 for Lost. And Friday at 12:00am for Meerkat Manor. She, on the other hand, loves to watch movies. There is also the fact that her boyfriend is glued to her hip and therefore allowing me the pleasure of witnessing every kiss, hug, and fight. I on the other hand have two friends who always come over and are just as loud as her boyfriend.

This is a kind of rant if you couldn’t tell except I actually realize that I’m just as much a pain for her as she is for me. Tonight is a basic problem. She said she was sleeping at her boyfriend’s room which is good because I have a lot of work I had to study for and I wasn’t looking forward to having her get mad at me for staying up late. Well, at about 1 am she decides that she wants to stay but not go to bed just yet but she still decides to tell me to take the wheel out of my rats’ cage. I do mind doing this because neither of us were sleeping, it wasn’t that loud, and it’s a real pain to take the wheel out since it is a wire cage and locked to the side. I questioned her about her sleeping plans and that’s when she revealed that not only was she staying her boyfriend would soon be joining us. That I was not pleased about. I know that she sleeps at his place but that’s not really my fault. There is no rule saying they have to sleep together every night and since he didn’t pay to live with us and I don’t like having a male roommate I don’t see why he has to sleep over. I decided to just go ahead and let my feelings known. I told her that since there wasn’t much of a semester left it was kind of pointless to bring it up but that I would like to be apart of the deciding factor on whether or not her boyfriend sleeps in our room and not just nonchalantly informed. With this she brought up the usual about how she sleeps with him in his room all the time and I said nothing. I know she hates my snoring (which I’ve been told by others really isn’t that bad) and I hate her waking me up every hour to tell me I’m snoring and to ‘please stop’. Like it’s really that easy.

Anyway, I really do need to get to bed. I just had to go ahead and rant a little.

Photo Booth

Earlier today my friend showed me these videos on youtube and I really liked them. I hope they make you smile.

Art Major

So, it's down to the end of the year. For most of the people here on campus that means the last day of class and exams on their way. For me, the art student, it means lots and lots of charcoal. Yesterday I had an assignment due, today I have to finish Astronomy, tomorrow I have a test, Thursday my portfolio is due, and thank God I don't have class on Friday. But, it doesn't end there. Next monday another assignment is due, then my Graphic Design portfolio goes into review on the 4th and I have my Art History exam on the 7th. That being said I have a lot to do. I haven't finished my Astronomy, haven't studied for my test, haven't finished making my portfolios, and haven't studied for my final in Art History. I'm going one step at a time here and it's killing me. I am getting so stressed out and yesterday I came close to having a break down when my assignment wasn't ready in time for class. It was and was not my fault though. Two and a half hours prior I had entered the lab with my work ready to print. It only took about half an hour to fold it after it printed but the printers were messed up so I ended up folding it during class. Now, my professor is the type that says if you are one second late with your assignment you auto fail so that's why I was having a break down. He let me turn it in but I did it in such a rush that the craft is horrible and I'll probably still fail the assignment.

Ashes To Ashes

About a month ago my brother was in a car accident. He went off the road and hit a tree. I was studying for my art history exam when my mother called me. I was in the library. I almost didn’t answer her call because I needed to study and I was pretty sure I’d have a bad phone connection since I was in the basement. I still answered the phone. My mother’s voice sounded frail when she told me my brother had been in a car accident. Now this is a shocking sentence for anyone but you don’t know me and my brother. My brother, my only living #1 true best friend. I pushed my papers to the floor and stuggled to gather them. Within moments I was on my feet dashing toward the door. My mother told me he was in the hospital but that they didn’t know how bad he was hurt. I was scared. I really didn’t want to loose my brother.

One thing led to another and eventually I was able to see him. He looked, well, like he’d been in a car accident. His face was hurt on one side and there was glass in his hair. He had dried blood on him. I felt my heart hurt seeing him like that. I knew he was alive but I was still sad. Later I saw his car and the crash site and only then did I realize how close I really was to loosing my brother. In fact, I was so overwhelmed that it almost felt like I did loose him. All I wanted was to stick to his side like glue. If anything bad was going to happen to him it was going to happen to me also, but that didn’t work. I’ve tried to see him but he still hurts in ways I can’t simulate.

I’ve been struggling with God all my life. I never accepted him when I was younger. Even when I believed he existed I didn’t love him. I’ve been hurting about my past for so long that I became obsessed with myself. With my grief. I never stopped to think that God was making me into someone better. I never liked what happened and I will never like it but I’m happy that God made me who he has. He’s made me this way and that makes me happy. Because of everything I can appreciate life. I understand the pain of life and the sting of being a sinner. I know what it’s like to hate God so I know how others feel now. I don’t know what other’s lives have been like but I know anyone who does not love and accept God must have felt hurt by him at some point in their life. If that is not the case than I want to know what has made them refuse God.

That being said, I am on a roller coaster ride in my faith. I feel high highs and low lows and I don’t really know what to do but to just stay on the ride and try to enjoy the wind in my hair. When I heard my brother was hurt I felt a low low but when I heard he was ok I felt a high high. Once, a while ago, someone said to think about what we hold higher than God in our lives. Well, I tried to think there was nothing I held higher than God but then the person said this. What would you hate God for talking away from you? Without a stutter I thought of my brother. The one who has been by my side through all of my troubles and knows all of my secrets. The one who is the other half of all of my inside jokes. The one who led me to God.

Blood And Chocolate (Spoiler)

So, a long time ago I read the book Blood and Chocolate at the command of one of my friends who promised I would love it. Well, I read it and it was a love/hate relationship. I really liked Vivian, the main character, but hated the human boy she fell in love with, Aiden. I did like Gabriel, the head of the 'pack' who wants Vivian to be his 'mate'.
The story is about Vivian falling in love with Aiden and ultimately wanting to share the fact that she is a werewolf with him. In the book she loves who she is and is really proud of her heritage. Once she reveals herself Aiden gets totally freaked and eventually tries to kill Vivian who doesn't die but she does end up with Gabriel who had loved her all along. It's a really good novel once the annoying Aiden is finally gone and Vivian and Gabriel can finally be together as they were meant to be.

This weekend I watched the movie Blood and Chocolate. Naturally I assumed it would be different from the book but how different I wasn't prepared for. My first problem with the movie was Astrid. In the movie Astrid is Vivian's aunt whom she moved in with after the death of her parents (and siblings?). This was totally weird and off because Astrid IS Vivian's mom. That aside I continued the movie. I lost my patience with the movie once I realized they had no intention of following the book what so ever. According to the movie the pack had these little ritual 'hunts' where everybody went after one particular human. The real pack never did this as it was against their code. Also, not only did Vivian and Aiden meet completely different, so was their relationship. The stupid movie had Aiden stick with Vivian to the end which I hated since the real Aiden was to much of a jerk to do. But what happened at the end made everything else seem like simple changes compared to this. They KILLED Gabriel. My sweet, loving, leader. In a truly 'Underworld' tone, they treated Gabriel as if he were the vamp leader. They acted like he was driven by the need for power. His death was all to quick and it seemed as if it didn't even matter. How can they call it the same when the entire ending changed??

I'm really sorry for ranting but I just couldn't stand it. This has really upset me and I can't believe Annette Curtis Klause, the author, was willing to let them rip her story apart. None of the characters acted the same (other than the annoying group of young males in the pack) and they changed the ending. If I ever end up publishing a novel, please don't ever let this happen to my novel. If they make a movie about it I would hope that they'd at least have the decency to leave my ending the way I wrote it.

Inspirational

So I have to do a project for my Graphic Design class and what I have to do is make a book. On each page I have to have a picture and on the next page a quote or something that somehow relates to the image. So I decided to do water related photos and movie quotes. In my search for water photos on google I came across these four photos. I don't know who did them and I'd love to give them credit for it. I wont be using these in my assignment but I wanted to keep thm around for inspiration in the future. Anyway, hope you like them also.

My Favorite Rat Video

Modern Art

I think art is a very important part of society. By art I mean the art of drawing, writing, singing, dancing, creating. Art is everything that we see but I really love what people might call 'obvious art'. As an artist myself I enjoy bringing pen, pencil, charcoal, and marker to paper but that doesn't stop me from loving those people who find art outside a 9x11 sketchbook page. I love art and I love how people are constantly looking for new ways to amaze the world. I hope people will continue to think up new ways to bring art to the world.

Rats Make Wonderful Pets

So, I have two pet rats, Sweets and Panda. My friends bought them for me for my birthday. They are the sweetest little ladies in the world. They are small to medium sized rats (which is not to be confused with the jumbo rats which are the size of a cat). My girls are about the size of a hamster or gerbil. Yes they have long hairless tails but I think they are adorable. Not only that but I also respect how useful the tails are. They help my ladies keep their balance and as a mother I like the tails because it's an easy way to tell if my girls are getting too hot. Rats are sensitive to heat strokes so when they get hot they let heat of of their feet and tail so when their tail is hot that's means they are overheating. This is helpful since I live in the hot state of South Carolina. Since I've gotten them they have upgraded cages three times. The picture is from their second cage. They both enjoy running in the wheel. Also, I've started letting them have scraps and so far I know Panda likes peaches, pears, cherries, cheese dip, and teddy grahams. Sweets doesn't like peaches or cheese dip but she likes the other stuff. Panda loves to lick people and shows affection openly. Sweets, who seemed to be the calm of the two at the store, is actually more cautious. She gets nervous easier than her sister. I love their individual personalities and I look forward to learning more about them.

First Step

This blog is the new home of Me, October. After spending the majority of my life with my brother, we have become best friends but now that we are both in college we see less of each other. Granted, we go to the same college so we still spend time but this is just one way to stay in touch.