Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

So much of my blog is about doom and gloom and the fact that I wish I were more X because it would make me life easier. Today I've decided to just stop and smell the roses. I've been a lot more calm since I quit my job at the casino - probably because I don't have the guilt of taking people's money, as well as having to deal with incredibly stupid/drunk people who can't seem to listen to reason. It has been a pretty relaxing break, I like how I can just do things whenever I want rather than trying to plan things around my shifts and having to shift sleeping patterns constantly (although I am finding that I have trouble reverting to "normal hours" now that I'm on break).

I baked a cake for my dad on Friday, and I honestly forgot how much fun it is to bake. I decorated it with pink icing (because we only had pink food dye) and tried piping cream, and overall, I think it turned out pretty nice. I also got to try out my shiny new silicone baking tin(? Is it still a tin if it's made of silicone?). Reading through the blog where I got the recipe from, I've decided I want to try more things, like chicken pot pie, chicken kiev, savoury crepes, beer batter fish, rogan josh, shepard's pie. Most of them will probably have to wait until I move out and have the dinner parties that I've been planning (as mum and dad already cook more than enough food for us to eat that I think anything I make will end up going to waste).

Although in more food news, my silicone rolling pin should be arriving in the mail (hopefully tomorrow), so I can get started on my gingerbread cookies and truffles for Christmas! Going to see how vegetarian-friendly I can make my Christmas presents, as I believe Gale and Olek don't eat eggs or gelatin. Also will get around to buying ramekins at some point during my present hunt for family members so that I can try making crème brûlée.

MrMan5.5 has finished his exams for what will hopefully be the last time ever! I'm really happy for him, as this semester has been pretty stressful for him and he has spent most of it cramped up at home studying. We will be leaving for Japan in less than two months' time, and I can't wait to play all the gashapon machines! ^________^ I don't plan to buy all that much though (other than a kimono as a souvenir), so if anyone is after anything in particular from Japan, let me know and I'll try to find it.

I took Amanda out shopping today, and it seems she would like more clothes, but I think every time she goes out shopping with mum and Anjelica, she ends up getting dragged around and doesn't really get a chance to find anything for herself. As it seems that all hope of grooming her into the next pro-DotA player have disappeared (I still haven't managed to convince her to install War3 on her laptop), I guess I should be a good sister and take her out. I did say that I would buy her something if she got a good grade on her piano exam, and the thing we went to buy today she ended up paying for with her own money, so I'm planning to take her to the DFO or something so she can buy some new clothes for the holidays. The holidays where she'll hopefully spend time with her friends rather than staying at home watching Gossip Girl and Avatar: the Last Airbender. The last thing this family needs is another me.

I'm quite surprised at the response rate to my poll (although still not as many people as I had for my guessing exercise). Now that I have more than 10 results, I feel comfortable opening the spreadsheet, because it's pretty much impossible for me now to guess who made which response. I don't really care about any individual answer, because someone's private life is their own business and not mine. I'm still going to wait a bit before I publish any actual results, because I don't want someone to say something to someone who hasn't filled it in yet and bias the results. There are quite a few things that I find interesting though, and a few questions that I now have that I hadn't thought of before, but I will explain all of this in a few days! The psych student in me is actually quite excited to do some analysis - even if it is statistics.

After some prodding from Teekay, I've started playing a bit more SC2 lately. I'm finding that I'm a lot more relaxed while playing now. I think when I was playing with Julian and Charles, the focus was so much on winning the game, and now with Teekay and Olek, I feel like it's more about playing the game. If I misclick and click a zealot instead of a stalker, then I just shrug it off, maybe berating myself for it later if we lost. I don't feel like such a dead-weight for the team. That being said, I am currently playing much worse than when I was playing with Julian regularly, so maybe I know my skill is worse and it doesn't bother me when what happens in a game matches my expectations of my skill. In addition, when I do manage to play well, it's a pleasant surprise.

I just realised that I'm not entirely sure how to handle all of my data, so I just sent an email to my stats lecturer asking him some questions. It made me realise that I should study up a bit more on stats before I start the analysis. Yes, I know that I said this post was supposed to be something with me saying, "I need to be more X", but what can I say, I'm a chronic self-improver!