Hurray! We had our first snow of the season! ^_^ Although not much by northern standards, it is only a little over an inch, it is still quite a bit for us! Usually we get our snows in January, so this was a nice surprise! Dad was able to take a few pictures with his new camera phone, so I am happy he is learning how to use it. ^_^

Fun little web app that allows you to decorate a tree to see how it will look. It is actually from a store in Australia and it calculates how much the decorations will costs as you add them on the tree. Rather neat idea. ^_~ But still fun to just play with!

www.coles.com.au

Here is my decorated tree ^_^

I have been assigned to a new neurologist and he wanted to see my seizures first hand and see how they effect me. He wanted me to be in the hospital he is attached to to hooked up the EEG to watch brainwaves to see how they are when having seizure. I was scheduled for Mon-Wed this past week in hopes that I would have a (good size)seizure before the holiday but if not I'd be staying the week.

The tech practically painted crazy glue on my head/hair to keep the leads(?) for the EEG on my head! First time I had an EEG they used similar stuff to crazy glue but it was in spots where the wires were. This time is it all over. I was able to tap my fingernail on my hair and it clicked. ;_; I had a little mohawk on the top of my head and the longer hair that reaches past the base of my head were the only parts that weren't cemented down. Even the back of my ears were glued to my head! ;_; They said I may have to use a bottle of finger nail polish remover to get the worst of it off. I'm thinking, "A bottle?... A *whole* bottle?" o_o

Unfortunately, I had a good one about 2 hours after the "deadline" to have the Dr check over it to see if that one would work so I could go home for Thanksgiving. What made the timing even sweeter was that the monitor flat lined me right when the seizure started! >_< I have no idea if the computer was still recording what was actually happening or if it will look like I died for several minutes. ^_^;

The next morning a substitute Dr checked up on me to which he had orders that if I had a good size seizure I could go home. Well since I did he released me. He had no idea if the computer recorded what happened the night before since the monitor had me flat lined. He said I needed to call my Dr's office on Monday to see what to do. I really hope I don't have to repeat all this again if they didn't get what was needed. >_< But since I wanted to get out of there, I didn't argue. The tech came about 3 hours later to take off the wires. It was the same tech that put on all of this one and even he said there was a lot of glue. >_>

Once home I started to work on my hair. My Dad had recorded the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade so I watched that as I pulled glue from my hair strand by strand. Such fun. -_- I ended up watching the parade with commericals twice through and a little more before I was done. So I was working on my hair for a little over 6 hours. ;_; After that I had some Tylenol and a good long nap!

Also in Sept we got a new addition to the family! Since I have been homebound mom was able to find a pet for me to keep me company. ^_^ I have been wanting a cockatiel since I had one when I was younger. A person at work works with rescue animals and happened to have got a cockatiel in! She had a broken wing but still had a sweet personality. Also good was that she came with a very nice cage! ^_~

I ended up naming her Sasha. I have always enjoyed the name Na/Tasha, but thought the name too tough for a sweet little bird like her, so I softened it to Sasha. When we took her to vet, her blood work was fine, but her wing had not exactly healed. About a third of her bone in the middle is completely gone from the wing bone closest to her shoulder. The next bone that is two parallel bones, the outer one is snapped and is bowed because of it. The other breaks, one in her other wing and another in her leg have healed. The vet was unsure if it may have been caused by malnutrition and/or serious injury, or maybe the chance of cancer. So she sent us home with a painkiller I give her every evening and to keep her in a small cage so she wouldn't fall and injury her wing further. If her wing is worse on her followup next month, the vet has suggested amputation of wing to prevent pain and to check to see if it is indeed cancer.

Soon after when Sasha had got use to Mom and I she has been quite active, chirping and yelling for attention and wanting to be part of conversations, loves to be on our shoulders as much as possible and have her head rubbed. She is a very affectionate bird. ^_^

Two weeks ago she had a egg laying episode and ended up laying three eggs. It concerns me since the calcium that went to making the egg shells really needed to go to healing her wing. Right after her laying eggs, I had to go to the hospital for more tests and that left her by herself in the dark for good while each day. When Mom would come home after either seeing me or after work she would take care of her, let her out of the cage, and give her attention. But since coming home, I've noticed her injured wing is drooping considerably more and she isn't eating nearly as much.

I am thinking that her wing is hurting her a lot more now. She isn't wanting to take her pain med much anymore and she has gotten more irritable. She has her vet appt next week, but I will be calling to see if at all possible if it can be moved up. I've also talked with my mom that her wing may very likely have to be amputated. It isn't something I'd like to see happen, but if it causes her less pain, it is for the best.

I've been playing World of Warcraft since about the end of August and only now making a post about it. ^_^; Anyways, been enjoying playing it, and thankfully not hardcore. I've had my times where I played so much though that I get burned out for a bit, but I feel I am able to take a break from this game easier than I did FF11.

I chose a dwarf named Raithgar as my main chara, since I love dwarven culture and history, and personally thought they looked the best and not as cartoony of all the races. Paladin is my class/job since I wanted to solo. Choosing a profession or crafting area to specialize in has been hard. I knew I wanted mining since I enjoyed it in FF11, but I've been trying out others for my second. I've tried Herbalism, but didn't care for it since I had to keep switching for my mineral search to plant search. Next was blacksmithing, which I did enjoy, but didn't find much profit money-wise in. Now I am working on engineering. I've heard it is expensive and not profitable, but so far it seems rather... whimsical? I like the thought that I can create pets and mounts, bombs, practice dummies, etc. ^_^

On the secondary professions I'm meh on cooking although I nearly reached 400 with the Thanksgiving festival cooking recipes. First Aid has been useful, but since I need cloths from mobs that lately I haven't been lvling on, it has slowed down. But fishing I love! ^_^ I enjoyed fishing in FF11, but I feel there is more flexibility here. I especially love that I don't have to use bait. There is bait ingame to help increase your chances, but never used them and still caught what I wanted.

What I enjoy the most about WoW is the Achievement system. To actually be rewarded, and where others can see it is pretty darn neat! It gives me something else to do besides lvling and I enjoy seeing the achievements accumulate! ^_~ The achievements I am most proud of it Fishing up the Giant Sewer Rat and completing the Coin Master achievement where I had to fish up all the gold, silver, and copper coins out of the fountain in Dalaran. Believe it or not, I did it all in the same day, which a few hours nap between the two. Still can't believe I lucked out the Sewer Rat! ^_^

I have also been enjoying the holiday festivals! There is a least one each month, so lots to look forward to! ^_^ Since my main focus hasn't been on lvling I am unable to to totally complete the holiday festival achievements since I have to be 70+ to join a party to defeat the festival boss. But there are plenty of activities to keep you busy anyways. ^_^ I've been through Brewfest, Halloween, and now Thanksgiving and also the mini fests of Pirates Day and Day of the Dead. I've enjoyed each a lot, but I really hope they do more with Day of the Dead more next year. It had such awesome stuff such as the marionette. I hope it can become a pet to keep!

Been a long time since I last posted to my journal ^_^;

A few months ago I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Totally surprised us, but it makes sense on some of the things that has been happening these last few years and probably further back. Thankfully the kind I have just makes my muscles go limp instead of going into the grand mal thrashing type seizures. I am still conscious and can talk but the rest of me is totally limp. I can't even open my eyes. Thankfully it is only lasting a few minutes now when I am having the full ones. The others I have is like a buzzing in my head and that can last for hours until the actual body seizure happens.

The neurologist is now sending me to an epilepsy specialist since the meds she has tried me on aren't helping that much.

So I have been on med leave from work since end of June and it has been extended until at least 1 January. We will see if the new Dr will extend that even further. It makes me worried about finances since my short term disablilty from work only pays 40% of my paycheck. Currently the lady that does the leave papers at the dr office is "too swamped" to work on mine so it has been a month since I have got a check to help pay bills. I hope the new dr's office will be a *whole lot* better about filling out papers. >_<

Also if the Dr is still working on which meds will work for me and has me out past end of June, I've lost my job. Frankly I don't mind not working there anymore, but with the economy *and* the fact that I have epilepsy it will hard to find another job. So that worries me as well. I can certainly work, but since I barely have any warning that the seizures are about to happen (usually 15-30 seconds if that) it can be very dangerous and not at all professional for me to just collapse on the job.

So right now just trying to figure out what to do and waiting to see what the drs will do.

I've be really enjoying listening to Slacker Radio lately on my comp and on my Blackberry Storm. It has the majority of the genres I enjoy listening to and I love that I can stop playing certain songs I dislike in my personal stations I listen to! I guess it is similar to Pandora Radio, but I never much played with Pandora.

I still sometimes to listen to WinAmp's SHOUTcast Radio. People there create their own stations and broasdcast it, but listeners do not have the option to pass or ban songs you do not like. Unfortunately there are stations on SHOUTcast that I still have to tune in for since Slacker doesn't have anything similar. I sent a comment to Slacker today asking if they could add nature sounds with or without music, Video game music (which would be totally awesome, since I love it so much!), Anime soundtracks, and J-Pop/Rock stations. Hopefully they can add these at some point.

Recently I've had to find a new video game music station on SHOUTcast since Radio GOSU doesn't connect and isn't listed any more on SHOUTcast. NoLife Radio isn't bad, but they don't have as many of the familiar tracks as GOSU did. Same thing happened with one of my relaxation/mediation stations I liked but I haven't a found suitable replacements for it yet.

Edit: Yay! Radio GOSU is back! ^_^

Today I made some awesome banana bread cupcakes! They were sooo good! I didn't have a loaf pan so I had to make them in a cupcake pan. Unfortunately the bottoms burned, but I wonder if it is because cupcake have a shorter baking time then loafs would? But the insides.... tasted so lovely! I remember my great grandmother's banana bread was very good too, but it has been a long time since I had it since the recipe wasn't left. But this recipe comes very close if not beats hers! I will certainly try these again! I may also try the chocolate banana bread. It is the same recipe but with chocolate chip and chocolate powder added to it. That sound so good too! ^_^

Here is where I got the recipe:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/BananaBread.html

So cool ^_^

While carving pumpkins last year for halloween, I had a lot of left over seeds that I didn't bake. So I scattered the seeds under some of the leaf piles in the slight chance that they may grow. This summer we got some sprouts! We separated them and planted them proper to see how they would do. What is weird is that they have different leaves and texture(?) to the vines. They both produced flowers but the majority of them fell off before having any fruit.

Then finally we found some! ^_^ Although I have never grown pumpkins and have only seen them once they mature, these two are certainly different! So even though I *know* I planted pumpkin seeds I wonder if these seeds are in fact them. Mom thinks the one that looks most pumpkin shaped may be an acorn squash and we don't know what the other one is. ^_^; But maybe they are just different "breeds" of pumpkin? Or these are seeds brought from an animal? Well hopefully soon we will find out! ^_^



Also Mom is not good at picking out properly ripe melons from the store. I've tried to show her the sound good ones make when you knock on them and judging weight from the size. I was taught really young from a really old farmer we use to buy melons from each summer. He has since passed on unfortunatly. He was really cool. ^_^ Anyways, Mom bought me a honeydew since I have been wanting one for a while. I knocked on it and it sounded... okayish, but when I picked it up it wasn't the correct feeling weight. I cut it open and it had little fungi fingers growing in it. ^_^; My Googlese is failing me since I don't even know what to call these things so I can search for it. :P But they remind me of some of the mushi from the anime Mushisi! ^_^ Although I thought the fungi was cool looking, it was sad that the melon was bad.

About a week ago Club Nintendo sent an email that I had attained Gold Status the previous year and they would send an email later on what prizes I could choose from. I got the prize email today and turns out I qualified for the calender, which is what I really wanted out of the three, but having a plush Mario cap would have been cool too. ^_~

Last year the jp version of the Club Nintendo calender had a pic of the Wii version of Animal Crossing for December,which hadn't had its release date announced yet and what do you know? they later announced it was coming out in December. ^_^ So hopefully some surprise announcements and good graphics will be on it.

I am suppose to receive the calender by 1 November. So a bit of a ways away, but still excited. ^_^ Best of all it was totally free!

I went to the Dr today about my collapsing episodes and the results on my EEG and MRI are normal. So my Dr is looking at other things. She suggested narcolepsy, low B12, and a few other things they will test on. But in the meantime since I am still having problems she has taken me out of work for a month until the test results are back. So that is a bit scary since we are tight on money anyways. ^_^;

Once we got home we looked up narcolepsy and saw a type called Cataplexy that describes what is happening to me fairly well. Even though it hasn't been tested that that is what I do have, I feel better having an idea on what it could be.

Earlier I canceled my mules content IDs and today I canceled Prey. I felt more sad about that I was no longer part of the game then canceling the service. I just haven't had the urge to play anymore and no sense in paying for something I'm not playing.

After seeing the trailer for FF14 got me excited for the improved graphics, mithras, and more solo friendly gameplay. But still unsure if I will try it out. I'll be keeping my eye out for news on it and I hope it does well. I'm guessing if it stays on the 2010 deadline, it will be out at the earliest spring or latest winter. So, a good time for me to think if I do want to come back to it by then.

Updates for FF11 is that I am now at lvl 57 on samurai. One more lvl until I can wear my AF body piece. While that makes me happy, I just can't get excited about it. Over the past month I have not had the urge to play. I log on when my static party is scheduled and that is about it. Last week I canceled my mules and only have my main active until I decide what to do. I may end up leaving FF11 for a while. I sent an email to my party to see what they say since I am wondering if they may feel the same way. After their hiatus they haven't logged on nearly as much and the length of parties is the length of the exp rings. I'm suspecting they may be in the same boat I am in. Also somewhat separate, every time I have logged on to sell unneeded equipment and crafting supplies I am not using I am getting a lot of lag and dcing. This has also made it frustrating trying to do simple things. So I don't even want to think of what it would be like in parties. -_-

And so far not as a replacement, but more as a distraction, I have been trying out Sony's new MMO FreeRealms. Since FF11 was my first MMO, FR is refreshingly different. Two of the things that kept me interested in FF11 was exploring and storyline. But since I had to grind at lvls to be able to explore different areas and/or complete missions it became more and more of a hassle. In FR I can explore the vast majority of areas at lvl 1. There is no aggro from mobs, you choose your own battles. The graphics for the areas are a lot more simple than in FF11, but the colors are a lot nicer and easier on the eyes. The areas in FR seem more cheerful than well... FF11 more dated look. Another aspect of FR I enjoy is I can log out anywhere and at anytime. In FF11 you can do the same, but I always felt the need to check my inbox, sell on the AH, turn in any quest items for profit that I may have, etc before logging. Blah... Yeah FR is made for a younger generation and made to be easy, but it is so nice to not have to fret over my armor, wondering I have enough funds, lvl subjobs, etc. And besides FR's mining minigame in FR is addicting. ^_~

In RL since I have opened up a lot of free time recently, I have been reading again. I have started back to reading fanfics and RL books too! ^_~ Mom bought me some Agatha Christie books, so I have read those as well as the Scarlet Pimpernel to while away the time at work at lunch and before/after shift. I haven't read it before, but the Scarlet Pimpernel is not too bad of a book, but I felt not much happened overall. ^_^; I am now starting on Sherlock Holmes books, both canon and regular(?).

Also it seems my exhaustion took a bad turn and I passed out at work last Thursday. I luckily was able to get a dr appt the next day and he is concerned since I have had these episodes before (a year and a half ago) and that it took me near an hour after fainting to regain control of my body but I stayed completely awake in senses and mind throughout it all. So he is sending me to specialist to see if it is a type of seizure. A normal faint takes less than 5 minutes to get over. But what is really odd about it is that one of my friends/coworker passed out the same the way at work two weeks ago. It is surprising me though that management is taking this seriously and looking into it why it may have happened to both of us in case it is an environmental factor at in our dept.

Also, 18 more days until I can get my new Blackberry Storm! So excited! ^_^ I have been looking through my HDDs to see what videos I can convert and what games and apps are available for it.

I had a fun time bowling yesterday! ^_^ The night before the event some friends took me to my first time bowling. The very first time I bowled I got a strike! Woo! I ended up with a 68 on my first game and 65 my second.

Now during the event I totally sucked but had a lot of fun! ^_^ I kept either getting one pin or gutter balls and every now and again I'd hit 3, 5, or 9 pins. I was disappointed when I couldn't keep up my streak 0s or 1s. ^_~ I won a few prizes while I bowled my gutter balls. ^_~

Commercial for a drink for high blood pressure people

I am so excited about this game coming out! ^_^ Edgeworth was my fav chara in the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney games. I hope that this releases in Japan soon so the US can get this! Hopefully it won't be too long of a wait.

Best trailer I have seen for the game so far:

Not too much happening on the FF front lately, but I have done a few things.

Samurai is now up to lvl 54! Yay! I am now able to wear my AF boots and pants. ^_^ We are currently lvling in Sea Serpent's Grotto in a area I had no idea existed. ^_^; I have been having a lot of fun there! The drop rate has been better here than it has been in the other places were were lvling, so I am happy about that! Next is the AF hands and Limit Break 2!

Also kinda old news now, but I did get my blue chocobo! ^_^ I decided to raise him for Hot and Cold game/digging, so I worked on his discernment until it is now up to Impressive. He has the Treasure Finder ability, and I am trying to get the story of a Worrisome Chocobo so he can learn Burrow as well for the game. Unfortunately I end up meeting brutus more than the Zopago on my Long Walks. :P Also I was extremely happy that my chocobo found an orichalcum ore, which sold for 80k. ^_^

Besides this, I haven't really been doing much ingame. I just haven't had the urge to log in most days. I don't want to force myself either since I don't want to get burned out on the game like I did before. But I have enjoyed this easy pace lately. ^_^

And random pic from the Hot and Cold game, I wonder what is box number 1? ^_~

While doing my morning websurfing, I came across this amazing subbed jp vid of the cutting skill of Isao Machii. Although it sounds rather mundane, it is amazing to watch! Slicing though edamame/pea pod and cucumber lengthwise and even slicing through a BB that was shot at him!