LUMOS

Never a dull day.  Went to sleep at 4-4:30 AM this morning after having yet another awesome-packed conversation on skype chat, slept through a power outage this monring, woke up and worked on Christmas gifts, felt really sore, sick, and dizzy in the late afternoon and crashed until around 8 PM, only to have the electricity go out (again) in the middle of microwaving a frozen dinner.  Of course.  I spend hours sleeping in the dark, and when I finally wake up, the power goes out.  >.<

....

Good thing that I have my 2 AA Cell Mini Maglite Flashlight that can convert to candle mode!  Seriously.  Along with the [much] larger literally-bright-as-freaking-daylight/disaster-ready-and-good-self-defense-weapon flashlight, they may be the most useful and thoughtful gifts that I've ever gotten from a guy, I feel like I can never thank him enough (and have repeatedly done so, and is likely very tired of it, perhaps to the point of regretting having given it to me xP ).  I've had to use it so many times already, it's the perfect small flashlight.  If you don't have an excellent small flashlight, you should really invest in this one.   Flashlight specs

LUMOS!  UTEVO GRAN LUX!  

So while I was waiting for the power to go back on, thanks to my tiny flashlight and 2 candles, I pan-heated the half-frozen tray of Chicken Alfredo Florentine in the total non-darkness while my mom worked on a crossword puzzle and my sister played Chuzzle Place (pffft) on her new laptop.  It's times like these that make me and my sister realize how much we rely on the internet. ... And how often our power and internet goes down.  >.<

I was content making hand shadows on my kitchen cabinet.
Look, it's a wolf!  Now it's a....Geodude?  ... aww, screw this.

After the power finally came back around 9:30 PM, I went on Facebook and saw my news feed comprised almost entirely of posts relating to power outages.  My family and I previously thought that it was just my neighborhood, but apparently, it was all over the island.  According to the news, the power outages were due to one or two transformers blowing out and the Hawaiian Electric Company purposely turning off the power to reduce the strain on them.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★ INTERNET   ★★★★★★★

REDDIT GIFTS

Ah, Reddit.  The source of profound amusement, random education, both deeply heartwarming and disturbing stories and pictures, and everything in between.  Up until now, I have been content to casually lurk and laugh heartily at the posts (and more often, the comments), but this early morning, the level of regard and fear that I have for this site has been deepened considerably after learning about a truly epic event, the Reddit Secret Santa Gift Exchange .  

From what I heard from my friend who is participating (and got matched up with a hot Asian gamer model chick,  of course that would happen to you  >_>  ) in this year's exchange, this is the world's biggest secret santa exchange.  Some of the gifts highlights of last year's exchange have included things like a pile of cash, kindles, ipods, an electric guitar, consoles/games, a 50" HDTV, professional portraits/paintings, being serenaded by Jimmy Fallon and the Roots, but also weird things, like paperclips, six 22 pound boxes of beer, a box of dirt, Moais, ever issue of Playboy since the recipient's birth year (1986), hookahs, drug (and *ahem*)-related stuff.  

Ideally, the objective once you get your Reddit secret santa recipient is to stalk their posts/comments/facebook/etc, to try and get to know them and their interests/etc. as well as possible before choosing what will, hopefully, be thoughtful and awesome gifts. (You know, like how you're supposed to choose gifts for really close friends/lovers, except for complete strangers) But according to said friend, a lot of people just get gift cards and $20 bills or something too.  ...Even so, I'm thinking this is definitely something that I want to take part in.  *w*

According to the Reddit gift site, they have other exchanges, like Arbitrary Day, " a celebration of nothing in particular. The goal is to have fun and make others happy."  Sounds right up my alley.

Hey, that reminds me.  I still haven't heard from my dA "Gotta Craft Em All" group Secret Santa Exchange... Still have until the 15th to hear from them.  *waku waku*  >w<

★★★★★★★★★★★★★ VOCALOID   ★★★★★★★

After skimming through my subscribed dA group journal entries, the post about the new vocaloid IA caught my eye.  She's based off of the Japanese singer, Lia, and the official song demo is her cover of "Tori no Uta" from Aria, which Lia sang.  I must say, I'm quite impressed.  Even though there are still heavy artificial traces, the line between synthetic and real voices is definitely becoming more blurred.  If you don't pay too much attention while you listen to her song, you might not realize that it's synthetically composed!  (....maybe.)

In other vocaloid news, there are the new Spanish-singing vocaloids, Bruno and Clara, and English vocaloid Oliver, whose voice is based off a 13 year old British boy.  Shota fangirls, rejoice.  *stares at my sister*