National Blog Posting Month is over! Whew, that was quite the battle! It was definitely hard to come up with something interesting every single day in November. My 30-day whittling plan was met by the unfortunate bloody thumb incident, the PlayStation 3 launch, the Wii Launch, and Thanksgiving. Here’s a brief summary of the more interesting happenings I talked about this whole month:

-Best Buy Black Friday Story: So I became the tech-gadget community’s darling for 15 minutes with my Best Buy story thanks to 1UP and Digg. It’s surreal, and the response was pretty overwhelming. I was just disappointed that the notorious Cutter Girl didn’t start a fight, because I would’ve *brought it*.

-My Hatred for Hipster T-shirts: It sparked a whole thread discussion about garlic.

-Observations of Eastern and Western “Children Games”: Hey, I like cute games. Do you have a problem with that? Maybe I should transfer you to my brass knuckle for more customer service.

-I Ate Corn Pops with Water: ….and it was gross.

-My Cute Monster: a mini-story.

And here are some recaps of my whittles I did earlier in the month:

Thanks to Fussy for setting the hectic NaBloPoMo festivities, and thanks to all the readers, old and new!

Q: Who was the head knight of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table?

A: Sir Cumfrence.

Bbwwaaahahahahahhaaa-ing in real life right now. I cannot even begin fathom my weird inherent love for mathematics. Man, it still gets me after all these years. Hah!

Eff yeah.

Speaking of roses, I spent two hours at Border’s today, reading wedding resource books and art reference books to harvest some rad ideas for my wedding invitations. Being crafty (in the artsy way, not the Beastie Boys way) and all, people are expecting the invitations to be so glorious that preons will explode out of brains and leak through ear canals.

But good lord…everything I saw was so lame. Pink ribbons, lace, translucent paper, dried flowers, cursive swirly-ass writing….they’re all just so trite and antiquated to me. I was just disappointed that we live in the year 2006 and these books are still showing wedding paraphenelia from the days of yore. Book after book, invitations I saw were either uber froufy or just hair-pullingly boring. C’mon people! We’re in the age where kids have Google and WIkipedia to answer their questions! Where there are TV shows about other TV shows on the same network! Where people spend more than $600.00 on a useless toy just to say they have it! We are modern! We are forward! We’re becoming the second wave of Silicon Valley darlings! Is it that hard to be creative on something like an invitation?

Le sigh. I’m starting to sound like some scout who’s trying to recruit new henchmen or something. Maybe I should just say “screw this crap” and just get this and only this for the wedding:

Wow, this is the second videogame wedding/groom’s cake on my blog. But if were my cake, it wouldn’t be the arcade version because veryone knows the NES version of Galaga is far more superior.

The whole Black Friday Best Buy thing became bigger than I thought. Was it worth it? Was it worth Digg commentors branding me as a racist, rude, unacceptable, fat, bitchy person? Was it worth waiting outside the Best Buy store at 2AM in the shivering cold? Was it worth out-scheming the cunning line-cutters, and most of all, Cutter Girl?

I look back at things and think, “Gee, how much did I save and did I really *need* a digital SLR?”

I saved $200.00. It’s only a mere dollop in the scheme of American Holiday Shopping Craziness. But do I really need such a high-end camera?

Then I look at this picture and realize that everything was worth it:

My goodness.  And this is without color correction!  Ruby-fucking-tastic.

Carnivorous Creations is this DIY mini-bog where you can grow over 10 varieties of carnivorous plants (via Digg).  I don’t know about you, but screw Zales, Kay or any other shittastic mall jewelry store–this is the way to get into a geek girl’s heart.  Especially when her apartment has a lot of mini-moths.  Realistically, the bog probably takes a long time and a lot of maintenance for all the teethy plants to grow successfully.  But really, I just enjoy the whole concept of it: “Here sweetie, I love you, Merry Christmas, go ahead, be a ruthless insect-killer with your own army of fleshy relentless photosynthesizing murderous plant-borgs.”

While everyone is knee deep in the mire of Gears of War, I technically “finished” Viva Pinata today.  Even though I maxed out on the level cap, I still have a whole bunch of achievement points and tons of pinatas I haven’t tamed yet.  This is probably the worst games for OCD gamers with a penchant for collecting and unlocking every available doodad.

I reposted my Best Buy story on my 1UP blog and people went bonkers. It was even on Digg’s front page for a little while. Though the majority of my 1UP blog comments were positive, I was disheartened by the fact that the Digg comments were not only negative, but rather nasty. Apparently, I am a racist, I can’t spell, I’m fat, and I’m the new Michael Richards (the racist Richards, not the Stanley Spedowski Richards). Is Digg the web 2.0 version of forums now with the dramatic influx of trolls? I remember using Digg back in the day when it was virtually unknown. Now Digg has become an unstoppable force ever since it slipped into the mainstream, casual techie crowd. At the Revision 3 party a while ago, tech-girls were following and fawning over Kevin Rose as if he was Justin Timberlake. Tech-celebrity-worshipping is very surreal.

Anyways, I’m a little bummed that people are calling me a racist because I refered to myself and immigrant Asians as “FOBs” but oh well, it’s the internetz.

So I just got back from the Black Friday event at the San Francisco Best Buy. We were in line by 2:00AM. By “line”, I really mean a chaotic goop of 300+ young Asian FOB people (including me, technically) with some white people sprinkled into the mix. But because the ethnic majority there have little or no grasp of English, the line situation was utterly insane.

People were lining up on the wrong sides, clearly missing the “LINE STARTS HERE” sign in bright red 5000pt font. Chaos ensued between the Team Wrong Line and Team Right Line.

People were crowding at wrong spots, ignoring the army of blue-polo-clad Best Buy employees’ directions. The Best Buy employee called the stand-by cops and started kicking people out of the line. Chaos ensued between Team Employees and Team Asinine Liners.

Towards 5:30AM, the line situation was pretty much under control. There were cutters but they were quickly escorted off of the premise.

The whole time I was there, there was this one acne-ridden, super FOB Chinese chick who was pissing me off. She not only lined up at the wrong line, but tried to cut infront of me in the right line. She got kicked out of the line, but shamelessly moved with the line and attempted to cut again. As we were being let into the store, I finally yelled at her “YOU ALREADY GOT KICKED OUT OF THE LINE SO STOP TRYING TO GET BACK IN.”

Strangely enough, she got into the store. I only know this because SHE TRIED TO CUT INFRONT OF ME AGAIN in the digital camera purchase line. The nerves! A Best Buy employee had to tell her to follow the curve of the line. She either ignored the guy or really didn’t understand English. She would not budge, and anchored herself right infront of me. I finally snapped and yelled at her (and made sure that everyone and the employees could hear).

ME: CAN YOU PLEASE STOP CUTTING! YOU ALREADY CUT YOUR WAY INTO THE STORE AND NOW YOU’RE CUTTING IN THIS LINE TOO? FOLLOW THE RULES.

CUTTER GIRL: You stand and I not see. I no cut! I was waiting before you!

ME: THEN YOU SHOULD’VE READ INSTRUCTIONS AND LISTENED TO THE STORE’S DIRECTIONS. THE COPS ALREADY KICKED YOU OUT, I CAN GET THEM TO KICK YOU OUT OF THE STORE.

CUTTER GIRL: Fine, fine, I’ll be behind you in line then.

ME: It’s not like you’re doing me a favor, you should be after me.

*silence*

*CUTTER GIRL picks up cellphone, calls her friend*

CUTTER GIRL [In Mandarin]: Where are you? Are you getting the computer? I’m in the camera line, and you can’t believe this woman infront of me. She was yelling at me because I was cutting! Who does she think is?

ME [In Mandarin]: Don’t think I don’t understand Mandarin, I can understand everything you’re saying.

CUTTER GIRL [In Mandarin]: WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME? I’M JUST CUTTING!

ME [In Mandarin]: YOU AREN’T SUPPOSE TO CUT, IS SOMETHING WRONG IN YOUR HEAD?

CUTTER GIRL [In Cantonese]: You’re a crazy btich.

ME [In Mandarin]: I CAN UNDERSTAND CANTONESE AS WELL, BITCH.

*She looked surprised but immediately switched back to her sordid emotional state*

CUTTER GIRL [In Cantonese]: THEN WHY AREN’T YOU FUCKING SPEAKING IN CANTONESE? I DON’T BELIEVE YOU, YOU ARE JUST A CRAZY ASSHOLE.

ME [In Mandarin]: YOU WANT ME, THE CRAZY ASSHOLE, TO SAY SOMETHING IN CANTONESE?

CUTTER GIRL [In Cantonese]: I BET YOU CAN’T, FUCKER!

ME [In Cantonese]: YOUR MOM CAN GO FUCK HERSELF. Happy?

Then I smiled. Her jaw dropped….as if she was wondering how this non-Chinese-looking Chinese person with perfect English can speak both perfect Mandarin and perfect Cantonese?

Between you and me, “Your mom can go fuck herself” is the only thing I can actually pronounce correctly in Cantonese. I can understand some Cantonese, but I really just lucked out.

The discounted Cannon Rebel XTI Digital SLR I got was really just a consolation prize. The real victory and reward was my encounter with Cutter Girl.

It’s okay that I’ve endured another tumultuous work day. I’m still alive. Barely, but still alive.

So how great was it to come back home to PJ and the fantastic roast he was going to cook for dinner tonight? Er, great but his efforts were overshadowed by this:

Oh hooray. The shower animal in the bathroom has its claw decapitated. And like a faulty race horse, this animal should be shot. The good news is, no one was physically using the tub when this happened. PJ actually fell and knocked his head on the wall a couple years ago when 2 of the claws came off. Here I am trying to shoot lasers out from my eyes to put the animal out of misery:

I am super not amused.  This also means I’ll be seeing a lot of old, wrinkly boobies at the local gym’s shower.

November’s work load.

I had a strange day at work. Battling egos, tedious tasks, and never-ending deadlines. These past weeks have been pretty rough on me, and I’m still too stubborn to trade in my personal fun time for staying late at work. So I end up staying late at work, staying late doing my own fun things, and sacrificing sleep. I got a little upset today when I saw some of my coworkers at a bar tonight while I was going to get some dinner to bring back to my desk. So I know I shouldn’t be pissed off, but how come all these people get to go out and I still have to cower at my desk clicking away?

Anyways, I was telling a friend that it’s sometimes hard to be a chick in the corporate world, because, well, we cry. Not because we want to or we plan to, crying just happens. Despite my tough cookie exterior, I cry really easily. And it’s difficult to not cry when shit goes down at work, let alone in an office full of gamer dudes. Sure, I can constantly sprint those short steps to the bathroom door again and again, but instead of crying, my coworkers would suspect that I’m suffering a gnarly urinary tract infection.

The OPM team sent the last issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine to the printer today. RIP.

This week’s posts will all be Thanksgiving-related. Vomitously endearing blog alert this whole week!

- the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii launches

-40 pounds of fat

-asthma

-debt

-chunky, platform, black, round-toe shoes a la Clueless or Hot Topic

-homework

-toxic girl friends

-Manic Panic Shocking Blue dyed hair back during my “badass” highschool days (It was even worse when it washed out and my dried up processed hair looked like marijuana buds.)

-wearing a sports bra underneath a normal bra when I was younger because I was ashamed of having large boobs

-Taiwanese taxi drivers who always asked me how much my international private school tuition really was

-witnessing and taking care of my grandmother’s failing body

- “Inside Schwartz”

-that guy who wouldn’t shut up about the Dallas Cowboys and perpetually talked super racist shit on Burnout Live last night… (I tagged him as “Player to Avoid” so hopefully, he will not surface ever again in my life.)