Apollymi ::||:: Dark Passion Play

I so suck at updates, I'm so sorry!

I've been fanficcing like a mofo. I think in the last two months I've done about two chapters of one series, one chapter of another one, and a preview to yet another one. In order, those would be Belladonna, Whoever Brings the Night, and Route 666. I've also been glancing over Third Chance for a chance to expand on it. I like that one; it needs to be finished. Vidi too for that matter.

Line-Editing is going well. I'm about a week ahead on most everything I need to get done for it. That's pretty nice -- and maybe a little surprising for me. Not that I was a procrastination monkey the first time I went through school, but I was certainly never ahead of the class.

As part of the class, I've managed to secure an editing project for a fellow student's novella. It's only about 61,000 words, and I've managed to secure a $20/hour rate on it. I'm hoping it'll take a while because...

...my home desktop is dying. When I bought it two years ago, I upgraded it within an inch of its life; it started out at 512mb RAM and 120GB hard drive, but now it's 2GB RAM and 220 HD with an external 500GB HD. Honestly, I've spent more on upgrading it than I did on buying it. And now, already the fucker is dying. The DVD-R drive is gone, so I can't even clear off stuff from it to disk. I can't run Word and Excel at the same time. Sometimes I can run Firefox and iTunes at once. And Photoshop? That requires closing everything else -- and sometimes going into the Task Manager and closing background programs.

Now, all I could scare up for Sir Saves A Lot (formerly Kaichan) when I bought him was $300. My sister had bankrupted my mum again, my grandparents already pay too much for me, I didn't feel right asking my friends for money (nevermind that half of them owe me money), and so Oyaji was my only source of the extra funds needed. The limit he said I could put on the card he loaned me was $300. Have you ever tried going to a computer store with only $300 and trying to find something worth half a damn? Especially when you're an Apple person?

So I settled on a Compaq. I should have known better. Compaq has been bought out by HP, you see, and I had an HP that both the fans quit working on and the harddrive caught on fire. You read that right: on fire. As in it melted. Yeah, I was none too happy on that, nor was I too happy having to make the Compaq worth half a damn. RAM ain't cheap, after all.

So anyway, now that it's giving me fits, I'm putting back for a new computer. This time, my money is going towards an Apple. I'm eying a refurbished one through the Apple store or the FSU computer store. Still, that's $1549, of which I have $150 set back. I'm living very paycheck to paycheck as it is, thanks to FSU's budget crisis. I'm doing more and more work, but getting absolutely no more pay. I won't start getting royalties off my books until at least March or April, and class, work, and writing leave me no time for a second job (or would that be 3rd or 4th job?). I could call in all the money I'm owed, but the people who owe it to me are even more broke than I am.

Therefore, I've set up a fundraiser for getting the money up, here on Fundable.com. Any assistance would be most appreciated. The thing with Fundable is that it's either all or nothing. If all the money is raised by the deadline of 03 March, then it gets sent on to me. If not all of it is raised, if it's even $5 short, it all gets refunded to the people who pledged it. So chances are, you could pledge however much you want and it'd probably end up getting refunded to you because I've only secured $50 in 3 days.

And in other news, I'm still waiting to hear back from Cacoethes about Verdant. We'll see what goes on there.

Holy loyal readers, Batman!

I just got a PM from one of my most loyal FanFiction.net readers to say that she had preordered both Amaranth and Verdant in print and that she was eagerly looking forward to reading both of them.

Holy shit. I mean, holy shit. Even my family hasn't bought their copies yet.

In other news, I'm currently working on the next chapter of Whoever Brings the Night. Once that's finished, then (probably) it's over to Belladonna or Route 666. I need to finish my sekkrit project. I mean, while I'm watching Pretty Guardian Sailormoon, I might as well take advantage in being in the right frame of mind for it.

Oh, Roo found Cracker again. Greatttt... (My father had a cat, Q, who his dogs killed. We inherited all Q's toys, including a little bird that makes chirping noises when it's bumped. It's loud and annoying, so I named "Polly Wanna Cracker" or Cracker for short. Yeah, I'm weird.) I swear, though, that I have never seen a cat love a toy quite like he adores this little loud thing.

I have an idea for another novel I want to do. When I originally came up with the idea, it was for a YGO story, though, so I'm not too sure on how the conversion should go over... other than that I might genderflip Ryou and Mokuba. Hmm, maybe Yuugi too. Other than that, I'm not too sure. The original idea did rely a good deal on the YGO back-story... though there is a very sad part of me that wants to rewrite Metal Heart as a novel. I know, I know: bad me, no cookie.

Work starts back on Monday and (hopefully) classes should start up on Tuesday. If all goes like I want it to, I'll be in Latin 1 and Line-Editing. I'm working on a Graduate Certificate in Publishing and Editing... and I just want to take Latin. FSU will pay for it, so why not, you know.

I did a little girly splurge yesterday. I've been in a girly mood lately, but then, I've always loved makeup. (I did help a friend make herself look like she drowned when she dragged me to see Titanic, but that's neither here nor there.) MAC, Coastal Scents, and Makeup Junky are my girly hookup; I want to go Urban Decay, but I can't afford them. Anyway, I picked up a couple of things from the MAC store, a pair of rainbow striped tights from Goth Trend/Hot Topic (even if I wasn't in there for that -- I was looking for a Grumpy Bear shirt), and a new pair of sunglasses from Claire's.

I think we have one or two more errands to run, but I really can't remember as I am decaffeinated at the moment. Katsuko has to bleach out her hair today, so that it's ready by Monday. I'm sure there was something else, though, and it's just not coming to me. No big shock there.

I've started looking into video blogging since I finally found a freeware video-audio recording program that would work on my Macbook. I've only done one so far, and that was me and Roo testing it out. (If anyone knows of a freeware better than BabyaTV, please let me know. It tends to record at ungodly large sizes, like 1600x1200.)

So whenever Katsuko deigns to get out of bed, we'll start the day; I've been up since about 8:30, since the kitties don't like both moms sleeping. Back to work on WBtN! Later!

So we had been expecting this All Libraries shindig for a bit. It was no surprise.

What was a surprise was how many people turned up, how much they liked it -- and how much food was consumed. Wow. Out of 12 dozen cookies, 2 dozen mini cupcakes, and 4 dozen donuts... There was hardly enough to speak of afterwards. Library piggies.

Here's hoping the next shindig, a week from today, goes just as well... with just as few leftovers.

On the other hand, I have been so busy today that this is the first time I've been at a computer since 10 this morning! I dread seeing my email...

And now for a plate of sushi and a veggie noodle bowl from the quickie "Japanese" place, coming home, and CRASHING.

(And I wrote about 100 words on my project. Not Verdant, but my secret project.)

Okay, most of the weekend, I did my updating over at Thoughts of a Struggling Writer whilst squeaky the great updated IJ. It seems to be mostly back, even if I am still missing a few icons. I'll be glad when the site is completely back up.

Doc and I went to see Made of Honor (which I say of the good is, Kevin McKidd and the beginning, pretty much until Scotland) and Iron Man (which I would have to find the bads, because honestly this was one of Marvel's better comic adaptations). We got 2 weeks worth of laundry done, watched a few too many movies, ... and did a lot of reading.

We did not get to vacuuming or cleaning the counters. Whoops.

This week: nothing much planned, other than writing and trying to survive the day job. Both Doc's and my stimulus checks from the government should be arriving this week, as well as my check from Seven Seas Manga, so soon I'll be back in good financial standing.

But now, it's time to get ready for work.

Ciao, my freaky darlings.

And this is a quick note to say a couple of things:

1) I am self-medicating my fatigue/exhaustion with the world's easiest solution for being tired: candy. 2 grape (my 3rd least favorite flavor - my favorite is strawberry, of course) Jolly Ranchers candies and about 9 (so far) of the longer Tootsie Rolls.

2) This doesn't mean I'm not also real medicating with Tums (again) and ibuprofen.

3) I make dorky Excel charts.

4) I'm still asleep.

Another day, another dime. That's how it feels a lot of the time. I like who I work for (mostly) and with (a lot of the time, when I'm not catching flak for things referenced in previous entries), so I guess I shouldn't complain.

What's bad is, I'm considering doing a LOL cat of my own kitty, of the Roo man. He demolishes boxes, but his favorite one is one that my prezzies from daimeryan_rei came in last time. He's nearly taken one entire side off of it, so that if it's lying on the correct side, it looks like it has a ramp leading into it.

I think I would put the caption "Box broke - Send new" on it. Not really a LOLcat then, I guess, but close enough for me.

We had Wendy's restaurant on the other side of town last night. Hikari's been a sickie type, and I won't get into how. My own stomach seems to be doing gymnastics like a little Romanian in the Olympics. And no, I'm not old enough to remember Nadia Comaneci in the Olympics, but I do seem to recall watching a documentary on her.

And now it's time for work.

This isn't a real update, since the most I have to report is that Paula doesn't seem very happy and I really hope I'm not part of the problem. But mostly, I want to say a few random things.

I have new icons! This is one of them (and cleverly relates to the rest of the post). Okay, they're all the Ninth Doctor, but what can I say? I have a favorite.

I asked katsuko the other day, if I was a Marauder, which one would I be? She was quiet for a while, long enough that I had to ask, "Not James, right?" Finally she responded, no, not James. Apparently, if I'm any of the Marauders, I'm Sirius. I can definitely live with this.

I'm 49 pages into the transliteration for Dance in the Vampire Bund. I need to do 40 pages a day, like I did Tuesday, a few more times, and I'll be finished. Then in three months, I can get paid. Hurray for getting paid. (I almost typed "laid" instead of "paid" there. Amusing typo.)

I have a headache. Chocolate and caffeine does not help it. This sucks.

I'm re-re-re-reading (probably a few more "re"'s on there, but I got tired of typing it) the movie tie-in book to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I like it. It ties in the first movie and the future, in addition to telling the story of the second movie.

My keyboard's left arrow key keeps sticking. It's very annoying.

We moved my desk at work. I am now in what I like to call the Seat of Power: the main desk in the Admin Office. Très spiffy.

And that's about it. Ciao.