Random note before the Random Thoughts - How did I live without owning more T. M. Revolution than I currently do, which is none? Amazing music!

DAY 2
Beginning of the Struggle tournament - Top of Yen Sid's Tower
- The voice for real Vivi (as opposed to Nobody as Vivi, which was fucking creepy) is a bit young. Wasn't he supposed to be 10 or so in FF IX?
- Who is this fucktard with white hair and purple eyes, and why the fuck is he calling himself Setzer Gabbiani?
- So Ansem is a Black Robed Guy. Didn't we kill him last game?
- Chrisopher Lee rules. This will likely be repeated quite frequently.
- The scene in the train, where Roxas's three friends just hold out their jewels and stare... that was weird and disturbing.
- "I don't feel like cooperating with destiny." At least they got Seifer right.
- I am so confused after all the interludes before Day 6... who are the bad guys, Organization XIII or DiZ?
- Axel is... strangely sympathetic, which just increases my confusion as to what is going on.
- Roxas gets two keyblades, and suddenly he is a SERIOUS ass-kicking machine. Holy shit, when Sora gets that this is going to completely rock!
- "It looks like my summer vacation is over." With one sentence, I'm about to cry over a character that I've only known for 3 hours.
- Why is King Mickey dressed like one of the Org XIII guys?
- I suddenly notice that Sora's grown about 6 inches and his homeboy pants are about to be Daisy Duke shorts, and I'm falling out of my chair giggling.

I played some this morning, and while I'll save the majority of my comments for tomorrow's Random Thoughts, I must say that whoever decided that Cid from FF VII needed to have a thick Texan accent is in serious need of an ass-kicking. :-p

Random Thoughts for the first little bit playing Kingdom Hearts 2...

- Came home, fed the cats, got a snack, took some Advil in preperation for the arthritis in my hands hating me, set the inch-thick hint book within reach, and popped the game in.
- The piano music from the first one is back, although in a sadder form
- The FMV recap of the first game and a bit of "Chain of Memories" was absolutely gorgeous, and I love the song.
- Seifer!
- GAH! CHRISTOPHER FUCKING LEE HAS A MAJOR SPEAKING ROLE!!! *marks out*
- Nice tutorial, but I could do without the triangle-button prompt taking up the entire screen
- Um, there's computers involved now?
- Tons of references to "Chain of Memories"...
- "Chicken wuss!" Seifer called Roxas a "chicken wuss"! LOL! It's those little details I love.
- Lots more questions than answers by the end of the 3rd day
- Um, OK, who is this moron you're calling Setzer, and why is he hoisting a title belt over his head?

Unfortunately, a burning line of pain in my left shoulder made me quit after 1:17, telling me that I'm going to have to let the doctor stick his camera in there at some point. :-p Maybe after Dragon*Con...

The camera is much improved from the first, I'll say that.

More tomorrow!

*trying desperately to ignore the voices in my desk drawer*

I've got Kingdom Hearts 2 and the huge hint book in there... There are people begging to be scanned and sent to friends, and an absolutely gorgeous full-body shot of KH Sephiroth. If they ever make that into a figurine, I'm snapping it up as quick as I did the AC Sephiroth (even tho it has iron grey hair instead of white hair... someday I'll fix that...).

Don't panic if you don't hear from me for a while...

You know it's going to be one of those days when...

...you wake up at 4:30am and seriously debate the pros and cons of just letting your sinuses explode.

Get to work, and outside email's been down since, oh, FRIDAY AFTERNOON.

My boss is out, and there's no way I can leave just my co-worker on the help desk, so guess who's at work with a pounding sinus headache, upset stomach from 4 DayQuil in 6 hours, and a snarly attitude?

I talk about Goldeneye being big... here's definite proof. ;-)

Critics of the legislation say Sensenbrenner is trying to deport the 11 million to 12 million people who are in the United States illegally.

And... why is that a bad thing?

"This bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself," said Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York.
*snort* Hillary Clinton, bringing up Jesus? That's rich...

CNN.com article

My co-worker the network engineer is listening to something shrilly Republican on her computer, via streaming audio.

The break room is temporary behind me, on the other side of a very thin wall, and people are practically yelling at each other.

I'm getting vertigo. :-p

Just finished beating "Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition". The game won't win any prizes for anything ground-breaker, but fuck all if it isn't fun to shoot demons in the face every once in a while. ;-)

I find myself in the interesting position of not having anything new to play for several days. I don't have any new games at home, and won't until I go pick up "Kingdom Hearts 2" next week. Not sure what I'll do, if anything, until then. I have "Pools of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor" on my computer, and that can easily occupy my spare time when I'm not playing on Aardwolf.

Part of me, though, almost wants to start the ".hack" series again, especially since downloading the soundtrack recently. We'll see. The reviews I've seen indicate that KH2 is quite long, and I'd rather not start one game and then put it to the side for a few months.

Does anyone know a better online translator for Italian to English than Babelfish? I ran the following song through it and got a steaming pile of shit back. :-p

"i can't be cool" by Yoko Kanno

non credi che sia il momento di capire?
decidere di non restare immobili?
senti le voci che vendono ricchezze vane,
l'inganno del potere che consumerà l'ara...

i can't be cool tra le catene
i can't be cool ad occhi chiusi
i can't be cool sotto i resti di un sonno profondo
fatto di guerre in nome di dio

tu pensi di possedere la tua vida
sotto il controllo di uomini avidi?
senti le voci che vogliono trovare pace
sono oscurate dai potenti sovrani del buio

i can't be cool senza parole
i can't be cool senza reagire
i can't be cool perché so già che l'indifferenza
chiude le porte dell'umanità

i can't be cool tra le catene
i can't be cool ad occhi chiusi
i can't be cool sotto i resti di un sonno profondo
fatto di guerre in nome di dio

i can't be cool tra le catene
i can't be cool ad occhi chiusi
i can't be cool sotto i resti di un mondo sommerso
dalle violenze dell'umanità

i can't be cool tra le catene
i can't be cool senza reagire
i can't be cool perché so già che l'indifferenza
chiude le porte dell'umanità

se vorrai un'altra realtà
avrai il dono più grande
sarà la tua libertà
senti...

"I... I won't become a memory..."

6 weeks until Advent Children...

I'm still grinning a very familiar grin at the thought of Superman from the cartoon Justice League doing Sephi's english voice. ;-)

Well, I've apparently been worrying over nothing because some dumb bitch in my doctor's office thinks that OR means AND.

Possible rotator cuff tear OR severe tendonitis.

Since the pain's mostly gone and I have full range of motion, guess which one I really have?

And the orthopedist didn't have the MRI results, the x-rays, nothing from my doctor.

I am mad.

I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment
I am a wunderkind
And I live the envelope pushed far enough to believe this
I am a princess on the way to my throne
Destined to serve
Destined to roam

*nods*

I now have a theme for a Kingdom Hearts fic...

Yes, I'm pitiful. ;-)

Doctor's office calls back, I see the orthopedist this Friday at 9:15am.

Me: Wow, that's fast, should I be worried?
Nurse: Well, they did tell you it there was a partial tear, right?

Um, no?

Um, fuck?

In good news, I have a nice fat bonus check in my purse, that'll pay off 4 or 5 things, and a small but OK pay raise.

Just heard back from the doctor... I have a rotator cuff "problem" (might be a small tear, might just be fraying), and severe tendonitis. He's forwarding me on to an orthopedic specialist.

Another one for the "WTF is our government doing" file...

Couple trying to pay off a credit card bill get checked out by Homeland Security

And don't get me started on the South Dakota shit.

It's like I just told my Dad... I'm fine until I start moving around. If I just lay in bed, I'm mostly OK, unless I turn or move wrong. If I sit in a chair, I'm OK until I try typing.

Which is, of course, absolutely no way to live.

I have overtime to go into at work today, and I'm experimenting with just taking half a Vicodin. I'm not driving, don't worry. We'll see how that goes.

Less pain this morning. I feel like I would actually want to take a deep breath. Hope the MRI shows something, because this is not something I care to repeat any time soon.

Looked at my car loan and realized that by April of next year, I will have that baby paid off. I will then proceed to drive it into the ground (but it loves me and won't hold it against me) for a few years, then get a hybrid something.

Brad, wasn't ignoring you. :-) We belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which the Missouri Synod delcined to join back in the mid-80's. Ya'll don't do female pastors, and the ELCA in SC doesn't do female pastors well.

Saw the doctor at 10:45 yesterday. He, being a very wonderful doctor, agreed that I was obviously in pain, listened to the history of that shoulder, and decided to start with an x-ray.

Holding my left arm down by my side with my palm facing out hurt pretty good, but it got a good picture. He called me out to show it to me, and it seems that the ball of my left shoulder is higher in the joint than it really should be, and that there's definitely signs of arthritis in the joint. So he orders an MRI, which I get scheduled for later on the same day.

I have had an MRI before, so I thought I knew what I was getting in to. The one for my lower back pain was uncomfortable, but nothing bad, so I figured I'd be OK.

Um, no.

Remember, I said above that turning my arm hurt my shoulder. I had to lay on my back, shoulder held rigid in place, with my arm straight out by my side, for about 20 minutes. I am certain there is something wrong in there, because the pain was very nearly unbearable. When they finally pulled me out and sat me up, I literally could not breathe for pain. I carefully got dressed, went up to the hospital lobby, and called my local Knight in Shining Armor, aka Dad. There was absolutely no way I was driving my stick shift home.

He came and got me within 10 minutes, bought the Vicodin at the Bi-Lo for me, took me home, fed my cats, started my dishwasher, and took out the trash. I took 1 pill about 6pm, another a little after 7pm, then 2 at 10:30pm when I thought I was going to scream.

I'm back to regular pain now, so at least I feel like I can go to work. Why work? Because I started January 1 with 80 hours of sick leave, and now only have 8 hours left. :-p Besides, someone has to do the work...

I'm going to call the doctor about pain today...

13 years ago (almost exactly), I was run off the road by a logging truck and wrapped my 2 week old used car around a tree. In the process of trying to get out, I used my left shoulder as a battering ram to try to force open the driver's side door. By the time I got to the hospital, I was in a ton of pain. But my Mom was a pastor with shitty insurance (thank you, Lutheran church), and since it wouldn't pay for crap, they did a quick x-ray, saw nothing broken, and sent me home to take 1200mg of advil evey 4 hours so I could breathe.

Over the years the pain would flare up, but usually go away after a few hours. This time it's been constant since Monday. Also, if you push on the end of my collar bone on that side, the pinky and ring finger on my left hand tingle. And the left shoulder is noticably higher than the right one. And the pain is excruciating.

As Dawn rightly pointed out to me, I have already met all my maxes for health insurance, so why not get it looked at? Maybe it won't need surgery, just physical therapy. All I know is that I'm past the pain I'm willing to live with, so now I get to do something about it.