** Please note: the items highlighted in yellow (or have a ♥ next to them!) are those that are at the top of my priorities list. Most everything can be found online at substantially cheaper prices. ALSO, those with a strikethrough are things I’ve already got :) **

1. Microsoft XBOX 360 ♥
2. League of Legends Riot Points card, found at Best Buy.
3. Star Wars: The Old Republic game, for PC.
4. POLAR FT4 Heart Rate Monitor, in purple. ♥
5. Steve Madden Ace Boot in Black, size 8.5
6. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (Oblivion), for XBOX 360 ♥
7. Steampunk Cuff Watch, by Aranwen on Etsy.com
8. Tiffany’s sterling silver a) Infinity bracelet and/or b) Somerset bracelet with buckle
9. Kanye Houndstooth shawl/scarf in black/grey and white, pink and black.
10. Steve Madden Luxe – Craze in Multi-Glitr, Pewter, size 8.5
11. Ryka ASSIST XT 2, in  gray and aqua, size 8.5

12. BOOKS:

• Daughter of Smoke & Bone – Laini Taylor ♥
• The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern ♥
• The Replacement – Brenna Yovanoff
• Enclave – Ann Aguirre
• Hex Hall – Rachel Hawkins
• Across the Universe – Beth Revis

13. Gift Cards ♥

• DSW
• Ulta
• Famous Footwear
• Kohl’s
• Amazon.com

14. NOT PICTURED (some are clickable):

• New computer/computer parts ♥
• Newegg.com gift card
• Gaming headset (over the ear style) ♥
• Razor Lycosa, mirror edition
• MAC full brush set
• 2-finger rings, necklaces, bracelets
• Dr. Scholl’s SELENA slipper booties in black, size M ♥
• Logitech Computer Speakers (any kind of simple ones, nothing fancy) ♥
• Probably a new car? Thanks, bros.

XOXO,
Shana ♥

When you flip a coin, what are the odds of it coming up heads? 50-50. Either it will be heads, or it will not. When you roll a six-sided die, what are the odds that you’ll roll a three? 50-50. You’ll either get a three, or you won’t. That’s reality. Don’t fall into the childish “it’s one-in-six” logic trap. that is precisely what all your adolescent authority figures want you to believe. That’s how they enslave you. That’s how they stole your conviction, and that’s why you will never be happy. Either you will roll a three, or you will not; there are no other alternatives. The future has no memory. Certain things can be impossible, and certain things can be guaranteed – but there is no sliding scale for maybe. Maybe something will happen, or maybe it won’t. That’s all there is. What are the chances that your sister will die from ovarian cancer next summer? 50-50 (either she’ll die from ovarian cancer or she won’t). What are the chances that your sister will become America’s most respected underwater welding specialist? 50-50. It will happen, or it won’t. There are two possibilities, and both are plausible and unknown. The odds are 2:1. These facts are irrefutable.

Quasi-intellectuals like to claim that math is spiritual. They are lying. Math is not religion. Math is the antireligion, because it splinters the gravity of life’s only imperative equation: Either something is true, or it isn’t. Do or do not; there is no try.”

10 Days until: Christmas Winter Break

17 Days until: Christmas Eve

18 Days until: Christmas Day

24 Days until: New Years Eve / My birthday

27 Days until: FINALS WEEK

31 Days until: Philadelphia!

41 Days until: Begin New Term

So the most recent Facebook trend seems to be the favorite childhood cartoon profile pic. The status message went something like this: “Change your fb profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal? To not see a human face on fb till Monday, December 6th. Join the fight against child abuse; copy & paste to your status to invite your friends to do the same!“

I don’t know about any of you, but I have a huge problem with all these Facebook “trends.” Like the one above, they all claim to support the fight against [insert charity/cause here]. But can someone tell me how changing my fucking profile picture to my favorite childhood cartoon supports the fight against child abuse? How many of you retards actually sat there and said, “Oh. Em. Gee. It’s Rainbow Bright — FUCK CHILD ABUSE!” If you were like the majority (and I mean like 99.99%) of people, you had probably said something along the lines of, “Oh. Em. Gee. I LOVED/hated THAT CARTOON! Remember [cartoon]!? That one was SO awesome!”

Guess what, guys? When you changed your profile pic… NOTHING HAPPENED. Did you notice that? Or is the magic Fight Against Child Abuse fairy still counting how many morons there are on Facebook (I don’t think she has that many fingers)?

I think the last Facebook trend was the “update your FB status to say where you put your purse down when you walk through the door” trend. But they passed it around in private messages so every female had the status message that read something like, “I like it on the counter.” — and this was supposed to raise awareness for… uhh, I don’t even remember what. Probably breast cancer? I’m going to go ahead and just say breast cancer. Yeah. Pretty sure my awareness for breast cancer was raised all of… 0%.

Before that, it was your bra color. I just… I don’t even.. what is this– it bugs me because people are missing the whole point of trying to do this in the first place.

If people wanted to REALLY make people aware – they would link sites and encourage donations – they would encourage reading up and becoming informed. Child abuse, breast cancer, and every other type of awareness out there need more than just to become “the next Facebook trend”. They deserve more. These are serious matters that don’t give a flying fuck about your bra color, your favorite cartoon or even where you set your purse down when you get home.

Why.. in the entirety of these viral trends has nobody ever given me the link to learn more about the problem? Why hasn’t anyone linked to http://www.savethechildren.org or http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org or invited me to donate via http://www.thebreastcancersite.com?

You know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of how people say they believe in God, and they have “morals” and yet – those same people who fornicate and drink themselves to death, the same people who lie, steal, and cheat. They go to church on Sundays when it’s not football season. They pray to God whenever they choose, and instead of thanking him for the life they are living, they ask for more.

I don’t understand people at all. I, myself, am a hypocrit. I’ve been guilty of it all – but I’ve grown and become more aware of what it means to be a person, and not just a human. We have responsibilities and we have choices. None of which involve changing my profile picture on Facebook.

It wasn’t until my second time through that a silver heart zipper-pull caught my eye. I dug through the mountains of faux leather until I found it: a shiny black, croc print satchel with accentuated silver zippers by Kathy van Zeeland. Now, I can’t claim labels like I used to, so $40 on a purse (originally $90!) that I’m in love with is absolutely fine by me. I remember when things were different and I’d only rock designer… but le sigh, that time has come and gone. Anyway, I’m not a big fan of animal prints – I think the only one I can really stand is giraffe, and even that’s pushing it. But this purse… it was truly love at first sight. In fact, I think the croc print actually made it more appealing.

We went to dinner at Olive Garden (diet? what diet?), and Teresa and I ended up drinking and entire bottle of Moscato. Mmm, tipsy & shopping is just… fabulous.

I did a lot of my Christmas shopping last night, and I am pretty much done. All I have left is to buy the gift for my Secret Santa, and I – am – dunzo! I even did a little personal shopping (other than my amazing purse) afterward. Yipee~! Merry freakin’ Christmas! :)

It was really hard to eat my albacore and cucumber sandwich last night. It was a really simple (read: plain) sandwich, and I grumbled about every bite. LOL. Solid white albacore tuna with just a smidge of mayo, and fresh, thin sliced cucumbers on regular white bread. I would have used “healthier” bread, but this is all I had in the house at the time, and I didn’t want to go across the street to buy bread.

I always feel weird going grocery shopping after Thanksgiving, like… we just had a big feast, but yet we used all the groceries. And to be honest, I’m not the type of person who enjoys eating cranberry turkey sandwiches for two weeks straight. Don’t get me wrong, they are deeeeeelicious, but I’m not a fan of monotony.

The gym was practically empty on Friday – which was a good thing. Everyone was out in the Black Friday madness, I guess… or having a turkey hangover. Since I was total heifer for Thanksgiving, I felt the need to like, double my workout and sweat my ass off. To be honest, I think I went 150% lol. Better than normal, not as much as I’d like, but I’ve decided to take things slow this time and not damage my body in the process.

Anyway, I think today Lynna and I are going to brave some stores and check out sales. This year, among our friends, we’ve decided to do a Secret Santa. I’m so excited! I already know what I’m going to get for mine. I actually found it online for $20 cheaper than I did at the store – SCORE! Which brings me to Cyber Monday, Black Friday’s younger cousin. I’m wondering if I should wait, as many retailers offer free shipping and other sweet incentives. Argh, saving money during the Christmas season is like a huge game – trying to find the best deals at the right times. We’ll see how this plays out…

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already Thanksgiving day. It’s come up so fast! Anyway. I probably only have a handful of people in my life – but I’m thankful for them all. I ended up doodling on a piece of paper (above), and I got this fancy idea to send it to my friends via picture mail. Apparently, I didn’t think it through enough because my phone ended up doing something weird, and just shut itself off in the middle of sending. Yeah – A for Effort, I guess.

And speaking of effort, this Thanksgiving I’m making healthy side dishes to bring over to Lynna’s mom’s house. I’m making grilled garlic asparagus and a tomato/cucumber pasta salad. Now that I think about it, I feel like I probably should have added broccoli and black olives to the pasta salad. Oh, well… maybe next year! :)

Gotta love the holidays, it is the best and worst time of the year for anything! Anyway… I’ll probably be back after I’m done stuffing my face for the day. Let’s pray I remember my camera this time. :)

So it’s Tuesday morning, and if you play World of Warcraft (WoW), you know today as Maintenance day. Normally, if maintenance is scheduled it begins at 3:00am pst and ends at 11:00am pst. Sometimes all that’s needed is a simple server restart. But other times, there are Tuesdays when Blizzard decides to be a huge pain in the ass. Implementing a new and fairly large patch never bodes well (my entire UI is custom and I sometimes find myself coaxing it to play nice). Necessary, but a pain in the ass nonetheless. Today is such a day.

UPDATE: SERVERS ARE UP! Patch 4.0.3a: Of course there’s extended maintenance today! I have a feeling it’s going to be extended well passed 1:00 PM UPDATE: 5:00PM. What did we expect, though? With this patch comes the Shattering — the changing of the face of the Azeroth we’ve grown accustomed to. Even though you can’t log onto servers, you can bring up the log-on screen which has been updated as well.

And if it’s your first time loading it, you’ll be treated to the Cataclysm/Deathwing cinematic. Everyone seems really hyped about it but I’m not that impressed. I am, however, excited for the new race/class combinations – I’ve been waiting for a Blood Elf warrior since The Burning Crusade!

They are also removing the portals from Dalaran/Shattrath city and replacing them with trainers. Uh, I think it could have waited. Now I’m going to have to actually travel to a city (or hire a mage). There will be the new gnome/troll starting areas, and city quartermasters. I wish I would have taken the time to run around and take screen shots of the old Azeroth with my priest, but I was lazy and didn’t bother to. Head over to MMO-Champion.com if you want to know more (there’s a list of things that are and aren’t included in 4.0.3a).

This now begs the question: What am I going to do first? /sigh.
Also — where the hell is my dance studio? :(