I love Suikoden II!

Ok, now that we've got that over with, I can tell you why.

I like the storyline despite the fact the hero's weird. Joey's funky though. There's enough characters to play around with (Heh heh . . .), which makes choosing a party damn fun. Not to mention the challange of trying to get all 102 (Or was it 108? I can't remember!! I played the game a year before writing this for god's sake) people.

The castle itself is pretty fun to roam around, what with the mini-games available. Not to mention the cook-offs! Those are fun fun fun. And collecting all the animals. And . . .ok, I think you get the idea. Another thing worth mentioning is that the rune thing is great, kinda reminding me of the materia from Final Fantasy 7. Oooh . . . then there's the combos. Heh. I love the Pretty Boy Combo, though I don't quite agree that the ohter guy, can't recall his name right now. It was Flik, Camus and a third guy. Head of the blue knights. Anyway, I don't quite agree that he qualifies as a pretty boy. I know, I know, I'm commenting on something really stupid but I'm sorry! What can I say? I'm a girl. Bite me.

Oh yeah . . . I think I should mention this. Flik is cool! And so is Victor. So there. Erm, I'm kinda running out of things to say about this game, but I'm going to start playing it again from the very beginning so maybe I'll update this thing again.

Piercing at 18

I must've been crazy.

Here I am. I've survived 18, yes people, *1*8* years without any sorts of self-mutilation (unless you count the 1 inch nail in my toe when I was 7 but that was hardly on purpose, I assure you). And now, suddenly, within 2 months of turning 18 I have the urge to do so.

Yes people. I went and got my ears pierced.

Let it be known that I have never ever in my entire life gotten my ears pierced. Not once. When I was a little kid (6), my mom dragged me to the store to do that. It's a strange Bruneian custom, come to think of it. Most of my cousins had theirs done around the age of 4. ANYWAY! They didn't manage to do the piercing then because upon setting my eyes on the huge, gleaming monstrosity of a gun, I screamed my tiny little lungs out and ran to hide in a pile of clothing. My mom spent 15 minutes trying to coax me back out.

The fear has lived with me ever since.

So basically I have no idea why the thought of stabbing my ears with a piece of metal and leaving it in there for six weeks for the sake of leaving holes in my earlobes suddenly seized my brain, swung it around to meet it head on, slammed its forehead against me and yelled, "THIS IS A FANTABULISTICALLY GOOD IDEA!".

It could be the fact that I felt like a coward while my friends were running around with multiple piercings in a single ear. It could be the fact that my current obsession at the time was jewellery. It could even be the fact that my boyfriend made a bet with me that he'd buy me a pair if I got my ears pierced. However, I'd prefer thinking about it as me meeting up to one of my worst fears (The other being bugs and water but I won't go into that).

It certainly made me feel like a better person.

So on that fateful day, the 24th of Febuary, just a mere 2 days after arriving back in Australia, I headed off to the city. Bribed with ice-cream and a movie, I was lured into the piercing parlour. There, the woman sat me down on a chair, made small talk to help me relax (which it didn't, by the way), and prepared my ears for the fatal stab.

She cleaned the lobes with antiseptic wipes, dotted them for better aiming, took one last look at me then turned to my boyfriend, "Would you like to hold her hand?".

Despite what people say, it hurts. I've been told it's a mild irritation. I don't trust irritations. I've been told it feels like a red ant bites. I'm deathly scared of red ants. I've been told it just feels 'a bit hot'. It fucking burns.

Pain aside, it was over in a minute, I paid my $18 and headed off to the pharmacy to buy the ear antiseptic lotion. Now I'm stuck with cleaning the things for the next 6 weeks. They sting, they've bled, they've gotten slightly infected (It's healing already), they've even forced me to alter my sleeping position (How the hell do people sleep on their backs?!) but damned if I'm gonna take them off. That's $18 that I'll never see again.

Besides, Ivan owes me a pair of earrings.