notuboc

FACT 178 - kimono wo tsukurimasho~

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:00:27 -0400

so, it's come to this, has it. i am now so over the edge about japanese goods that i have made my own kimono.

yes! yes it has come to this! and isn't it AWESOME!?

i'll maybe be putting up some more details on how i made it, but that'll have to be later. i'm making another one, this one electric blue. you should see my super anal-retentive diagrams and instructions and stuff i wrote out for myself. (^_^)

i used an amalgam of a couple of sets of instructions i found on the web. the Immortal Geisha forums were helpful for detail stuff. it's not especially historically accurate/traditional, but i'm not really into making 50 thousand little kise for my seams, for a garment i'm not actually going to be wearing to Obon festivals...

also, because the fabric, i bought came in two (almost but not really) equal-length panels, my collar attaching in the front didn't go quite as planned, and so, as you can see, there's so wrinkling/gathering that shouldn't be there, on the front, right above the obi.

as for the obi. hot damn, i love that thing! (^_^) if you're not especially attached to having your obi be all one piece, it turns out you can buy a yard of whatever you'd like, and (assuming 45 inch fabric) but it into 6ths, and piece them together for an obi of 540 cm. plenty long! I lined this one with some muslin i had laying around, but if you want to self line it, just buy 2 yards and in to town. this one isn't stiffened in any way, and i think i'll definitely be stiffening my next one, but for a casual kimono, this is okay.

overall, i'm super pleased with my first effort. this next one i'm ongoing to be making with panels all of the same size (zomg!) so the neck portion should sit down more normally. hopefully less wrinkly, at the very least.

guess we're going to find out in pretty short order. i'm planning to do he thing this week, so i can year it for Easter service. we'll see if my desire to stay out of the spotlight overrules my desire to wear cool things in public...

FACT 176 - #amwriting

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:37:33 -0400

well, i think three and a half months is quite long enough to recover from NaNo. (^_^) actually, i was fairly well recovered in January, but then a long drawn out Saga Happened, the course of which i may or may not relate to you at a later date, when i can manage to talk about it without flying into a screaming rage, and so writing did not. (T_T) But i have recovered enough (read: i realized a Deadline was Looming) to entice myself back to the writing desk. After each of the previous NaNos, some lovely company has swooped down to shower the winners with free copies of their manuscripts. This year, Amazon has done the honors, and they have profered not one, but FIVE free copies of our manuscripts to lure us into their little (read: not so little) self-publishing game. (^_^) i still have not looked at The Revolution, my 2011 NaNo effort, and i am not willing to do so, not even for five free copies of the thing, but i AM willing to read, perhaps even to revise, my 2009 NaNo effort, The Machine. to that end, i have placed the prologue of such an effort online for all to see. it is quite short, a mere two paragraphs, and i promise the entire novel is not project briefing excerpts, but you may wish to read it nonetheless. it doesn't suck.

The Machine (working title) | prologue

(read: not that much)
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The Machine (working title) | prologue

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:15:06 -0400

Excerpt from ACC PROJECT BRIEFING
MARCH 14, 15926

The lack of organized response to the crisis indicates not only that the Project's failure was wholly unplanned for, but that even once Project leadership realized that such a failure was imminent, they were able to prevent any information concerning it and its implications from reaching either the media or other government agencies.

The sole indication of civilian knowledge about the project is the discovery of an unknown male found among the dead at the California facility. Evidence suggests he was copying data from a Project computer when he was discovered by a security guard, who apparently shot and killed him, but due to the lapse of time between the incident and recovery efforts, as well as the general lack of genetic records endemic to the early 21st century, no further information is available on this unknown male.

FACT 175 - SWEET SWEET VICTORY!

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:48:51 -0500

man, if you thought i was high beFORE, dude. dood! DOOD! (^___^)

a 3x wide smiley does not BEGIN to cover it. i am so awesome. i am! this? this right here? this is more awesome than one word can cover. i am so awesome, i have crossed the line into ossum! i'm so awesome, the internet had a to invent a word to cover how awesome i am.

...

yeah, okay, that's enough. seriously, i'm getting lightheaded.

man. it is pretty awesome, though. --oh, sorry, "ossum." i know i say this every year, but this year? THIS YEAR i was sure for a minute there that i wasn't going to make it. it was like, 35k words, and i was like, man, i actually /care/ about this story, and nothing was making sense. i had loose threads ALL over the place, and then my choir's extra long practice day was right in the middle of week two, and then my priest's last day was right in the middle of week three, and then my upstairs neighbor came home and played his music all loud, and i flew into my customary righteous indignation mode, etc etc et-novelus-interruptus-cetera.

but then i realized that if i didn't win, it would be my first fail in SEVEN years of doing NaNo. that's right, my record would be Win Win Win Win Win Win FAIL. and then i also realized that i really did care about this story. nevermind losing, if i didn't write the story, it wouldn't get written. my poor characters would be stuck there, forever mired in the craptastic middle i had left them with. it was time to outsmart myself, as my old workshop professor would say, and get my characters down from the tree.

luckily, their descent took just under twenty thousand words. somehow or other, most of the things i thought were pointless loose ends got tied up as i discovered more and more things about my characters and their horrible horrible pasts. i had a lot of fun killing three or four people one night, and so i resolved to get my main characters shot.

incidentally, my one main character seems un-shoot-at-able. my other main character, god bless him, gets shot at all the time, and actually got hit two or three times in that final scene, but the other chap just refuses to get shot at. he does shoot a dude right in the face though, and manages to violate his own code of ethics in protection of his best friend, so maybe he didn't escape unscathed after all. (^_^)

what i'm really proud of this month, though, is that the story's finished. i have a bad habit of ending NaNo without a completed story. my NaNo from a couple years ago, that i've been editing off and on all year, has no ending scene. i know exactly what it looks like, which may be the problem, but i just haven't sat down and written the damn thing yet. in this story, i knew the ending even before i knew the beginning, and i was worried that i would get bored and just not write it, when it came down to it. but i did write it, and i have to say,

I FEEL DAMN GOOD ABOUT THAT.

in fact, i feel so good, that i feel like writing something else. that's right, i wrote 3300+ words in the past three hours and i'm like, MOAR WORDS PLZ~

we'll see if that lasts.

~meredeth.
victorious.

/me takes a Don't Stop Believin' break
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FACT 174 - the "high" life

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:36:42 -0500

when the bloody title contains scare quotes, you know you're in trouble.

(^___^)

I HAVE RISEN LIKE THE PHOENIX! FROM A 3000 WORD DEFICIT, I HAVE COME BACK! LIKE AN UNHAPPY VAMPIRE REAWAKENED FROM THE GRAVE! ONLY, HAPPY!

oh my god i am so high right now. not the illegal kind, the adrenaline kind. the other day, there was a question on the Office of Letters/Light blog (at least, i think that's where it was, my neural pathways are a bit scattered at the moment) about why you write. some people said things like, i have to write or i get angry about all the stupid shit in my life. some people said things like, i want to experience things that would/could never happen in real life. some people even said the thing that i always tell people, which is, the thrill of writing is the thrill of reading, you get to find out what happens next. but the deeper truth is this: i get high, from writing. a totally legal, occasionally money-making, often admired past-time, and when i'm done, i'm totally, gigglingly, singing-loud-ly, divuldging-far-too-much-information-when-asked-only-innocuous-questions (using-too-many-hyphens) HIGH. like drunk, but on words. (^_^) (incidentally, this kind of high is also what happens to me when i read something good, hence my tendancy to read at home, alone. but that's a discussion for another post~)

and then of course, there's the killing people.

no, seriously. half the reason i'm so high right now is because no less than four people have died horrible horrible deaths in the past 2000 words. i set them on fire, while revealing some scary plot stuff about my main character. he behaved poorly, and it scared his naive friend. now they're stuck in a creepy Moria-esque (only much smaller, and without short bearded people) hidey-hole (isn't that like the second time i've used that phrase this november? what is WRONG with me? ... oh. yeah.), so main character is going to have to explain himself to naive friend, or at least deal with the fallout from his poor behavior, which is far more likely, since he has not thus far displayed a habit of explaining himself to people. but slowly, we are finding out why. and the whole setting-people-on-fire thing started when the bad guys killed one of main character's friends, and shafting your main character is one of those pleasures of writing that keeps an author at the keyboard when it seems there is no other reason to be there. nothing gets me reinvested in a story more quickly than making something horrible happen to my beloved characters.

also helping me at this point is that i have a vague idea of where i'm going with this. i've had an ending in mind all along, and it seems i might actually make it there (find something wooden, dude, because i need to knock), and so i'm eager to find out exactly how the new things that are happening right now (for example, i thought the chick who just died was going to be an escaped rebel leader, but it turns out she's the escaped government employee i had originally planned the naive friend to be) are going to play into the super awesome bombing run i've got planned for the end.

the fun of writing is the fun of reading: you get to find out what happens next.

that, and the killing. (^_^)-b
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FACT 173 - on deficits

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:58:20 -0500

the word count kind, not the 99% kind. (^_^) as of this evening, i'm just over 3000 words behind, and that's including the 2300+ words i flew through (in two and a half hours, yeah, "flew") at tonight's write-in (which was held at the Thurber Center downtown, and was awesome. things i am learning this NaNo: a typewriter makes a great impression at write-ins!). it sounds like a lot, but honestly, this isn't the craziest deficit i've come back from. actually, i've only missed writing on a handful of days this month. i've made it a point not to even think about my story on fridays, and actually that's helped the non-fridays be more productive. i've also found that, outside of miracle situations like write-ins, i really can't write for more than an hour or so before i start making up excuses to get away. this produces Really Crappy Scenes and An Unhappy Writer. so i am now admitting my limitation. one hour, a break, and then another hour. please do not attempt them one right after the other, self, we'll both regret it in the morning.

thus, being all written out for tonight, i am Planning. i'm in the middle on the planner/pantser debate ("and i didn't know which way to turn, which was unusual for me.") but i'm definitely confirming for myself this year that total pantsing is not for me. when i don't have something set down for me to write for a particular session, Bad Things happen. or, more usually, Nothing happens. i started with a general sort of overview, a few scenes i knew i wanted, and a general-to-middling idea of what i needed in between. i've been working out a couple of new scenes every day at work, and then coming home and writing those scenes at night. well, last thursday, i ran out of Scene. of course, friday is No Writing Day, so that wasn't a problem, but then saturday came along, and instead of being Make Up For Friday Day it turned out to be Run All of the Errands Day. and since i didn't have any scenes sketched out for me to fill in at an imagined saturday night writing session, the session poofed right out of existence. sadface.

so i'm taking this evening to plan more studiously. as i mentioned previously, i really am not good at middles, so any plot planning i do is this:

write beginning.

write end.

work towards middle.

i also tend to be rather rigid about structure. for instance, my running out of Scene this past thursday took place right at the Point of No Return point, that is, the Event which causes my main character (who FINALLY has a name, THANK YOU JESUS) to really be boned to the point where he'd not going to be able to return to his normal life. this happened 13 scenes in. so, between the Point of No Return and The Final Scene, i figure there should be 13 more scenes. could i break this rule? i probably will. do i have enough to fill out 13 more scenes? i sure as hell don't. but it is a helpful device. i've already written the first two of these 13 Mysterious Scenes at tonight's write-in, and i've got five or six scenes that need to happen in order for the final bombing run to happen, just as Bombing Run Prep/physics satisfaction (i.e., you can't blow up a building without explosives, so you'd better go collect those), so that right there is 7/13 scenes. i'm more than halfway there, and feeling better already. and it's given me a sort of half idea for the subplot i'm (desperate for) going to need if i hope to make the second half of this book relevant to (even half as long as) the first.

not that any of this crap will make it past the first draft. i've already half-filled a notebook with notes for revisions.

~meredeth.
3030 words behind, and Not Worried.
(i am not worried. i am not worried. i am not...)

FACT 172 - a criminal mind

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:17:01 -0500

I BLEW UP A CAR! and then i killed a dude! and then i ran away through the forest, and i have JUST NOW emerged from a creepy underground escape tunnel! I WIN!

for NaNo, i swear.

(^_^)

the problem now is that we've gotten to that scary part of all novels: the middle. i seem to have a serious problem filling up the middles of my stories. i am, frankly, awesome (okay, fine, merely "great") at setting up initial problems. i can sure get my characters up a tree, and i've even managed to find a few rocks to toss at their heads. i've been alright with the rocks in the past, but i've been training, and this year, i seem to have figured out how to take aim right at their faces and hit em straight in the eyeball. (ouch!) but now it's time for my characters to start showing some initiative, to try fighting back, to maybe, possibly, take a modicum of control over the outcome of their own destinies? wouldn't that be nice? yeah?

but they won't do it.

dude is hunted down by his own government, reunited with his best friend (thought missing, probably dead), all but thrown off a bridge by/with that friend and then they scurry down a underground hidey-tunnel (yes, "hidey-tunnel," IT'S NOVEMBER OKAY) like little rats, AND HE JUST SITS THERE. at least his friend had the decency to clue me in as to what the hell the government's been doing behind closed doors all this time. now if only GE would get up off his semi-albino /ass/ and try doing something, that would really help me out. after all, i've got just over 25 thousand more words to right, you know.

or maybe he wants a few more rocks.
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FACT 171 - my fingers is mush

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:18:03 -0500

well, i've just written a little over 2200 words in almost two hours, and that's pretty near to my story-writing peak, so i don't know precisely why i thought now would be a great time for a blog entry, but here i am anyway.

things i know now that i didn't know yesterday:
1) my main character's parents, mostly his mother, are real jerks. his dad is just a guy trying to do the right thing in a really difficult position, but his mom is a full-fledged douche.
2) an interrogator who's genuinely friendly is actually way creepier than an interrogator who's genuinely mean.
3) after you've seen Ghost in the Shell, any government tower is automatically the Ministry of Health Towers.

i now also look forward to a writing session in which i sleep deprive my character, harrass him for something he didn't do, accuse him of sassing a government official, probably threaten him with bodily harm if he doesn't confess (to this thing he didn't do) and then later on, there'll be a writing session where i get to blow up a car and rescue the poor sleep-deprived chap from a fate worse than (or actually no, just) death. i can't /wait/ to see the look on his face when he sees who's gonna rescue him! that's gonna be awesome! (^_^)-b

~meredeth.
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FACT 170 - mah brains is mush

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:34:13 -0400

but i'm ahead on my word count goal, and let's be frank, in November, that's all we care about. i could be a slimey gooey mass of slimey goo on the floor, but as long as i can still press the letters on my typewriter in some relatively coherent order, IT'S ALL GOOD. (^_^)-b

and i'm gonna give my brother a little plug here, coz he's doing a fancy Xwhatever in 30 days, too, namely 30 characters in 30 days. he's here: http://www.30characters.com/author/cactuarjoe/. his day 1 was andrew jackson, and his day 2 was ada lovelace. he's dressing up famous people as Final Fantasy/D&D/etc classes, and i think they're super awesome, so obviously, you should go check it out. FTW, yo!

also, about my typewriter, i wanted to share here what i did for an output containment device. as i said, i'm typing the whole 50k words up on my electric brother, and i can only write on thermal fax paper, which comes in 98 foot rolls. well, that's not precisely conducive to a lack of clutter (trust me, i've got enough clutter around here, and it's only the 2nd) and so i whipped a little something up from masking tape and bendy straws:

IT'S SO AWESOME I CAN'T TAKE IT! (^___^)

okay, a smilie with that wide of a mouth is a sure sign that my mind is broken. also, i just realized that my typewriter's name should be: The Electric Brother. i'm going to bed now. good thing i made tomorrow's lunch while my mind was still not-broken, coz otherwise i'd end up eating something strange tomorrow, like, whatever strange thing i have in this house. (not much actually. i guess i only eat normal food... huh.)

BROKEN.
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FACT 169 - mah birfdays~

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:10:02 -0400

one's "birfdays" is apparently that time of year when one is allowed, even encouraged to toss grammar and spelling conventions out of one's window and substitute whichever letters one prefers for whichever letters one does not...

or something. (^_^)

in any event, i am thirty years old, as of a couple of days ago, and so i thought i'd share some hideously embarrassing photos from the memorable event...

for those of you not in the know, my mother has developed a habit of setting strange things on fire and placing them atop my father's birthday cake. i believe it started with my father's 50th, when mom thought that something humorous was appropriate, but didn't want to go the standard (and thus un-funny) route of black hats/candles/et-over-the-hill-cetera. she placed 50 candles atop his cake, and carted the thing into the other room for my dad to test his lungs upon. fast forward several years, and she's still lighting abnormally large amounts of candles on fire and placing them on birthday cakes. but i'm only 30, and we only had the number of candles on hand for father's birthday, which of course were used at that joyous event:

aaand the aftermath (some of the candles turned out to be of the type that don't go out (oops!) so we had to dunk them in water to stop them relighting themselves):

so you can well imagine that we expected something silly, despite the fact that my preferred birthday "cake" is in fact a lemon merangue pie:

and so we got it:

in case you don't recognize them, those sticks of metal atop my pie are sparklers. like, fourth of july sparkler sparklers.

which would have been well and good, except that once they were done sparkling (yeah, i wasn't trying to blow those things out, thanks) we discovered they'd left behind a little extra iron for us:

nutritious!(?)

well, we ate it anyway, because pie is yummy, and especially lemon merangue, which i always ask for for my birthday. mom takes cake and dinner requests for our birthday, so i also had lasagne roll-ups this year, which i have been craving for some time. and they had plenty of spinich in them, which was especially delicious (i can't believe i just said that. adult much?).

as for presents, i spent friday hanging with the madre, saturday hanging with my youngest sister and her friend (who was spending the night and is basically my other youngest sister) and then sunday i got my fancy lasagne roll-ups and a lot of naptime, which was also delightful! i also got some dollars, which are going straight into the savings account for when i find an apartment that doesn't make me wear my headphones all the time in order to avoid my neighbors' noise.

speaking of which, they were acting up the other day, circa 11 pm, and i decided that if they were allowed to be so constantly noisy, i would be too, so i started singing. now, i'm not bragging here, but i do happen to have a bit of a voice, and after i got myself warmed up, i busted out the maya sakamoto anime opening themes and let 'em have it. sure enough, it quieted right down, and sure enough, i haven't heard too much out of 'em since. i believe we term that a victory. (^_^) so remember, where cops and landlords fail to quiet your overly-rambunctious neighbors, try singing. loudly. in foreign languages. (^_^)

anyhow, back to saturday, and the other youngest sister. she, being nearly sixteen, and more than usually precocious for her age, gave us quite an entertaining time, especially after she'd eaten all the merangue off her pie and had three sodas in the course of one evening.

now, i'm not saying she was being silly, i'm just pointing you to my new up 'do (partially obscured by the darkness of the window, thank god) and i'll let you make up your own mind. (^_^)

in other news, NaNo fast approaches. a little too quickly for my tastes, if truth is to be told. (^^;) i've got a translation contest i'm entering (due date: Nov 30 ahahahahahahaha--) and i've decided to finally take the plunge and learn shorthand. i've decided on gregg, via the free textbook thing linked precisely one post ago, which is the anniversary edition. i do have a book on the simplified edition on reserve at the library, but it hasn't come in yet. it's not that difficult necessarily, but i can see already that it requires more time than i've got before NaNo to get up to speed with. even the simplified edition, which has far fewer short forms (181, yeah, "fewer") and even with the realization that i probably don't need most of those short forms (not going to be using a lot of business terms in this year's novel, although the governmental ones will come in handier than you might at first imagine), i think it's still a little much to expect to use it to write my whole novel. which is a shame, because that means i'll have to type some of it up at work, which is always a cause of consternation and wrist pain. while at home, i'll be typing my words on my lovely Brother EP43 electric portable typewriter. that's right! my old new baby, complete with aftermarket fimo-clay platen knob (made by your truly)! oh yeah, that's how we do it! (^_^)-b

that is my avatar for the NaNo boards. i donated some dollars to Camp NaNo this past summer (founding donor ftw~) so there's a little halo above my avatar on the boards, and it's in just the right place to give the brother a halo. it's an angelic typewriter? (not the way my plot is, or rather isn't progressing...) it's a thermal machine (meaning that instead of each letter slapping against an ink ribbon in order to make an impression on the paper in the shape of a letter, it heats up a thermal tape with electrical impulses and bonds the ink to the paper in the shape of a letter) only i can't get cartridges for it any more, so i'm typing on thermal fax paper. which comes in 96' foot rolls. I KNOW, HOW AWESOME IS THAT? PRETTY AWESOME! (^_^) and i will definitely be taking it to write-ins with me. the kick off party is at the library branch that's literally down the street from me, so i'll be going to that (omigod next sunday!) and i'll be carting it out to as many write-ins as i can get to. probably, that means the sunday afternoon ones, but if there are some more that fit my schedule, i'll be there, too. i have the whole week of thanksgiving off, so i should be able to fit something in there.

anyhow, i'm off to find something (anything?) out about my plot, so i'll let you get back to your normal lives now. if you're on google+ and want to find some fellow NaNoists over there, here's a search for you: https://plus.google.com/s/nanowrimo. enjoy~

~meredeth.

(this post brought to you by OMIGODITSNANOAGAINIMALITTLEEXCITEDCANYOUTELL!!!???)
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FACT 168 - it's that time again, kiddos~

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:39:20 -0400

that's right, kiddos, * NOVEMBER IS COMING~ (insert spooky ghosty noises here!) i have absolutely no bloody clue what i'm going to write this year, but i saw a phrase on the nano forums that i thought would make the absolute perfect title, so the title of this year's nano novel is (drum roll please!)

Welcome to the Rebellion

kii~ *sparkly sound effect*

i'm thinking the subtitle might be You Are Not A Cheater, but i don't really know what, if anything, that has to do with my story (yet), we'll just have to wait and see. given what i've been watching lately (No. 6) i believe i will be writing something about fake utopias, but i'm thinking that the rebellion will actually be the utopia. i.e., a rebellion succeeds, but establishes itself as a more or less perma-rebellion in order to -- yeah, this is sort of where it breaks down... anyway, there's still, what three minutes before NaNo starts ** and IT'S NOT LIKE I'VE GOT ANYTHING ELSE TO DO.

*cough*

okay, then. back to work. ***

* i don't know how many of you are children, i expect not many of you, but in a rare show of ebullience, meredeth decided that all of you are now younger than she. this may have something to do with her upcoming birthday, but honestly, we try not to pry. it's safer.

** fifteen days, but we won't tell if you won't. (^_-)

*** move along, folks, move along. nothing to see here.

FACT 167 - told you so~

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:47:26 -0400

website redesign: GETTO shita~

i feel so awesome~ one ginormous image, one tinier image, and some fancy CSS, and some of you may actually be able to see the fancy fonts i mean you to see. for those of you without CSS3-compliant browsers, things may be a bit messed up, although it should still be fine. the shot to the left here is the idealised version i see on my own screen. (^_^)

in other news, i have indeed finished Prince of the Sun, Princess of the Moon. and indeed people were shafted. it was pretty harsh, especially for our poor old King Brook. that dude had Tragic Flaw written all over him, and indeed he Fell. it was very entertaining. (^_^) as i said, i'll be putting it up here after a little revision work. it's actually two short stories that were originally published in The Sneaker magazine in the mid 90s, the first one about the brother and sister of the title. the second story is about them, too, but mostly about the relationship between them and their father, Brook, and how Brook's obsession with power dooms them all, not to mention the doom he brings on Moss, and by extention, Lodoss.

having finished that cheerful chapter of the Lodoss story, i've been digging around in my collection of imported books to see what i might like to translate next. i've got every lodoss book ever published (i think) as well as the RPG guidebooks (all three), so of course i could do something there. but i've also got the first of the Moribito books which could be entertaining. i know the anime's been keeping my attention (the first four episodes anyway) and there's plenty more where that came from. it's the first in a 10-volume series. and it's ostensibly children's literature, so it might be easier. i've also got kino no tabi although that's already been translated, and indeed i also own the english version, but the english version has the chapters in the wrong order, so who knows what else is weird there. and there's a good 12 or 14 of those published. the other thing i've got, and the one i picked up for a little perusal, is a collection of natsuhiko kyogaku's "short" stories, which is actually 616 pages, and only the first of two similarly-sized volumes. they're detective/ghost stories, and i read through the japanese wikipedia page to see if i really wanted to attempt it, and all i have to say is that if the stories are as good as these summaries have lead me to believe, i'm not gonna be able to put the book down. kyogoku's debut novel was translated and published in english not to long ago (summer of the ubume) and apparently did well enough that they did up another one (loups-garous) so some shorts might be popular. of course, with someone else already doing his stuff, and all of these books being fairly recent, who knows what licensing madness i may be wading into. not that i'm particularly worried about legality, i guess. hobbists such as myself usually need only be served with a C&D letter to scare us before we run for the delete button...

anyhow, if you've got any personal favorites out there that you'd love to see translated, drop me a comment. i prefer stuff that's modern, speculative, and weird, and keep in mind that a 4-inch square book with 125 pages of normal-sized print took me a month to get through, but please, Suggest Away~~~

FACT 166 - the noonday sun

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 18:04:49 -0400

well well well, hisashiburi desu ne~~~

okay. here's the gist:

didn't move.

here's the longer gist:

lease-breaking fee was waived.
property manager then realized the apartment she showed me WAS ALREADY TAKEN.
so, i made appointment to sign lease for a different apartment.
i went to the appointment, but NO ONE WAS IN THE OFFICE.
i got pissed, i looked at other apartments.
i broke my blinds.
i had the blinds replaced, but the ones they put in WERE TOO SHORT.
i went to complain. paid rent, COMPLAINED.
+4 weeks, nothing happened.
went to pay rent, and complain some more, discovered property manager had been fired.
"new" guy turns out to have a head on his shoulders.
neighbors mysteriously shut up.
blind replaced with properly sized one.
I DON'T HAVE TO MOVE.
general rejoicing.

OH. MY. FREAKIN. LORD. i cannot tell you want kind of a ridiculous SAGA i have been having with this bloody place. it's like, 2011 came along and decided to be a dick about it, and i just had to put up with it until it went away and found someone more entertaining to be a dick to. glad that's happened now. and the other day i saw my upstairs neighbor coming out of a two bedroom with the "new" property manager (he used to be the assistant manager, now he's the Manager, and, indeed, the only person working in the bloody office, so he's not exactly new, he's just "new") so i think he'll be moving out here before too much longer. i know he wants to have his music up, coz every once in a while i'll hear it again. i've decided not to say anything unless it goes on for a bit, coz as long as i don't have to put up with a constant heart beat in my floor/ceiling, i /can/ deal, after all, i'm not a /total/ bitch, i'm just saying that on a monday night, maybe we could turn it down.

enjoying my delightfully civil apartment as i have been, i've been getting on a bit with the translating. i'm almost finished with one of the Lodoss gaiden novels, a sort of prequel side story called Prince of the Sun, Princess of the Moon. it's about how the demon king was summoned, the demon king that Beld and Wort and Karla et al later have to destroy, the demon king that causes the Soul Crusher to be what it is, the demon king that kills off Beld's lovely lady? yeah, that demon king. turns out that the Curse of Anyone Who Utters the Phrase, "I Will Conquer All Lodoss" took it's lovely tool on one of them there Moss dukes, and thus the demon king was summoned. i won't give you too many spoilers at the moment, because i'm going to put it up here when i'm done with it. i'm almost finished, got about two more sections to go, so with any luck it'll be some time this week. after that, i'm either going back to work on Olochi, which is a creepy semi-post-modernish gothic mystery with bizarre fashion terms that i have to look up and sentences that are even longer than this one IN EVERY PARAGRAPH, /or/ i'm going to work on the manga i just bought, which is GRANDEEK, which is about a cute girl with a big sword. which is never bad. (^_^)

in other news, i've decided to revamp the old blog a bit. with the CSS getting a shiny new coat of awesome, i thought i'd give it a go. mostly, of course it's for the fonts, but those rounded corners are pretty hot, too. or at least, they are if you're w/ mozilla. otherwise, not so much. i almost got myself a wordpress blog, but then i decided not to be lazy and just code a bloody theme, instead of stealing someone's fancy wordpress theme. you've got to admit, they do have some hot stuff out there. some crap, too of course, but who doesn't...

in other other news...

knitting my sister a pair of socks. this one took me a bloody month, and then i had to buy a smaller set of needles for the ribbing, but eventually i finished it. now i just have to make the other one...

ossum.

FACT 165 - the light of coming dawn

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 23:17:48 -0400

i believe the lottery of blog posts has spared you the saga of my bloodyloud neighbors... that was a near thing on your part... on my part, it means that i will be spending May moving, again... the saga in a nutshell:

one set of downstairs neighbors was really (i mean, seriously, really) loud. like, heartbeat in my floor loud. so i asked them to turn it down. the one dude asked me why i was always down there causing trouble (because asking once, politely, apparently constitutes "always causing trouble") and the other dude tried to smarm me and offered me a beer. nb: i don't drink. at least, not beer. at least, not with jerks who have only the bass line of their songs playing, and that so loud as to rattle my floorboards. two weeks later, they had it up again. at one thirty AM, saturday. and again at 2:15 AM, saturday. i complained to the management. management told me to call the police. so, when i was woken up the following tuesday by someone's even louder bass, and when i came home that tuesday to find that the volume had, if anything, gone /up/, i called the police. police came out, knocked on their door (a knock which they did not answer until the third knock) and finally the jerks shut the hell up. at this point, they must have gotten mad though, because not even five days later, they had it up again. when i asked them to turn it down this time, they slammed the door in my face. so the next time i heard it (3 AM, by the by, monday morning) i didn't even give them a warning knock, i called the cops straight off. i don't know what happened that night between Them and The Cops, because as soon as i could, i went straight back to sleep, but the following week, i walked past their apartment to find the place vacant. haHA! you think, problem SOLVED! but alas, no. the people who live in the apartment immediately below me, the same girls who agreed with me that the jerk's loud music was annoying, the very same girls who told me they did not own audio equipment of the caliber required to produce bass that could be heard in the next apartment, those girls had their music up loud enough to wake me up on a sunday afternoon. and then my upstairs neighbor had his TV up that afternoon. and mondays have mysteriously become band practice night or something around here. i swear i saw my other upstairs neighbors take mixing equipment and amps up to their aparment some weeks ago, and for the past couple of weeks, i've heard (what i assume to be) them, practicing.

so i decided enough was enough, it was time to get out of here. i looked at a couple of places, most of which were financially impossible (not necessarily because of rent, but because of application fees and deposits and the like. i really wasn't expecting to move out until /next/ spring), and finally i went to my rental office here and asked if they had any townhomes available. why yes, they just happen to have a nice new one with brand new carpet, shall we take a look? so, epic story somewhat short, i took a look, it's right up near the front of the complex, the neighbors seem to be in bed circa 9:30, 10 pm on weeknights, and there's a lovely tree right out front. i signed up. they approved my app, and now we're waiting on word as to whether they're going to waive the $200 get-out-of-jail card i would normally have to pay in order to weasel out of my lease. part of me is secretly hoping they'll decide not to let me weasel out. i really am not interested in moving, i'm just interested in having more quiet evenings than noisy ones. and repainting this dr-pepper colored wall is really gonna be a drag...

in the new place, i'm going to put of canvases instead of painting. i'm buying some rolled canvas and some 1x3s or something and making my own. in the living room, it's going to be a massive reproduction of The Wave, that famous japanese painting, you know the one. i'm hoping to make it 8x6 feet. then i'll set my tv up in front of it, so it'll be like wallpaper, but cooler. and upstairs in the craftroom (actually the front bedroom, but there's only going to be me there, so i'm taking full advantage), i'm thinking a giant beech tree. (because the boc part of notuboc literally refers to beech trees, which is what the anglo-saxons wrote on, which why the word later evolved into book.) i think it would be awesome to have all my product shots include a giant beech tree! (^_^)

so while i'm waiting for that whole fiasco to blow over, i'm dunking entire book blocks in hot coffee.

hence the little black spots on the pages. i swear i'm not letting my bookblocks get all buggy. i would never treat the little dears so poorly. but soaking them in hot caffinated beverage for several minutes and then tossing them out on the porch is perfectly fine! all's fair in love and art. (^_^)-b

speaking of art, music. dude. i've been listening to all sorts of odd stuff lately, and trust me, i'll listen to just about anything, but my sisters seem to have become my main source of ossum lately. my youngest sister got me listening to Two Door Cinema Club, which is like pop+rock+8bit-video-games, and is just as fun to listen to as that might lead you to believe. all their songs are similar, fast tempos, guitar arpegio/rhythm things, and some of them are quite short, but their clever lyrics and catchy melodies more than make up for it.

the other thing i've been listening to lately (besides my neighbors) is Universal Hall Pass. speaking of clever lyrics. only this girl? meshes it all together. check her out on youtube and then head over to amazon, or cdbaby, or your chosen other digital download area, because you're gonna want some. Dragonfly is very good, Six-Step Dragon is very cool, if a little non-sensical, and there is this song called Katrina Josephina that will make you listen to it over and over and over. you will be compelled. so set aside a little while, coz you'll need it.

in other news, i've signed myself up for the next fiction project over at the art house co-op. (their site's in the midst of a reboot, so it's a little jacked at the moment, but check em out, their cool!) thank god they've extended their deadline to the middle of may, because with all this noise, i've been constitutionally incapable of writing anything coherent. (the two bedroom has a tiny little closet of a room in the basement that i instantly pictured my desk and typewriter in. ooo can't wait!) my last fiction project was The Aftermath, which was about a dude who survives the plagepocalypse and how he deals with the general loss of humanity and the specific loss of his (ex-pregnant) girlfriend. this time, it's Oasis, which is about a nuclear-physics scientist cum scavenger who (wait for it) survives the nukepocalypse (ha! fooled you!) and how he deals with the loss of his family and his part in bringing humanity's end upon us all. it was supposed to be a (fairly) regular short story, but thanks to the influence of script frenzy, it became a script. i'm going to write it on my 1980s brother ep43 thermal typewriter. why? um... i had a good reason. why was it again? (FLCL ftw~) it was something about heat transfer and the fire that consumes his family. and the way it's a totally obsolete piece of equipment that's finding new life in the same way that our scavenger is. but mostly it's because i <3 my typewriters. i can't wait to write NaNo on this thing! maybe i could host a tiny write-in this fall, if the two bedrooms's big enough once i get all my furniture into it...

fact 164 - shutterbug

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:10:24 -0500

i've been taking my sister's photo course with her -- well, really, what i've done is stolen her password and viewed her online lectures and stolen her textbook and scanned that sucker in. (^_^) well, not really. she let borrow both of them. i've been taking photos for the projects that the regular students are supposed to do. i haven't been able to take as many as i'm supposed to, but i think they're not turning out horribly. so i thought i'd upload some of them. they're all taken with a canon powershot a75 or something, a little 3~4 megapixel camera that first came out in 2004 and used to belong to my brother. (^_^) for all it's lack of flashy stats, the little thing is a trooper. and it's not the stats that make a good picture, right? ... right? (^_^)

anyhow, the first project is supposed to be about color and shape. we were supposed to take five pictures, so here they are:

taken one beautiful sunset on my back porch. well, my only porch, but it is in the back. (^_^)

this one is my carpet and the legs of my tv tray. (^^;) because i will take a photo of anything if i think it looks mod enough. (^_^) i especially like the interplay of lines. | / -

i'm not so fond of this one. it's sufficiently geometrical, but there's not enough color.

i don't know if you can tell, but the background is a lightly textured silver affair, and i like the monochromatic color scheme on this one. i wish my camera didn't bow out so much around the edges though...

speaking of monochromatic color schemes. i have bamboo everywhere, even in my cubicle at work, so it seemed natural enough to take a photo of it.

well, that's the five we were supposed to take for color/shape. the first ones were better, and that bamboo one wasn't bad from a technical standpoint, but the middle two sort lacked interest.

one of the later projects is about portraits, and since i know a) i suck at those and b) i have no great need to improve my portraiture, i shall insert the single portrait i have taken thus far into this post. it's a self portrait, and i like nearly everything about it. it's wicked creepy, it is actually me, and, not to put too fine a point on it, i haven't got a lick of clothing on in it.

wonder how much spam that'll get me. can't be more than i already get. (X_X)
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FACT 163 - the high life

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 19:01:00 -0500

or, at least, a life where you don't get to relax that much. (>_<) nonetheless, i have been making efforts to reduce my stress level. last month, as you may have guessed (^^;) i engaged in that crazy-seeming (okay, not just seeming, it is crazy) feat of literary abandon, as they call it, NaNoWriMo. i wrote about a small group of scientists who build an android that's so lifelike, even they begin to forget it's a machine. it's like pinoccio w/ a scifi twist. i got to 56000 words and decided that was enough, i'd neglected to fill enough plot holes that any reader unlucky enough to drive his readermobile over my story would break his neck inside of 20 minutes.

in order to recover from the stress of this realization (yeah right, as if it's ever been any different any other year...) i've been turning to the photos in my etsy shop and my artfire shop. i've gotten a slight up-tick in views, which is always nice, of course, and the items that i've updated the pictures on are the items i get more views on. it's not a whole lot, but i do notice a sizable uptick in the number people clicking on my pictures out of the site search, so maybe all this time i'm wasting on clicking the shutter isn't really wasting after all. (^_^) you be the judge:

before:

after:

before:

after:

before:

after:

yeah, i think i'd better keep clicking. (^_^) i'm retaking shots of all my books, so (hopefully) my shop will be totally made over by the new year. it's hard for me to find a happy medium between shots that are so experimental as to be unintelligable and shots that are so boring as to make them unclick-on-able, so i've been erring on the side of bizarre angles lately. i figure online selling is entirely visual, so i'd better make my pictures interesting. if people wanna click, they'll click. in the meantime, i just want my shop to look awesome. plus, i like the bare sort of pictures i've been making lately. i like geometries, shapes, big blocks of color, and the pictures i'm taking lately is all about big blocks of BOOK against big sheets of WHITE. (^_^)

in other news, i've been working on another arthouse co-op project. i signed up for the sketchbook project a couple of months ago, and haven't touched the poor thing since. (^^;) my theme is "This is not a sketchbook" which is fine, because i don't sketch. (^_^) i was going to fill it with some words of some kind, but lately i've been making a lot of paper, and so i thought that might be something cool to work on for the sketchbook project. so i'm making a bunch of paper of different kinds, and then i'll mount squares of each one onto watercolor paper and label each one according to what they represent. so like, i have a nice blue one that looks just like denim, and i've got one that's a nice blue with white chunks in it like clouds like the sky on a summer day. it'll be like a tour of the world through paper. (^_^) i have of course a crap ton of paper left to make, and it has to be mailed out by the 15th, which is wednesday, for those of you keeping track. yeah. nothing like a deadline to get me up off the couch...

and then i'm going to sign up for the next fiction project. (^_^)

ps. for those of you who are here looking for tips on papermaking, here's one:

i use screen printing frames for a frame and deckle (like this: dick blick frames). i got two of them and removed the screening from one of them. that screen is perfect for straining paper pulp, because the screening is designed not to stick to wet things. when i used other types of mesh, the paper pulp would stick to the mesh, but it pops straight off of the screen printing mesh, and doesn't stain easily. then you use the frame from that one as your top frame and the one with the screening still attached as your deckle. hopefully i'll use my brain and take some pictures here tonight. we'll see. (^^;)

FACT 162 - NaNoWriMo 2010

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:16:00 -0400

oh yeah, baby, it's that time of year again. when writers everywhere put on their viking helmets and go into battle against the interminable stretch of blank pages and horrible syntax that make up NaNoWriMo. (^_^) this year, i'm turning away from my pantsing origins (this would be the planner vs pantser debate; do you plan your novel or write it by the seat of your pants) and delving into that mysterious land known as Outlining. (^_^) i've been trying the Snowflake method, which turns out to be kind of perfect for me, since it's nearly what i do anyway. the webpage is pretty "sale-y" and fairly obnoxious to read, but basically what you do is this: write a one sentence summary of your story. now expand that sentence to a five sentence paragraph. now expand each of those sentences into its own paragraph. now expand each of those paragraphs into more paragraphs, etc etc etc, wash rinse repeat with maybe some character building exercises thrown in to make sure you aren't writing crap, and keep expanding until you have a novel. voila. it's a way of tricking yourself into thinking that Writing is Easy, and it works pretty well, at least for me. the software's $100, so there's no way i'm paying for that, and honestly there's no need to. he explains the whole method right there on the page. the software's just some appropriately marked boxes, for those who have trouble making their own boxes, i guess.

anyway, i've been 'flaking it out (an accurate phrase in more than one way~) and i've been fairly energized about my story so far. i've tried to write this thing for 2 previous ScriptFrenzys, but i think i'm just going to have to come to terms with the fact that i am not a script writer. (^^;) considering my track record with NaNo (5 tries, 5 wins, not including this year) it's hard to believe how epic-ly i have failed at ScriptFrenzy (2 tries, 2 fails, barely even 20 pages between them). but the story won't go away, so i've decided to try my hand at novelizing it. it was originally going to be a fake documentary about a team of brilliant young scientists who build an android who passes for a human, and the social implications of their invention, but now it's going to be the accompanying book. a lot of documentaries have books that go with them, so why should my documentary be any different. just because it's fake doesn't mean it can't get the same respect. (^_^)

i was going to write a time travel story about a couple of long-lost twins who cause several rather serious space-time distortions in their attempt to reunite, but then i saw a blog post on the Office of Letters and Light blog about synthetic biology. the people over at iGem (a supercool synthetic biology competition for high school students), in their attempts to get the word out about how cool science in general, and their competition in specific, are, were looking to feature some synthetic-biology-featuring fictions on their website, so they sent a little email out, fishing for novelists. i got myself a spot on their novel-featuring page, which you can check out here: the iGem NaNoWriMo page. there are rather more of us than i expected writing about or around synthetic biology, which i guess just goes to show you that there are always deeper-than-expected NERd depths waiting to be plumbed in NaNoWriMo, no matter how deep you expect them to be. (^^;)

for instance, this afternoon, i went to a NaNo kick-off party, which was held at the main branch of the library, and it featured several dozen NERds all NERding out together. of which i was one. (^_^) we got a little noveling kit, complete with origami plot bunnies, encouraging stickers, and soothing tea for when we just can't take it anymore. like, on november 2nd. we had pretty much every genre you can think of represented, including the ever-popular "I have no idea what i'm writing about and i've only got five days to figure it out oh god what am I going to do" genre. there seemed to me to have been a lot of urban fantasy, and a fair amount of young adult writers in the room. i don't know if i've just been living in a cave, but it seems like the YA genre is exploding recently. everybody's trying to write one, everybody's reading one, and even adults who previously would have thumbed their nose at the YA section in the book store are now over there thumbing through the latest garth nix thing. or whatever his name is. i must be the only adult on the planet who does not read YA novels. i'm not trying to belitte the YA phenomenon, in fact i think it's awesome, because the more we can get a kid to read while he's still a kid, the more likely we are to produce a reading adult, i just think it's weird. it's like, harry potter made a bunch of money and twilight proved that people will read anything if it's marketed properly, and now everybody wants into the pool. i suppose if everybody's off in the kiddie pool, it'll make the adult swim a lot easier, but honestly. weird.

in other, more bookbinding-related, news, i'm having a book sale in honor of NaNoWriMo. it was originally just for NaNo participants, but in the interest of proclaiming the joys of writing from the nearest soapbox, i've decided to open it up for everyone. if you head on over to my fancy pants artfire shop and put in the coupon code NANOWRIMO when you check out, you'll get 25% your order (not including shipping. sorry, but the post office won't to give me a NaNo discount~). it's good until November 30th, so get writing. i was going to try and list some more lined books before NaNo, but my risograph ran out of ink, and my paycheck schedule means i can't purchase any more until midway through november. (T_T) i am, however, in the midst of designing some little bookmarks to grace my packages, so you'll get one of those if you order. (^_^)

the other thing i'm in the midst of redesigning is my website (because, no, i don't have enough to do already...) and i will be sending out a special preview on my newsletter, so if you want to see that, head over to the sign up page and subscribe. i only send it out once a month, at the end of the month, and it's always got a shiny picture or two, and the occasional coupon, so check it out. you can read through the archives if you want to see what i've sent out previously:

and now i have to head off and do some more "planning." every year, i say, this is is the year i will PLAN! and then i never do. but this year i didn't say anything about planning, indeed i said to myself, self, give it up. you're a pantser, you have been a pantser, you always will be a pantser. so of course, this is the year i plan. whatEVER. (^_^)

this post brought to you by the planning vs pantsing debate.
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fact 161 - post-consumer waste

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:14:00 -0400

powered (or not, as the case would currently have it) by a battery. (X_X)

flashback to: several days ago. meredeth turns her car on and the battery and brake light both flash on. great. coz she has plenty of other ways to get to work, and she always has tons of cash on hand with which to fix even the most expensive of repairs on a 13-year-old pile of rubber and plastic already held together only by the thinnest of wire and even thinner good karma.

the truth: many many bills all happened to be due at the same time this paycheck, relieving me of all but $18.53 of my hard-earned wages, half of which i've already spent on such frivolities as groceries. i was super hoping my car would at least muddle through for another 10~12 days until my next paycheck arrives, at which point, i would have happily skipped over to the nearest trustworthy(ish) car repair establishment to have my battery replaced, my brakes checked, and my muffler put back on, thus making almost as quick work of that paycheck as my rent and student loans made of this one. apparently, however, my car had other ideas. it almost didn't start up on the way home this afternoon, so i decided not to take the highway, thank god, and instead tranversed the city on its main streets, hoping at least to make it to a suitable pulling-over spot before my car completely exploded.

flashback to: last year right around this time. meredeth attempts to drive home from florida but has A TINY SPOT OF TROUBLE...

the symptoms were the same. car engine dropping out and then deciding it didn't want to stall out after all. which, now that we mention it, it has been doing ever since then. i was stopped at one red light early on in the journey and almost didn't make it, so i knew it wasn't looking good for me and my battery. i decided that i would give up on trying to make it home and shoot instead for the auto parts store. i managed to hit all the lights down High St just right and even turned the corner onto 161 (the highway very near to which i live) without having to slow down all that much. but there was still one traffic light between me and the auto parts store, and sure as my karma was wearing out, i hit it while it was red. i didn't even make it to a full stop before my car threatened seriously to cut out, so i quick shifted into the turning lane and took off during the green arrow, thinking only to keep my car going as long as possible, knowing damn well that it wasn't gonna start up again if i turned it off.

well, i turned the corner, i turned into a mcdonald's right there, the parking lot lead out to a service road that would have taken me straight to the auto parts store, but it was just then, AS I WAS TURNING THE CORNER WITH ANOTHER CAR LOOMING LARGE IN THE ONCOMING LANE THANKS VERY MUCH, that my car decided it had had enough. the power steering cut out, the power brakes cut out, in short, the car turned straight off and staunchly refused to have anything else to do with me or my ignition key. i managed to coast myself off to a quiet berm and turn the thing off before cursing it's mother, it's mother's mother, and it's battery's mother. i could see the auto parts sign from my driver's seat. i could have walked there, if i had thought it would have done me any good.

i called my fam(ily, that is) (awesomely functional at times like this) and had my padre come to pick me up. i described my (car's) symptoms to him.

padre: that sounds like the alternator, actually.
me: oh.
padre: yeah. remember my saturn, before this one? it did the same thing. i had to have the alternator replaced.
me: oh. ... that doesn't sound cheap.
padre: no.

oh.

so we head down to the auto parts store, dude says can i help you, i describe my (car's) symptoms.

dude: that sounds more like the alternator, actually.
me: ah-hah.

long story short, new alternator = ~$80 (which i don't have) + self installation skills (which, seriously, i don't have). we left the store empty handed. we headed home, we got my mom's 1998 CR-V (a honda suv thing with amazing shelf life and a tow capacity we have been previously forced to verify) and took the long slow road back to my parents' house. my father can do some things to cars, but replacing alternators is not among them, and so we turned to other options:

option a) mom's employer's husband's son. wow that was a chain. a couple more people and we could have reached kevin bacon. in any event, this young man does mechanic work and will possibly be able to fix my car. if i'm lucky (not hitherto indicated) he'll also be willing to wait a couple weeks on payment until i get my next paycheck, thus allowing me to make my rent payment on time instead of 5 days late.

option b) mechanics garage. if option a doesn't work out, i'll be calling around tomorrow morning to see who's open and who's cheapest and then choose based probably on the former rather than the later, since i have no other way to work and definitely do not have enough time off to spend the whole of the next two weeks at home. as nice as that sounds.

so at the moment, i'm in a holding pattern until we discover whether or not the near-kevin-bacon degree of separation mentioned above will result in a repaired car and a rent payment made on time. if yes, we may be able to avoid any serious potholes in the road of Life (tm), and if not, hopefully it will manage to confine itself to one of those nasty potholes you get after the snow, and not the guatemalan kind.

~meredeth.
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flashback: this post brought to you by stage direction.

FACT 160 - recovery

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:12:19 -0400

my weekend was so busy, i had to go back to work to recover from it. friday was mostly normal, exept i didn't head over to my mom's place to do the laundry. (that's right, my mom's place. because the laundrymat at my apartment complex costs $1.50 per load, that's why.) no, i took the opportunity to take it easy on friday night, because i knew it would be the only moment that weekend i got to do so. (^^;) besides, i have recently rearranged mine livingroom, so i thought it was about time i got to hang around in it.

i really only rearranged the craft section, the TV section hasn't moved. it's difficult to rearrange that area. the tv's bolted to the wall. (^_^) but as you can see, i now have a nice little L shaped craft metropolis, complete with swedish towers in the closet~ (because of their blue, white and golden colors, that's why.) i pulled The Machine (that grey monstrosity next to the Errant Chair) out of the closet, where it wasn't fitting anyway, and now i can actually use it! now i just have to invent a reason to. (^_^)

unfortunately, all this saturday-prep meant no friday-night anime, a tradition my sibs and i have recently re-establed after a too-long absence. we're working our way through Chevalier D'Eon (so far not bad, but not especially awesome) thanks to that great and wonderful god, Netflix. but this week, meredeth had to go to bed early (!?) so she could get up early (!!??) saturday morning (T_T) at the hideously and not at all good time of...

... 7.30. A.M.

seriously. so what would cause me, she who loves a late wake up time so much she once slept through an entire day (not kidding), to wake up at a time normally reserved for going to sleep (at least in my world)? one of my friends was getting ordained! ok, so what does that mean? (seriously, i've had more than one person greet me with that awkward silence that says, "i don't really know what that means...") my friend Elise was mystically turned into a priest this past saturday~ (^_^)

actually, she's been studying for a long time (a lifetime of learning!) and she was ordained as a deacon last year, so this was the big final step. unless she's thinking of being a bishop. (^_^) she'll make a great priest though, she's very thoughtful and so tactful! meredeth couldn't be that tactful if her life depended on it. (^^;) elise is the one in the dark red on the left. my mommeh made her vestments~ there were seven people ordained that day, and it was pretty cool. a whole group of us from my church went down together. the church was in West Chester, and it was so WHITE and kind of sparse. i guess that's protestantism at its purest, but we've got all the smells and bells at my church, and a fairly awesome piece of stained glass, and some really nice warm wooden exposed ceiling beams, so i tend to prefer that. a church isn't a church w/out at least one piece of super awesome stained glass. they tried to liven up the place with that square plaque thing you see above the altar, but it just wasn't the same. also in that picture, you might be able to spot (although maybe not, i had to take it with my phone) our deacon Douglas (over on the right in the red robe... oh wait. the one facing the camera and standing up. the one sitting down is bishop Briedenthal. who's name i may have just misspelled.). the blonde lady to the left of him is TJ. she was a visiting deacon at our church for a while, she's cool too~

well, after the service was a nice little brunch thing (we are episcopalians, after all, we have a tradition to uphold, people) and then my mother and i took advantage of the fact that we were in West Chester Ohio to visit the nearby (i mean like 6 blocks away) IKEA~~~

that's right, that bastion of self-assembled, inexpensive and modernist furniture and other home goods~ i'm totally addicted, and so's my mother. coincidentally, i had just been paid, so it was the perfect moment. we took along one of our fellow church-goes, who had never been and said she'd certainly never go on her own (gasp!) and we had a blast. i got a bookcase (BADLY needed) and a fancy ceiling-mounted curtain track (wherein you slide your curtain back and forth like a vertical blind instead of drawing them back like a normal curtain) and some more bamboo. because i can never have enough. it's the only plant i can't kill. (^_^)b

here's our haul:

that's my stuff and my mom's stuff together. kinda small by our normal standards, actually. (^^;) jane (our fellow church-goer)'s yellow bag of joy is on the other side of the picture (cut off~) and front and center, you will see the pepparkakors of song and story. that would be ginger snaps for the rest of you. these are thin, and flower-shaped, and totally perfect in every way. (^_^) the other thing that's perfect (although not flower-shaped and not in any way thin) at IKEA is the cake:

that thing sugar-fueled me for the 2.5 hours we spent in that place. (^^;) my feet hurt. jane fell asleep in the car for a little bit on the way back. (it's about 1.5 hours back to columbus.) but it was super fun! and then i got to go home and put my stuff together~

see, some people would use this space to gripe and complain about trying to assemble furniture. now, i don't know if these people are stupid, but i don't find IKEA furniture, or indeed furniture of any kind, even the crazy wall-mounted TV thing i have with multiple shelves and a track and a sliding door, to be particularly difficult to assemble. also, i enjoy using screwdrivers and mallets and wall-mounting pieces of plastic, so that may have something to do with it. (^_^) in any event, here's my bookcase(s):

the one on the left, the tall one? that's the bookcase i bought from IKEA, called BESTA, and it contains books that i have already read. the one on the right, the short one that's full to overflowing? yeah. that's the bookcase i've had for about 15 years now and it "contains" all the books i have not yet read. i repeat: yeah.

i couldn't get a good shot of the curtain thing, coz the light in my little nook is messy, but it was these: kvartal. we bought some clips that slide into the track and clipped my blackout curtain to it. now i can sleep till appropriate hours of the day. very cool~

then, i had to plan out sunday's trek, because sunday was ... MIDSOMAR~

here's the story: a few years back my father got laid off right at thanksgiving. it was like, here's your thanksgiving vacation, don't bother coming back. thanks. (X_X) so, not surprisingly, we had a pretty rotten christmas. mom and dad were like, well that sucked. we need another one. so my dad was like, christmas in july could be more than just a phrase? and my mom was like how about midsummer, like our swedish relations? so it was decided! we had a second christmas, in june, and we called it midsomar, and we had a nice bbq out in the back yard and a nice dip in the pool and some gift exchanges and some movie watching and some family board games (which we super love at my house). it was awesome. the next christmas, we had an acceptable, some might even say good, christmas, but then that next june, we kind of all looked at each other like, how about another midsomar? (^_^) so we did~ and now it's a tradition thing, we get two christmases in my house, in rememberance of one christmas that really bit. we like to thumb our nose at fate whenever possible. (^_^)b this year, it seemed to sneak up on us, but we still managed to come through with a pretty good sized display:

yeah, not shabby. (^_^) i crocheted my brother a dalek, which he seemed to enjoy. he put it on his head anyway:

i got a sake set:

haven't used it yet, but not for want of trying. (^_^)

everybody got some cool stuff, actually, it was a terribly festive occasion. (^_^)

the aftermath:

we usually have a pool party, but it's been raining here in columbus a TON (a ton) lately, and so the water was too chilly to get in. that didn't stop my little sister, but it did stop the rest of us, thank you very much. and it was a little too late to get over to my apartment and hop in that pool (which i finally got to do the week before, finally) which is very cool, but closes at 9 pm:

so instead, we took our new stuff inside and set about using it! actually, meredeth did her laundry mostly, but michael organized his new spices and spice jars. he's a super cook, and he does pretty much every night's meal now at that house, i hear. (^_^) so mom got him some lemon salt, some parsley and some dill (which i can't find a link to) she saw at IKEA and some nice large spice jars with screw on lids and the ability to sit at an angle as well as straight up. (coz... um, it looks cool, i guess, that's why.) so we were all standing around remarking upon how good the stuff smelled. the lemon salt was neon yellow, but smelled awesome! we were like, i thought the package color was an advertising exageration, but no. the salt actually is that color. the parsley was good, you know, parsley-ish. and then michael busted out the dill. and we were like, WOW! that's some strong stuff. good, but strong. everybody wandered in and out of the kitchen, attracted by the smell. we were like, "smell, but not deeply." unfortunately, dana-chan was the only one of us to have the right idea. she wafted, the rest of us sniffed. i myself sniffed, and i paid a heavy price. i don't know if i'm allergic to it, or if the fineness of the powder just destroyed my nostrils, but i swear i sniffled and sneezed and used up literally half of a box of tissues over the next three hours. i could. not. stop. sneezing. it was CRAZY! we watched our friday night anime on sunday night, and by the time the allotted two hours had passed, i was surrounded by a white drift of used tissues. it was just as disgusting as you think it was, and the worst part was that it wouldn't stop! i went home, i washed my face and hands, and i changed my clothes, and my nose was still running. i blew my nose so much that the inside of my nose hurt. when i woke up monday morning, my eyes were puffy and watery and oozing this kind of yellowy nastiness (i know, way tmi) and i was STILL SNEEZING! i was like, should i make a doctor's appointment? jesus! thankfully, it let up over the day, but really, my nose still kind of hurts. i'm staying the hell away from that stuff from now on! (X_X)

monday, after work, i decided to reward myself with a little swim. dana-chan (using her fancy new phone, a nokia nuron that is, i have to admit, moderately cool) had been texting me and i asked after the pool, which was confirmed to be slightly chilly, but much better than sunday night (thank you, 90 degree temps...) so i did the tiny bit of grocery shopping i hadn't been able to do during the weekend and headed over:

because dana is constitutionally incapable of being photographed w/out Striking a Pose, that's why. (^_^) we had a great time, as we clones usually do when we gather together. (^_^)

in other news, i finished a needlepoint QR code for one of my (other) sister's friend today. carolyn's always good for some pimpage, and this time it paid off, in the form of one @stylesmith, whose goodie shall be shipped off on the morrow~

also, hopefully, there will soon(ish) be some acceptable fictions available for your reading perusal here. i bought a couple of highly recommended books on editing from amazon (which came a full two days early! srsly!) and i fully intend to put them to use. i'm going to start with something smaller, with the intention of not overwhelming myself straight away, and then i'm on to past NaNoNovels~

so, i shall head back to that, and in closing, i shall give you a picture of the clouds above my place of employment about a week ago. this is what we have to deal with around here. ENOUGH RAIN ALREADY!

~meredeth.
-who does not own even a single umbrella.

FACT 159 - a deadline story

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:39:00 -0400

or more correctly, a procrastination story. (^^;) i have signed myself up for The Fiction Project, which, if you haven't heard about it, is a delightful little thing over at the art house co-op where they send you a moleskine, you fill it up with, in this case, Fiction, and then you send it back. by May 23.

yeah.

well, at least i'm finished with the first draft. now to revise it, edit it, and copy it, by hand, into the little moleskine they sent me, and all monday evening, so that tuesday i can send it back to them priority, so they're sure to have it by june 5.

here's what i've got so far:

yeah.

i've got a couple of art house projects going on actually. my favorite one so far is the free postcard art thing i did on a whim a couple of weeks back (yes, it's been that long since i did a blog post!). the assignment was to make a 4x6 inch piece of art on the theme Dreams, and then mail it to them. here's mine:

(for a picture with the [outlandish] description, check the submission page. it's worth it, trust me.)

you can check out all my art house co-op projects over here, actually, and then you may even want to venture out into the rest of the site. if you have even thought about sketching, and especially if you're one of those sketch-addicted people, your wallet may want to just hide in the corner now. (^_^)

and just when it was the worst possible time to distract me, i found out that i won 1600 xbox points in this history channel contest. i was like, awesome! now i'll never finish this story! (^^;)

actually, i haven't done too badly with it so far. i bought Braid (of course) and downloaded about every trial game in the entire indie games section. (^^;) the other game i've actually purchased was called Next Wars, or something. it's a tower defense thing, only built like a little LED display or something. it would be so perfect on my phone, or my DS, or some kind of little hand-held thing, that i can hardly stand it. it is pretty awesome. i was surprised by how much i liked it, i don't usually go for those kinds of games, but this one i can totally see myself getting addicted to. it's like magnetica, but instead of clearing marbles by making threesomes, you clear bad guys by blowing them up with lasers. i know! lasers!

...

i also bought myself the most awesome scanner about two weeks ago. an epson ... um ... perfection v300 photo. that's what it says on the side. (^_^) it's got a little slide and negative scanner attachment (which is awesome) and if i was willing to wait overnight for a scan, i could do it at 4800 dpi. i don't know what you could possibly need that for, maybe you need to study the strange bug you just killed in your bathroom and you haven't got your electron microscope handy. at any rate, i'll be putting my new baby to good use here before the end of the month, as i will be adding ACEOs to my etsy shop later this week.

on a related note, does anyone else hate the picasa software as much as i do? i've been so busy running around buying groceries and scanners and yarn (oh my GOD the YARN) that i have completely neglected to purchase my long sought-after media pc, and it's starting to really become a problem. all my ubuntu installation (actually, easy peasy installation) has on it is picasa, and that turns out to be about the worst possible software that man has ever designed. i long for photoshop. and please do not give me your "GIMP FTW" posts. a) i've tried gimp, i wasn't terribly swayed one way or the next. b) my screen is 1280 by 600 pixels, i don't think anything (even photoshop, sadly) will do much for that. also, c) whatever's up w/ easy peasy 1.5 means that the thing throws me an error every time i try to install gimp. i guess i should just upgrade at this point, they just came out with 1.6 a couple weeks ago, but i'm far too lazy to back everything up and rewrite the whole thing. why, seriously, why, can't they just build an upgrade that's actually an upgrade and not an entire new edition. i will not completely wipe my computer and start over every time you feel like changing the chrome and sticking tom notes or whatever the hell it's called back on my system, despite the fact that i remove it every time. seriously.

and now my sister's coming over, so i guess i won't be doing any story revision at this moment, either.

(^^;)

FACT 158 - a love story

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:22:36 -0400

as in, between me and my apartment. (^_^) every time i talk about it, it makes me smile. and trust me, i find a way to insert it into every /single/ conversation i have. eventually, everything is about this lovely home. (^_^)

speaking of... (^^;) the girls and i (that would be my mother and two sisters, aka (from now on, at least) The Girls) went on a thrift shop expedition this past saturday, during which i picked up a few lovely items for the home. (^_^) i found a scanner, complete w/ negative and slide functionality, which i snatched up. it was missing the power cord, thanks to the thrift store's pointlessly annoying habit of seperating power adaptors from items when they arrive. i couldn't find it in the Bin of Endless Power Adaptors, though, so either someone already bought it, or it didn't come in with one. in any event, finding one on ebay for super cheap was simply a matter of using the search feature, so i've purchased one of those already, and it should be here as soon as the dude gets around to shipping it. :P

i also found some of those icey mugs, the one that you freeze upside down in the freezer, and then they keep your drink cold while you drink it. perfect for smoothie-saving, by the way. since it's apparently difficult for me to make only one serving of something... (>_<)

i also found four rather nice burgandy silk pillows for super cheap. they go quite nicely in my burgandy living room (on my super black couch~) thank you very much.

what i also found, and here's the cool part, for those of you in the know, is a :cuecat. (^_^) for those of you not in the know, it's a little barcode scanner that looks like a cat. ... yes. i know. but here's why i want one: librarything. and of course, other such inventory-ing things. so i spent much of sunday scanning barcodes and giggling when my library topped out at 335 books. when i get my power cord, i may even be able to scan in some covers for those naked books on my list. (!) also, having actually witnessed the sheer bookage in this house converted into arabic numerals, i am more convinced than ever that i need to find bookcases. and soon.
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FACT 157 - evolution of an apartment

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:24:30 -0400

so here i am on your regular old friday night, hanging out and eating pizza and UNPAAACKING~~~

that's right, i'm all moved in, and enjoying the wonder and joy of not having anyone pounce on me the instant i walk in the door. "how are you~" "exhausted." "how was your day~" "i just got home from it, can i relax a minute before i have to talk about it again?" (^^;) these days when i walk in the door, there is a blessed silence. (^_^) i can take my shoes off, visit the restroom, maybe get dinner going, and THEN turn on the skype and the gtalk and the whatever else. i'm in love. (^_^)

! except for the dude who just walked past my balcony talking all loud on his cell phone who just scared the crap out of me. (^^;) also, my insistence on good lighting means that my electric bill will not be cheap (^^;) BUT! i don't care! because it's MY electric bill, and if i really cared that much, i'd turn a light off. i'm the only one responsible, after all. (^_^)

in other news, my control freak side comes to the fore with ever more delighted and craven grins. i'm still unpacking, and the sheer chaos of that process is driving me up a (gorgeously painted) wall, but i don't really have any time off to spare, so i have to unpack when i get home from work, which generally means a box, maybe two, and then i'm too tired to do much of anything but veg in front of a PBS documentary or something. (^_^) i'm not paying for cable, so it's netflix and the local channels for me. not like i (have time to) watch anything else anyway. at the moment, you can almost see the entire TV area floor. i have just one large living/dining area, but actually it's a TV area and a studio for me, with a gingantic tumbled mess of cords under the TV. unlike my studio area, at the moment, which is a tumbled mess of boxes and crap on two desks that i have yet to really commit to liking the position of. ^^;;; not that i have anything due imminently. no. not at all. ^^;;;;;;

tonight has been spent mostly attempting to find a one pound skein of dark brown yarn and ~25 granny squares i've crocheted from it that i seem to have LOST during the move. yeah. figure that one out, i dare you. i've looked pretty much everywhere in my house, and i've had my siblings checking every nook and cranny at that house, but so far, it's magically disappeared. i guess my next solution is gonna be looking in the cars that we used that day. maybe it got left behind or something. the only other option is to buy a whole new skein, and that seems silly.

ok, the other thing i've discovered here is that i own far too many lamps. there is literally no where else to put a lamp. there is a lamp, i swear, every six feet in the apartment. it's like, LampLand.

oh yeah, i also have no scanner. huh. i guess that's alright, since i also have no media pc (T_T) but after a minute, that's really going to get obnoxious.

ok, i really do have to clean this desk off. i swear. UP A WALL.

(this post brought to you by disorganized clutter, and my intense hatred for the same.)
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FACT 156 - world book day~

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:59:51 -0500

as my local etsy bookbinding list has just reminded me, the UK has declared today World Book Day~ great idea, the UK! (^_^) why today? well, it turns out that the rest of us celebrate world book day on april 23, which also happens to be cervantes's birthday. but in angelond, that part of the calendar is usually already packed up with crazy anglican things like the resurrection of the lord or some such thing (^_^) so they decided to move the day of the book back a little, to march. which is okay, coz lent's usually a little dry anyway, so we could use an extra reason to celebrate during the month of march, and an entire day being set aside for glorification of my personal favorite art form is just fine by me~

it is also, by some strange cosmic alignment of timetables and paychecks and possibly alien stars, the day before i sign my rental agreement! (exactly~) just the thought of myself, at home, by myself, maybe /maybe/ some music on, probably just sprawl myself out on the carpet and go spread eagle just laying there with the secure knowledge that no one will come up and try to trip over me, or be fake cute by jumping on me, or pretending to throw a cat on me. in fact! there will not be any cats anywhere within a cinderblock wall of my apartment. jesus that makes me happy.

so to celebrate (and also because moving that many books will break my back) i am having a sale over at notuboc~ and it's a serious sale, too, as in, "buy one get one"

serious. of course, you have to pay for the more expensive one and you get the cheaper one free, and you will be paying shipping on both items, but from now until march 14, if you buy one book, you can choose another for free. just check out with them both in your cart, and wait for an invoice from me through paypal. i'm joined to my internet-enabled phone at the hip, so you shouldn't have to wait long~

now, go read a book! (^_^)
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mobiboc d - desperately ill

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:16:00 -0500

actually, it wouldn't be so bad if i could stop coughing. it's that cough where, once you start, you can't stop. so i just don't allow myself to start. yesterday, i couldn't swallow, day before that, i could hardly breathe, so i don't know if you want to consider today an improvement, but at least i made it to work today. my poor nose is so red and swollen from constant blowing. on a related note, the wikipedia article on noses really sucks. i need anatomical charts, people, not giant pictures of dog snouts.

in other news, the rest of my life seems to be going not hideously for the moment. i don't wanna brag, just in case, you know, but all in all, i might even be inclined to use the word "nicely" to describe the current trajectory of my life. (^_^) i'm signing papers for a shiny new apartment on friday (zomg, the day after tomorrow!) and this weekend begins the Great Paint-a-thon (actually only about a room and a half, but we've only got a day and a half in which to do it) and then a week of moving boxes over, one tiny car-load at a time, after hours (since i /really/ can't spare any more time now) and then on the 12er (only 9 days from now??? what!!!???) I'LL MOVE IN!!!

ohmigawd i'm so excited just thinking about it~

i'm not gonna have everything i'd wanted, but i've got (almost) everything i need, so i'll just have to get over it. the only "necessity" i'm missing is a vaccuum cleaner, but i can borrow my mom's that first weekend and then i'll buy one in a month or so. i don't have the car payment that i thought i would have by now, so i'll have a bit of extra cashes with which to vaccuum my shiny new abode. also on the docket is purchasing (or perhaps building, if i can find an excuse to splurge) a media pc. i have a pre-built model already picked out, which isn't fancy to the point of hysteria, but which would serve perfectly well w/ the addition of a frilly graphics card. i also have the components for a notuboc-built model, so to speak, weighing down my newegg shopping cart. (^^;) the pc that would result in a moderately fancy gaming pc, provided i can live w/ putting windows on it. otherwise, i shall end up with a massively overpowered ubuntu box that could play games provided any good ones could run on wine.

... okay, well, upon browsing through the wine app database and i see that things have improved, but i also see that media money is still unusably slow, and that lightroom suffers from the same problems. really, these are the only two barriers for a windows-free me-- oh wait, let me check out steam + audiosurf... hm. a mixed bag it seems. well, guess i can't yet go totally windows-free, but i have hope~ frankly, it's not like i do a crapload of pc gaming. i'm mostly a console girl in that respect. actually, i'm mostly a handheld girl in that respect, although i have been all about the headshots lately (read: borderlands ftw, hands down).

i suppose in the end, i'll probably just deal without a proper dvd player for a minute, while i save up for the notuboc-built version. (^_^) i've got an xbox and a netflix subscription in the meanwhile, so i can deal. for a little while. i guess.

(^_^)
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FACT 155 - maaad~

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:54:47 -0500

that's right, i'm maaad!

actually, i'm terribly happy~ (^_^) i have an appointment on tuesday morning (or wednesday, if i can switch it) to pick out... MY BRAND NEW APARTMENT!!!11!! (^_^) so a march 5th move-in date might not be shockingly out of the question after all. March Madness is ON! i was (and still am, honestly) a little concerned that finances won't come together, but i think overall, everything's going well, and i'm psyched up about my chances for a medal on the 5th...

oh wait, sorry. too much olympics. (^_^)

in fact, i'm such an olympics junkie that i rifled through my parents' bills last night so i could find their cable tv account number so i could sign in to watch the'lympics online. and this, just for curling. (women's, UK v JAP, by the way JAP taught some UK girls how it's done~) ... actually, it seems curling and hockey is about all that's on the online things at the moment. huh. what i'd really like is for all olympic coverage to be online. although after i move out, since i won't be paying for cable, i therefore won't be able to watch online next time. dummies. stoopic nbc. seriously, having to log on to watch olympic coverage? i guess olympic spirit does not involve encouraging others in their desire to support our team by watching them, only by paying to watch them. i guess i'll still have the regular network channel to watch, but that's only the most popular stuff. figure skating is nice, especially the ice dancing non-compulsory stuff, and i'll watch snowboarding anything, but in the summer olympics, they put the cool stuff like judo and fencing online, and i won't be able to see that stuff in 2 years. (T_T)

in other shocking news, i went to the paper store today. ^^; what's truly shocking here is that i bought some paper with a specific plan, and then came straight home and cut out the text block for those planned books. i know. crazy talk.

actually, i didn't do it straight away. i came home and filled up my (superflat and still out of alignment) tire, and then went back out and got my hairs cut!

before:

and then after:

actually in that shot, i look kind of like the new doctor, but i swear it's not like that in person. (^_^) there is one little piece of hair that's not quite long enough to go properly behind my ear, and so keeps getting right in my face, but give me a week, i'm sure it'll be fine. my hair grows like a pubescent red-headed stepchild. (^_^)

anyhow, back to bookbinding for me~

this post brought to you, actually, by my love of fact-verification. (^_^)
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FACT 154 - the'lympics!

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:53:27 -0500

i shall now proceed to sit in front of the television for the next 16 days. well, less than that now, since this is day three or something, but yeah. don't expect too much activity from this particular sphere until march. (^_^)

not that i don't have things to do... (T_T) in fact, what i've been spending an inordinate amount of time doing lately, is playing video games. i bought an xbox (+borderlands, +trusty bell, er, i mean, eternal sonata) and The Internet Boyfriend and i have been heavy into the borderlands. not that i don't like video games, i guess, but i've done more gaming in the past week than i have probably in the entire three~six months before that. of course, any game where you can run people (and puppies) over w/ a rocket-launching 4-wheeler can't be considered a waste of time (^^;) i'm just saying that some other things are getting neglected, that's all. (^^;)

for instance, i'm pretty sure i'm three entries behind on my YOUkun journal. i swear, guys, i'm not dead. i'm playing borderlands. (^_^)

also neglected of late is my poor etsy shop. of course, listing is the part that i'm laziest about, no matter what, so i can't blame that entirely on borderland (^^;) but i'd like to anyway! (^_^) but, i finally got over my laziness this afternoon AND LISTED SOMETHING! ginko bocloba, i call it~ :D

in other news, i've been working on BUNNEH:

this is BUNNEH mark III. my mom gave me BUNNEH mark I for christmas when i was little, and every time i wear her out, i just make a new one. (^_^) her name is katie, but this one is still BUNNEH until she's done and i trade the old katie out for the new. poor girl suffered a clavicle fracture in the wash last time. (^^;) she's just so old, the muslin ripped her head nearly clean off. i was like OH NOES!

actually, it's not horrible timing, since i'll be moving into my own place before too much longer. this way, it's like a complete start over.

i haven't even officially put in the application yet and i'm like, let's move!

we went to ikea the other weekend (despite the snOMG here in the midwest~) where i filled up on furniture (^_^) (got my brother a new bed for his birthday, got myself the most awesome wall mounted tv stand/dvd collection holder, and also got myself a new dresser) and then we went to old time pottery, where i got most of what i need for kitchen. the only things i need are a media pc (already picked out, just have to save up for it), a microwave, a toaster, and a vaccuum. the media pc i suppose i could technically live w/out for a while, but for preference, it's actually a higher priority than any of the other things. (^^;)

except a fire extinguisher. (^^;)

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FACT 153 - march madness

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:08:34 -0500

no, not the basketball kind. the moving out in the month of march kind.

that's right! meredeth is moving out! finally kissing goodbye and goodspeed to the parents' basement rooms and hola hello and aloha to my own apartment!

could i be a little excited? maybe?

anyway, i went out this past weekend to buy towels, coz i felt domestic. actually, coz i got a gift card from kmart for graduation, from a delightful mother/son team who knew exactly what i would use it for, and guestimated, nearly to the dollar, how much i would need to accomplish my task. (^_^) thus we arrive at the following:

the first official box of moving! this currently contains towels, some nifty green and taupe striped ones, the ones i bought. i still have to fill it up w/ other bath things, like soap dishes:

and bath mats:

and shower curtains:

as soon as i get my dollars back from the federal and state governments, we're going on a weekend trip to Ikea to pick me up some furniture. after much (and i do mean /much/) debate, i have decided upon the following:

a klippan loveseat (coz a full-on probably won't fit):

a malm dresser (or two):

and maybe a chair (if i think it'll fit in my apartment, which isn't looking good at this point):

i haven't decided on a color scheme for my living room yet (i'm vascillating between blue, green and grey) so if i haven't decided on one by the time ikea comes along, i'll just buy white covers and dye them or something.

well, i'm sure i'll have more on the apartment search later, but for now, i shall leave you w/ the website of the apartment complex that tops my list: the reserve at sharon woods. mine would be The Forest.

~meredeth.
-can't wait!
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FACT 152 - the future~

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:53:00 -0500

ok, did the month of january simply disappear into the ether? i'm seriously like, where did it go? i remember new year, i remember that. dick clark, the ball glowing, i remember that. on skype w/ teh internets bf all night (^_^) i remember that, but then suddenly it was the 24th, and i'm wondering what, precisely, happened to the two weeks in the middle?

i haven't listed much on my etsy shop, coz i haven't been in the linux half of my computer of my computer (where the database for my shop items is) in about two weeks, coz my skype doesn't really work on ubuntu, or at least, it doesn't want too work w/ my FANCY NEW BLUETOOTH HEADSET! i got a motorola h385 (which you can see here at amazon) and it turns out to work perfectly w/ both my t-mobile g1 and windows xp/skype! (^_^) times infinity! coz previously, i was like, cord-welded to my laptop whenever i wanted to talk to anybody on skype. my netbook's mic is fine, but the speaker's "quality" meant that i had to put on my headphones if i wanted to hear anybody. then we discovered that an external microphone vastly increases sound quality (yeah, shockers, i know) so then i had even more cords and accessories snaking out of the sides of my little netbook. it looked like Lain or something. so i decided that enough was enough! i went to staples and looked at their bluetooth headsets.

i completely failed to find anything i liked. most of them reminded me of the stuff i have to wear all day at work, so that was a moral fail, i guess. then i saw a dude at gamestop with a fancy bluetooth headset, and i was like, hey!

of course, when i got to target and found that same headset, i found right above it a $70 price tag, so that idea was quickly shot down. (^^;) but this utilitarian motorola thing on the shelf just below the fancy one, and after a quick internet search assured me that it didn't suck horribly, i took the plunge. and now here i am, talking to someone (teh internet bf, point of fact) WIRELESSLY! i know the rest of you may have discovered this about 500 years ago, but i, meredeth, your humble blog narrator, have just discovered the wonder that is a functional bluetooth headset.

the other thing i did this afternoon is make my first official NEW APARTMENT PURCHASE! that's right, i WILL be moving out this spring! i've already looked at one apartment (the reserve at sharon woods) which looks more and more to be our winner, but i do have two others i'd like to at least look at before i make my decision firm. but i figure there are some things i'm going to need no matter where i end up, so i've gotten together a list of things i'll need to have on hand before i move in, and this list includes such things as towels, and so i went out and bought some this afternoon. i got a $25 gift card for KMart for graduation this past december, and as soon as i saw it, i was like, "housewares!" (^_^) so i bought some nice fuzzy towels and some handtowels and some wash cloths, and all for what amounted to $3.94 out of my pocket! (^_^) they have dark green, light green, and sort of taupe stripes of different sizes, and they'll look perfect in whichever apartment bathroom i end up in. i didn't get a shower curtain, but i saw many many cool ones, so i just have to decide on one. of course, with my mother being a tailor/seamstress/etc, i can always have her make me one out of whatever i want, so the options are literally endless. which is probably why i can't make a decision. (^^;)

ok, i'm sure i had other things to write here, but since roku-san is cracking me up so much, i really can't concentrate, so i guess we're gonna have to end it here. perhaps i'll be more sensible at a later date.

...

but i doubt it.
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interlude 3 - Simeji manual translation

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:27:46 -0500

if you've been looking for a way to enter japanese text on your android phone, the market's got a couple of options for you. i go with Simeji, which i guess, since cyrket's been down for a while and hasn't shown any signs of mystically reappearing, you can find over at androlib, but the manual seems to only be in japanese. now, assuming that you know enough to enter japanese text into your /cell phone/ you could probably translate it yourself, but since i like to translate stuff anyway, and i have far too much down time at work, i did it for you! yay! you'll have to download the app yourself to get the pictures, but i've got you covered on text. if you have any questions about the translation, please leave them in the comments. thanks~

Simeji version 3.B.1

* Attention

If Simeji continually force closes, please uninstall Simeji and reinstall it. If there is no improvement, the developer would appreciate your contacting him at (note: whatever email he puts there. i'm not going to put it here in case he changes it, and also to attempt to prevent spam).

* Things to do Before You use Simeji

* How to Register Simeji as an IME

Open System Settings -> Locale & Text. (note: these are the American G1 settings, i don't know if they're different for other English settings, or different phones)

[screencap]

In this screen, select Simeji under Text Settings.

[screencap]

Simeji now becomes available as an IME. In the next section, we will switch the IME to Simeji.

* How to Switch Your IME to Simeji

Open an application, such as the browser, and tap and hold any text area.

[screencap]

For example tap and hold the text area.

[text box] (note: this IME works for things other than strictly "text boxes," such as notepad apps etc)

A dialogue box will appear, where you can switch input methods. (note: you may have to select "Input Methods" from a box that pops up when you tap and hold, and then you'll get a list of available IMEs.)

[screencap]

Please select Simeji from the list of available IMEs that is displayed.

[screencap]

Simeji is now registered as an IME. When you tap on a text area, Simeji's software keyboard appears, and you can input Japanese.

* About the Hardware Keyboard

With the hardware keyboard, you can access Simeji's functions with the associated keys, listed below:

shortcut --- function

shift + space --- switch input (note: this switches from english character to japanese character input)

shift + enter --- mushroom

shift + 7 (search) --- convert to katakana

shift + menu --- settings

* About Simeji's settings

When you tap and hold the [文字] (note: /moji/ or "character") key at the bottom left of the Simeji software keyboard, you can open Simeji's settings.

* Powered by

SocialIME (WebAPI)
OpenWnn (licensed under Apache 2.0 by OMRON SOFTWARE CO., LTD)

FACT 151 - a hypothetical topic

nospam@example.com (meredeth) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:27:51 -0500

(^_^) there is only one of you who will get that (well, maybe two or three) and you know who you are. (^_^)

also in the "hypothetical" category at the moment is a new website design. i've got the images all set to go, and i've been changing a few of my pages around, (as anyone who's tried to click the contact link above has already discovered. i promise, i'll take care of that soon.) but i haven't got anything coded yet. i was going to do it this weekend, but then i (apparently) decided that being out of school means taking on eight hundred projects, so i spent the weekend adding another one to the list that i outlined last time. (^^;)

on the other hand, i did take pictures of, edited pictures for, and data entried in prep for listing of some 19 or 20 books. the shocking part is actually the photographing of. i hate taking pictures of my books. it's kind of lame, and the pictures never come out as good as i'd like them to, despite my having read basically every tutorial on the internet. i guess the pictures aren't hideous, but still. what i'd really like to do is go around and just have people fondle my books. everyone who holds one is like, "wow, nice!" so i feel like, if i could just get people to put their grubby mits on my books, and then convince them that books are just really cool things, just like iPods or tvs, but more user-friendly, then everybody'd want one!

so, yeah. i'll get right on that. (^^;)

actually, i do have a few teaser shots for those of you who are interested in what i've been spending my day photographing:

this is one that's i've had most of done for a long while. i was waiting till i could find some crystals or rhinestones or something to put in the fish's tail and crown. i ended up having to order some fancy shmancy swarovsky rhinestones online. when they got here, they were so small (1.9 mm small!) that i had to bust out the tweezers just to put them in place. i've still got one of these fishes left in my Box of Fancy Things, so i may do something similar in the future, but for now, this one's cool enough. (^_^)

this is one that i did while i was in florida! i bought the paper a rather long time ago, and i always knew exactly what i would do with it, but this really turned out great. the paper is kind of sparkly and shiny, and the way that the spine fits so perfectly in the trip from white to black! ah! faint~

yeah.

actually, there are a couple of books that i'm even more enamoured of.

the one on the left appeared mysteriously out of the wild blue yonder one day. it's super hefty, too. 300 pages of hefty! the black bookcloth on the spine was the very last of that i had, so i guess if i want to make any more of these (for instance, for my personal use~) i'll have to go buy some more. alas, woe is... um. yeah.

the one on the right is one that i've also had the paper for kicking around for a long while. i found the wheat paper at my local fancy paper store randomly one afternoon, and i had 100% no idea what i was going to do with it. (^_^) but after i made another book in this same binding style yesterday (it's called belgian eyelet binding, despite the absence of eyelets in the versions i make) i knew what i had to do! i kind of don't want to list this one, either. it's more practical for me than the giant yellow one, i guess, but it doesn't match my favorite car!
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