Grabbing the list of video games from this post (and adding a couple), here's the current status on each:

• Okami - Done! (2008-1212)... and newgame+ has been started. =)
  
• Odin's Sphere - Might as well restart, it's been so long
  
• Osu! Tatakai! Oendan! (1&2) - Essentially done... just want to play more before they go back to Shi
• Portal - Halfway there... finished the "tutorial" bit
  
• Smash Bros Brawl - just need to play more
  
• Tales of Abyss - Need to restart
  
• The World Ends With You - Depends on if Shi wants it back or not and more importantly... when....
• Ygg: 99 Moksha - Server's dead, not going to happen.
• Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - Last Dungeon to finish
• Zelda: Twilight Princess - Want to try at some point, no rush since I've seen Buru play through 95% of it.
• Zelda: Wind Waker - DONE! (2008-12-08)

So... haven't written in a bit (apparently, exactly a month... give or take a few hours) and a fair amount has happened.

Big things: Houston, employment, and uh... okay... so not much else....

The big thing of Novemeber was my trip down to Houston, Texas to visit with ruaki and Job on the 20-25. The trip was definitely worth it, even despite the plane mix-ups on route there*. I can plot the course of what I did by what we ate... so much yummy food... I'm going to burning off this pudge for a while yet. Highlights of the trip: plane ride down, Bolt, Ren Faire, sitting around in PJs all day playing video games and watching shit, Cheesecake Factory, and of course, seeing Roo and Jon. The good times did not stop the whole time I was there.

And when I was down there, I got a piece of really nice news... my work contract – which was originally ending December 20th – got extended to the end of March. Which means Christmas is affordable this year and a fun time will be had by all. Also means no job hunting in January which makes me particularly happy.

* If I have not told you about the fun with planes on the way down and you want to know, just ask.

And there should be another book entry coming up soon (as soon as I remember all the books I've read since the last one)... and possibly some random chatting about games....

Because I figure everyone should have at least one drunken entry in their journal, I'm posting tonight.

Currently I'm still somewhat buzzed from dancing* and the alcohol involved therein: 4 hours of almost non-stop dancing combined with a) double Alabama Slammer (3oz), b) Smirnoff Ice c) 2 screwdrivers (1 oz vodka each) and d) a polar bear shot (oh so very very yummy), have me quite happily buzzed and or tipsy right now.

* tonight was The Comic Book Shoppe's annual Halloween dance and the first one I've attended.

Overall tonight was a great success and very enjoyable. Started off a little shaky: I had planned to be out of the apartment around 8ish... I ended up leaving at 9. This delay ended up being a very good thing as when I arrived at 9:30, there really wasn't anyone I knew in attendance so I ended up dancing with the three random people on the dance floor to not seem like even more of a reject than I was. Thankfully around 10ish, many people that I knew started arriving so all was good.

So.. I spend the next three and a half hours dancing, flirting, and generally having a good time. I had one drink (the shot) bought for me, another person offered (but turned him down because as nice as he was, I didn't want to lead him on at all), and spent a good while reciprocally (I think... I hope) flirting with the cute guy from CBS.

So.. good evening overall. And still buzzed (my nose is somewhat numb... it's amusing) which means I should sleep well tonight.

... still haven't put up the Aozora photoshoot pics... no excuse other than I've been lazy.

So, this week is going to be crazy insane busy... thinking about all the I need to get done, and when I need to get it all done buy... it look quite doable until I remember that I completely lose Thursday for doing things...

My schedule (anything with a * is a priority):

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday:
- 9-6 Work
* buy fabric for pirate corset and blouse
- buy cheap tricorn pirate hat
* buy grocery staples (mmm... orange juice)
* do laundry
- start in on making the pirate corset/blouse
- when done pirate stuffs, continue with wings...

Thursday:
- 9-6 Work
- Dinner with parents?
- Monkey Majik concert!!!! (doors open 8pm)

Friday:
- 9-6 Work as a pirate!
- HALLOWE'EN!!!
- Reverse trick-or-treat CBS, Starbucks, uh... other places
- Party?

Saturday:
* Finish wings
- Heroes and Villains dance at 8pm... need wings...

Sunday: Sleeeep. And plush army... but SLEEP.

So yeah... that's my week. It's going to be interesting.

Been wanting to write a journal entry for a while, but just haven't been able to muster the energy and mood required to do so. Still not in quite in the right state to do a decent entry so this will probably be more or a rambling expulsion of whatever comes to mind.

Work is going good. Things are starting to pick up a bit again, and should continue to do so. Which is really good as I've ask for time off in November and have gotten the go-ahead to take it... provided I make up (most of) the hours missed. And I hate having it sit around and do nothing just so that I get in my required time (the first couple weeks of work were torture for just this reason). Also, we moved offices this weekend (or more appropriately, we packed out stuff Friday morning, and the movers were supposed to have moved everything Friday afternoon and Saturday). Monday morning will be interesting as we're in a whole new location and no one knows exactly what to expect when we arrive....

Also, re: those days off in November.... Houston here I come. Need to sit down with Roo and Jon (argh... I keep typing Job) again to hash out exact dates and times and make sure everything is okay and double check where I'm crashing when.... Maybe this would work better over email... I don't know Jon well enough to properly gauge his "okays": do they mean "That sounds like a good idea, but let me check stuffs before you go doing anything." or "Let's go with that. Book your ticket whenever.".

Did a photoshoot with Squeek a couple weekends ago in the Aozora costume. Got some really nice pics out of it... and some really silly ones as well. I'll be posting them on my LJ and cosplay.com after this probably... will update this post with the link when I do.

Another thing I've been meaning to do now that I've started reading actual physical books again (as opposed to the metric fucktons of fanfic I read (and still read) before...) is keep a list of the books I've read, possibly with mini reviews. So will start that now...

New:
- Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett

Old:
- The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede
- Beauty by Robin McKinley

( Click for reviews )

And I'm tired and rambling more than I should be so heading to bed now. Will do the cosplay stuff tomorrow...

Lately I've been on a creative bend. Not so much with the drawing and sketching, but with 3D stuffs.

A couple weeks ago, I realized that Hallowe'en was fast approaching... which means costumes. I'm feeling a little lazy this year, so didn't want to make anything huge, so instead I figured I should just modify something that I already have.

Going off a comment that a little kid made during the photoshoot I did a couple years back, I decided to add wings to my Akakuro costume and turn it into a dark fairy. Sketched them out last week and shaped the wire frame of the wings. This week I* soldered them to a U-bracket (coathanger) to complete the wire frame. This week I'm going to grab some tulle or other sheer mesh/material and cover them. Then all that's left is a bit of spray-painting so that I get the tips the red I want and all is good to go. Might toss some seed beads near the base of the wings if I find some that look good.

* "I" - my dad and his blow-torch did most of the work. I made a really pretty assistant.

Also, Saturday night I did up a prototype version of the Fatbird (RO Filir Homunculus). The colours are off as I didn't want to waste the nice blue fleece I had bought (little did I know just how little fleece I'd use), and the stuffing is just fabric scraps, but overall the little guy turned out quite well. Need to pick up some cream fleece, orange fleece, and proper stuffing and the work on the actual version can begin.

Also had the urge to possible redo my (make another) pirate corset so that it fits properly. Old one is too big and doesn't gap properly. =(

So... it's 11am.... and there's been two mishaps already today.

Woke up when the alarm went off at 7... and then promptly ignored it with the thought of "mmm... weeekend."

About 1.5 hours later realized that it was only Friday and the weekend sleeping-in doesn't start until the next morning. (Made it in to work for 10am... which is fine with the boss. I love my work*.)

(* let me rephrase... I love my work environment... I haven't been doing enough actual work to know how much I like it or not... Today's going to be another day of reading porn at the office and puttering about. Just like yesterday.)

The other bit requires a tiny bit of exposition. I have this fabulous Starbucks travel mug. It seals completely and doesn't leak at all. (I often fill it with tea in the morning before work, attach it with a carabiner to my bag. And nothing spills anywhere.) When I make tea and whatnot in it, my most common method of mixing things is to close the lid and shake-and-flip. You can probably see where this is going.

So, this morning we didn't have any milk in the apartment, so I just tossed a tea bag and hot water into the mug and ran. Got into work, grabbed some milk from the coffee supplies, dumped in a few sugar cubes, screwed the lid on, flipped the drinking flap thing down, and flipped the mug to mix. Unfortunately, I didn't put the drink-flat thing down quite far enough for it to seal completely. Tea all over my shirt. Yay.

And now the boss has run away for an appointment, just as I send him an email asking for info on something and won't be back until after lunch...

Because quoting Buru is all the rage:

Buru | 青 :
...
Buru | 青 :
there is...
Buru | 青 :
a head
Buru | 青 :
in the bathtub
Buru | 青 :
:(
Sha says:
XDDD
Buru | 青 :
:<
Sha says:
I'll remove it tomorrow morning when it stops dripping.
Buru | 青 :
;_;

Arrrgh.... so very very very bored at work this week.

I started a new job just under a month ago: web development for Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada. Overall, it's a really nice job and I enjoy the work. When I have it. My only complaint is that there isn't enough work getting to us (four temps). We know there's a ton of things to be done (~10 000 pages are supposed to be converted to xhtml and W3C verified by Christmas), but there's an insanely small bottle-neck at the step before us. I think I've spent at least half of my time here idling about on the internet. Which is hard to do with a) facebook b) livejournal c) Chi db d) photobucket/most photohosting sites and e) random other sites being blocked by the work filter.

Things I have done at work to pass the time over the past four weeks and the estimated time I've spent on each :

1. surfed what forums I can (5 hours)
2. reprogrammed a website from scratch to properly use CSS and not look (overly) horrendous... only to find out that they're going with a complete redesign. (20 hours)
3. programmed a quest for Ygg (8 hours)
4. talked with fellow temps (10 hours)
5. coffee/ice cream/random breaks (4 hours)
6. card games (1 hour)
7. minesweeper (2 hour)
8. sat around and literally twiddled my thumbs (2 hours)

Needless to say, I need work. I'm getting paid (decently) to sit in a chair. Which is well and all, but I'd rather actually be doing work. Even now, I'm doing up this entry in the raw HTML editor to take up more time.

Other things that have been happening in my life:

1. not a whole lot.
2. shopping with B. This is both a good and bad thing. I'm getting some really nice clothes... but I really need to not get any more for a bit. Except for shoes because I still need a few pairs of those (office shoes, winter boots, sneakers... tho I can probably pass on the sneakers a bit if I get the other two)
3. getting annoyed at the insane barista turnover at my Starbucks. The manager seems to be one of the few people that is consistent. I've lost all my good baristas and have to keep retraining the new ones to the confusion that is my drink. (Tall three pump white mocha three pump hazelnut mild coffee misto with whip.)
4. still helping out with the local anime group, tho I still wonder at times why I do.

Things that should be doing consist of the following:

• Watch Gintama so Roo can fangirl properly and I understand her when she does. I'm working on this one tho... I'm keeping up with the current releases... I just have to work through the insane backlog
• sleeping properly. Still haven't mastered the art of proper sleep schedules. Way too used to staying up until at least 2am. Which doesn't work well when you have to be up at 7am.
• Sewing: I have plans/ideas/fabric for a bunch of things. Just need to actually sit down and do them all. And email a couple people for how-to knowledge.
• Art: has been severely neglected and needs to be picked up again. Would be doodling now but I didn't bring my sketchbook with me to work today. May still doodle on paper I find here anyways.
• Books: my pile of things to read keeps getting larger and larger.
• Video Games: Need to finish Okami, Zelda: Wind Waker, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Portal; need to reattempt Tales of Abyss and Odin's Sphere; need to play more of Smash Bros Brawl; need to 99 my sin on Ygg.

I figured I'd actually log the progress of my cosplay endeavours this years as I'm not starting three days before the con for once.  This page will hopefully be kept up to date with the status of things as I go along.

For AnimeNorth this years there's three planned cosplays:

Paprika (Paprika)
To Be Worn: Friday
Current Status: 100%
Time Spent: 2 h shopping
Details:
 - Done!  Wig is here, just need to trim the bangs a bit.  10 minute operation.
Preview: Coming Soon

Hinamori Amu (Shugo Chara), school uniform
To Be Worn: Saturday or Sunday
Current Status: 100%
Time Spent: Waaaay too long (30-35 h ?)
Details:
 - Plaid is a harsh mistress.  It's going to be a bit until I work with it again
 - You can barely see where I fucked up the skirt. YAY!
 - My sewing machine does buttonholes.  Oh sweet hallelujah!
 - I'm pretty sure everything took double the time I expected it too.
 - too much handsewing.  Argh.
Preview: Coming Soon

Aozora (Original Design)
To Be Worn: Saturday or Sunday
Current Status: 100%
Time Spent: 20 h
 - Still not sure why I went with the haori pattern and not the kimono, but it works.
 - Obi is very pretty and relative simple to tie.  Relative to an actual obi.
 - need to redo the inside collar at some point.  Will probably end up being a handsewing nightmare.
Preview: Almost Done;  Ignore the broken legs;  Front;  Obi

So my plans to do a daily log of progress fell through when I started finishing up at 3-4am.  I just wanted to sleep.  But here's a summary:

Day 3 (Sat. May 18, 2008)
Finished off Aozora with by doing the obi. Ended up making it into three parts: the belt, the bow, and the bow-tie. All of which are reversible blue-black.  Then went to show off to Shi, and she took pics (which can be seen on the overview page).  Relaxed for remainder of the evening.  Noted that wigs have left LAX towards Canada according to USPS website.  Yay!

Day 4 (Sun May 19, 2008)
Started in on the skirt.  I think there was a couple hours of pleat and iron, pleat and iron, find out you're pleating in the wrong direction, iron flat, and then start all over again.  Started sewing things together as well... I think I got the bottom hem, the pleats (once again forgetting to taper them a bit so I have a tube skirt), and looked at attaching the zipper, but didn't.

Day 5 (Mon May 20, 2008)
Sucked it up and started in on the zipper of the skirt.  Realized that I didn't quite think the zipper placement through as much as I should've.  Ended up having to add in an extra little panel so that the zipper was better placed and didn't look like utter suck.  You can barely see where I screwed up.  Yay!  Finished off the skirt with the waistband after debating what pattern I wanted to show.  ("Do I want it predominantly red, or black, or with the white stripe... or maybe I should offset the verticle strips half a panel in comparison to the skirt...")

Day 6 (Tues May 21, 2008)
Started in on the socks/leggings.  Figured it'd take me a couple hours to get both done as they're just tubes with a some button holes in them.  HAH!  Little did I know.  I think I spent three hours on one alone.  Tho it could've been much much much worse if I hadn't figured out how to do button holes with the sewing machine.  That saved me probably a good 6 hours and my sanity.  Managed to get one leg completely done as I had started fairly late.  Also it's amusing/embarrassing to buy 20 cm (8") of fabric...  Declare that anything I don't get done on Wednesday, isn't going to get done at all because I really need to sleep Thursday night.
CanadaPost website hasn't updated the tracking of the wigs beyond leaving LAX... getting slightly panicky now.

Day 7 (Wed May 22, 2008)
Finished the leggings and then pranced about the apartment in them in celebration for a bit.  Did the little armband for the jacket (ARGH MORE HANDSEWING), and added the cuffs onto the jacket as well (EVEN MORE HANDSEWING KILL ME NOW).  Painted the cross barrettes for the hair to a less vibrant red (I think there's about 10 coats of red acrylic on those things...) and then hot-glued them to the actual barrettes.  Things are looking up if you ignore the lack of wig.  Spray-starched the hell out of the skirt so that the pleats are nice and crisp.  Will probably starch more at the con.
CanadaPost declares my wigs are with customs in Montreal.... FIVE DAYS after they leave the states.  Panic starts setting in as I've had things go through custom in a couple hours, but also have had then sit there for a few days.  Start making arrangement to get the wigs to AN if they hit Ottawa on Friday, and alternative wig arrangements if they don't arrive at all.

Day 8 (Thurs May 23, 2008)
Woke up, checked email. WIGS ARE OUT FOR DELIVERY!  I take back everything mean I've ever said or thought about you CanadaPost.  I love you so so much right now.  Wigs arrive at the apartment noonish.  Celebration time!  Try on the Paprika wig... need to cut the bangs a bit and hair spray everything into place.  Will get Shi to help with that tonight.

Spent much of Sunday working on and off on the Aozora costume. It's 90% done, just need to do the obi (going the cheater obi method to save on fabric costs, and figure out what I'm doing with my legs, hair, and face.

Adventures of the day included:
- getting everything done to the last thing (sewing on the collar) and realizing that I didn't really need the side panels so having to go rip those out.
- remembering just how much I dislike handsewing things.
- remembering just how much I hate sewing curves

In the end, it turned out quite nicely. I want to redo the collar at some point as it's uneven on the inside and therefore looks blergh if I turn this thing inside out (which I can do!).

But here's what it looks like currently, with the skirt that I had made before. (The obi is just some black fabric wrapped around the obi for my yukata)

So, decided to really start in on the cosplay for this year now, when I have a bit of time, instead of later when I hopefully will be working.  Decided to tackle the Aozora original design first as it's not dependent on a wig that I'm hoping will be here on time.  And I'm procrastinating on the pleating.

Anyhoo, today's adventures included:

• 2 hours of pinning and cutting out the pattern pieces for the kimono top, during which I realized that I didn't have enough fabric, so wandered over to the fabric land and picked up another meter.  I love living a five minute walk to the fabric store.
• Confusion over what the heck I was suppose to do with the pattern as the sleeves are constantly getting turned this way and that as you sew bits and pieces together.
• Realizing that I had only cut one sleeve out of the fabric.
• FIRST BLOOD.  Nothing bad, just a pin prick and no blood on anything.
• 5 hours of sewing, pinning, deciphering the pattern, and talking on Ygg so I didn't go insane.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

That is all.

So... while I'd love to be able to tackle all this stuff now, I really don't have the time.  So this is the giant list of things I want to do over my winter break...  Lets see how many I actually get done. (List may be have items added or removed at any give time)

Art
 - paintings x3 (aka use my canvases)
 - design a new original outfit for AnimeNorth... I'm thinking something in blue
 - update website/scan sketchbooks
 - attempt some Christmas cards
 - redo face-up on Mykal

Gaming
 - Tales of the Abyss
 - Odin's Sphere
 - Godhand (attempt)
 - Wii stuffs.... maybe if we get one
 - ICO

Misc
 - fix/redo the lining in my double breasted "peacoat"...
 - full cleaning of the apartment
 - Christmas shopping
 - do the network cabling properly
 - check up on B's fish

So I've been informed on many fronts that I need to write in here more often... we'll see if I can manage it. I never know what to write here as I assume that people don't want to read about what I do from day to day as it's really boring... and I really don't lead an exciting social life and the work place is filled with family so there isn't any amusing office stories.

Anyhoo... big news lately is the new apartment... but everyone knows about that. It's quite nice, filled with stuff to make it all nice and homey. Still need to get the curtains up a little more properly than they are currently, and wire the network cable a bit better so that it doesn't run across the hallway.. and so that Andrew gets the network for his desktop. Hopefully I'll remember to take a bunch of pics so people can get an idea of the apartment while it's still relatively clean.

What else... I did a photoshoot with Shi back in July (or was it June) of my AnimeNorth cosplay (I really need to think up a name for it as it's not just for AN, nor is it really cosplay, and it isn't really gothic lolita either... hrm... help anyone?). Anyways the photoshoot when quite well, got some really nice shots, and some rather silly ones as well. I definitely want to try this again later in the summer/fall, maybe once the leaves start turning. And once I get the stupid hat done, or I find something interesting to do with my (short) hair...

What else... I've* started playing Tales of the Abyss again, and Odin's Sphere**. Both I'm playing primarily for the pretty-pretty and the story. I'm going to attempt to write up a full game blog on both of these as I go along. The details, frequency, and other stuffs re: these blogs will be worked out later.
* By "I've started playing" I mean I'm watching Andrew play while I play Tear during the battles
** Odin's Sphere on the other hand I'm actually playing myself, albeit on the easy setting, but more on that later.

What else... school starts up in three weeks. ACK!! I'm so not ready. I need to finalize my fourth year project (boo... nothing really appeals to me, but I need to figure something out...). Also need to raid Carleton for a bus pass and a new agenda.. might take an afternoon off work next week and do that.

And finally, AC³ rant: arg!!! Yay?!? I really wish I could rant properly on this, but stupid confidentiality thing... arghsfsfjs.

To quote britt's msn "saddest day ever"

B left for Victoria today, and then she's onto Europe. So it's going to be me and Scott in the apartment for six weeks. It's going to be interesting. (and not sure if Scott's going to be here the whole time either... no real clue what's going on with that boy).

And the part that makes it a truely horrible day: ShadowKat died today. She's been sick for the past month -- barely eating, sleeping constantly, not really focusing on anything, sniffles and goopy eyes -- and while she was better than when she first started showing symptoms, she wasn't that much better. And apparently last night/early this morning she was very sick. B and Scott took her into the vet. About 2ish this afternoon they got a call back from the vet: they weren't sure what was wrong with her and the tests/procedures at this point are going to get very expensive and might not even be able to help her at all. So they made the decision to have her euthanized; this was probably the best decision as she had lost that spark in her and wasn't the same little kitten that would play tag and hide-and-go-seek with us.

So rest in peace little ShadowKat/Widget/Diamond/Kit'en. You were loved and will be greatly missed.

FriendsJournals have been going on about abjds again. That along with a possibly cosplay idea has me thinking about getting one again. Doubt I will because I doubt I'll have the moneys to spare for one.

But if I did, I this I'd end up getting Shushu. I find myself liking her mold a lot between the maturity in the face, but still a bit of innocence. And the non-pinched nose.... its not quite a button nose, but it's no where near as thin and pointy as a lot of the other CP sculpts. And the mini-fee size is kinda nice... as fabulous as the big dolls are, they're kinda big. And not so fond of the molds. (tho they're be easier to sew for...)

Still very doubtful I'll get one unless I somehow get a fabulous windfall of some sort this year. But she's cute. And make a half decent Hikaru....

Eeeeeeeeeeee! Almost apartment getto! Need to pass credit check (shouldn't be a problem) and sign the lease application, but eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Tentative moving date: August 1st. Two months to buy furnishings and whatnot.

Was talking with Shi the other day about aBJDs and whatnot and I solidified some of the reasons I'm hesitant to get one.

1) OMG expensive. I'm not the type of person to spend a lot of money ($100+) on something unless I know I'm going to get a lot of use out of. The only items that price that I've done have been a) my crinoline; b) my camera; and c) my ipod. And none of them are really impulse buys as I had been thinking about getting one for a while and had weighed the pros and cons and came to the conclusion that I needed them. (Well.. the crinoline less so... that was sorta impulse.) An aBJD is such a frivolous buy that its hard to justify the cost; I could get a laptop for that price, or put the money into a new desktop. But on the other hand, it would be great for realizing clothing designs and satisfying that bit of my creativity.

2) The 'doll fandom' requires you to pimp your doll. You must (photo)whore out the doll or your not truly enjoying your doll. I'm not the type to be able to do that. I'm not a photographer; I don't have the urge to go out and take pictures and pose the dolls. Beyond the initial inspection of faceups and clothing, I don't find a whole lot of enjoyment at looking at other dolls unless there's something very different about them (ie. a mold I haven't seen before, mods to the doll, body tattoos, elaborate homemade clothing, etc). Dollmeets get boring after the first hour of cooing over the other dolls.

3) The personality thing. I'm not an RPer; I've tried and just can't get my head into the mindspace of another character. Assigning (developing) a persona for the doll is beyond me. I've tried with many times with many things to do this, but all I end up with is a fact sheet that reads like a personality assessment (Mykal is 5'10" with strawberry blond hair and green eyes. They're a bit shy, but has a mischievious streak. Enjoys warm foggy nights.), and has no real soul. I can't bring the personality out in the photos/writing/art as it doesn't really exist in my head beyond a set of assigned facts. This lack of personality, along with the want to photowhore, means that I don't get the fandom.

So if I get a doll, it'll be to use an artists' prop (posing for art, and a mannequin for clothing designs, etc.) and not as a child/personality. And for a prop -- even the minifée at ~$350-400 USD -- it's extremely expensive.

So doll = backburner for a while. May come forward a bit after AN if I see a minifée Lishe or Shushu and like them, or may go further back if I don't see anything I like. In the mean time, I'll enjoy repainting Mykal (the head Roo sent), over and over. Maybe let Andrew give it a go when he moves in.

And then there's that camera that Shi bought... so pretty/nice... but would I use it enough to justify the cost (how is it for battery munching?)?