Sweet words, rare words, cherished words.

On le facebook recently it was thus poised that instead of going to a club to pick up chicks by buying them drinks that instead one aught to go to a bookstore instead and pick up chicks by buying them a book. Google was not forthcoming with this thread/webpage but the idea and thought lives on!

I mention this story because today I went to the base library for the first time today (yay another library card :D) and I rented a book (Atlas Shrugged) and 2 movies I haven't seen (X-Men 3 and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) and Harry Potter 4 audiotape in hopes that I can listen to it and play video games at the same time. As I was checking out, I noticed a basket of disarrayed books. I asked the librarian what they were AND SHE SAID THEY WERE FREE.  Sweet words, rare words, cherished words to grace my ears. Usually these books have 1 gem in them and I end up getting a ton of random books BUT IT WAS DIFFERENT TODAY! God smiled upon me and I got SEVEN books out of the 12 book series The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. I was absolutely giddy. I got 14 books total and I do feel a little guilty taking all the happiness for myself but I left 90% of the basket so really, reader, you should be proud of me ;)

In other good news I also found that all letters I send from base back to the states are free! I just write "free mail". This magical phrase! It reminds me of my Grandpa Lee who always wrote "First Class Mail" (underlined) on all my letters he wrote me through high school and college and, to be honest, I always doubted he paid the extra fee for it. Isn't there an extra fee for first class? None the less, it made me feel special because I was worthy of first class mail.

And I get to use the R2D2 MAILBOX!!!! AHHHHH!!!!

In more disgusting news, I got a smallpox shot and what it basically does is give you small pox but only in one tiny area. I don't know how it works, but if you ever wondered what smallpox looked like  (or my carpet) here's a pic of my arm.

Final Fantasy Fun

 Well I thought I'd put up some more pictures. Here I am fishing. It's a complete dead end skill in the game but its fun to do while you're waiting for a party to form! Good times.

 Here I am on my unicorn. Every time I ride this little pony I recall this online meme: "B**** I'm fabulous!" and its ridiculous but it amuses me greatly.

 My party for a dungeon called Haukke Manor. Creepy to the max but I loved it. Final Fantasy creepy is cool.

 Met a full fledged Dragoon today. That's my bro's fav class.

 So I was sitting here and I noticed when my characters head bobbed down she looked kinda creepy. And...

 ...these were the people I was staring at. I felt awkward after that. But I was studying irl and taking a break from the game!

Last but not least. I'M FABULOUS!

Bendy Straws.

 Here's my pic of the tree of life! Got to go there! It was great fun. It really is the only remarkable foliage as far as the eye can see. Amazing! There were some guys there that we were afraid were going to ask if they wanted to wash our car (Guys are always doing that in Bahrain and its unnerving at first) At least they aren't like American bums, they actually do something in return for some monetary help. Anyways, if you ever get the chance I recommend you make it a picnic day cause otherwise you get there and there's not much else to do but stare at it. Then you can sit there and eat you're food while the two Arabs sit off in their plastic chairs and awkwardly make sure you don't steal any rocks. I want to go back and sketch some of it one day. One day...

 This is a throwback to when I went diving at Manatee Springs. Floods are Cah-razy!

 Here are some trees we got to walk thru that I love. Also love Sis Draper ^^They are one of my favorite trees and I  loved it!

We also went diving in this too. That's a nice layer of throwable foliage that was great fun to dive in. No alligators to be found tho :)

As to Bahrain the most exciting thing that has happened (since all I've really been doing is paperwork) is that a Skyscraper caught fire. Don't know why and I of course hope everyone got out alright, but it was cool to witness. Even the crane caught on fire.

Notable: The skyline in Bahrain often has more cranes than buildings haha. They are always building, which is good for the economy one can suppose.

Went to an American restaurant today TGI Fridays and, let me tell you, American restaurants are different abroad haha. This on all the waiters wore ridiculous hats (a pokemon hat, gaudy jester hats, an angry birds hat) and vests covered in buttons. I've never seen that before so yeah. I am determined to get McDonald's delivered to me in the near future. It's shocking they don't have it in America amiright!

Also all the straws are bendy straws. Who knows why but this is something I can get used to.


There's merchants and peddlers aplenty. While they continue to bug others, they only heckle me once, I respond in Arabic, and I keep walking and hear no more from them. I can only assume I shock them that I know Arabic and it amuses me greatly.


That's about it right now. I'll try to get more pictures but I keep forgetting to take my ipod with me to take them haha. Til next time!

Final Fantasy Pictures

 Yay some FFXIV pictures! This first one features a dungeon with a cool seal that we have to find a magical key to. Way pretty. Gotta appreciate programmers!

 Here I am with one of my online friends. We are the same race. I'm taller :D

 Here's me on my chocobo! I finally got it! And it's awesome and I love it! Or maybe it was the rental one...idk.

 Here's a person with a unicorn mount and its both weird and awesome at the same time haha

 An awesome pic of me healing people.

 Here's a party I was in, I like taking pics of them!

 I got a carbuncle! It's adorable!

 Here's a rare sight! A sleeping chocobo!

 Ok, here I am and I KNOW it's my chocobo! I named it Pips after the horse in wot that Mat rides :D

 Two rare mounts in one pic! You get the one on the right at the endgame I've been told. The unicorn you get from doing the conjurer quests, which I'm doing atm :)

 Another party pic!

 Me and my bro ^^ I love it! We play together a bit every day.

 This was a funny pic, like 8 carbuncles in the same spot haha.

 I saw this cool statue in the distance. Once again, programmers man!

 That monster in the distance looks like a feral furby. Just saying.

 Another party!

 My chocobo in his new duds!

 My new Coeurl mount! So cute! It lopes as it runs! :D

Another picture! Someone told me how to take all the user interface stuff off so now I'll have better pics! :D

Bahrain beginnings

I am in a literal real life Kingdom and that is weird to me. Weird to me that kings still exist. That they might still rule a country. I mean, that's what the Arab Spring is all about, getting psudo-democracies but still.

The best thing is that as soon as I stepped off the plane, it smelled like Redondo Beach, but 20 degrees hotter...ok more like 50 but lets be optimistic here.

What else, what else...I have already shocked a room of 10+ ppl by informing them that I do not drink alcohol, but they were cool about it. It's still amusing to note.

Food-wise I have already had schwarma (and will prob it eat everyday) and this little fruit below called a mangoteen. You just eat the white part and it is magical. I love it! It's like $5 for 6 of them tho!

 

In other exciting news, about 2 ish years ago I saw an article in the newspaper saying that as a promo these mailboxes (below) of R2D2 were being put up all over the states. I NEVER FOUND ONE AND BELIEVE YOU ME I LOOKED. BUT THERE'S ONE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Believe you me it will be getting all of my letters back to the states haha

Misc.

 I needed to share this from ifunny. Absolutely priceless and I wish I had invented it.





AHHH. New glasses :) I was going to an old person look, thought I'd try it out for a bit and
prob get new glasses in 3 months ahha






And here's some cool fruit configurations that the people at the cafeteria put together. They have chops!

FFXIV

Final Fantasy XIV comes out tomorrow (for pre-order) I'm super excited and I'll play til my little heart drops! I highly recommend it. Here are some screen shots.

 This is Qwerty Sobriquet. She's going to be my main character :D And I'm super excited cause 1) She's really tall and 2) She's a race that I think will be less played so I'll be unique!

The name comes from Charles Dickens. The ol' english word sobriquet means 'nickname' or 'alias' and I like it for it's irony. Qwerty is just creative. Simple, obvious, and so much so that no one else thinks to use it as a character name. Priceless!

 Look at the height difference! It is HILARIOUS when the short characters have to look up whilst talking to me.

The NA beta went down for a day so I played on a Japanese server and found this group...sitting. This is my other character that I'll be using :) He's a male miqu'ote just like everyone else plays but they are just so cute I couldn't resist!