Dearborn @ MindSay 
michigan
Eating: Skeleton gingerbread man with green icing - pretty epic. :P
Drinking: Coca Cola
Playing: Nothing atm, but I really should play Avalon Code, Rune Factory, and finish up Rune Factory 2... oh, and Kingdom Hearts, the game I've had for about 2 years now (borrowing from a friend) and am only just after HalloweenTown. iFail. XD
Excited about: YOUMACON IN 22 DAYS!!!!! And NaNoWriMo is kicking up~
Should be writing: Duplicity rewrite
Should be outlining: NaNoWriMo plot
Happy about: Being free from school until Monday~
Kitsune no Tora is feeling: SUPER ESTATICALLY EXCITED, sleepy (constantly)
Uhh... hi?
Didn't I say a long time ago that I wasn't going to leave this for such a long time again?
...I guess I lied. XD Oops.
ANYWAYS...
Since the last time I posted, school has started. I have class Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Mondays I have Calculus I 11-1, Tuesdays I have Short-Stories and Novels 1-4, then Career Planning 6-9, and Wednesdays I have Calculus I again 11-1, and then a (annoyingly easy) Word Processing class 6-9. Not toooooo busy of a schedule, but Calculus is kicking my ass. D8 I suck at trigonometry, so I fail terribly at all the problems involving that stuff. ^^; We just got done with limits, I think I did pretty decent on the exam this morning, but I'm not positive. It was hard. D8
Today I hit an animal driving through campus on my way to get some lunch. I was driving down the road and this squirrel just jumped right in front of my car. I braked a little, and I didn't feel anything or see anything in the road in my rearview mirror, so I'm hoping that I didn't actually hit him. But it made me sad anyway. :(
I want something (preferably living) to cuddle. But I'm not going to ask any of my family (eesh no), and my kitty Squirt is the most uncuddly cat ever. He doesn't like to be held for very long and he will NEVER sit on your lap. The most you can get is him sitting next to you. I had to trick him this morning to sit on my lap - I was in the living room on the couch and had a blanket over my legs because I was cold. I stuck my hand under and moved it around, and he jumped into my lap trying to get my hand under the blanket. He stayed there. :) But it was only because he didn't realize he was on my lap...Too bad I had to trick him, though. :/ I really hope he grows out of it.
YOUMACON IS IN 22 DAYS!! I'm so super duuper excited. 8DDD Too bad my cosplay fell through. :( I took a last ditch attempt to get the right fabric so that my aunt could make it for me (she's a talented seamstress, and I know if she made it it wouldn't fall apart or anything and be of good quality), and now it's too late to order one. :( They say it takes 25-30 days just to ship it out to me, and probably somewhere around a week after that before it gets on my doorstep, since it would be coming from Hong Kong. :/ *sadface* Andrea said that I should still find something simple enough and cosplay, but I have absolutely no idea who to do. She said she'd look some up for me, though, so we'll see how that goes.
...Maybe I can find some overalls/coveralls, a blonde wig, a peach bandana and make a cardboard wrench and go as Winry Rockbell, haha. XD That could work... I dunno. I'll have to think about it. I want to do something that is easy, but not stupidly simple, like L from Death Note or something. Those are just lazy. :P
I'll definitely do Riza next year, though. And maybe someone from Hetalia, I dunno. 8D I'm partial to Italy~ He's so cute. <3 Plus it would be an excuse for me to act like a dork (moreso that I would normally at an anime convention. :P).
I WONDER IF WE'LL FIND JESUS AGAIN. XDDD And I hope they have Death Note Mafia again, that was a lot of fun, despite the douchebag who decided to act like a pompous smart-ass and ruin everyone's fun halfway through the night last year. I just hope it doesn't coincide with Mario Party After Dark again, I really wanted to go to that, but couldn't tear myself away from the game. XD We played it from like, 11 to 4 in the morning last time, it was a blast.
We should also totally do Otaku Family Feud again, we killed everyone at it last year. Pocky Brigade FTW! We'll need to find Jessica again, though, I didn't get any contact information from her. Maybe Andi did...
Aaaaaand NaNoWriMo is gearing up again! I'm both super excited but ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED at the same time. ^^; I've been having a lot of problems writing recently. I can see and imagine the scene in my head, and it's great. The words flow through my head perfectly. But when I go to put it on paper/document, it just... dies. No words come. It's insanely annoying. Hopefully I can break that before November. I'm already going to get a bad start because of Youmacon (the last day is November 1st, and after that I'm going to be completely wiped and have no will to write anything), so I really really hope that gets broken soon.
I decided to go ahead and do the sequel to Duplicity as my NaNo novel. Except it's slowly becoming too AU to be the true sequel. XDD; PLUS, Duplicity isn't actually DONE, I even went so far as to restart it because it sucked. ^^; So I'm technically writing the sequel to a story that hasn't been written yet. SO SMART Y/Y? Especially since I'm an extremely linear writer, I just can't jump around in my story. It just ends up weird and doesn't feel right. That's PROBABLY why Precious Wingbeats (working title of the sequel) is becoming so intensely AU. ^^;;;; Oh well. I've been using an outlining technique called the Snowflake Method, and so far it has been doing me some good. I've actually got things down; I guess restricting myself to your normal outline format was what was blocking me from creating previous outlines. I'm on stage 3 with Precious Wingbeats, and plan on trying it all the way through. I'm just too lazy right now to plot out all the characters, since I know them all pretty well at this point...
CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THE END OF THIS MONTH OMG. <333
I've been so intensely sleepy a lot recently. It's weird. I get enough sleep: anywhere between 7 1/2 and 10 hours. That's what I've been getting for most of my life now. But it just feels like I need a nap all the time, except during some points of the day. I have the hardest time EVER getting up. I feel like I need naps during the day (which I have never done in my life except on occasion). I don't know why... my lifestyle hasn't changed at all. Maybe it's a mental thing? But what would make me want to sleep all the time? Idk. :/ Oh well.
...I must be sitting weird, because my wrists are starting to hurt from the typing. D8 I guess I'm done for tonight.
Goodnight, digital abyss.
By Samantha L. Quigley
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2006 – The city whose native son helped turn the United States into a nation of motorists will shun Henry Ford's invention for a time on Sept. 11. "We felt that it was important, as we approach the five-year anniversary of the tragic events of Sept. 11, to have a ceremony to remember all those who lost their lives that day," Randy Coble, deputy director of public information for Dearborn, Mich., said. "It's a way to come together and express what we all believe: that we need to remember the victims of Sept. 11 and that we need to make sure our men and women serving in harm's way know that we support them and appreciate their sacrifices."
Dearborn's walk will take place at 6 p.m. Sept. 11. The location, Dearborn's Ford Community and Performing Arts Center, holds significance, Coble said. It opened just one week after the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon. The walk and accompanying ceremony will be a simple, somber affair, Coble said. Dearborn Mayor Michael A. Guido will welcome walkers before a flag that was flown over Ground Zero in New York is raised.
The New York Fire Department presented Dearborn with the flag in 2002 in appreciation for the city's efforts in raising $125,000 for the families of fallen New York firefighters, Coble said. The firefighters also presented the city with an urn of ashes from Ground Zero at the same time. The program will include a moment of silence, the walk around the reflecting pond on the arts center grounds, a playing of "Taps" and a 21-gun salute. Before the ceremony concludes, clergy will offer silent prayers over the ashes from Ground Zero.
Dearborn, a community of about 100,000, boasts residents who hail from some 80 different nations and cultures, Coble said. It also is one of the largest Muslim communities in the country. "Dearborn is a true American melting pot, where diverse people live together as one community, including people of different faiths," Coble said. "Because of this, we know the truth of the old saying that there's a lot more that unites people than divides them, and our Freedom Walk is an example of that."
Dearborn is known as a city that remembers and pays tribute regularly to the military, Coble said. Because of that support, the city is no stranger to the Defense Department's America Supports You program, which highlights grassroots and corporate support of the nation's servicemembers.
Tournament Players Club Michigan held a golf fundraiser yesterday to benefit Home for Our Troops, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, and the Wounded Warrior Project -- all America Supports You team members. The event drew the attention of Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communication and public liaison, who spoke at the event.
Barber, architect of the America Supports You program and the America Supports You Freedom Walk, also took the opportunity to speak with Guido about his city's Freedom Walk. "(Dearborn is showing) an ongoing grassroots commitment to our military members and their families in the Dearborn region," Barber said of the city's hosting the two events in support of America's servicemembers.
To date, 39 cities across the country have confirmed plans to host America Supports You Freedom Walks to pay tribute to those who lost their lives on Sept. 11 and to honor the nation's veterans, past and present.
BY FRANK WITSIL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Just as daylight broke the horizon, at about 7:30 a.m. today, the 22-hour standoff between an armed man and police at a Dearborn apartment complex ended. The gunman, who barricaded himself in a closet, gave up his revolver and surrendered.
It had been a long, cold night, filled with anxiety and at least two accidentally fired gunshots, police said.
“He finally decided to come out,” Dearborn Police Chief Michael Celeski said Wednesday, tired after hours of negotiations.
Police took the 39-year-old Detroit man into custody. His name is being withheld by police pending arraignment. The gunman is likely to be charged later today or early tomorrow with armed robbery, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Celeski said the man gave up after police offered him some options, and he realized surrender was the best one.
Police said the man barricaded himself inside a closet at the Windsor at Fairlane Meadow Luxury Apartments at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, after robbing a nearby video game store, GameStop, at gunpoint. The man, Celeski said, stole a “substantial amount” of cash from the shop, and fled in a car that 911 callers identified as a beige Ford Taurus.
Police pursued the car to the apartment complex located off Mercury Drive.
The man got out and ran into an apartment building, police said.
Once inside the building, police said, the man put the gun to his head and threatened to kill himself.
Throughout the day, Dearborn police took precautions to protect apartment residents and tried to talk the man into surrendering. They closed off the entrance to the complex and asked residents to stay inside their apartments as they surrounded the suspect. Several special response team police officers, wearing helmets, black uniforms and armed with assault weapons and blast shields, positioned themselves outside the apartment building.
The man, police said, holed himself up in a first-floor small storage closet with no heat.
During the night, Celeski said, the man accidentally fired his handgun — twice.
“That’s how we knew it was real,” Celeski said.
Also during the night, police negotiators sent the man a wired telephone so they could talk, instead of shout, to each other.
Celeski would not reveal what the man and the negotiators discussed, but he said the man ultimately decided to surrender. Celeski said that even though there was no way to escape, the gunman had to figure it out in his own mind, on his own timetable, to surrender to police — and not kill himself.
“I’m glad it came to a peaceful end,” Celeski said.
