Rollin' on the Rails of Pop Culture

Hey all! It's been awhile (or a whopping 10 days, oops) since my last blog entry, and I do apologize for the delay for anyone that likes reading what I've been up to or are interested in at any given moment. Where I live at present the internet can be finicky at best so I tend to keep myself occupied with other pursuits while Skye tends to her online work at the desk (the only area we can get a wireless connection).

Soooo what have I been up to these last ten days?

Well, we can start with my birthday (September 10th). It has been one of the only days since I've been back thus far that's had absolutely abysmal weather (it rained hard and consistently for a good portion of the day, with the outskirts of hurricane/tropical storm Leslie battering us with wind and rain); I considered it Murphy's Law that it had to happen on my birthday of all days, but it didn't dampen my spirits any! In the card Skye gave me, she wrote "Have a great birthday Missie! - Sorry for the rain :(" and for some reason her apology I found really humorous. I got to webcam with my parentals and it was really great to see them (we'll have to do it again soon, hint hint Mom? :D) and finally got the recipe for one of my favourite dishes hamburger stroganoff. I carry the recipe with me everywhere with the intention of buying the ingredients, but I haven't actually got around to it yet, oops! My Mom also told me how to make coffee mocha cake, and I absolutely can't wait to try to recreate what I consider to be her dessert specialty. My brother's bound to agree - he and I used to ask her to make it for our birthdays every year! That and hamburger stroganoff (or tuna spinach bake) actually. Mmm... Makes me miss my Mom's home cooking. I know it might be a bit of a stereotypical thing to say, but my Mom really does make the best gourmet foods. <3

Later that afternoon we headed over to Bethley's house, because her Mom decided to be amazing and buy me a carrot cake! It was really greatly appreciated and I enjoyed hanging out with them before Debbie went line dancing. They got me a t-shirt exclaiming my awesomeness (really, it's a shirt that says I'm awesome) and a Japanese phone sock/cover with symbols on it I can't read. Yay language barriers! Looks pretty pimp; love them.

Speaking of love, Meghan (the friend I met in Victoria, and currently resides in Calgary) sent me a really thoughtful and amazing gift through the post - she knitted me a scarf! It's her first foray into the world of knitting, and it's downright impressive the level of care and precision that went into making it. She also accompanied it with an EB Games gift card that I already know what it's going towards - either Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the 3DS (comes out November 11th!) or maybe the deluxe version of the Wii U (releases November 18th). Ahhh, really good choices, can't go wrong either way.

The final few hours of my birthday were spent the good ol' fashioned way by drinking with Skye and Jordan at his house. Well, I guess I can't say that it's 'old fashioned' because I rarely ever drink, but we all saw my birthday as a good occasion to do so anyway so we went for it. It's probably the most I've ever had to drink (I had three glasses of vodka mixed with ginger ale and a couple of straight up shots after). We were all a bit loony but it definitely was a lot of fun - even if I had to be cautiously aware of Skye's inclination towards the ditch on our return walk home. We consumed the rest of the carrot cake then too. Haven't really hung out with any of those peeps since so I might just have to pop on over to their places and say hi sometime soon.

The job front, as dismayed as I am to admit it, has been rather silent for this entire period of time I've been here, despite printing out and submitting a TON of resumes. This is part of the reason I felt like I didn't have much to share, because for the most part, nothing has been happening! However, on a whim Skye and I decided to head to the McDonald's in Bayers Lake today, and our timing must have been superb because not only did we meet a manager genuinely interested in both of us (Skye's looking to get some part-time work to go along with her present marketing awesomeness to rake in the dough), but we both scored interviews for tomorrow! That lifted my spirits significantly - after not hearing from ANYONE in the entire duration of being here, I was starting to get a bit worried. We speculated that it may have been because of my phone number (perhaps they have a prejudice against different area codes? 778 Victoria is pretty far from Nova Scotia/PEI's 902 digits), but that doesn't seem very likely... Well, Bayers Lake might be a bit of a commute, but if I'm making money it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Relating to the title of this blog entry, I've recently been obsessed with the game I mentioned earlier (the one Mat bought for my birthday), Xenoblade Chronicles. I wasn't too sure what to think of it at first, but I honestly love it now - it has a deeply engaging/interesting story, the environments are gorgeous, the amount of quests you can partake in seem endless and the music... wow. I have loved the soundtrack for months prior to ever playing the game, so it's been really fascinating and fun to hear where the tracks are actually used in the medium they were designed for. After using the soundtrack as a muse for writing Red Rogues, though, it almost feels a bit disjointed and weird to hear them where they were actually intended to be heard! The game itself is a traditional Japanese role-playing game with real-time battles where your characters will automatically use their basic attack and it's up to you to coordinate your other skills into battle to get the upper hand. That might not sound as engaging as it actually is, though - the boss battles in particular can get very stressful and heated! I've currently logged about 50 hours into the game - that's including the occasional random exploration to fill in the maps and completing some side quests here and there - and I'm still nowhere  near finishing it. At least it's a long adventure! Really grateful that Mat got it for me; was a really worthwhile investment, to be sure. :)

Also, the voice-acting is entirely British. Can't go wrong with that!

Not too bad for a Wii game, eh?

The other main 'pop culture' support that both Skye and I have been up to is that we actually went to the HMV in Mic Mac Mall a few days back and each bought an album. That almost never happens so it was worth noting; Skye got the 'Torches' CD by Foster the People and I got 'Ceremonials' by Florence and the Machine. In terms of sound they're both as different as you can get from each other but they both sound superb in the car and we're quite content with our purchases. I'm quite happy listening to either when I'm in the car; I think Skye prefers Foster the People (unsurprisingly) but doesn't mind Florence too much and says "She definitely sounds like something I would hear you listening to". I am a schutbag who likes the D I didn't actually know most of the songs on the album when I bought it - I don't usually go for impulse purchases, but I went for it this time and am very grateful I did!

The above song is Strangeness and Charm, and that is what she relatively sounds like for most of them (sans the mild pitch adjustment so that this could actually be loaded on Youtube). Strangely, this song isn't on my album, though it's advertised online that it is (?) - a bit of a bummer, but the rest of the songs more than make up for its absence.

Well, Skye and I are going on an impromptu adventure to Bedford because why not so we're heading off for now. Hope you're all doing well everyone!

Edit: This is my favourite song from the album so far (it's so powerful with surround sound!). I demand you all take a listen since you're already at the end of this blog post. Thank you. <3

Edit 2: Also, forgot to mention it, but Glee's back. It's under the category of "I'm not too sure why I watch this any more but it's sort of a guilty pleasure or something". It wasn't too bad, but I do think that the writers deliberately make choices with the direction of the show that are there to make you groan and smack your head in disbelief. Sure the Glee club won Nationals last season, but I highly doubt the victory would have gone THAT much into their heads after the summer holidays (nor would the other students actually care that much after going on their own adventures during vacation time) and become jerks to everyone else because of it. I know you're supposed to suspend your disbelief and that it moves the plot forward (or something) but... at least try to have a semblance of reality somewhere in there show. Well, I guess it's never been too realistic, bursting into song in the hallway and all. Wow, this is more than I was planning on writing about Glee, oops. Yeah, Glee's back. End topic.