Saturday was cramerica's birthday, and ojouchan and I accompanied him to the Frank & Son Collectibles Show way the hell out in the City of Industry. He was looking for transforming robots. And he got them.

I didn't pick up much myself. I looked through a lot of the videogame sellers, but there wasn't anything I could justify picking up for myself. I keep flirting with the idea of getting an NES knockoff, because there are a lot of good games with good deals for that system, but I still have many things that . I did pick up a wireless Gamecube controller to use with my Wii (the wired extension that I had been using doesn't fit in my current setup). I also looked for a spare DS stylus, but I nobody had one that wasn't packaged with some other crap.

I did pick up a blind-box Adult Swim mini-figure. There was a lot of cool stuff, so I felt pretty confident. But I ended up with Moral Orel. Ojou had better luck, picking up a different blind-box and ending up with the sole ultra-rare secret figure. Ojou also got a good line on a Barbie seller, who'll be able to help us out with her birthday in another two months.

I think I got a cold when I came home. My nose has been stuffed up something fierce since yesterday. A lot of it is the heat. I'm having a hard time staying hydrated, and it's hard keeping the bedroom cool enough during the day to get a solid amount of sleep. Hopefully things will clear up soon.

This weekend is another Strategicon, and I will probably go. I haven't decided yet whether I'll spend Saturday there or if I'll go to the local NPL game day.

Work always sucks after vacation, but I just got told I rock.

So remember that one item on the to-do list that didn't get scratched off? Yeah, doing that now.

Caught up on LJ kindasorta. With the new friendings, I have enough to read daily, but I can't keep track of things over a week of no connectivity. If you'd like me to make sure I read your last week of posts, just comment here, and I'll go back. Otherwise, I'm just going to keep going forwarding assuming I'm mostly caught up.

It's good to be home.

Creepy little girls exist in every culture.

—ojouchan, on watching Apocalypto

We're heading back home tomorrow. This vacation has been, in many ways, disappointing. Our airline was determined to screw us out of at least one day, and we never really recovered from the time spent traveling. I got a bad sunburn, Ojou got dozens of Chigger bites. Ojou's cameras died (both of them), and we had some subpar meals.

But we did have some wonderful times, especially the ones involving cheap rum and drives through the winding countryside.

I read one book, They Fly at Ciron, and by the time I get home, I'll have beaten on DS game, Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

I also dropped a DS stylus into the toilet. Yes, rum was involved.

The vacation map has been kind of updated, though I'll have to do more later.

Tomorrow evening, I'll be back in Los Angeles. Who knows what'll happen then.

Current Location: 18 17.735N 67 12.536W

Ojouchan said it.

I should note that by saying "mild sunburn," she's comparing it to the full range of sunburn, the kind of dangerous sunburns you'd see at a hospital. By the standards of us mere beachgoers, this is a bad sunburn, a don't-pat-me-on-the-shoulder-for-another-week-or-so sunburn.

Here's some of the places I've been going.

In Puerto Rico. Large room. Bad sunburn. Stealing wi-fi. More later.

Current Location: 18 17.735N 67 12.536W

So, because Spirit Air are assholes, my seven-day, six-night vacation has suddenly become a six-night, five-day vacation with flights getting into and out of Puerto Rico at 2 a.m.

I'm seriously this close to telling the travel agency to stuff it, stay at home for a week, and not worry about the tax liability for this shit.

Updated as appropriate throughout the day.

• Activate my new (and my first) credit card
  
• Finish the dishes
  
• Buy ojouchan actual carry-on luggage
  
• Buy toiletries and assorted stuff, especially:
  • earplugs</strike>
    
  • shampoo
    
  • conditioner
    
  • deodorant
    
  • camera battery
    
  • toothpaste
    
  • umbrellas
• Buy plane snacks, especially:
  • refillable water bottles
    
  • fruit/protein bars
    
  • nuts
• Charge my GPSr and update it with cache information
  
• Pack clothes
  
• Pack books
  
• Charge my DS
  
• Charge my iPod and fill it with a nice variety of music
  
• Charge my cell phone
  
• Clear the DVR so that it will have enough space to catch upcoming TV
  
• Figure out how to get to the airport
  
• Discover that my flight schedule has been fucked
  
• Panic
  
• Get the game-show-prize people to cow the horrid airline into fixing the problem
  
• Switch my rental car reservation to a different airport

ThuNYTX: 7. Should've been faster, but I got stuck on the top center.

Update: Many hours to go before takeoff, and travel anxiety is already setting in.

Uplater: Things seem to have settled down, but I've lost a lot of the time I thought I had today. Out for shopping soon.

I've always had a hard time contacting people for no reason. Even when I had a reason—when my reason was just, "Hey, I wanted to hear your voice and talk to you about whatever came up"—I tend to get paralysis. I don't have this problem in public spaces, like commenting on blogs and journals, but the same fears about calling someone transfer to e-mailing or IMing them.

What's sometimes worse is that, when I realize I've let communication drop, I feel so guilty for not communicating that I don't want to communicate further. That's what we call a vicious circle stupid.

For some reason, I've been feeling isolated at work recently. Sometimes I go to my Gmail/AIM client and look for people to talk to. They're usually asleep during the times when work stretches out in front of me (because that time is about 2 a.m. PDT), but sometimes, even when people are online, I don't feel comfortable making even casual contact.

I've been holding back on making this post because of that latter issue. I can't ask people if it's okay to e-mail or IM them and then go off on vacation where I'm probably not going to e-mail or IM anybody! When I come back, I'll be guilty about not having taken them up on their generous offer! But since I need to get used to the fact that that kind of thinking is stupid, I'm going to do it anyway.

Blogging about it like this is blowing it up a little. It's a little needy, yes; I do feel like I need something, and it's something little, a slight nudge to help me over a speedbump in my brain. I know that, for many of you, I probably already have this permission, under various social contracts. Humor me, please, because it's something I haven't really incorporated into myself. Just give me a little note that I can look to when I feel this stupid doubt and say, "I'm being silly, and here is testimonial evidence of my silliness."

How about it, can I talk to you? You know, eventually?

Current Mood: outreaching
Current Music: Portishad, "Glory Box"

Apparently, it's going to be raining pretty much all through my vacation. The upside of this is that apparently the bioluminescent bays look fantastic in the rain. The downside is, well, the water falling from the sky.

SatNYTX: 14:30; SunNYTX: 22:45 (1 error); MonNYTX: 4:30; TueNYTX: 5:30.

Some shopping, some Iron Man, a lot of relaxing. There's still a lot I need to do before Puerto Rico; we leave on Thursday.

Incidentally, since I failed at posting it before, here's the hotel we're staying at: Rincón Beach Resort. 'Tis a swanky place. We've got a car rented so that we can explore the island when we want to. As you might expect, I'm happy with lying on the beach all day at the fancy, secluded resort, while ojouchan would prefer to get out and into town more.

I always fail at planning my weekend. My during-the-week sleep schedule of going to bed during the day and sleeping until evening doesn't help much either. I'd been thinking about going hiking today, but I think I have some errands to take care of. And then again, I might be committed to seeing Iron Man tonight.

Switching my sleep schedule generally means that I can be awake for the day or I can be awake for the night, but I can't really be awake and functional for both unless I'm lucky, careful, exhilirated, and caffeinated.

Last night, ojouchan hosted a dinner party that was fantastic. It was also the largest number of people we've had in the apartment in a long time. Much joy was had, and much fantastic food.

But I'm already starting to feel a little sleepy. Maybe I'll nap? I don't know.

FriNYTX: 15.

Things are a little bizarre at the moment.

If anyone knows how to use CSS to modify META tags to get Google to recognize me as the owner of this blog, I'd love to hear from them. Done.

Current Music: , "Come Down -Fade-Mastered-16bit_01"

When I got near my house, I noticed there was some odd congestion.

Then I heard the helicopters in formation.

Then I smelled smoke.

Then I started running to ojouchan.

It wasn't anything big. There was a fire nearby, but it was pretty far from us, and was already under control. Still, after Christmas Eve, I'm a little touchy about it.

Current Music: Lovage, "To Catch A Thief"