This is troubling

My computer decided being closed off from the Internet isn't enough fun, and has started shutting itself off and on. I found out on Tuesday morning. I had temperature related shut offs a few months ago, but it hadn't been a problem since I rearranged the computer components. But I also had the AC on then. So I downloaded a program I thought could help me track what the internal temps actually are and see if that is the problem or if my power supply has gone to crazyville without the rest of the computer.

Last night, it wouldn't even stay on long enough for me to transfer the files and try the program out. Even with me opening the case and aiming a desktop fan into it. I'm not having high hopes for the drop in ambient temperature to help either.

If it's willing to cooperate tonight, I think I can get into the BIOS setup and at least turn on an alarm to find out if it is the temperatures doing it.

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The BookWorm

What Will It Take For a Win?

Getting to the internet failed again Friday night. A real doozy: computer says everything is connected fine, but none of the programs can update or go anywhere. So I called tech support for the DSL Saturday after my company left. Exhausted everything they could do, problem still unresolved, so they recommended I call in the for-pay tech support.

Sunday after I try shutting off the firewall and virus protection and still can't pull up a website, I call in and charge a one-time issue to my phone bill. First call's final solution: it must be an embedded virus so do a clean install of Windows XP. Second call to make sure I did the clean install properly after I had backed up everything I could to the external hard drive (the program folders kept having fits). Third call was because I still couldn't connect even with a fresh out of the box install of XP. It couldn't find Windows updates. Third call's final solution: the modem has gone bad (even though I can access all the setup stuff for it) and I have to buy a new one.

Final straw for last night: I finally figured out a solution to make an area to stack piles in, moved the piles to it, and now I have to shift the piles again to reach my shelf of computer software I have to reinstall. *headdesk*

So no progress with Elizabethan sea dogs this weekend, my headspace has been too present-day. I'm going to ask Dad if he has a spare DSL modem before I go buy a new one, just in case that isn't the issue. I'm supposed to have a dial-up back up connection but I have to reinstall that too, and I'm not sure if that is worth the hassle.

Also shifting the set of bookshelves in front of the telephone jack has made me realize I need a better set of shelves there and on wheels if I don't want to cut a hole in the bottom shelf to access the phone jack.

Today's plans: finish the edits to "Covenant of the Restless" on paper at least. Reinstall what programs I can to the home computer.

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The BookWorm

PHONE!

I have phone. I have DSL. I have happy thoughts.

Apparently demanding a credit for time of no service really does get them out faster.

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The BookWorm

Weekend ARGH!

I am without phone service and DSL until Bell South/AT&T decides to finally send out a technician and give me a dial tone without harsh static feedback. That will be between when I reported it on Saturday to 6pm Thursday.

I wish I could report that I got so much done with my enforced offline status, but I'd be lying. Basically I took last week off of everything but housework. The dust bunnies are in shock.

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The BookWorm

November Already?

So NPI is over (I got longest run without using a reprieve and most reprieves left at the end WOOT!), Halloween is over, family drama is not over, and I need to have friends over before holiday crazies start. I do better when I actually have goals and deadlines, so what are my goals for November?

1. Submitting "Covenant of the Restless." *Pause to kick the reflexive anxiety away.* Needs to happen. Also mean I have writing left to do. I have a game plan after having a chat with the Fear Monger monster that was stirring up my anxiety. Now it's just a matter of ignoring that anxiety and follow the game plan. This is a finish-able goal since I need to submit before Nov. 18th.
2. Finishing Stellar Gift of Death's first draft by Dec. 31st. I have to write over 600 words a day now. EEP! This is a goal that will be plodding along in the background while I continue through my days.
3. Focus on finances. I've gotten no where fast on money issues this year. My head's barely above water, which I wish didn't feel as familiar as it does. I need to stay on budget and save up for a laptop and other equipment to apply for a virtual call center job. If I get the budget focusing down cold for November and December, I think I can start saving for the laptop goal in January.
4. Lose weight. My health demands it. Primal eating helps, but I cheated with too many carbs last month. And I don't exercise enough, so I have to do more of that.
5. Post all fanfiction I have written. This is just some housekeeping so I can start next year with fresh projects.
6. Keep a clean house and have a party. I haven't decided if this party is a glorified DVD and boardgame sleepover or extra help on remodeling the bathroom. Probbaly the first since I have no money for the second. Keeping the house clean is an ongoing goal. My schedule for when to do what is good; I just don't follow it. So I'm making an effort to cross off items on the to-do list.
7. I should have a number 7 just to make it even and powerful and holy (according to numerologists). Sewing! I still have the Tin Man!Adora uniform to finish and my coworkers got really excited over a Steampunk Batgirl from Project Rooftop. Regardless, I have to start on them soon.

Okay, let's go ahead and declare this is the goal list for the rest of the year. Some items are finish-able; other more continuous. It's a starting point at least.

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The BookWorm

Halloween 2010

So do you know who I am?






Seriously, how well did I cosplay this?

Of course, after I found this picture, all my coworkers voted that I should sew this for next Halloween.



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The BookWorm

Trailer: The Tempest

Trailer: The Tempest

YUMMY! Gender-bending makes even more sense for Prospero's snit-fit attitude at the beginning of the play.

October's first week is done

October is moving along, faster than anyone probably likes. I realized it had been a while without an update, so here I am.

Progress with Primal lifestyle: I didn't lose any weight during the challenge, so I think I'm cheating somewhere and not realizing it. And I never managed to work the exercises in. But I'm feeling tons better, energy up, and no trouble with getting out of bed (and getting the lamp alarm to finally work has helped more than I expected it to). Keeping a food diary and opening up the routine to exercise are the next steps.

TV viewing has went way down. I'm taping Castle and watching Bones. What did they do to Bones' hair? For three episodes now, at random points during the show, I'll blurt out "I really don't like her hair." I laugh and concentrate on the mystery, so it really must be bothering me.

Creating threesomes for the sake of threesomes isn't me. So I was mildly surprised when my brain chimed in with Brennan/Booth/Hannah could work. Of course the one who will put up the most resistance will be Booth (oh Catholic guilt trips!) followed by Brennan (if I love people I lose them so let my brains keep me away from the rest of the human race). I still want to fix their confrontation in season five. Booth should have mentioned her baby want. Really, I didn't expect another outcome, including running away to Indonesia, but damn it the writers just left that alone like they forgot about it.

And Haven has gone bye-bye until second season (squee!). Frell, I did not see the twist they ended on coming at all, and I have been really good at picking the twist up by the thirty-minute mark. And what does it mean about Agent Howard, who also trained Mulder (*giggling*)? But how awesome is Vince, who knows so much more than he is telling but seems to have a strict hands-off policy to keep living in Haven. The tattoo appearing and disappearing on Julia and going back so far into Haven's history, delicious. It's not a separation between Troubled and the norms, so I'm intrigued with what else it could be a marker for. Poor Nathan and the Chief, but I was glad to see the Rev again. I thought they hadn't played enough with the fundamentalist wacko theory (the Troubled are Godless or cursed by God), so I'm looking forward to him shaking things up next season.

Mom and I went yesterday and saw Secretariat, and what an awesome bio pic it is. I'm still in awe at how they shot it to make you feel like you were riding the greatest racehorse that ever lived.

Novel Push Initiative: NPI has also been keeping me busy. I gave myself the goal of 250 daily words for the month of October in Zy's novel, which I finally named Stellar Gift of Death. So far I've kept ten days in a row.

I've also been working on editing "Covenant of the Restless," so it fits into the Piper of Shadows universe. Details are over in DUF.

Fun stuff: I found a new YouTube user whose fan trailers I adore. I really wish this one could happen for the small cameo at 0:30. *Sigh*



I would also love to sit through this movie:



And this one, the World's Finest moment makes me tear up:



Something Positive had a rift on witches that should amuse all the Oz fans I know.

And now I'm off to blog about NPI day 10, to finish folding laundry, and to edit "Covenant."

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The BookWorm

Don't Try This at Home, Kiddies

Rizzo finally has a clean bill of health. What stranded me on Sept. 3rd was overheating because my radiator fan broke and then the fan motor burned out. Monday, Sept. 13th, after that had been repaired, I drove into work and the M.I.L. came on. I did find my gas cap was loose, but the light stayed on. Mom took the car back in yesterday and the mechanic found a loose vacuum hose, which he fixed for free. HUZZAH!

So at home and I finally cleaned out the computer tower with the second bottle of compressed air. It was dirtier than it should be, but that's not where I spent the first bottle. I stopped at WalMart yesterday morning and bought the air and food for lunch. When I got to work, I only brought the food in with me. I came back to an empty can that had exploded some safety cracks and shot the nozzle head off. I'm extremely lucky it didn't bust any windows in my mother's SUV when I did what the warning message on the can tells you not to do. *headdesk* A second trip to WalMart on the way home was a small price to pay.

I moved the computer to the desktop and put the front cover back on it. Hopefully that'll cut down on the amount of dust that gets inside. Dad replaced the fan over the graphics accelerator, so all the fans are running now. But my monitor has gone green. Seriously, Cain's pants are now olive, all my blue bars are emerald, and I haven't opened up a blank white document to see what color it turns into. I think the monitor plug may be damaged, but I will borrow a monitor from Dad tonight to make sure it's not the video card. Right now, I'm letting the computer run to see if it turns off again. If it doesn't, I have to figure out where to keep the tower and replug everything. The cubby is a pain in ass to try to plug anything in and if I need to get inside the tower. On the desktop takes up valuable space. :p

As of leaving out at 6 a.m., the computer hadn't shut itself off or tried to reboot itself. *Crossing fingers.*

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The BookWorm

I'm Back

Back home and had a great time. Rizzo is fixed, *crossing fingers.* Home computer is shutting itself off. *headdesk* Haven't figured out how to fix that. Bloglines is packing up shop, so I'm moving all my feeds to Google Reader.

And today was a bad day to not pack my lunch.

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The BookWorm

I Meant to Do This Before Now

An updates blog post, that is. Had the idea on Friday and then Rizzo (my car) overheated to the setting alarms off on the dashboard degree. That killed Friday night.

Saturday morning, I had the intentions to do so much computer work including blog posts. But then the computer went wonky and by the time I had cleaned it, my desire to do more computer stuff had died.

Sunday and Monday: enjoyed the time off.

Tuesday: back to work.

So now it's Wednesday and since I'm taking a mini-vacation Thursday and Friday, it's update day!

Mom got some free hotel nights at a casino resort in Shreveport, so we're heading up there. There are some free exhibits in the area so I won't have to play the slots the whole time. WOOT! I'm hoping she wasn't exaggerating about a spa being available and hoping for a pool too because I suck at slot machines. Mom finds them relaxing and can spend hours playing off her winnings. Nothing against gambling, I'd be better at it if it was more like a video game. And that's saying a lot considering how bad my hand-eye coordination is.

I don't know how much writing I'm going to get done off grid. I have a week left to the "Phantom Highwayman" incorporate the brand-new zag (as in just thought of it and almost derailed this blog post) and submit.

Problems with Rizzo: her AC went out last Thursday. I didn't freak out about it, just planned on rolling down the windows until I got paid and then have some coolant put back in. Then Friday's afternoon commute, her temperature warning light went off in the middle of stop and go traffic. Luckily, I made it over to the next exit, parked at Chick-fil-A, and waited for my parents. Then they took it to the mechanics Tuesday since I had to go to work, but he can't look at it until today. So I still don't know what is wrong and how much to fix it.

Sept. 7th also marked the start of a 30 Day Primal Challenge and that couldn't come at a better time. My insurance decided I don't need Byetta anymore and there's a manufacture's shortage of my dosage of Glumetza. What I really need is to get off the drugs and control my blood sugar and lose weight. So time for a lifestyle overhaul. So if Blank starts looking like a food diary, this is why.

Second component of this will be thirty days of Primal Fitness. So far, I only missed this morning's workout but I'm planning to make it up when I get home as long as I get home three hours before bedtime. :p

Off to noodle now.

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The BookWorm

Five Years Ago Today

I was at my baby sister's apartment in Natchitoches, having evacuated from a gal named Katerina. Mother Nature has decided we needed mood weather to remember and the thunderstorm hasn't stopped yet. The leak in my back bedroom is worse and now running down the wall. *head desk*

I guess I should start calling for estimates on a new roof that I know I can't afford because I have some outstanding debt to pay off first. I wanted to hold off until I could afford to extend the back half properly. I'll figure something out, eventually.

Now in honor of five years of rebuilding: Vince Vance's "I am New Orleans."


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The BookWorm

Why does my house think I have money?

I just watered the backyard for thirty minutes because the washing machine never got off the fill up the tub setting. *head desk* It worked once I moved the dial, so the load I put in should get washed. But I sure don't want to put another load in. I'll have to borrow Mom and Dad's so I'll have clean work clothes for next week.

It's one thing to know that you'll have to replace appliances because they wear out. It's another thing when they break and the budget is so tight it's squeaking.

Mom and I examined it. The verdict is it could be the timing belt since it worked after I moved it manually. So I'm testing it by running another full cycle and see if I'll have to watch it from now on.

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The BookWorm

Hello Projects! I'm Baaack!

My cubicle desk is cleared; all assessments snug in their folders inside the filing cabinets. I'm blinking at the light reflecting off the now-visible surface and hit with the what's up now? feeling. Don't get me wrong, I have other tasks to do on my paying job but suddenly my brain matter is free to go back to writing. And maybe I'll have time to put words on paper.

Yeap, I need a moment to process that.

While I processing, Mez came through with some totally unexpected submission calls: Our Haunted World and Cthulhurotica. The first could be a good home for my phantom highwayman story and the second, LOL. Upon looking at their guidelines more closely, my Lovecraftian-rift story won't work even adding in new erotic material. I like Lovecraft, but I don't know if I like it that much. However if I actually submit to one market, I will be improving my current submission track record by a hundred percent.

So state of writing:

• Edit the phantom highwayman story for submission
• Edit the Hyrueliana
• Add stuff to the Zy Novel Wiki -- This I can do right now; I have everything with me

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The BookWorm

Scary!

Google disabled me for hours, but once I got back home I was able to prove I am me and get everything back. *wipes brow*

Now excuse me while I do some backing up.

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The BookWorm

Weird but this still works

I'm kicked out of Gmail for some reason but I can still blog. Tres weird.

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The BookWorm

Not on the agenda

I had my list of things to do today. Despite staying in bed two hours more than I had thought I should, I was really cruising crossing off stuff. I exercised today, cooked and ate breakfast, and was in the middle of rinsing dishes and loading the dishwasher when I felt a bang under my foot and the hot water slowed to a trickle. The bang wasn't bad, it felt like a vibration of something hitting the floor. Nothing dropped in the kitchen so immediately I thought the pipe had burst and hit the floor under the house. My house is built off the ground, maybe about two feet.

My uncle found me sawing through the stupid vinyl lattice so I could see if that theory was correct.

Luckily, it wasn't. The problem is the valve for the hot water under the sink has gone bad. Secondary problem: going to town wasn't on my list! I did that yesterday!

So for those of you keeping track of everything I need to fix.

• New roof
• Replace the back portion of the house with something built to code
• More efficient plumbing!
• Remodel the bathroom
• Remodel the kitchen

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The BookWorm

The misson if you chose to accept it....

I didn't have a choice. I was down to 2 pairs of jeans that fit comfortable and one of those I can only wear around the house because of the holes in them, and another pair that fit sorta. I could close them, but they and my tummy fought about sitting arrangements. Both of the non-holey jeans are cut so the waist below my belly button; I'm just not sure if they're supposed to be hipsters or not.

So this means TORTURE clothes shopping.

First pair, the fly never could meet. Back to the store for another one.

Last week, I got a pair in the same brand and same style as the ones that fit but went up a size. Tummy should have more room. This was a lie because I had to do the lay-down-on-the-bed trick to get the fly to meet, and then the zipper pulled apart at the bottom. Pants off, fixed zipper, same thing. Pants off again, fixed zipper and it doesn't yank apart with my hands, put wax on zipper to oil it, same thing happens once on my body. Stuffed pants in bag to go back to store.

So this morning I was faced with the choice of sitting all day at the job in a pair of jeans trying to reach my spine while my tummy resists or go REALLY early to Wal-Mart and find a new pair of jeans. I walked into Wally World at 5:45am with "third time's the charm" vs. "three strikes and you're out" in my head.

So I ended up leaving with two pairs of jeans in two different brands and two different sizes. I think my assumption is if one doesn't work the other HAS TO. And praise the goddess of denim, the Just My Size FIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not only is my tummy happy, these jeans also have a waistband on my natural waist instead of my hips. They are too long in the leg (I nearly stepped on them after shoes were on) but that is NOTHING to hem. I can live life with two pairs of jeans fit for outside the house. :D

Weekend plans: I don't have to clothes shop now, but I do have to fix the caster on the dishwasher. Other than that and some other housekeeping chores, I need to respond to a lot of emails and write. Worse ways to spend the days.

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The BookWorm

Another fangirl moment

Benny and LINK?!

Yeah, I'm cackling hysterically at this. The way I feel, it doesn't take much to set it off. And no, I won't be making it part of my fanon.

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The BookWorm

Light at the end of the tunnel

NO MORE OIL!!!!!!! *Snoopy dance*

We've been under a massive heat index and I think the triple-digit temps have melted my brain. It's been harder than usual to remember everything I need to do.

Plus side, I got less than 20 assessments outstanding (i.e. the companies haven't paid yet). I never can remember the tally of how many companies we assess in total, but trust me this is so nothing to worry about. I may actually get my Monday nights back!

Hopefully, I have enough energy to cross off items on the to-do list tonight when I get home.

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The BookWorm