inquiry and bloodlust

FFXIII-2 is fucking fantastic. The plot is good, the gameplay is good, and Hope! I loved him in the first game; he's been my PS3 background since I unlocked that theme. It's really great to see him ten years later, all grown up and hot successful. Seeing Serah come into her own was great as well, and I can't help but love Noel. The ending left me a bit stunned and annoyed, but I'll probably be first in line to buy XIII-3, so good job, Square, I guess. Oh, and I love the rambunctious chocobos. Not only are they awesome and pretty, their music is BADASS. And hilarious. Pretty much the greatest song ever.

In other news, I totally ship Noel/Hope. Started out because they're both so lovely, but now I have legit ship reasoning. Sigh.

In other other news, I've been oddly productive today. Working on plush for ontdcreepy's Spring Crawl, cleaning the kitchen, unpacking the most gorgeous doll ever, finishing my art for originalbigbang's Reverse Bang... help me keep this going?

Stolen from anglepoiselamp:
1) Name a fandom. Or two. Or ten. However many you want!
2) I'll draw a picture of my favorite character from said fandom.

Ready? Go!

Edit(11:45pm): I'll start this thing off with some fandoms Jaime suggested: ( Mythbusters, Persona 4, Community )
( Edit(3/4): Have some Glee and FFXIII-2! )

I've gotten a lot of nice things lately - a remembrat, a dragon, craft books, even some dresses - but none can really compare to what I got for Jaime's and my anniversary: a Disneyworld trip INCLUDING the very best meal of my life™. ( Inside: a rundown and a metric fuckton of pictures. I resized them so they're not monstrous, but they are still numerous, so be forewarned. Oh, and there are loads of cute animals in here, too! )

Went to see Beauty and the Beast (and Tangled Ever After) last night and had an epically good time. I also had the revelation that I am a sucker for couples who dance.

I may not have gotten around to sending them out individually, but I did get all the holiday cards done! Happy holidays!
( For hysterichotel )
( For carolinecrane )
( For jengeorge )
( For eidolon_nine )
( For fandom_stocking )

Oh goodness. Too much drama, both online and off. Let's focus on the good instead!

( Fun Things I've Done Lately by Alex Smith, age 27 )

Side note: I'm looking to a) draw a Glee/Star Wars poster and b) make some humanoid plushes. I'm already working on Squall, Rinoa, Souji, and Yosuke, but any other suggestions for people to plush would be awesome. As far as item a goes, what do you guys think would be the best poster to parody? It's gotta have Luke, Han, and Leia, of course, and ideally I'd like to get Chewie and Obi Wan in there as well. Thoughts/links?

carolinecrane owns my soul. She wrote the best fic in the history of ever. Seriously. "Like a Chord on a Harp". And then jengeorge did a sequel, "Your Time Here is Fleeting", which is also great, so I guess she owns a bit of my soul as well. I gotta get more soul to give. They deserve it.

Other awesome things I've encountered lately:
- Nick and Jess tapping
- The Disney Princess Designer Collection
- The most badass drum solo you've ever seen
- Crocheted minions!

My mom brought that last item to my attention and requested some, so I'm planning on tackling those after I finish the crafts I currently have underway. Namely, a [ITEM REDACTED SO MY MOM WON'T KNOW HER XMAS GIFT] and a felt plush version of my Dimetrodon.

For now? Gold rush research to do for fic. Then sleep. Maybe. Maybe.

Coding today led me to discover cumtrapz. Teehee.

And on that note, hey! I did some drawings! Behind the cut are Catherine (spoilery!), Glee, Tangled, and Adventure Time. And a couple are NSFW. ( Ribbons and not much else. )

This week's headlines in the world of Alex: Pixar proves it can do worse than Cars 2, San Francisco comes up with the second stupidest idea ever, Capcom comes up with THE stupidest idea ever, Michele Bachmann makes me laugh, and Johnny Knoxville makes me cry.

Continuing from that last point, I noticed ( something eerie in Jackass 2.5 ). To counter that and cheer us up a bit, let's have ( a variety of random pictures I've taken semi-recently ).

Oh, and this is my new ringtone. It makes me ridiculously happy. Of course, my previous one was also too cool for me, so. Good stuff.

- ( Carousel )
- ( Teacups )
- ( Cuttlefish )
- ( Socks )
- ( Me )
I go asleep now.

Back from Disneyworld! Jaime and I were at the very lovely Beach Club for three days to celebrate 2 years of remission and 7 years of awesome togetherness. It was a blast. We hit up Epcot in the morning of the first day - for the record, there's a coffee stand near Test Track that has great apple fritters. I picked up a Duffy on the way to World Showcase. He doesn't have any outfits yet; I'm thinking baseball uniform to start with. Next time. Despite my moral reservations, I tried veal while having lunch in Italy, and damnit, it was delicious. I still can't approve of purchasing it for home consumption, but on special occasions, I suppose I can let the gruesome-factor slide. We then spent our afternoon cavorting about the Florida Mall (where I scored some scarves and jewelry from H&M as well as a veritable motherlode of Lush goodies) before heading to the House of Blues for dinner and mother-pluckin' Jimmy Eat World, y'all!

Okay, so I really really love Jimmy Eat World. This was my third time seeing them in concert and they just get better and better. Seriously, check this stuff out. Mind-blowing, yeah? Oh, and by the way, the bespectacled gentleman whose scantily haired but exquisitely cheekboned head you can see from 0:12-0:14 in this video would be Jaime. My short self was on the other side of him. I screamed my lungs out and bopped and sang and ended up walking away with a Jim Adkins guitar pick, which made me just about explode with glee. ( Blather about inspiration lurks behind this cut ).

Aaaaanyway, Epcot had extra magic hours on Friday night and we were thirsty after the concert, so we sprinted in long enough to grab a Fanta and ride Spaceship Earth before we passed out. Saturday was the day of Kingdoms - first Magic (where I purchased a Minnie apron that I've been wanting for a while now and matching Minnie and Mickey mugs and we got Ezra as our ghost FUCK YEAH) and then Animal. Fun fact: The Flame Tree has the best ribs in the entire fucking world. You have to eat with purpose, because the sheer touch of lips may cause the meat to fall off the bone. It's that tender. Mmmmm. Scoped out some animals, fist-bumped for the Dinosaur ride photo, and oh! Bought a big Carnotaurus doll. It's so lifelike that Benny is wary of it. Completely serious - he jumped when I wiggled it, growled at it, attempted to sniff its butt, nudged it with his nose repeatedly and in various locations, and (this is the kicker) barked at it when he managed to get a moment alone with it. And Benny is not a barker. So yes, this doll is the most badass doll ever. Love.

Saturday afternoon was devoted to visiting Benny at the pet resort. We took him out to the dog park; he made friends with a pup named Mojo and ran around like a maniac until he flumped. Saturday evening, we gorged ourselves at a seafood buffet (where I drew Adventure Time characters on the paper tablecloth in crayon) and then wandered around our hotel and over to the Boardwalk, where we encountered a very odd fellow. This guy walked up to us, a girl lingering behind him silently, and said that we were the fifth people he'd asked this: "Do you respect your elders?" Jaime said yes and the guy asked him why. "Because they have more life experience," Jaime explained. The guy seemed to like that answer - he and the girl told us they'd heard "because they covered for us when we screwed up," "because they respected their elders," and "because we got our asses beat when we didn't." Everyone chuckled; it was odd, but not too odd. What happened next took it there - he asked where we were from, and we told him. "Ahhhh, the big [initial deleted to maintain my mysterious persona]," he said. He seemed familiar with the area. He then held out his umbrella - a large black-and-white striped affair - and asked Jaime to hold it. Jaime did the logical thing. "No," he said. The guy insisted; "No trick," he said. "Free umbrella! Just go with it."

And that's how we got a free umbrella. It's a really nice one, too, with a carbon fiber tube and Mickey golfing on the canopy. Retails for over $40. It's officially Jaime's, since not only was he the one it was directly given to, but also I have my own umbrella which I am quite content with. Weird night.

Side note: This morning, I saw a guy in maroon skinny trousers and a slim-cut leather jacket carrying a rainbow striped umbrella. I want to be his friend.

Oh, also saw a family with two adorable little boys while watching fireworks. The younger one had gotten a Yoda pin that day and just had to read it aloud and tell Jaime all about it. The mom laughed, while the dad kind of rolled his eyes and said, "We get this show every night." I told them, "Hey, it's been a long time since my brothers were that cute."

For our last day of vaycay, we returned to Epcot, as it is the undisputed king of parks. They have dolls of the catball thing from Captain Eo - can you believe that? Of course, I had to have one, which led to an amusing conversation with the cashier. She cooed over it and complained that everyone says it's creepy, to which I replied that Jaime told me not to get because, and I quote, "It's creepy." This then devolved into the respective merits of cuddling with a cat/butterfly/rat hybrid or a dragon. I campaigned for the catball, but only because there's no debate without two sides. In reality, I love Figment more; I mean, I walked out of that store with a fleece plush of said lovable purple fellow, so it's not like I played favorites noticeably or something. Dragon and catballs both have their merits.

... And I bought a rainbow zebra scarf, and we traded a castle vinylmation for the Jon from Carousel of Progress one and a duplicate Figment pin for one of the logo from If You Had Wings. Yes!

In the end, we made it home well before the Super Bowl (which I half-watched for the commercials and mostly ignored in favor of Puppy Bowl clips online) and Glee (which I will have a post about later... probably) and found ( one last souvenir... )

Best. Vacation. Ever.