Today has been a rather awful day. Even the little things have sucked.

Started out by going to get that Thriller Chiller I told you guys about (as I ran out of time yesterday to do so). Whoever made it was an idiot. Got no whipped cream or cinnamon, it was much thicker than last time (this time I was not given a spoon, so it kinda sucked at the end), there was way too much Butterfinger, and I'm pretty sure they left out the coffee part, as it tasted a little different. That last part I didn't mind so much, as the mocha flavor was pretty subtle to being with. Still, I was bummed.

Then came the truck- 2000 pieces and five people to unload it. Because the day crew didn't finish setting up for it, we were thirty minutes late starting it. Then a grocery truck came, a frozen truck, and about eight carry-outs that kept us from out job. The truck itself was dusty as hell- if you ran your finger through it it would have the thickness of paint. The boxes themselves were loaded like shit- at one point a wall of them fell over on Billy, and right as he was upright another half toppled over him. I had to go inside and dig him out.

We finished half an hour late for lunch (which is good, considering the stops), but as Billy had to go home to take care of his mom, only four of us came back to pull. It took forever. While I was pulling a pallet, my finger got smashed. The result was half of the nail being bent backwards, taking the skin with it. Only it didn't rip the nail- I was able to shove it back into place and if it weren't for the bruise forming there you'd never know what happened. Hurts like hell, though.

Came home and tried to get online, only to be halted by my freaking ISP. I'd forgotten that my mom had gotten a new credit card, thus when it billed the old one it was obviously halted. Unfortunately, it took me two hours to get the stupid information changed. I ran into various roadblocks and finally said 'screw it' and put in my debit card info. Hope they won't have a problem with that. But whatever- it got me back online, and with how stressed I've been today, that's all I want.

Other than to build a time machine anyways.

So it was the Ethernet cable. That's one dastardly villain indeed.

Happily, though, I bought myself a new one yesterday at work and thus solved my Internet troubles. Well, for the most part.

So far, since opening up the staff seats for the Fanfic Comp this year, I've only had one bite. Sunny is willing to help out again, and I'm glad for the assistance, but I was hoping for a little more hands by this time. I remember when Rein used to ask and it was like, filled within hours.

One person has PM'ed me for further details about staff duties. She sounds like someone who could be of a lot of help, so I hope she's still interested now that she has the scoop on what we do.

Even so... (pokes request in hopes of stirring life) I'd like to have a few more people than that. I'll give the thread until Tuesday- that's when we really should be starting on discussing all the comp related details that have to be organized.

(crosses fingers)

For once, I got to go on one of our little shopping adventures today. I haven't gotten to go grocery shopping much lately, so it was pretty cool.

When we were at Albertson's, they had this really good deal on hamburger. It was like, a $1.79 a pound or something, for tonight only. So my mom bought a bunch, and we're storing the extra in our freezer.

Now here's the real kicker. With every pound of hamburger we bought, we got two boxes of crackers/pretzels for free. You heard me. So we left that store with thirty dollars worth of crackers, all of which cost us absolutely nothing.

How. Freaking. Cool. XD

Heheh... I almost wish I could've just had their cash value in my hands. I have no money, as always, and it'll be time to pay my Internet bill once again. And while yes, I did learn how to use the WLAN feature recently, it's a pretty poor signal and sometimes cuts out. 

So I need fifty dollars. I kinda ran out of things to sell back in February... when I got rid of my Nintendo DS and games. I actually still have my TMNT DS game. >.> Yes, I still have it. I'm obsessed, people- hell, I bought it before i purchased the system! XD

Anyways, that leaves me with just a few things. A Heroes graphic novel (hardback) which I didn't even like, and an empty aquarium I bought three years ago. I never did get my turtles like I wanted to. ;_; 

Though  I also have a radio I rarely use. Hmm....

I'll figure something out.

....

Angrychihuahua

angrychihuahua

Thought I'd share. :D I need to fix my printer so I can get them out and stuff. Put them on my wall.





...Is it sad when I think my New Toon Award looks coller than my Leo Fan one? XD

Both are really cool though. ^_^ 

And bwahahaha! Major thanks goes to aubretia. She helped me figure out how to use this WLAN function on my computer, so bye-bye Clearwire! XD

...But now my computer refuses to charge. >.< D'oh! Premature victory.

But! It's still under warranty. :D I think I can get a free replacement still, be it for a part or a whole new laptop. Will look into this tomorrow.

(glances around) So.... today's D-Day. Four hours left.

I'm beginning to wonder if my stepdad's forgotten the exact date and is like giving me until Friday or something. :/ 

If he has forgotten, I have no plans to remind him. >.> I suppose I'll find out eventually. 

In the mean time, if it isn't taken away first, I may just end up killing my laptop myself! Gah! It's driving me insane! I keep on getting disconnected for some reason. Some days are worse than others, such as last night. At one point, I had to shut my computer down just to get it working again! >.< 

Heh... and in my searching to discover what the problem was? I discovered that my ISP is well known for being jerks and screwing their customers. >.< Nice.

Anyways, time for some questions! These were asked of me by lvsinsanity.

1. So you like Leo? Why?

LV. How long you planning on sticking around to read this meme? XD

For starters, he's just so intense. There's this air about him... It's so hard to explain. It's like he's a force- a storm, almost. Stunning to watch and even enjoyable, but so dangerous if gotten out of control.

He has so many inner conflictions, all of which I find fascinating. Leo's not just this leader he's so labeled with- he's still a teenager, which makes the weight he himself is willing to take on so much heavier. He's still young. He doesn't know everything, and he's well aware of this. He's mature for his age, but still so young in many aspects. This leaves him in a state where he often finds himself wondering if this path is the right one, and it's a question that haunts him no matter what he's told. In a leader, I think this makes him all the more human (you know what I mean). It brings him down to the same level as his brothers, whereas there's usually a distinct difference in other shows with the same situation.

I also adore his perfectionist approach to all he does. Leo tries so hard, and he usually does it to better himself for his family. Speaking of which, his devotion to them is also something worth mentioning. One of my favorite things in any character is a fierce loyalty. Something like that gets no stronger than in a strone family bond, and you don't see that as much these days. But Leo... Well. We all know he'd do just about anything for them. He's shown on more than one ocassion how much he's willing to sacrifice for them. And while this is a trait I can actually admire in his brothers as well, it's worth acknowledging here as well. :D

He's very astute. I love that. Leo is a thinker; not like Don, but it's obvious that he's very intelligent. Probably more well-read than the genius of the family as well. 

There is, of course, his honor. How many people out there are like Leo, in that aspect? He has such a strong moral code, and he makes use of it in all aspects of his life, be it at home with his family or in battle. And speaking of which, he is a damned skilled warrior. ;) There's this grace that seems to come naturally to him. Leo just moves flawlessly most of the time.

For some of his flaws- his arrogance. It makes him so real, instead of a cardboard cut out of the leader. He's questioned far more often in respects to his roles than I've seen most leader-type characters, and he responds to it with actual emotion. A lot of it surely has to do with the fact that he's leading his brothers, and not an army or some friends. So a good portion of that arrogance probably stems from a big brother syndrome. 

Have to get at least one physical feature in here, even if I love just about all of him. His eyes. They speak for him more than his words do, reflecting that intensity which I mentioned earlier. And if we're going to be strictly focused on appearances here, they're absolutely gorgeous. I'm referring to the New Movie of course, which is one of the few times we get to see some actual color- but they're this stunning shade of amber. I just adore it.

And so to finish, I also like that despite this boring person so many see him as, he really has more character than so many of these paper mache favorites out there in other shows. If you peel back all of his layers and really try to get inside of his head, that just becomes much more apparent. There's way more to him then he's given credit for.

2. If you could find one interesting thing to say about April, what would you say?

I think there's quite a bit that's interesting about April. She's horribly difficult to write for me, but she's a very good character.

One of the things I like most about her is the fact that more than likely, she gave the TMNT some real hope in humanity. Before she came into their lives, I think it's safe to say that they lived with the assumption that any and all humans they would ever meet would be afraid of them. Well, I'm sure they entertained fantasies of being accepted and such, but the reality at the time would have been very much at the front of their minds.

Then April comes around and gives them a way to see the possibilities. And more importantly, she provided them with their first friendship, which is something they desperately needed. 

And just think of how the entire TMNT universe would be different if they'd never met. Stockman would likely still have his body. With that earlier viewpoint of humans, they might never have befriended Casey Jones. Leo very likely would have died in that ambush, seeing as Casey and April played key roles in keeping him alive, not to mention in giving him and his family a place to recover, in that incident as well as what happened after Exodus. Speaking of which- that showdown with Saki wouldn't have even been possible then, and if so, only made with many changes. Shredder might have gotten away and destroyed the Utroms.

Seriously. The possibilities are endless. It'd be very AU. So we all must give thanks to April for making the TMNT what they are today! :D

3. So you like Profiling? What's the oddest case you've ever read about?

Oh, I love profiling. It's so interesting- the way you can tell so much about a person just with a few simple clues! Appearance, background, personality! Thrilling! For Cork, I even made a criminal profile for Leo, going just on those clues alone. It's amazing what I could come up with!

The oddest and most fascinating case I've ever read was that of George Metesky (AKA The Mad Bomber), who was criminally active for sixteen years (with the exception of a 'truce' during war times) starting in 1940. His name explains his means- he made bombs and placed them in various locations, specifically to get back at a company named Con Ed. He also wrote many letters to the media. After over a decade of fruitless search, the authorities finally turned to a profiler- a Dr. Brussel. It is... utterly amazing how accurate this turned out to be.

I'll list Brussel's statements in regular font, listing in parentheses the evidence behind them, and bold what the offender turned out to be.

The offender is a male. (The manufacture of explosives began as a man's job, and was still primarily one at that time)
Of course, George Metesky proved to be a man.

The bomber is paranoid. (He implied several times that Con Ed was after him, his original bombings aimed towards them before becoming more random, suggesting he believed in a conspiracy against him)
Metesky suffered from acute paranoia.

He is neither fat nor thin. (This pioneered the Kretschmer Body Types method, which works on the idea that body types reflect personality)
The Bomber was a Dysplastic type, which accounts for all other types- the other three being athletic, short and fat, and tall and thin.

He is middle-aged. (Paranoia develops slowly, not coming to full force until about the age of 35. And the Bomber had been active for 16 years)
Metesky was fifty-four at the time of his arrest.

The Bomber was foreign born. (This was based on the stilted tone in his letters and a total lack of American slang)
The Bomber is Slavic. (According to statistics, Europeans are more likely to use bombs)
Metesky was of Polish descent.

If Slavic, he will be Roman Catholic. (Most Slavs are Catholic)
He was a regular churchgoer- and Roman Catholic.

He is unmarried, but likely lives with an older female. (This was based on his paranoia, and also the way his letter 'w' was written to resemble female breasts)
The Bomber, unmarried, lived with his two older sisters.

The Bomber lives in Connecticut. (There was a large number of Europeans who lived in Connecticut, and some of the bomb packages had been mailed from a county in between New York and Connecticut)
Metesky lived in Waterbury, Connecticut.

And now the best part:

When you find him, he'll be wearing a navy blue, double-breasted suit, buttoned. (Brussel's only explanation for this was that when he closed his eyes, he saw an impecably neat man who would avoid newer fashion until the point it was viewed as conservative)
Metesky was actually found in his pajamas, as he was arrested at night. Officers allowed him to change before escorting him to the station. Metesky went to his bedroom and returned- in a navy blue, pin-striped, double-breasted suit- which he made sure to button before leaving the house.

Seriosuly. Is that cool or what? :D

4. You have creative license over one character in the series TMNT, who would you choose, and why?

XD If I were allowed to be my evil self, it would probably be Leo, seeing as he's my favorite, of course. However, I can understand that my takes on his character are sometimes stretching the limits, and I'd like to keep him as in character as possible.

For that reason, I'd probably choose Agent Bishop. Because damn it- we need to finally see what happened to him! As well as how he knows what he does about the TMNT and how he learned it!

If not him, then I'd pick Casey. Because seriously, Casey is so much samrter than how he is portrayed in the show.

5. What's one TMNT Pairing you absolutely despise?

Hmm.... Well, for a long time, I was really opposed with all slash pairings. Realized that there were actually some talented people out there who could write it correctly though! Go figure! XD

Right now though? Can I list two?

Leo/Usagi- Sorry. Just doesn't work for me. Eww. Usagi is Leo's friend, and that's how it should stay.
Raph/Karai- Eh... It would never happen. The second any indication might be made, Raph would have a sai through Karai's chest. And while I can tolerate her with Leo when it's written well, she belongs with Chaplin.