Setting up Win7. have to dick around with resolution and such, the size they gave me as a default gave me giant icons, and an option which seemed to promise the ability to resize them only let me make them bigger.
Had to fiddle around going back and forth between the two, because Win7 wants to give XP some personal space and not get into its files -- had to go over to XP and tell it to give 7 a big hug and a stiff drink, loosen it up a bit.
Am back to having naked ladies on my desktop. Still wish I had a better resolution of this photo, instead of just someone having scanned their entire magazine. Still annoyed that there's no way to like, enter your CC number and confirm you have a paper subscription to get access to at least some areas of the site without buying a digital subscription.
Will *probably* pull/copy majority of stuff over here. Yeah, I have both hard drives in and therefore I don't have to, but I'd rather have it all in one tree of digging around.

More fiddling-with to come?

Edit: Bugger, I don't know where my key is for Anime Studio. I guess that one I'll have to stick to XP to use.

I've read Danse Macabre after trying almost three years to stop reading Laurell K. Hamilton's books. Part of it is the fact that I'm slowly running out of new things to read, and part of it is a continuing love for Edward and Asher that persists despite Hamilton's best attempts to ruin them for me. (Maybe not "best"; I'm sure she could try harder, but I'm hoping she doesn't.)

Anyway, getting back to the book, I was kind of amazed at how magnificently Hamilton failed at plot. I think she attempted at creating conflict with her "Oh, no! We've invited a whole bunch of uber-vampires to the ballet! What if they do vampire stuff?" Considering the earlier books had Anita, oh, I don't know, doing her job, helping solve crimes, this kind of sham plot just doesn't work for me. The whole book just smacked of ways for Hamilton to put her Mary Sue in sexual situations and give her even more outlandish powers to make her Super Special.

I mean, it isn't bad enough that Anita is the man in the relationship when it comes to her eight- or nine-man harem, but my god, they seriously fall all over themselves to apologize to her when they, god forbid, forget that whatever personal disaster Anita is having trumps their own thoughts, feelings, and personal trauma. I mean, why can't vampire books contain healthy relationships? Honestly, Nathaniel I would have expected that kind of behaviour from: He's submissive, and he was practically brainwashed. (Not by Anita, but her being an uber-dom doesn't exactly help with the brainwashing, no matter what she tells herself to let her sleep at night.) But, getting right back to it, Asher and Richard were just pathetic in this book, probably because they are some of the only characters that show any attitude.

The portrayal of Ronnie and Meng Die was pretty disgusting, too. They play the part of the jealous "other women" and exist (in this book, at least) only to allow Anita to play the victim. They are both rather promiscuous women, and either claim vocally to be jealous of Anita and her lovers, or simply act that way in a very obvious way. And uh. God forbid if anyone calls Anita on being a complete whore. Clearly she isn't. I don't feel like going back through the book to count how many sex scenes there were, but the book took place over the span of a weekend, and there were probably around ten sex scenes, most of them involving multiple partners, two of them involving brand-new lovers.

I don't really have a conclusion for this. Except that the one good thing that happened in the book was that Asher got his hyenas, and that made me happy. Though he had to become retardedly obsessed with Anita to have them. Lkajds f;alksjd fsldkjf sdf

DEAR YULETIDE AUTHOR,

Just a heads-up that I won't be here at the stroke of midnight to read your story (though I'd love to be. <3). We go to midnight mass every Christmas, so I'm afraid I'll be a bit more than an hour late in getting to read your story (and probably won't get a chance to comment on it till morning).

<3

My mom was on the phone with my cousin when I got home from work last night. And she related a story that I found absolutely awful. My cousin is seeing a man who has three kids of his own. And apparently the kids' maternal grandmother sent them some Christmas gifts they must have already been allowed to open. Because this is what they got. The little girl (I think she's around 9) got a brush and a box of macaroni and cheese, the older boy (13) got a stick of deodorant, and the little boy (not sure how old he is) got a can of baked beans.

There…just aren't any words. When I heard it last night, I wasn't sure how to respond, and I'm still rather horrified. I mean, I understand that the economy is shite for a whole lot of people. But grandma, whoever she is, could have spent the same amount of money she did on that crap, at the Salvation Army, or even the dollar store, and actually have bought something that would actually be appropriate to give to a child for Christmas. If not toys, since they're not exactly functional, then at least clothing, which doesn't generally cost much at places like the Salvation Army or Goodwill.

And the worst part (or maybe not the worst, but equally as bad as everything else), is that she wrapped everything. It wasn't like it was in a gift bag or something, but she actually wrapped a box of macaroni and cheese like it was a real gift. I'm seriously curious whether this woman is in possession of her full mental faculties. I…can't even imagine what kind of person thinks that a box of macaroni and cheese makes a good Christmas present.

I wanted to start by wishing to everyone- happy holidays! :D

And now for some random junk:

So, still not a lot happening with life, but I can say that I've FINALLY started pushing myself to be more productive. With things like audio recording, I had a hard time ever finding time when all three of my roomates were out of the house, but then I realized that both of my parents are out of their house for several hours four days a week, so I asked if I could record over there when they're working. They made me a key and said go for it, so yay! Hopefully I'll start producing more music/VA junk. :>

On that topic, I'm almost done with my Lon Lon Ranch arrangement! I just need to add the vocals (Yay more cheezy lyrics!) and then ask the artists for permission to use their artwork in the slideshow. Wee~

Also, any artists that were interested in drawing Rachel for me- You still have plenty of time!

I turn 23 tomorrow. :3 I already had my party (bowling/putt putt golf with some friends) but I'm going out for dinner with my family. I have to work, but I don't really mind.

I've begun taking small prop/accessory commissions! I've already got some work- its nice to know that people like my stuff enough to commission me. :>

Just called the McDonalds office about my check being shorted 5 hours, how was that going -- I'm getting my five hours, apparently, there'll be a second check with my next paycheck. Am a little frustrated that the woman on the phone didn't seem to exactly understand why I was calling -- that I'd had a hell of a time convincing Sabrina-the-store-manager how there was something wrong (having 3:30 in column A and 3.5 hrs in column B baffles her), so I wanted to make sure that they'd understood my explanation... But I guess we'll see! If my check is only for a part of it (I had two different problems, one that shorted me 2 hours and one that shorted me just shy of 3) I'll have to go hassle them at the office personally, which I don't want to have to do.


Windows 7! I'm getting it. I'm also getting a new hard drive and a CD/DVD burner. See, as we were looking to figure out how to back up all my stuff, it turns out that I'm currently using ~70G of my 80 gig hard drive. Rich was all "OMG how do you have an 80g hard drive D: D: D:" -- it's probably the hard drive that was in the eMachine I had when I first started college, I think. SINCE I can't just make a partition or whatever with all my shit, I'd have to backup to Rich's spare hard drive, and then put it all back on my computer... We may as well just get me a new hard drive(mine has outlived the standard hard drive lifespan, I think?). And then since we're ordering from Newegg anyway, and will have to break into Meg's computer anyway, let's get Meg a new CD/DVD burner to boot, because that is also a part of the eMachine -- it only burns CDs, and lately it's been fucking up every second CD or so. (it also is ugly, and sticks out funny from my machine. I had to file the corners off.)

I've got the germ of an idea for a post/essay about how the role of Santa Claus has changed from the time I was a kid, and how "believing in Santa" has become a bigger deal, and how all the Christmas movies where believing is a major plot point, even shown as a redeeming force of good against all the cynicism and evil in the modern world, or whatever. But so I'm not just basing it on my anecdotal evidence, I'm putting forward a slightly-more-scientific poll:

How old were you when you found out the truth about Santa, if Santa was ever part of your beliefs at all? Apparently, since I don't have a paid account anymore, I can't make it an actual poll, so please answer in comments. It'd also be helpful to know approximately how old you are now. Thanks!

I am so fucking annoyed. Like. I'm going to try to explain this in a way that doesn't devolve into capslock and expletives, but at the moment my thoughts are a little garbled. Still. Even though this all happened Friday.

A male coworker and I went to see Avatar Friday, because it was raining all day and so we didn't have to work. We had been planning to go see the movie for about a week, but since we conveniently had the day off, we went to an earlier showing than we had planned. A few things I should clarify, I think. The coworker in question is a nice enough person, but he is nearly old enough to be my father, is a self-confessed hillbilly from Kentucky, and is not someone in a million years I would consider dating. See, I don't necessarily consider myself a shallow person, but there is also one thing I cannot overlook. Bad teeth are bad, and a guy could be Christian-Bale-hot and if he had bad teeth, I just wouldn't be interested. I don't mind crooked, but cigarette-stained and about-to-fall-out-of-your-head-they're-so-nasty is quite another thing. And yes. Said coworker has that quality of teeth. The other thing I should clarify is that I informed said coworker when he asked me to see Avatar with him, in no uncertain terms, that it was not going to be a date, and therefore I would be paying for my own movie ticket and food.

Alright. So I'm driving to the theatre. And coworker convinces me that since I'm doing the driving, and I had bought the gas, that it was only fair that he buy my ticket, but I would be buying my own lunch. Reluctantly, I agreed. Since we were seeing a matinee, the tickets weren't as expensive, and it actually seemed like it might be a fair trade. But then, at the restaurant, the bastard refused to let the waitress split the bill, and then refused to let me see the bill, to see what I owed. So I sat at the table until the waitress came back, so she could show me her copy of the bill, and then he wouldn't take my money. I wanted to shove it down his fucking throat.

This may not seem like a big deal to you. I should probably just be gracious and happy that he wanted to pay for me. But I think the only way I could feel more violated is if I had been dragged into a dark alley and raped. I. Got. Handled. Not in a physical touching way, but in a "You aren't capable of deciding things for yourself, so I'll just take care of everything" way. It is positively infuriating to be treated like a girl, rather than being treated like a person. Oh, and this is the best part. After I drove him back to his place, he had the gall to suggest that we should do it again sometime. Which is not only something you say to someone you're dating, but also THE LAST FUCKING THING I AM GOING TO DO. Now that he showed me where the movie theatre is located, I am going to go BY MYSELF in the future. I don't need some dumb fucker to take away my power of choice in the name of "chivalry."

Or an airplane hangar, for that matter.

I was working in the office this morning when Boss calls me out and asks me to wash his gloves for him.

Why can't he wash them himself?

Because he has tape over his thumbs.

Why does he have tape over his thumbs?

Because the skin is cracking, of course. Chemicals and water and arid desert weather are not friends to your precious lady hands.

"You know what's good for crazy dry skin? Beeswax," I tell him (it is true!).

"I might try that," he replies. "You know what K does when he gets cracks in his hands? He closes them up with superglue."

ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew AUGH.

(maybe I am just too dainty but even living in a desert I have never had actual cracks in my skin)

My mom seems goddamned hellbent on refusing to let me bake cookies for Christmas. And I'm not exactly sure why.

My first option was to bake them at the main house on the ranch. (Even though I'm technically not supposed to be in there using the kitchen. I figured it was Christmas, and I would clean up so no one would fucking notice anyway.) I had the stupidity to mention this to my mom, and she flipped her shit. Like, completely.

So the second option was to hook up the stove in my house. There's a gas line connected to a good size propane tank, and it was simple work to connect the gas line to the stove. Needless to say, it's been years since anyone has lived in the house hardcore, and the tank is empty, but I was gonna call up the propane company and have them deliver like, 25 gallons. Which would have been more than enough for my cookies, and maybe some other cooking I might want to do in the future.

I figured, my mom had the problem with me using the kitchen in the main house because we're not supposed to be in there. So I mentioned that I had found this other solution which would allow me to bake cookies without breaking the rules. Instead of being pleased with my ingenuity, she proceeded to flip the fuck out some more, and forbid me to have propane delivered. ON MY OWN DIME, BTW. And that is the point I am at now. Confused as all hell about what my mother finds so offensive about goddamned Christmas cookies.

I'm not going to let her ruin my Christmas, even though she seems pretty damned intent upon doing so. I will hijack one of my friend's goddamned kitchen if I have to, because I already spent money on the supplies and it is not fucking going to waste. Plus, I would just about kill for a homemade cookie right about now. My mom needs to just chill the fuck out.

I was leaving the grocery store this evening, putting my bag in my car, when all of a sudden someone behind me tried to get my attention.

I turned around and there was a well-dressed young man and his girlfriend getting into their car. The man faced me and asked, "Have you ever dissected a frog?"

I laughed, and said "No, but that's a very interesting question." The man looked... disappointed? then slid into his car and drove off without another word.

I will forever be haunted by the question of whether or not it was an earnest inquiry.