Hate This & I'll Love You

Pick ANY character of mine and I will tell you their:
01. Full name
02. Best friend
03. Sexuality
04. Favorite color
05. Relationship status
06. Ideal mate
07. Odd Skills/Skills in general
08. Last/Most/An Amusing Escapade
09. Favorite food
10. Crushes
11. Favorite music
12. Biggest fear
13. Biggest fantasy
14. Quirks
15. Bad habits
16. Biggest regret
17. Best kept secrets
18. Last thought
19. Biggest insecurity

EDIT: Also...

20. Sucks at
21. Wants to say but can't
22. Likes most about him/herself
23. Likes least about him/herself
24. Wishes never happened
25. Fondest memory
26. Wants to forget
27. Turn-on
28. Would give anything for
29. Takes comfort in
30. Best advice

List the first ten series that come to mind. Your friends will comment with the character from each series (doesn't have to be all) that they think you are most like. REMEMBER THIS IS WHO I'M MOST LIKE, NOT MY FAVORITES.

1) Stargate Atlantis
2) Eureka (I know no one watches this, but it says the first ten that come to mind)
3) Doctor Who
4) Cardcaptor Sakura
5) Darker Than Black (Kuro no Keiyakusha)
6) Space Cases
7) House
8) Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna
9) Roseanne popped into my head o_o
10) Digimon

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Monday I pulled tiny_twiddle's hair (-5 points). Last Thursday I bought porn for marikuchan (-10 points). Last month I caught a purse-snatcher who stole discoprince's purse (30 points). In July I helped h_altman hide a body (-173 points). In May I pushed sakuramikage in the mud (-17 points). Overall, I've been naughty (-175 points). For Christmas I deserve a spanking! Sincerely, duchess_nire

Write your letter to Santa! Enter your LJ username:

Step One:
• Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 unlimited holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

• If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

• Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.


Step Two:
• Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

• If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

• You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.

• There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.



Okay, I really have no idea. I'll try. To start with, maybe...


1- These pants.

2- Everyone loves fanart of their characters, so I guess I do too XD

3- A bunch of Spectraflair paint so I can paint stuff with it because it's awesome. Maybe even my car repainted with it.

4- Acceptance into SAIT D=

5- A Super Dollfie, maybe even this one but with different hair.

6- Summer Rain by s-Tune. It's just a single song that I can't find anywhere. I think I'm starting to stretch these a little bit.

7- A BMW M3 just for me with Clive Owen inside, naked. And Tom Jane in the back seat. Also for me. Also naked. I think M3s have back seats, anyway.

8- Samuel L Jackson's retirement

9- An awesome new computer that will work with everything for a long time to come.

10- A Wacom Cintiq

None of these are going to happen, but oh well. Maybe SAIT acceptance, but not today, or before Christmas, or because of this post.

( Or ever again. )

( Excuse me while I bitch. )

Windows Vista, in a way, did Microsoft a world of good. It's been one of those 'learn from your failures' thing. While I personally have had only occasional trouble with Vista, I know that plenty of other people have hideous problems (what isn't being said is that the new Leopard OS is just Apple's Vista equivalent. People comfortable with either OS will just use the other when one comes short and rarely complain much in the first place, and the Apple users are too hardcore to ever admit any problems, ever). My big issues (and everyone else's, I'm sure) have been speed and compatibility. I'm a pretty devoted gamer. I can no longer run some of my favorite games on Vista, and making fixes doesn't seem to be a high priority...

( On Windows Vienna )

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you.

This is the full version. If you do not know who Nick Solaris is, then you want to read the other version. Believe me, if you don't know who he is, you're missing nothing by reading the stand alone version instead.

( Before - Full Version )

Here's a little something I wrote in one sitting in a trance a few weeks (months?) ago. It just came. I planned on going back and editing it after letting it settle for a little while, but I found it didn't need to be edited, really. Maybe it does and I'm blind, but anyway. I felt posessed as I wrote it. It's really hard to explain. It's like it was meant to be written. It just fit together so perfectly.

I'll post a version without the prologue and epilogue, since it doesn't need context without, but the prologue and epilogue require context. Ain't that funny?

Also, I'll post the version with the pro-and-epilogue, for those of you who would know the context.

Oh yes, and it's in a bunch of tiny parts, so I'm keeping them together in one huge thing.

It's written somewhat simply, sort of fairy-tale-esque. And do let me know if there are any parts that are cliche/overdone elsewhere.

( Before )

Day 7 (21)

Another full day at sea. Maybe the last in my entire life, depending on how things turn out. Certainly the last for a very long time. I can't see me affording to go on a ship at sea for at least a few years. I'll miss it.

We saw flying fish this morning, darting in and out of the ship's wake. They look like insects from eight storeys up, but if you watch them enough you can tell they're fish. I think these guys need to sell local fish/bird/animal guides in the gift shops. That would be especially useful for the people going diving and such.

There was something called 'Disney Behind the Scenes' on the daily Personal Navigator paper thing, so I went thinking it was a Disney thing, but no, it turns out to be some kind of ESPN through the years thing. It was tricky to find a way to sneak out of there, because there was a guest speaker. If it was just a film thing, no problem, but it's harder to escape when there's a real person, and an ESPN anchor at that, talking about the sports and channel she so loves when there's less than twenty other people in the theater with me. Fortunately she showed some kind of clip thing and I motored out of there.

Then, to the kitemaking. I got a couple big ones and a little bird-shaped one. Max or Mom or Dad were supposed to meet me there, but none of them showed so I took the kites and bailed yet again XD. I flew the little one off the balcony for a while. They're supposed to be coloured, but there was no one really to colour with.

The Disney Vacation Club meeting was next. It seems like a good deal. Mom seemed to be sold, and she made an appointment with the Vacation Club leader lady onboard. There was a prize draw, and I won $300 onboard credit. Unfortunately, it's credit to the stateroom account, so the money's pretty much my dad's now. I did convince him to let me charge a cool watch to the stateroom though.

After that there was a lot of nothing until about 5:30 when I went with mom and dad to go see the new National Treasure. During it, there was an announcement that there was engine trouble and we'd be three hours late getting to Castaway Cay. The Disney pirate island. Maaaaaan ;.; That means we only get four hours ashore, and it's the best one. When it was over, the parents went off to their Vacation Club appointment and I bummed around.

Dinner was at the Parrot Cay. The more boring of the restaurants. But the assistant/drink server had a neat puzzle that I don't feel like describing in detail. I went to karaoke, wandered the deck after dark. I can't think of anything else I did today worth mentioning.

It's a really balmy night, it'll be hard to sleep.

Saint Thomas today. It was nowhere near as interesting. We had to get up early for a customs inspection because Saint Maarten isn't U.S. soil, but St. Thomas is. The Virgin Islands. Anyway, customs was required to get off the ship. We had the family shore excursion today-- snorkling. Man, that was cool. Twenty-two of us piled on to a twenty-foot powerboat and sped to an island I don't remember the name of, had a brief run-down of the method and the hazards involved, and in we went. The first cove was fairly shallow. I followed a reef along for a while before heading back to where a group of people were watching greenback turtles grazing on the sea bed, fifteen feet below. Cute turtles are cute.

There were a bunch of colourful fish, but the reef itself wasn't terribly colourful. There was a rusty orange coral thing, fire coral. That was one of the hazards, since it produces a chemical that burns. There were also spiney urchins. Those things are amazingly spiny. Spines were six inches long, and each had at least a hundred. Apparently the spines can easily go right through hands and feet. Pretty scary.

The boat took us around the island to another cove called Shipwreck Cove XD. There was actually a shipwreck there in thirty feet of water. It wasn't as cool as turtles and wacky fish, though. There was a barracuda in the water though. He wasn't terribly interested in us. In the second cove there was a lot more company including scuba divers, other snorklers and people in big diving suits with the bulby glass/plastic helmets XD. And back to shore we went. The boat ride both ways was better than most theme park rides.

I ended up not redeeming the coupon for the free pink sapphire thing. My feet hurt, and Saint Thomas proper was pretty unexciting. Typical American tourist town. Except it was filled with Jamaicans. I bought a bag, since I seem to collect them.

Then it was more slumming on the boat after slathering the aloe on my borderline sunburn. I took plenty of pictures on the way out of Saint Thomas though. It was a lot prettier than Saint Maarten, and there were even some ruins along the shore.

I met up with Alice and the Mad Hatter this evening, too. The Mad Hatter was telling the little girl taking pictures with him before me that it was his un-birthday tomorrow. When it came my turn, I told him it was my un-birthday tomorrow, too XD And of course he and Alice took my hands and danced me in circles singing the un-birthday song.

Dinner was at the Animator's Palate today. It wasn't as exciting as the first time, but that's to be expected. The performance the first night at Animator's Palate isn't something that can be repeated to the same effect. They had short cartoons playing on the TVs and all the paintings were in colour. They had it so that parts of the wall were in colour and other parts were in black and white. Everything tasted ridiculously salty @_@ I suspect that's from the snorkling, and taking in so much salt water. Maybe there's a mechanism that makes one hypersensitive to tasting salt so that you don't take in any more.

Also tonight was the lunar eclipse. I only stayed up late enough to watch totality. Got some pictures too, but I don't know how crummy they turned out to be. Turned clocks back to Eastern from Atlantic time.

Two words.

Pirate Day.

Unfortunately, today was also Saint Maarten day, so that took priority for a while. I got up way early, maybe six or so. And the night before the sea kept me awake. Not in a bad way. I just know that I won't be here forever, and the sea seems to always be a huge pull for me when I'm on vacation. When I went to San Diego a few years ago, we had dinner one night at a restaurant on the docks, and I spent most of the time outside looking out at the sea. I just stayed awake, listening watching, sometimes going out on the balcony. It's just so incredible.

That's alright, I've got training for marathon not-sleeping. Anyway, mom and I filed out nice and early. Other than the people going on morning excursions (and they weren't even in the town proper) we were pretty much the first people out there. It was so completely Caribbean style. There were stray dogs running around everywhere, even a few stray cats. There was even a little rooster running around the streets, and a wee orphan baby chicken too. There were the leather-skinned fellows with bright teeth breezing over drinks under a palm tree, leaning on a rusted overturned boat on an overgrown beach. There were the mini shops selling island wear, opening on island time. There was a water taxi, $6 for a day pass. Five dollars for a bottle of good rum (not that I could buy any). Steel drums at nearly every corner. I wish I'd taken more pictures in town.

It also rained while we were there. The rain here doesn't kid around. There was no warning, at least not to me. There were a few clouds, but nothing that looked like rain to me, then suddenly it was pouring. The sun doesn't kid around at sea either. When it sets, it goes from late afternoon light to dark in minutes. Anyway, we took cover under an umbrella at a drinks place and talked to a local for a while, who said that the weather was actually a little too cold for her. That was amazing to me.

I spent most of the morning walking around town with mom buying a few things, then around noon we met up with Max who was recovering from some seasickness from the fishing trip. Apparently eight-foot waves can really be felt in a ten-foot boat. He got the first catch of the day though, that was pretty cool. We went to the beach for an hour or so. Max and I tried digging a hole as the tide came in. We tried building a wall out of sand but it kept getting washed into the hole XD So we tried laying down in front of it. That worked for a little while.

Then we headed back to the ship, and I immediately got into my pirate garb. There were some stupid kids that decided it would be fun to try pulling my wig and stealing my hat and ripping my Key to the World Card protector <.< I hid out in the spa for a while, since no one under eighteen is allowed in there. One of the people who worked there (everyone who works on the ship is called a cast member) covered for me and told them that I'd run downstairs to deck three. Those clever kids, they left one girl behind to keep watch, pretending she lost something, but the cast member prevailed and I managed to flee back to my room for a breather.

Other than the kids it was a blaaaaast. We ate at Lumiere's again, and there was a pirate limbo party with dessert. Our scheduled dinner time is 8:30 though, so I ended up being late for the Pirates in the Caribbean deck party. What I caught of it though is nothing that wasn't to be expected considering how everything else has gone; singing, dancing, pirate Mickey swinging in from the aft stack to the stage, good times. Apparently, the Disney Cruise Line is the only one cleared to shoot fireworks from the deck, too, so that was neat. They went on a little long though, considering they only seemed to be cleared to use fireworks of a certain magnitude though. After the deck party, they started showing Curse of the Black Pearl on the Ariel View screen, but I opted for wandering the decks in costume. It was a lovely night, as always.

Second day at sea. The waves went a little higher today. I woke to Dinosaur this morning. We moved through another time zone today, so I'm another hour further from home. Today I did even less than yesterday. Lots of sea-watching. I totally got nekkid on the balcony because I'm a Young Woman and the Sea. Actually, it was the only private place to change at the time.

I had a good conversation with our housekeeper today, though. I was lounging when he came in to do his thing. So completely Jamaican, just like those rum commercials. Except he told me I'd better put sunscreen on or he might not be allowed to like me anymore. He's a totally mellow fellow.

So I slathered on the sunscreen and went out to the pool. I will never be out in the adult pool at noon ever again. Noon is when the ship blows its Disney horn, and the horns are situated on the stack just behind the adult pool facing forward.

Announcement: *de-de-de-de-dee-dee-deeee~ ('when you wish upon a staaaar')* Attention, the ship will now blow it's horn~
Me: Oh. Cool. Oka--
Ship: WAAH-WAAH-WAAH-WAAH-WAAH-WAAAH-WAAAAAAAH (WHENYOUWISHUPONASTAAAAAR!!!)
Me: *FRIGGINDEATH*

After that I ran to a gemstone buying seminar, because they were giving out coupons for free jewelry. Right on. I'll trade it in for a hot pink sapphire pendant tomorrow in Saint Maarten. After that I went to the room, chilled, watched Peter Pan and then out swimming again. Woot. I caught the end of High School Musical on the Ariel View screen- that's the one at the general pool. The story is simple, the characters too cliche/overacted, but the music and choreography was actually pretty good. There was a mob of young children dancing in front of the screen. It's so cuuuuuute to watch a three year old try to match the moves going on the big screen X3

I took a walk around Deck 4, which is the lowest deck where you can be outside. The wind was even worse today. There's a pretty hefty breeze going, especially if you're at Ten Forward. It's hard to walk, and if you happen to open your mouth, your cheeks fill with air. The strength of the wind up there even makes breathing an effort.

Yeah, nothing else special happened today. We ate at Parrot Cay, which was more jungle-y decoration and food theme.

And Aladdin is on =D I'm thinking of you, Ryou~ ;-;

And the party continues. Man.

This is part one, since I'm in my room feeling the need for a little seclusion. Just a young woman and the sea. It will be better than the Old Man and the Sea, I assure you. But yeah. I woke up this morning to The Jungle Book playing on one of the many channels exclusive to the cruise ship. It's so cool...

The sea was really blue too. It still is, but it's a little overcast, so right now it's more the ocean colour I've seen in BC, but you can still see how blue it can potentially get.

And windy. Boy this place takes windy to a whole new ridiculous level. It's not a bad wind, humid, just warm enough to be refreshing yet not chilling but it's like God thinks we're the pig in the brick house. You've never seen wind until you've stood on the bow of a ship in this kind of breeze. There are waves bigger than me out there, and the Report from the Bridge still only calls them 'moderate'. You can really feel the waves when you're walking through the ship and especially in the pools.

'Pools may become turbulent when ship is in motion.'

That's an understatement XD They've got all kinds of little precautions built in to keep them from splashing over, but they all still slosh back and forth and back and forth. While I was up at lunch they had The Incredibles playing on the 70-foot screen above the general pool, so everyone was facing the same driection as they were swept back and forth across the pool yelling like they're on a roller-coaster- 'WhoaaAAAAaaaaa...aaaaAAAaaaaa.....aaaaAAAAAaaaaaa....' I'm rolling back and forth in my room a little. I want to go in a giant ball and just roll around the entire ship.

With Captain Tom.

I haven't met him yet, though I hope to before this thing is over. Or maybe not, so that I can still pretend it's my Tom in my head.

But it produces so many hilarious ideas in my head. Captain Tom, pirate IN the Caribbean. Lame? Yes. Amusing? Absolutely.

*Part2*

After a bit in the pool, I did some wandering, some sea-gazing, and then hurried into my formal wear to attend the Captain's Welcoming reception. Captain Tom is a rather distinguished-looking gentleman from Norway =D After that it was dinner in the Animator's Palate. Formal night, rather than 'cruise casual' like last night.

That restaurant is so cool. It's the signature cruise restaurant. Everything, even the waiters, is in black and white. There are paintings on the wall that are sketch-versions from Disney classics. Occasionally they'll light up with colour. There were six large pillars shaped like paintbrushes and the bristles would light up in colours too. Intermittent between the paintings were TV screens that also showed sketches and were coloured. Here's the best part.

All of a sudden, all the waiters went away.

This is a big deal because there's two waiters, a full server and a drink waiter, that serve only two or three tables, and they follow their assigned tables to their dining rooms. We have an assigned cycle through the restaurants on board. Anyway, there's at least thirty waiters in the room at all times, and then suddenly they were all gone, and the lights went down, and there was an unveiling sort of thing. All of the screens started showing clips from Disney movies, but each one had a different set of clips as this voiceover talked about 'the dream becoming a reality' or something like that. Then Fantasia Mickey appeared and suddenly everything was in colour, even the walls and stuff, and the waiters followed Mickey back in and they were dressed in colours too XD And they all started dancing. It was great.

After dinner, mom and I rushed off to catch Dan in Real Life in the Buena Vista theatre. It was so awesome ;-; Dan is so much like Mike I almost cried so many times during that movie because of the translations I was making in my head.

But yeah. That's it for today =D Today's towel animal was an elephant, which, regrettably, I did not get a picture of before its destruction.

The departure.

Got up early, had some breakfast in 'The Hemisphere'. Typical breakfast buffet, but the decor was nice and there were lots of windows. There was this yogurt smoothie thing that we got free samples of. Not something I would have ordered unless it was free, but it was still nice-tasting enough.

We packed up our suitcases and set them in the hall to be picked up by the luggage fairies so that they could take them to the ship. Then we checked out of the Hyatt, checked in to the... thing. I'm not sure what it was. It was a thing in the hotel where we could tell them we were waiting to get on the boat. They called us to get on the bus (ours was Donald Duck XD) and away we went. It was about an hour to the port.

There was a security check and then we moved in to the terminal proper. It was GIAAAANT. Huge vaulted cealings, all with wavy glass. There was a scale model of the ship there, too. Dad went to check into the boat, and then we waited again. We finally got on at about noon. There are two ships, the Magic and the Wonder. We're on the Magic. I was so excited I cried a little o_o

This ship is one huge wild party. Usually I'm not one for huge wild parties, I really hated the high school dances and such, but maaaaan. There was a departure party that was just the greatest. Streamers, dancers, music, wow.

Heeeeeey, hey babyyyy~

There was a great dance thing to this one song that I now must find. Yeah. When the horn blew for our departure, it was the classic Disney tune XD That was great. But here's the greatest part of all.

The captain's name is Tom. I'm not even making that up. 'On behalf of Captain Tom, welcome to the Disney Magic.'

Captain Tom, Captain Tom, Captain Tooooooom~ I squee every time I hear that in an announcement or on a phone message or on the View from the Bridge channel. I really need to find some written proof that our captian is Tom. Yeeeaaaah. I don't think I'll ever get over that.

There are a lot of people from different countries that work here. But actually, more people I'm seeing are from Canada than other places. There was a College Age Social tonight at the sports lounge for people who are old enough to be adults, but aren't legally adults on the ship =.= There was me and one other girl there with the host guy, who was from Toronto =D We talked about computers, but the other girl didn't really care much XD Ah well.

As for the other guests, I'm pretty sure most of them are American. Ah, well. I don't really need to talk to them. The people I do happen to talk to seem to be from New York though =D I dressed up as Good Ol' Captain Jack for a while, too. I was jumped by some kid who wanted my autograph XD He had one of those book things. I did my best, but I think the autograph sucked a little. There was one skeptical little girl that came running up and pointed at me accusingly and cried 'You're just a person!'. She looked deeply disappointed.

We ate at Lumere's tonight. French -style cuisine. I had some sort of pasta thing and creme brulee @_@ The dessert was so goooood. It was after dinner that I went to the College Social. Then I hooked up with Max in the general pool hot tub (there are three pools - kid's, adult's, and general) until midnight when pretty much everything except the teen club closed for the night.

I crashed pretty much when I got in the stateroomroom. There's a bunk that comes out of the cealing that I slept in. There was a towel oragami lobster that the room service people put there. They also put dad's sunglasses on it XD All of the people that work here clearly love their jobs. Even the cleaning people are singing and dancing in the halls.

I did a little bit of shopping after we pushed off, too. Just a bag, nothing fancy. I need to save my money for the stops in Saint Maarten, Saint Thomas and Castaway Cay. And that's about all I can think of to chatter about for now. Until tomorrow =D

Day 1

Alright, so lots of travelling. Not terribly exciting, but I still love taking off. There was sleep to be had in the Toronto airport, but other than that there was almost no sleep. There was a cool steward on the Toronto-Orlando trip that did an amazing Tigger impression. He also apparently worked on the Disney cruise for a while.

The Hyatt at the Orlando airport is pretty cool. The balconies open to an atrium in the airport, rather than outside. It's neat, but not much fresh air. The pool's outside though, which was amazing to me. Swimming outside in February. And it's green. And there's palm trees. There's a sort of indoor garden thing just inside from the pool area and there are a couple of parakeets that are just too adorable for words @_@~ If you just sit and watch them, they make little peeeeeeping sounds

Me: Hullo bird~
Bird: .....ee.

There's some pretty awesome shopping in the airport. Two Disney stores, a Universal Studios store, a NASA store, Sea World store, all kinds of cool stuff. I got an orca mug, a Squirt the Turtle keychain, some neat earrings, and some mysterious gifts for people =D

The bathroom in the room's ridiculously fancy. Rustic stone, easily half the size of the room proper. But we'll be out of it tomorrow morning, and the adventure begins properly.

I'll be upset that there won't be any phone or internet D= I'm pretty sure I'll end up paying for some just to talk to someone other than my family.

It took me a good twenty seconds to remember how to spell 'poll'. Anyway, Nexus poll. I need to know a good word for someone from the Nexus.

Poll #1120544
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Something of the Nexus is...

Hooray, next chapter. And it's longer, too =D

( Chapter IX: The Darklight Dynamic )