I got a response from Pima today!

Hang on, that can't possibly be right. The lazy women in the Pima offices would sooner eat dirt than work on Labor Day.

So I decided to find out who I was really emailing the only way one does in the 21st century. I Facebook'd that bitch. As it turns out, she lives in Phoenix, is only 2 years older than me, and works for a company called PerceptIS.

So when I imagined my words metaphorically punching a middle-aged, overly make-upped, and overweight woman in the face, the reality wasn't nearly so satisfying.

Yet another ruse to waste my time, eh Pima?! You clever fucks.

The emails, if you're interested.

I'm going to assume this is what she meant in her email:
[The automated message] should say ["You have been awarded"] because you are eligible for loans.

On a side note, "it" and "that" are totally appropriate substitutes when you're being paid to send emails that are meant to clarify technical issues and help resolve them. Typos, misspellings, and punctual errors are also acceptable!

Yeah... I want her job.

I registered for a FAFSA Pell grant so that I could attend courses at Pima this semester.
I turned paperwork in to the Pima offices three times. Once in person, and twice again via fax because the original information was apparently "incomplete" or "invalid".
It doesn't make much sense to me that the paperwork should be valid the third time, because it was identical to the paperwork I turned in the first time. Whatever.

Because of this difficulty, I assumed the FAFSA would be delayed, just as it has been every semester since I began taking courses at Pima. I usually receive my Pell Grant a couple days after the semester start. This is not ideal, obviously. But, as they say, better late than never.

Classes began at Pima 2 weeks ago. The website has been claiming that I have been awarded, but I have yet to be shown the award amount. If I cannot see the award, I cannot accept it. If I cannot accept the award, my mother continues to pay out of pocket for the classes she assumes the government will cover.

After the first week, I sent the Pima "Financial Aid Help Desk" an email outlining my situation, expressing my concern, and asking for information on my Pell Grant's status.
I received an automated response a day later.

Two days afterward, I received another automated response stating my issue had been resolved.

I waited 24 hours, because it is suggested by the Pima website support that one should wait a minimum of 24 hours after each action to see any sort of change, then I emailed Pima again.

I figured that maybe my first email was too convoluted, thus the automated "resolution", and kept my second email short and concise, in hopes of a human response:

I got one!!


Fuck you, Pima.

My patience has been reeaallly thin for the past few weeks.
It seems only Minecraft is exempt. That game is my Zen Garden.
I would apologize, but I don't think anyone has suffered directly because of it.

If I had a nickel for every time this week sucked I could buy an ice cream cone.

Because, let's face it, a nickel isn't worth very much nowadays.

I realize that reviewing anime is more Josh's thing, but he hasn't done it in a bit! Also, he hasn't seen this one!

( Mushi-Shi )

I'm sorry for the length. Honestly, I chopped a bit of what I wrote out and still wanted to add more. Sometimes I just really feel like writing, but when I don't want to share my feelings or have any exciting happenings to report, it seems a review is my best option. Though, I'm terrible at writing them because I just keep going and going and going...

I don't even post these things on here with a strong desire for people to read them. It's in an effort to avoid the laziness that besets me when I write something that I know will remain private(i.e. in my diary or a word doc). Just the thought of having a possible audience wills me to write better. My voice improves, I care more about grammar, and I even make attempts at entertainment.

My green DSLite has been declining in health for a while now. The top screen flickered white and needed constant adjusting while in use. As annoying as that was, I played on. Now it seems to have committed to the white, making my top screen basically non-existent.
That means I'm done with DS games until I can afford a new one. /sad

Of course, I know I can borrow someone's DS, or maybe ask my mum to buy me a new, cheap one. But I'm very much attached to my green DS because it's the most valuable thing I purchased with the money I earned at Pizza Hut. I feel like I wouldn't adore one in the same way if it were a gift or borrowed. Not to mention its breaking was my own damn fault, so I should be the one to replace it.

This is just another reason for me to go out and get a job. Probably the biggest.. and I know that sounds silly.

So I got Spiral Knights on Steam, as per suggestion from http://threepanelsoul.com, because those guys are cool and it was free to download! XD

The art is just what you would expect from Ian if you've read 3PS or MH: super cute and quirky and awesome. The environment is really cartoony. Like a mix between Windwaker and PSO. Even the monsters are cute.
Basically everything about the game felt amazing(as well as reminiscent of PSO), which makes sense because SEGA had a hand in its production.
It was all so impressive that I had trouble believing it was free. Then I found out it isn't free at all! *shocked*

Let me break it down~~
-You begin the game with 0 crowns(purchasing currency) and 100 energy(activity currency).
-You regain 100 energy every 24 hours, but it caps out there.
-Each level played costs 10 energy and you will -on average- make 300 crowns within the level.
-To progress, you must play the levels consistently enough to collect specific items from them, as well as crowns to purchase recipes for better equipment.
-The recipes cost thousands of crowns to purchase, and the items themselves costs 50 energy to craft.

So the cap on free energy gives you either 10 levels to play a day, or 5 levels with remaining energy to craft a single item. But levels are completed so quickly that doing what you can with the free energy given to you in one day should not take more than 30 minutes. After that, you've accomplished little and must wait 24 hours to accomplish the same tomorrow.
You are given the option of doing what little you can with free energy, or purchasing limitless energy with sums of real money.
((There IS an exchange option available that does not involve any money. You have the option to purchase 100 energy with 5k crowns or vice versa. However, because earning 5,000 crowns requires more than 100 energy, the exchange is logically only one way. This option is obviously in place for people who want to buy energy with money, and then crowns with that energy.))
Of course, you have quite a bit of incentive to pay the money, because playing a game for 30 minutes a day every day begins to feel more like a chore than real enjoyment.

League of Legends is another free game that offers paid content, but only in the forms of useless boosts and cosmetics for champions. You have the option of enjoying every aspect of LoL without paying a single penny. If you choose to give Riot money, it is out of a desire for a really impressive skin that they worked hard on, or because you simply want to support an awesome game. On the other hand, Spiral Knights claims to be free, and then limits your playing of the game severely to promote sales of essential items.
This is Facebook game strategy. It is thievery. It is bollocks. It is painful. But seeing the popularity of games like Farmville, it must somehow also be brilliant.
I would much rather pay 30 bucks for a game and enjoy every aspect of it without limits than constantly feed the game small sums of money to keep up my in-game currency.

I'm not exactly bitching about this game. It really does seem very well done, aesthetically pleasing, and vast. I would not mind supporting them with real money at all. In fact I plan to, once I have cash to throw around.
I just wanted to share the sadness I experienced when I realized this game that I was super excited about and fell in love with is, essentially, just a demo. =X

/EndreallylongrantthatnoonereallycaresaboutbutIdecidedtoshareanywaybecauseI'mdumb

P.S. Free Team Fortress 2, however, is actually free. And I am sort of stoked.

I never really understood the amusement people find in trolling. Like, it's almost funny to watch someone get trolled? But to actually DO the trolling, especially to a friend, takes something I don't have. I mean, when you get down to it, you are asking an obviously stupid question in the hopes of getting a response from some poor sap who is only trying to help and doesn't see the gag. You then have to ridicule the guy for not seeing the troll instead of thanking him for the assistance. You're punishing a friend for trying to help you when they had every opportunity to ignore your plight or simply point out how stupid the question was in the first place?
Like I said, it takes something I don't have and something I don't want to have.
I expect better from you.

---

I used to watch a lot of romantic comedies. I had friends who liked them, and my sister is a big fan of them. Some of them were okay for a while, and then the predictability got to me. It might be because I've seen so many good movies in the past few years that I make the mistake of expecting everything I watch to be of the same quality. But I forget that just because a movie isn't good in the same way, doesn't necessarily mean it's bad.
I guess sometimes predictability in a plot is acceptable when there's something else to make up for it. For me, things like: being super cute, having strong acting, looking amazing, or being really fucking funny, can save predictable movies.
I bring this up because I watched It's Complicated with my sister the other night and found that I really enjoyed it, despite it being a romantic comedy and my original disdain for having to watch it. I had no real reason not to watch this movie. It has a great cast and looked cute from the trailer.
I really don't even know why my hate for this genre developed.. I suppose, as is the case with all other genres, there are hits and misses and I saw too many misses in a row?
/shrug
The moral here is I won't be so quick to judge a movie based on its label.

---

I am an autocannibal.

---

I should probably get some kind of handle on my fear of bugs.

I want to not sweat the small shit, make money, and travel.
And fuck Hawaii. I want Italy and Egypt and Ireland and Japan.
Soon~

NO
ONE
LIKES
YOU
FUCKHEAD

SHUT
THE
FUCK
UP