Chanty's Room

Generalia

2011-09-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

About three months into the MS drug. I hate it. 2 months, 2 weeks and 4 days into the constant headache. Another week and I'll be talking to the neurologist about my options (changing medication, or getting something to give me a little respite from time to time.)

Injection site reaction isn't improving; the first half-hour afterwards is sheer agony, and the several days following is a lesser misery. The thought that perhaps this drug isn't working, that the lesions haven't slowed down at all, is something I carry with me all the time. It's a little black rain cloud that follows me through each and every day. I try to be optimistic, I really do, but the constant pain wears down my edges, and makes me irritable and sad and hostile. I think that, given the idea of the drugs in general, I'd be happier if I KNEW something. Knowing that the pain was short term, and saving me from something ugly down the road, would make it better. It's impossible, though. The very nature of the condition, the nature of the "treatment" -- it's just a stall. Nothing stops it. The drugs slow it down, but even slowing it doesn't won't save me from the horrible things that could come. Even if I only get one more lesion EVER, in the wrong place it could do something terrible... and permanent.

I know that it could be worse. I could have something that could be guaranteed to kill me. Up until I started on the meds I didn't have this self-pity problem either. I feel like my quality of life has declined drastically as a result of trying to treat the condition, and I'm just so freakin' unhappy about it. The treatment feels worse than the disease.

I get that I just need to wait it out. The headache will (probably) go away, I'll adapt to the shots at some point. There are new medications and treatments and discoveries all the time, and MS is a highly funded, well-researched disease.

That doesn't mean I want it. =(

Week 4

2011-07-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

Fourth week of meds started yesterday. Thankfully, the horrific side effects seemed to have relaxed. I'm not feeling the anxiety or the depression, I'm sleeping much better, my outlook in general has improved dramatically.

The new effects are slightly more tolerable, although still very annoying. My injection sites are generally fine the first day, and then by the day after they've turned into this huge, red, itchy, painful welt things. That lasts 4-5 days, so just about the time a site is getting better, it's time for another injection in the same area. Yay!

I'm also noticing a decrease in my stamina (can't work as hard or as long as I'm accustomed), but I think that will get better as my body adjusts. I also bruise easily. Like, INSANELY easily. Like, "OMG don't let that insect land on me aaaaaaah!" easily.

By and large, better. Still not at home in the reality of this new thing. Not comfortably settled into the changes it'll mean, and worried about the person that will come out the tunnel on the other side. I'm optimistic, though. =)

Week 1 of M.S. Drugs

2011-07-04T05:13:00.001-07:00

It's officially Monday, which means I've completed my first week of the Copaxone therapy (only several hundred more weeks to go.) Let's review.

Monday's injection was done at 2:30pm with the nurse during injection training. Used right arm as my first since supposedly the arms are the worst spot. It certainly lived up to my expectations, that shit is brutal. Deep, throbbing, burning, stinging pain, lasted about two hours. At 5 I had an MRI of my spine done (short version: yeah, that's fucked up too), and this is where I felt the start of a week's worth of anxiety (so far.) I hadn't been bothered by the MRIs up to that point, but they slid me into the machine and I couldn't stop sobbing. I felt this clawing, manic desperation to get out RIGHT THE FUCK NOW. I'd force myself to breathe and feel a little better for a minute, then the whole cycle started up all over again. Left the hospital around 6, cried the whole way home and most of the night.

Monday night I had a night terror about walking into the kitchen to kill myself. Woke up on the floor surrounded by cutlery (no utensils were harmed in the making of this post.)

Didn't go back to sleep cause I was pretty freaked out. Tuesday's shot was in the abdomen, hurt just as much as the damn arm did. Spent most of the day crying and exhausted, found out the results of the spinal MRI, felt like it was a major blow even though I was kind of expecting it. Started noticing that my mouth tasted icky (no resolution on that, still tastes gross) and stomach was in absolute torment (again, still happening.) Stayed up *really* late hoping to be too tired to dream, set my alarm with a 30 minute snooze and planned to use it all night. Dreamt that there were bugs in my skin, woke up scratching the hell out of myself. Yay alarm. Didn't go back to sleep.

Wednesday felt all of the above plus my lower back ached, my hands were shaking, and I had a dizzy spell on standing. Called the nurse who said I needed to come to the hospital right away. spent two hours with the nurse, who I think was trying to make sure I wasn't legitimately suicidal, had blood tests, told to stay on the shot but to ask my therapist for an anti-anxiety med. Went home, worked for a few hours, took my shot in my butt, had one of the worst nights I've ever had, not drug-related, but it's not really any of your business. Was up almost all night again.

Thursday was crushing depression, a sense that nothing will ever be OK again, plus the same stuff as above. Shot was in the right thigh, just as bad as all the other places. Had to talk myself into pushing the button, then cried on the bathroom floor. Saw my therapist at 6, who reminded me that she can't prescribe, told me to call the on-call at the hospital and get something that night, and that I needed to call her on her cell every day over the weekend. Someone evidently seemed unstable. Called on-call doc, was told, "too bad, so sad, can't give you a script for that. Maybe you should just try something relaxing?" Assholes. Another sleepless night (for those of you counting, that's 4 in a row now).

Friday AM called the hospital, they set me up with valium and an anti-depressant. Walked to the store and grabbed my scripts, got my hair cut, mood was definitely better. Shot was left arm, same reactions as before. Mouth still icky, tummy still in turmoil, hands still shaking. Popped a valium, managed to sleep for about 6 hours. Fedex guy woke me up at 8. Fuck them and their punctuality.

Saturday was good (shot: left side abdomen), same general stuff as Friday. Same with Sunday during the day (shot: left side butt), except even with the valium, I didn't sleep; it's Monday morning at 5 as I write this. Had another med-based round of anxiety, followed by more non-med misery.

I think the drugs will help. I know that they're putting me through a special version of hell, and there have been things that are definitely exacerbating the whole mess. It's hard to continue thinking it's worth it, and I can understand why so many people stop taking the meds. The worst part of this is I just want to feel normal and happy, and I feel robbed of the ability to be either of those things.

The MRI Journey

2011-05-31T17:48:00.000-07:00

Regardless of how careful you are with your clothing choices the day of an MRI, they will, undoubtedly, insist on MAKING you wear hospital garb. I wore clothes without a speck of metal knowing that I couldn't wear it in the machine. They still made me put on their robe-muumuu-cloak thing. You also get a totally kickin' pair of earplugs, too. (Note: if you're going in for an MRI and they offer to let you listen to music, you should probably just skip it. You won't really be able to hear shit over the noise, and you'll catch two words here and there and it'll annoy you.)

I'm too sexy for my smock.

There was a difference with contrast injection this time around, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. The first time, they pulled me out of the machine, gave me the contrast, and then pushed me back in. It was kind of a mini-break from the MRI experience. Almost like visiting Vatican City while you're in Rome. This time, though, they set up an IV port in my hand, and then remotely injected while I was still in the machine. The plus side is that you don't have to get rearranged to go back in, the bad side is you're in the machine THE WHOLE TIME. The IV insertion was also kinda crappy, because they use a huge needle to get the tube into your hand, and then eject the needle itself (remember, no metal!) Once you're wired, I would say refrain from doing the hand jive in the hallways.

This damn thing makes mosquitoes look awesome.

Oookay, so you're all IV'd up, you're lookin' fly in your hospital shit and earplugs, now it's time to hop into the machine.

Fuck you, Optimus Prime.

I was hoping that the MRI itself would be on of the open-variety, but it wasn't. It's actually smaller than the machine I was in before. Evidently the person hole in a 3 Tesla MRI is a lot smaller than person hole in the 1.5. It was substantially more cramped than before, but on the plus side it's slightly quieter and thunks quite a bit less.

If you've never had an MRI and are curious, they're incredibly noisy and not for the claustrophobic. You probably already knew that. What I'm guessing you DIDN'T know is that you'll FEEL the magnets doing stuff while you're laying there. They thunk and buzz and shudder and do all kinds of things. I would imagine that it's very similar to living inside the vibrator of an actively masturbatory female. The first time it happened to me I thought the machine was breaking down. It's a little frightening. Don't freak out, it's totally alright. Just think of it as a free massage! The technician doing the procedure will talk to you, too. Both times, the tech kept me updated on how many picture sets were left, how long each set would take, and frequently asked if I was alright. This time 'round, I ended up doing two sets of scans (with and without contrast), and the first set of images was split into 16 seconds, 1.5 minutes, 3 minutes, 1 minute, 3 minutes and 3 minutes. Then the tech did the contrast injection remotely (which was INCREDIBLY cold, and made my mouth taste like metal. Weird.), and she kinda cheated and just told me we were about 12 minutes out.

Then it was up to have the consult. This is the single most awesome thing about using Swedish. My MRI was scheduled for 11:30, and my follow-up with my doctor was at 1:30. No waiting over a weekend and worrying about what turned up.

So, that's the trip in a nutshell. I wanted to leave you with this: if you wake up with a mild case of amnesia in a strange hospital, and you don't know where you are, there's a REALLY easy way to tell if you're in Seattle or not.

Anxiety

2011-05-30T22:22:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is my 4 month check-up. MRIs will happen. Doctors will be spoken to. Many forms will be signed. The anxiety of waiting for the appointments to happen is far worse than the appointments themselves.

Even having gone through and MRI already, I find that I'm more freaked out about it than I was at first. I attribute this to a couple things; primarily, the first time I had my brain peeked at by giant magnets, the doctor told me, "Don't worry. This is just standard procedure, everything will be fine!" Yeah. Everything was NOT fine. I think that's the other primary cause. I KNOW something is wrong already.

I know that there are lesions, I know that I've experienced some other minor MS-y type things (itchy hands, some numbness from time to time, nothing that lasted more than half a day or so), so I fully anticipate that they'll take their snapshots and more things will be wrong than last time.

("And if you'll look out the window to your right, you'll see the largest lesion in the area!" "Ooooooooo." )

I also worry that something is wrong in my head that they didn't anticipate. It would be just the BEST THING EVER to find out that other shit was all wonkified. I think that mentality is from waiting for "the other thing" to happen. The second major event. The visual disturbance didn't bother me all that much until I knew that it wasn't a bad prescription, or a torqued contact lens. Once you know your brain is doing things it shouldn't, it changes the way you react to what's happening to you.

Right now I'm still in that stage of being monitored, where they wait for the second major exacerbation (which, I might add, doesn't include itchy hands or minor numbness.) Knowing that anything could happen, and I literally mean just about anything, is an incredible stressor. I would rather just have it happen and be done with so I can BREATHE and not be in this crazy state of flux.

I'm going to try to take pictures at the Swedish facilities tomorrow. I've not had an MRI there, and I think that from their literature they have an open MRI machine. I'm not entirely sure they'll be keen let me, but they underestimate my ability to throw a massive tissy fit.

For Reference...

2011-05-14T00:50:00.000-07:00

Here are the first two scenes I created, "Monster Guy" and "Frogs in the Woods." I know you are SO IMPRESSED by my creative naming scheme. Blow me, it gets the point across. ;-)

Both were created with crappy materials. Monster ended up being OK, I think mainly because of the monster's kick-ass tinfoil cloak. Frogs, however, ended up being really, really rough. I want to redo that one because I think there's a lot that can be done better. Both of these were done within a box, like a shoe box or something from Amazon, but working within the constraints of that space is frustrating. I prefer the newer, more open approach, since I can sprawl out as far as I want (or as far as my little work desk will allow.)

The Making of a Scene Abstraction

2011-05-14T00:24:00.001-07:00

So I've posted several photos of scene abstractions, and I've had a couple people ask how they're made. This abstraction, called "Teddy Bear", was pretty straight forward; not a lot of clay work involved, so it went quickly.

As with all my abstractions, step 1 is "have bad dream." The whole point of this process is to give reality to the weird shit in my head, and as a result, remove the sense of fear from it. It's really hard to be scared of something when it's teeny tiny and you can squish it in your hands. *squishsquish*

Step two is to make a quick, down-and-dirty concept sketch, so I have a general idea how I want it to come together. Of all the steps I skip, this is by far the most frequent. A lot of times I just wing it.

Step 3 is to start the clay work so it can be drying. This abstraction had very little clay work at all, just the teddy bear, so it was really easy. This is the most time consuming part of the entire thing; for Cubes, the clay bits took probably 10 hours total. BruuuuuuuTAL.

After the clay is formed and drying, I'll generally start on the backdrops or ground pieces, depending on how complicated they are. Teddy Bear called for a hallway type backdrop with dark, shadowy doorways.

Once the backdrops are finished, I can generally start painting the clay pieces. The namesake of Teddy Bear is pretty small, so he dried super fast. For Cubes, I ended up sticking the clay into the oven while I worked on backdrops. Or drank. I think it was drinking.

INTERMISSION! *music*

Whew, that was a nice break. Hey, our little bear is all snug in his first coat of paint, so now can give him his detail.

Now you throw all that shit together and setup for the picture. This takes a while. After I setup what I THINK the final scene will be, I'll take a peek through the camera and decide that I must have been snorting blow off a hooker's stomach, 'cause damn that looks like shit. Lots of fiddling ensues. I hum, I haw. At several points I decide that this was a stupid fucking idea, and think about chucking the whole thing into the trash.

After I get over my little mini freak-out, I start snapping pictures. I take a LOT of pictures. Teddy Bear was pretty easy, so I only took about 25. Cubes ended up being 47. Frogs in the Woods was closer to 70. I'll delete a lot. Some will be blurry, or too bright, or too dark, or wtf sepia, or any number of things that make them useless. There are usually a bunch that are pretty close with minor differences, so I open them up in GIMP (the cheap-ass version of Photoshop) and start looking at the details up close.

I also, admittedly, clean them up with GIMP. There are usually little problems, like flaring or rough edges, that are almost impossible to get right when you're working with clay and construction paper. It's just easier to tidy with software.

The end result is something like this:

I love doing these. They're crazy time-consuming (Teddy Bear was probably the simplest one I've done to date, and he took about 3.5 hours, not counting the time it's taken to write this post) but they're also very cathartic. Plus it's kinda fun to breathe life into something that was just rattling around in your head. =)

R.I.P.

2011-05-05T21:14:00.001-07:00

I'm turning into a fucking serial murderer. I'm sorry, little plant. :(

This Means War!

2011-05-01T12:43:00.001-07:00

Cubes

2011-04-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

Fencing: A Timeline

2011-04-28T22:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the last session in the first month class. It was awesome.

However...

I started with this (disregard the single blue toenail, I swear I'm not a Seanchan High Lady coming to collar you all and make you my weird slaves, promise. Merely too lazy to clean it off):

Courtesy of Tuesday night's class.

Then I did this for an hour and a half:

Lunge parry 5!

The result of which was this:

Why do you hurt me?

Next class starts on Tuesday, same time. The instructor told me that I had natural form with the saber (which is what's in pic #2), but I'm not sure I want to go that route. I love all the weapons, but I'm probably going to start with épée . Saber is fun, but feels a little club-y, if that makes sense. The body position is also murder on my bad hip. I like foil, but if you're going to use a thrusting weapon you should do épée instead and get the full body as a target. If you want the right of way rules, go saber and just slash and hack the shit out of your opponent.

All are fun, and if I wasn't allowed a choice it wouldn't matter, I'd still have a blast. What's funny is that our instructor told Brady that he should do épée and I should do saber, and we're probably going to do the exact opposite. Because we're like that. Belligerent to the bitter end!

Here's Brady being all tall and lanky and able to hit me from across the fencing studio without so much as fucking FLEXING a leg muscle. I'm not bitter. Shut up.

Meh meh meh, look at me. I'm all tall and shit.

And here's one of our classmates (very nice guy!) who had the BEST lamé ever. Check out the frilly cuff ruffles! Brady was totally jealous:

I say chaps, care for a spot o' tea?

So yeah, fencing is awesome. It's a fabulous workout, it's a ridiculous amount of fun, and the people who do it are great; funny, interesting, GOOD people.

Why aren't you trying it yet?

Rampant Quotations

2011-04-27T18:45:00.001-07:00

Quotes where they shouldn't be annoy the hell out of me. Quotes aren't to be used for emphasis! When your sign reads, "Come on in and taste our "delicious" food!" my brain goes into overdrive trying to figure out your specific definition of delicious.

Perhaps you are an alien in a human's body and you spent your childhood playing kick the spolrznak and eating soylent crumb cake.

Or maybe you were abandoned by your family on a camping trip because you kept hitting your sister with sticks instead of singing kumbaya and you wandered off into the woods all alone with your stick and the cowlicks in your hair and then you were adopted by a pack of wild ostriches and just accepted the fact that you were to spend your adolescence having large birds puke food down your throat.

You see? The quotes ruin the message. So imagine my chagrin when I saw the following in Bartell's:

Battle Wounds Evolved

2011-04-25T19:38:00.001-07:00

Awww yeah, this is starting to look bit more like it! I can't wait for my doctor's appointment this week!

Doc: This is a safe place, is there something you want to tell me?
Me: It's not what it looks like! He loves me!!

All totally true, muahahaha!

Nom Nom

2011-04-25T01:15:00.001-07:00

A coworker brought in Phoenix Cake from Bakery Nouveau. Oh em effin' gee, super yummy. Flan in texture and flan++ in taste. Looking at it makes your ass bigger, but who cares? The twice-baked chocolate croissants were to die for as well. Yay gluttony Sunday!

Yay drinking!

2011-04-20T18:35:00.001-07:00

Drinking as a part of work functions? Best. Thing. Ever.

First battle wound

2011-04-19T21:52:00.001-07:00

Behold! My first fencing injury (if you don't count minor bruising, and I don't because I'm not a pussy.)

Solid hit from Brady with an epee, and legs are valid target. We'll probably end up doing saber and that will no longer be a good touch.

Hehe, that's kinda funny actually. Next time he smacks me somewhere that doesn't give a point I'm screaming, "Bad touch!!"

I am very proud of the whacking I took tonight, so I'm sure updates will be posted of the bruising progression.

Edit: the picture doesn't LOOK bad, but my leg feels like it's going to decide at any moment that it wants none of this bullshit, detach and leave. With any luck(?) it'll start to look as crappy as it feels, then I can share with you!

This Meeting of the WLBC Will Come to Order

2011-04-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

*GavelBang*

This (sort of) annual meeting of the Whiny Little Bitch Club will come to order. The chair acknowledges Chant, high mistress of the WLBC.

Thank you, madam chairperson. It's been a while since we've all gathered in one place to delve into the intricacies of our whiny little bitchitude. I've a few things to add to the running list of annoyances.

1. When people buy bagels for the office, they should be skinned alive if the order consists of 80 gajillion poppyseed bagels, but not a single asiago cheese.

2. I believe that you should be able to retract a mutually kind parting between employee and employer, in the event that in the days following the parting, it turns out the employee was actually kind of a knob gobbler. You should be able to make said person come back to work just so you can fire them.

3, That orderly, organized line that forms at the bus stop? THAT APPLIES TO EVERYONE. You are not so fabulous that you can skip the line and get on before everyone else. Stop being a self-important prick, you prick.

4. A battery indicator on any type of electronic device is essentially worthless if your battery goes from 1/2 on the meter to dead in the blink of an eye. That's about as subtle a decline as being thrown off mile-tall cliff.

That's all I have to contribute. As always, embrace your inner whiny little bitch, and find ways to help other walk in the bitchy light.

Blogging and Your Phone, a Primer

2011-04-18T21:40:00.001-07:00

Blogging on your phone via the web browser is an exercise in pain. If you haven't tried it yet, that's OK! Here's a handy guide for replicating the soul crushing agony.

1. Move to Alaska.
2. Go hunting with the locals.
3. Mid bear hunt (or deer hunt, or jackalope hunt, or whatever-the-fuck-they-hunt), strip down entirely, paint a target on your butt, and shake your junk in the face of the nearest, inebriated-est hunter.
4. Turn and run. Fast like a bunny now!

That sting you feel? That's not buckshot. That's the metaphorical pain of blogging with the wrong tools. And it's probably a little buckshot too.

I know this because I made a SINGLE post on the bus with the standard phone browser, and I wanted to rub a cheesegrater against my face to ease the hurt.

I was going to try the picture stuff too, but managed to contain myself. I had a great shot of Brady snoring and drooling too. You're on notice babe - you owe me something sparkly!

Analogies.

2011-04-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

Dropped a great analogy at work today. Coworker asked if the internal wiki was down. I said, "Yes, but it's like a battered wife being pushed down the stairs: it'll fall and scream for a couple minutes, then get up and deny that anything ever happened."

The Philosophy of Raiding as it Relates to Real Life and Work

2010-09-17T14:00:00.001-07:00

So my previous post rambled on, extolling the merits (or lack thereof) of various MMOs. My bestest ever girlfriend in Virginia read it, and proceeded to twist my arm to come back to WoW. (Note: in this context, "arm twisting" is defined as, "Hey, we're playing again, you should come back." "Okay, cool! Let me reactivate my account!")

It's been over a year since I participated in a raid. By the time we left WoW, I was exhausted. It's supposed to be a game, a hobby, a place to have fun, but leading raids easily turns into work. Strategies are researched, group composition is evaluated, player specs are considered and potentially re-worked. Do we have enough healers? Do our tanks have frost resist gear? Does our core group work well together? Can they all move out of rain of fire oh my god please move move move nevermind, wipe it up, we're done.

It's frustrating and thankless. You're an evil dictator when you criticize, and you have nothing at all to do with the success of the group. Looking back, there were moments I lost it, but on a very small scale. I never yelled, I tried to be supportive, and I did a ton of work to get people ready to raid just to come into the raid and do more work. I was motivated, and tried to make it as infectious as possible.

Add to that the effort exerted by being main tank. Is the boss where he needs to be? Is the melee dps standing in the damn void hole and I need to move so they do too? What's the safest movement path so no one gets cleaved? Are any of the dps actually watching threat meters? Nope, they obviously aren't, because half of them are dead.

I raided last night for the first time in over a year. I'd forgotten all of the things that drive me nuts about trying to accomplish a common goal in a group of people. This applies to real life in the following ways (try to stick with me, the analogies are geeky, but they hold water. Mostly. Sorta. Just... just keep reading.)

1. There's always a tank that needs all the mobs to be focused on them, regardless of the help the other tanks are offering. (Real life: One person must have all the glory.) Someone will inevitably feel that team work isn't the goal, but that reaping the most out of any situation takes precedence, and it only engenders hostility. I am so incredibly thankful that the team I work on frequently uses "we" and not "I". It's common to hear an individual say, "We accomplished this" even though the large majority of the work was done by that individual. Common goals, common achievement. It's a wonderful thing.

2. There's always a DPS that doesn't do all (s)he can do, because (s)he assumes the others are working hard enough. (Real life: It's easy to ride the coat tails of others.) The larger the group, the more anonymous you become. When there are two people attempting to push a boulder up a hill, it's incredibly apparent when one person isn't doing all they can. When 25 people are pushing, do you really know if the guy next to you is breaking a sweat, or just looks like it?

3. There's always someone that dies to flame wall (rain of fire, add spawns, flash freeze, whatever) and blames the raid leader for not calling it out loudly enough. (Real life: it's easy to pass blame to someone else for not doing extra to cover your ass.) When you make a mistake and screw up--and we all do it, it's ok--own it. It's easy to point the finger and blame your raid leader, or manager, or parents for not grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you while screaming, "This bad thing will happen! BE CAREFUL." Think for yourself, and acknowledge your screw ups. Even more important, learn for them. Be grateful to the people that try to help you, and be understanding of people making the mistakes you've already learned not to make.

I won't be raiding again anytime soon. The anonymity of the Internet makes people nearly unbearable (reference: John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory). I am, however, eternally grateful that I have friends in the digital world that make exposing myself to those world worthwhile, and to people in the real world who have learned good lessons and make every day a little nicer.

To MMO, or not to MMO

2010-08-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

Okay. So I was a huge World of Warcraft geek. Main tank AND raid leader for our guild, several max level characters all epic-d to hell and back. HOURS of gaming investment. Unfortunately, so many hours of play and the drama that comes along with 25 people trying to accomplish anything, I was burnt crispy. We quit last August. Shortly thereafter, our guild disbanded and a lot of players quit.

So, a year later, and we're still not playing anything consistently. This is the time of year when all the new MMOs come out, and Blizzard is jumping on the band wagon with an expansion to WoW. I've enjoyed having the free time in the last year, but I've also missed having that steady stream of digital entertainment + pseudo-social interaction of an online MMO.

Blizzard is releasing Cataclysm, which completely changes the old world of Azeroth (flying mounts! No more flight path from Ashenvale to Stonetalon! Holla'!) Now, I left originally because I was burnt out. But that doesn't mean there weren't other reasons: they made the game so easy a stoned monkey with Parkinson's could have played reasonably well. They nerfed the hell out of the bosses, so they had less health and did a LOT less damage. They buffed players to all get out, and still most people couldn't learn to get out of the goddamn fire oh god you're burning to death please move move move and no I will not resurrect your dumb ass.

Final Fantasy 14 is set to release Sept 20; we have already pre-ordered the Collector's Edition. We're playing mostly because of Brady's insatiable love for the FF series. I'm not so sold, and the combat system looks incredibly slow. If I'm going to beat the shit out of something, I want to do so in the fastest, most efficient manner possible. I've also heard that boss fights took up to 18 hours in the original incarnation of the FF MMO. Ouchies.

Lastly, Guild Wars 2 is coming out probably right before Christmas. We've played the trial version of Guild Wars 1 and it was pretty good. Some of the character controls bugged me, but I've heard they've improved that quite a bit. The GW2 videos from Games Con look AWESOME. Necromancer, baby!

Obviously, I don't have the time (or the level of insanity) to play all three. I'm leaning towards GW2 because I don't a) have the negative history with it like I do with WoW (although it IS NCSoft, and they're responsible for releasing that syphilitic fuckfest that was Aion), and b) I've never been able to convince myself into being a raving fanboy (err.. fangrrl?) of the FF series, and SquareEnix is seriously annoying with their complete inability to disclose ANYTHING pre-launch that sings the praises of their games.

It's a shame that the initial investment in games is so high. On the plus side, GW2 doesn't have any monthly fee. My cheap muscle just spasmed happily. Decision made?

Le Wall of Scribbles

2010-08-28T23:57:00.001-07:00

I am a cheap ass. Seriously. I won't buy art if it isn't necessary. I also hate having large expanses of blank, white, boring wall. I doused the walls of my apartment in Virginia, but I had special permission to do so (also, the threat of physical violence if I didn't put it back the way I found it when I moved out.)

I don't think our current apartment will let me paint the walls, and I'd really rather not go through all the work just to paint over it. So compromise was reached.

Top->bottom, left-> right: (1st row) Pong; (2nd row) Moogles, Kirby, Doogan (3rd Row) Yoshi, RedXIII, Mario (4th row) Vivi, Mudokon (Oddworld series)

Pictures!

2010-08-27T16:46:00.000-07:00

They're small and from my phone (or Brieanna's), but betta than nuthin!

Me and Mom in Dimple Dell (Brie's the one behind the camera)

Serra (L) and Charlie (R) on the way back from SLC.

BUGSY!

Blogging and the Art of Procrastination

2010-08-27T09:38:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything on my blog in months. Nearly a year. Why? I assume that at some point, something so amazingly awesome will happen to me that I'll have good reason for posting.

The reality is that my day to day life is pretty consistent: wake up, complain about being awake, get dressed, go to work, complain about being at work, annoy people at work, come home, annoy Brady, eat dinner, refuse to do dishes, go to bed.

I have some pictures from the visit with my family (we made tinfoil hats to protect us from the aliens while we were camping), and from a small informal concert I was able to play with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra Cello Choir -- totally awesome. I'll get something posted soon.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chaaaaanges

2009-09-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

Countdown to job change: T-minus two days and counting.

Can't wait to be in my new gig, and out of legacy code purgatory. It's been an interesting year here at McKesson, and as much as I enjoy the people I work with, I just can't swing this VB6 development anymore. Very much looking forward to my new home at Enprecis!

Countdown to school: T-minus 16 days and counting.

I'm really excited to get back into school and knock out my Master's degree. It's been nearly 5 years since I got my Bachelor's degree, and really, who needs a 5 year break anyway?

Brady is chugging right along with his student teaching, really getting an opportunity to prove himself in front of a classroom full of crazy, unruly students. I look forward to the end of ~~indentured servitude~~ student teaching, as I'm sure he does.

Critters are doing marvelously. We finally revolted against the quadruped incursion and started locking the cats out of the bedroom at night. They're both sweet kitties, but they're far too nocturnal to keep around when we're sleeping. 5:20 in the morning is early. It's REALLY early if you've been a feline trampoline all night.

Wedding Pics!

2009-08-10T23:25:00.000-07:00

Just a small sample. =)

New Kitty!

2009-07-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

We have a new kitten! Our friend Carol is a new foster home for the Homeward Pets shelter in Washington, and we grew really attached to the runt of a litter of kittens. We were so excited about bringing her home, were all set... and then Carol called to tell us the kitten had tested partial positive for Feline Leukemia. There's a really good chance she'll fight it off, but there's also a chance of it coming back later in life.

Since we already have Adia, we can't in good conscience bring a new kitty into the house that could make her sick down the road. We were so excited about getting another cat (and having a little friend to help Adia gang up on Serra), that we decided to head down to the Tacoma shelter and pick up...

ROWEN!

He was *SO* incredibly calm at the shelter, purring and quietly investigating. It was a ruse! A farce! He's a little ball of piss and vinegar, and it's been so much fun to watch him rip through the house.

At this point, Adia is NOT amused. She'll come around. She can't hide under the futon for forever. =)

Lumpy Butt!

2009-06-10T17:49:00.001-07:00

Puppy pictures!

So cute!

We're not... yeah, we're not sure what's going on there. It's very... floppy.
Again, so cute. =D

Holy Crap

2009-04-28T10:32:00.001-07:00

Sheesh, been a while since I've posted anything. Since last October, Brady and I got engaged (we've set a date in August for the wedding, so we're pretty excited.) He'll be home for good on Friday and can start his student teaching stuff. He's been placed at a local high school close to the house, so his commute will at least be awesome. =)

Not a whole lot else is going on, really. Same ol', same ol'. Serra's huge and healthy. We had to play around with her diet a lot, and evidently she's allergic to chicken. After figuring that out it's been pretty easy to keep her happy.

Adia's big too; no longer the cute little fluff ball kitten. Now she's the cute, fluffy house cat with a propensity for laying on keyboards (which, while adorable, isn't entirely helpful.)

My bestest friend in the world finally got married (yay Teri and Sean!) She's asked if I'd make her a painting for the new house they just bought, so I'll probably post pictures here when I get started. Should be the same process as my panels with the added bonus of a dog trying to eat my paint.

Technicolor dog poop! YAY!

Work It Out

2008-10-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

I had an appointment with a physical trainer last night, and if you haven't done this, I strongly recommend going at least once. Almost every trainer in this area offers one free consultation, so even if you can't afford to keep them on the payroll, take plenty of notes and do the same things at home.

Over the course of 30 minutes, my trainer Adrian (who will be known only as "Mr. Pain") led me through about 12 exercises. The point being that you keep all parts of the body moving as much as possible.

Of the 12 things covered in the gym, I think I could reasonably emulate about 9 at home, maybe 10 if I find a good, sturdy stud to attach resistance cords to. I'm thinking I could get by with the follow pieces of equipment:
Step, ball, weights, resistance cord.
Various dumbbells.

The step and weights were used together (I was using 10lb weights at the gym, but I guess 8lbs would be alright for now), then smaller weights were used in a variety of routines. Ideally, you'd have set of dumbbells with adjustable weights--like these--so you could add/subtract as necessary.

I think that at this juncture it would be easier to list the parts of me that DON'T hurt. Fingertips and eyeballs come to mind, but not much else.

Also as a part of this "get my tubby ass in shape" routine, I'm keeping a journal of everything I eat and drink. I'm sceptical, but I'll give anything a shot once.

Well, not anything.

Last Weekend

2008-09-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

Was out in SLC over the weekend; my sister Liza made the trek with her husband Norm and their 4 kids all the way from Paris, Texas. I got there Saturday just afternoon, and we spent the day up in the mountains, fishing and goofing off. Mom went with Norm and a couple of the older kids for a hike. We caught a glimpse of them up on the hill, and Mom was kind of crashing around in some bushes off the trail. My prediction was she was snagging rocks. I was SO right (she loaded up one of Margaret's boys with a couple, and had her hands full at the end.)

Sunday morning, we all went to the zoo. For clarification, "we" is: myself, my mom and dad, Mema, Liza, Norm, their 4 kids, Brieanna, Wade, and Brieanna's three kids, Margaret and her 4 younger kids, Daniel (Margaret's oldest) and his girlfriend Katie, and my niece Heidi. For those of you that suck at counting, that's 23 folks, trekking through the zoo.

I think the sentiment of the visit goes to my mom, whom I overheard talking to my sister. She was in the back of the pack, walking towards the zoo exit. Pointing to the group, "Wow. That's all us." No kidding.

After we got home Sunday night, Dad grilled up a bunch of dead stuff for us to eat, and then we got some pictures in:

We should start a biker gang.

Jerks

2008-09-26T14:41:00.001-07:00

They're everywhere, and we all have to deal with them. Jerks come in a dizzying array of flavors, from the "stole your parking spot" jerk, to the "flies to the end of the merge lane and then pushes over making everyone wait" jerk, to the "won't pick up after his dog even though you live in an apartment and it's not just his yard" jerk.

While there are many rants to be made about the above-mentioned jerks, I'd like to spend time on a real nasty specimen, the "do whatever it takes to succeed even if that means trampling on other people" jerk.

Up until a few years ago, I'd never really had any interactions with jerks of this nature. Sure, I'd heard of them, knew they made corporate offices and especially Wall Street their native environments. Even after I met a prime example of the DWITTS jerk, it took me a while to realize it.

Common traits: over-the-top friendliness (perhaps to compensate for later episodes of back-stabbing), common use of industry buzz words particularly around management staff, and an unnerving interest in the happenings of other, perhaps rival, departments.

Things to watch out for: comments such as, "Gee, you look busy, I can take a project or two off your hands if you'd like." Statements like this can easily be spun into something negative, like "I knew she was going to let the project slip, so I volunteered to rescue it." While an outright lie, and complete bullshit, this makes the DWITTS jerk look better in the eyes of management.

After your DWITTS jerk has thoroughly trashed your reputation, has developed strong relationships with key staff members (usually via a liberal use of alcohol), he will probably then proceed to take outright credit for work you've done. You may even notice that online resumes contain such blatant lies as "was the chief technology developer" even when the only thing the DWITTS jerk did was some cute little Flash widgets and a bunch of visual stuff. Nevermind that YOU spent all night up with the hosting company to make sure the site was still alive so his pretty shit worked.

No, nevermind that at all.

WAR and DNR's.

2008-09-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

First, the hospital where I am being treated for a slew of broken-girly-parts related problems asked me to "review the surgery documentation" on their website, part of which is to consider Advance Directives.

If you don't know what that is, it's basically: do you want to be resuscitated, do you want to be on/off life support, what's the deal with your insurance, off-the-cuff final wishes, blah blah blah. Kind of depressing. I'm working on mine right now, and it's tough. The way things generally work for me: if you have it, you won't need it. So you're damn right I'll have one ready to go.

Second, Warhammer Online! Brady and I are playing in the open beta, and it's pretty fun. Very similar to World of Warcraft in regards to the UI/quest scenarios/group mechanics. They've added something called "Public Quests" which are interesting--you run into an area (anyone can) and participate in a repeating event with several stages. If you contribute a lot to the scenario and have good rolls (this last bit screws me every time), you get special loot after the last stage completes.

As far as character classes, we've decided we're not fond of Order, and instead are focusing almost entirely on Destruction (greenskins in particular), which is a reversal on our almost entirely Alliance character set in WoW.

The instanced PvP areas are similar to battlegrounds in WoW as well--you sit in a queue, the queue pops, and your side has to meet the objective to win. We only did one round, and all we had to do was cap both bases several times. To keep folks from base camping after the cap happens, a wave of fire washes out from the base and goes a reeeeeally long way, killing everything in its path. Took me a couple of times to realize what was happening, but it makes sense in retrospect.

Couple of the bugs/irritations we've noticed so far: sometimes, it takes forever to logout or quit to the desktop, even longer than the "It will take 20 seconds to prepare your logout" message implies. There are a couple of glitchy issues with the environment, mainly Brady getting launched to his death when he was supposed to land safely at the next objective, or losing control of my squig and being unable to summon a new one, cause the old one wouldn't despawn. You also can't skip the opening animation for each race, which gets old. At least it's short.

Servers go live on Thursday officially, but we're doing the headstart so we can start our real toons tomorrow.

Motivation

2008-09-15T09:12:00.000-07:00

I don't have any. There's a bunch of stuff I want to do, from the mundane (should wash the car, organize a bunch of the crap in the house, give the dog a bath) to the more significant (running again, art project for the bedroom—which I can't say much about, since it's supposed to be a secret.)

Even basic day-to-day stuff thwarts me. Getting out of bed, getting dressed, making dinner. They all seem like monumental tasks. I'm guessing it's a bad thing to just want to stay in bed all day and not get out.

(BTW, just went to get some water from the breakroom kitchen, and there's a palette of bottled water in there for anyone that wants it. On the side it reads, "Talking Rain: Pure water. Unsweetened." Unsweetened. Um, thanks?)

Kitty Condo

2008-09-07T19:01:00.001-07:00

I built this. My hands hurt. Evil tree.

This is what it looked like while I was right smack in the middle of building it. Finished product is sooo much better.

New Addition

2008-09-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, Brady and I adopted a kitten from the King County animal shelter. Brady's back in Pullman at school, so I did the legwork, but he named her. IMHO, he got the raw end of the deal. He named her Adia (the explanation being "dia" is the latin for "light," the prefix "a" meaning the opposite of.)

She's a pitch black kitty, very playful, and not afraid of Serra in the slightest. That said, she does get annoyed with puppyface, but you'd be annoyed too if you were covered head-to-toe in dog slobber.

Adia's taken to sneaking up onto the bed at night when Serra's asleep, curling up by my face and purring. If you're going to wake up in the middle of the night, there are far worse to go about it.

Serra is still ridiculously excited about another fluffy thing in the house, and has been very gentle by 5-month-old lab puppy standards. Still, she knocked over a lamp trying to get her big puppy butt behind the couch to see the kitten, and gallumps around the bed when she finally notices it's not just me there.

Remember when I said there are worse ways to wake up? A 50 pound puppy mosh-pitting on your stomach is definitely one of them. =)

PostGres... again.

2008-08-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

Back in PostGres class this week! The instructor is nice enough, but he tends to be a little monotonous. His nickname is now "Monotone Mark." Is it terrible that I don't actually *KNOW* his name? I think it's Robert. Or John. Yeah, I don't know. Whatever.

I'm going to the doctor's office again tonight, checking in with the endocrinologist (she's a female, though. can I call her an endocrinologista? What about endocrinologistess?) Get to meet with the gastrointestinal person next week, and I have a whole slew of terrible images in my head. The fact that they keep a small backhoe on hand doesn't make me feel any better. I'm going to write "Exit Only" on my ass beforehand as a hint. Ample use of duct tape should help as well (use your imagination, I'm not hand-holding here!)

Puppy update: nothing was chewed up last night when I got home, so I rewarded Serra with a walk around the parking lot. Only problem: it was POURING rain, and we got soaked. For those that are unaware, Serra, the labrador puppy, HATES water. It's actually kind of cute. She'll refuse to go to the bathroom, nearly to the point of bursting, until the rain stops. I suppose it's good we don't live in Florida right now.

Speaking of Florida, does anyone find it amusing as hell that hurricanes the last few years just seem to hang out down there? Are the hurricanes getting older and looking for a place to retire?

Girly Hurricane: "I don't know, honey. This seems like a nice place, but there are so many old people."

Manly Hurricane: "Yeah, I noticed too. And where the hell is all this rain coming from?!"

Wow...

2008-08-25T14:05:00.001-07:00

Been a while since I've posted, but I figured I'd start with puppy pictures! Serra's going on 6 months now, and she's getting huge.

I came home from work last Thursday to find she'd chewed up a few pieces of paper that I'd left on the edge of the coffee table. Nothing major, and it was the first day she'd spent all on her own, so excuseable. Well, evidently it was just the beginning; Friday I came home to the following disaster:

I wasn't really trying to get Little Miss Muttly in the shot, but I'd just gotten home and she *really* wanted attention.

Puppy vs. shredded roll of papertowels, an experiment in comparison.

In other news, Brady's back in Pullman finishing up his last year of school. He's got a pretty solid schedule, lots of teaching classes (this is where I stop pretending like I have any clue what's going on, I just know he goes off, learns stuff, and comes back. I also distinctly remember a joke about pot and his botany class.) Serra and I are driving over this coming weekend for Labor Day, and then we're going to Jeff Dunham on the 14th of November (gonna rock). It sucks having him gone, and it's hard to stay positive (geez, 8 months? For real? Meh.) but it's going to be great when he's actually teaching. He has such finesse when explaining things, he'll do an incredible job.

Aside from all that not much is going on. Supposed to visit the folks at the end of September when my sister Liza makes the trek up from Texas; hard to believe August is almost over, so crazy.

Serra Puppy!

2008-05-18T20:50:00.001-07:00

Pics of the new puppy, Serra (short for Serrated, full name Serra Destructo):

She likes to crawl between the levels of the coffee table (that's Brady's elbow in the background, I think he likes to encourage her to be a scoundrel.)

An offering from the closet: the robe tie.

Nom nom nom, hairbrush nom nom...

An Open Letter...

2008-04-04T08:33:00.001-07:00

...to everyone that parks in the Courthouse Towers parking garage. Evidently, there has been a lot of confusion amongst you as to what actually qualifies as a "compact" vehicle. The following is a list of cars that are generally NOT considered compact, and thus should not be parked in the spaces labeled as such.

Note: this list should not be considered comprehensive, but rather a guideline for determining your own vehicle's compactiness.

Ford F-150 != compact
Hummer H2 != compact
Lincoln Navigator != compact
Chevy Blazer != compact
Cadillac STS != compact

Please, for the good of those around you, just drive up an extra level and park in a space where you don't threaten to take out a support pillar and another car when you open your door.

(Yes, I have actually seen all of these cars parked in compact spaces. It's like watching the fat lady from the circus try to squeeze into a size 6 corset. While it normally doesn't bother me when I drive past these cars on my way to another spot, it drives me nuts when one crams in next to me, leaving me unable to get in myself.)

<3 Days That Don't Suck

2008-04-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

Things that are awesome (in no particular order):

1. Sun-shiny, 75° days (that was yesterday, but it's not completely awful right now.)
2. Getting lots of stuff done even when you don't think you'll be able to.
3. Stumbling across good, unexpected music.
4. Significant others.
5. Feeling happy.
6. Having comebacks that really snap.

Sweet, Sweet Spam

2008-03-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

For the most part, my mailbox gets inundated with garbage. Buy Viagra! Add three inches to your penis length (I've saved that one, since I think I *am* awfully lacking in penis length)! Prince Wantubu of Nigeria needs my help!

Every once in a while, though, you see something interesting and have to wonder what's going on. Take for instance this message I got about 10 minutes ago:

To whom;

Re; the tall tale, get a life and get over it. You may run her off and in doing so miss what might be the best of the best.

Regards,
David

In reality, the "re" is probably a nod to one of our newsletters about Hilary Clinton and her campaign. I like to think otherwise though. Perhaps this guy's found a really awesome gal, and they're under fire from someone who keeps sending email after email. Maybe he's finally just had enough, and his auto reply reflects that.

Maybe this is a dad protecting his daughter. The ex-beau is mass mailing her, and Dad's finally put up a little digital wall to keep his baby sheltered.

I much prefer to think that these rare messages are a sign of love and compassion, an attempt to keep someone safe and happy. So boring to think it's just someone supporting someone else for president.

Meh.

2008-03-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

*flounce*

Feeling really miserable lately. Cranky, kind of depressed, just grumpy and upset in general. I think my meds are fuxored. I did a little bit of reading at the NIH MedicinePlus site, and frequent side effects of Levothyroxine include irritability and nervousness. I look forward to getting a new doctor. Meh.

Not Quite What I Was Looking For

2008-03-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!
*crickets*

Awwww....

Today sucks so far, but at least I get to go home early.

Wow...

2008-03-05T05:59:00.001-08:00

What happens in a 47 minute Alterac Valley? 500K healing, that's what.

I should still be sleeping... /sigh

Sleeping

2008-03-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

MSNBC has an article listing strategies for falling asleep. Some of them are kind of obvious (Turn off the lights! Make yourself physically tired!) and some, not so much. Two things of interest: they say you shouldn't stay in bed if you aren't sleeping, which seems like a terrible sacrifice to make, and that you can take a melatonin supplement before bedtime to make you sleepy. However, and I quote, "While it doesn't affect the content of dreams, it can make nightmares more vivid."

Congratulations! You're sleeping, but the night is so reminiscent of Nightmare on Elm Street that you'll never do so again!

Woo!

Pretties!

2008-03-02T01:34:00.001-08:00

When I was out in Seattle a couple of weeks ago, Vid took me to the Pike's Place Market, this very cool, open-air bazaar with all sorts of stuff. He bought me this awesome heart with wings (or flames, we can't decide), and it's so gorgeous with light on it:

Depending on the angle, the heart looks like it's on fire. It's really cool, but hard to capture in a picture.

(The flash was so bright on this that it washed out the wall entirely. Weird...)

Movie Night & Recycling

2008-02-29T22:14:00.000-08:00

As ~~threatened~~ promised, here are pictures of dinner from movie night, and an added bonus, my very kick-ass recycling cans.

Teri and Tyler. Watch out, this kid will gum you to death. It's funny to watch him eat though. Hehe...

Sean and Brady, both resisting the temptation to do something awful, I assure you.

Sean and Brady giving into temptation and doing something awful, and Traitorous Tonya, who still gave Sean the check. This picture is proof that YES, I let Sean pay. Let it be thusly noted. (Played with the EV settings for this picture and unfortunately, it's a little underexposed. Takes forever to get used to new cameras...)

My recycling cans! Aren't they cuuuuute? =)

Cameras and Other Crap

2008-02-29T12:27:00.001-08:00

Since the unfortunate theft of both my cameras a couple of weeks ago (and the sad mutilation of Vid's passenger side door... meh) I've been photo-fiending. So many little things I'm used to taking pictures of, and I haven't been able to.

SO, since today is pay day, and all the bills are paid, I took the hit and replaced my point-and-shoot (will replace the SLR eventually...)

This is what I picked up: the Fuji e900. Interchangeable lenses (on a point-and-shoot? seriously?), 9 megapixels, fast shutter response, quick on/off. Very responsive, played with it in the store and liked it immediately. A little larger than most pocket cameras and hefty, which I like since I have fat little sausage fingers.

I'm going to take a bunch of pictures tonight while I'm out with Teri, Sean, and the boys, put this thing through the paces.

Labels

2008-02-29T08:58:00.000-08:00

When I logged in to write my post today, the first thing I noticed was the "Labels for this post:" option at the bottom of the draft window. I haven't used labels at all in the past, but I'm going to start.

In honor of Vid (<3), I picked a special label for this post.

Rare, Early-Morning Observations

2008-02-25T06:25:00.000-08:00

1. Traffic sucks. I mean like blows-chunks-out-of-a-monkey's-ass sucks.
2. The office is reeeeeeally quiet. I feel like if I breathe someone may yell "shh!" at me.
3. A cupcake & a can of Mountain Dew does not a breakfast make, regardless of how delicious they may be.
4. Sunrise is pretty, but sunset is better.
5. I still don't like mornings. I'd rather be in bed right now, but there's something to be said for going home obscenely early.
6. When he finally goes to bed and I'm alone again, the night isn't nearly as fun as I remember.

Teehee (or, "Blast from the Past")

2008-02-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

I was just digging through my email looking for an old music list I had pre-hard drive crash (fuck you, Western Digital! /shakesfist), and found these. Teehee...

Back story:

Last May, I went to SLC for over a week, and made a quick overnight jaunt to Vegas to see some friends. As we're walking around Vegas, minding our own business, those obnoxious street-corner guys keep pushing these damn escort calling cards into my hands (is it that obvious? Does my appearance just SCREAM, "I'm totally into purchasing women!" ?)

After the third of fourth I figured, eh, what the hell, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! I ended up collecting a sizable chunk of these stupid cards, and then couldn't figure out what to do with them.

Then the epiphany.

If people will pay thousands of dollars for a partially-eaten grilled cheese sandwich with history's greatest liar ("I never had sex, I swear! It's a miracle!") on it, I'm sure some dupe will buy these!

And it was born. The Las Vegas Escort Trading Card Game. The description reads as follows:

First time on eBay, the Las Vegas Escort trading card game! This deck includes 36 cards that I picked up on a recent visit to Las Vegas, the most culturally advanced city in the country. As with all trading card games, this deck includes several duplicates. For example, "Lizzy" seems fairly easy to come by, if you'll excuse the pun.

Also included, though, is the rare 2006 Megan rookie card. You may find yourself wondering, "Why is the Megan card so rare?" There are numerous factors that play into a card's rarity. The most prevalent in this case is the fact that I claim it's rare, and you can totally trust me.

The entire deck comes wrapped in cellophane (or an old zip lock bag, depending on my mood, and whether or not I've eaten all the hot dogs in the refrigerator.) If there are any other collectors out there, please make a comment on my auction. I'd be willing to trade a Taylor or a Minnie (2005 edition, not the Gold Sealed All-Stars card) for either a Samantha or a Trisha.

The auction didn't sell, and ended up getting flagged and removed. Not for inappropriate material, not because I was obviously pulling this entire "trading card" thing out of my ass. Oh no. It's because I offered to trade cards with someone else. eBay does have standards, you know.

Music, Musings, and Minutiae

2008-02-22T11:34:00.000-08:00

Music (lyrics, to be exact, from "Eleven Shades of Red"):

Oh I was a million miles away.
Oh I could have watched you smile for days.
Not the one you wanted,
not the one you started.

Musings:

My shoes feel too big today, my hair is sticking out at weird angles and refuses to behave, I'm excited to have a girl's night out with Teriboo, and have resolved to cleaning the bathroom this weekend.

I need a new shower curtain. I like these, but want to find one that's all bubbly.

Very space-y and awesome.

Cute, but not a top contender.

OMG GOOGLY EYES! (uh-oh, this may actually be cooler than bubbles...)

Minutiae:

(har har)

Blah.

2008-02-20T14:20:00.000-08:00

I feel off-kilter today. Things seem... out of my reach. Like the things I want to accomplish are so far away from me, no amount of effort or struggle will get me any closer.

I feel overwhelmed. =(

Ma'am, please step off the tram...

2008-02-15T05:09:00.000-08:00

Q. What do you do when you're in the Detroit airport, your flight is on-time, and you have over an hour to kill?

A. You ride the terminal tram incessantly, preferably while making faces at kids in the adjacent car.

You know what time it is...

2008-02-12T15:23:00.000-08:00

Holy Crap! (or, "My, what a shitty commute you have!")

2008-02-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

Traffic alerts in the area, current as of a couple minutes ago. I <3 freezing rain?

Boredom Expressed via AIM

2008-02-07T12:45:00.000-08:00

Mark : did you know that if you submerged a live moose in a vat of saliva it would completely dissolve within 18 hours?
Me : that's a myth
Me : and a typeaux
Mark : nuh-uh. i've done it!
Me : it's actually if you submerged a mousse in saliva it will dissolve in 18 hours
Mark : oh shit
Me : yeah
Mark : no, i'm serious. i went back to check on it in 17 hours and the entire glass vat was smashed to bits and the moose was gone!
Mark : completely eaten away
Me : it actually sounds like spontaneous detonation
Me : I think the moose had a hair trigger, and the saliva activated it
Me : hence the broken glass
Me : it's the only LOGICAL explanation.

Dude.

2008-02-04T14:53:00.000-08:00

Brain is seriously in overdrive today. Not sure what the hell is going on, but the ideas just won't stop. Have you ever had days where things just start coming rapid-fire, and it's all you can do to keep up with them?

I'm having that RIGHT NOW. I've been sketching outlines for full drawings or paintings, had a brilliant idea for a user interface for a bare-bones content management system at work, and figured out a fix (I think) for a problem plaguing me with a module I'm working at work.

I'm not sure how this happened. I didn't sleep last night, so by all merits I should be in zombie mode. I have a feeling I'll be paying for this later. Kinda nice while it lasts, though. =)

Reasons I Adore You, Part 54

2008-02-04T04:02:00.000-08:00

* You play hide and seek with me, and try really hard to find good hiding places.
* You urge me to go to bed on time, but fight to stay up with me when I can't sleep.
* You always ask me how I slept, how my day was, and what I have planned for the next day. You even manage to seem interested when I prattle on about all the boring stuff I have to do ("And the Oscar goes to...")
* You wish me sweet dreams every night without fail. More and more, I find that I'm having them too.

<3

Meh.

2008-02-01T13:58:00.001-08:00

Yeah. Just meh.

Running Mates

2008-01-30T12:15:00.000-08:00

Vid and I spent some time trying to decide who the end nominees would choose as running mates, and I had a couple of post-brainstorm ideas (and some campaign slogans!)

Democrats:

Hillary Clinton: Gloria Allred. Campaign slogan: "More phony, bitchy women than you can shake a stick at. And we're suing you for sexism. Try shaking a vagina next time."

Mitt Romney: David Koresh. Campaign slogan: "All your cults are belong to us." (Fuck, I meant "church," not "cult". I swear!)

Mike Huckabee: Red Green. Campaign slogan: "We'll cook yer squirrels and fix yer mobile homes, too!"

The Meeting, Pt. 1

2008-01-28T10:30:00.000-08:00

In my meeting, squint-eyed and bleary,
being lectured on subjects dreary,
mostly on technology that I had already used before.
While I fought sleep almost dozing,
suddenly there came a bumping
as of someone gently thumping,
thumping on the table fore.
"Tis some nimrod," I muttered,
"sending email to my phone.
Only this and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I recall,
it was in the northwest hall,
and each separate mini blind cast sunlit streaks across the floor.
Eagerly I wished for 3
as it would mark the time to leave.
Perhaps I could catch up on sleep,
sleep that was lost the night before.
Zombie insomniac, nevermore.

Presently I grew less groggy,
my brain feeling a tad less foggy.
"Co-workers," said I,
"or third-party vendors,
your forgiveness I implore.
But you see, I was daydreaming,
and you set my phone to ringing,
as of my conscience gently screaming,
ringing on the table fore.
I'm sure some other dev can help you,"
and I deftly picked up the phone.

An empty inbox, nothing more.

Wow...

2008-01-23T16:42:00.000-08:00

Charcoal is fun! A little messy, but definitely interesting.

Check it -- did this in about 15 minutes tonight. Flash on the camera washes it out a bit, but you get the idea:

Kinda Freaked Out Right Now

2008-01-18T09:14:00.000-08:00

Watch this. Then you'll be freaked out too. If I saw Tom Cruise walking down the street toward me, I would turn tail and run as fast as I could the other direction.

Snow!

2008-01-17T13:38:00.000-08:00

This morning, while a bit on the fuxor'd side, offered a fabulous opportunity. I'm working on my tree collage (many pictures of many trees spanning the seasons, combined as one—picture it in your head, and then make it about half as neat, and that's what the finished product will probably look like,) but have been in dire need of snow covered trees. I snapped a handful of pictures while I was in Utah visiting my family for Xmas, but even close relatives start to look askance when you spend more than a half-hour in the snow, freezing, taking pictures of tree bark.

While my car was warming up this morning, I traipsed about the yard shutterbugging tree tops, bark, the ground, the sky. Didn't have long, but managed probably 15 or 20 pictures. Considering I want snow prominently displayed in the individual snapshots, I'm completely dependent on having fresh snow (think of the vertical surface of a tree trunk—the snow doesn't stick long, so you have to be speedy.)

Puh-leeze.

2008-01-17T12:41:00.000-08:00

The headline:

FBI begins investigation of ex-MVP Tejada
Star is suspected of lying about taking performance-enhancing drugs

Seriously? The FBI? He's a fucking baseball player. If you think he's a big, fat liar, throw him out of the league (and in jail, if you really think that *our* government is SO appalled at lying that they'd deem it necessary) and be done with it already. Even more ridiculous, Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate whether or not he was a big, fat liar. The fact that they drag these athletes in front of house committees in the first place is so incredibly ludicrous. Do we really care that much?

Um, no?

An Open Letter

2008-01-16T09:35:00.000-08:00

to the asshat that really thought the entire 9th floor would prefer diet Mountain Dew to REGULAR.

Yeah, I kinda hate you right now.

Finally...

2008-01-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

'

What's that? Hmm? Oh, THAT! ^ Well, that's the signature of the judge on my final decree of divorce. It's official. Miss Osborne, if you please. =)

This is how I feel today...

2008-01-14T14:30:00.001-08:00

This is my baseline.

Don't Hold Back...

2008-01-14T11:05:00.000-08:00

Tell us how you REALLY feel (an excerpt from several months ago):

Me: IE6 = spawn of Satan.
My Friend: its like sandpapering my inner thigh
Me: and then pouring lemon juice on it
Me: dipping yourself in gasoline
Me: and lighting yourself on fire
Me: and then rolling around in a bed of rusty nails
Me: right before you roll off a cliff onto some jagged rocks
Me: but you're still alive, and the buzzards are circling
Me: and they slowly start to peck out your eyeballs
Me: leaving you blind and screaming, your crippled body mangled and bleeding and broken, where no one will ever fnd you.
Me: Yeah, that's IE6

Observation (Don't Drink the Water)

2008-01-10T14:06:00.001-08:00

I think the company is adding something to the water. It doesn't make us work any harder, doesn't give us the burning desire to work extra hours without pay, it doesn't even make us work through our lunch breaks.

No. Instead, it makes people pregnant. I swear, every female in my office, sans yours truly, is knocked up at the moment (and in a frightening twist, I suspect a couple of men may be as well.) Even the two women that I know just recently HAD babies are already on that path again.

I always assumed that children conceived during the winter were more prevalent than those conceived during summer (I mean, c'mon, what are you going to do while you're stuck inside the house, have watched your favorite movie 15 times over, and burst into tears at the thought of yet ANOTHER game of checkers?), but this seems slightly ridiculous. Is there some inherent human trait that triggers us to become more amorous when it starts getting dark earlier?

Also, if weather is the driving factor—remember, stuck inside, nothing to do, etc—then wtf? Seriously guys, it's been 65 degrees here the last few days, and our one snow storm lasted all of a week, if that. Will someone explain this to me? They say that groups, or "herds" as I like to call them, of women that spend a lot of time in each other's company will eventually synchronize their menstrual cycles. Is this the same phenomenon?

Fascinating

2008-01-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

I find this article to be incredibly fascinating, for several reasons. First, the concept of "bending light" has always been so cool, and since that's the primary method of identifying black holes, well that makes the black hole itself infinitely cooler.

Second, in reference to these "rogue" black holes that are violently ejected from their own galaxy, they talk about "kick velocity." According to the article, average kick velocity is about 200 kilometers per second, which they say is very high when compared to the normal escape velocity of other astronomical objects.

The kick on these rogue black holes are, get this, about 4,000 kilometers per second (for those of you are that metric idiots, that's 2,485 miles per second -- blink your eyes and traverse the country... wow). Slow when compared to the speed of light (about 186,282 miles per second), but infinitely faster than the speed of sound (340 meters per second, or a paltry .2 miles).

Finally, these things are thought to weigh a few THOUSAND times as much as the sun. Fucking incredible. You can't see it, it'll swallow you whole, it moves faster than the easy girl on a first date, and has the mass of about 332,981,786 Earths (making the huuuge logical leap from weight to mass [let us not start discussions of the weight of objects floating in vacuum], and assuming that the the mass ratio of the sun and a black hole are roughly equal, the mass of the sun being 1.9891* 10^30 kg, or 1,989,100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg, the Earth being 5.9736 * 10^24, or 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000,000, multiply the first by 1,000, divide by the second, and voila...)

And that may even be a smaller sized rogue, since the above is just a simple multiplier of 1K. The math doesn't really matter anyway, though, since I can't possibly fathom something that huge.

Still. Freakin' awesome.

Flapping Head

2008-01-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

Lots of talk about the Campaign Trail of Tears. Hillary cried when speaking about how personal her quest for the presidency is (surreptitious Visine dispenser?), so of course Romney's gotta jump that bandwagon and sob on Meet the Press about the Mormon Cult, err I mean church, allowing blacks the participate in the church's rituals. Pulled over and wept? Yeah, that's about as likely as my office breaking out into synchronized song and dance to a number from West Side Story.

I find it comforting that 14 years after full equality was established for African Americans that the cult (damn, church! I swear I meant church!) finally allowed them to wear magic underwear, baptize the deceased (you're Catholic? Not anymore!), and experience the joy of having 16 mouths to feed.

Cleared for Takeoff!

2008-01-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

YUS! Just spoke to my endocrinologist. After 19 months on restriction, I can finally start cardio-intensive exercise again! Woo hoo! WTB running shoes! /happydance

Perspective

2008-01-06T03:48:00.000-08:00

Ever gone back and revisited something that you've said or written? How often do you feel the exact same way about it now as you did when you were writing (saying) it? I just read some old posts from my old blog (from my old life?) It's amazing what a year and a half of added perspective will do.

Dinner at Tryst

2008-01-05T20:47:00.000-08:00

Went to dinner with Jason and Helen tonight at Tryst, a pretty swanky little place in Adams Morgan in DC.

A picture for your viewing pleasure.

..-. --- .-. -.-- --- ..-

2008-01-04T23:50:00.000-08:00

.. .-.. --- ...- . -.-- --- ..- --..-- -... .-. .- -.. -.--

I Hate You, Western Digital

2008-01-04T23:36:00.000-08:00

80 GB of hard drive space, full of music and pictures and stuff. All gone. Why? Because Western Digital can't make an external hard drive that doesn't crash after a year. Why couldn't it have crashed BEFORE I spent a week reorganizing all the music? /sob

DIAF, WD. =(

2008?

2008-01-03T00:44:00.000-08:00

When the hell did that happen?!

A Little from Column "A," a Little from Column "B"

2008-01-03T00:36:00.000-08:00

I leave to go home in about 3 hours. It's been a nice visit, and I'm sad to be going. I miss my family, and I hate being so far away. That may be remedied soon, though. Still, it will be nice to get home to my house and my stuff (and my interweb tubes).

Also, just checked my email and got a fabulous surprise -- my family in France sent pictures over for Christmas! Check it out:

Back row: Monique, my cousin Marianne, and Jean (Mema's Brother)
Front Row: my cousin Jean-Michel, his wife Candice, and their baby Marie.

I'm going to keep these a secret, run home and print copies for Mema, and send them to her. That should make her happy indeed. =)

Alright, off for a quicky cat-nap. A day of flying is laid out before me like some imitation Persian rug.

Stuff

2007-12-29T19:03:00.000-08:00

Busy busy day! Went and saw my friend Tabitha (from middle school, wow that was a long time ago), here are a couple of pics:

Um, I'm on the right. =) Heh.

Tabitha, myself, Don (left) and Cheyenne (right). Adorable kids, very polite. I still can't believe how big they are; all of these people are frozen in my head, especially the kids. It's a shock to come back and get a reality slap.

YUS! Popcorn ball making! Very MANLY popcorn ball making. Green shirt is my nephew Daniel, white t-shirt is Brieanna's boyfriend Wade, and Dad. Potato face is Katie, Daniel's girlfriend.

Wow...

2007-12-27T02:23:00.000-08:00

I think that possibly, maybe I'm falling for you.
Yes there's a chance that I've fallen quite hard over you.

Couldn't be more true. <3

Dishes, Proper Gargoyle Placement, and Haute Couture

2007-12-25T19:33:00.001-08:00

Yay, presents! A smattering of pictures from the free-for-all that is Christmas:

Dishes. When you think Wade (Brieanna's boyfriend), think Corelle!

You probably didn't realize, but the proper place for a gargoyle is directly atop your monitor. Please make a note of it. I'll be moving Shirley as soon as I get home.

Shut up, the hat is totally hot. Matches my eyes (*bateyelashes*).

And now for the miscellaneous. The following is Mema and crew. Good thing the kids were around to help demolish the impenetrable wall of paper between her and her present.

Marci and the giant porcelain doll she got. So cute!

Krista and HER doll. Again, so cute!

Johnny, Grandpa, and the fire truck. I think Grandpa played with it more than Johnny did. In fact, come to think of it, Grandpa played with all OUR toys at Christmas more than we did too!

wtf?

2007-12-23T08:34:00.001-08:00

My posts aren't showing up! You make ONE joke about purgatory, and that's where all your creative writing ends up.

I'm so bored.

Greetings...

2007-12-23T08:34:00.000-08:00

From the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. For those of you just tuning in, I'm currently enjoying a jaunt through traveling purgatory. I left the house at 6:30 this morning, rode all the way to Union Station listening to the vast (and I do mean VAST) array of opinons of my cab driver. It's drizzly and very foggy, so all I wanted him to do was turn around and watch the road. *fear*

Union Station was really quiet, train was on time, but holy crap the airport was (is) nuts! Lines for checkin snake outside onto the sidewalk! Craziness.

I guess I've been parked at my gate for about 3 hours. My ass is asleep, and I wish the rest of me would follow suit.

Two independent things before I go.

1. To the jackass who went in front of me through security: when you dumped my stuff on the floor and then walked away, at least you had the decency to leave my laptop out of the scuffle. Thanks. (Vid, would you do the honors here? =)

2.I really enjoy watching the baggage handlers throw everyones crap around. Then it dawns on me that MY crap is down there somewhere. Meh.

Alright, no more blogging from the Blackberry. Thumbs are le tired. I'll post some pics and crap over the next couple weeks from the 'rents house.

Merry Sunday, or whatever. =)

I am SO trying this!!

2007-12-21T10:04:00.000-08:00

This has got to be the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Must go to Home Depot...

If you want more information on what a Rubens' Tube is, check out this link at Wikipedia; the article gives you the physics behind the experiment, too. A cursory search at Google also turned up lots of great sites on how to draw on fake eyebrows. You know, just in case...

Taking Stock

2007-12-19T17:34:00.000-08:00

Pardon the glut of self-reflection posts, but it's that time of year, I've had a couple of major milestones (and setbacks), and I find this is a good way to clear my head. Be warned: this post is long, and generally pointless. All links open in a new window / new tab (if you're cool and use Firefox.)

Projects completed this year:

Triptych -- don't knock it, that thing was epic in terms of effort.
The dresser (yay paint fumes!)
The walls in my house.

Projects started but far from completed:

Mosaic. I'm not sure where to start, or what to do exactly. Maybe the goal should be just to start; to hell with planning.
Curtains (2/5 finished).
The tree project. I don't feel too badly about this, since I'm waiting on adequate snow to finish the last stage. I may even wait until the spring to get some blooming trees.
Several cathartic pieces of poetry/free form writing that I abandoned. I may pick them back up and see if there's any merit in breathing new life into them, but somehow I doubt it.

Some books that I read and loved, in no particular order (the commentary is my own, so gather your grains of salt...):

The Temeraire series -- Thank you VID! He turned me onto these books, and they're wonderful. Got lucky, and managed to get all four in this year (the fourth was released in September, so I didn't even have to wait!)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -- Again, thanks to Vid. Spent several nights laughing and crying simultaneously.
The Last Song of Dusk -- beautiful, simple, but dark and reflective. Made me cry several times. Hard. We're talking full on water works.
The Cheese Monkeys -- hilarious, tore through this in no time. A fabulous presentation of growing up and finding yourself.
Too Beautiful for You; Tales of Improper Behavior -- salacious, deviant, so much fun to read. One of few short story collections I actually thoroughly enjoyed. My favorite story was "The long, long road to Uttoxeter."
Middlesex -- another damn fine book. Part love story, part situational comedy, part emotional trauma; wordy, sweet, and engaging.

Some books I read and went, "Eh, it was okay":

Out -- Japanese murder mystery. Some parts hit really close to home (mostly as an examination of gender relations), but kept waiting for the punch. It never came, though.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -- just another okay book. Short, so a good way to pass a flight or a night at home alone with nothing to do.
The Beautiful Miscellaneous -- felt shallow, like he was trying to create this deep emotional epiphany out of fluff.

Books that have been collecting dust on my shelf, but that I really want to read:

The Satanic Verses -- by Salman Rushdie. I mean, c'mon, the Ayatollah issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death because of this book. I started it and what I read was good. I'm not sure why I never picked it back up.
Midnight Children -- also by Salman Rushdie. No particular reason here, just want to read it and haven't started.
The Norse Myths -- want to read it from general interest but I keep forgetting I have it. A nice accompaniment to "Antiquity," a book I read earlier this year.
Him Her Him Again The End of Him -- judging a book by its cover. Guilty as charged.

Things that were awesome this year (again, no particular order):

The span of three or four nights this summer when the sky was absolutely cloudless, I couldn't find sleep, and I walked through the neighborhood with the moon. An entirely too ephemeral pleasure.
My family. Last year, when I told them that I was getting a divorce, they rallied around me in ways I never expected. They're strange and unconventional, but I love them so much. I never get tired of my parents telling me that they're proud of me, even when I fuck up.
EPIC movie nights with Teri and Sean. Every single one of them. I love you guys.
Vid. I love you too. Thanks for listening when I had nothing more than self-pity to offer.
Finishing that damn painting.
My car. Something about screaming down I-95 at 75 miles an hour with the top down puts a smile on my face.
The fact that I'm still here, still wasting my time playing video games, still confused as hell about what I want out of life, but having fun most of the time regardless.

Things that sucked this year:

The passing of my adorable guinea pigs. I still cry if I think about them. =(
Round two of thyroid radiation.
PCOS.
Drama at work.
My slowly-evolving divorce.

Don't have much else to add. There were several points this year where I found myself thinking, "wow, this has been the worst year ever." Surprisingly, as I look back, I remember mostly good stuff. The mark of the truly delusional? =)

What Would You Do If...

2007-12-19T11:40:00.000-08:00

you knew your own expiration date? Would you spend more time with your friends and family, or would you gradually start to separate from them to spare them? Would you quit your job and try to do all the things you'd always wanted to, but never found the time? Do you think the knowledge would bring about a sense of clarity? Would you try to leave behind some sort of legacy, a contribution to society?

Does the time left make a difference? Do your answers change based on whether you have a week left, as opposed to a year?

Last question: for those of us that can't see our proverbial hourglass, why are we content to live each day in the exact same manner as the day before? If you don't know when you're going to die, it could happen at any moment.

I want to see Venice before it sinks into the ocean. I want to camp overnight in the middle of a field in Kansas. I want to walk on an iceberg.

Do I have time before I die?

Your Attention Please

2007-12-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

This is important, so brace yourselves. Are you ready? You sure? I don't want you to be caught off-guard. This is big news, I think you should probably be sitting down. It was fairly traumatic for me, so I can't be held accountable for how you may take it. In fact, maybe you should stop reading right now. For those that aren't faint of heart, I guess I'll tell you, and hope that you're resilient enough to take the bone-crushing, world-changing, coma-inducing shock of it all.

My bagel's almost gone. =(

Pretties!

2007-12-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

Beautiful flowers, from a very dear friend. And yes, my Thursday was much better; I have you to thank. =)

A week later, blossoms opened up a bit.

Consider it Busted.

2007-12-12T17:36:00.000-08:00

Broke that cycle in half. Boo-yah.

Why, who's this? Certainly not Chant, with 6 miles of freakin' hair...

Oh wait, it IS!

From the back...

Did I mention I LOVE my hair now? Oh my, it's gorgeous. I cut 26" off, and it'll be going to Locks of Love, an absolutely fabulous organization. If you're able to do so yourself, go out, find a salon, shake things up a bit, and give to a worthy cause.

It's Time...

2007-12-07T14:15:00.001-08:00

To bust a few of my own cycles. You guys wanna try it with me?

A few to consider:
* The "haven't been ice skating in a year" cycle.
* The "haven't built castles out of Legos in several years" cycle.
* The "milkshakes aren't for dinner" cycle.

Meh.

2007-12-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: an endocrine disorder that affects approximately one in ten women. It occurs amongst all races and nationalities, is the most common hormonal disorder among women of reproductive age, and is a leading cause of infertility.

--Wikipedia

Yeah, so basically, WTF?

Whee!

2007-12-05T11:51:00.000-08:00

My friend (who in the confines of this space will be known as Vid, or "the Vid," or "Mr. Shank") has finally entered the realm of blogging. He has treated me to bits of his classroom-inspired artwork before, and while may be a little crudely drawn, it's always amusing.

Keep tabs on him here.

The Dresser

2007-11-11T17:29:00.001-08:00

My friends Laura and Paul gave me a dresser (so I can quit stacking clothes on my bookcase.. hehe), but it didn't match my place at all. Here are before and after shots:

BEFORE---

Aaaaaaaand, AFTER---

EB White Was Boring as Shit

2007-10-29T14:15:00.001-07:00

I don't get it...

Piggies!

2007-09-25T12:29:00.001-07:00

This little munchkin is Delilah, Samantha's new buddy. She's been home about three weeks now, and is almost big enough to live with Sam full-time. I'll make them a cool little guinea condo, so they can stretch their stubby little legs.

And here's the gruesome twosome together. Delilah's still pretty small by comparison, but they get along well. So cute!!

Finished.

2007-09-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

Is it stupid that I feel kind of sad that I'm finished with this? I guess with any long project or labor of love, it's not abnormal to feel a sense of loss when you've completed it. These dumb pieces of wood have held a fairly prominent place in my life for the last 7 months, and now they're just... hanging there, on my wall.

I think there's a lot more to it than that, though. They have a much more significant meaning to me—one that I won't get into here—and knowing that I don't have anything more to do feels like a right of passage... a cleansing. A purging. I don't know. (I'm writing this and crying.. god, what a goon.)

Guess it's time to start working on that mosaic I've considered doing for so long. =)

Here it is (click to zoom):

Final Decision

2007-09-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

Finished the borders, drilled and sanded the holes for the chain, and touched up the last of the sloppy areas.

I have one last decision to make. Each of the symbols have a relevant, one-word translation written on one of the horizontal lines inside the symbol itself. It's very faint, and I originally thought it would be my little secret, a present for those that are truly observant. Now, however, I think maybe I should paint the words a light color—the light sage of the background, or maybe while for full contrast—and make them obvious. Here's what it looks like now (zoomed in so the camera is almost touching the panel):

Thoughts?