Space to Scream

As of this last areyougame session, we have some prompts to retire!

So, if you are looking for a challenge or just need something to keep you occupied during the the next few months, feel free to let these bunnies take up residence with you. No claiming necessary for the free-for-all, just take, create and post here sometime during the rest of this month.

Please follow the regular posting format for the free-for-all.




Prompting will commence again on January 1.

Time spent: 1:00
Calories burned: 287
BMI: 29.44

Yup, weight went up again, but I ate a Southern Breakfast (tm)--cheesy grits and real sausage and ate ramen for dinner; this is not a shock. It's also not that upsetting, since I'm viewing things as a restart--I slacked off, I did exercises that were ineffective, and so now I'm starting over. I'm not going to worry unless I start going up for a week straight.

The cycling game can blow me. I'm not even kidding. I wandered around the area trying to find the last two flags, then said "Fuck this," and quit the game. I had been doing it for about fifteen minutes, and it counted none of that time. asdfghjkl;

I'll do the short course; the long courses can SUCK IT. GAH.

( Also, Wii Fit has a perverse love of making your Mii die spectacularly )

Here is my one_liners challenge set.

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Claim: Cloud/Yuffie

Table Set One

Exercise Time: 1:05
Calories burned: 278
BMI: 29.34 (boooo~. But it's no one's fault but my own. ^^;; And I'm still lower than when I started out, so no complaints yet--ask me in a week)

Yeah, I gained weight back, but looking at the last week, I can totally understand why. With the total pigging out that was last weekend and last night (it was a 3-day weekend and friends came to visit last weekend, and yesterday I went out with people to the yummiest Indian place ever and ate far too much cheese naan) and the sheer lack of exercising I've been doing (I didn't do any Wii Fit the whole time I had people here, or the day after because my living room was still set up for having guests and not for me to be able to exercise, so I didn't do anything but walking for five days [busted Balance Board and also laziness] and yesterday [I was so stuffed my stomach cried at the thought], yeah, I can see why. I kinda winced and went, "Yeah, yeah, I get it. No more slacking off."

So to make up for it, I made sure to put in 275 calories, since that seemed to be the magic number. I have to get back in the exercising habit, so I have to make things enjoyable. So I did the step dance thing, and the "rhythm king fu" thing and the marching band thing, and the obstacle course thing (I WAS SO CLOSE *sob*).

Then for shits and giggles, I did the "cycling" game, and unlocked the longer course. And went, "Heh, let's try that!"

( OMFG MISTAAAAKE~. )

AWESOME.

Bayonetta's "sexy dancing."

I spent the whole clip of this like this: D: and going, "What am I watching?! DDDD:"



Speaking of wrong...y'all have to see this to believe it, too. Chinese card game that rips off...you won't even believe it. >XD

Squeenix just put out the last FF13 trailer. I'd embed, but they're being "no embed!" jerks, so here's a link to the FF13 website, and you can watch it there.

...Yun Fang is going in my party at all times once I have her as a member. Because she is awesome.

You can also see the new Cid, and OMFG HAAAAWT. *drool* (trust me, watch the trailer; the screencaps do nothing.)

ETA!

I love the internet.

Time spent: 36 min
Calories burned: 161
Current BMI: 29.2

I have a new balance board! And it works wonderfully! This makes me happy.

Today was the first "Getting back to basics" day, and OMFG, I can feel such a difference doing exercise-exercise instead of "fat burning" exercise.

Mainly in that I am sore. I am very, very sore. My inner thighs are mutinying, and when the game suggested I could now do 30 jackknifes instead of 20, I went, out loud, no joke, "Oh HELL no!" Twenty is still pushing it and my abdominal muscles hate me.

Also, the game lies like a lying thing. I did the obstacle course thing and was nearly done, and apparently I jumped for real (I was mid-run when a log came at me). This makes the game force quit, admonish you, and start over. And when you start over, it does not count all the calories you burned before. So the "calories burned" is a lie. Bastard. I was SO CLOSE to beating the game; I will make it my bitch, oh yes. XD

I am sweaty and gross and when the game said, "If you feel tired, it's important to rest!" I took it as a sign. So the water for my bath is running, and once this is done I will go slouch in the bath and let my stress melt away. And hopefully some of the OW PAIN OW from actual exercise will melt away with it. XD

If y'all haven't seen this, well, apparently Microsoft is ripping off Apple and opening "Microsoft Stores." The stores look, well...like a ripped-off Apple Store, and the ubercool Apple Store in Shinsaibashi laughs in it's face.

Anyone, some astroturf blogger just happened to have a camcorder with him the day he just happened to go to the Microsoft Store, and on a day when the staff just happened to break out into a completely unplanned and unchoreographed 4-plus-minute line dance to a Black Eyed Peas song.

Yeah, this dude wasn't getting paid. Suuure. And was a hardcore Mac guy until his life changing trip to the magical land of singing and dancing techies at the Microsoft Store. Riiiiiight. (We'll just ignore all the talk on being a Vista beta tester on a link ON THE SAME PAGE).

Really, all that needs to be said about this sad spectacle is said at minute 2:14 of the video. Watch the woman in the white shirt veeeeery carefully. She says it all, really.



XD

This is a Bad Idea.

Other people clearly think this as well. How do I know this?

Check out the "Customer images" and customer-given tags.

XDDDDDDD

And for the best "Passive Aggressive Note" EVAR. Check out the note in the third picture.

AWESOME.

So the game tells me I have gained more weight--half a kilo, and I'm going >:( at it. And vowing once again to go back to the muscle training and yoga, since obviously that was what was working. But I am, to be honest, somewhat perplexed, and decide the sudden input of potatoes into my diet must be the factor to blame, sigh, and decide fiiiiine, no more starchy foods.

I start up the step dance thing, and it tells me "Please get off the balance board."

And I look at it blankly and go, "I AM off the board."

After several retries and finally getting it to register that I am not, in fact, standing on the board, I start the game, and it's making me as missing damned near everything. And I'm going, "...OK, you're broken. You are very broken. :/"

I have to go into Kyoto anyway, and I still have my receipt, so I'll try to get a new board and see if that helps explain the insane things it's been telling me, like the day it decided I lost nearly a kilo and a half (and the day I went, "You are FULL OF LIES") and why it's decided all of a sudden that I have chubbed up and my balance has gone to shit again. Hopefully, it's more a mechanical problem than me being full of fail. :/

Exercise time: 35 min
Calories burned: 157
BMI: 29.14
Feeling: Ow ow sore ow

So I realized today--I feel weaker. Or rather, I feel like I lost a lot of the progress I made--my scores are going down, and my balance is beginning to skew off again, and my weight has been staying pretty flat for the last two weeks or so. I'd been noticing this the last few days, but today seeing my bmi only going down .10 even after I busted my ass yesterday, it hit me--I was doing best not when I was thinking, "Oh god, gotta burn calories fast because I'm going home!" but "Hmm, what works best for my problem areas, like my weak inner thighs?"

So starting today, I started over--I'm going back to thinking, "What do I need to do for myself and to make myself healthier?" instead of, "What can burn the most fat the fastest on the slim chance it will appease my family?" The deadline hanging over my head was sapping the fun out of this, and turning it into a chore; filling me with dread and making it so I couldn't enjoy myself like I had been.

I will never make my family happy, ever, so, I wondered, why am I shooting myself in the foot even trying? This is for me, not to make people I will never be able to please. In their eyes, something will always be wrong or not good enough, so...wtf. Screw it and screw them--the only person I've got to please and make myself better for is myself.

Instead of all the jogging and random fat-burn exercises, I went back to yoga and weight training--everything I told myself I'd do after I got back from the US. And hoo boy, am I ever feeling it. x_X My sides are like *death* and my legs are like *death* and oh God, are my arms ever like *death*. Which I am taking as a good sign.

I will shoot for trying to burn at least 175 calories (I missed it today because d00d, my dinner was ready), but I'm not going to sacrifice shaping up my weak areas all for the sake of a number.

And now, for another installment of "Kantan cooking!"

Kantan Cooking with Jou: Parmesian Potatoes and Asparagus and faux-Italian baked chicken breast

Yes, this is easy. I promise. It is easy because, again, I am laaaaaazy.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 Chicken breast(s)
2 small potatoes
2 stalks of asparagus
feta cheese
cooking oil
asparagus
in you are in the US: "Italian-style diced tomatoes"
If you are not in the US: 2 small tomatoes, oregano, basil

Both of these bake at the same time, so you can start your oven pre-heating to 350F/175C.

First up, the asparagus and potatoes:
Slice the potatoes into chunks however you like. I ended up with squarish-triangly things.

Put half of them in a baking dish.

Chop up a stalk of asparagus.

Put it in the baking dish.

Drizzle with oil, then coat with parmesan cheese. Same kind you put on your spaghetti.

Repeat with the rest of the potatoes and asparagus.

Cover with aluminum foil and stick in the oven.

Now for the chicken.

If you live in the US, you are lucky and I hate you, because you can buy canned "Italian-style diced tomatoes," which are already seasoned. That was what I used when I first created this dish. Open the can and dump everything in a baking dish.

If you're like me, get two smallish tomatoes. Chop them up and put them and the resulting juice in a baking dish.

Liberally add oregano and basil, and then get your hands dirty mixing it up a bit.

Get the chicken breast out of the fridge and put it on top of the tomatoes.

Get your hands dirty again getting the tomato on the chicken and the chicken nicely coated.

Open the feta and put as much as you want on the chicken. Also pour some of the oil the feta is in in there.

Stick this in the oven.

Wash the few dishes you used and wander off to read stuff on line, preferably in the kitchen area.

Cook until you can smell it and it smells like win. :D

Exercise time: 1:19
Calories burned: 381
BMI: 29.17
Feeling: throat owie ;_;

So yesterday it was full of lies with the lying 28.83 BMI. And I knew it was full of lies. Today it jumped up to 29.27 and I went, "You are also full of lies today!" but the game insisted I justify my weight gain. I stuck my tongue out and said I ate dinner late. Which I had; my belly was still full of soup and a piece of cake I picked up because dude, chocolate. Everyone once in a while, you just need chocolate. :p (and I reweighed myself after exercising, figuring the sweating would counter all the food remaining in my stomach.

( Winter is evil for me. )

So Not A Gamer's Game Review: Okami
 
I am slow and late, I admit this.  Everyone else on the planet played this years ago.  And I actually started to play it years ago, well before there was an English version, and my Japanese back then was sufficiently crap that I ran screaming.  But in honor of Okamiden coming out, and it Chibi-Amaterasu being the cutest thing EVER, I decided to pull out Okami and play it (never mind the PS3 version of Tales of Desperia sitting sad and alone in my PS3.  That's next on the list To Play, followed by finishing FF7.  And no, I've never played it.  Shush.  I'll still be playing FF13 long before you suckers. >XD )
 
Also, as a warning...yeah, I played it in Japanese.  And a lot of the names are different--the names of people, places, and animals were really truncated in the English version.  I'm using the Japanese names, just because that's how I think of the characters.
 
( The long of it. )
 
( The short of it. )
 

Title: Crumbling Down
Author: jlsigman
Rating: G
Word count: 160
Prompt: Final Fantasy VII, Reeve: the fall of Sector 7 – It shouldn't be like this
A/N: Originally due Oct. 16

There was nothing he could do, and that hurt most of all.

Reeve had only heard about the plan to drop the plate a few moments ago, overhearing Reno's voice as they passed in the hallway. For a moment Reeve had frozen in shock, not wanting to believe that something this horrific was anything more than the Turk shooting his mouth off again. Several frantic phone calls soon had him throwing up in his office trash can.

After he washed out his mouth in the bathroom, he went to find a place in the Shinra building where he could watch it happen. That was his penance for not being able to save anyone. So he stood in silence, hands clenched at his sides, tears running into his beard, and watched the plate kill untold thousands of people as it crashed down.

It was then that he decided he hated, and that he had to do something to make it right.

There comes a point when you have a horrifying realization of just how big of a nerd you really are.

I was putzing around with the Ultimania author's notes for A Hope in Hell, and I had mentioned the Divine Comedy (because I was talking about the Chimera, and how the Angeal!boss in Crisis Core matches the way Dante described a chimera, and that was were I got my idea for "The Griffin and the Chimera" from). Which made me look on line for the first few stanzas, because it mentioned being "lost" from the "straight way" and that tied in with how I'm doing Angeal in it. And I realized how well the first few lines tied in to the fic, even down to the "a dark wood...savage, dense, and harsh" and how the name of the city, Daerimmun, means "the gate to the great forest."

And then went, "...I can SO use this! >:D" and decided to reread the Inferno. For a fic. One I'm not even working on right now, since the next chapter of HC is a priority.

So....yup, I'm a neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd~.

Who is going to bed, because it's 1 am, but will be curling up with my copy of the Divine Comedy. :D

Exercise time: 0:00
Calories burned: 0
BMI: 28.83
Feeling: COUGH COUGH HACK HACK Bwuh...?!

I have been hopped up on cold meds all day. Not even kidding. The cold meds keep me from coughing, which keeps my throat from wanting to weep.

I had decided not to exercise today, for said cough cough hack hack ow ow reasons. And also I made more soup since all I want is soup and bread, and it hadn'T finished until after 9, and 9 is when I usually start exercising. But I figured I should at least turn the Wii Fit on and weigh myself, since as long as you do that every day it doesn't bitch at you. And in order to make sure I didn't do something stupid like figure, "Hey, since it's on, I can do a little something," what with the "I only feel healthy because of the cold meds" (and right on schedule, about ten minutes ago, just when I was thinking, "Hey, we're not SO bad off, maybe I should actually get some exer---COUGH COUGH COUGH oh shit, the meds are wearing off. Never mind!"), I left on my regular clothes (a sweater and a skirt) instead of changing into the T-shirt I usually exercise in (yay, living alone, where I can exercise in just a t-shirt).

So I got on the balance board, and told it I was wearing heavy clothes, and awaited my results. And saw them and went, "YOU LIE!!" when it said my BMI was 28.63. I went, "NO. No, you lie," and the game congratulated me on reaching my goal, but then warned me that sudden weight loss wasn't likely to last. And I was still going, "You LIE, that makes no sense." Then I turned the game off.

About five minutes later, I changed into my regular workout clothes and turned it back on, and said, "DO OVER." And this time selected light clothes and waited for a more normal response.

28.83.

Bwuar?

So I was like, "...OK, this still makes no sense. Maybe because I didn't eat dinner? Wait, but I did eat something, I had that giant, heavy bread thing from the bakery right after I got home because I was making soup and it wouldn't be ready for hours and I was hungry, and that was only two hours ago, only an hour before I normally eat. I am so confused."

I'm still confused, but hey. If it jumps back up some tomorrow, I will also not be surprised, because seriously, bwuh?

So I still think it lies like a lying thing, but hey. We'll see what it say tomorrow. XD;;;

My mother just called me.

I'm not surprised; I wired her about $3000 yesterday, but the told me it'd take around a week to get there, because trying to send money out of Japan is insane. I forgot to e-mail mom to tell her it'd take a week, and she called me saying, "When is the money going to get here?"

So I told her about a week, and she went, "A week?!" and I said, "Yeah. A week. It's not instant." She asked if I sent it to her bank account, and I said yes. And apologized for not e-mailing her to let her know it'd be a week, since I was sick and had gone to bed not long after I got home (which I did; I had to drag myself out of bed to exercise, and then I dragged myself right back into bed).

And she went, "Oh, OK. Take care of yourself. I love you."

And I as "...hunh?" to myself and just blinked lots and lots, because I'm not used to my mother a) being nice or b) telling me she loves me. I was too flummoxed to answer for a second, and finally said, "Thank you, I love you, too."

( I hate it when my mother is nice to me. )

When you get Angeal involved in a prompt, all other teams are shut out! SOLDIER wins this round with 50 points.

This week's prompt is #123 - Afterlife

So, what's it all about, really? Where do we go when we die?

Does Genesis believe that he will be reunited with the Goddess? Is Sephiroth choking the planet? Is the Lifestream all there is or is it just a pit-stop? Is Reno a non-believer? Does Tseng have his own view of the after-world? If people go back to the planet and ShinR is using the planets energy, what happens to the souls of loved ones? Does Rufus even care? Where do beings like Jenova spend their afterlife...in a box?

Whether the afterlife involves angels, a deep dark void, or shiny green fluid stuff, write about it in only 100 words.