Monday sucked but Castle didn't

I got home at 7pm-ish. Sewing and TV don't mix. I got two suit pattern pieces cut out of the tissue paper, and two basting seams sewn out of the six I needed to do. And I'm still trying to figure out how to keep the eyes from burrowing back into the fabric. Two hours of overtime at work at the end of the day when I've been up since 3:00 am is not good for me or the work.

I have boning now so plan tonight is to finish the corset and get the suit cut out of all it's fabric. According to pattern, I'm supposed to have outer fabric, fusible interfacing, and lining fabric. However since my jacket outer fabric isn't as heavy as they recommended, I think I'm going to ignore the fusible interfacing (I detest working with stuff anyway) and back the jacket body pieces with canvas. The collar will be reinforced with leather inside of it, which is a historical throwback to the bobby of London's uniform to help protect the neck.

Castle's Halloween episode sent me to a happy place. Castle actually solved the murder, making the leap that connected the dots. I haven't been playing much attention to counting who solves what, but I think Beckett has been getting more if they don't set a trap for the murderer to step into. And to make all the Browncoats happy, Nathan must have been in the Mal costume for a good five minutes of screen time.

I do have issues with trauma being the root cause of why people become vampires, cops, and crime writers. Though Castle refused to blend into that stereotype and laughed it off with "This is what I do." The other thing I noticed that in a lot of interviews and articles, they have been stressing how selfish and irresponsible Richard Castle is and how is daughter is raising him. But I'm finding his is a very good father, despite his unease of knowing what guys like him would do with a girl like Alexis.

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The BookWorm

Will strangle any Butterick pattern instruction writers

This will make more sense once I have the Garb Closet post about the construction on my Victorian corset up.

YOU CANNOT SEW THE PATTERN WITHOUT FLIPPING THE TISSUE PAPER OVER AND CREATING LEFT AND RIGHT PIECES TO SEW TOGETHER! THAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED ON YOUR BLOODY INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL LAYOUTS! AND IT IS NOT!

Thanks to this quality control error, this project has taken as much time as the effigy corset and it's hang up was that I didn't have tissue paper for it.

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The BookWorm

My Life According Nickleback

via erinm_4600

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "my life according to (band name)"

Are you a male or female: Someday
Describe yourself: Should've Listened
How do you feel: Feelin' Way Too Damn Good
Describe where you currently live: Believe It or Not
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: See You At the Show
Your favorite form of transportation: Flat on the Floor
Your best friend is: Another Hole in the Head
You and your best friends are: Yanking Out My Heart
What's the weather like: Breathe
If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: Deep
What is life to you: Old Enough
Your last relationship: Diggin' This
Your current relationship: Leader of Men
Your fear: Cowboy Hat
What is the best advice you have to give: Hold Out Your Hand
Thought for the Day: One Last Run
Your soul's present condition: Worthy To Say
Your motto: Not Leavin' Yet

*Giggle* That was fun!

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The BookWorm

Okay we skipped fall

Yeah, waking up to a temperature in the 30s degrees, that's not fall people! I spent an hour Sunday morning trying to light the pilot light on my living room gas heater. It refused. Made sure to put the electric blanket on the bed last night. Living room heater refused to light the pilot light this morning to, so I'll probably have to take it apart tonight so I can light it manually. Luckily, nothing was wrong with my electric heater for the bathroom or the oven. But I was hoping for a few weeks of being able to live without ACs or heaters and reduce the bills a little bit. And yes, I spent the weekend bundled in sweaters. I turned stuff on this morning because I had to get dressed before the sun rises. :p

I'm all caught up on housework, so I should have free time in the evenings to work on sewing. That was my goal for the weekend, so I consider it accomplished.

I even got to work on some computer projects that have been on hold, thought it balked at doing image searches for people I want to cast as characters. :p So I'm finishing those searches today at work. *Sigh*

Now if only time would go ahead and change. The quality of daylight has my body thinking 5am is 4am, so I'm sleeping right past when I should be getting up. :p

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The BookWorm

And the stress is gone

FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got the word back from my professor. The Faulkner paper has been passed to those who grade. I have no idea how long that will take, but I will try to do better at keep alerted to emails from Southeastern.

So what will I do now? First, I have to clean the house. I have company coming Friday night. While doing that, I will shelve all the Faulkner books and file the mass of papers I accumulated. Then I'm going to sew. But I will at some point sit down and figure out where writing projects were put on hold. But I need to sew before Halloween.

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The BookWorm

Sewing Hobby? I did have one once upon a time

Yeah, I'm trying to get the costume done for Halloween. Fabric stashes in my house and Suzanna's avoided the major expense on yards of fabric. Suzanna had the bright idea to go to Academy after we were less than impressed by the toy guns available in the costume shops. I have small hands, but they are bigger than a six-year-old's. Huzzah, Academy had a plastic handgun (so no tripping metal detectors) that fires rubber bullets modeled to look like a Magnum .44. I could probably use it for a Dirty Harry costume too. We also found a holster and belts to make the belt and bandoleer. Now all I need is a frog to hang the holster further down my leg and the proper hate. And to get the sewing done, natch.

Digging through my material stash reminded me off all the sewing projects I want to do, the ones I set up the Garb Closet to chronicle my attempts at. Serious writing is on hold until after December 12th (or I find out I failed whichever comes first) and I could fill the spare time with website projects, but I think I'd rather decrease the material stash until I'm ready to pick up the next writing project.

Course I could gorge the sewing bug on the Tin Man costume and not get anything else done. Nebulous planning at its best!

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The BookWorm

Car problems solved!

*Snicker* On the one good day I had with a new battery, I noticed the AC acting strange when I got home but figured I had messed with the dial maybe that control I was going out. Then while we were trying to figure out why the battery was draining, I noticed that the AC was still messing up. It cycled through blowing out of all the vents and I hadn't touched the controls for it.

The issue draining the battery: a relay that was telling the AC to cycle even when the car was completely shut off.

So I have a double sense of vindications. I'm back in my car and comfortable with driving again, and girl was right about macho engine stuff. :D

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The BookWorm

I have no idea what is wrong with the car

I thought it was a rundown battery, and my uncle took care of it and got me two new tires that I didn't know I needed. Car runs fine for one day. Friday it is so dead it doesn't even crank, Jim. Double check everything, so we must have ended up with a dud battery.

Saturday we trade in the battery for a bigger one. Car cranks fine. Now I didn't drive it anywhere; I had no where to go. Sunday dead and no cranking, no sounds no nothing.

So something must be draining the battery and it must be something under the hood that we can't find. I haven't had to miss any work because I'm borrowing my parents' spare Santa Fe. But I hate driving it in the nasty weather we've been having, and I really didn't budget time correctly this morning and had to make an emergency gas run because the Santa Fe was empty.

Meanwhile, I can't crank my car with a nice full gas tank.

I really don't see how I can budget Halloween this year. I have to play catchup on too many bills now. Normally if it was just my "blah I don't want to play with people" mood, I wouldn't mind getting dragged out of the house regardless. But this is my "I've been a bad girl fiscally" mood. I really can't justify partying when I owe so many people money. *headdesk*

Stargate Universe was good. More on that when I'm in a better mood.

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The BookWorm

Number Crunching #160

Actually figured on 12/13/2009

Quicken Cash Flow = 12.81
STEF Total = 6.15

September Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: I didn’t make a budget the month before. $295.00 in bank charges and I skipped the mortgage payment again.

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The BookWorm

Update on Life

Yeah, I'm still alive. And I need to clean out the box I just dumped all loose items in the office into. It's just a knee-high box and now nearly full. But I had forgotten what a clean desktop looked like. On the other hand, I'm on top of the rest of the household chores. Score!

So I have a little free time now that the Faulkner draft has gone off to be reviewed. I'm filled with the "I should be doing stuff" vibe and nothing driving me to finish it. I'm blaming lack of sleep, and I hope I can stay awake for Castle.

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The BookWorm

Bones Season 5

So the Puritan in my head tried to give me grief that I shouldn't waste time with frivolity until the Faulkner paper is finished. The rest of the committee in my head mutinied. The Puritan got labeled a "masochist" and I watched Bones sans guilt trip; though I did concede to print out the paper and see how many pages didn't suck from the critique. I got 7 out of 20.

So thoughts on Bones first episode of season five. There may be spoilers.

First: That's how to do a Tarot card scene. Way back when in the first Creative Writing class I took, I put a solitary Tarot card reading into the story. The class promptly booted the scene out because it was boring. Having other people to talk to makes it all that more interesting. Giving the psychic with the Tarot cards the job of recapping the cliffhanger scores points with me.

Second: Cyndi Lauper's ability to pull off a believable psychic has come a long since Vibes, the movie she did with Jeff Goldblum. I hope her character, Harmony, becomes a regular guest.

Third: Speaking of the regular guests, I love Carolyn the Federal Prosecutor extraordinaire.

Fourth: After the whole episode about a baby (i.e. last season's second-to-last episode), both Bones and Booth kept quiet about the dream/book baby. Hmmm...

Fifth: No intern? Bones was supposed to be picking a graduate assistant, hence the revolving interns gimmick of last season. Granted it's only been six weeks between the seasons (they said that often enough), so maybe the deadline for picking one isn't up yet.

Sixth: Big huge hint that Angela and Hodges are back together. SQUEE! I love these two and the sex romps on the reproduction of Cleopatra's bed.

That's all I got for now. Onto Faulkner pain for the weekend. I'm think of letting the snark out to play on it. I'm out of ideas otherwise.

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The BookWorm

Good point

The United States of Anger

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The BookWorm

Grab songs later

Posting here because I'm having issues at home with GMail through Firefox.

http://kseda.livejournal.com/679446.html

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The BookWorm

TV Stuff

"Being human means love and sacrifice." - George Being Human

Alas it is over, but they did get the money for a new series! *Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy Dance*

I adored this series, the characters, the tweaks they did on their vampires to break out from all the other vamp stories out there. Basically drinking blood is an addiction that does give you added strength and other nifty vampire powers, but they can still eat food and function. And vampire undertakers, that one makes me grin with how clever it is.

And I so totally ship Nina and George. Their puppies would be so cute!

Also in squeeing news: Castle is coming back on Sept. 21st! At the same time slot that caused me problems last year. *stopping Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy Dance* Oh who am I kidding, I will stay up and watch it.

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The BookWorm

Number Crunching #159

Actually figured on 12/13/2009

Quicken Cash Flow = 328.59
STEF Total = 6.15

August Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: I didn’t make a budget the month before. Only $227.00 in bank charges, but I stopped paying my mortgage in this month.

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The BookWorm

Who turned Friday into a shit day?

Two pieces of news I wasn't expecting. 1). The lawsuit as a result of my last wreck isn't as frivolous as I thought it was, and I have paperwork I must do in order to avoid a subpoena. 2). My uncle is in the emergency room and I'm now on standby to relive Dad in the waiting for result department.

I can't do anything about the paperwork because I need to find a notary, who is out for lunch. I can't do anything about the emergency room until I get a phone call telling me I'm needed. So really the sensible thing is to eat my lunch that I have no appetite for and work on Faulkner. *Sigh*

And Mom scheduled the garage sale for tomorrow. This weekend is shaping up to be packed.

Update: Luckily, all my uncle had was a seizure due to the medicos trying to wean him off the seizure medicine. Yes, we were afraid the cancer was coming back. I ended up sitting at the hospital from 1 until he finally got discharged at 4:30. And I managed to focus most of that on the Faulkner paper.

I still have to help with the garage sale tomorrow as well as the lawsuit paperwork I didn't get to do yesterday.

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The BookWorm

Just something I've been pondering

How the hell did I ever managed to complete any homework previously? My time management skills have been flattened by steam roller.

I've resorted to bribing the muse. I have no idea if that will actually work.

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The BookWorm

Faulkner Paper Deadlines Update

• Aug. 4 = Email update to Dr. Louth
• Aug. 19 = First day of Fall 2009 semester
• Aug. 19 - 21 = Email Dr. Fredell for memo to the library to restore borrowing privileges.
• Aug. 27 = Pay all fees I can afford to
• Aug. 28 = if there is any money left from the paycheck, buy all the damn Cliff Notes I can find on Faulkner's works. I'm tired of reading passages and wondering what the hell just happened.
• Sept. 1 = email Dr. Louth copy of first draft, then schedule meeting
• Oct. 12 - 16 = Draft to turn in is probably due this week. Usually due around Oct. 15th
• Nov. 12 = should send out notices of graduation
• Dec. 7 = Deadline for Graduate Exams - if readers want changes a new draft due before now
• Dec. 12 = Commencement ceremony 10 am

So this is going to be a busy seven days, given how my first draft is nebulous at best.

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The BookWorm

Halloween Hot Bod Day 1

Upper Body workout - repeat three times - I go through one set before time available was up. And yes, I did get up on time. the problems I had:

• dealing with the timer. The workouts today are counted by the maximum you can do in one minute. While settling the digital timer for a minute was easy, figuring out where to put it to easily turn it on and off and not be out of my starting position not so much. Maybe if I put it on a cord around my neck.
• moving in and out of the house. I set up the pull-up bar on the front porch, which is still a crowded mess and I can barely reach my light switch. Getting set up with a stool to make the pull ups easier, then trying to turn on the timer. And I still couldn't reach the pull-up bar. I want the one that fits over the standard door frame.
• pull ups suck. I think shoulder rotation warm-ups might help. Push ups suck too, and I think I will have to switch to girly knee push ups until I get stronger.
• I skipped chin-up. And I forgot to bring the stool outside.
• got distracted when I went to go do bench dips on the weight bench. Good news is the straightening that I needed to do is now done.
• not a Marine, my crunches are done on the ab ball. I did twenty on the floor like he said to do, but I only felt the leg muscles working. The last twenty of the forty on the ab ball I felt on the abs.
• depending on how I feel when I get home, I might try to complete the other sets. That's a big if with how tired I feel now.

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Working Out the Runs

Those workout days will have to be split in half--the crunches in the morning before work and the running after. I'll be heading to North Oak Park to make sure my math is correct. Who's bright idea was it to make the walking/running path only 4/5 of a mile? Was the extra 1/5 of distance cost prohibitive? Why not do 3/4 and make the math to figure out laps so much easier?

The test session on how well I handle this depends on weather. I'm going to be miffed if I spent all day gearing myself up for this and a monsoon hits Hammond at the same time I do.

I managed two out of the five laps before the weather sent me to the car and then home. Still I learned some important things.

• Changing in workout gear at work is probably better for my self-conscious ego. Everyone else shows up in what they plan on walking in.
• No more athletic shorts. It doesn't matter how much sun my legs need, I can't do anything with chaffing thighs.
• Need something to hold the keys.
• Someone has marked the one mile on the track. Too bad they didn't mark the half-mile mark.
• I'm less fit than I thought I was. My comfortable pace is walking.
• It's going to take longer than I thought to do the milage if all I can manage is a walk.

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The BookWorm

In Other News, My Teeth Have Never Been Happier

I spent all my movie money on an electronic toothbrush. The only reason I got it is because it was the only toothbrush available small enough to fit into my mouth without cartoon characters on it. I have never stuck a cartoon character into my mouth once the teeth came in so I really don't want to reverse the trend.

Why in the world did I wait so long before switching over? My mouth usually only feels like this after the dentist cleaning. Now it's been great for three days straight. And hopefully, the dentist doesn't find anything to complain about next month.

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The BookWorm

Finding Time

The first issue for working out that pops into mind is time. I like to do exercising first thing in the morning. So it is always cut when I oversleep. Doing it as soon as I get home? I've been afraid that will keep me awake.

Time to prove if that is true or not. Sunday I did a 45 minute workout (Chest and Back Exercises) near about the time I would get home from work. Then I headed to the bathroom for a mini-spa treatment. Goal was to color hair, shave legs, and go to bed between 8 and 9pm.

Pull ups are still my enemy. The good news: the pull up bar I fashioned on the front porch didn't come down when I hung from it. The bad news: if a pull up is defined by feet off the ground and chin over the bar, I have two feet above my chin to conquer. I'm not surprised with my upper body strength and the weight I'm at. My new strategy is to get my chin closer to the bar so I can build up the muscles, but do it safely so I don't kill myself.

No clue how I'm going to accomplish that.

Spa day, why do I even try? The hair color bottle busted as I was applying it. I did remove it off my skin so I didn't spot, and then just spread it in with my fingers. The results is more highlights than all over color, but it looks better.

I didn't go to bed until 10pm and didn't wake up until 4am. This makes me feel like the evening workout is a failure because I didn't even get my writing morning hour in.

Monday night, I took all my pills with supper and added a melatonin dose. I crawled into bed at 7:30pm. I vaguely remembering waking up to see that the clock said 11pm, and then rolled back over. I woke up with the alarm clock, score! Didn't pull myself out of bed, bad!

Physically, my screwed up left shoulder is still tender. Not in pain, but I really notice moving it as opposed to moving the right one. I don't know if I overestimated what I could do when designing the program. And then I found a link to Marine Corps Fitness. So I'm going to give this a whirl in place of. The only thing I'm unsure of is the running component. He has other activities down for cardio, but then because Marines have to prove their fit with running, he only has running in the free workout program. :/ Running is okay, even though I'm not gung-ho about it. The problem is I have no way of running three miles at my house. I have no idea how many times that would be around the yard, and I really don't want to do that in the dark.

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More on the Insanity

Yeah, here come the details. I'm still in the process of fine tuning them.

Erin_M created an alternate universe background to Tin Man in which Adora Springer is training to be a Tin Man and meets her future husband Wyatt Cain. I love this series, and thinking it would also be a great way for me to showcase how I think Tin Men uniforms would work, I promised to be Tin Man Adora Springer for Halloween.

The catch? I'm no where near believable fresh out of training cop shape.

The solution? The 90 day workout I built to be like PX90. I got through the first week and discovered where the issues are. Now I need to address the negative reinforcements that stop me from making the changes and help me slide into old bad habits. There are 78 days before Halloween and I want to kick ass. Plus it will totally help my health.

Bad Habits

• Not taking my nighttime doses of medication.
• I get stressed out and run to chocolate.
• I hate the work required to eat right: planning, shopping, cooking, cleaning, packing lunches, cleaning. I give up on ever having a clean kitchen and eat fast food to avoid making more mess.
• Exercise in the morning depends on waking up with time to exercise. I haven't bothered with exercising in the evening for fear it will keep me awake and I won't get up on time.
• Too much time sitting at the computer because I can't get focused on my tasks.

So now to break these down with practical suggestions.

Not taking my nighttime doses of medication.

This is inexcusable. I must establish a bedtime ritual that includes taking my medication. Probably best bet is to take it with supper, since I never skip that.

I get stressed out and run to chocolate.

This vice wouldn't bother me as much if I didn't inhale enough chocolate for a grade school class and then lick the packaging to make sure I got it all every time it hits. My attempts to restrict my intake have been lackluster, and I don't know what to try next.

I hate the work required to eat right: planning, shopping, cooking, cleaning, packing lunches, cleaning. I give up on ever having a clean kitchen and eat fast food to avoid making more mess.

Well, the budget won't stand for much eating out. And I don't want to be bothered with planning and trying to keep the fresh veggies from rotting in the fridge before I use them. So salads and frozen meals are the new staples. I want to move to a primal diet, but that is going to have to wait until after school is done and I can figure out how to rearrange my life against cooking. Cleaning the kitchen--namely washing dishes--is a whole different problem. Now every night I have an empty sink, I can play a demo game from Big Fish Games. This may backfire on me as far as wise time management goes, but damnit, I'm actually looking forward to chores tonight since I thought of it.

Exercise in the morning depends on waking up with time to exercise. I haven't bothered with exercising in the evening for fear it will keep me awake and I won't get up on time.

I've got a whole post on trying to disprove this one.

Too much time sitting at the computer because I can't get focused on my tasks.

I've been really timer-orientated lately when it comes to tasks that need the computer. Maybe I need to switch to focusing on just one task. I'm still afraid of sitting too long and screwing up my body worse than it already is, but hopefully with the exercise program, it will all even out.

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The BookWorm

Weight Loss: Harnessing the Positive Power of Negative Thinking by Carole Carson

Hello wake up call!

I must do this if I want my Halloween costume to work this year. I'll be back later with more details for this insanity.


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The BookWorm

Faulkner Paper Deadlines

So I have ignored him all summer. Not the best plan for my deadlines, but very healthy for my state of mind. I still need to email my professor on the state of the project, so these dates are subject to change.

• Aug. 4 = Email update to Dr. Louth
• Aug. 13 = if there is any money left from the paycheck, buy all the damn Cliff Notes I can find on Faulkner's works. I'm tired of reading passages and wondering what the hell just happened.
• Aug. 19 = First day of Fall 2009 semester
• Aug. 19 - 21 = Email Dr. Fredell for memo to the library to restore borrowing privilages.
• Aug. 27 = Pay all fees I can afford to
• Aug. 31 - Sept. 4 = Schedule first fall meeting on paper this week: first draft should be done
• Oct. 12 - 16 = Draft to turn in is probably due this week. Usually due around Oct. 15th
• Nov. 12 = should send out notices of graduation
• Dec. 7 = Deadline for Graduate Exams - if readers want changes a new draft due before now
• Dec. 12 = Commencement ceremony 10 am

Not freaking out. Not freaking out. Not freaking out.

My clue on the subject hasn't gelled into a thesis argument yet.

Okay, maybe a little panic. And I lost the whole weekend in a last ditch effort to get Alt. BM Site up for Monday.

I will not scream over the cron job failure. I will not scream over the cron job failure. Hopefully, I will get a response and be able to fix that tonight.

I have a month to get it together: thesis statement, coherent content, primary source material woven into it. *TWITCH* Secondary sources will be the issue for the second draft. Don't be surprised if I suddenly brainstorm on this subject, or if suddenly new brainstorms on different subjects shows up. My muse is an evil bitch in that regard.

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Number Crunching #158

Actually figured on 12/13/2009

Quicken Cash Flow = -147.81
STEF Total = 6.15

July Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: I didn’t make a budget the month before. Only $283.00 in bank charges.

Capital One checking account wrote off the negative balance, so I now have to pay off a credit collection agency and then make sure that checking account remains closed.

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Updating Alt. BM Site State of Progress

Oh bloody hell. Well, if you've gone by the site, you have seen it is still down for maintenance and is looking rather pale.

Now I'm going to try to reconstruct the weekend. Yeah, this is a me pounding my head against the desk post, but hopefully, it'll give me a clear path to start tonight when I get home. If I get home with time or a mood to work on anything; Mondays have been running late at the paying job.

So I reread Drupal instructions on creating a test site until I finally understood them. If there was pay involved, I would seriously consider helping write their technical manuals. I got the database exported and saved to my harddrive. I could not get it imported into the new test database. Did not feel like going around with the server's help desk, so I started working on the test site anyway. It doesn't bother me if there is a policy against database imports, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

A crucial step went wonky somewhere--besides the need a new copy of the database--and I discovered the changes were going onto the live site regardless of the measures I thought I had taken to prevent that. So then it took at least another hour before I get logged in after putting the whole shebang into offline mode. This was so not what I wanted to do. I wanted to have the breathing space of a test site to get most everything right before changing the production site.

So I managed to get the whole thing updated to Drupal version 6.13, turned on the new versions of the modules already in use, turned on new modules I think will help, and created a new Zen theme but didn't make it pretty yet. I really rushed through that whole part too quickly 'cause now I'm facing all the problems and don't know where to really start.

Problem number one: the new modules wrecked the navigation menu. For some reason, the links to get to their admin pages ended up there instead of on the admin page where I've always seen them go before.

Problem number two: I lost some pages made with views and it took a few hours to stumble my way through recreating them in the new Views admin pages.

Problem number three: AcidFree albums are no longer under development. And that means finding a new gallery module. Let's just say that I'm less than thrilled with my first choice at this point. That may change if I hear back from the developer with some clear instructions on how to set things up and make them a little more automatic.

Problem number four: the cron job refuses to run. I haven't even begun to figure that one out yet.

Problem number five: fixing the theme CSS. Actually, I don't see this one being a headache, I just haven't reached it yet.

Any good news? I don't have to retag anything, all the taxonomy terms moved over without breaking. I haven't lost any data and the database appears to be running normally. I think the biggest issue I'm having is a) losing track of what I'm doing because something else that is wrong snags my attention, b) have more patience figuring things out, c) frantic to get it done before the users get disgusted.

This has hammered home the need for a secure test site that won't talk to the production site and change anything for all the Drupal sites I have now. I'm fairly certain I have enough disk space on the external harddrive to set them up, and I should do that while I'm trying to hammer out the changes on Alt. BM Site (that mostly involves waiting on FireFox to unfreeze). It took long enough to work out the kinks with FFGarret and the Circulation Desk; I don't want this snafu to happen again.

Set up a Windows test server using XAMPP
Windows-specific guidelines
Import a MySQL data dump with BigDump
Create a test Site

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Websites are back

The budget is squeaking like a mouse in a trap, but I managed to get the hosting bills paid. Next step is to get the updates finished and set up the Project Wonderful ads. Then I can go back to the creating content and crossing my fingers so nothing breaks while I'm concentrating on other things.

Yeah, I think I can check in on things again in December. After I turn in the Faulkner paper and get a new diploma.

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Funeral done

It was really nice and there was no family drama to end up on the evening news. Yes, I do find that amusing in a dark comedy kind of way that my threshold for a successful family gathering is that low.

The next minefield is what happens to my grandmother now. The biggest issue with deciding anything among the family is best described as herding cats.

Yeah, I'm taking the weekend off for DVD-watching catch-up.

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Papa Gene

Mom just called. We don't have any details, but my paternal step-grandfather has died. It's no big shock since he has been ill for a long time, and we were told on Father's Day it was getting worse.

I only hope his children give us relations-by-marriage enough time to attend the funeral. Gene was our grandfather since Kai was two-years-old and I was five and he was always good to us. Sometimes better than our blood relatives. There's been family squabbles about my grandmother's care since the sitters were supposed to be caring for both of them, but I hope those don't lead to us getting cut out of the funeral arrangements.

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The BookWorm

Atticus Golfing

There's a lot of golfing Atticuses on YouTube, but this one is my nephew. :D



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This Doesn't Bode Well For the Rest of the Year

I don't think a single month has started well this entire year. July is no exception. There's no money to renew the BookWorm's Library or Alt. BM Site's hosting. I'm hoping I don't lose everything in the server while waiting on money to become available. Yes, I made backups but I'm not a hundred percent sure the database backup worked for Alt. BM Site.

HOPEFULLY, the budget will work out with the next paycheck and I can pay the bill. Meanwhile, if there was something available for download on my blogs that now doesn't work, send me a message and I'll see if it's not too big to email.

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Number Crunching #157

Actually figured on 12/13/2009

Quicken Cash Flow = -437.20
STEF Total = 5.77

June Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: I didn’t make a budget the month before. $572.00 in bank charges.

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If I'm silent for a while

I managed to slice the tip off my middle finger on my right hand, which really screws with everything I have to do since I'm right-handed. Blogging counts as unnecessary typing, so I'll be back when it doesn't hurt as much.

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Come on Google, the Internet made this possible

Vote to change the Google banner one day to show support to the Iranian people.

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Thinking About Rituals

Namely as explained in this post, how ritual helps your brain cope throughout the day and changing tasks. This shouldn't have to be lectured at me--after all that is why Ritual exists within Wicca. I suck at applying knowledge to daily life.

Undoubtably, one of the reasons I'm at such loose ends at the end of the day is because I haven't been following my GTD and making my weekly lists. But another strong possibility is the lack of ritual before bedtime. What I do now: eat supper while watching Bones on TNT (David Boreanaz in daylight *sigh*), spend an hour or two saying "ACK, I've got so much to do!" and finally go to bed. Not a productive use of time established? Good, moving on.

This isn't about filling every second of every day, but rather stopping myself from having that "ACK!" reaction. Deadlines don't care how drained you feel. And most days of the week, I'm not drained--just lost. So I decided to spend this week being mindful of what goes on in the time frame.

June 16: I decided to mindfully get some work done that I can't do on the paying job computer: building some website graphics. Sit down at the computer with the task firmly in mind. The issue was losing my temper over the computer taking fifteen minutes getting the program up for me to do anything1 I put myself on the timer so I'll remember to get up in move.

Question one: how much of my avoidance dance is not wanting to work and how much is it not wanting to get pissed off at my computer?

Once the computer got over being a sluggard, I got a few graphics done before bedtime. What I noticed besides the meltdown at the beginning: distracted by the TV. I reached the point where I was only working during commercials. Now my TV and computer are in two different rooms, so being distracted physically removes me from the office.

Question two: how necessary is it for me to turn the TV off?

June 17: I got three hours of Bones today, and I still think I missed an episode. (Double checked--I actually didn't, because they didn't give a whole episode to Booth's fake funeral.) When it got to episodes I have seen, I spent more time in the office. And one would think the time for the graphics program to go bugging would be after I had left it running all night and all day, but nope I never had any issues and finished all the website graphics I need at this point.

Since part of the issue is getting pissed at the computer, I think I'm best off turning on whatever the program I need while I'm concentrating on supper and Bones. That way I don't have to sit there and watch it be a sluggard and fume that my precious time and energy is slipping away.

And if the deadline is looming and/or I need to focus, I'm better off saving those projects for the morning or turning off the TV. Right now, the website revamp work I'm doing doesn't take that level of concentration so I don't feel bad for jumping up and watching what unexplained images Ghost Hunters International came up with.

I still have to see how tonight and tomorrow night goes. Now, I have some lunch and maybe go foraging for more food. Needed a bigger salad.

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Nothing in these numbers makes me happy

But at least this graph is easy to understand.

Who's responsible for the debt?

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Year-Round school?

A year round school option that sounds reasonable. I really like the sessions that allow in-depth exploration of a topic.

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Go Iran!

Freedom is a precious, precious thing. It makes things like this possible: The Mouse That Roared

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The O.Z. Map Project

Otherwise known as that thing that drove me crazy for a whole month.

DUF: Tin Man: Pirates Notes 06

Yeah, it's done. Yes, it will be getting its own webpage now that I can work on the update again. :p I hope it's appreciated, but I'm not holding my breath on it getting noticed until I'm ready to start posting Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic.

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Finished the Bleeping Map

Lord and Lady, don't ever let me be a glutton for that kind of punishment ever again. And if that doesn't work, at least let me remember to reduce the damn file size so the program stops freezing after every command.

And please, please, please, please, let the final three maps get made smoothly and quickly.

Blessed Be.

Er, okay, for the non-divine readers some background is probably necessary. I read every Oz book I could get my hands on back in the fourth grade (possibly third, it was before I transferred to Springfield's school system and I lived in libraries). I'm fairly certain the collection only had Baum books. So I was really clueless when I found Tin Man fanfics referencing the East - West issue. Did a little research since I needed other countries names for Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic and found the answer. Then I got annoyed with Maguire's illustrations for compounding the problem and Tin Man Meta for not looking for the answer. And I needed maps for what I was writing.

So my bright idea while creating my own maps, I would offer copies of the original Maguire maps; the directionally-corrected Maguire maps; a mash-up of all the Maguire maps, which according to me was how Oz looked when Dorothy arrived; a map of Nonestica when Dorothy arrived; a map of modern O.Z. with elements mentioned in the Tin Man miniseries; a map of modern Nonestica, which I needed for my story; and two maps of the principles islands, which are affected in the novel so before and after. Readers deserved something for the rant I had to go with these maps.

I had this brainwave back on May 4th. Finished eight of them rather quickly. Then found hell with the map of the modern O.Z.

I finally finished it last night.

At 11 p.m.

After I had really started on it at 7 p.m. and only had four things to finish on it.

And I should've been finished at 10:30 p.m. only I realized I had forgotten Milltown.

Tonight is an early bedtime. Insanely early bedtime. Before the sun sets bedtime. Which probably means Thursday will be the first day I've felt normal in about two weeks.

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Number Crunching #156

Actually figured 12/13/2009

Quicken Cash Flow = -182.78
STEF Total = 214.77

May Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: I didn’t do a budget the month before. And boy does it show in $642.00 in bank charges.

If April was the month I stopped watching, May was the month where the falling apart happened that I’m still recovering from today.

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Decent writing advice

13 Tips For Actually Getting Some Writing Done and I found it pretty inspiring. I also found her post Quiz: Are You a Moderator or an Abstainer?, equally useful for the health portion of my life.

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The map project just won't die

A three day weekend. One image manipulation project that I just can't seem to finish. So I dedicate one whole day to it. Paint Shop is the only program running, that's the only file open, and when it gets hung up (for whatever reason) I will turn to BMFM: Turbo paper edits. I started at 10:30 a.m.-ish, went to bed at 11:30 p.m.-ish, worked on it more the next day though not exclusively.

And yes, as of today, the stupid thing is STILL not finished. *headdesk*

I'm closer, so much closer to being finished. But I'm also glad that I didn't stop writing the first draft until this map was finished because the text never would have gotten finished. :p

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Once It Looks Pretty, It'll All Be Worth It

I understand how HTML coding works. I understand How CSS stylesheets work. I understand how content management works under Drupal to the point where I can set it up in less than an hour not counting downloading and searching for the modules I want.

What I don't understand is how to make the theme look like I want it to. Or more specifically, I don't know where the conflict is to make it go away.

I don't understand how PHP works. I bought books, read websites, asked questions, but there is something about it that does not connect in my head. Drupal's theme engine (from what I understand out of the Zen's theme building project) works by using the *.info page plus PHP pages to take what has been listed in the CSS stylesheet, and bam! make the Drupal site look customized pretty.

Remembering the pain in the ass time I had hacking into whatever theme I had hacked into while setting up Alt. BM Site, I was sold on this idea. Those hacks have been one of the brakes on updating Alt. BM Site, and anything that could help me build a theme I could just turn off and on or easily correct if I got something ugly on it sounds like a perfect no brainer. Circulation Desk would match the rest of the Library once set up correctly. I could fix things like poll sizes on a CSS stylesheet and watch them take effect site wide for Alt. BM Site without deleting something that allows stories to show up (for example, can you tell I don't trust myself in PHP?) And this is a great example of why theory is always more fun than fact.

So I follow their directions and set up the library desk theme. Then I cracked open the CSS stylesheet and transferred code from the BookWorm's Library. Upload and turned it on, and was greeted by brown as far as the eye can see. Okay, brown is the background color I have lurking under the background image, so that part worked. Where's the image? Dug out the CSS coding tags from HTML Goodies. Oops, I deleted a pair of parenthesis thinking I didn't need them on a style sheet. Added back, saved, uploaded, and refreshed. And still brown as far as the eye can see.

Now I didn't clean out the cache; something I didn't remember until typing this up. SCORE! I just checked it on the work computer and I got the background working. So that's probably the problem at the home computer. Maybe I can get this thing working after all without needing to find someone to do it for me.

Besides that hair pulling, I've been hit with the 'tween-projects-slump also. It's not exactly true, but it still feels weird not to breathing the story in and out all day long. More than once I've had a what should I be doing now moment during the day. It really hit me last night eating supper at a restaurant that was starting to know me as the writing customer. Sure, I could pull out the notebook and start on a new idea, but I have two stories in editing stage plus the website updating. The writing muse can put her feet up for a rest. And that just makes her feel weird.

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Sherlock Holmes

December 25, 2009

This film is either going to be the best or worse Christmas present EVER.

On the surface, I think Robert Downey Jr. is brilliant casting much like he was brilliant casting as Tony Stark. Something that gets uneven treatment in the adaptations (and was censored in the published works too) is Holmes was an addict. If his brain wasn't high from solving a puzzle he resorted to chemical means. The only thing I would worry about would be the accent, but from the trailer, those didn't sound too bad.

Action sequences: Okay, it's hard to tell some times with Doyle's writing style, but there were plenty of times that Holmes took physical action to trap the villain. I don't have my sources right in front of me, but I'm fairly certain that Watson lists boxing and fencing among Holmes strengths. And then there's a great moment in "The Speckled Band" where the villain tries to intimidate Holmes by bending a fireplace poker in front of him. Holmes straightens it out in front of Watson after the villain storms out.

And I have always had a soft spot for Irene Adler and Holmes and the non-canonical continuation of their relationship, which should be anything but platonic or domestic. The trailer raised my eyebrows hopefully for this.

I haven't bumbled around the mystery blogsphere to see what other people or grumbling about yet.

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In the people can be decent department

Back in April, CNN reported that the last Titanic survivor was auctioning off all her memorabilia and selling autographs in order to pay for her nursing home care.

Today the news is that Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, and James Cameron have all donated to the fund to help Millvina Dean meet this need.

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Making Plans

I have no idea how I managed to do it, but my back feels like it has been tied up in one giant knot. Or as my massage therapist friend put it, “You’ve got a lot of tension there.” My monthly chiropractic appointment is Thursday, but I may see if I can move it up if it doesn’t improve. The only thing I can think of is that I haven’t been moving enough, with the sit-and-study, sit-and-write, sit-and-manipulate-the-images routine I’ve had lately.

And it took almost all weekend to review projects and plans and try to figure out what will be going on in the next eight months. There’s something really satisfying about being able to make a hole in my Weekly To Do List template. Not that the other things already scheduled on the list won’t fill up that time without me adding anything, but I allowed myself a Zen moment of accomplishment.

I would like to avoid the insane layering of projects if at all possible. Which is why I took so long studying everything. Let’s start by looking at the really backlogged:

• Housework – shouldn’t count as a project but it got out of hand and needs to be wrestled into submission before I make myself sick.
• The BookWorm’s Library – updating is a year past due
• Alt. BM Site – ditto
• FFGarret – time to unveil this and see if I can make it work
• BMFM: Turbo – finish
• BMFM: For Worse – finish
• Tin Man: Dragons and Ninjas – finish
• Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic – finish
• Strix – start and eventually finish
• Zy’s Novel – start and eventually finish
• Faulkner paper – finish on the deadline
• Office remodel – have plans so I’m ready when I have money
• Kitchen remodel – have plans so I’m ready when I have money
• Bathroom remodel – have plans so I’m ready when I have money
• Sewing circle – toying with this idea as a way to be social and get things off the project list

And this is just how easily the plans overwhelm me, damn it. It’s all well and good to say “update the website” but that doesn’t cover all the mini-projects that must be done fore I can sign off that it is finished. *Deep breath.* Prioritize. Admittedly, not my strongest affinity.

The BookWorm’s Library – what needs to be finished for me to feel like it’s a real update?

1. Newsletter set up with a new story ready to go including Author’s Notes and soundtrack
2. Edited Author’s Notes with soundtracks uploaded
3. Story mistakes fixed
   • missing flash players added
   • fix McGilla to Magilla in crossover
   • Make sure all the edited Evil Jack stories are uploaded
4. Take down old Writing Tutorials and put up link to FFGarret
5. Forum for feedback
6. Project Wonderful ads

Okay, I think these six things (and believe the idea list is much longer) are doable by the end of the month. Some of them may be already done and I forgot I did them. But let’s not get ahead of myself here; break everything down into Action Steps.

1. New story ready to post: BMFM For Worse is done
2. New story’s Author’s Notes is ready to post: done
3. Soundtrack for new story: already uploaded
4. Newsletter delivery system: need one
5. Newsletter announcement: rough draft written
6. Author’s Notes had soundtracks added to them: done
7. Author’s Notes have been uploaded: no
8. Missing flash players have been added: no
9. Crossover fix has been uploaded: no
10. Edited Evil Jack stories have been uploaded: no
11. Removed old Writing Tutorial section: no
12. Add links to FFGarret: no
13. FFGarret ready to go live: no
14. Forum delivery system: need one
15. Project Wonderful ads created: no
16. Project Wonderful ads have been positioned on pages: no

Lot more listed as “no” than “finished.”

FFGarret: Needs before going live

1. Create ads for Project Wonderful
2. Write first article
3. Write second article
4. Write third article
5. Write fourth article
6. Write fifth article
7. Write and publish an article a week—see if setting up future posts is possible with Drupal

Like dominoes falling into place, sadly almost. There’s a lot to do here, but I think it’s totally doable to make two of these items two Big Rocks for the week. So I’m going to have these projects finished by June 1st before moving to the next one.

That’s the plan as it stands right now. Let’s see how the week turns out.

MA Exam Part 2

I PASSED PART TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unless I get told differently, I should be walking in December, after I finish the Faulkner paper for the Fall semester. So I am one more step closer to the pictured event.



So what does this mean for my writing schedule? I haven't gotten that far yet. Planning out my project schedule will have to wait until I get home and can take an uninterrupted look at the calendar.

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M.A. Exam Part 2

Taken. I actually feel better about how this went than I did the first time I took it, but I won't know anything until they release the results. Which they hope will happen by Thursday. o.O Yeah, I think that's pretty quick.

And on a side note, I think I should pass simply because I got two parking tickets while taking the stupid thing. I'm not arguing that I shouldn't have (cause I was running out of time and said "shit with it" as I parked. Put a parking garage where Lee Hall used to be; if you go taller you could still have grass. :p) But as a karmic balancing thing; it sounds fair.

Or just tell me I failed and let me cheerfully reclaim more of my time from Faulkner's grasp. It's unreal how easy I am to please over this outcome. Now I'm going to take a break and play with maps. I have to go break a continent.

Oh in other details, cause it has been a while since I updated. I did get the home computer up and running. I'm still cleaning out the saved files, because there is only so long I can work on that before getting sick of deleting. Now I need to turn everything off and install a new battery, but I want to be able to turn the computer back on, so I'm leery.

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And it only took four ciritical papers this time

I'm about a third of the way through reading the Beloved critical articles for the M.A. Exam Part 2 next Monday. And I hit my limit, which is sad because I still have eight articles to go.

How do I know I hit my limit? When I have to reach for the dictionary to define words I already know. When I have a cracktastic idea that will not let go.

The cracktastic idea this time: I want someone to go all literary critical theory on one of my fanfics. Take the most extreme Freudian position possible. Or Lacan. Or ... okay I already forgot most of the major movements. Why do I want to see this happen? Because I can remember most of the stuff that churned in my brain, and proving or disproving patriarchal family models based on Oedipal theory was not one of them. The problem of domination was not one of them. Greek tragedy and resisting it wasn't one of them.

If none of them above make any sense to you whatsoever, thank the deity of your choice that you managed to skip literary criticism. But I honestly just want to see it from the other side of the curtain. Because deep down, I think this is all bunk any way when it comes to creation of the works analyzed. I think it has a purpose in helping people understand the work better or perhaps understanding the genre and stereotypes to break away from them. But I'm driven to hair pulling when I find one of these scholar positing so finitely "Morrison was creating an African-American feminist maternal dialogue to combat the white, patriarchal system that oppresses us to this day." You don't know that (but you sure wrote a damn long paper on the subject)! What if Morrison's inspirational thought was just exploring what about slavery would make a mother kill her child, which she has said there was a true case that sparked Sethe, and what if the child comes back as a ghost or something else?

Well, if you do want to psychoanalyze one of my works be prepared for me to laugh hysterically or congratulate you for getting into a character's headspace. Because the only agenda I have is seeing if I can make the plot and theme work and make readers happy.

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Number Crunching #155

Actually figured 12/13/2009

Quicken Cash Flow = 785.23
STEF Total = 214.77

April Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: Not going to try to figure this one out because I didn’t make a budget. I know I didn’t do good because I got $75.00 in Overdraft fees.

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Computer Crash Update

I put in the hard drive and the sound card all by myself, and they worked. Yes, that is an accomplishment for me since I have always been afraid I’d blow it up if I messed with any computer innards. Dad did have to come and help me because I messed up the settings and lost my D hard drive in the process. So I ended up having to install Windows XP twice.

So now I’m currently waiting to get the back up restored from Mozy so I can finish loading up all the programs. I did try just copying the program files that I had saved so I wouldn’t have to reinstall everything again, but Windows XP’s menus didn’t recognize programs that way. So back to reinstalling :p. The new hard drive has a 160 GB, so it should be a long time before I put so much on it, it won’t function. Though I am seriously considering if how I have My Documents set up is the most efficient way to do it. I have 80 GB on the D drive, and I was using that as internal back-up storage and 150 GB on the external hard drive that I wanted to be a backup for things I would have normally burned to a CD but now fear losing forever. The rough idea I have is that XP will continue running really smoothly if all I have on the C drive is it and other program files. I have no idea if that is actually true.

And it is so good to have sound again! But I discovered a hiccup that I haven’t figured out how to solve yet. I saved 5 YouTube fanvids before the soundcard crapped out on me with recovering from the February crash: 4 in a format that runs in QuickTime and 1 with RealPlayer. Despite reinstalling the latest free RealPlayer and seeing that the file is there and nothing appears wrong with it, it refuses to play. The program says it’s playing but the clip indicator doesn’t move, there’s no sound or video. The QuickTime vids play just fine, but the sound is practically non-existent. I have to turn the player’s volume control to max, XP’s volume control to max, and then the speaker’s volume control to max before I can hear a whisper of the music. I had to stop experimenting with it in order to reinstall programs, so I haven’t tested files that I didn’t save from YouTube or if resaving them in a different format would help. I also need to buy a couple of speaker extension cords; I can give myself surround sound now. :D

I spent a few hours rearranging the computer equipment on the desk and tidying up the cords. This is my second attempt to get all the stupid cords off the floor so I can vacuum under my desk without fear of sucking up one of the cords and causing expensive and painful damage. First attempt was with some nice clips that attach to furniture and walls with a sticky back. They open and close easily to allow you get to the cord in question without much hassle. I thought I had put enough of those up to bear the weight, but I figured wrong. All of them had detached from the desk.

While I was wracking my brains to come up with a solution that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg, I mentioned the problem to my mother. “I use zip ties on your father’s stuff. Otherwise, we couldn’t walk around his desk.”

“That would bundle them together, but not get them off the floor.”

“Then just tack them up.” That’s when she showed me the zip ties she had. Whenever I need to make a bundle, I have a zip-tie machine that can fit around just about any size object and then cuts the plastic tie close so I don’t have any dangly bits. Mom had a package of all the same size ties that you don’t use in the machine, and they also had a built-in loop at one end. I pulled out the horde of cup hooks I ended up with for some reason of another, and hung the bundled wires from the desk with the cup hooks. That took hours to accomplish on Saturday. Plus I installed a new shelf in the bathroom cabinet and my body still hasn’t forgiven me for all the twisting into unusual positions.

Yeah, not a lot of writing or tax work got done this weekend. Which means once I finish reinstalling programs tonight, I have to finish the taxes and send them away. I’m not freaked out about the deadline because I always e-file (and I still have another month before state taxes are due), but this is just bad form. I thought not doing them until March was bad, but this takes the cake. Writing, not even taking longhand notes was simply because I had a computer in pieces and was rearranging the office for updated function (and something new to look at until I can afford my built-in idea) and the living room is still mostly filled with stuff I need to finish dealing with and get rid of. But oddly enough I didn’t need to escape any of it. I’m going to try to get back into the grove today while at work, since I can’t do anything with taxes until I get home.

Next up is replacing the computer’s backup battery, which should probably happen ASAP. After that, I can probably wait a while before getting a DVD burner, new video card, and the Dazzler set-up to burn my VHS tapes to DVDs.

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Computer Crash

The home computer has started the "I can't reboot cycle" again, so I'm breaking down and buying a new hard drive and sound card now. I have to finish my taxes this weekend. But if you're wondering why I've suddenly gone silent, it's because the computer is in pieces.

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Nothing Like Waking Up on Time

There's also nothing like waking up before the alarm clock to cramps. Unproductive cramps, soon discovered as one stumbled out of the bedroom to the bathroom, takes painkillers, and mutters about the warning system really isn't necessary, crawl back into bed pressing down on stomach to make the pain stop, and then the alarm goes off.

Guess which wake up I have this morning?

though after the Aleve kicked in, I don't have any complaints. I exercises, I finished the Beloved reading hour, and got a crap load of printing done so I can edit BMFM: Turbo.

Verdicts from the meetings: Faulkner paper has to be completely rewritten, but I have a better grasp of where and what to explore. the topic may expand to Faulkner's use of sexuality, which may give me the opportunity to explore other characters I actually like. And we set up actual deadlines I can worked with for a Fall submission and graduation.

If I pass the second shot at the graduate exam on May 4th.

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Hot Bod Countdown 1

First full week, and I screwed up on Tuesday by oversleeping and missing the workout. But I did get Thursday’s and remembered pushups. I got three of them, full on the floor! And I mean real pushups, not the girly version done on your knees.

Total points possible for 4/4/09 = 154
Total points earned for 4/4/09 = 94

3/25/2009 Starting weight = 199 (doctor’s office scale)
Week 0.5 Avg. Weight = 196.75 (home scale)
Week 1 Avg. Weight = 195.94

So onto the next week’s progress.

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Number Crunching 154

Quicken Cash Flow = 306.37
STEF Total = 214.77
Amount Available to Spend = 62.91

Enter receipts into Quicken: Done.
Reconcile Quicken to online accounts: Done.
Add totals to spreadsheet: Done.
What did I accomplish during the week? I’ve caught up and stayed on target! I got Number Crunching #153 and #154 wrote and posted on time.
Plans for next week:>

1. Handover the budgeted contributions for Linda’s retirement party


2. Move cap and gown savings to where I can’t spend it.


3. For the love of all that is holy, FINISH DOING TAXES


4. Try out once a month cooking
   • Plan out the meals with what I already have in pantry.
   • Grocery shopping after I get my first paycheck for April.
   • Have to clean kitchen and fridge before I can cook


5. Dispute the overdraft charge on the Demco 4/3/09 payment

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Number Crunching 153

Quicken Cash Flow = 614.79
STEF Total = 363.69

March Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: Okay, back to acknowledging where I did good and bad.

• Problem categories:
  • Bank charges is the worst because I wasn’t keeping a good enough eye on the balances.
  • Eating Out had way too much money spent in it mainly because I do not want to face my kitchen.


• Did-good-with categories:I don’t see anything that qualifies as “good” spending for the month of March.


• Verdict:Stop giving the bank so much money and restrict how much eating out I’m doing.


• Leftover amount = -35.06

Creating next month’s budget: Done. It’s going to be a tight month as I try to scale to live under my two paychecks.
How much cash can I have: 39.00 and that’s essential shopping and fun money. Planning meals is going to be fun this month.
Automatic payments: Everything has been set up and the bills have been divided into what falls under which paycheck.
Reviewing short-term savings goals: Still trying to reach the STEF goal mark. I ended up having to use a good chunk of what I had put back to plug the hole I had at the beginning of the month, but I’m hoping I can put it back with each paycheck.
Update NetworthIQ statements:

Update NCN Savings Chart:

Overview and plans:

1. Update the Bills List with all current accounts and passwords. Found out that Chase Student Loans, Nationstar, Mozy.com, and Netflix are not on it.


2. Tweak the NetworthIQ Jan. and Feb. statements once I have verified the balances for
   • Sallie Mae
   • Chase Student Loans
   • Republic Finance
   Citifinancial
   • Nationstar Mortgage


3. Change Federal tax withholding amount in Quicken.


4. Handover the budgeted contributions for Linda’s retirement party


5. Move cap and gown savings to where I can’t spend it.


6. For the love of all that is holy, FINISH DOING TAXES


7. Try out cooking for the month

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Hot Bod Countdown 0.5

This week isn’t a full week, which is why I given this post 0.5 title. The first full week will have three extra days in it.

Thursday’s workout: I did everything but push-ups, because I forgot to do them at 4am.
2 Sun Salutations
30 ab crunches
15 leg raises
Shoulder exercises – 5 lbs. weight
20 Dumbbell rows
40 Hanging arm circles
20 Extended arm circles
20 Dumbbell press
20 Dumbbell flies

Saturday’s workout didn’t happen as fast as I thought it would. I’ll admit I’ve been avoiding my front porch since November and Mom put some of her store furniture on it. Well, my weight set is getting rusty and a bird built a nest in a box of my exercise supplies. So I took measurements to see where I can move the weight bench.



I still have two craft hobbies to go through in the living room, papers I was storing in the back bedroom, and my hurricane supply box. But I can say that the majority of what is staying in there is already in their just needing a few finishing touches (I’m going to hang Captain Kate’s weapons on the walls for example). The measurements work, so now I have to move all of it.




It fits better than I thought it would. Now the bucket of weights ended up in the hall right outside the room, but only because I wanted to be able to walk in the back room.

I figured out my max. weights for lifting and calculated my workout weights.

Hanging arm circles Max weight = 15 lbs, Workout weight = 10 lbs.
Extended arm circles Max. weight = 10 lbs, Workout weight = 5 lbs.
Dumbbell rows Max. weight = 15 lbs, Workout weight = 10 lbs.
Dumbbell flies Max weight = 15 lbs, Workout weight = 10 lbs.
Dumbbell press Max weight = 15 lbs, Workout weight = 10 lbs.
Bench press Max weight = 40 lbs, Workout weight = 30 lbs.
Squats Max weight = 40 lbs, Workout weight = 30 lbs.
Leg extensions = 50 lbs, Workout weight = 37.5 lbs.

Do three sets of ten repetitions. Barbell = 15 lbs. Dumbbell = 5 lbs.

What might be useful is buying two pairs of dumbbells that are already set at 5 lbs. and 10 lbs., because I don’t have enough small weights to make a balanced pair.

Saturday Workout
Bench press = 30 reps.
Hanging arm circles = 30 reps.
Dumbbell rows = 30 reps.
Extended arm circles = 30 reps.
Weight plate press = 30 reps. Instead of wasting time switching the dumbbell weights, I just grabbed a 10 lbs. plate and did the workout with it.
Dumbbell flies = 30 reps.
Leg extensions = 30 reps.
Squats = 30 reps.
Ab crunches = 20 reps.
Leg raises = 20 reps.

And boy do I hurt today. Total points for the four days 52 out of a possible 66, I think that comes out to a C. Not bad for starting, since I came up more positive than I thought I would. I also found out that Fit Day’s freebie account now keeps track of measurements. This is a good thing since the last website I was using to track it died since I started and restarted this whole health odyssey.

3/25/2009 Starting weight = 199 (doctor’s office scale)
Week 0.5 Avg. Weight = 196.75 (home scale)

So onto the next week’s progress.

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Number Crunching 152

Quicken Cash Flow = 1662.71
STEF Total = 363.69

Enter receipts into Quicken: Done.
Reconcile Quicken to online accounts: Done.
Add totals to spreadsheet: Done.
What did I accomplish during the week? Finances spun out of focus again for an entire month. It’s not an unreasonable schedule, but I hate doing it so much. Do I really prefer the build-up and the guilt that brings? Just when I was asking that, I ran across this in one of the blogs/news I follow.

My sense is when you get discouraged you lose momentum and may slip into patterns of procrastination which also take you farther away from your goal. For some insight on this, I turned to life and executive coach BrianWhetten. Brian shared: "We usually think that procrastination means we're lazy, unmotivated or unworthy. But that's rarely the case. Instead, it usually comes from an over-use of guilt and self-judgment. What do you tell yourself about your study habits? Do your thoughts include things like 'I should be more motivated', 'I have to stop procrastinating' or 'I blew it again'? Thoughts like this cause a burst of guilt and stress. Used on occasion they can push us forward, but when they become a habit, they quickly start to backfire. So instead of trying to "should" your way forward, start by writing down the judgments you've been making against yourself, and then check out www.thework.com as a powerful tool for releasing them." – “Searching For Motivation” by Christine Hassler

My life story feels like one big battle against procrastination, so I can agree I have a habit of trying to lay on the guilt and stress. I don’t want to deal with it, so I ignore it. But I know I’m ignoring it and in comes the guilt.

In an attempt to figure out what was wrong with finances at least, I applied the Feng Shui principle, which basically boils down to “internal life issues are reflected in the external environment at certain points.” The wealth and prosperity point in my house is in the back bedroom and I discovered I couldn’t get into the room because of everything crammed into it. So everything came out, good cleaning, everything got rearranged so I can actually use the space, and I added the weight bench so I have to look at the room at least once a week. And I’m not surprised that I suddenly have the oomph to finish the budget catch-up today. I need to find my health and creativity points next.

Plans for next week:

1. Update the Bills List with all current accounts and passwords. Found out that Chase Student Loans, Nationstar, Mozy.com, and Netflix are not on it.


2. Tweak the NetworthIQ Jan. and Feb. statements once I have verified the balances for
   • Sallie Mae
   • Chase Student Loans
   • Republic Finance
   Citifinancial
   • Nationstar Mortgage


3. Change Federal tax withholding amount in Quicken.

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Hot Bod Countdown #0

Blood pressure = 109/84 – good
Cholesterol – good
Weight = 199 pounds – creeping up again
Fasting Blood Sugar = 127 – still on the borderline and creeping up

My endocrinologist wanted to put me on Byetta, which involves a very non-complicated injection of the prescription. And my phobia freaked out. “I don’t want you to think I’m forcing this on you,” he said, “I can tell by your face, you don’t like this. But your weight is creeping up and October’s blood sugar was 135 so your body is maintaining it at that level.”

“I haven’t been watching what I eat or exercising. Give me three months to get strict on that and then we’ll see if I need the Byetta.” He agreed so here I am, plotting how I am going to make these changes. The problem isn’t knowing what to do, the problem is doing it consistently enough to make a difference.

Current schedule has me down for exercising three days a week. Current exercise routine I came up with consists of: ab crunches, leg raises, arm exercises to strengthen my left shoulder, push ups, and as many Sun Salutations as I can do. Which would be great if I actually did any of it. Established pattern, moving on.

Let’s change it up a bit. Make Saturday a day to work with weights. I love weight work and I love getting stronger.

Tuesday/Thursday

• ab crunches
• leg raises
• hanging arm circles
• extended arm circles
• dumbbell rows
• dumbbell press
• dumbbell flies
• push-ups
• Sun Salutations

Saturday

• ab crunches
• leg raises
• hanging arm circles
• extended arm circles
• dumbbell rows
• dumbbell press
• dumbbell flies
• bench press
• squats
• leg extensions

Eventually I want to add pull-ups, but I don’t have the equipment or the upper body strength to do them. The equipment issue I might be able to solve fairly quickly if Big Lots still has that bar that fits in a door frame in stock. I like the idea of putting weight work on Saturday, that way I don’t freak out with trying to squeeze correct form before work.

Part Two is diet. Watching carbs and sugar flew out the window months ago—I think about the same time I had a clean kitchen. So now’s probably the best time to take the plunge into Primal Living. I was being lazy and said I’d wait to start when Mark’s book came out, but now I don’t want to have to stick myself even every other day. It’s the perfect time for a clean start.

And I need to dig out the glucose monitor and use it daily. :p But if I’m tracking my weight daily, I need to track my fasting blood sugar too.

How I want to configure Joe’s Goals:

• +2 for all Tuesday/Thursday exercises
• +4 for all Saturday exercises
• -6 if carb intakes is over 20% daily
• +1 for weighing in daily
• -1 for missing daily weigh in
• +1 for measuring fasting glucose daily
• -1 for missing measuring daily fasting glucose

That is a potential 90 points a week.

Current statistics:

• Height = 62.25 in. / 158.1 cm
• Weight = 199 lbs.
• Neck = 38 cm
• Bust = 119.7 cm
• Waist = 104.8 cm
• Hips = 120.6 cm
• Right thigh = 65.2 cm
• Right calf = 40.0 cm
• Right upper arm = 30.9 cm
• Right lower arm = 26.6 cm

My ultimate goal weight is 120 lbs, so I’m 79 pounds above that and 61 pounds above 140 lbs. (a weight I’d be happy to see). Healthy weight loss is about a pound a week, so 80 weeks should see me at 120, 65 weeks should see me at 140. Three months equals 12 weeks equals 12 pounds of weight loss.

Calendar and goal weights:

• 12 weeks = June 21 = 187
• 24 weeks = Sept 13 = 175 lbs
• 36 weeks = Dec 6 = 163 lbs
• 48 weeks = Feb 28, 2010 = 151 lbs
• 60 weeks = May 23 = 139 lbs
• 72 weeks = Aug 15 = 127
• 80 weeks = Oct. 10 = 119 lbs
• 84 weeks = Nov 7 = 115 lbs (I doubt I see that amount of weight loss)

Rewards for meeting goals: My first idea was to pay myself a dollar for each positive goal point I made a week but I don’t think my budge could take a potential $90 a week hit. A better idea is to schedule out the fun stuff I want to do this summer and then assign the points I should have reached by doing everything in order to do it. I really like this idea.

• DragonBall Z = April 8 = 180 points
• Wolverine = May 1 = 450 points
• Star Trek = May 8 = 540 points
• Angels and Demons = May 15 = 630 points
• Terminator: Salvation = May 22 = 720 points
• Land of the Lost = June 5 = 900 points
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen = June 24 = 1170 points
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince = July 17 = 1440 points
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra = August 7 = 1710 points

That gets me through the summer at least. Treating myself to some new clothes and exercise equipment would be nice and I need the clothes, but might be best to tie those treats to pounds loss. I’d hate to buy something and then it not fit.

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The BookWorm

Words epic!FAIL

I finished Battlestar Galactica 45 minutes ago. Still reeling from it. If only one of my projects ever turns out half as epic as that did, I will consider myself blessed.

I do have to add, perfect ending for Tory. Also makes me curious about the other crap she's pulled in the 2000 years. Galen wasn't buying her moves when she first tried them, and then his laugh when Anders revealed they had been an item.

And I can't participate by listening to anyone's discussion because the computer still has no sound. I haven't tested that out fully, but the theory I'm leaning toward is I need a new soundcard. So now I'm off to play with TiddlyWiki some more as I start to wind down from the high.

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The BookWorm

Number Crunching 151

Quicken Cash Flow = 1209.58
STEF Total = 1220.69

Enter receipts into Quicken: Done.
Reconcile Quicken to online accounts: Done.
Add totals to spreadsheet: Done.
What did I accomplish during the week? Nothing with finances.
Plans for next week:

• Need to change Federal tax withholding amount in Quicken.

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The BookWorm

MA Exam Part 1

I'm done, spent, wrung out. Faulkner is getting shelved and it'll be another decade before I crack open one of his books for pleasure reading. If anyone mentions Flowers in the Attic to me, I'll probably start blabbing about Sutpen and Quentin and Horace. No, I did not mention V.C. Andrews in my paper. I really kept it on a scholarly level. I just hope it is scholarly enough.

If I start sobbing in my cubicle, it's because my advisor told me it's not done and I have to do more. I'm waiting for his approval before the final, final turn in. And I will be lighting every candle in my house tonight and praying to every academic god I can find reference to that I pass and don't have to deal with Faulkner any more.

Next thing to figure out is how to read all the material for Part 2 of the MA Exam and stay sane.

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The BookWorm

Another Never-ending Cycle: Faulkner's Use of the Incest Taboo

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Number Crunching 150

Quicken Cash Flow = 576.61
STEF Total = 306.20

Enter receipts into Quicken: Done.
Reconcile Quicken to online accounts: Done.
Add totals to spreadsheet: Done.
What did I accomplish during the week? Nothing with finances.
Plans for next week:

• Need to change Federal tax withholding amount in Quicken.

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The BookWorm

Oops I got tagged

Well, in other news, I moved Merrilee's blog in Bloglines where I won't skip reading it for days on end.

The problem I have with memes and answering memes is they make me so self-conscious. I don't hide much, how can it possibly be interesting, I've complained about everything to everyone who reads the blog or as a blog post--what don't they know? Sometimes they just feel way too close to the chain emails to list all your favorites. I really avoid those. But I'm going to make a valiant effort to list seven unknown things about me, frankly because I felt guilty about missing it for so long.

1. I just tried to kill myself with the numerator stamp falling from the shelf above my head. All because time change has messed with my sleep and I get clumsy when I want a nap.

2. I have played so many tabletop RPGs I normally think of goofs like that in terms of "I failed my dexterity roll."

3. I'm writing this post instead of my paper that my Master's depends on. My only defense: I tried to write at work and my coworkers are distracting. They are not nearly as distracting for the fiction, so my conclusion is that I want to write the fiction and I am able to concentrate more on blocking them out. Instead of spending all my energy battling the ennui of that writing project. I like my intro so far, the idea feels pretty solid, I don't know if I will find outside sources, I just don't care about passing the damn thing.

4. I started doing fanmixes! Give me some comments on those, nobody else has seemed to notice them.

5. I went back to school because I had a fit of the grasses is greener on the other side. Now I wish I had at least picked a subject that wasn't so subjective. Accounting would've been a good choice, and work would have paid for some of it.

6. I made a word count goal for myself this year that I have yet to tally up any words for it. I have tallies, elsewhere, but I haven't filled out that big one for all the fiction I have wrote.

7. I had to start writing that paper in committee. Yes, I actually wrote down what the other voices inside my head were saying as I tried to make sense of the project. Now I feel like I have earned a pic badge I saw on someone's LiveJournal: "Writing: socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." I'll worry about the development if the voices tell me to go kill people or commit blood sacrifices.

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The BookWorm

Fanboy wailing, oh that's what that sound is

Shortpacked: The Worst Jobs in Hollywood

Come on, if you've seen Watchmen, you know that comic is so very true.

I guess I'll start there since it is just the most recent. Wow. Speechless, breathless, wonderful wow. Casting was superb, and it visually looks like Snyder has developed a way to keep the comic tone and iconic images without shooting a staged story panel. Though I found out my stomach appreciates the violence a little less realistic. Or in other words, I'm happy with breaking bones as long as they don't break through skin with blood. During the prison riot, I was actually glad to see some of the crooks decide to stay in the cells. I agree with a lot of the dumb criminals stereotypes, but come on they do have a healthy sense of self-preservation. And they kept all the favorite lines: "I'm not locked in here with you; you're locked in here with me!" "I'm used to going out at 3am and doing something stupid." And I am so going to buy the soundtrack. Whoever put that together was brilliant.

Now the rest of the post probably contains spoilers, though I'll try not to give too much away.

And yes, they changed the ending. I know for some fanboys (using the derogatory meaning of the term) that is the ultimate sin, but I think the movie ending made even more sense than the book. One: we don't have time in the movie to set up all the secondary characters and investigations that something big and bad is going to happen and cover our five main characters dealing with the death of the Comedian.

Two: The movie ending gives an extra wrinkle of foolproof-ness to Adrian's plan. Dr. Manhattan being the unpredictable wildcard has to be neutralized. If killing him didn't work, turning the entire world against him sounds like a reasonable alternative to me. Even if he hadn't decided to go play god in another part of the universe, he wouldn't have been able to stop Adrian publicly ever again.

Three: The theme didn't change. Nothing ever changes, human nature is what makes the world a rotten place, and all Adrian has probably accomplished is a delay is all still present. Though I wish they had kept in Dr. Manhattan telling him that and then leaving the atom bomb cloud in his globe as he departs. But I'm not so crazy to demand that my favorite panel must be in a film in order to call it good.

Coraline is drop-dead gorgeous and if you can stand to see it in 3D, it's used to give depth to the world and not so much thrusting things in your face. And the story is wonderful. I love Neil Gaiman's stuff for the simple fact that he layers in stuff that most people without a Liberal Arts degree wouldn't understand but if you do get it, it just adds another layer of texture to the world. And if it does go past your head, you really don't have to know it to get the story. Also, I think that movie is one of the few times I have felt justified in wanting to call Social Services on behalf of a fictional child.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li: what the hell happened to this movie in development? I'm putting all the blame on the writers, directors, and possible whoever was in charge of editing it. Yeah, there will be spoilers in this part.

Problem one: YOU KILLED BISON! You put in a cute little ad and a nod to go find Ryu next, but you killed off Bison. You put Charlie Nash in the movie (and yes, someone else had to remind me of the significance of that character) and you let him live and killed off Bison! I haven't decided if I should give out brownie points for making it the most hard-core Neal McDonough on-screen death or not.

Problem two: I can accept using a video game as the place to get characters and build the story up from there. But with the genre of the game and the movie, your audience is expecting fights. And then when you set up fights between two characters from the video game, we expect to see some major ass-whumping. The Vega/Chun-Li fight is an epic fail in this regard. And the only reason I can't see it getting more time is because of problem number three.

Problem three: The B-plot with Charlie Nash and the Bangkok cop; why the hell was that even in the movie? Seriously, we get cheated on Vega fight because you need to make a joke about gold handcuffs? All those scenes should have hit the cutting room floor leaving the storage container scene and maybe some of the so unhelpful guns at the end. And Nash should have died. I mean DUDE, you just let a seventeen-year-old girl see her father get killed brutally and didn't even try to turn her aside when you saw what was going to happen!

I totally want Rose to snap and go evil just because of that alone. Either that or Bison invested in cloning research. And Nash should have died.

Problem four: I'm not hating Neal for the Irish accent, he said repeatedly in interviews "they" wanted Bison to have an Irish accent, so he came up with a backstory reason for it. Epic fail on directing there. I figured based on the interview reasons that it was mostly leftover from his parents and then reinforced when he went back to Ireland. Parents died when Bison was infant; any accent should have been Bangkok-ish since he never left until in his late teens or early twenties! Yes, you do pick up local twang (some people more easily than others) but being back in Bangkok should have been bringing that out in his voice.

Yeah, they made the first Street Fighter movie look Oscar worthy. Ponder that one.

And of course I had to go fix it. You know how Clue gives you three endings. Well this is the ending I think they left out.

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The BookWorm

Number Crunching 149

Number Crunching 149
03/06/2009

Quicken Cash Flow = -61.14
STEF Total = 306.20

Enter receipts into Quicken: Done.
Reconcile Quicken to online accounts: Done.
Add totals to spreadsheet: Done.
What did I accomplish during the week? Not much with finances.

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The BookWorm