I have a job! The trial thingy went well, though what a lot there is to learn! Was disappointed not to be sworn at by the chef, but there’s still time and I’m sure it’ll come *g* First I need some new comfy shoes, though. Uniform is all black, so I’ll even have to learn to look trendy and smart, which can’t be bad. The kitchen smells were lovely…

I also have a new car! I’ll post more about the process of acquiring it–thank God I only have to do it once in a blue moon–but Mango Terrier achieved a perfect score in the terrier stakes, providing me with tons of useful information and encouraging me to snap at the dealers’ heels (and even to land the occasional small bite).

Eternal thanks to Mango Terrier ♥ ♥ ♥

Anyway, it’s a Skoda Fabia Estate (old model) with a 1.9 TDI engine. Very responsive, and tres comfy since it even has heated seats–whoohooo! It’s 3 years old and has 48k miles on the clock, but I’m reliably informed that that’s okay with this sort of engine.

One careful lady owner has owned it, and so it’s beautiful to look at and unmarked. It has a full and immaculate service history etc. Poor thing, to be coming to somebody as chaotic with cars as me… Piglet’s crate now lives in the boot, rather than on the back seat, and since she can no longer stick a paw through the bars and poke me in the back she’s reading more, which is also a good thing. I hope eventually to train her to navigate, while she waits to be old enough to apply for a driving licence.

Here’s one just like it that I made earlier.

The New Piglet Wagon

Wow.  What an awesome week.

A week ago, me, my boyfriend and a group of friends headed down to a holiday house to celebrate finishing off school forever.  (Though for me, it still hasn’t actually sunk in yet.  I still have this unpleasant feeling of having to do something hanging over me.  Boo..)

Thursday we went to the beach and played poker.  I got worse sunburn on my shoulders than I can remember – they’re peeling and have unpleasant rough patches.  And in poker, seeing as how I only had a small amount of alcohol in me, I lost.  Quite badly.

Friday we went to Sorrento hand ate fish and chips for lunch on the pier, watching the flathead in the water.  Then we went and had a quick look at Portsea back beach, then London Bridge (not actually a bridge anymore), and on the way home, we rescued an echidna!  We waved down cars so he could cross safely.  He was so cute!

Saturday was lovely – dark and rainy.  We didn’t really leave the house, and that evening was one for alcohol.  I drank the most (my boyfriend was on resident relatively sober duty ), and a few of my friends got tipsy.  Brilliant to watch, as they really came out of their shells.

Sunday, again, we did almost nothing.  We just walked to the shops to restock on the basics – milk, etc.  Like the previous days, it was one for sitting in front of the computer watching Burn Notice (which I now have one of my friends hooked on) or in front of the tv watching Alias.

Monday we went fishing.  Or squidding, to be more precise.  It was pretty cool, because almost as soon as we had put a bobber in the water we got a bite.  We only caught the one squid (we named her Kodak, because of her awesome colours), but t was still fascinating and a lot of fun -  I’d never been squidding before, nor had I seen a live squid u close.  When we got home my boyfriend showed me how they’re cleaned.  It was really interesting Also, tha day we said goodbye to two of our friends, one was going back because they had an interview with a uni, and the other one, well, chose to go with her instead of staying with us.  But one of our other friends finally came down (she was meant to arrive on Saturday), and it was rather dramatic, rushing home from fishing, making sure certain people were hidden away from her brother’s eyes.  Hilarious.  Oh, and I got sunburnt again.  This time on my legs and feet.  I’m still pink.

Tuesday was another quiet day.  We walked to the shops to get food, and then went to the beach in the early evening.  Unfortunately, whilst the water was lovely, the wind was freezing, and so it wasn’t particularly pleasant.

Wednesday was, sadly, our last full day.  In the afternoon we drove down to the back beach (Bass Strait beach) and took lots of photos of the surf and landscape and each other, at the same time as exploring the dunes and rocks.

Thursday (today) we spent mostly cleaning the house – but we did a pretty good job!  Then, sadly, it was time to leave.  On the way home, we happened to drive into a huge storm, and though I’m a confident driver, I felt a little on edge at driving in such weather.  So we pulled over for a few minutes until the weather calmed down a little.  It was undoubtedly the heaviest rain I’ve driven in.

The whole week was just awesome.  From sleeping in to enjoying the sunshine and rain, to laughing or being silly, to watching copious numbers episodes of Burn Notice and Alias, or playing card games or getting sunburnt, the seven days we spent together were so special.  They went by so quickly, and now I’m hanging out for (hopefully) when we go away in February.

In a twisted prophetic way that’s beginning to scare me. To others these may not seem to link at all and maybe I’m looking too much into otherwise really really awesome fan-girl dreams but I have more than enough deja vu in my daily life to agree with you.

In June this year, I had this reallyreallycoolpleaseletitbereal dream of Junsu (in my room, I’m not kidding) asking to borrow cash from me (30 bucks lol). Apparently he didn’t have much and even his manager tried to tell me this in English (because apparently my half past six Korean can’t work in dreams either…>_>). I lent him because why wouldn’t I? Plus he promised to return the loan later (up to this day he hasn’t though >_>). By the end of July/ early August, we hear news of the three caught up in the lawsuit pertaining to their exclusive contract and as we all know, unfair income distribution. The connection? Junsu obviously isn’t earning as much as he should to the point he has to loan money (even if it’s in my dream ). The argument? Why didn’t JaeChun appear in my dream too considering they are part of the lawsuit? Don’t ask me, but I guess it’s ’cause Junsu is my favorite member? (But I love the other four just as dearly too ^^)

Around September, I had this dream of Hyunjoong from SS501 whereby he and I were cousins (Nope, not directly and indirectly related to the guy). He came down to Malaysia for a visit and I was told to be his ‘tour guide’ considering that we’re tonggeup. I just found out recently (forgive me for not paying much attention to any other group but) that ss501 did indeed first go to Sabah for a photoshoot and then came down to KL, or more specifically to One World Hotel (which is near where I live yet…) in September for an autograph session (Now where in the world was I when this happened? *OTL*).  The connection? I foresaw Kim Hyunjoong coming to Malaysia. The argument? Why only leadasshi? Maybe because he’s the most popular member of the band? (And he’s also JaeChun’s bestie…anyone related to TVXQ gets my attention too )

Recently, in the beginning of November, I had a weird dream of the boys and I gladly say that all 5 of them were together in there. The funny thing was that Jaejoong cried in said dream and Yunho was actually consoling him (Yes, you heard me right. Band parents are back together!!! Even if it’s only in my dream ). The connection? MAMA’s where Jaejoong was said to have cried. Also, TVXQ will be reunited in Japan, just as was in my dream. The argument? None.

[I had another dream where they were all posing in front of a camera as if they were shooting either another 'Doushite' type MV or some CF...don't ask]

Ok, so I only had these so-called ‘prophetic’ dreams of TVXQ. Maybe if I was more in tune with other bands I could have foreseen their problems too? *shot*

Crazed shoppers go for black friday gold

With the unofficial unemployment rates approaching 20%, consumer confidence at 60% its normal level, and retail sales showing only slight percentage increases over abysmally low levels, one would be forgiven for having a low amount of confidence in consumer spending juicing the economy this holiday season.  Add to this the declining levels of credit available to consumers, and a generally bad attitude towards taking on more debt as consumers retrench (especially those 25% of mortgage-holders who are underwater in their mortgage), and it looks like we are in for a rough post-thanksgiving period.

But, is it actually going to be that bad?

Last year, despite Thanksgiving weekend finding itself a few weeks after the start of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression, sales actually increased by 7.2%, with the average person spending $372.57.  Over 50% of Americans were out during that weekend (source here) Since then, unemployment has become worse, but consumer confidence as measured by the UoM has increased from 57.9 to 66 (although normal levels are closer to 90).

And of course, there is always the pent-up demand.  Spending this year has been unbelievably low, as exhibited by the repeated 2% declines in retail sales last year followed by scattered and inconsistent recovery.  Eventually, consumers will get frustrated with the lack of new things that they have, and will crave shopping.  The sale prices that will be available on Black Friday could be the trigger consumers need to dig back into their wallets.

Finally, on a personal note, how many times have we heard that some part of the economy is reaching a new paradigm (like we are hearing now).  We heard it during the tech boom of the early 2000s, during the S&L boom of the 1990s, and about the economy during just about every recession.  The most dangerous words I have heard when it comes to investing are: This time it is different. Consumer spending will come back, and I think it will be sooner than people think.

-AH

Disclosure: Long TGT, and am net long the market with other positions.

Super ngantuk…itu mood gua saat ini…
Musim hujan sih yaa, susah bobok, mana kemarin baru kena bencana berjudul all data loss untuk hape dan PSP…Yang paling bikin gila, ya PSP, mengingat SEMUA save data dan game baru gua ada di sana. Untung tadi waktu ke TG, mereka mau kasih judul-judul yang hilang itu. 本当、感謝感激。

Nde, berita lain hari ini adalah, FFW sepertinya tanggal 7 atau 5 bulan depan rilis. Berharap yang terbaik deh, mengingat selalu aja ada yang nggak puas XD

さ~てと、翻訳でもするか…

明るくしすぎちゃったけど、ちょっと気合入れて加工してみました！

でも1時間位かかっちゃったよ･･･もっとサクサク出来るようにならないと＠＠

こうやってみると修正点いっぱいあるし＞＜むずかし～～。

Just  come back from a long weekend trip down south to see family and take them their Christmas presents. Now because sitting in car for 6 hours is nothing but boring we stopped a couple of times. First in Edinburgh for a late breakfast, then in Alnwick for a quick run around the Castle gardens and finally in Newcastle for a closer look at the Angel himself.

Ignoring the fact that the sun setting at 4pm is horrible, I love the fact that this photograph completely manages to hide the fact that a freezing icy wind was blowing straight across the hillside. I have mixed feelings about the statue itself, I can’t help but feel the wings should be more rounded and softer but on the whole, seeing up close with the sun behind it, it was almost beautiful.

Back on WoW, I logged on to find a cute little whelping from Blizzard. The deep breath animation is adorable if somewhat pathetic. Would have been so much more fun if you could incinerate lowbies with it.

Then there is the new Pilgrim’s Bounty festival. Food, a reason to visit old familiar places and more clothes to fill up my bags. The perfect remedy for a spot of WoW grumpiness. Plus, shooting rogues…. how awesome is that.

20/11/09:

This girl , very proudly, wears the collar of her Trusted Leader… her Trusted protector and her Trusted guide Damit Ferryhill.

 She is restricted to serve and please him, and she will not consider requests from anyone for any reason.

** When she fell, he picked her up. When she cried, he wiped her tears, and then… he gave her a chance to find freedom within her chains as a priveledge, not a right. **

~~

Soulstorm Ruby is a SL Submissive on the grounds of Trusted Playground. There, she belongs to one Damit Ferryhill. She is a mouthy little thing, fiesty and creative, and rather protective of her friends and her Lead. Soulstorm is not much different from the person who ’sits behind the screen to manipulate her’, and thus some reactions are very ‘natural’. However, not all of it. In the end, it is a game and we play a role. To that capacity, *I* am a submissive in RL too, yet.. I imagine I’d really think twice before I would kick anyone in the shins..l, or threaten them with a dagger. She is however, Damit’s Angel, and the two of them makes a formidable pair!
Do visit us inworld, if you ever get the chance. What do you know, Ruby may even be ‘un-gagged’ for a bit!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Trusted/161/125/3220/?title=Trusted%20Playgrown&msg=Welcome%2C%20let%27s%20play%21

~~~

Haha…
Ngantuk, tapi ini printer satu, kenapa ya…
Kok dari tadi, ngeprint warnanya nggak beres begini, padahal tintanya nggak kering…tte ka, udah dibersihin ulang, kok!! Salah di mana iniiii!!

Dan, setuju dengan Sakuranbo…
Teenlit tidak sebaiknya dipadukan dengan action sci-fi…jadinya alamakjam…
Masalah selera sih, I know…Dan gua merasa, sebaiknya emang demikian…

ってか、何訳分かんね事言うんだ、オレ…。
もう、今日はおやすみか

こんばんわー。

今日の昼間はみきちと電気屋街に行ってきました^^2人が気に入ってるカフェがあるんですけど

そこでお昼食べようかーってなって行ったんです。でもまんまとハメられました･･･。

ディスプレイちょっと見たいって言ったもんだから、まぁいいよーって言ってフラフラ色んなお店

回ったんですけど、案の定買うことになっちゃって＠＠；

ばななは今22インチのディスプレイで、みきちが今回24インチワイド買ったんです＞＜

しかも自分だけ前から2ディスプレイだし･･･。ばななの机が小さ過ぎるってのもあるけど。

こんな感じになりました。ホントPC好きの人って何でこんなにPC機器欲しがるのか

全然分かんない＠＠！ディスプレイとか映らなくなったら買い換えればいいもんなんじゃ

ないの･･･？自分だけ買ったから、ばなながSLで大量買いしても文句は言わせない！

今日はこんな一日でした♪♪

I’m still mired in car-related chaos, here, but I hope to be finally getting it sorted out either today or tomorrow. I’ve settled on a Skoda Fabia Estate, subject only to the fates performing a further backflip and turning my plans around once again. Now, I hope, it’s simply a matter of choosing the actual car. Fingers crossed y’all, please, and a special mention for Mango Terrier, who knows far more about cars, and buying them, than I’d have believed possible until a week ago.

What is it with the contestants on Come Dine With Me, I wonder? I can’t understand why so many people who choose to enter a dinner party hosting competition appear to be averse to eating/trying such a wide range of foods!

Catching up with a few episodes via the wonderful TV on Demand yesterday, I saw great swathes of people who didn’t like/wouldn’t eat/had never heard of/were unwilling to taste bog-standard varieties of fish, cheese, chocolate and meat. One bloke made what looked like an absolutely scrumptious fish stew, only to find that one of his 3 guests simply didn’t eat fish whilst another one couldn’t face fish that came in shells and “…looks like this!” she said, dragging a snarl onto her face and arranging her arms into a pointy, aggressive-looking attitude in front of her eyes. It turned out that she was referring to the langoustines. After that she folded her arms and went to sleep on the table, though she was eventually able to rouse herself for a bit of chocolate pudding. In another episode, a woman was so appalled by cheese, and everthing that it involves, that she had to leave the room and watch a bit of television next door while the others tucked into a bit of cheddar. Profoundly weird, ISTM…

I dunno about you, but I’m already addicted to this year’s round of I’m a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here! It’s the only one of the ‘reality’ TV things I watch, and it’s always a lot of fun (unless you happen to be a creepy crawlie living in the Australian rain forest, of course, in which case I’m sure it’s all a bit depressing).

The celebs that make up this year’s bunch are less immediately entertaining than the last lot, but it appears that things are finally hotting up. Last night’s drama between Kim Woodburn (a bit of a bully) and Joe Bugner (a bit of a bully, but larger) made such uncomfortable viewing that I had to watch through squinted eyes, and Piglet became upset and had to be comforted by the cat. I reckon Jimmy White’s going to come through strongly as things progress, and that American bloke, George Hamilton, seems to have a sneakily wicked sense of humour.

Speaking of food, I’d like to have said something about Raymond Blanc’s The Restaurant, but it’s so extremely odd that it seems to have left me entirely unable to comment. Well, other than to say that I was very sorry to see the two army blokes go out, and that my money’s been on the two cheery peeps from The Front Room (or The Living Room, or whatever it’s called) from the outset. There! That’s prolly the kiss of death for them, then! *g* More next week, perhaps.

Last, but certainly not least, looking at the pictures that John Hee linked to on his blog yesterday I’m relieved beyond description that Piglet and I are no longer in The Licks…

Sonntag Abend kurz nach 21.00 Uhr – eigentlich wollte ich schon lange den Rechner ausgemacht haben und mir mal eine Mütze schlaf gönnen… da twittert mich ein lieber RL-Avi (Kleinenbroicher) an und schmeißt mit Stöckchen nach mir – Frechheit!!! Naja, lange rede kurzer Sinn – ihr kennt mich gut genug um zu wissen, dass ich bei sowas nicht nein sagen kann…

Warum bloggst du?
Tja, warum wohl… aus dem gleichen Grund, aus dem fast alle Blogger bloggen. Ich habe eine exhibitionistische Neigung, finde das ich wunderbar, spritzig und interessant schreiben kann und halte mein Leben für so spannend, dass die ganze Welt (oder zumindest die deutschsprachige) davon etwas mitbekommen soll

Nein, Spaß beiseite. Angefangen hat alles, als ich mich etwas ausführlicher mit dem Realen Leben und dem ganzen Wahnsinn beschäftigt habe, der einem da passieren kann. Es war nur eine kleine nette Schnapsidee, die sich dann aber verselbständig hat. Darum eine Warnung an alle Nichtblogger: So ein Blog kann süchtig machen! Er wird zu einem Teil von dir und erlang eine ungeahnte Eigendynamik. Stellt euch mal vor – mein RL-Avi möchte jetzt sogar unter seinem eigenen Namen bloggen – crazy, oder? Vielleicht kommentiere ich mir dann quasi meine eigenen Beiträge demnächst selbst…

Seit wann bloggst du?
Öhm – weiß nicht mehr – glaube sei September 2008 – Moment – ich guck mal…

Wow – tatsächlich schon ein Jahr länger – 15.09.2007! Und dieses ist mein Post Nummer fünfhundertsechundsechzig.

Warum lesen deine Leser dein Blog?
Das frage ich mich auch immer wieder . Da sind zum einen ein oder zwei  SL- und RL-Freunde und Bekannte, die sich durch das Lesen meines Blogs auf dem Laufenden darüber halten, was ich (und mein Avi) so machen. Dann sind ein paar Twitterer, die sich durch denn RSS auf meinen Blog locken lassen und zu guter Letzt die Suchmaschinennutzer, die sich wundern, wo sie denn, obwohl sie doch eindeutig “Super Geil Porno” in die Suche eingegeben haben, um Gottes Willen schon wieder gelandet sind.

Welche war die letzte Suchanfrage, über die jemand auf deine Seite kam?
Hm – die Letzte? Weiß nicht. Hier die der letzten beiden Tage:
kate nash 3
amelie bailamo 3
june brenner 2
freggers 2
fußballzimmer 2
willste poppen 2
poppen 2
traumfänger 1
naked people 1
hilfe mein bailamo funktioniert nicht 1
beta bailamo 1
avatare kinder 1
roskilde festival radio 1
the rocky horror picture show 1
tobial kunz lufthansa 1
wie bekomme ich in freggers kröten 1

Welcher deiner Blogeinträge bekam zu Unrecht zu wenig Aufmerksamkeit?
Och – ich bin ehrlich gesagt im Gegenteil immer ganz überrascht, wie oft meinen Blog gelesen wird

Dein aktueller Lieblings-Blog?
Hmm – muss gestehen, dass ich selber relativ wenige Blogs lese *schäm. Und einen Lieblingsblog habe ich nicht. Regelmäßig gucke ich bei First Media rein oder natürlich nach wie vor bei der lieben Ramazottine. Schön auch die Urlaubsgeschichten von Zeidlos oder die Gedanken vom Kurfürsten oder Tweet Addiction.  Dann ist da noch disLEXia (auch wenn ich nicht immer alles verstehe *g) und immer wieder ein Lächeln entlockt mir Arno Nümos – aber der Link ist geheim. Das der Kleinenbroicher bloggt, wußte ich bisher gar nicht Und dann soll es bald noch einen Cologne Bavarian Blog geben – ich bin gespannt!

Welchen Blog hast du zuletzt gelesen?
Zuletzt habe ich meinen eigenen Blog gelesen – nämlich Korrektur

Wie viele Feeds hast du gerade im Moment abonniert?
Um die 15 Blogs – und wenn ich mal genau drauf gucke, sind es nur welche von Leuten, die ich auch persönlich kenne.

An welche fünf Blogs wirfst du das Stöckchen weiter und warum?
Das ist einfach. Ramazottine kriegt einen und dann natürlich Zeidlos… auf die Antworten bin ich einfach mal gespannt. Und der Kurfürst könnte sich eigentlich auch zu einer Teilnahme herablassen . Wieder mal zum Schreiben anregen durch ein Stöckchen möchte ich Support Real Life (auch immer sehr lesenswert – hatte ich oben vergessen) und natürlich den lieben guten Emiliex, der sich anscheinend ganz in seine 3zeller Zucht zurückgezogen hat!

Hatte ich eigentlich schon mal über die grausamen Mühen, Strapazen und Quälereien berichtet, die es mit sich bringt, wenn man ingame umzieht? Hat einer von euch schon mal einen RL-Umzug mitgemacht? Der HORROR. Leider kann man sich das nicht aussuchen und durch einen Zufallsgenerator (eine falsche Entscheidung und schon…) wird einem von Zeit zu Zeit der “Juhu, wir ziehen um” Virus eingespielt. Das Spaßige dabei: Anfangs denkt man immer noch, so ein Umzug wäre eine tolle Sache. Mehr Platz, mal Ausmisten, nettere Nachbarn, größerer Garten, weniger Miete – halt einfach eine Verbesserung der kommenden Spielqualität. Euphorisch fängt man an, plant, macht, tut… und trotzdem endet es immer wieder in einem Fiasko und dem totalen Durcheinander und Nerv.

So geschehen gerade bei Juttas RL Schwester. Das Haus sollte größer werden – und los ging es mit dem Ärger. Von dem durchgebrannten Subunternehmer wollen wir gar nicht sprechen, auch nicht von Platzmangel in der Übergangswohung, nervenden Kindern, verschwundenen Aktion und sonstigen kleinen Nebenerscheinungen. Fokussieren wir uns mal ganz auf den Umzug. Trotz mittelfristigem Feststehen des Termins gab es immer noch irgendwas zu tun (kaum vorstellbar mit vier Kinder, einer nichtfunktionierenden Baustelle usw. *g), so das die Guten einfach nicht dazu gekommen sind, ihren Kram auszumisten und einzupacken.

Aber die Hilfe nahte! Die Umzugshelfer des Grauens (mein immer hilfsbereiter und tatkräftiger Avi und die dritte Schwester im Bunde) wurden angefragt und sie kamen! Und als sie dann da waren wurde nicht lange gefackelt. Karton um Karton wurde gefüllt. Fragen, was sie da einpackten? Wozu??? Einfach rein mit dem Kruschtel in die Movebox 3000 . Gut… innerhalb von 3 Stunden waren 2 Zimmer leer und die Kartons gleich ins neue Haus befördert. Schlecht… das beispielsweise die Schuhe der Kinder, die während der Umzugsaktion friedlich und nichtsahnend schliefen, plötzlich auch im neuen Hause waren *g.

Tja, was soll ich sagen – die Geister die du riefst *unschuldigabersehrfreundlichlächel. Wir helfen halt immer gerne.

こんばんわー。
ばななのRL家ではメインクーンっていう品種の猫を飼ってます。名前は「なすび」ちゃん。
メスなんだけど結構大きくて、性格は犬っぽいんです。甘えん坊だし、外から帰ってくると
お出迎えとかもしてくれるんです^^
んで先週の金曜日に、「今日はしょっちゅうトイレに行くなぁ」と思ってよーく見るとオシッコに
少し血が混ざってたんですね。「えー＠＠！！」と思って凄いビックリして、その日はもう夜も
遅かったんで土曜の朝一番に病院に連れて行ったんですけど･･･
結局診断は「膀胱炎」とのことで、今の時期は特になりやすいようなんです。
普段から猫って水をあまり飲まないんですけど、冬になるとますます飲まなくなるらしいんですね。んで結果オシッコの循環が悪くなって膀胱炎になってしまうと･･･。
今は薬も効いてるのかオシッコの回数も減って落ち着きを取り戻してきたんで安心してます。
ということで、この週末は何だかアタフタして終わっていきましたｗ

動物を飼うのって物凄く大変なんだなって改めて気付かされたというか、今まで健康でいてくれたことが普通のことのように思ってましたけど、健康管理って飼い主として凄く大事なんだなって思いました。
まだ3歳だし、これからも健康で長生きしていってほしいなーと思うばななです。

今日一緒に土地探し手伝ってくれたお友達です^^
2人とも大好き！また一緒に遊んでね～！