Happy Halloween!!!

And Happy Birthday again Lee ^_^

And happy me! Mom took me to get my learner's permit today! Perfect score! I can legally drive (with an adult) ^_^ Yes! Maybe I'll post a photo of it later. What's even more awesome is that Lee is going to take the driving test tomorrow and get his restricted license ^_^

Anyway, Lee's doing a Halloween birthday party tonight ^_^ Yvonne's coming over in a little bit to help me with my costume. I decided to add the skeleton torso to my costume and she's going to help body paint me ^_^

!!!Happy Birthday!!!

!!!Happy Birthday Lee!!!

^_^ <3 I love you so much <3 ^_^

NaNoWriMo

That's "National Novel Writing Month" It goes from November 1st though November 30th. The idea is  that you use the entire month of November to write a 50000 word story (a.k.a. novel). It's not a competition. It's more of incentive to help you write a the novel. If you hit the 50000 word barrier, I think you get a certificate or something like that. There's no penalty for doing less than 50000. You don't even need to post your word count. I joined last year, but never got very far because I kept getting distracted. I also joined late. This year, I'm going to try even harder. So, I have about two days to get ready for a writing marathon ^_^ Actually, less than a day since tomorrow is Lee's birthday. My biggest challenge is to nail down a story. I have so many ideas swirling around in my head @_@ LOL ^_^

Mellow night

Spent tonight just chatting and playing Minecraft. I'm back doing Vechs' Waking Up. This is the new map or at least the latest version. It's a real pain even if you know what to expect, even with his "helping" you. However, I'm playing it with 1.4.2 which gives me a few more resources such as potatoes and carrots ^_^ In fact, I have a potato farm as my main food source and a herd of mooshrooms as a back up. I have done a few things differently this time around.

In the Trees of Fun, I have a zombie grinder that I use for drops instead of experience. I do have the ability to hack at the zombies if I need to, but I just let the lava blade deal with them. I've noticed that rare drops are now extremely rare. It took me awhile to get a carrot and a potato. And even longer for an iron bar. I haven't seen any of the other drops from the zombies yet. I'm thinking that you need to actually kill them yourself for the rare drops. I was doing that when I got the carrot, potato, and iron bar.

After taking the Grove of Shroooms, I collected all the nether wart and soulsand, herded all the mooshrooms down to Intersection 1, collected all the mycelium for dirt, and chopped down the giant mushrooms (spawns were popping in on their dark tops). I did lose a mooshroom to a creeper explosion, but over all, this room when smoothly.

At my base in the Trees of Fun, the corridor to the first fleecy is now my nether wart farm ^_^ I hollowed out the corridor where the creeper spawners were. And now, that where my potato farm is along with a couple of mooshrooms ^_^ I've taken the caves to We All Float so that I could get an infinite water supply.

I'm working on Boomer Castle now. I've secured the blaze spawner and have a brewing stand and several bottles of fire resist. I've used the new cobblestone fence as guardrails along the bridge to Boomer Castle. I tunnel ratted around the perimeter of the ground floor rooms of Boomer Castle instead of trying a direct assault. It's still painfully slow and I've lost some progress due to creepers blowing up because of skeleton shots. I think I need to create a few honey pots for random spawn. Mobs just seem to numerous this time around.

Halloween Party - Aftermath

Okay, so last night, we did Yvonne's Halloween party. It was awesome! It was a blast! I was assigned Jack-o-lantern duty: carving them, setting them up, and lighting them. Yvonne's family roped off a chunk of her woods and set up the haunted woods there. This year, Mark was dressed as a werewolf (mmm, smexy! LOL) and Rob was a variation of the Swamp Thing. Both costumes were awesome ^_^ Yvonne was a blue variation of me: Lady Death ^_^ Lee came as a Dark Prince OMFG! He was so smexy! Kyle came as a Voodoo Priest (think "Live and Let Die") which complemented Yvonne and myself perfectly ^_^. Alice and Sheila came as doll mannequins which seemed to be perfect for them. Teagan and Mike where borg (I helped with the costume design). Hannah was Merida from "Brave" No, not just dressed as Merida, but Merida. People don't seem to realize that Hannah can be very much like Merida at times.

Anyway, the haunted woods. Mark and Rob, Yvonne's brothers, were in charge of setting it as usual. It was a good sized haunted wood with paths twisting and turning in ways that you couldn't really see very far and know what was coming. Not like fore knowledge would help you. I know that from personal experience o.o hehe ^_^ No one was aloud in to the area alone. They didn't want them wandering past the edges and getting truly lost. Yvonne and I were guides for awhile. We went through the woods first and it was awesomely freaked out O.O And even after going through a couple times later as guides we could still be freaked out O.O After everyone had gone through the woods at least once, the party was fully started. I spent most of the evening with my Dark Prince <3 ^_^ I had no idea when the party finally ended because I fell asleep around maybe 1am We already knew it was going to turn into a sleep-over. So no problem there. I got home around 6 this morning. I bet I looked a sight: Lady Death riding her bike LOL!

- Posted from my iPad

Halloween Party

This is a quick post for tonight since I probably won't be home until after midnight. I'm still at Yvonne's for her family's party. It's been a blast this year just like last year ^_^ And like last year, I was assigned to Jack-o-Lantern duty ^_^ Because the weather was so nice, they changed the theme from haunted house to haunted woods. Think Blair Witch Project ^_^. Anyway, I need to go. More tomorrow unless a ghostie gets me ^_^

Friday night

Pizza and movies ^_^ But by now, you all know that. Tonight, in addition to the regulars, Lee, Yvonne, and Kyle, Alice has joined us. Alice my bestie of besties. Alice, the one that hasn't done a Friday night at my house in like forever. She's here tonight ^_^ Sheila's out of town and I didn't want Alice to be lonely. I'm so happy that she's finally here again ^_^

Because there were so many of us here tonight, we all chipped in some money to help buy the pizzas. Mom tried to refuse it, but we insisted. Anyway, back to the movies ^_^

With Lee

I hung out with Lee tonight. We spent most of the time in his room talking and goofing off and kissing and such ^_^ Hannah was in with us for a little while be Lee's mom extricated her lol ^_^ What's funny, is that nothing really happened but I feel all giggly and happy inside ^_^

Hurricanes and more weirdness

First off, there's a full hurricane in the Atlantic: Sandy. It does look like she's going to go up the east coast this time.

Second, my posts that wouldn't post, have posted o.O This is so freaking annoying >.< I'm trying to post at least once a day and I do write up and post it. But Blogger seems to be screwing up on the publishing of it >.<

Lee had to help his dad tonight. So, I took the time to fire up my Minecraft server and do a multi with Yvonne and Kyle along with goof around with my guitar.

Weird

For some reason, my entire weekend of posts are being published here >.< I have them in draft mode, but when I tell Blogger to publish them, they just return to draft mode. I'm curious if this post will publish or end up in draft limbo >.<

Vechs revisited

I decided to give Vechs' Waking Up map another try. This time I downloaded the latest one and started over from scratch. I was able to take the Trees of Fun and the first intersection in about an hour. As soon as I relocate my base to the Trees of Fun, I'll grab the first wool and the second chapter of the book.

Shopping and pumpkin

It was beautiful out this morning. I could have run forever. Even the dogs wanted to, but I had to get home and help mom with the chores. Afterwards we went to granddad's and then we all went to Walmart where I got some clothes and a pumpkin for carving, ate out, and did the bookstore ^_^

Buffalo WIngs and Friends

Mom and I had a craving for buffalo wings almost all week long. Well, today we fed that craving: we cooked a huge batch of buffalo wings for dinner. We then invited my granddad and Lee over and we all pigged out. Afterward, Yvonne and Kyle popped in and we just goofed off until they had to leave. We had a blast ^_^

Free Day!

I have today off from school ^_^ It's Teacher's Day and that means no school ^_^

So after taking the dogs for a run with me and showering, I went over to Yvonne's house and her brothers snuck us out for driving lessons ^_^ There are a lot of dead back roads near our houses. Paved roads that are now covered with grass and such. They're perfect for noob drivers to practice on ^_^

I also discovered that the rules regarding learner's permits have changed. Even though I could get one now, I didn't see any use for it. It was basically brain dead. But I was wrong. If I get one now, it'll be like a normal learner's permit. Further more, if I have one for a year and no accidents, then I can up grade to an "intermediate" licence. That one is just like a full licence in that I don't need an adult to be with me. I will be limited to driving like that only during daylight, but that's a thousand times better than not driving ^_^ And, when I turn 17, the hours I can drive alone increase ^_^ At 18, I'll be a fully licensed driver ^_^

Hardcore and Vechs

Yes, that's what I said, Hardcore. Last night I bit the bullet and gave Minecraft's Hardcore mode a try. Here's my initial observations:

Beds: No need to for a bed to reset your spawn point. You die, the world dies. Game over. So, sheep have no immediate use in the game other than to be annoying. Later in the game, once I'm well established, a bed could be very useful for controlling the weather or time of day.

Death: When I finally did die, it didn't seem as bad as if I was playing non-hardcore. It was like, "oh wow, I'm dead" vs, "damn! I need to get back quickly and get my stuff." Later in the game, I'm sure it'll be reversed: "OMG! I just lost everything!"

Chests: Stuff has very little meaning beyond the immediate future. I caught myself creating a chest to store important items in case I die. Unneeded. I die, the world dies, my chest goes *Poof!* Chests still do have a purpose of allowing me to keep my inventory nearly empty.

Items: Normally, I would reserve my quality items for important things and just use the common items for everyday tasks. Now, there's no point in conserving most of them.

Doors: Zombies can and do break doors. It doesn't affect me because i build sky platforms. I almost made the mistake of building a shack on the ground in which to run if I got caught off of my platform at night. Luckily, I remembered the zombie problem. Iron doors do hold back the zombies ^_^

Vechs Waking Up: I've started noticing that the map that Vechs is playing in his commentary is different from the one that I'm playing. The greatest difference is the last shortcut. On my map, it isn't really a shortcut, just a hole in the wall of Helix Cavern. In his map, it's a full railway to both the Monument and Intersection 2 >.< What's bad, is that even after adding these new improvements to his map, Vechs is complaining how difficult it is. So, I quietly closed down my map and pushed it aside. I have the latest map now, but I'll have to think about if I want to play it.

Fruity, cheesy person

Today is a short day. And it also happens to be lunch time ^_^ I'm sitting in the cafeteria munching my lunch: fruit and cheese platter with a soft roll, chocolate milk, and double brownie ^_^ I had the fruit and cheese platter yesterday, but felt like it again today. I guess I'm just a fruity, cheesy person ^_^

We get Friday off for grades in high school, but we also get it off in college. It's basically a professional day for teachers and such. Probably explains why the college gets it off too.

It was a gray sky this morning. Not the rainy type, but almost a winter gray. There is supposed to be a cold front coming it by this weekend. It will probably not get cold, just cool and just cool enough to be nice outside ^_^

Aced

I aced my History test Monday ^_^ I already suspected that I had, but it was confirmed today. Alice, Lee, and Yvonne also passed with As. Kyle doesn't have homeroom with us, but he's doing very good as well in his classes.

Dance was a blast as always ^_^ Hannah was in good form: pure giggles which I soon caught. Of course that sort of made our final dance performance a little more difficult >.< But, heck! We had fun ^_^

End of First Quarter

First quarter of high school ends this week. No school Friday! What's weird is that there are no classes in college either o.O Oh well, it's doubly awesome ^_^ We did have a test in American History and I most likely aced it ^_^ Yay me! ^_^

Lee works tonight with his dad. So maybe I'll meet up with Yvonne or Kyle or both or none later. Right now, I need to shower because I just came back from running with my dogs. I'll probably play around with my guitar until mom gets home afterwards.

I've noticed that I've gotten into the habit of writing posts for here and saving them as drafts but never posting them. Sometimes I get so busy that I forget to even post them. I need to get out of that habit. I don't like post dating things. It feels like I'm cheating.

Quiet Day

Today was just a quiet day with mom. We ate breakfast out then did some household shopping: bleach, paper towels, etc, at Walmart. While there, I found this awesome mask that comes very close to what I'm designing for Halloween. I had to have it so I could better visualize what I wanted. That, and it was awesome. I'll try to get a photo of it and post it here sometime in then near lifetime >.< lol ^_^ After lunch, we did the final food shopping and just hung out at the house the rest of the day. Lee and I spent most of it txting back and forth ^_^ Dinner is almost ready: hot dogs and chips ^_^ So, I'm posting this and going to go set the table ^_^

Volunteering and volunteered

Today the art center did a showing of the kids' art projects. That means the kids were there and that means I volunteered to be there too ^_^ The formal showing was like two hours long with kids and their parents popping in and out all throughout that time ^_^ It was a blast ^_^ And it was weird coming away from the show with no paint or clay or chalk on me ^_^

The red tide was way bad tonight. So the drum circle cancelled for this weekend. Maybe next Saturday. Instead, I spent the evening with Lee at his house. I got volunteered to help mop the kitchen floor when Hannah spilt a pitcher of water. That was probably the first time that I realized that they saw me as part of their family. Most people would have a problem asking a guest to clean up, no less, telling them to.

Quick post

Movie night ^_^ Lee, Yvonne, and Kyle are doing it with me tonight. I'll probably have to rewatch "The Mist" tomorrow. I keep dozing off z_z But, Lee has his arm around me and after I post this, I'll be snuggled into him ^_^

Our night

Lee and I went downtown tonight and hung out at the coffee shop. It's still too warm for hot mochas but not for frosty mochas ^_^ Poor Lee, he's still not used to me on sugar and caffeine ^_^ Fifty thousand thoughts all at once, vocalized O.O After I got my super energy infusion, we wandered around town sort of window shopping and sneaking kisses here and there ^_^ We finally ended up where his dad was working and listened to the band play until my curfew <3

Halloween costume

I've been working on doodles and sketches for my Halloween costume tonight, and actually on and off for the past few weeks. I believe it's going to be a combination of "Día de los Muertos" face paint and a Carnival (Venice, Italy). I'll probably do my face up completely and then use a half-mask vs the full masks that are used in Carnival. I'm also thinking of extending the paint down my neck and shoulders and such. That way, it'll give the illusion that I'm completely a skeleton/Death. Maybe Lee will discover the illusion ^_^

Housekeeping

Well, even though I said that I was going to set it aside, I went back into "Waking Up." This time went back to the Victory Monument, my permanent base, and did a lot of housekeeping. I was running low on potions, arrows, torches, weapons, etc. I slaughtered off a huge number of my mooshrooms leaving only four for breeding purposes and to milk for mushroom stew ^_^ I now have this huge reserve of beef and leather, probably more than I could ever need. I have several stacks of torches and I'm slowly enchanting new weapons. I'm still very low on arrows. I have a couple of one-hit-wonder skeleton spawners over in Blast Arrow Castle that I'm going to make into grinders for their arrows and bones.

Setting aside

I think I'm going to aside Vechz's Waking Up map for a while. I'm finding that I'm being way, way too cautious working on Intersection 3. You can't do that on his maps. Otherwise you'll end up paralyzed, and unwilling to do anything. And that's what's happening to me now. I'm working on The Nest. I already found the Chapter and I know where the wool is, but I also know there is a ton of mobs between me and it. And even with the Invisibility potions and my "streaking" strategy, I'm very hesitant about attacking the area. I know if I die there, I'll only lose about half a stack of torches and a stone sword and pick. But, still...

So, I've started another normal MC world and will play it awhile until I lose this over cautiousness. Then I'll go back to Waking Up.

Shopping all morning

This morning was spent shopping. For some reason, last night mom thought we should do the shopping in the afternoon. So, I rearranged my plans. Then, this morning, mom changes her mind and drags us out shopping. Not only once, but twice. >.<

We All Burn

I finally made it through We All Burn to Intersection 4. The area is far from being secured. Way too many freaking spawners in addition to the natural spawn >.< In fact, that's how I ended up making it the next intersection. I was tunnel ratting to kill the high spawners when I looked down and saw this arm of zombies and instantly thought of lava. So I ran back and got bucket of lava and every time I popped my head out to see how much progress I had made, I would dump a column of lava on their heads ^_^ What's funny was that after that point I wasn't looking for the next intersection, I was just dumping lava on mob heads ^_^

I doubt that I will ever get this section secured. There are spawners in the high ceilings beyond all but tedious, systematic removal. I think my best bet is to expand and improve my rat tunnel and avoid the area completely.

I now have two remaining areas in Intersection 4 to secure: Frozen Venom and The Nest. I poked my head into both. Frozen Venom is going to be a lag nightmare: snow, which when blown up creates snowballs. I already experienced it when a couple of creepers blew >.< The Nest is spiders and webs and I did see the silhouette of a Ghast spawner high in the roof of the place. Oh well, I need to restock first. Used way too many potions of fire resistance and invisibility on We All Burn.

Twenty years from now...

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -- Mark Twain

Downpours

Lee and I were out together tonight, down at the beach watching this awesome storm moving in. I wish I had pics of it, it was that awesome. The wind started picking up and clouds looked evil. We kind of looked at each other and without saying a word ran for cover under a gazebo. The plan was almost perfect except for one little hitch: the rain. It wasn't one of your normal rains where it starts sprinkling and then comes down. With those, you have a few moments of warning. No, this just let loose. It was like someone was dumping buckets upon buckets of water on us. It was nice and dry under the gazebo until we arrived, not dripping wet, but utterly soaked. We were laughing our heads off at first then the chill set in along with the winds. Yeah, not fun. What's worse, was that we had nothing to offer the other to keep them warm. What we had was soaked. In a normal downpour, we'd have said the heck with it and started heading home. We were already soaked. This one, we ended up hanging out for like 20 minutes before it let up enough for to make break for it. We almost made it to Lee's house before the next wave hit. Yeah, wave describes the downpour best. Again, the storm teased us and just as we were entering his driveway, it hit.

Lee's mom directed us out into the garage where she was waiting with some towels. Only once when we had dried off enough so that we were merely wet where we permitted access to the bedrooms and bathrooms. I ended up with one of his mom's long nightshirts that fit like a baggy dress. Hannah was giggling the whole time. All the way up to where I tackled her and tickled her ^_^ My clothes were dry enough by the time Lee's mom gave me a ride home that I didn't have to wear her night shirt.

Future

I was talking with an email penpal today about things and one of the topics that came up was kids. It got me thinking real hard about my future and my desire to have a daughter. I discovered that I so want a daughter that it hurts knowing that she's not with me now. No, I don't plan on going out and getting pregnant now or anytime soon. I'll be doing that once I finished exploring myself and my mate. We both need to be satisfied that we've done everything we could do and are happy being old fuddyduds ^_^. Then, we'll have time for her. I want her to have as close to a 100% of our time as possible. If Lee is the one, my mate for life, then I don't see a problem with him being there for her. I doubt his career choice, musical composer, would mandate that he travel. The problem I see, will be me. I'm an explorer. I've clearly stated my goals of Mars or Earth exploration. I need to get most of that out of my system before my daughter arrives. And then when she's ready, we'll all start exploring again. I want to expose to things that I never had when I was little. I want her to know the wonderment of the Universe and all things. I need to also make sure that Lee is able to explore with us. We're a family. Both her dad and mom are going to be there for her.

Dance class

Nothing much happened today. It was one of my long days at school, but filled with classes that I really like ^_^ Dance class was cool, but we had to leave early. Lee's mom started getting a head ache and she was afraid that it might turn into a migraine. Migraines are horrible. Mom gets them once in awhile and I feel so upset because there's nothing I can do to help o.o Hannah didn't understand. She has an idea what migraines are but truly doesn't know what they are. She was upset and her and her mom started fighting. I think I was able to calm Hannah down so her mom could deal with her own problem. But I know Hannah was upset.

First of October

October to me is the Autumn. It's Halloween. Now, I expect the weather to start getting cooler. Not necessarily cold, just cooler. Hopefully it won't be too cool on Halloween. One of the costumes I'm thinking about wearing is light and thin and I'd hate to wear a jacket over it.