So, as it looks like I may be moving out to East Van, I'm seriously considering a vehicle of some variety. The two major options on the table are buying a car, as I can't legally import my current one, or getting a motorcycle license and buying a motorcycle. As I am a compulsive list maker, here's the break-down for the two options:

	Car	Motorcycle
Upfront Cost	Approximately the same (~$2000). Varies slightly depending on what car/motorcycle I buy, but used prices are comparable
Parking On Campus	$84 for one parkade	$20 for all parkades + special motorcycle spaces
Parking Elsewhere	Pain in the ass (parallel parking)	Slightly less of a PITA
Insurance Costs	? (less for motorcycle, though, but ICBC doesn't give quotes without a vehicle)
MPG ($4/gallon)	20 mpg	40 mpg
Passengers	3-4	1
Stuff Carried	Furniture	A weekend camping
Coolness Factor	This piece of shit is supposed to have style?	Badass

Any input? I know most of the people here are car owners, but I'm open to all opinions.

Also, my touchpad and trackpoint are acting up - neither left-click button works, and the right-click seems to keep pulling in left-click functionality. Cheapo USB mouse is fine though. Weird.

A long shot, but do any of my friends here know anybody looking for housing in Vancouver September first? I'm trying to find a roommate for a rather nice two bed/two bath out in East Van with little luck so far, and I'm not sure I want to turn to Craigslist quite yet.

Mp3 player fixed - I managed to stumble across the buttons to get it to boot in safe mode, formatted the harddrive, wiped the OS, and then installed a clean copy of the firmware and retransferred all my music. So I am in business, music-wise.

Just a quick heads-up, though, that I won't be at AE - I didn't ask for it off soon enough and am on for Saturday and Sunday. I may go for Friday to buy shit, say hi to people, reclaim my memory card, and maybe cosplay Leon, but that's about it.

And now I am off to watch the Pride parade downtown before going to work, which should be utterly fabulous.

Trying to find somewhere to live for September is making me want to kill people. And then possibly take their house. The rental market out here is kind of shit, particularly if you're looking for a one bedroom. And all my friends (and friends of friends, too) are living on-campus or with their parents, and I don't want a repeat of my current roommate situation, so I have no one to share with.

Blargh.

Six am = a time man was not meant to see. But I'm registered for my core classes, and one of my electives. I need to talk the Religious Studies department into letting me take that class, or webstalk Japanese or something, and then pick one last elective for second term, but I pulled decent times for most of my core courses - nothing before nine-thirty, and at the moment, nothing past three-thirty - which is excellent.

And now, off to work =.=

Filling my free time with work and games and friends, and less so with internet lately. Which means I have a great many things I'd like to post about, and not enough time to post it in, so a lot of stuff will probably just get left by the wayside. Yana's birthday was last Monday, and we had a bit of a party - some drinks, lots of food (bought too much, actually, but with gamers, erring on the side of caution is best), Wii games. Good times. Speaking of Wii games, RE4 for the Wii is pretty sweet - little bit weird getting used to the controls, but really nice when you finally do. Jon bought it Saturday along with some new clothes, and I got socks without holes in them and a USB mouse, which I'm using right now (finally, I can play Halflife!). DnD campaign continues to be short-bus special - our prissy female elven wizard managed to get killed by giant rats and reincarnated into a male dwarf.

There's a bunch of photos from Yana's b-day posted on Facebook - may put some up here, although not sure yet. But one photo for the moment, because the last one I posted of Jon was crappy - better one!

Thinking of doing a flist cut because it's getting out of control again, but I'm afraid of stepping on toes. Will see.

I have apparently aquired a hopping social life recently. This perplexes, but does not displease me. So in the last week, I saw Ocean's Thirteen (which prompted a '...Why can't our plans go off that well in Shadowrun?' 'Because we're broke. And playing against Nick' conversation), baked a very chocolately cake, stayed up until 4am playing Mario Party 8, and got talked into joining a fourth campaign - I'm re-writing Anya for it, as she got basically no play time in RR.

Shadowrun had a bit of amusement last week, too, as alluded to in the subject line. Our idiot mage has a spell that can shapechange people into animals. Unfortunately, clothes don't transform, so when you change back, you're totally naked. In Lucia's case, this was in the middle of a mall parking lot. With nothing to show for it, because we were trying to do surveillance for our next run, but the mage is too stupid to work an RFID camera remotely. It was full of epic fail and much hilarity for the players.

Also, Yana's bedroom keeps being invaded by squirrels in the middle of the night. I told her she should start training them and form a squirrel army.

Wow, haven't posted in a while - life has been busy, and I still have no internet at home. Summer classes are over, although I don't know what my marks are yet - currently terrified I failed orgo, which is a distinct possibility because the final was what makes or breaks the grade, and I don't have the mark back yet. 77% in the lab, which is...well, not amazing, but not terrible either. I got rather trashed Friday night on coolers and a bunch of Jello shots, and ended up being very sick soon after, which was not my most glamorous moment. But Rayman for the Wii is lots of fun, and I had a great time up until the point where I got very sick, so in the end it was alright. And lastly, our D&D party looks to be short bus-special (I'm the halfling rogue. And the tank), and proving I have no sense of self-preservation, accepted a ride to work from a rich young woman in a black SUV who saw me running to the bus stop only to be ten seconds too late.

...I live a strange and sometimes wonderful life.

And a brief game story that I think people will still find funny even if they weren't there: Shadowrun has a contacts system for people the characters who have established relationships with, business or otherwise. Nick, Almighty GM 1, plays all the contacts and other NPCs, and is very good about giving them distinct personalities. Shiver, who hits on anything female, has a contact who's a stripper named Josie. He calls her for a favor, and much flirting ensues. Which leads to me and and Aaron trying not start laughing hysterically because it's not actually a hot female striper and a good-looking guy having this conversation, it's two nerdy 20-something guys.

Was going out clubbing after working an eight and a half hour closing shift a good idea? Maybe not. Was is hella fun? Yes.

Last night was Malfunction's Prom event, which means there were decorations, lots of people in fancy clothes, and ridiculously good music - I dressed up and went stag, spent most of the three and a half hours I was there dancing. I didn't bring a camera, but a lot of other people did, so if there are photos uploaded, I'll try and link 'em. The only downpoint was having to flag a taxi at 4am after waiting fourty-five minutes only to realize that the nightbus had probably stopped running. Argh.

I have a day off today, which thus far has mostly been spent sleeping in and futzing around on the internet. I finished DDS1, have very little to say about the ending other than it's totally 'Haha, now you suckers have to buy the second game' (thus _why_ I have little to say), and Angel looks like a bitchy gay man to me. I think it's the combination of the hair and the jacket. Will probably start DDS2 tonight, as it's that or chem studying. Hopefully going to get a cell phone tomorrow, although Canadian rate plans

I was hoping that the people doing evaluations for fall academic standing wouldn't look at my stuff too closely - if they only counted the credits I earned here, I should have first year standing, and if they looked at both here and transfer, by number, I should have third-year standing. Both of which have way less shitty registration dates than second-year standing (bottom of the barrel, pretty much). But no. Second year standing, which means I'm only above the other second years who did worse than me. Which means if I want to take Japanese, I'm going to have to either go and cry on someone's desk, or turn on the hardcore BSing and convince them that I'm 1) going to double major in Arts, and 2) really need Japanese for this. For this second option, I'm going to enlist Chris's help, as he has mastered the Arts talent of total BS. At least I won't be diving for the few seats in orgo lab.

In good news, I think I may actually do alright on this Friday's chem midterm. Andrea and I got some impromptu tutoring from one of the older gamers who's an orgo grad student (I think? Maybe 4th year) for about four hours last night - I think he was ashamed to be associated with people doing so badly in orgo. And then one of the other older gamers gave us a ride home because it was after midnight at this point >.> So I'm working on problem sets right now while Andrea naps - I had a can of Rockstar earlier, and bought another one for three hours from now when Shadowrun starts, so I'm pretty awake.