But it's a dry cold

So I have arrived safely at work. They did close most of the area schools and with the wind chill keeping the temps ten degrees cooler than they are, I think it was a smart move. However, the rain fall dried up before the freezing point so no black ice.

No spectacular plans for the weekend. Staying home, staying warm, cleaning house, writing, website puttering, and figuring out what exercise routine I need to start and where to put it in the schedule.

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The BookWorm

Doctor Who: The End of Time Part Two

Okay, so I'm a few days late getting my notes typed up. I've been busy trying to meet the Tin Man/Alice crossover challenge that I don't know will actually happen.

The Master knocked on the barrel four times.

Outside shot of Gallifrey during the Time War. Gallifrey is SO wrecked.

Timothy Dalton is Lord President. Natch.

O.O Okay, it probably isn't any big surprise with anyone with half a brain but Dad and I had a conversation over Nine's tears when Tree lady figured out he was a Time Lord and thanked him for their sacrifice. "Dad, he's responsible. Whatever button had to be pushed to end the Time War that ended up killing the Time Lords and the Daleks, the Doctor pushed it." Dad never got past the Doctor isn't supposed to sniffle. Well, blonde lady at the table admitted that was what happened right before she got zapped. And now after seeing the whole thing, I think the Doctor didn't cast the net as tightly around the Daleks as he could have but made sure to snare the Time Lords.

I like the Visionary. She's my kind of mad seer.

The Master is having too much fun with the multiple copies of himself.

Wilf, don't antagonize the crazy Time Lord.

Master about the Doctor: "He loves playing with Earth girls!" Okay, helpless guffaws for the next half-hour.

The Doctor winked, Donna's defense mechanism, wow!

The Doctor's offer: it's not enough for the Master, not with the drumming driving him. SLASH ALERT!

"The rhythm of four, the heartbeat of a Time Lord." -- You manipulated that moment to make the Master crazy? Yeah, I also suspect voting fraud when you replaced Romana.

Master: "The drumbeat is coming from the end of time itself!"

The Doctor: "You know what I find amazing about you. After all this time, you're still bonehead stupid!" -- I need this as an audio file.

Wilf: "God bless the cactuses!"
The Doctor: "Cacti."
Male green alien: "That's racist!"

The Doctor: "WORSE RESCUE EVER!" -- also set off the giggles forever. Reminded me of one too many gaming sessions.

Wilf: "But we're in space!" Later, "I'm an astronaut."

The Master's body was born out of death and all it can do is die.

Pearl Lady: "I was lost so very long ago." ARGH! From "Journey's End" to now, Ten has repeatedly not taken a companion usually commenting "I always lose them." This does not help in identifying Pearl Lady because Susan was his first companion and he left her behind, and Romana was also left behind.

The Doctor: "I'd be proud if you were my dad." Okay, this is where my knowledge of Classic Who fails me, but I have a niggling sense that what has slipped out, the Doctor and his father were estranged long before he stole the TARDIS.

Wilf: "Kill him first."
The Doctor: "That's how the Master got started." -- I'm sure you had good reason, but boy doesn't that explain the hate-on for 800 or more years. And if you're killing someone who can regenerate, why didn't you FINISH the job? This is was the first version of the scene in The Ten Doctors webcomic but Leela understands the concept.

"Gallifrey rises!" -- And I just know Creation is fucked.

Two that voted against are to become Weeping Angels? Well, that certainly explains the Weeping Angels ability to manipulate time and how they want to feed off the energy of the TARDIS. Course that also raises some question marks about the next time the Doctor runs into the Weeping Angels. Does he know that his people were turned into them? Can the process be reversed?

Time Lords to spare! Yes, the Master is still trying to get a gazillion or more regenerations. You know this whole problem could have been avoided dear boy if you had regenerated instead of deciding it was more fun to make the Doctor cry. Oops, Timothy shut down that plan and saved humanity from being the Master forever.

Just in time for when planets collide! *Headdesk* You guys built black holes and you can't come back without putting two planets on a collusion course. Don't you know what that will do to Gallifrey's already wrecked real estate? Oh, Timothy reveals the true goal and it won't matter.

So exactly what do beings of pure thought and energy do if there's no matter around to play with?

And the Doctor has to live with pushing the button twice. *Squishes Ten*

Pearl Lady was one of the ones who voted nay and the Doctor recognizes her!

Timothy is Rassilon! Nailed it. Oh now, you should have told the Master you were sorry for making him crazy. Have fun zapping them inside the Time Lock.

Wilf is knocking; crap EVERYONE knocks four times. But that, oh that hurt.

Well, I think this is pretty good for a death/regeneration scene. Course the only one I remember seeing any footage of is Four trying to avoid the Watcher and then they merged into Five.

Donna: "Did I miss something? Again?"

Martha and Mickey got married? And Mickey finally butched up. I like it.

Luke and Sarah Jane! And at this point, I realized Ten is saying good-bye to his adopted family of Earthlings. *Sniffles* See Sarah Jane is always right.

JACK! And all the alien species we have seen so far that weren't outright baddies. GEORGE! okay Alonso. Started looking for Mitchell, before remembering that he had shot a historical movie about post-Romantic school of painters in between Being Human series.

Joan Redfern's granddaughter.

Donna and Shuan's wedding -- aw, he did the lottery trick again. And Sylvia has mellowed into an actual human being. "Borrowed a quid off Jeffrey Noble." Still like "Ten Years Later" the best. Wilf asks who Pearl Lady is and the Doctor looks at Syliva and then Donna. Now this is fuel that Pearl Lady is actually the Doctor's mother, and they didn't show the Doctor Who Confidential specifically for this episode, but people report that's who they say she is in it.

I'm a little disappointed but mostly ambivalent. Truth any of the three could work with everything shown. What disappoints is that I was one of the few fans who liked Eight's admission in the movie "I'm half human. On my mother's side." Not that be really NEEDS a reason to be an Earthophile (RTD stole my omnisexual so I'm borrowing this), but I like it for why he keeps watching out for the human race, why he gets so proud of their accomplishments, and so angry at their failures. And after Gallifrey falls, Earth is the only home and family he has left.

Doctor went back to see Rose and Jackie at New Year's 2005. And Jackie mention Howard the mechanic with the tow truck that opened up the TARDIS panel. :D That was nice and tidy and poignant without having to deal with the deal with Doctor 10.5.

MUST GET SOUNDTRACK!

The Ood! Across time and space.

TARDIS does not like radiation. Time to redecorate again.

"Still not ginger!" LOL

Observation of the night: the older the Doctor gets, the younger he doesn't mind looking. I think this was a point brought up in "Time Crash" which I still haven't seen thanks to bloody too high of pricing on DVDs.

Next series preview: Weeping Angels! I loved that alien species and maybe I will get my questions answered.

The Doctor uses a gun? I have to see the context for that scene.

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The BookWorm

FanFiction Personality Test Results

Your result for The Fan Fiction Personality Test...

The True Fan

OOC is blasphemy, canon is everything.

Once you fall in love with a movie, book or TV series, you are loyal like an old dog. You take fanfiction quite serious and use it as a substitute after the canon ran out.

You are probably a walking dictionary of your favourite fandom and you are picky about what you write and read. The closer to the "real thing" fanfiction is, the more you like it.

You rather explore a character in all depth, see new sides and learn more about them than creating new characters or mix up the situations they are in.

Take The Fan Fiction Personality Test at OkCupid

*Snort* No one is really surprised by this. Still, I wish some of the questions would let you pick more than one answer. Or had a sliding scale for choices. "I'm more this than that, but that is higher than zero."

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The BookWorm

Sherlock Holmes

It took longer than I had wanted it to, but I finally got to see Sherlock Holmes.

Final verdict: both DVD and Hans Zimmerman soundtrack are going into my meager Sherlock Holmes film collection. Stop now to avoid any potential spoilers.

Physically Robert Downey Jr. isn't the Great Detective, but he more than made up for that with his manic/depressive cycles and plucking at the violin as a thinking aid. I would have liked to see actual playing, but we can save that for the sequel. And the fighting. :D

Jude Law as Dr. Watson, Super Army Doctor! On a whole, I enjoyed this take on Dr. Watson, his military bearing and doctor skills were both used. And he has learned some of Holmes's deductive skills and can keep up with most of Holmes' train of thought. However, my forehead slapping moments also concerned him. One, no evidence whatsoever of the injuries that ended his army career and it is supposed to be fairly early in the Holmes/Watson partnership. Two, he gets wounded in the course of the case at the very least requiring stitches across his shoulder. Yet after this moment, he is in the thick of the fight knocking baddies around without any repercussion. Good lord, Watson heals like Wolverine!

Eddie Marsan as Inspector Lestrade: this is another role that usually goes to the extremes. Lestrade is often portrayed as an out-an-out enemy that Holmes runs circles around or idiotic comic relief. This Lestrade isn't stupid, and calls on Holmes when he knows he can't figure it out. But it is so underplayed that when he has to act for the bad guys, you know he'll be invited to drinks at 221B Baker Street for an explanation of the case.

Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler: perfect characterization and perfect performance. And I am so copying all of her clothes. Well, okay probably not the dressing gown. But the dresses and her waistcoat and trouser action wear are awesome!

The romantic angles are where a few puzzles remain. While it is canon that Watson marries Mary Morstan, she was Holmes' client in "The Sign of Four." The movie acts like that case never happened and Holmes has never met the lady who he feels is stealing Watson away (which actually isn't played to a slash level). It makes me shake my head, but I'm willing to let it slide because she shows her temper so well as a proper lady.

Irene Adler and Holmes is a bone tossed to the fandom. Honestly though, I think the Irregulars who don't ship this pair on some level are vastly outnumbered. There are a couple of key pieces of dialogue between her and Holmes that intrigue me. She tells him that she got their old room at the hotel. *Eyebrow raise* Okay, intimate relations already? Then after the climax of the film and tells him who her client is and how she has no choice but to work for him. "Everyone has a weakness. He found mine." And then the look she gives him could be read as "you're my weakness and he threatened you (which does happen)" or....

One of the more popular fanon items is that Irene Adler and Holmes had a son. Who grew up to become Nero Wolfe or someone else depending on which pastiche is your favorite. So what has my nose twitching, does the son already exist?

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The BookWorm

And the new year is FREEZING!

My joke has been I was preparing for a cold winter because of how well the Saints were performing. New Orleans had a hard freeze last night, down to the 20s. Now the Northshore, we get hard freezes regularly, but south of the lakes usually stays about 10 degrees warmer. Hence the cartoon.

I've already warned my coworkers that if I wake up and it's raining grits again, I'm staying home. Doesn't stick my ass.

The biggest aggravation is dressing in layers to be warm enough to survive the commute, but once at work, I want to strip down to a short set. I don't know if it's the combination of being under the vent and next to the window that collects a lot of sunlight during the day or what. I do know that I only have cotton panties and pants on my butt because my coat covers that area and it is usually sweating by the end of the day. Weird.

So far the 2010 has started off, not perfectly but nothing to bad to complain about. I do need to find more time for chores and exercise. I was going to start my weight lifting 90 day challenge again, but I've about decided with my painful lack of flexibility showing, I better start a 90 days straight of yoga challenge instead.

The New Year's party was a blast. Though I really don't understand how I managed to be the first human up at 8:45am when I went to bed around 3:30am. *Shrug* Still I had a good time and we decided we need to have more get togethers in 2010.

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The BookWorm

End of the Year

That got here fast. Everything I said I'll tackle in 2010, I get to start on Friday. :p I've made worse planning goof-ups. Actually I'm more worried about hitting deadlines with the holiday.

It's not that I want to be anti-social, but I need the decompression that concentrating on writing brings. When well-intentioned friends drag me from my home environment, getting that decompression is night impossible or considered rude. My family has actually been more considerate on this score, weird. It's not healthy to dread invitations.

WHEW, paying job decided to give us New Year's Eve off too. Lovely, I can spend the day getting ahead of the deadline and napping.

More cheerful subject: the local development environment finally WORKS! I am having a slight issue with getting MySQL to run as a service so I have to remember to turn it on every time the computer reboots. I haven't tested the portability yet; Mondays are always too busy for that kind of stuff. But I can finally start using it. *Happy dance*

I haven't figured out what I'm doing with the instructions I developed. They need a fair bit of editing to be less specific to what I'm doing. But do I want to give them to the Drupal Handbook? Oh look, submission fear rising from the deep. :p

Regardless, that's nonfiction and doesn't deal with my goals for fiction in 2010. And I still don't know what I'm doing! I know I'm going to type the kink story that I may not show any where, but it will count. I've put down on my To Do list to organize the background material into TiddlyWikis for both Strix and Zy's Novel. Can I say for certain that vampires or aliens have seized the brain? Nope, still in holding pattern there.

It's nothing to worry about, the muse and my brain usually work this way. I'll just chug along with the list until something knocks loose.

In bummer news, I've lost one wall of storage in the back bedroom. The warping panels meant I had to take almost all the shelving down before more screws popped loose. So I'm expecting major water damage to the sheetrock. None, best guess is the paneling was adversely affected by humidity from the leaking ceiling. The idea how to fix: find or buy a stud finder, nail paneling to studs, then screw shelves into studs.

Finding my parents' stud finder hasn't happened yet. Last night, while waiting for sleep to come, it dawned on me that the pantry on the kitchen side of the wall doesn't have sheetrock, so I could probably see how the wall was made. I got up than and there to see.

Background: the front half of my house is probably close to a hundred years old, but it is cypress and solidly constructed. The back two rooms have always been referred to as the pine add-on, and are younger but were probably built before home building codes. I already knew the outside walls are 2x6 laid flat and sandwiched between the siding and the sheetrock.

So I really wasn't that shocked to see the same thing in the back of the pantry. In fact, I should have remembered figuring this out back in 2006. *headdesk* So now the fun is to figure out how to fix the leak and make sure there isn't an invisible one above the wall as well as find nails and screws long enough to grab the wood but short enough not to end up in the kitchen.

That's the new action plan. No matter how emotionally satisfying gutting and starting over would be.

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The BookWorm

Thoughts on Doctor Who: End of Time Part One

First off, I GET PART TWO NEXT SATURDAY! *Happy dance* Okay this makes a little more sense knowing my history with Doctor Who on PBS. They would always show the middle of the block of episode dealing with the mission of the day. And then when you actually got hooked and wanted to see the next part, tomorrow night would have a complete different episode. Then SyFy jacking with how long they took to show series. *Sigh* I love grabbing the DVDs, but series four is $85!

Wilf finally made opening credit status! And I think he's officially the oldest companion--not counting Romana.

"Legend of the Blue Box" in the stained glass window; they call him the Sainted Physician. -- I love when those tidbits of the Doctor's influence come up.

Woman in the pearl necklace is played by Claire Bloom, who has quite the resume especially for British television.

O.O Well, no wonder Queen Elizabeth wanted to get his head in the "Shakespeare Code."

Yeah, saw the damn ring coming back. Did not expect the Master to have a harem of devotees. Secret Book of Saxon? Okay, why not, he wasn't that busy frakking with Utopia and winning an election and abusing the TARDIS back and forth.

It's never good when the Ood's eyes go red.

Bio-meteric-whatisit? lasted that long? Really? Time Lord DNA stands up pretty well.

GO LUCY!

"Between us we've got the city covered." -- Seriously, let me adopt Wilf as my grandfather.

The Master is now part grasshopper and Skeletor! (And that was such a giggle when the Doctor called him that too.) He's no Ainsley, but I like John Simms' Master. Completely LOONEY TUNES!

"Sound of Drums" flashback with a vengeance. Still not as creepy as all the humans drumming. Hoped the Doctor locked the TARDIS better this time.

Doctor finally notices he keeps running into Wilf; only three of four times now.

"Ten Years After" is STILL my fanon. Shaun Temple; I so tried to change that to Simon Templar.

Narrator is Timothy Dalton, snazzy robe, Rasslion?

Don't think gluttony with help your condition, Master. Oooo, he's knocking four times with the drumming. Time Lord Mind meld! The drumming is real?

"All these years you thought I was mad!" And for good reason!

Wilf stands at the "heart of coincidence" according to Pearl Lady. I have sneaky suspicion she's Romana.

My thoughts upon seeing Wilf's gun. "Will that thing still shoot?"

Doctor-Donna is still around?

Doctor getting into the TARDIS with Wilf on his heels and Sylvia Noble screaming: "You can't go with me."
Wilf: "You can't leave me with her!"

I know the blonde disguised cactus -- NINA from "Being Human" Oh that hair style looks good on you, hun.

I really hope Gwen kept better charge of the Torchwood stuff in Cardiff. Cause whoever cleaned up after Canary Wharf did a sloppy job.

Clever use of the Obama stand-in, and maybe some news footage.

Donna's not affected? Time Lord biology; can't remember that gooble-gook from the "End of the Journey." Donna's remembering and yes, they are going with the brain frying thing. Can't she catch a break? Hell, Martha got a better ending than this.

"The human race was always your favorite, now it's the Master race!" -- Okay, RTD, I forgive a lot because riding with the Doctor is tons of fun. But we meet and I'm Gibbs-slapping you for that line. Don't care if I get arrested for assault.

TIME LORDS! Time Lords looking an awful lot like Daleks there. So is Timothy Rassion? The Keeper? Vinyard? Some other Time Lord prick?

Inside Doctor Who: Yes, I got the not-good vibe from the Time Lords. Good job with that. Though when told how the Master came back (to help them win the Time War) my first shout was "How badly were you guys LOSING to save the homicidal maniac from final death!" I haven't trusted them for a while.

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The BookWorm

Computer fun

I took part of the cash I received for a Christmas present and bought more RAM. 1GB was the biggest card I could find that my computer would take, but the Geek Squad Agent at Best Buy assured me that I could leave in my original memory card since I had two slots still open as long as the total I put in doesn't go over 3GB (a limit set by my motherboard).

So now I have 1.25GB of RAM, and the computer is running the best it has in a long time. I just managed to get through my GMail inbox without getting a Javascript run error. I haven't tested the games I've noticed have a really bad lag time yet. I have a suspicion that will be fixed too, and I can't remember who told me "oh you have plenty of RAM that's not the issue" every time I bitched about the way the computer ran. I owe them a boot to the head.

Left GMail up while watching Doctor Who. No Javascript errors! Somebody really needs that boot to the head.

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The BookWorm

Busy Weekend

The sun is finally shining! And most of what I have to do is inside the house. :p

I did get out yesterday and found my new boots at Sears. I ended up with Covington brand, style name Paulette, which is really funny because that's my mother's name. Then I headed to Best Buy. I picked out the the LG 22x Internal Super Multi DVD Rewriter, and since I had gotten such a good deal on the boots, I also picked up Breaking Benjamin's new album Dear Agony for the song "I Will Not Bow" and AFI's Decemberunderground for the song "Prelude 12/21."

I had heard "Prelude 12/21" on a Tin Man fanvid that has been killed off YouTube since, but SEE there's not reason to go anti-pirate on fanvids! I bought this CD because of that fanvid! "I Will Not Bow" sounds like the Strix universe, and I think that's where I put their whole Phobias album.

I spent the rest of Saturday installing the DVD burner with a long break for dinner with Mom. I also made sure to find out if I could add more RAM to my motherboard while I had everything open. I only have 256 MB, and this could be why I have hiccups in programs and slow running speeds. There is room; I just have to budget for it. :p

Oi, physically installing the DVD burner took no time. Trying to get the software installed--that's went over three hours. I started only checking on it during commercial breaks from the Doctor Who Inside the Tardis special and Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars. While I waited, I listed computer plans:

• Setting up the portable local development environment
• Clean the duplicate files off the external hard drive
• Replace front power switch
• Replace chip fan
• Install more RAM
• Get a Dazzler DVD Recorder
• Get a scanner that feeds paper through it
• Get a new computer desk

Wonderful, I finally got to install Nero 7. I think I had to reboot five times. Finally, all done and it works! I watched Alice again to make sure that part worked. Now I need to testing the burning.

Thoughts on Doctor Who: BBCAmerica is showing The End of Time Part One on Boxing Day! This never happens with Doctor Who! I usually have to wait a whole frakkin month!

Holy shit, the lighting in his spacesuit helmet making his face a skull. Director, that was GENIUS! This episode really expands the argument that the Doctor is an incarnate of the god of entropy--if not the god himself. This idea came up with a discussion in Rich's The Ten Doctors webcomic:

Dave Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 12:54 am

I believe the Doctor’s best subject at the academy was thermodynamics, according to a conversation he had with Drax in the final part of the Key to Time series. Granted, this is the kind of thermodynamics that would allow him to cancel out the formation of a black hole with a supernova within the time vortex so as to allow energy to remain constant as evidenced in the most recent Children in Need special, but there you have it.

DrkFire666 Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 2:43 am

I think Dave is right. Thermodynamics does seem to suit The Doctor, particularly the 2nd law.

“Entropy increases… Yes daily, The more you put things together the more they keep falling apart. That’s the essence of the 2nd law of thermodynamics and I never heard a truer word spoken.”
–The 4th Doctor, Logopolis [Season 18 - Episode 7]

“Everything has its time and everything dies.”
–The 9th Doctor, The End of the World [Series 1 - Episode 2]

Rich Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 6:11 am

7th Doctor (looking at a broken machine he doesn’t remember building): No, looks pretty far gone. You’d need a genius to unravel it.
Rani (disguised as companion, Mel): But you’re a genius.
Doctor: Oh yes, I definately remember that.
Rani: Especially in thermodynamics.
Doctor: ….How did you know that, Mel?
Rani: You told me. You said it was your best subject at the academy.

-”Time and the Rani”

DrkFire666 Says:
December 6th, 2007 at 2:33 am

“Back when I first started, at the very beginning I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important, like you do when you’re young… and then I was you.”
– The 10th Doctor to The 5th Doctor. [Time Crash, 2007 Children in Need Special]

*Shivers*

He doesn't really like it. After all, he chose the moniker "Doctor" because he wants to fix things for the better. Sometimes, he can use entropy to accomplish that goal; sometimes he can't.

I think I'm sticking with "incarnate of entropy" because the Doctor trying to become a god is the scariest thing I have ever seen on the show. O.O "The laws of time are mine!" "We aren't just fighting the flood; we're fighting time itself!" -- Oh shit, he needs a companion. Donna said it best: "Sometimes, you need someone to stop you."

Course my other thought at the end of this and seeing the promo ad for The End of Time Part One is "Damn, talk about making it hard for Stephen Moffet." I trust Moffett. When it comes down to it, the episodes I want to watch over and over again, the ones I recommend that other non-Whovians need to watch have all been written by him. :)

I can't decide what I'm more excited by: the reappearance of Donna's grandfather or the Master or the Ood. Come on, the Ood are pretty damn cool: giant psychic hive mind of the universe!

So now it's Sunday. The Saints lost last night, but 13-1 is still a record for them and it doesn't hurt the true goal: Black and Gold in the Superbowl! I need to catch up on everything I didn't get done during the week, especially laundry since it's not storming. Let me really get started with today.

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The BookWorm

Number Crunching #163

Quicken Cash Flow = 730.99
STEF Total = 6.15

December Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Reconciled up to Dec. 18th.
Reconciling last month’s budget: I didn’t make a budget the month before. My goal is to try to pay my bills, especially the house note, keep gasoline in the car and groceries in the fridge without racking up bank charges that equal half my take-home pay.

December 15th
Budgeting has too many systems and I’m not keeping up with them really well. I like the philosophy behind the GFD’s budget-to-zero spreadsheet, but I’m notoriously bad at filling it out. I need to get my hands dirty with Quicken’s budgeting features before deciding “ick, no like.” I have to make a plan for the month ahead and stick to the plan so hard I bruise it and me. Yeah, that’s a pleasant image.

In the spirit of budgeting, I got my numbers together for the December bills.

• Dec. 18th paycheck = $824.03 (take home pay)


• Must pay = $1132.26
  
  • Nationwide Mortgage = 429.13
  • Demco = 117.08
  • Verizon = 71.55
  • Liberty Mutual = 224.91
  • AT&T = 289.59


• Would like to Pay = 824.47
  
  • Citifinancial = 333.84
  • Republic Finance = 212.10
  • Chase Student Loan = 122.47
  • TeleRecovery = 45.00
  • Alpat = 62.06
  • TurboTax = 49.00

Notice a small detail of what I don’t have listed: groceries and gasoline. And I already have a deficit. *Pulls hair*

Good news: I got money for graduation presents. *Tears up* I totally didn’t expect that. I am spending some of it on a DVD burner for the computer and a new pair of boots, but the rest will go on running my house. I’m torn between paying things off completely or putting it on a reoccurring bill. Which is better?

December 18th
What have I paid

• Dec. 18th paycheck = $824.05 (take home pay)


• Must pay = $1132.26
  
  • Nationwide Mortgage = 429.13
  • Demco = 117.08
  • Verizon = 71.55
  • Liberty Mutual = 224.91
  • AT&T = 289.59


• Would like to Pay = 824.47
  
  • Citifinancial = 333.84
  • Republic Finance = 212.10
  • Chase Student Loan = 122.47
  • TeleRecovery = 45.00
  • Alpat = 62.06
  • TurboTax = 49.00

This leaves me with $160 in the checking account for fun things like gasoline and groceries. I may end up with more spare cash, since I have set back only $100 of my graduation present money to spend on the DVD burner and new boots, which I probably won't get to shop for until Saturday.

I also apologize for the sudden spamming of budget posts that don't really have anything interesting to say. :p

More will be coming on setting up January's budget.

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The BookWorm

Darth and Droids

This page is so full of awesome it made my day. But probably not the way people would think that the characters did something so awesome in the story, nope. That's not it.

Darth & Droids is set in a world where Star Wars never existed, so the movies are a roleplaying game. Now the players took some time between games (movies) one and two, and some of them played a fantasy game. They forgot to invite Annie (Anakin's player), so she doesn't know anything about it, but Pete (R2-D2's player) is still holding a grudge about how he died in it.

To catch up with current storyline, the GM is sick and Pete stepped in to run the session. And get his revenge for his character death in the fantasy game.

And this is the page I figured out that the fantasy game was the Princess Bride.

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

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The BookWorm

Not a good week from crossing things off the list

I don't know if it's the rapidly changing weather or some residual graduation-is-over-stress-let-go thing, but I have had the hardest time concentrating on things I need to get done.

I totally missed the eye appointment I had Monday after work, but luckily rescheduled it for today. I get up too late to work, and when I get home, I'm staring at the computer screen until I remind myself to look at your list. I feel fine; just not here.

I did manage to get the modules fixed at the Circulation Desk and FanFiction Garret without breaking anything this morning. I ran out of time before I could start moving Alt. BM Site's. I divided the setting up a local development environment into nine sub-projects, so as of now, I'm two-thirds done with project one. PROGRESS!

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The BookWorm

Broke, where it counts

I had some crazy delusion that I'd actually get all caught up on my Number Crunching posts today. Down to three, and one of those I have all month to finish, but I feel so disgusted with the status quo I can't enjoy the things have been crossed off the list feeling. Basically, I don't have enough paycheck for all the things due and past due for next week.

My family and friends surprised me with lots of nice gifts and money for graduating that I totally didn't expect to get. I was thinking that I'd get to spend it on something big that I have been denying myself or maybe a few things I consider splurges. :( I don't know if I can justify it with the list of items I'm looking at now.

It's not the end of the road, and I'm probably halfway through the really dark tunnel. It doesn't look good right now because I am tired and need to go to bed. I'm buying boots (if I can find some to fit), I'm buying the DVD burner for the computer (and a new off switch), and I'm buying a few books I've been itching to get since they launched. I'll be uber responsible with the rest.

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The BookWorm

Graduation!

It's all official (even though I don't get my actually diploma for two weeks): Kindra Lynnette Coates M.A.

We had 1330 people graduating in this ceremony: the largest graduating class Southeastern has ever had.

I wish I had my pictures already, but I have to wait for those too.

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The BookWorm

"Did he just call me a vessel?"

First coherent thoughts on Syfy's Alice: "TIMMY, I missed you!"
"MATT, I MISSED YOU MORE!"
"O'Brien what are you doing here?"

Yeah, I skipped Castle, because I'm fairly certain I'll get Castle in reruns without horrid cuts and Syfy is not that reliable.

Overall, I enjoyed part one and I'm certain I'll like part two. I loved how they acknowledged the book and made it history of the world as well as using the characters as archetypes to fill. Working in Dinah the cat and the Cheshire Cat was inspired.

One Massive costuming dept. FAIL: "He must have slipped it in my pocket!" WHAT POCKET on Alice's dress? Yeah, the color combo was interesting, but I want to steal her boots.

Dad is the wise-old guy in the waiting room. Since Mom is Carol, I'm expecting his name to be Lewis.

*Squishes the White Knight* Matt Frewer, I forgot he was in this until he showed up. Where is my A-Team movie? *Sob* Really Hollywood, I figured out what to do with the old cast minus Hannibal and new hot young guys. Call me!

And I'm seriously in love with this rewrite of the Mad Hatter. Don't know if I'm shipping Alice/Hatter yet or just like them as comrades-in-arms, I guess that depends which side Jack ultimately ends up on.

Dr. Dee and Dum beat out Disney's version, which I had thought was super creepy before now.

Haven't been bit by a crossover bug, which apparently a few in Tin Man fandom have. *Snort* I suppose I have my crossover fix already in place thanks to Zack. And my Planes-walker is really glad he doesn't have to go to Wonderland.

Thoughts on Part Two:
"GAETA! How did I miss you the first time! Oh yeah, you only had one line."

So I was totally wrong about Dad and his name should have been Lewis. But this time the Walrus and the Carpenter died and all the oysters survived. :D

Hatter versus the Tweedles and Mad March in the truth room! I was waiting for somebody to start spouting the tea party nonsense.

Hatter/Alice shipper now, and it is so totally canon. But Mom's expression at the end: Mastercard priceless!

Another lovely quote:
Hatter: *Hugging Allice after she gloumped him* "Oh this is nice." *Realizes where they are and let's her go* "We should do this when we're safe."

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The BookWorm

Did I accomplish anything?

I have 9 pages of typed instructions/notes of how I screwed up, 7 handwritten pages of notes to add to the typewritten, 10 or 11 multi-page articles printed out of instructions and how-to's cited in the typed/handwritten notes, an equally thick stack of stuff printed out to consult but didn't end up citing them.

The local multi-sites setup is finally working, but with still so much so wrong, all I want to do is delete and uninstall and start all over.

If I didn't have an empty sink, I'd swear I didn't accomplish anything this weekend. :p

Basically, why my contributed modules didn't work when I thought I had installed them correctly after getting them out of the core module folder? The folder under sites MUST match the virtual host's server name! NOBODY said that when setting up virtual hosts. In fact, I only found it mentioned under doing it online not on a local server environment. Gee, guess what keywords I was using when I searched for directions.

I can fix the production site modules, and then backup everything that already works to make the local development environment out of. I don't know if I can make separate installs work, but I do know what has gone wrong with the multi-site setup. At least to the point where I can get two sites up and running, and will be free to discover new issues.

If I uninstall XAMPP, I could reinstall it on the external hard drive and make it portable. Then I could do all my website edits from it without being limited to what computer I use. I think I understand where all the hiccups were for the virtual host file now. (Provided I get the paths typed in correctly so it doesn't matter if the drive's letter assignment changes.) I think I can get everything downloaded and installed fresh instead of going back and fixing another goof-up I just found I did thanks to not having the damn Drupal handbook memorized.

I don't know what to do about Windows declaring folders "read-only" when I need to write to them, but that is easy to deal with once you know why those error messages are popping up.

I'm tired of not being finished with this. I should be figuring out the changes I want to make to the site, not STILL trying to make this all work without breaking.

I'm done for the night. I'm taking a shower, and then curling up to watch Alice on the Syfy Channel.

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The BookWorm

Didn't we have this last year?

Looks like I get to drive home in the mix of snow and rain if not outright snow to get home. I was so hoping that this wouldn't start until after I was safe at home. And other office have let their people out early but not ours. Craptastic.

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The BookWorm

Um, where's my bounty from the god Caffeine

In case I haven't talked to you already, I'm back from my trip and had a lovely time. Just what I needed to do. However, I brewed my last bag of caffeinated tea before I left and just finished my last soft drink this morning. I've got a cup of hot chocolate to stave off the withdrawal since I don't get paid until Friday. *Sigh*

Anyways, I'm happy to report that the local copy of Circulation Desk is finally running properly in my Development Environment with all the contributed module folders out of the core module folder. Oddly enough, they refuse to work under sites/circulationdesk/modules but will work under sites/all/modules. On the prod sites this won't matter because they each are a separate install of Drupal. I will have to be extra careful in the development environment with which modules go with which site because they will have access to all of them.

Depending on what the lack of caffeine does to me today, I haven't decided if I should fix the other two sites production sites or their local copies first. I know I need to translate my notes of bitching into actual instructions, but I don't feel awake enough for that. :p

In other news, I got my haircut last night! It's chin-length now, and the rest sent off to Locks of Love. Now I just have to make sure I don't break out or flake up and figure out the the twist for the stole for Dec. 12th. Seriously, the included instructions don't work. I'm afraid I may have to safety pin it to the robe so the colors show. Is that against the rules for proper collegiate wear?

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The BookWorm

Number Crunching #162

Quicken Cash Flow = -353.27
STEF Total = 6.15

November Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: I didn’t make a budget the month before. I got $385.00 in bank charges. But small good news along with all the bad, I got a raise at my paying job.

Starting a new format, in which the same Number Crunching post is updated for the entire month on a weekly basis. I’m crossing my fingers that this will keep me doing them and keep my eyes on my finances. Where they have not been; no big surprise. Meet stupid scared straight, otherwise known as me. My other name should probably be she who cannot be trusted with own money. Good news: I shouldn’t lose my house. Bad news: I have no idea when I’m going to have a handle on Quicken.

The fun started on November 3rd with me trying to see if Intuit had fixed the little issue of Quicken Online not importable or exportable with Quicken desktop versions. Short answer: they haven’t but there are work-arounds. Why was I interested? I have a horrible habit of letting the paperwork to enter into Quicken pile up, and then I procrastinate because I feel guilty about the damn pile, and fairly soon everything is out of whack. With an online system, my thinking was I could enter receipts at work—right after I had spent the money—then update the home system with that data since it’s the program that makes all the nifty reports.

Halfway better solution: my credit union now talks to Quicken. I set up the download the bank records on Quicken 2007 I have at home. That way I don’t have to enter, just correct. Three hours later, I have no frakkin idea WHY the download took that long, I thought I was matching up the amounts with the data I already had in Quicken, but my final total was WAY off. As in Quicken is telling me I have over a thousand dollars in my checking account off.

I couldn’t figure out where it went wonky, so I pulled out my old bank statements and went back to the beginning of these Quicken records to double check the reconciliations. As of today, November 6th, I’m still doing that. I’ve found a few errors and researched how to archive away the years I don’t need ready access to, but the final total is still wonky. I’ve made it into 2008 and I really suspect the issue is in 2009, but because everything is still attached, I can’t jump ahead.

The second biggest aggravation? Seeing just how good my income is, and having no money because I have been stupid with it. *Sigh*

Goals for next week:

• Pay Citifinancial.
• Pay house note.
• Reconcile Quicken with bank accounts
• Somehow combine the online and paper versions of the car loan account in Quicken into one register. This is done, but I don’t think it is downloading like it should.
• Archive the years I don’t need in Quicken.
• Get reports done for months I missed writing up Number Crunching entries.
• Find the details I was keeping track of in the Number Crunching entries.

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The BookWorm

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm leaving town tomorrow morning and will probably be offline until next Monday. Take care everybody!

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The BookWorm

Getting Error 404

I took most of the weekend off from the trying to make the development environment work problem. To be honest, nothing was going to happen by the time I got home Friday night. I ignored it on Saturday. Sunday I had company and got to see Star Trek rebooted. Now I can finally catch up on my GWC podcasts.

So Sunday night and Monday morning, I finally had a clear enough head to go back to the problem. So I Googled on "getting 404 error on my local Drupal site" and found Learn By the Drop. His answer to the first comment was to check the .htaccess file.

None of my downloaded files have that one. I think the FTP program hid it. So I went through through CPanel to find it and downloaded for Circulation Desk, FFGarret, and Alt. BM Site.

Cleaned out the cache, refreshed the local copy of Circulation Desk, tried logging in, and it still didn't work. *headdesk* Damn I was so hoping that would do it! It made sense because it is a file you get with a clean install and a file computers tend to hide for user's good.

Back to the Google links. Apparently something goes wonky with clean URLs. Found a Drupal forum post on details to make sure are in the Apache code for those to work. The issue they're talking about is turning on the Clean URLs and I can't even get to the admin pages. :p Okay, down in the comments, other people describe what I have, so I changed it. *Crosses fingers* Turning Apache on and off. Great it turned back on. That always worries me because it takes forever. Back to the browser that i think has gotten tired and doesn't want to play any more. :p End program on Firefox. So tired of it doing that. Okay, got Firefox back up and try logging in the local copy of Circulation Desk.

New error - 500 - I haven't made the changes to the virtual host file yet. Made changes. Got paranoid that Apache wasn't going to come back on again. It did. Back to Firefox. Clean cache. Refreshed local copy of Circulation Desk. Try logging in. 500 Internal Server Error.

One last trick from this thread is to check the .htaccess file to see if a wrong option has been selected. Whelp, that is there but I think it is commented out. Make no changes to this file.

Another possibility is the symbolic links problem that is the first handbook page under "Multiple Drupal Sites Under Windows." Downloaded the Junction.zip fiel, which is the program that builds symbolic links for Windows. But that page also talks about using one codebase for multiple sites. *Sigh*

Figure I would find the fresh version of Drupal and follow the instructions from "Running multiple sites on a local PC from a single codebase" tells me before trying to fool with Junction program tomorrow. I can just comment off the coding I know works in the virtual host file without losing anything. I have no idea why this step has me so damn leery of doing it. I think I'm afraid I'm going to end up having the wrong things on the wrong site, probably starting with the themes.

Short version of this morning: I'm bumbled my way through the instructions, got to the Drupal installer page, figured out how to make sure the folders storing all my files is read-write enabled, ran the update script twice, before I finally got logged in and REACHED the administrations pages. God-awful ugly administration pages with my theme no where in sight and a mile-long pink box listing all the errors my database was throwing. I had to leave for work by that point so I just rebooted the computer to give it a nice rest.

It was 2pm before I hit myself upside the head. Of course all the tables for the different modules were throwing so many damn errors, the modules ARE NOT WHERE THEY NEED TO BE IN ORDER TO RUN NOW!

At this point, I'm looking forward to throwing out all the incomplete instructional printouts I have amassed once I have typed up step-by-step instructions of what I need to do for FFGarret and Alt. BM Site's local copies to work right. :p

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The BookWorm

Apache fixed, so a new problem!

Development Environment: I finally worked out the virtual host problem. Where I screwed up was applying the instructions for setting up one virtual host to setting up multiple ones. You can put this code for one virtual host:

< VirtualHost www.example.com >

DocumentRoot /www/example1

ServerName www.example.com


# Other directives here

< /VirtualHost >

But you cannot put each URL when you have more than one Virtual Host, that causes the overlap problem. And then my computer didn't like the asterisk wildcard and I had to put in numbers for the IP. But it works. Apache doesn't shut down and the local sites now come up in Firefox. I haven't tested that in IE yet; one headache at
a time.

Now I get the front page for the Drupal sites under local, but if I try to log in or click on any links, the browser can't find the file/content/node/whatever. *headdesk* No issues for the Library and finding its html files. So chalk one up to being done correctly, albeit accidentally. :p The second weirdness about this, last night FFGarret worked and Circulation Desk didn't. This morning they both don't work. :p But that's why I think it's a Drupal end of things issue and not Apache.

I can send emails with more info on what I did if you really want it, because I do think I goofed something else up.

In other news, it's Friday and I will update the Number Crunching posts when I get home. Next week I'm having Thanksgiving in Texas. I don't know where the piles start and end on my work desk and home desk, and would really prefer curl up somewhere where I won't spend any money. :p

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The BookWorm

Apache fun

Last night was fun. I'm leaving Alt BM Site alone for now because I need to get a current backup of the database and the files. And I might as well figure out what the hell I'm doing wrong before doing that. I got Apache 2.2.14 running and got the virtual host set up for the Circulation Desk. It worked! On a roll now, so I set up the virtual hosts for the main pages of the Library and FFGarret.

Which went straight to Circulation Desk when I tried to access them in the browser. *headdesk*

So I comb through the code again, and thought I found the mistake. I added in a trailing "/" when the code doesn't like that. Corrected and rebooted the entire computer and went to bed.

This morning Apache won't run, but at least I get an answer out of the error log, which I didn't get last night. "All the other virtual hosts are overlapping with the first one (Circulation Desk) so it's only using Circulation Desk. You may need a NameVirtualHost directive (or something like that)."

I Googled the exact phrase, but must have found four or five possible solutions. I have printouts to compare what they did to my own code. At worst, I can run each site one at a time (I haven't actually tried FFGarret and the Library by themselves that may help me figure out what is wrong with their virtual host code), but that defeats the point of setting up virtual hosts so you can run multiple sites in the development environment. So tonight I guess I'll be trying out each of the "fixes" I've found and hoping one holds.

I have Firebug, but I haven't figured out how it tells you what is wrong. Or even if it can when the issue is in a background file. It's been a few months since I tried using it, and I see they have add some other items to work with it. Maybe one of them will help.

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The BookWorm

Add ABC to the list

FOX actually was the first on the list, canceling Alien Nation the way they did. Syfy got on that list with creative scheduling of Doctor Who and BSG. Now ABC is on the list because next week's episode will be "the last episode for V for 2009."

What the FRELL? That's only four episodes, FOUR! I'm assuming that by adding the year in that they plan on showing the rest in January or February, but still...

What the FRELL?

And this is why I'd rather wait until the season is on DVD and watch it. Because I will make the time out of my busy life and watch a show I like religiously, provided that it becomes a habit. Get me out of the habit of watching it for a month, I'll forget about your show. And I like the remake of "V" so I really don't want to forget about it.

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The BookWorm

Not like Mom can make

I really wanted biscuits and red gravy this morning. I baked biscuits from scratch, but my red gravy doesn't taste like Mom's. *Sigh* So now I'll have to ask her what the difference is.

Fun with test sites continued all weekend and looks like it will probably continue all week. Issue #1) Taking a full twenty-four hours to think of the simple solution to the database transfer problem. "Why don't you export the tables after the one giving you a fit in the import and just import that half?" Worked in about thirty minutes. Issue #2) All these codes and background programs use different symbols to tell the computer "don't run this." None of the instructions I have said anything about deleting the # in an Apache file. At least, that's what I'm assuming the issue is now. I wasn't able to test the hypothesis before I had to leave for work.

Guess what I'll be doing when I get home. :)

I'm fairly certain what stopped me when I first downloaded everything the instructions told me I needed was that the direction stopped making sense. *Sigh* I've been adding notes on my printouts in the hopes that I'll understand said notes when I have to do this again. :p

Repeat after me: this will all be worth it when I can play with Drupal modules without fear of breaking the whole damn site people are using.

Yeah, primary goal for this is to see if I can build a wiki for the Library. Secondary goal will be fixing the fanart process for Alt. BM Site since the module it uses now will not be maintained going forward. :p

Goal for today: Get the bloody announcement card finished so all I will need to do is print and mail. Everything else is bonus.

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The BookWorm

M.A. Exam Part 1

I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Walking down the aisle in cap and gown is Dec. 12th. I can't remember what my date is for mailing out invitations/announcements, because I wrote that down at home. :p So if you really want one, email me a current mailing address.

*Away to squee offline.*

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The BookWorm

Colbert Nation supports US speedskating

The major sponsor of the U.S. Olympics speedskating team was unable to give the funds they had promised, so Stephen Colbert has asked that his fans step in and donate.

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The BookWorm

I need my Sunbeam timer

I killed this Sunbeam timer by getting it wet while washing dishes. After spending Sunday in the office with the much inferior Mainstays timer I bought to replace it, I'm now determined to hunt down this timer and buy all available stock of it.

The Mainstays timer is really good about shutting off to conserve power, which apparently was a problem for other users of the Sunbeam. Me, I use rechargeable batteries, so that was never an issue. What drove me over the bloody edge was the damn Mainstays timer does not pause the countdown reliably!

I depend on the timer to tell me to step away from the computer and go stretch/work on a chore/etc. otherwise, I will forget to do it and screw up my back worse than it is now. Fifteen or thirty minute chunks of time, but if I'm in the middle of typing and have to run to the bathroom, I don't want that to be counted as typing time. Some times Mainstays timer would pause. Most times it would send the countdown to zero to start over. Hulk smash time for me.

The kitchen only Mainstays timer (because you can only change it by pressing one button and that annoys me) saved the day. It may be irritating to change the time on it, but at least it pauses. So now I have a new mission the next time I go shopping. I just hope that the company didn't stop making it.

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The BookWorm

Number Crunching #161

Actually figured on 12/15/2009

Quicken Cash Flow = -332.54
STEF Total = 6.15

October Budget Meeting

Reconciling Quicken with bank statements: Done.
Reconciling last month’s budget: I didn’t make a budget the month before. October was horrible with $505.00 in bank charges. And I also got the notice that my house would be foreclosed on unless I did something.

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The BookWorm

Lovecraft is Missing

Cthoo Loo, Where are you? Has absolutely nothing to do with the storyline the comic explores, well except that H.P. Lovecraft has gone missing and the elements of his stories are not as fictitious as one would hope, but it is the best shout-out to Scooby-Doo ever.

But I am easy to please. :)

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The BookWorm

Nine years and six months

My supervisor had me look over a questionnaire she had to fill out for the higher-ups that listed how long everyone in the division had been employed. I had a "it's been that long?" moment seeing mine was nine years and six months.

Not a "holy crap" moment, but it does make me feel less bad that I have finally duplicated costume ideas. I didn't finish Tin Man Adora for today, which is celebrate Halloween day at work, so I reluctantly pulled out pirate garb. Then on the commute in, I realized that while I have duplicated the idea, I have completely replaced everything I wore. The only things I have left from that outfit is the jewelry and I didn't wear that today. LOL!

3:45pm: I got a plant for participating in the costume contest. Blah, I'm so ready to go home. The AC isn't cranked up high enough for the layers I'm wearing. I also need to call about the Friday night plans, finish sewing, sleep? I should probably get more sleep tonight.

But Mustard cannot knock the lamps off the nightstands anymore (his new favorite past time in the middle of the night and now both my lamps are broken). I tied the electrical cords to my bedframe so there is no slack. Too bad I didn't think of it when I only had one broken lamp.

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The BookWorm

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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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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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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Good point

The United States of Anger

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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