Least you guys aren't actually out here. It has literally been non-stop firecrackers since Friday. Day and night. I even saw one kid tossing small firecrackers off of the e-bike he was riding into the street. But it has still been fun. I actually did more traditional things this year: cleaned the whole apartment, put red paper on the door for good luck (with D*sney characters on it, no less), got a red envelope from my boss, joined all of my coworkers for a traditional Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. Then New Year's Eve my boss and I were heading home an got treated to fireworks over West Lake. It was pretty, even with the snow on the ground. Finally around midnight it sounded like war broke out because every family who could get their hands on fireworks (lit. everyone) set them all off at the same time. A cacophony of epic proportions, and I saw 10 shows going on at the same time where I live. It's been great fun. The only downside is the entire country is completely closed down for the next four days for holiday. The Mouse gave all of us two full weeks off. My boss and I have been exploring the city's Bar Street the last couple of nights. Anyway, Gongxi Facai (the actual way to say it I've been told), may you make lots of money, wishing you health and prosperity in the New Year. Many believe that this year will be good because it follows the Dragon year.
Signed up, but no partner for now. /forever alone Thank goodness it's Chinese New Year and I get two weeks off to do this with.
Astounding.
I still collect Pokemon. I started collecting when I was 10, and I'm still collecting, mostly action figures and plush rather than cards like I used to since I don't play anymore (although I still pick up a pack every now and then) I collect dice too. Most of them are typical D&D dice (d4-d20), but I like finding some oddball ones here and there. I own two d30s, a d54, and a d100. I have two sets of d10s, one set has Rock-Paper-Scissors on them, the other has the numbers in French. And more recently when I visit a casino I try to get the "retired" dice for that casino (these have holes drilled through the middle). I have two sets from Vegas, the rest come from Atlantic City.
Zubat? If your shadow changes shape, chances are it's me.
Because Kaito's my favorite Vocaloid, Saxima made this gorgeous avatar, and I like to make sure av and sig match. Plus months ago was my last change, and that was Kuro themed if I remember right.
Y'know, I had never hard of Prezi before until this. Very snazzy and very well done. Loved reading those resolutions. I didn't submit one because I wasn't sure what to send in anyway. Also yay Wonderland is coming back! That was fun last year.
新年快乐! It's actually been 2013 for about 12 hours where I am now, hehe. I think I win this year. Also ACK. Still gotta finish CO.
There will hopefully be a part 2, but it looks like the earliest I'm going to get a chance to finish it and get it up here is New Year's Eve (managers have decided schedules are not set in stone ever and they can change them as they wish, so it's 3 back to back 12 hour shifts for me this weekend), so if I don't you have my sincerest apologies and I'll just have to figure out how to make it up to you somehow.
Saxim-a-a-a-a! <3 I almost choked on my coffee this morning, all of the Kaito avatars are too cute! Aww forget it, everything is too cute! If I could like that post more than once I'd spam you to death with likes, I love it all to bits! *changes avatar to SantaKaito before she forgets*
Nothing really, Christmas this year was quiet since the family is on the other side of the planet. I did give them a call over Skype yesterday and we were talking for well over an hour. That being said though, my secret Santa at the office gave me a cup of Skittles and a tube filled with small colored pencils that fit in my pocket so I can doodle anywhere I want to. On Monday our regional office brought us a turkey and two (yeah, two!) hams to slice up and share. Who says the Mouse doesn't know how to spoil us? I did my own Christmas shopping and got myself: a goldfish (actually got him a while ago, he's three weeks old now) two 3D puzzle models, one of a cruise liner and the other I'm going to go pick out today two pairs of fluffy winter socks a few volumes of manga (of course they are all in Chinese so I guess I'd better start practicing) hot water (needed to refill the meter) food (fridge was empty save for two Carlsbergs) I still want to get myself one more big gift, either some real jade jewelry or maybe I'll cave in and get a 3DS here. I want to do more research on both before I decide, though.
To the super amazing .:tale_wind, I give an avatar and sig. I apologize for them not being quite as spiffy as I would have liked, but hopefully you like them. There is a part two, and I hope to have that finished by the weekend. Time has not been kind this past week. Firstly, a Fire Emblem sig: Spoiler Secondly, a Princess Bride avatar: Spoiler Hope you enjoy them and stay tuned for part two!
Ah, it doesn't snow where I live in China, but it gets very cold and very dry here. Temps right now I think are 9C which is about 48 F. But it...
I think I'm just gonna squeak in this year, almost missed it. Name: Nashida Favorites: Doctor Who House CSI: Las Vegas (the Grissom era) Harry Potter Black Butler (any character, but Grell, Sebastian and Ronald Knox are my precious ones) Vocaloids, specifically Kaito (cantcha tell?) Pokemon (humans: Riley, N, James, Lorelei, Volkner and Flint or IgnitionShipping; Mons: Pikachu family, Eevee family, Vulpix, Ninetales, Growlithe, Arcanine) Big Bang Theory The Avengers
So-so. It's freezing here now, and while I got to talk to the folks back home again for a while I still miss 'em.
So...Christmas is coming. Normally I'd be happy about it, but I'm not. This year is the first time in my life I haven't been home for the holidays. Thanksgiving..eh. That came and went, and that was all right. I called my family early that morning, got to speak with my grandmother, and then went out that afternoon for a potluck with a few friends and had our own feast. Thanksgiving was never really that big of a holiday for me. But Christmas, that's a whole other story. Every year we follow the same pattern: get a tree, decorate it, roasted chestnuts almost every week, tease each other about what gifts we're getting for one another. Then, Christmas Eve we make this big pot of sauce, add in pork meatballs, Italian sausage, pork chops, and let it simmer in the crock pot all day until we get home from Christmas Eve mass with my grandmother. The next day, we do the presents, goof off, have fun, then visit relatives in the evening, which is always fun since we're such a big clan. But that's not happening this year. I don't get Christmas off here, for one thing. For another, things aren't the same. I'm way out here, and my uncle passed away back in the spring, and he was always at the center of our family gatherings, so all of us feel scattered. We wanted to exchange gifts but they wouldn't arrive in time and postage could cost almost three times as much as the gifts (prime example; Mom had to mail me a new debit card after my current one got compromised somehow, and it cost her $60 to send it over, still in it's mailer, sealed in a bubble envelope). She still either wants to send me something and just eat the cost, or send me money to go to Hong Kong (which I've talked her out of doing). I told her we'll just make up for it when I go back to the states next year but it won't be the same. My coworkers want to do a secret santa, and there's talk amongst the circle we had at Thanksgiving about doing one, but I know that's not the same either. I guess I'm having a hard time finding holiday cheer when the things and people that make this time of year so special are a 14-hour flight away.
Like Misty said, not a lot of places will hire anyone younger than 16, and at least in my state to work at 15 you need a worker's permit, and if I remember it was very restricting when it came to how many hours you could work. How are you with kids? Have you tried babysitting? If you don't feel comfortable with the really little ones you could mention that in your ad, but sometimes there are plenty of parents out there who want someone to help their school-age kids with homework or just being there on those busy school nights when they can't. I babysat for a neighbor for a year and half, who had a 4-year old and an 8-year old, and we did just fine. I had two "fixed-days" that I worked each week, and I was "on-call" often. She paid me equal to minimum wage, sometimes a little extra if the parents were heading out somewhere and wouldn't be back until late. I've also shoveled driveways in the winter, raked lawns, even worked as an umpire in the spring for $10 a baseball game for the town's little league. Best place to check those sorts of things is maybe the town hall or some other local place that gets a lot of traffic (my town often posts notes in the supermarket). People will put up flyers there all the time; go there maybe once or twice a week, scout the flyers, make some calls.
I speak English fluently as it was my first language, and Spanish is a close second having studied it for almost 10 years (and earned a BA in it as well). Now, due to me relocating to the land of rice, I've been attempting to learn Mandarin. It's easy and hard at the same time. But quite often I find myself mixing both Spanish and Mandarin together because I won't know what word I need in Chinese but I know the Spanish word for it. That has gotten some..confused looks.
Kind of sort of. I have a VPN (Freegate) so I can access blocked sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube over here, as well as sites that aren't available here (like Netflix, so I can catch up on Doctor Who and stuff). But since the 18th National Congress started here, security has been tight, and I have not been able to get it to work for almost a month. I did upgrade it today but it still won't connect. And it's one of the better free ones, lord knows I wasn't going to pay for one that would still be taken down like this one seems to have. But otherwise I'm not using it right now, simply because it is not working.
I gave that link a peek, and the network I connect to through my dongle already is set as my home network. Did a full virus scan, turned up clean. And this morning, even though I had just turned the computer on instead of putting it to sleep like I had been, it still wouldn't load deviantART. But once again, every other site loads for me (except Facebook, but that's blocked over here without a VPN, which I'm still in the process of upgrading). And no, I didn't need the VPN to get onto deviantART before. ETA: I had to do a restart of my computer after something updated, and it still won't load the website. Now it's gone from a mild annoyance to a bit of a major one. ETA 2: After a second restart I was able to access DA. So that's the initial boot, plus two more restarts. I think I'll run another full scan and see what, if anything, turns up, but I'm still miffed and stumped.
