I FINISHED FINAL FANTASY VII: REBIRTH!!!!!!!!!!!!
I say "finished" because I had to get my big strong gamer wife to finish off the final fight for me; Sephiroth was kicking my ass ;w; I'M A REAL GAMER, I SWEAR, I'VE BEATEN THE PS1 VERSION A BUNCH I JUST SUCK AT DODGING.

Also we stayed up until nearly 2 am last night finishing it, followed by me, Liz, and Pat going on a celebratory Taco Bell run at ass o'clock in the morning XD Someone shot the menu screen since we'd last been there??? Which is really only shocking because it's a slightly more suburb-ish part of Baltimore, not the city. idk. I'm unfazed because that's just living in the city, babeeeey. I grew up like this~

Anyway I have a lot of feelings about it, just, in general and also as a remake of the original. I don't have all the brain power to put them down and if I wait until I do, I'm never gonna write another entry XD LIFE IS HARD. I just. It's such a good game and the original was formative to me as a teenager, so I had VERY HIGH STANDARDS for a remake that's made as many changes at it has. I was also incredibly disappointed with the first remake, so I went into this expecting nothing and was completely blown away.

tl;dr final fantasy good, ff7 is overhyped for a REASON, I'm about to go play through the ps1 version again while I wait years for the next part of the remake (which is perhaps the worst part of the remake, ngl)

And then my ps2 was having issues - probs because it's over 20 years old, was used as the family DVD player for years, and is modded - and didn't wanna read ps1 games D: Thankfully we also have Liz's ps2, so that's good!!! But I'll be taking my ps2 to the local retro game store this week for a tuneup and/or laser replacement.


anyway the first thing I did to my save file from 2004 was make it gay pride XD
Besides FFVII basically consuming my life for the past few days weeks, I've been on a bit of TOO MUCH IS HAPPENING in enstars because all three servers have anniversary stuff going on (because that's how anniversaries work) and it's kinda overwhelming. I'm enjoying the 3k fans for every character thing in JP, but I kinda don't like that you can't play the songs with stamina/towards the event. So I'm basically playing 9 songs a day that don't count towards event grinding...which is to say I'm super behind on the event. I wanted to get the 5* from it because 1) I like Hokuto and 2) first event of the year, but idk if I have it in me.

bluhhhhhh

BUT!!! It was Leo's birthday this week, and that was exciting!!! I bought a couple of his old event cards in eng and unlocked some of his cards in jp, and all around was very excited for my big dumb orange cat of a man XD

( some Leo-related screenshots~ )

a final parting gift: the ps2-specific HDMI cord we use has to be configured when you first use it on a ps2, and we hadn't used it on Liz's ps2 yet, sooooooo..........ff7 be lookin' a little more green than usual XD

and our cherry blossom "tree" is in bloom!!!!!
aka, cherry blossoms for the cherry blossom boy ♥ Pat, Liz, and I went to Taco Bell for dinner, but first I had to take a bunch of pictures of Kohaku with the cherry blossoms. It's basically a glorified stick with a few smaller sticks coming out of it, but maybe in a decade or so it'll grow into a full tree :D

( more pictures of Kohaku-san under here! )

Also, today is Pat's cats birthday!!! Yes, their birthday is April Fools Day XD But we went to Petsmart to pick up some toys and treats for them, plus a new laser pointer for Lumos. Pat picked out some freeze-dried fish, and reactions were mixed:

• Dennis: HOLY SHIT BEST THING EVER!!!!! this may in fact be the best treat he's ever received- maybe the best food ever????
• Lily: no shits given- she barely cared about it or the freeze-dried chicken + catnip mix Pat got as well...which tbh is classic Lily behavior XD
• Lumos: licked the freeze-dried fish like it was a lollipop, before giving up on it. hers was eventually given to Dennis, which he appreciated

Lumos did enjoy her new laser pointer! It was her party favor- except we didn't have a party with all of them, because there would have been a fight XD It was nice tho!!! It's always good to get the kitties new stuff~

And then we went to gong cha and got XL bubble tea again, because I have no self control and bullied everyone else into it. I mean, it wasn't hard to bully them; we all love bubble tea. tasty tasty :D

Now Liz and I are farting around watching YouTube videos about dumb Hallmark movies~ I've been playing some more of the enstars merge game - I got one copy of Tetora already!! - and Liz is playing the new Madoka game. I hope it works out for them, since tbh they were quite upset when the last one shut down. Apparently the story was really good, so they were sad to see it go. But it just launched, so they're getting in at the beginning.

Today, we made another pilgrimage to our Joanns ;w; I'm very attached to this particular Joanns, because it's the one I went to in college (the first time, so the late 00s) and then I lived basically across the street from it when I first moved back to Baltimore in 2016. It is THE Joanns for both times I've lived in this city, so it's the one that's hitting me hardest.

....to be fair, I haven't been up to Pittsburgh to visit the Monroeville Joanns, aka where I got my start with sewing & cosplay, because I'm just not ready yet. I'm gonna see if we can make a short trip up to say goodbye to it before it closes...but it's so hard to think about ;w;

ANYWAY. In an attempt to fight my depression over the bankruptcy, I had Liz take a couple fun pics of me in the fabric section of the Joanns. I wanna remember all the joy it brought me over the years ♥


also featuring my incredibly good Pusheen cape~
We'd gone with purpose, tho- Liz and I wanna make Kohaku and Madara's first feature scout outfits to wear to DC's Sakura Matsuri this year, and what better time to pick up fabric than during....the closing........sobs ;w;

I'M TRYING TO HOLD IT TOGETHER I'm still very sick so it's hitting me so hard ;w; I want to enjoy working on cosplay and shit, I just...sobs.


the boys with the fabric we got today!!!
We managed to get navy fabric for Madara's pants, the green for his top, the gold for....all his bullshit gold bits, and the light pink for Kohaku's top. We're gonna have to wrangle the embroidery machine for Madara, but I'm honestly pretty excited to figure it out :D

And then we had a time getting Taco Bell for dinner...the one right near the Joanns was randomly closed for the weekend???? And then the next closest one wouldn't let us place an online order...because???????? So we had to loop around and go to yet a different one, which I will always remember for the time they forgot to include the crunch part of my crunchwrap in 2011 XD

I got crunchwrap sliders today and they did include the crunch~ Literally it only happened that one time, but I can't get it out of my mind XD WHATEVER it was tasty!!!!

I've been curled up on the couch since we got home, because I do not feel good. Even with taking more DayQuil, I am not...doing well.....which is frustrating, because I have shit to do! I'm waaaaaay behind on the Switch event- not so much that I can't catch up, but I was hoping to be further than this already.

Also, I barely slept last night, because I was so exhausted and sick that I couldn't fall asleep. I ended up doing quick editing on some selfies from katsu~~~

( click click so I don't destroy everyone's friend pages~ )

Okay....still not feeling great, but I'm gonna make an attempt at playing the JP event some... If it goes badly, y'all can find me...idk, working on sewing my nuis clothes instead? Maybe if I use a tiny, incredibly hot tool (smol iron), I'll feel better XD

Hey, so, I've got something to point out...or maybe a question I've gotta ask.....but like, why the hell does Madara's jacket have sperm on it???


Seriously!!! It doesn't look quite as bad on the regular version, but the secret color? Who let this go to print XD

I sat down to make icons today and absolutely did not...I poked around in Photoshop, but I couldn't tell you what I actually accomplished :T I think I bragged about my mood theme a bunch and did some more minor edits to my layout coding...

Oh!!! The household went to Taco Bell the other night so I fiiiiiiinally got to try the limited time nuggets!!!!!! They're honestly really good, so I'm sad that they're not gonna last :c They are kinda pricey tho, so maybe that's for the best :T

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day!!! I have to call the Joanns that's closing, because apparently the fixture we bought is ready to pick up- I just have to arrange a time. I just also have to make a phone call, which is the worst fate D: Liz might have to do it for me, so I guess it's good tomorrow is their work from home day.

ALSO THE CHINESE ENSTARS SERVER JUST GOT AN UPDATE AND IT WHIPS ASS SO IT BETTER HIT THE ENGLISH SERVER SOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!! They did an overhaul on achievements, so I got a shit ton of dia, and they redid the design of the profile in a way that I think looks slick as hell.

( various server comparisons inside! )

I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD I HAVE SPENT THE COUPLE MONTHS SICK BASICALLY NONSTOP.

Like, as soon as I recover enough to start living my life again, BAM!! Get fucked, dipshit!!!!!!! I was sick with some sort of horrific bacterial infection over Thanksgiving for about two weeks, I recovered just in time for finals, and then got COVID over Christmas & New Years. I felt mostly better by my birthday (though not 100%, by any means, but like....better-ish) AND NOW, GUESS WHAT!!!

FUCKING SICK AGAIN.

I spent nearly 4 hours in the emergency room last night, because I was having severe trouble breathing + chest pains, and those are the sorts of things that they're like "oh shit, you gotta seek medical attention NOW" sooooo I did. And it was a huge waste of my time, besides the IV of fluids I got because I was severely dehydrated. I keep having massive coughing fits any time I swallow anything at all, including water, so while I usually drink 100+ oz of water daily, I hadn't been able to.

BUT BESIDES THAT??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOPE. I should have just gone to the urgent care I usually go to; it would have at least taken less time for basically the same results!!!!! The ER staff kept trying to give me meds that interact with my mental health meds, and then seemed lost and and confused when I actually knew and cared about drug interactions. Like, yes, sorry, I can't take NSAIDs and would prefer if you didn't give me them??????????????

Don't worry though!!! They REALLY wanted to push the ~magic mouthwash~ instead of anything else, which is legit just a numbing mouthwash that is supposed to make it easier for me to swallow but in actuality did basically nothing at all. I dunno what kinda kickbacks they're getting for pushing it, but goddddd I was so tired of hearing everyone call it that by the end.

Anyway. Liz took me to Taco Bell afterwards, despite the snow causing the first one we tried to close early, and that healed me....or at least I was able to eat for the first time in 24 hours, which helped a lot.

It's the first proper snow we've had in like two years, and instead of being able to frolic in it, I'm just sick ;w; I'm so upset!!!! I'd been having fun with threesentenceficathon too, but now my brain is mush from being sick. Can I catch a fucking break please????????

I've fallen back into YuGiOh hell, which I was guess was always inevitable but I didn't expect it to hit me this hard, this quickly. Legit I watched like two episodes of Battle City and wham here I am!!! Back on my bullshit!!! It's been over a decade since I've been this intensely invested and somehow it's all coming back to me. Like all the fucking ship names- really glad I have all those taking up space in my brain, instead of anything useful XD

But really...the most frustrating part is I know I had tons of fic ideas back in the day - because Pat and I both remember talking about them and I've found a ton of word docs with vague beginnings of some - but I can barely remember any of the details. And of course we mostly talking about them out loud, during our late night dates in the Taco Bell parking lot. So now we have to put them back together from our fragmented memories and the few snippets I've found on old hard drives.

pulls my hair out

My life is hard, okay XD Really wish I'd posted about these anywhere online, besides just old LJ entries making vague mention to working on them. GIVE ME THE DETAILS, PAST KILLIAN. WHY WAS YAMI MALIK TURNED INTO A CAT AND HOW DID RYOU END UP WITH HIM??????