Happy New Year everybody! I have been having an awesome time with Krysti this week and I'm really happy I got to spend the new year with her instead of alone for once. :) Right now we're being huge dorks and doing our traditional Amanda-n-Krysti-hanging-out celebrations: eating ice cream cake and watching Advent Children.

  We actually rang in the new year in Kamadan district 4. >.>

Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Current Tags: holidays, homies

  I have to go to Vero for 4th of July. I narrowly wiggled out of having to go for the entire WEEK like dad. So instead mom and I are just going down for tonight and ye olde family picnic tomorrow, but I don't want to even do that. Ugh. I have so much stuff I need to be doing here instead. *grumbles*

  And I have a dentist appointment at 3:20 and we're leaving when I get home. *more grumbling*

  I really dislike the beach, but I'm hoping I'll be able to hole up in the hotel room and finish HP5 while I'm there. I'm rereading it as well as HP6 to refresh my memory before HP7 comes out. I had forgotten how much I disliked HP5. It's taking me sooooooo long to get through it.

  *looks at time* Oh man. >.< Do not want.

Current Mood: rushed Current Tags: holidays

  Hey hey hey, merry Christmas everyone (to those who celebrate... if you don't, happy Monday!). Christmas was a little strange this year, due to a random dinner at grandpa's, not opening presents till 5, and, um, tornados. The worst of the weather was over pretty quickly, but it rained all day before and after the big storm.

  Got a super amazing new camera from the parental units, the rest of the Aubrey-Maturin books (omg yay!) and Guild Wars: Nightfall, so off I go to slobber all over that. HOT.

Current Mood: cheerful Current Tags: holidays

  Heyoo everyone. I have returned a day early from Thankgsiving. D: Mom and dad didn't want to get caught in football traffic today so we drove down last night and they left for home this morning.

  Today is the FSU vs. UF game. Which it is a bad thing. OMG, TAILGATERS, WHY ARE YOU HERE? IT'S THANKSGIVING WEEKEND. GO HOME AND PUT UP YOUR CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. Ugh.

  Also, why does the Deep South (excluding Florida here -- we all know it doesn't count as south except for NORTH Florida) SMELL SO GODDAMN BAD? I AM LOOKING AT YOU, GEORGIA. Seriously. The whole trip to North Carolina I was tormented by either Paper Mill, Fire, Skunk or Rotting Flesh smells. Paper Mill was the leader at "SMELLED IT CONSTANTLY OMG" points.

  Also we took all these little piddly backroads so even though we left at like 7 Wednesday morning, we didn't get to grandpa's till like... 7. And I had to pee at gas stations.

  In work news, I finished one paper. Which leaves me with one paper and two webpages to go. Gack. I'm going to try and do the webpages today and the last paper tomorrow. Wish me luck. After I finish all this shit, maybe my life will go back to normal. ;_________;

Current Mood: mellow Current Music: Marie Antoinette - Aphrodisiac Current Tags: holidays, school: vacation

  Well, didn't really do anything in particular for this birthday, even though it was the 21st. No crazy drunken Baccanalias or anything (WHEEE SPORAGMOS) After lying around for awhile with Krysti trying to figure out what to do, we finally got up (this was like... 4:00, go us) and went to Merrit Island just to like... do things there. I spent a lot of money on books. Came home and feasted upon chinese food and the last of the ice cream cake.

  Oh, also, because of birthdayness, I have uploaded a special edition of MP3 thingus. There is a LOT on there, and it is all AWESOME. The theme is "nostalgia" because I thought it would be an awesome idea for a birthday. XD I hope you all like it! Pleeeease check it out because I put a lot of time into planning this one out! And there's only like twenty songs on there so... just GO!

  Gotta go now. Have to get up at 5:00 tomorrow for driving back to FSU.

  Stupid birthdays. I hate getting older. :(

Current Mood: good (filled w ice cream cake) Current Music: The Sound of Music - My Favorite Things Current Tags: holidays

  Well, I hope everyone is having a good New Year's Eve doing whatever it is you do. Personally, I am going to play a little Sims, read a little fic, and then go to bed. If that whole superstition about if you do something on New Year's Eve, it means you'll do it for the rest of the year... I'd say that's correct. Playing Sims, reading fic, and sleeping... I do a lot of that. THE SUPERSTITION IS TRUE!!

  Because I am Lamey McLameLame with no social life, I'm in my pajamas on my bed in front of the computer while I'm sure the majority of the world is out partying or whatever it is you weirdos do on New Year's Eve. I actually prefer the whole Lamey McLameLame thing. It's what I do!

  ... I ought to make sure that I'm eating ice cream while reading fic, because that sounds like an even better way to spend 2006!!

Current Mood: cheerful Current Tags: holidays

  Well, Christmas is finally over (in a sense). Mom was at the hospital visiting her brother until about 1:00, but once she got home we made the snacks really quick and started opening. Do to interrupting telephone calls, a visit from grandparents, and the hour-long assembly of Dad's New Chair, we just finished about thirty minutes ago. We were really slow this time, but I'm usually pretty slow anyway.

  I GOT A 160 GB EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE. It is so awesome. I can't wait to PUT THINGS ON IT. I'm going to put ALL my MP3s and rips of my CDs, webpage stuff, pictures, everything everything ever omg it is going to be SO GREAT. I will be able to ORGANIZE to my heart's content. I got numerous spiffy shirts, including the "Moment of Triumph" Imperial Officer one that is OMG SO COOL. Colonial House and The Real Eve from grandparentals, which will provide me with 10+ hours of nerdy goodness from PBS and the Discovery Channel, numerous books on Egypt from mom, the rest of the Horatio Hornblower series and four more Aubrey-Maturin books (so I'm up to ten now).

  I got lots more COOL STUFF. So many books. Books out the wazoo. It's a good thing I'm cleaning out my bookcase (no, I'm not getting rid of any; I'm just boxing them up and putting them in the closet) because one entire shelf is going to have to be devoted to Age of Sail stuff now.

  Going to Grandpa's Tuesday, and then when we get back (Friday) I have so much cleaning to do that I just can't wait to get started on. Getting rid of as many My Little Ponies as I can. Precious Places is still up in the air. I feel like I shouldn't get rid of this stuff, but my closet is SO tiny and there is absolutely no room. I dunno. Maybe I can make room without getting rid of all my childhood playthings (I have another motive here -- if I ever have a kid I can just give them all my awesome shit -- who knows what kind of crap they'll have out then; who wouldn't want to play with some VINTAGE 80s PLASTIC PONIES!?).

Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: Mom on the phone, dad watching TV Current Tags: holidays

  Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it! Here's a small holiday present for all of you. As if you all haven't already had your fill of this!

Current Mood: calm Current Music: Frank Sinatra - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Current Tags: holidays

  Thanksgiving is a Very Good Holiday. This was the first year we've ever done Thanksgiving not at my grandmother's (she pushed it back to Saturday), and I have to say... mom did a way better job! She did cornbread stuffing and it effing pwned my grandma's weird bread stuffing. And now I am full of turkey and stuffing and other good things, and so I am happy.

  Mom's hand-mixer from the 70s (in that lovely mustard yellow color) finally bit the dust. I think she is secretly happy because now she has an excuse to get herself one of those crazy Kitchin Aid mixers that does everything on its own. I would get her one for Christmas 'cept they're probably like three hundred dollars.

  But of course, since I'm home, the internet is acting up and I haven't been able to get on in two days. Reeeally irritating. It came back up now for reasons unknown, so I am taking advantage of that. I had stuff I wanted to do online this weekend... that probably won't get done now. *shakes fist* Damn you, fickle internet connection!

  Tomorrow is Black Friday and Sarah and I are going to watch fun movies while the parentals exhaust themselves doing great battle with other moms over at Waterford Lakes. FOR GREAT JUSTICE I will beat you over the head with this game system! I have never attended a Black Friday shopping spree and I probably never will.

 ... Seriously, most boring LJ post ever. I think I'm just writing all this boring crap because I'm glad the internet is back and I'm just doing it for the sake of doing it. Tra la la.

EDIT: Also, this is complete crap and makes me very sad. Canada ho!

Current Mood: full Current Tags: food, holidays

  I am having the healthiest dinner (at 10:00!) ever: root beer and tortilla chips. Oh yeah! So incredibly healtht. Can you hear that? It's the sound of my arteries screaming in pain. If they're not dead already.

  I've been eating like crappy crap lately. I usually don't eat fast food, but like once every so many months I'll gorge myself on it. I don't feel so bad about it this time around because Katie totally took part in it as well. Needless to say, there were two pizzas (damn those coupons!), two trips to Burger King, and one trip to Taco Bell involved. In the span of two weeks (not all at once, OMG). But like I said, I hadn't had any of those things in several months. But to eat them all in such a short span of time... blegh. Promised myself I'd start eating healthier.

  ... but yeah, now I'm home and Sara and I went out to Olive Garden, and then there was Chinese food today around 3:00, and now I'm having the extremely late dinner of tortilla chips. Mmm. As soon as I get back, though, I swear I'm going to go to the store and pick up like a billion bags of salad.

  I'm not the only one who's been eating piggishly lately, though. I come home and my fish is a MONSTER. Maybe it's just because I'm used to Katie's tiny betta, Lancelot, but I really do think that Hrothgar had expanded to twice his normal size. He is one big mofo. Next time I come home he'll be wearing his two-gallon tank.

  Idiot neighbors have been shooting off fireworks since yesterday. The 4th of July is not like the 12 Days of Christmas. There are no extra fireworks days. So stop before I kill you. Or get you in trouble. I think most kinds of fireworks are illegal in Florida, except for, like, those little sparklers and like... some of those snappy things... and those worms that just kind of burn and then leave a scorch mark on your porch... maybe the bees? I think the bees are illegal. They're so dangerous... they could totally kill neighbors. Those are my favorites, more because of the noise than the neighbor-smiting boomerang effect they always seemed to have. :) BEES.

Current Mood: completely random Current Music: annoying fireworks Current Tags: food, holidays

  2004 was an okay year. I got on the Dean's List both semesters and got to see Howard Shore in Atlanta, but I also got to listen to a lot of bass music that I didn't really want to listen to, and had some really boring classes. I voted for the first time, but Double Dumbass got elected again anyway. Overall good, though. I shouldn't complain. My family members are all healthy.

  I never do New Year's Resolutions, but here are some:

1. Stay in shape. At the least, some sit-ups every day.
2. Stop being so negative and complaining so much, and just try to chill instead. Or put on headphones. Either or. Even if I do get stressed out, I need to stop bitching so much, because no one really cares nor wants to hear it, and I have it pretty cushy anyway compared to a lot of other people, so I just need to shut up.
3. Do more writing and work on my personal projects more.
4. Do more reading as well.

  I don't want to go back to school, though. I hate being away from mom, and I love my little green room so much. Bah.

Current Mood: anxious Current Tags: holidays

  It was raining this morning when I got up, and it's still raining now. Lovely Christmas weather. But apparently, it's like, snowing in New Orleans or something? Is that... legal?

1) Woke up at 9:00.
2) Cat got into a box and nested.
3) Breakfast. Made cookies!
4) Opened presents at noon! Finished around 2:00!
5) Watched White Christmas with mom and dad.
6) 6:00 PM - Cat: still in box.
7) Will be watching Firefly with mom because OMGguesswhatIgot!

  Yes, yes, Amanda N.! I, too, own Firefly now! Also! My very own digital camera (I took a picture of the cat in the box)! And an MP3 player! And Manor House! OMG my mom is awesome!

  Okay! Gotta go! Time for dinner and Firefly! Hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas and got all sorts of nice things.

  "Merry Christmas, you wonderful old couch!"

Current Mood: jubilant Current Tags: holidays

  Yeah. I freakin' love Christmas. I'm not Christian, but damn, I love this holiday. Is that illegal? It feels like it should be, but you know, I love me some secular Christmas. For me, it's not like a "Hooray, Jesus!" holiday, but more of a "Hooray, family and presents and lights and baked goods and smelly-good greenery!" holiday. I think if I ever do find a religion to suit myself, I'll still celebrate a secular Christmas. I could never give it up. No way.

  But yeah, I know Christmas is a Christian holiday. I don't know why people are getting their panties in a twist because OMGnativityscene! On Christmas!? No, really? Deal, people. Christmas is all about the Jesus. Except for blasphemous holiday-stealers like me, of course.

  OMG I can't believe it's Christmas already!! GIVE ME COOKIES AND CIDER!

Current Mood: omgchristmas Current Tags: holidays

  Today should be New Year's Day. I mean, think of it. Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, the day with the least amount of light in the year. Starting today, the days will only get longer! It would be a great day to start a new year. But no, the Romans had to go and randomly start their new year in March for no particular reason, and then, no, wait, we need two more months, let's have the new year start in January for no particular reason again. The Romans were an organized people, but they weren't inventive enough ("Yeah, okay, we've got a month named for Juno, one for Julius Caesar, and one for you, Mr. Augustus, sir. What about the rest?" "Uh... how about... seven, eight, nine, and ten?" "Great, sir! Just great! Pure genius!").

  So you all just wait. Wait till I establish the great empire of Amandiana. I'll say, screw Western culture, we'll have New Year on the 22nd of December. And no one will be able to say anything, because I'll be the emperor, dammit!

Current Mood: okay Current Tags: history, holidays

  I should be a good little girl and make a List of Things I'm Thankful For. Let's see here...

1. My Mom
2. Going to college (as much as I hate being away from home).
3. Air conditioning.
4. The cat (even though he doesn't like me as much as I like him).
5. Being averagely well-off.
6. Christmas!!
7. Good friends.
8. The internet.
9. ... food.
10. Mom, again. Also, Star Wars.

  Yeah, okay, I can see why I've never done this before.

Current Mood: thankful? Current Tags: holidays

  Yay, going home tomorrow, and then Thursday is my beloved Thanksgiving. Then after Thanksgiving weekend, I come back here and have only one more week of classes, and then exam week! Wow! I can't believe the end of the semester is here already. Hopefully next semester will pass just as quickly (I'm not looking forward to the Geology Class of Death, but it was the most harmless science I had to choose from).

  Well, I need to type my notes, finish packing, then take a bath and go to bed. I need to go to bed early, because I need to wake up at 6:00 tomorrow. 1) I need to leave as early as possible to avoid afternoon rain and Thanksgiving traffic, 2) I like leaving as early as possible anyway, and 3) I'm picking Krysti up at 7:00 to take her to the airport. :)

  Sorry to anyone who left comments (or has sent an email!) and hasn't gotten a reply yet. I'm going to have a few nice peaceful days ahead of me, and I'll definitely have time to go through everything I've been neglecting recently.

  Anyone else out there who's going home for the holidays today, tomorrow, or Thursday -- have a safe trip, and happy holidays!

  I'm so excited!!!

Current Mood: omg thanksgiving squee!!!!1 Current Music: the fan, as usual Current Tags: holidays, to-do

  This song is evil. In that it gets stuck in my head so easily. Eeeevil.

  Anyway, I've been a hungry beast lately. For example, what did I have for dinner last night? A Lean Cuisine, then about an hour later a whole can of French Onion Soup, and then I finished off my Cherry Garcia ice cream. I swear, if I wasn't so wiggly and twitchy, I'd be a huge monster by now.

  I am proud to say that I made it through this Valentine's Day without even ONE pout. *pats self on the back* I was too engrossed in my paper. And then Aimee had to flee her room because her roommate and her boyfriend were making with the squelchy, so she spent the night here. Amanda and Krysti came over and we watched some stuff.

  Anyway, while writing my paper, I realized I was getting really, really pissed off. Everytime I had to write that " 'Playing Indian' helped American colonists organize themselves during the Revolutionary War and therefore aided in the birth of our nation," or something similar, I hated writing it. Does it make me unpatriotic to think that the colonists were completely retarded? "Oh, no, I don't like taxes. I'm going to revolt. Bitches." Dude, people don't like taxes today, but do you see them organizing huge revolutions? No! If they did they'd get their asses kicked by the government and be labeled "terrorists" or something. The British really didn't do anything too major to them, but if an American colonist got the least bit pissy, they'd get a bunch of their friends to dress up like Indians and go beat the shit out of some government official while he was chilling in his house or something. Seriously, WTF. The world doesn't always work the way you want it to. Get over it. Sheesh.

  Am I going to get arrested for writing that?

Anyway, ( A quiz )

Current Mood: hungry Current Music: Ringo Shiina - La Salle de Bain Current Tags: holidays, the internets: memes

  Merry Christmas everyone! I know I said I would be posting my review of ROTK up here, but I lied (who's going to read it, anyways?). I'll do so after seeing it for the third time, which will be either tomorrow or Saturday.

  In the meantime, there are some things I wanted to write in here. First of all, chibigir posted some awesome icons in lotricons the other day, and I wanted to link them here, because let's face it, LOTR + Strong Bad = TEH AWESOME (I just got that CD today...!).

  Second, I think I might eventually buy myself (or ask for my birthday, more likely) a paid LJ account. I don't really want one that bad... a normal one is fine for me... but I really want more than three icons. I was hoping you could JUST BUY more icons... but apparently, you can only JUST BUY more icons if you already have a paid account!! GRR. I guess a paid account would have more options (besides the ability to turn around a buy an icon expansion), like... layout... and mood icons. That doesn't matter to me THAT much, but... AUGH MORE ICONS I NEED MORE ICONS. *pant pant*

( Also, some babble on action figures or something )

  EDIT, 9:05 PM: Also, while on the subject of action figures:

Me: I heard that they were going to make a Gil-Galad action figure, but they canceled it... prolly 'cause all his stuff got cut down and he's only in the movie for like two seconds...
Me: Too bad, it would have been so awesome to have a Gil-Galad action figure.
Me: 'Cause then I whenever I got the Elrond one... they could have had mad, passionate, action figure elf seX0rz.
Amanda N.: I weep for you and your lack of action figures for mad, passionate, action figure elf seX0rz. :'(
Me: I know, it's tragic.

  I'm such a nerd. A pervy nerd. But you all already knew that... :)

Current Tags: holidays, nerd!, the internets: lj

  JUST NOW (2:30!) finished opening presents. We didn't start till 10, and then mom and dad would stop to fiddle with food, or dad to play with the new pellet gun his parents got him ("You'll shoot your eye out!"), and then we had company. My mom totally has the mad Amazon.com skills. She is awesome. I've got Coupling Season 2, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume 1, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast Volume 1... and a beautiful hard-back copy of The Lord of the Rings illustrated by Alan Lee, and a copy of The Silmarillion illustrated by Ted Nasmith. :3 Everything is so shiny and new. :D

  Also, I got Baulder's Gate II, Sara, so you get to teach me now! :D

Current Mood: pleased Current Music: Strong Bad Sings - The System is Down Current Tags: holidays, old

  Phew, finally home from my grandparents' house! Was really hectic today... my grandmother loves all those silly Wal-mart-kind of singing, moving holiday decorations, and she has so many, and everyone loves setting them all off at the same time. Gives me a headache. But I got a lot of awesome stuff today. I finally have Pirates on DVD, and I got the Monsoon Wedding and Bend It Like Beckham soundtracks, so I've got lots of Bollywood. Yay. :) Lots of Matrix soundtracks, too, and classical music.

  I love Christmas, mostly because it gives me an excuse to hang around in my pajamas and eat crap all day (okay, okay, I do that every day, nevermind...). We never have a meal on Christmas... just snack foods. Mom's going to make pineapple-bacon wraps. Nummy. And I made cookies, so I'll have those. Opening presents is fun because mom is the world's most creative wrapper! She loves being sneaky and wrapping something, putting it in a box, and wrapping it again. Or putting something in a weird-shaped box so that it totally confuses me. Plus she also gets creative when it comes to tags. I always get tags addressed to me from the pets. "To Amanda, From Buster," "To Amanda, from The Bun," etc. Then, I guess, when she gets really bored, she starts addressing stuff from movie characters (totally serious). Last year I remember getting a package that she had addressed from the Elves of Rivendell. I think I actually saved that tag. This year, I swear, I've seen one in the pile that says "From Neo." She is so weird! But in a cute way. You know what? I'm going to go switch one of the tags on a present for her and put a new one on there that says "From Aragorn." Ooh! And I'll draw little hearts all over it. HEH HEH HEH!! Dad might get upset, though. XDDDD

Current Mood: good Current Music: Monsoon Wedding - Aaj Mera Jee Kardaa Current Tags: holidays, old, the fam: parental units