So I promised a more real update... and I'm really not sure where to begin. I'm kinda thinking of leaving it more or less behind and simply starting to update periodically with what's going on now, rather than trying to catch up with what's gone on before, so pretty much for now, that's what you get. :)

I'm getting better about pushing myself to do the housework. It helps a lot that I've had focus in the form of Chore Wars. The RL rewards we've set up are nice, but at the moment, I've just enjoyed pushing myself higher. These days, rather than hopping onto World of Warcraft immediately, or whatever, I find myself making out a list of which "adventures" I want to do that day and getting most of them done. It makes me tired a lot more easily, but that'll change as I get used to all the running around and not just sitting around lazy and fat. :) To further help, I made a second account with a new party that's solely for creative endeavors - gonna use it to help me get back on track with writing, and with my RPG rules, and with keeping my IJ updated and whatnot.

I'm a little stalled at the moment in WoW. I think it's mostly just that I'm kinda tired of my lvl 70s for the moment, since all I seem to use them for is making money for my younger characters, and I'm a bit stalled with Areli since he's at that stage I find the hardest to play - the 10 levels after 40. Once I hit 50 and start pushing a bit, I'll have things a little easier, since I can content myself with "gotta get to 60, gotta get my epic ground mount". But right now... it's just a quest grind, really. And he needs to be higher to get into levels where he can get the herbs that are useful for his alchemy, though in about a level, he should be able to hit Felwood and I know there are useful herbs there. He's already 305 in herbalism, and his alchemy is 290. Ten more points, and three more levels, and he'll be able to head up to Shattrath and train up his alchemy so that he can learn all the way up to 375.

But on the whole, Chore Wars has held my interest far more. It's been really heartening to see things getting done and staying done, since I do upkeep for fun and profit. XD Eventually, this place will be really really NEAT... and be able to stay that way! Well, maybe not that neat. But it won't be constantly messy anymore, either. *wry grin*

That's... pretty much it for now. Just me rambling as I try to get back into the swing of things.

Current Mood: complacent

Soon, there will be actual updatingness done here... details and a general overview of what has gone into my life being where it is. For now? Not so much.

Instead, I shall make a cut and bring you a few sigs and images that are currently Me.

( Badges and Signatures )

More will come soon. :)

I've now purchased dandelion's birthday gift(s), the loot to go in her loot bags, and the invitations and thank you cards for her party. manga_awesome1 was wonderful about carting me all over the place to find just the right items. And now, before I focus on anything else... I get to deal with dandelion's homework and then relax for a bit. *collapses*

I like coffee. Actually, given the right ingredients, you might even call it love. For me, coffee should be sweet and cream-thickened, a nice pale brown. I like Maxwell House best of the instant variety, but I vastly prefer the more sinful indulgences of gourmet flavors, particularly light, nutty tastes or chocolate coffees. I do not like fruit-flavored coffee... not even orange, which I like with rich flavors like that.

Coffee such as I like does not tend to do well when cut with the liquid form of sour cream. Seriously. I went to put half and half into my coffee yesterday and tasted it immediately afterward, only to discover that the creamer was not going off... it was GONE. Long gone. Days ago gone, with an expiration date somewhere around a month in the future. Future, not past. Either someone needs to learn how expiration dates work, or the cream needs to learn that it is not allowed to go sour until AFTER the date in question.

Today, I went to the store and purchased more creamer. I meant to open it at the store to ensure that this one was safe, but it tasted okay when I got it home. The shop clerk - a very nice woman who I've become casual friends with by virtue of the fact that both our kids go to the same school and I often spend a bit of time chatting with her when we go into the store - assured me that if I brought the bad cream back, she'd send it back to the people who made such a grievous error, and reimburse me. So I'll be taking it back tomorrow.

My current "cup" of coffee is now made and waiting to cool enough for me to drink it. It's in a rather unwieldy, insulated 52 oz. mug that is NOT a travel mug. It's about 5-6 cups, all told, and heavily sweetened and with plenty of the (new) cream stirred in. I debated adding vanilla, but finally decided against it. I used to have making coffee in this size mug down to a science, but it's been around a year or more, so I may not have it just right anymore.

It occurs to me that I really ought to make myself a coffee icon at some point... unless anyone knows somewhere I can snag one?

Current Mood: amused

Get the couch unearthed
Finish a batch of dishes
Go through the ironman7 comedy prompts
Write for novel_in_90
Write for obscurefandom
Journal entries for both boys
Do 5-15 more icons for my Tsumasaki ni Kiss/Zettai Unmei Houteishiki collection
Get at least 3 loads of laundry done
- 1 load of dandelion's clothes and gi
- 2 loads of anything and everything for asha I can find

First load (dandelion's) drying.
Second load started.
Third load waiting for asha to get home.

Found randomly while strolling through IJ. I'm sure it's already been done to death, but who cares? It's new to me.

Comment here and I will reply to you and tell you what icon of yours I associate with you. Post this in your own journal so that others can play.

Current Mood: distractable

Well, I fail horribly at writing today. My one attempt for an AU for ironman7 was laughable at best. I liked the concept, but I don't think I pulled it off very well.

After a false start in iconning, I finally got into that, however, and managed to knock out a few more of my 50icons challenge. I have 20 icons left to do, all of them "artist's choice", so we'll see what I come up with. I was particularly pleased with the icon on this post. It turned out unexpectedly well.

Tomorrow, I shall force my brain to cooperate on ficstuffs and get back to writing. Today... is a wash. Bleh.

Current Mood: up and down

I probably won't be around much tonight until later, for those of you wondering. dandelion has martial arts tonight, including a special private lesson to help her get caught back up, on top of which I may be going out with asha's mother either before or after, for some chatter.

When I do get home, I'm going to be writing a lot, because I totally failed at doing anything productive today. Bleh. But I should still be pokable.

The plumber came and went yesterday, and our bathroom is fixed. Well, moderately speaking. We have a giant hole in the ceiling (we'll be discussing with the landlord how to get that fixed and when), and one of our walls is in rather bad need of repainting. Between the water damage to the paint and the black marks left by the plumber, it looks foul. But the paint is cosmetic work. The piping is FIXED... pretty much completely replaced, too, so it really shouldn't become an issue again.

I've developed a new muse thanks to being nudged to watch The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It's a wonderful show, and left me clinging to it and wanting only a slight change in the ending. My muse is in the icon above.

I'm still going strong on the various writing challenges, though ironman7 is giving me fits this week. I really do NOT like prompted alternate universe fics. I just plain suck at coming up with them. *sighs*

*hugs to all*

Current Mood: tired

The plumber's just come in, and is already talking about how he has to open up what appears to be a 1-2 foot section in the ceiling... a pretty large amount of space, given how small our bathroom really is. But thank god... hopefully by about 6 tonight, it'll be all finished.

Edit: And when I went to say "I understand this is going to be a few hours", he informs me that he's not going to fix it today. He has no idea yet when it WILL be fixed. Good GOD what are we paying this guy for, other than to fart around for a week until it's so bad that I'm ready to kill him?!

Current Mood: annoyed

So I'm currently doing this challenge and I just realized that I'm about to run out of prompts for the icons. While having "artist's choice" for so many is nice, it also leaves me with no real guidance. So I'm going to ask for some help here.

Anyone willing to, but particularly those who've read Zettai Unmei Houteishiki or Tsumasaki ni Kiss, please comment here with a few single-word prompts for me to consider? I make no promises that I'll use them, but the guidance would help, I think, and who knows... maybe you'll like what I come up with for your prompt enough to snag it. :D

Thank you~

Current Mood: productive

Well, I've finally spoken to him on the phone, and other than the bullshit he gave me about getting off work at 6 and how he couldn't make it today (and it's only bullshit because we've been trying to get him to schedule for a WEEK+ at this point), he's assured me that he will be here tomorrow, and I've assured him that I WILL be here, so he has absolutely no excuses.

So tired of it right now, and hoping that asha doesn't go ballistic when he gets home. Bleh.

The plumber said he would be here this afternoon. As of 5:15pm, I've not heard a single thing from him, and I'm now furious. So if I seem at all grumpy this evening... well, you know why. I don't particularly like the fact that chunks of our ceiling are dropping out, and there isn't a whole lot I can do about it or about the way the paint job we did in the bathroom is being utterly ruined all along that one wall.

But I'll say this... the plumber is damned lucky that he's going to end up dealing with me instead of asha, even with as angry as I am.

Edited to add: Hey raighne... I can't find the program I was using to screencap things. Could you point me in a good direction at some point, please?

I'm on the last few episodes of Ouran as I try to regather enough info for Kyouya to play him in voicesinmyhead, and I just developed the sudden desire to do some Kyouya/Kaoru RP. *gnaws on muse* Heh.

This was just a small note. Real updates come later. XD

Okay, so I've failed today at being as productive as I've wanted. But dandelion and I aren't going to martial arts tonight, because I'm gonna need that time to deal with this horrible place. On Friday, I'll plan to head down to the dojo and see about getting dandelion some private lessons to help her catch up in addition to finding out the proper schedule so that I know when to bring her this year.

Washing dishes on that list isn't so important, as the plumber isn't due until afternoon. My current thought is that if I can get the rest done, then I can deal with the dishes in the morning tomorrow, so that the place is workable for the plumber. The good side of this is that it's pushing me to get all this cleaning done, and if I can just keep up with the place this year during school, our lives will be SO much better!

Housework List:
Wash Clothes
Get shower
Clean up bathroom
Mop bathroom
Pick up living room
Pick up kitchen
Clean out bathtub
Give dandelion bath
Wash dishes


Writing List:
Two more ironman7 fics


Other List:
dandelion's homework
Prepare for school tomorrow
Watch more of Ouran with dandelion


*eyes lists and whimpers* Wish me luck!

The plumber is coming on Thursday.

The ceiling broke apart today.

We are Not Pleased.

First day of school, yay! This means I got to send dandelion off to 2nd grade. (For those who know my kidlet, I've decided to give her a journal for the purposes of reference, after a discussion with asha. I don't expect to update it much, if at all.) Or rather, asha did, as he's taking her to school every day due to the new work schedule. So I got to sleep in. Tomorrow is the first day back to martial arts as well, and I'm hoping she hasn't lost much of anything in the time away.

Additionally for today: I got my first ironman7 prompt of the week finished. It's a day later than I would like, but I'll just have to work very hard this week to get the other four romances out on time, so that I don't fail! And yesterday, I signed up for 50icons, so I was approved for that this morning. I've already done a few of the icons, but I'm not allowing myself to do any more until I've done at least my novel_in_90 writing and 2 more Ironman fics in preparation.

So yeah... it's just past noon and already a good day for me. :D Now off I go to write.

Hey petermaxwell~

I'm going to be gone tomorrow, but I should be around otherwise, if you wanted to finish that email thing we started. :D

I haven't left just yet, and I haven't been able to write yet today, so I decided to make myself a shiny little icon instead and wanted to show off.

Yes, the kidlet within is mine. :D

For those interested, today I'm spending over at Itesa's again. :) I have to be back home tonight, so I'll probably be around late tonight, and I'll definitely be around tomorrow. But for anyone looking for me during the day, I'm not going to be here.

So last night, it was pointed out to me that my ironman7 entries, which I had finished and posted so gleefully, had been posted incorrectly. There was a rule that I had misunderstood that said you were required to post each fic on a separate day, so that during the course of a week, you would post 5 fics on 5 days. My first day in the contest, I'd posted two. Yesterday, as I wanted to be free and clear from that contest when I went to Itesa's, I posted three. And that night, the mod posted saying that people were doing it wrong, and to stop the binge-posting.

I was upset and frustrated, first because I'd misunderstood the rules and that made me feel stupid when minutes before I'd been so very proud of myself, and second because when I tried to ask the mod about the situation (specifically how my entries would be handled - was I fine? would I have to repost on appropriate days? was I now expected to come up with three completely NEW fics?!) in a comment on the comm, IJ ate my comments. Flashback to those lovely first months at Gaia Online. XD Eventually, I emailed the mod, spent a while stewing in misery, and eventually calmed down and went to bed.

During the 5 or 6 hours I was asleep, my comments showed up, and the mod answered both one of my comments and my email, both of them assuring me that they were taking the fics from this week as they stood, and I should just be ready for the next week. The email further amused me because the mod was friendly in it and told me to "get ready to write lots of smut". As though I don't do that already! XD So yeah... upshot is that my fics stand. My first week at ironman7 is complete, and I am once more relaxed and happy about the challenge. Plus? Two days 'off' and seeing Stardust.

Itesa will be here in a couple of hours, which should give me time to finish my novel_in_90 for today, since by the time I was ready to begin last night, the stuff in Ironman had gone down and I was kicking myself too hard to write. We plan to see Stardust, as mentioned above, watch Joan, and Fraggle Rock (hush, I love that show!); she's going to show me more Knights of the Old Republic, and let me play with Oblivion and Viva Pinata. We're gonna have fun with her husband, too - maybe even play some Queen's Jewels or something, and to top it all off? asha is going to be joining us tomorrow, which will be awesome. But I won't be online for the most part.

Today, before I leave with Itesa, I'm going to at least get my Novel in 90 challenge done. If I can, I'll also get something else written, so that I'm sitting at 1k in words at the very least, but the Novel one is important since I'm well ahead on my 350k challenge.

I'll see people either Friday night or Saturday, depending on when we get home and how tired I am! *hugs!*

Oh, also? Before I forget, two video links because I found them amusing:

Disney Villains to Mortal Kombat
Disney Villains want to be Goth

My brain is scrambling at me to write again, but it's not offering any particulars, so I figure today is a good day to get a bunch of actual housework done. I've made myself a list, and fully intend to complete four out of the six tasks before asha gets home. The two that might not happen today are:

Take out the trash
Clean off my desk

A lot depends on whether my head finally says "Oh, here's the setup for your Ken/Yoji 5_kinks" or "You know that ironman7 you signed up for? More stories for ya!" And it's entirely possible my brain will say at least one of the two, likely combined with a host of other minor ideas that either go nowhere or end up with me filling up another slot of my threebythree or maybe coming up with another character for worldsapart.

Yeah. Right now, I'm all for the writing challenges. They keep me writing and bouncing about it, which is good since it's been almost a year since I felt good about writing something, and even longer since I really felt happy posting my crap publically.

But if I don't do something about this house, I'm doomed! XD

I did it! I finished my 5_kinks challenge for Snape/Hermione. All 5 stories, done and posted, totaling some 14,000 words.

Of course, to celebrate? I signed up for 2 more claims there. *sheepish* I'm not addicted. I can quit at any time!

I'm off to do a bit of gaming for the first time in ages. I should be on later in the evening. Take care!

Fic, Journals, and asha

I've missed writing Harry Potter fic terribly. I didn't even realize it until now, but today I signed up at 5_kinks for the pairing Snape/Hermione. I'm already 2/5 of the way through my prompts, and although I should go to bed, my muses are itching for me to write more. It feels good - really good - to have it come out. But it feels even better to know that I'm not taking the short path, either. My fics aren't the longest in the world, certainly, but they're each more than 2000 words, and not because I was trying particularly hard to pad the story.

I'm not fully through the series, so the story is set in my own little world where I can do whatever I please without worrying too hard about canon. Of course, I need to go dig up my books andstart reading all over again, because... well... yay!

In other news, for those of you who know my husband, he's now got a journal of his own. Of course, this does not mean he's actually coming to play with us. No, asha is merely around to give me someone to talk about, so that I can make him happy by not using his name. XD

Finally, some bad news - somehow, I managed to delete all the comments in my journal to date. I'm not sure how I did it, and I'm honestly not too concerned about it, but I figured I'd let people know that they weren't deleted on purpose.

I still have fiction to post to my ij fiction journal, but by and large, the old is now posted. And let me tell you... it's ever so much fun transferring 124 posts by hand, one at a time...

But my desire to not have to deal with LJ again once I've moved is slowly becoming a reality.

I think that I can now say that if you're interested in friending my fiction community, I'm not likely to offer much in the way of oldfic spam anymore. There just isn't that much of it LEFT!

fictionaltrio


Also? I have 2 writing communities - one that I've taken over from chichirinoda, and one that I came up with on my own. And that's all I'm doing here. XD

threebythree and 10_rpscenes


Just thought I'd share, for anyone interested... :D

Found the way to enable the tags for the Semagic client on windows machines. It requires a very simple registry edit while your Semagic is closed.

Go to the path:
My Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Alex Semenov\LivejournalU\user_(YOUR USERNAME HERE)

In that section, there is a line called:
TagListEnabled

While Semagic is completely closed, change that line from value 0 to value 1.

Hope this helps people.

I've made it home safe and sound, and am doing some puttering around while I settle back into this place. :)

Although I fly out tomorrow, not today, I'm offline from now until I get home. Look for me to be back online around Wednesday, though I might be on some Tuesday.

The good news about this is that my packing is mostly done before the night before, so I don't do everything absolutely last minute. *chuckles*

Hello to the person I don't recognize. Nice to meet you.

I suppose I have, at the least, about a month's worth of updating to offer people, so let me attempt to begin...

It's been a very restful month, all in all - nice to see family and old friends again, and so nice to have a relaxed time visiting with everyone. I'm at the tail-end of my visit to Texas now, and I have to admit that I'm more than ready to return home, though it'll be a few days yet. Not much of great consequence has happened this visit...

My daughter discovered Webkinz, which means I did, too. They're cute, and I like how careful the place is to ensure that kids cannot give out personal information. I've enjoyed helping her out with it a lot, and she's so adorable with her little pink pegasus.

I've watched a few movies as well:
Hairspray - I really enjoyed it, though I didn't expect it to be so heavily racial-aware, really.
Harry Potter - Another one I really enjoyed. It seemed like they toned down the whiny Harry, though sadly, I didn't see Hermione shine nearly as much.
Ratatouille - I've now seen that twice, and I dearly love it. I must own it, absolutely.
No Reservations - A very good movie, though the hair drove me to distraction. If she'd been in my husband's kitchen with her hair loose like that, she would've been kicked out!
Freedom Writers - MUCH better than I was expecting, though I have no real idea just what I was expecting. I found it a very moving picture, though.
The Wicker Man - Not exactly a new movie, but new to me... and very, very, extremely bizarre.

I also got to see a few of Jackie Chan's movies. I've decided I liked Shanghai Noon a lot, but Rush Hour made me yawn. It's just not my type of humor, I guess.

We've swum, and played, and visited and visited and visited and... did I mention we visited with people? So yeah... a really good, relaxing visit.

And I'm so ready to go back home and play and stuff again. :D