Whether or not it's official, there is some sort of Boxing Day in USA

While many countries like Canada, Australia, and the UK have Boxing Day,
the day after Christmas isn't officially called that, but there's still
the same general deep mark-down discounting going on after Christmas in
the US.

Case in point:

I bought a Hello Kitty 2009 calendar for my nieces like I do every year
since they started coming out, and will continue to do so as long as
they come out. I bought it before Christmas and got a $5 coupon from the
bookstore where I bought the calendar, but it was good only after
Christmas, beginning, you guessed it, on the 26th, a la Boxing Day.

Now, had I waited, I could have bought that calendar for 50% off the day
after Christmas. Maybe I will next year. Borders on The Strip certainly
was well-stocked with Hello Kitty 2009 calendars, as they were last
year. But therein lies the problem - who else is going to want that
calendar too at that time? The store where I got the one I gave had only
1 left. If I had waited, I wouldn't be holding that $5 coupon
beforehand.

So anywho, I waited over an hour for the Waldenbooks at the nearest mall
to open at 10 am. I'm going to remember that from now on, because I got
up early and left the house at 8 am to make sure no one was going to buy
the 2 books of manga I'd been waiting for 3 weeks to ship from Diamond
but never did (and instead ended up being cancelled for no reason).

So I grab the 2 I wanted. Oh! There's a sale on manga. Buy 1, get 1 1/2
price! Well. Can I still use my $5 coupon? The nice ladies at the cash
register say I can! So in the end, I paid $15 for 2 books - I
practically got 1 for free. $5 off the $15 book, and half off the $11
book. Woo!! So I check with Borders, and find 2 more books. 4 books, $15
off total. 30% discount the way I see it. Or the calendar paid for
itself. Whichever. And all this on Boxing Day aka December 26.

The one thing they don't say about Boxing Day is whether or not it's a
sales-tax holiday like the observance of Victoria Day in Canada.

I liked it when we were at Anime North during a Victoria Day weekend.
(niko niko)

My Coin Map is Done

Before Bill Clinton left office, he signed into law the 50 States
Commemorative Coin Program. Then, in 1999 and going until the end of
2008, 5 quarters per year, each minted for 10 weeks, would be produced
and signifying each state in the Union, and in the order the state was
admitted into the United States.

That meant over the next 10 years, these quarters would appear in our
change and would be something to collect. Canada has had similar
programs for their coins over the years, so it's exciting to see this
happen here. Even the nickel underwent a few changes during this period
to celebrate the Lewis and Clark Expedition, resulting in a Nickel with
the design on the front being a full-on portrait instead of a profile.
Rumors are in 2009 the penny will get some changes.

I just need another Hawaii and an Arizona quarter and I can finish 2
more maps.

Some interesting bits from the past 10 years:

According to one coin collecting / selling business, there was a
proposed 51st state quarter for the Washington DC area, but supposedly
this measure was "anonymously" blocked. Yeah right. I'm sure if someone
blocked that, it wouldn't be all that anonymous, and people could find
out who blocked it anyway. But hey, for about $8, they were willing to
sell you a fake quarter showing what this could have looked like.
"Proof" = fake coin, most of the time, but just generally minted and
cleaned in a special way so that it's shinier. Why call it a "Proof"? I
have no idea. Proof it exists?

A few years ago, the Discovery Channel ran some really interesting
programs showing you how the U.S. Mint worked, how they were using
really old equipment to transfer the new quarter designs to the
production dies (since there really is no better way to do this), lots
of stuff that was really interesting. I remember one bit about how the
Candian Gold Dollar (worth more than a dollar, but that's the term I can
remember now) is really pure and minted in such a way that a holographic
design is impressed into the coin during production.

I have a gold-plated Ohio quarter, because yet another rip-off
collecting / selling business was offering those 50 State Quarters gold
plated. So someone's kid must have spent that one and I ended up getting
it. The original Ohio quarter I have was a freebie from Banc One, and
while I have the little thingy it was given away on, Bank One no longer
exists. Chase bought them out.

The Tennesee quarter was another one of those deals from another rip-off
place. I got that with a free plastic container just the right size for
1 quarter, and literature about how I could spend $150 for some posh
collecting display stuff. And also at the time these state quarters were
beginning, there were commercials on the TV for $20 (and extra postage)
you could buy these maps, cardboard and numbered for "authenticity" for
your collection. I bought mine at a local store for 95 cents some time
later.

Let's not forget the rip-off deal selling the State Quarters painted "in
full color."

One of my co-workers at the LJS restaurant at one time brought in her
map to fill it back in because her brat kids kept popping the coins out
of it and spending them. She was trying to save $10 rolls of each coin
as well, but the universe was against her. But she tried anyway, and
brought her map in. But wouldn't you know it, she left it on the counter
out front, and went into the back for something. When she came back out,
some asshole LJS customer STOLE her map - just picked it up and walked
off with it and nobody saw him do it!!! LJS customers steal lots of
things, but someone's quarter map is just pretty mean. They stole paper
parrots during the Southwest Batter promotion. Early in 2004, someone
walked out with the Dale Jr standee during some stupid contest. LJS
Customers are just freaking crazy.

Some people tried to save 2 sets of quarters depending one which mint
mark they had. As long as I got 1 of each coin, the mint mark doesn't
matter to me.

I have a bunch of other notes I'd like to add for these past 10 years,
but they're rather personal, so unless I can figure out another way to
express them, they'll not be posted here because of some prying eyes.

I will add that 2008 has been one hell of a year.

0 degrees overnight

The thermometer has been showing 0 degrees since last night. Our pipes
haven't frozen up yet. I'm supposed to do a few things today, but at
this rate I don't know if that's going to happen. A few windows have ice
crystals on them - on the inside!!!

I have a feeling a few more windows will get some plastic on them and
then I'll work on my caulking skills.

I really really hate coldness

Argh... Last time I looked at the outdoor thermometer, it was 10
degrees. And windy.

I've been looking for air leaks in the basement and found some which
will require more of that spray expanding foam that I bought last time.
And one more mouse hole. Or if not a mouse hole, a hole that could be
used for the satellite cable instead of where it goes now, then plugged
up with that foam stuff.

Then I am upstairs, and it's still windy, but I feel the room trying to
get colder. I find this annoying. I determine one hole in the wall where
this coax cable comes through has to be sealed up and I manage to put
some tape on it. But I still have cold air leaks coming into the
room...!

One window that has plagued me for some time finally got some plastic on
it. I have 3 windows and one got sealed up pretty soon after we moved
in, but I never did anything about the other two.

And even after sealing up what's probably the worst of the three, I
still detect some air leaking near or around the window!!!!! GRRRRR... I
find that some of this cold leaking in comes from some of the wood
thingy at the bottom of the wall near the floor - then I get the
impression that the caulking around the window frame and this wood
border thing needs some attention because it's either not there or
there's not enough.

I noticed my thermometer for my room went from 70 to 72, while mom is
reading around 69 + or minus few degrees downstairs. Of course, I have
my electric radiator on now.

There was some temperature zone near the floor that you could feel where
the cold was, so at least if I haven't stopped the cold leaks entirely,
I have managed to slow them down in some appreciative amount.

For what I have in my room, I simply cannot have cold air near it. It's
going to be a pain in the ass to find and plug up what's left to plug
up. I wonder if plutting plastic on the outside of the window would work
better.

Anime character maker

Thanks to one image board, I found a new anime character maker and the localization app to make it run. Cute little thing. Here's a few samples. BTW: My profile photo is from this program.

No time to be selfish about things

Ok so tonight getting on the computer to do a few simple things was
stressful.

I get it turned on and booted up. I get this little box popping up
saying that the system has just recovered from a serious error. And then
it goes on to report the error to Microsoft. Then I get IE loading up a
web page to explain what might be the problem. A device driver was
installed or changed, or some piece of software recently installed might
be causing the problem. Links to possibly roll back the Dell drivers and
Windows Update were on this page.

Hmm.. But first as suggested, I tried a system restore, and the little
box about this error popped up again... Soooo... I went to Windows
Update. Needed to install the new version of Windows update aka the
install validation tool. Fine, OK. great. It does that, then shows there
are 6 high priority updates. SP3 security update, 3 other security
updates, one for IE7, and Malicious Software Removal tool for Dec 2008.
About 20 or so minutes pass by while this all gets downloaded and
installed, and the system restarts. Only just before the screen winks
out there's some notice (probably an error) and I don't get to see that
before it disappears. But hey, the system comes back up, I wait for the
7 Icons to load, and there's no notice that the system recovered from a
serious error anymore.

I was hoping Windows Update would have just located the errant driver
and fixed it, but maybe it was Windows Update that needed fixed?

I just realized that if there were these 6 updates waiting, what
happened and why didn't they install anyway? Is this the modus operandi
of XP? If there's an error, update the OS?

I have no idea. I'm trying to study for CompTIA exams. I just wanted to
type a letter. I tell mom that while it may be her computer, she's not
to install anything that would cause system instability, and remind her
that if for some reason I'm unable to complete this, I gotta pay the
money back for these classes, all the while mom just keeps telling me to
shut up. It's like she doesn't care. She'll just stick her nose in the
air and not listen. I don't need that kind of treatment, especially not
from a parent. Wouldn't she want to see me get these certifications?
Gee, consider the other people who depend on the only XP desktop we own.

Anywho, I got my letter typed and printed, and did the first class'
assignment and it's on a thumbdrive.

And no notification pop up when I shut down the desktop tonight.

At least until tomorrow.

Thing to post on the forums...

Putting it here before I forget.

Finally found the right spot on the map for the Tokyo Mew Mew RPG game
for the Playstation and had the fight with a couple big boss characters
for Day 3. First was the plant Quiche infected. It was 245 hit points.
The team defeats that and then Gateau du Locke appears. Oh crap another
fight.

He starts out with 345 or so hit points. He summons one Chimera animal
and the team beats it, so he summons a 2nd. The team beats him down to
only 61 hit points not once but Twice, because he recovers 100 hit
points each time, but the 3rd time he doesn't. The team beats him down
to 47 and then 1 hit point. During the battle, one member gets knocked
out and then revived with Miracle Nuts. Zakuro had something that
instantly revived her when she got knocked out and it disappears since
it can be used only once. Two members after one attack by Gateau fell
asleep and left Zakuro to fight for herself which she does well.

At some point during this scene, Ringo's brother appears and fires a
shot from his rifle (he a ranger in the Nature reserve park in Japan) to
protect his younger sister, Ringo, but gets injured.

Anywho, Gateau gets hit down to only 1 hit point, and then unleashes an
attack that hits the team in battle at the moment to only 1 point as
well. Then as it looks like it's the end, the Blue Knight appears.
Eventually, Gateau du Locke leaves and everyone goes back to the cottage
to end Day 3.

During this "day" of the game, I'd been looking for the battle area for
Day 3. There had been quite a few fights and leveled up my characters
nicely, which is something I recommend to anyone else stuck on Day 3.
Try to get them all levelled up to 13 or 14 if you can, use some items
to increase their hit points, yaruki, and if possible, items that reduce
the usage of yaruki to do special attacks and reduce the amount of
damage they receive. If there are items to increase the damage they
inflict or instant revival, then that's the 3rd equipment item they
need.

When you find the red waters of a spring, then that's the battle area.
It takes a while to figure it out.

Finally also figured out when you can change outfits and take pictures.
^_^