Apollymi ::||:: Dark Passion Play

So, yesterday's whinging aside, this week isn't going *too* terrible. Yesterday was just so bad and so long that it felt like it was pulling me under. Today is a little better. I'm working on trying to deal with everything.

I've been running a virus scan on my work computer since nearly 10:30-ish. Sometimes I despise McAfee.

My home PC's monitor has gone on the blink -- literally. So any home computing that's getting done is being accomplished from the MacBook until I can get up the other $600 towards a new desktop. This time I'm taking no chances and will be getting an iMac. It's what I wanted and couldn't afford last time. I am in the process of doing upgrades on the laptop too, just in case getting the money up for the PC takes longer than I'm expecting.

I'm going to be taking classes again during Summer Semester, A term to be exact. It's the 13 week term. If all goes as I want, I'll be in Introduction to German 1120. If I can get financial aid other than what the job provides, I might try to take one more class: Ancient Mythology. But that's a big if.

Anyway, due to the new financial constraints on me, I won't be going to Dragon*Con this year, not unless someone buys my ticket, my hotel room, and my gas to get up there. I don't exactly see that happening. I'm not a popular enough author yet to be a guest they'd sponsor to show up.

But on that note... Amaranth: The Preterhumans Book 1 is now up on Amazon.com, now with the cover picture showing. One of the people who pre-purchased a copy says that Amazon is telling her it should ship today; another told me April. I guess we'll see, but it will be shipping out soon.

And that's about it. I'll be over here, doing my line-editing homework or working on editing Hunter's Path. I want to start sending it around to people soon: agents, publishers, etc.

I still haven't gotten my check from Seven Seas Manga, so I had to send in the "have to get a lawyer" email. If it's not here by Wednesday, I guess that's what I'll have to do. That was the date I gave them, after all.

My laptop is still dead. Completely dead. It won't even give me anything more than a swirling Apple logo. I'm still begging for donations (to kbell@katherinebell.net) towards a new one, one where I can get a real warranty -- not the crappy SquareTrade warranty eBay offers. (60 days to take effect, indeed.) Anyway, donations link:

In spite of everything that's going on, I'm hoping to have a costume done by Dragon*Con -- and have Verdant sent to Carady and Denise by then as well. I'm up to Chapter 2 in editing it, so that's a strong possibility surprisingly. As for the costume, well, that's a bit up in the air. We'll see. We'll hope.

Honestly, the laptop, Dragon*Con, and editing are my main concerns right now... and that's more than enough for my plate right now.

41,524 / 92,500 (44.9%) Verdant

This is my table for Verdant. So far I've managed about 1800 for JulNoWriMo. It's not a terrible amount.

What's bad is that I want to be working on my sekkrit fanfiction project or finishing Automatic Paranoia rather than work on Verdant.

It's funny to me that my best writing song right now for Verdant is "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne... but the best overall musical group for my writing right now is Epica.

I finally got up that new mood theme that I had been meaning to use.

And now back to writing. I have a minimum of almost 1600 words still to go for today. Best of luck to me!

(And in regards to Dragon*Con, Azkadellia is still on, but the Victorian dress is out... and Illyria is in. Yeah, two sorta baddies in one con. I rock like that.)

Okay, subject line was totally random, but still! We have the Prima Donna, the Large and In Charge, and Death by Cute. It's like the building of a good fandom right there. All they need are evil doggies trying to take over the world to fight, and we could make an anime (or webcomic) out of it.

So, this weekend I'm hoping that we get to work on our Dragon*Con costumes. I showed Hikari the list of costumes I want to do over the next few years -- and I think she wanted to reach through the Instant Messenger and beat me. Especially on two of them: Alexiel and Illyria. Call me crazy, but they look fun! Illyria I could even do this year; Alexiel, my hair needs to grow a bit more first.

I went in to see the doc today. It didn't even take a lot of persuading, but I'm back on Wellbutrin XL for my depression. This is not a bad thing. I got the pills today, so I'll start taking them tomorrow. I'll have to call the doc every week for 2 weeks, then on the 3rd week I'll have to go in for a follow-up appointment. Always tons of fun.

I'm also really hoping to start pulling myself out of this funk by 01 June. I want to try to do NaNoCoMo (National Novel Continuing Month) a bit: finish the sekkrit project for June, do JulNoWriMo in July, try to finish Verdant in August, then either finish Verdant or start Ash in September, and continue or finish Hunter's Path for October... So that maybe I can be set to start Azure for NaNoWriMo.

And I guess I'm going to let that it be it for now. It's taken me an hour to type this entry anyway, so it's about time to bugger off to bed. One of these days I'm going to take my laptop and leave it up there so I can just scribble at will... except then I definitely won't get enough sleep.

But first... The Un-Photoshopped Image of the Night. Because I'm better taking the pictures than being in them. Behold Roo's arse. Behold the bottom half of my Blue Eyes and Kaiba wallscroll. Behold my messy desk. Behold the blurry me.

And now bed.

So I guess I'm being a quiet kitty. I haven't much to say because I'm getting ready for Dragon*Con and Anime Weeekend Atlanta.

Dragon*Con Costume Status - 01 September 2006 due date
(1) Lolita dress - 95% ready
----- shoes haven't arrived
----- bonnet still not made
----- need to hem pettiskirt
(2) Tousaka Rin - 92% ready
----- need longer skirt, must locate one in closet or in mall
----- need to purchase black thigh high tights
----- need to purchase red shinys

Anime Weekend Atlanta Costume Status - 20 September 2006
(1) Lolita dress - Same one from D*C, should be done by this point
(2) Tousaka Rin - Same one from D*C, should be done by this point
(3) Touzaku'Ou Bakura - 90% ready
----- need new shenti, so I can breathe in costume
----- need new anklets
----- need to purchase new braclets and rings
----- need to practice making the scar


This is the part of con season I dislike most: the rushing to get ready.