I always say I'm going to go to sleep, and nope. Something always keeps me up until nearly or after 2am. It never fails.

3,449 words written today (so I'm slightly more than a day ahead--for having the inklings of a piss-poor plot, not bad!), and I just finished my day by drawing two AWESOME pictures of Ronyo and Iriador that I can't wait to scan in. I'm totally turning this into a series of drawings. I'm purposely drawing them large enough to take up the majority of the 9x12 page. I drew Ronyo first and was like, "I wanna draw Iri, too." And I did. And Iri looks fantastic. Ronyo looks really good, too, but the outcome of Iri's sketch just makes me happy. The only thing I'm iffy on are the wings on his tunic, but that's minor. I think I'll include these sketches in my next e-mail to Rosemary, too. I haven't e-mailed her in a while, and she said she wanted me to send her artwork when I got the chance. She wants to make sure I continue to draw, and I kind of promised I was going to draw at least once a day. I've been fairly good about keeping that promise, if you count doodles waiting for class to start. XD

The only downside to today was the religion test from hell. Everything else was excellent.

Tomorrow, three classes (no Career Planning! Although I have to go to the CP office to do an assignment that was due like two weeks ago... it got separated from the rest of my papers. I had a nagging feeling I was missing an assignment. Darwin didn't notice that I hadn't turned it in, though--he sent everyone e-mails about their status in the class, and he said I wasn't missing anything. I'll do it and hand it in to him next week, or earlier if I see him.), and then Heather and I go on a Weis run, then AWoL. Also need to remember to see if I can get a tripod from TLT to use for my camera. We're going to be filming for religion class, and I need stuff by Thursday. My camera does video, so at least there's that, but a tripod would definitely help, as I don't have the steadiest hands when it comes to filming.

Watching Hetalia with the OCC was fun. I'm totally bringing my DVDs back with me when I go home for Thanksgiving break. Honestly, the Japanese version's great, but I have so much more love for the dub. The jokes are a lot funnier. FUNimation did a hell of a job.

I have not played Layton in a couple days. This needs to be remedied. Maybe I'll show it to Heather tomorrow.

This weekend: Saw HP and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, loved it. Then got stuck on the highway in the torrential downpour because Dad drove through a ridiculously-deep puddle and lost his power steering. (The belt snapped.) Ended up waiting in the car for two hours for Mom and the tow truck to come; thankfully they both came at the same time. Watched Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (thank you, Philips, for making crackable DVD players). Good movie, by the way. Craig liked it. Didn't get to do the college shopping I'd hoped to because of said car issues, but still ended up spending money. -_-;

Filled out the application for the 599 training program, and I'll fax it in tomorrow. I'm waiting for Judy (that idiot) to call me back and give me every reason why I don't qualify. If I get a notice in the mail over the next couple of weeks that says I should have all the ease in the world finding a secretarial job, I will curse her to death. She said that last time. I tried to explain to her that it'd be pretty much impossible for me to find a job as a secretary while in school because of my hours, but she didn't want to hear it. She also pauses a lot while she's on the phone with me, which makes me think she's got a cheat sheet that she keeps looking at to deter me from pressing the matter. You know how sales people call up and have that sheet that tells them what to say when you decline their offers? Yeah. It could be that she's just not sure how to put things (she's Asian--I'd say Chinese), but I suspect that's not it.

Hopefully I get approved, because I'd like the ability to pay my tuition for the year and possibly put a small dent into my credit card bill. If not, things will be interesting. I don't know if the state contacts the school I'll be attending. That might be another problem, because at this point Juniata has me graduating in 2014. The way things were transferred in, I have 45 credits currently and it'll take me at least until 12/2013 to get the 120 credits (if I take 15 credits a semester, which is what they recommend). That's over 24 months. I'm going to try my best to take more than the 15 credits they suggest to make up for it, but someone said the max you can take is 17, so I'm not sure what good it'll do.

I'm going to go to the chairs of the art department, communications department, and possibly the English department, to see if I can get credit for four of the classes I transferred in. I still think I should get out of two of the art history classes because I've already covered all the material in them. If I get out of College Writing Seminar (which I need to e-mail my advisor about to see if she's heard anything), that'll be 4 credits, plus possibly 6 for the art history courses, and I'm going to try for 3 in communications and 3 in English. I'll still only have 45 credits, but the distribution of courses will be better for me if I can get everything I want, and racking up classes will be easier. Part of the reason it's going to take so long currently is because I'm lacking in quite a few of the distribution requirements. (Part of the reason I wanted to go to Smith: NO distribution requirements. One thing I don't like about Juniata is that their requirements are kind of crazy, although I'm sure it makes for a very well-rounded student.) If I get everything I want, CWS's requirement will be done, I'll have a CS course, Humanities will be complete with credit for in-depth study (3 of the 5 distributions need either a level-300 course or one with a prerequisite), and two art history classes out of three will be done.

I have half a mind to just skip the unemployment thing, keep claiming 'til the end of the month, and let it go. I really don't feel like dealing with Judy again. I'm already expecting a very annoying, pull-my-hair-out phone call from her soon after I fax this application in, but I'm going to try to be positive about it. I'm sure she'll bring up the fact that I changed my occupational goal. I'm not changing my major to make her happy. What, so I can get knocked down to WORSE than upper-sophomore level and she can tell me it'll take me four years to get out? Yeah, okay. Anything to keep me from qualifying. First it was my work hours and that I couldn't find a job as a secretary because of them. Now it's the major. It was never the major before. You'd think she would've caught that back in January/February.

Good things: HP, the Nook Dad bought me came, and... something else. I don't know. I'm tired.

Also, when we got home and I was talking with Craig, a mouse practically screamed out of Mom's room and ran to the living room, because it had free reign all weekend. I shudder to think what's going to happen in my room when I'm not here. I might tell Craig to just kind of live in here every once in a while to keep any mice thinking someone's still here.

If I can drag myself out tomorrow, I might go visit Dona, Maureen, and Rani at work, and anyone else that happens to be there... but definitely them. If not tomorrow, Thursday.

Me: *taps New York level 6*
Game: You are now entering the Retro Zone. There is nothing to win.
Me: What?
Game: *loads a blue screen with weird pixelated graphics*
Me: *dies immediately because everything looks foreign* ... What?
Game: You are now leaving the Retro Zone. We may never meet again...
Me: ... What?

Oh, Arkedo, you crazy guys.

So yeah, apparently the odds for getting the Retro Zone are 1:250! I fear I'll never see it again. (Although someone on a thread said it came up four times at a press event, so random chance is random.) I haven't played BBM in a while and was playing because I fell asleep early and have been having trouble getting BACK to sleep, and I got that. The game's all, "Thank you for picking me up again! Here's a treat. Enjoy! :D" And I blew it because I'm tired and didn't think that maybe that red flashing thing coming at me wasn't a star. -_-;;;

... I'm tempted to play through Super Pancakes again. I got myself under 200 moves this time. (197. XDD;;;) I am determined to get it in at most 150 moves. Now that I've done it, though, I like replaying it. I think it's the most enjoyable puzzle in the game, ha.

Right, it's 1am, so I'm going to try to sleep again.

BLOW me, Peg Solitaire. >_< I should've known what I was in for when it said it was a 99-picarat puzzle. One of these days I'm going to solve that thing. The annoying thing is, I have a physical form of the game (an impulse $5 purchase at the Toys R Us in Times Square back when I was still working at Tax), and I have beaten it before. More than once. I used to bring it to the IRS office with me sometimes, especially during the time when I didn't have my laptop.

One of the hints said I can get the balls into a formation that I already solved in an earlier challenge (seriously, I've done five of these things, and the fifth one took forever, too), and I think I know which one, but every attempt to get it into that formation ends up not quite right, and I keep going anyway. The lowest I've gotten it is two balls. (Ha.) The last time I almost managed to end with one ball, I ended up with two in opposite corners of the top of the cross. And I knew I would because I pieced everything out before I finally made the moves, and made them anyway and restarted. Maybe it's not that formation...

One day I'll get it. -_-;

Frustrates the hell out of me, and I keep coming back. Professor Layton = exercise in masochism, I swear. XD;; It's the best feeling in the world, though, when you're stuck and then it all clicks. I've been doing a lot of fist-pumping since we got back home yesterday.

In other news, flip-flopping back and forth about the $249 from the loan is COMING TO AN END TODAY. I'm keeping it. I'll hopefully hold on to it until Spring II, when I will use it for that session's tuition. Or I'll use a piece of it for the books I'll have to buy for English 102. Originally, because I now have class Tuesday and Thursday this week, I was going to use Wednesday (since I'm supposed to leave at noon on Wednesdays anyway) to go down to the school and wrestle with them over the money, but instead, I'm going to use that time to get my hair done, because it needs it, and this'll be the last time I have the opportunity to go in the very early afternoon. I'll likely tell the boss I have class three times this week instead of two or something because classes were canceled last week.

I'm going to really miss not being able to leave at noon two times a week. Sure, I'll get one day off a week, but it'll be spent in school pretty much the whole day.

RIGHT. More puzzles. Not "Disappearing Act", though. I'll take a break from that one. ^^;;

Preordered this because I'm a damn geek. XD;; I've thrown myself into another Professor Layton kick, and I'm sadly without my games this weekend. I was looking for Diabolical Box, but I recently made an attempt (ha) to clean my room, and I tend to misplace things when I clean. And I thought I lent Curious Village to Dad, but he says he doesn't have it, so it's probably in my room somewhere, out of its case. Probably buried under stuff on my computer desk. -_- I want my puzzles!

Have to go help a neighbor with her printer, sigh. But then we go out. (Good thing the $60 for the figure won't go out until March, haha.) And I have Layton soundtracks, so it's all good.