SOPA is back and we need to stop it again! This version is any copywritten material is subject to the copyright holder . So they are going for as broad as possible, this affect tons of things like: Let’s play , News, Artist, Game, ect.

Please sign the petition! Please share this!
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-sopa-2013/LMzMVrQF

(From http://snowcrystal5.tumblr.com/post/59113774495/lets-stop-sopa-3-0)

And I couldn't be happier. Tens are nice, lose and comfortable. I can actually squeeze into my sister's eight dress. I've increased my weights when exercising, as well as varied my routines (got some new DVDs from Amazon) so I suspect I'll be pulling a few more pounds off. Right now I don't want to really change shape so much as I want to build muscle and lose fat. I doubt I'll drop much lower than a ten with how wide my shoulders and hips are. (I am, technically, just inside of BMI for my body height and within the body frame size chart, go me! I know these things are not the be all or end all, but they're a nice target.)

People at school are noticing. I have other staff members asking what I'm doing and if I have tips for them. :)

I was accepted to Graduate School! I have some paperwork to get together - medical records and stuff like that - and then I'm going to work on getting a few courses in before June 30th. If I can get two in this year I'll be able to get reimbursed for those two before the 'new' year starts (for schools, it's July 1st, I believe). This means I could possibly get 5 courses in by July 2014, which would be 15 credits, which would be awesome.

Stopped down by my parents yesterday. Raided their cereal again (Dad has gone gluten and meat free in an effort to try and fight his symptoms. This means all his cereal is going to go bad, so I gratefully will eat it and thank them for not having to pay for it!) as well as went shopping with Mom. I got fabric for Rin's Miko outfit at Joanne's yesterday as well as a pattern for what will hopefully work for Kaleido Ruby. Rin's props are proving to be the most interesting part of the challenge but I'm going to do my best! I also picked up some clothes, including a new dress/shirt thingy I'm wearing tomorrow ($20, originally $80, ha), a regular summer dress and two pairs of yoga pants to exercise in.

.....of course, they're too long. XD Luckily, my aunt is planning on giving me her sewing machine so I will be able to hem them easily without driving to Mom's!

I've been trying to get some new dress shoes for school. I lucked out with a pair of boots at JCP and got a set of brown ones with Kiraya on President's weekend - we hit one of the outlets - but flats are being very inconvenient. With my weight loss I'm just not quite fitting anything. Right now this involves me ordering a bunch of shoes online then returning all of the ones that don't fit.

So far, they're all going back. Oops?

Starting this month I'm actually running a budget, now being over six months in the house. I think I have pretty much settled into purchasing patterns, so I want to figure out how much I actually spend a month (since I don't have a lot of start up costs anymore) and make sure to average out enough to save for summer. I have a decent amount in savings so I'm not terribly worried. Plus, Kiraya is planning to move in this summer, and that will allow me to split off some of the food, internet, etc. costs.

My two favorite Iphone entertainment apps for my itouch are Pocket Fiction (allows you to download fics right off ff.net. I just wish it also worked for other sites. It's a little buggy, but it's like having an unlimited number of ebooks at my fingertips) and Flower Garden. I HATE real life gardening (the little I'm planning on doing this summer falls in the 'necessary evil' category - food mostly, to cut down on grocery costs) but I really enjoy sending Kiraya and my mom flowers. XD Also, COMPLETE ALL THE CHALLENGES.

And with that, I need to go get ready for bed, as tomorrow is the beginning of another school week.

So, points of interest: Weight loss has been succeeding! Since September, I am down 16lbs. I'm firmly a size 10/medium now and feel great. I finally broke down and bought some new clothes. The outfit I wore today made me feel so sexy and attractive. I got a lot of compliments too. <3 Still have weight to lose (and muscle to gain) but I'm getting there! On the exercise front, C25K has not been working (damn ankle gave out again) but I might try again in the summer, especially since kiraya got me an ipod touch for Christmas, so I can actually do it outside without too many issues. That being said, Notra Tracks are actually pretty awesome.

FSN continues to be love. I wish they'd make an AFFORDABLE Fate/Zero box set, though. Also, still having unpopular fandom opinions as almost always. Le sigh. I'm going to try and do Rin Cosplay this summer (another reason I'm exercising and working on my legs. Need to be ready for Rin!) and Kiraya and I are working on a pretty massive fic undertaking. I've already written some things for the fandom, but they need tweaking before I post.

I do miss the days of having an actual fandom circle, back in the FMA days. Ah, college, I miss thee.

Speaking of College, I heard on Monday that I've been accepted to my Master's program! That means I'll be busy over the next two to three years, but I'm sure it'll be worth it - and the program is very much designed by teachers for teachers, so it'll be helpful, practical stuff rather than esoteric theory.

School is on Midterms, which is giving me some time to catch my breath. This has been a hard year so far. Hopefully it'll get easier.

I still love my house. Living so much closer has increased my quality of life a lot and I love the privacy. I'm looking forward to having Kiraya here full time, however, as it will help both with the finances and the chores (besides getting to enjoy her presence all the time! I have a bad feeling, however, that my minimal fic output might very well drop to zero for a while. >.>)

We celebrated Christmas down at Disney this year. It was really crowded, but the weather was pretty nice. It felt weird being away from home, but not too bad. The worse part was the trip down (took four hours more than usual due to traffic) though the trip back wasn't nearly as bad (a record through DC and Richmond!). I didn't like getting back to work almost immediately after, though. I'm still feeling like I'm dragging a bit, having never really rested up.

However! I now have mickey slippers to walk around the house with and they are super comfy! (Priorities...)

Friday night Kiraya came and spent the night. We spent most of the time hammering out what will likely be our next major project - FSN with Rin as the main character. If we manage to pull this off it'll be epic beyond proportions. Just...gah. Affection points. Affection points, you are the bane of my existence. I took her down to the lovely bread company my mother and I love. She took me out for dinner to celebrate my birthday (this Wednesday). We had a lovely time.

Today and yesterday I worked on gathering up all of the various photography stuff that the previous owners left here. (They had a business and it failed. They lost their house, their marriage and their business - it's such a sad story.) Turns out Dad knows someone at work whose wife is a professional photographer so she actually would know how to use this stuff. I filled up over half my car and took it down to the house. There are a few things I kept for myself but most of it is out of the house now. Tomorrow I'll be going through what's left downstairs and boxing up the clothing and a few other things - I'll send those off to VVA. This will result in the spare bedroom actually being passable as well as cleaning out part of the outside closet.

My parents bought a new mattress and mom said I could have the old ones. I have to rent a Uhaul (And we'll probably have Kiraya over to help; with four people it shouldn't be too hard) but I'll be able to put back up my bed from childhood and convert it to a canopy bed! The single I'm using now will go into the guest bedroom.

Today my parents met me at one of the local tex-mex restaurants which has been a tradition to celebrate my birthday for a long time. (I am, after all, a partial Texian, having been born there.) They gave me an absolutely ADORABLE cat card and my sister left me another one. (Which they accidentally left at home, but they also left a piece of cake they had bought me to enjoy on my actual birthday so I went home with them.)

I have a feeling Wednesday is going to feel weird. It'll be the first time I celebrate my birthday by myself...but I'll also be doing it in my own house. Lots of mixed feelings.

Fate/Zero soundtrack is amazing. I really hope they bring it over in something besides the box set that's like a fourth of my monthly mortgage payment. I'm enjoying rewatching the series too. Yay, Crunchyroll app!

Dad decided to get rid of his Nordictrack so that's currently in my otherwise empty dinning room. I'm finding it very enjoyable even though I can't do too much at a time yet. It is not bothering me the way jogging was (I seem to have developed a weird problem with my lower back if I jog too much) so I may have to focus on that until I get back into shape. Dieting will begin around the end of September towards the beginning of October, once I get back into the roll of school. Being better than I have been lately will start once we get past back to school night. I haven't opened up my scale yet, but I have a feeling I've put some weight back on. I want to get to be strong and healthy, especially when looking at what's been hitting my family lately. If that comes for me, I want as much as I can in my favor.

Dad's coworkers are being really supportive and helping him with the some of the department responsibilities.

It's the time of year teachers start talking about school. Here's a quick run down:

- Said good bye to my (as of yesterday) former supervisor. She helped me a lot with difficult situations over these past five years and it won't be the same without her around the building.

- The pilot I've mentioned a few times in the past is continuing. The teachers are getting Ipad3, so I got an upgrade. :) I honestly don't see that much of a difference.

- School starts officially for teacher's on Tuesday, for students on Thursday (no kids on my birthday, that's nice). My class sizes are smaller than last year (so far), but I'm not placing any bets on that remaining so. However, for the first time I every I have MY OWN ROOM so that's going to make a huge difference. I won't be pushing loads of books around all the time! This does, however, mean I need to focus on exercising at home.


This post is certainly long enough to tie off for now. I shall have to post more often.

So I'm currently cat sitting for my parents. They are currently on their way back from taking my sister off to her second year at college. Between getting her ready to go, Dad's medical stuff and general home improvement, a lot of the usual normal cleaning stuff has been ignored. (This was also stuff I used to take care of before I moved out.) So I have conquered all of the following over the last two days:

- Vacuumed the family room, office, hallway, my old room and as much of the parent's room as I could.

- Cleaned both the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms.

- Vacuumed then scrubbed the stairs.

- Cleaned all the grease off the stove, scrubbed the burners (this took about two hours)and re-foiled it (a trick to keep food from burning onto the top).

- Swept and mopped the kitchen floor.

- Scrubbed the counters, containers on counters, toaster, microwave, sink, and both drainboards.

- Wiped down the front and back doors to the house and cleaned the glass screen doors.

- Mowed the lawn (Got four bug bites for my trouble - at three in the afternoon! Just not fair.)

- Took out the trash throughout the house.

- Took down three out of the five shelves still up in my old room (which will eventually be put back up in my house). I would have gotten all five, but the drill is out of power and getting three to four inch screws out by hand requires a lot of hand/shoulder power and I'm tired. XD

And I ALSO got Church, two runs to Walmart (I know it's an evil place, but they have very cheap prices and I'm on a budget right now) and a hair cut in! *strikes victory pose*

....and I really wish I had some FSN icons. Will have to fix that.

Also, Shameless Pimping: kiraya wrote an adorable FSN fic set in the fate route after "Boy meets girl & girl." Go read it. It's awesome! (Warning for some adult content.)

So, the last time I posted was when I closed. Since then, the following things have happened.

1) We cleaned the house - I have the best family and coworkers! - and I moved in.
2) I spoke for my unofficial mentor teacher at the retirement party.
3) We ended school - and I finally have my own room for next year!
4) I started unpacking.
5) I went on vacation for a week with kiraya
6) I continued to unpack. (This is a lengthy processes. I'm mostly done now.)
7) I started my summer job. (40 hours a week, very mentally intensive work.)
8) I 'finished' the costumes for Otakon (only to realize when we were actually there that I had missed hemming the sleeves and part of the design, oops.)

I can't believe its almost August. I'm getting settled into the my house and starting to get things into a routine. I want to start back up on eating healthy and exercising. I'm doing Couch to 5k (Admittedly, inside rather than out right now, but it's HOT.) Today I had someone come by and evaluate what I need done around the house (amongst other things, I have to replace the AC and the Furnace for sure.) Hopefully I will soon be able to start writing fic again - I miss it.

Family wise, things have been pretty emotional lately. My dad has been having some bad health problems and my uncle has skin cancer. Luckily they caught it and they think it isn't in the lymph nodes, though they're doing testing to be sure. Anyone have any extra prayers/positive thoughts they can spare, I'll sure take them!

I am terribly unmotivated right now. This isn't really good. Um, what's been going on in my life?

Still waiting in the house situation. Apparently the bankruptcy court hearing isn't happening until March, le sigh. I am still trying to be patient and remind myself that I'm saving money, but there are days I really, really wish my drive was shorter.

I'll come.

In other news, it is lent time again. For those who aren't familiar with the practice, Catholics (I'm not sure if other Christians do it or not) sometimes abstain from something during the season. I have decided to once again give up reading fic. This is always a challenge, and I haven't done it much in the last few years, so it's good for me to try again. I am sometimes more productive while doing this, but often I end up playing video games or neopet games mindlessly. XD

I am trying to work on revising some more of the fills I did for the kinkmeme, as well as some stuff I have had on my journal but never posted to FF.net, since kiraya has decided to be my personal fic archiver. XD;; I hate posting stuff, but she thinks it needs to be out there. Well, when we start Divine Revolutions at least some people will be watching for Geass fic?

Reposting Dragonprints have those muses active. Marianneverse muses are active. I just need to actually be able to sit down and write. *goes looking for motivation*

Authors: Bard Linn and Kiraya
Genre: General/Drama
Pairings: ZackxSephxCloud, ReevexAeris OCxOC, Assorted Past
Rating (Overall): PG-13
Warnings: None this chapter.
Summary: "To the limitless future."

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all associated characters and symbols are the exclusive property of Square Enix and its associates. We’re just borrowing them for a while.

( Chapter 52 )

1. Having actually seen it animated, I can kind of understand the FaiKurogame ship now.

2. I need to reread the manga slower to remember some of the stuff I missed.

3. X!Kamui needs to be as badass as TRC!Kamui.

4. It was :( that they didn't have Subaru's badass moment...AND X/TB!SUBARU NEEDS TO BE THAT BADASS. YES.

5. Sei-Fuuma snark is wonderful.

6. I legit squeeed when Kamui, Subaru, Sei and Fuuma made their first appearences.

7. I actually can kind of ship FuumaxKamui here because Fuuma is more 'aww, aren't you a cute pissed off kid, have a cookie' as opposed to a maniac.

8. Domestic vampire harem RP = <3

9. Mokona can be cute and adorable with ANYONE. OMG.

10. I keep calling Mokona Madoka. They could fill each other's roll's pretty well.

11. Syaoran versus Syaoran looks a lot like Suzaku versus Suzaku. ZOMG, another clone. We spent part of the time discussing which Suzaku would be which Syaoran.

12. I still want more background for the vampire twins and Sei. *grabby hands*

13. So, if we crossed this with geass.....