practicality

So guess who inverted their sleep cycle again! I predict whoever has to process my sleep diary and questionnare at the sleep clinic will probably facepalm forever when they see 'bedtime: 8:30 am' for like four days in a row. I did however get two of my three term papers done. They are kind of terribad and way too short, but they are /done/. I think I'm hitting a university-level senior slump, where at this point I just want to pass and be done with it all. Who's not going to grad school? Yeah, that'd be me.

I also read a bunch of manga, oh yay. And uh. May have made another Ukitake RP account. He is small and adorkable and already has a partner-in-crime (who is currently hitting on Jyuushiko because Kyouraku is incorrigible like that). Hollow!Orihime has also been creeping on little!Ukitake, which is...both creepy and awesome. Basically, tl;dr, I love Bleach Dressing Room.

Con photos will be up....eventually. I want to process them in Lightroom to get some more practice, but constant internet failures (even with a new modem, ugh) and the fact that I can't find my 4GB flash drive have been thwarting me.

(assorted notes to self - US taxes, doujin credits on icons, cosplay lists)

I have internet! I have WoW! I can run high graphics settings and get more than 10 FPS in Dalaran! I have a port of the last version of Amarok that was awesome before 2.0 killed it! I have everything but my term papers and finals done! I have adorable zanpakuto icons!

I also think I have some variety of upper respiratory tract infection, because I'm getting sinus headaches and waking up in the morning with the inside of my mouth tasting like mucousy death (and I slept fifteen hours Sunday night and another ten last night), but given the madness of the last two weeks, I am utterly unsurprised. It is only a minor bleh, but it is a minor bleh on top of term papers which means I will probably have a rather cranky week. Oh well. TWO MORE TO GO.

-Bought X Infinity (finally) and the Bleach SOULs because I am weak and they took credit card. We'll see what damage I do tomorrow
-Reno + Rude and Ukitake + Kyouraku wandering the con together. Person: "Can I get a photo of you two?" Us: "Uhhh. Which two?"
-Informal survey says more people want hugs from Ukitake than from Rufus - but not by much
-Contrary to what canon tells us, Hitsugaya loves getting candy from Ukitake. It may have helped that I had both chocolate mini eggs and wintergreen Lifesavers.
-In keeping a little more with canon, Hitsugaya appears to enjoy wintergreen Lifesavers more than chocolate
-Early in the afternoon, I was hanging around outside talking about Aizen being a troll with some other Bleach cosplayers (and admiring Nanao's hollowed-out-book carrying case), when some random people came up behind me and startled me by tapping me on the shoulder. I thought this was just random con lulz, until cut to the Bleach photoshoot, and the same random people go over to the other good Ukitake cosplayer and startle her (she actually shrieked), and then say "We snuck up on someone we thought was you earlier, but it was like, an actual dude." I think this counts as a win?
-Other me gave me bubblegum! I'm almost tempted to just keep it forever as a memento
-OMG A KAIEN SHOWED UP. I WAS SO HAPPY. Other me was happy too (like all of our interactions were very BDR, where I enjoy playing with doubles)
-Bleach photoshoot was otherwise kind of fail, because organization, what organization.
-Awesome cosplay of the day: Queen of Blades, Artemisia, KATEN KYOKOTSU.
-Delicious Cheesecake Factory dinner :3
-At aforementioned dinner, there were two guys at the table next to us. When one went to the washroom, the other slid over to tell us that it was his friend's birthday, and that he really liked our cosplay, and would we do a little something for him? So we got a napkin, wrote 'Happy Birthday!' on it and signed it as the Turks and Rufus, and then, as the two of them left the restaurant, Reno ran out, slung an arm around his shoulder, said 'Yo!' and dropped the napkin in his hand. Apparently the look on his face was priceless.

So, because life hates me and Canada Post is terrible, we have no wig for Elena or Scarlet. Scarlet was sort of a bonus anyway, so it's not a big deal, but Elena kind of throws over the entire group and essentially my last four months of work, as our Elena has shoulder-length red and black streaked hair right now.

I have also succeeded in pissing my landlord off by texting him at four am to ask if he was going to be home when the mail came, because he is apparently one of those people who will actually get up to check text in the middle of the night.


Ugh ugh ugh at least the Bleach cosplay will look good. Time to write more genderswap fic while I wait for the benzos to kick in enough I can actually sleep.

So two things have occurred in the last three days:

1) My laptop ate another battery. This makes three which have died on me (one within a week of getting it), and this one is really dead. I have to shut the computer down entirely just to move it between rooms, as there's no power even for hibernate. I am so happy for Ubuntu's short boot times now.

2) The house modem has kicked the bucket. We've been having issues on and off for the past two months, but my landlord went to reset it today to try and fix the latest round of connectivity issues and now it's totally gone. ETA on a new one is three days.

The collective effect is that I want to tear my hair out even more than I did already. I won't be on AIM much, as internet at home = wireless tethering, and while I have a cushy data plan on my phone, it's not that cushy, so I'll probably be leaving it off except when I'm actively doing internet stuff.

This week is just...idk, I have to laugh because otherwise I'd scream and throw things at walls. I'm actually doing okay on sewing when I sit down and look at it objectively, but I'm so used to being really far behind at this point that my anxiety has skyrocketed anyway, which makes everything seem out of control (and then I panic, and then things actually are out of control, and just....lol my neurochemistry). The info packet from the sleep clinic actually finally showed up in the mail today though, so hooray for one bit of Important Administrative Shit getting done.

I also wrote more Ukitake!genderswap fic, because this AU is slowly consuming my brain. That, and I have a lot of time to think about things when I'm spending most of my afternoons sewing. Not sure when I will actually post more, as I just have a fragment of a scene that needs like, two scenes before it to make sense, but I'm kind of amazed that there are ideas in my brain and they actually link up properly and everything. I think Jyuushiko now beats Jorim for 'RP character with the most backstory scenes written up'. Though Tseng has a ton of headcanon that I've never bothered to write up, it just kind of shows up in random conversations with Sheska.

Ah...I didn't realize feathers could be quite so...itchy...

The sunflower seeds I bought the other day are quite delicious, though.

I got a lot done today /o/ Instead of making lists, I will instead post photos because it's more fun that way. Under the cut - Ukitake test pics (with better bangs!), new haircut, and mostly-done Reno wig.

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Media Center: I ended up having to ditch Mythbuntu because ATI is annoyingly lazy and decided to stop updating their legacy Linux drivers (the legacy Windows drivers? Updated last month), and this graphics card was awesome in 2005. So it's WinXP pro with XMBC, which I still have to configure to use an external player because the built-in XBMC runs all the decoding off the processor, and this processor was pretty good in 2005, which means MKV files are freezing after two minutes. I did get the TV-out configured, and set up file sharing within the network, at least. I have to talk the landlord unblocking router ports if I want remote file access, but I need to make the set-up way more secure first because this isn't Linux any more and Windows Firewall is a steaming pile of shit. Unfortunately the modem for the house network is possibly in the slow process of dying - it's started randomly not letting computers connect, regardless if it's a wired or wireless connection, so...lol :< The new tower and my roommate's laptop seem to be the worst victims.

-Whenever I have internet again: patch WoW!
-Whenever I have internet again: accquire this week's Bleach filler crack
-????: Get caught up on tags :(

Cosplay:
Turks - Three suits are at over 95% done, which is to say they need undercollars, pants cuffs, belt loops, and a metric ton of ironing. Elena is lagging behind, but I'm bringing it in to work on during lecture tomorrow so it should be caught up by tomorrow night.

-Friday: Acquire cardstock for ID badges and business cards at Staples
-Friday: Dressew for extra buttons
-Friday: FINISH HANDSEWING OMG
-Saturday: Attempt to style Reno wig
-Sunday: Final fitting to make sure I didn't destroy anything
-????: Start Scarlet
-Whenever the other wigs come: Elena and Scarlet wig styling

Bleach - Haori are mostly done - still need to do the collar handsewing on the 8th division one. I did get the collars done on the white kimono, but not the black ones, and I still need to do the sleeve openings on both. I did however get my Ukitake wig cut and styled - first attempt at bangs was so-so, so I brushed them out and am letting the slightly more gravity defying ones dry right now.

-Thursday: Sew down black kimono collars. Maaaaybe haori too if I have time.
-Friday: Raid dollar store for something appropriate for hakama backboards. Also possibly rope.
-Friday: Dressew to get fabric for pink haori
-Friday: Hakama time /o/ One whole one, and then mine needs ties and finishing
-Saturday: Pink haori! Inbetween letting Reno's spikes dry, of course.
-????: Acquire tabi and hat somewhere. (Richmond?)
-????: Make waraji (I have a tutorial!)

School Stuff: Good marks on my two papers I got back, which only sort of makes up for how shit my participation marks are going to be. They did finally give me my minor, though. Other than that - school, don't talk to me about school :<

-Thursday: Study like made for midterm on Friday
-Friday: Ace midterm!
-Friday: Term topic and tentative bibilography for children's lit class (AAAAAH IDK WHAT TO DO), submit by 4pm
-Monday: Bioethics paper for Tuesday

Not cut so you all can lol at my lack of time management :')

-Evolutionary theory paper draft (due tomorrow, but...I have 1.2k words already?)
-Finish suits (AKA figure out a way to make the zippers magically not look like crap)
-Put together haori (Surprise! It's Bleach cosplay!)
-Acquire wig styling stuff (detangler and hair spray. idk what to do for brands, I never buy hair shit :|)
-Cut out Scarlet's dress (acquire measurements first!)
-Put together PC tower + begin epic file transfer (contingent on harddrive arriving - today or tomorrow, I hope)

Things that are not getting done for Sakuracon:
-AC!Rufus (too burnt out on suits right now)
-zanpakuto (I have supplies, but living in a rental with my landlord upstairs means every time I turn on power tools he's convinced I'm doing some DIY home renovations or something, so I have no where to work on them)
-Rufus's shotgun (see above - though it's less pieces so it miiiight get done)


Things which may or may not get done for Sakuracon:
-Rufus's shotgun (see above - though it's less pieces so it miiiight get done)
-Papa Shinra (cry, another suit, but Ced is bribing me)

Some minor linkspam to start the post off, because they are worth sharing

-Kim Jong Il macros! Which I find way funnier than I probably should. I think it's the silly fuzzy hat.
-Clarion - Braska-centric FFX gen fic. Beautiful, and absolutely heartbreaking.

The second was kind of a fortuitous find - I've been feeling like I can't really get a grasp on writing Braska lately, I think in part because of the copious amounts of Ukitake I've been writing. They're just similiar enough to start to bleed into each other, even though they've got very different outlooks sometimes. I've actually been kind of fail about RP stuff in general this month - I've got very little CR for anyone who's actually active, and it seems like too much effort to push for more, so...I don't know. I'll have to come up with something to keep from failing activity checks, sigh.

I also managed to inadvertently invert my sleep cycle over the weekend, by getting not enough sleep Thursday night, staying up way too late Friday night, and then sleeping in until 5:30 Saturday evening. At which point I went 'fuck it', went to bed for a few more hours, got up at 7:30, stayed up until 11am Sunday, went back to sleep until 1:30 this morning and have been up since. Sigh, my neurochemistry.

On the video game front: played more Tales of the Abyss. Luke continues to be annoying (although he shows signs of improvement), Jade continues to be a magnificent bastard, and I am getting really sick of the hideous load times. I have also fallen in love with the dungeon finder in WoW for level 80 heroics because it allows me to do what I enjoy doing most (instancing) without having to spam LFG every ten minutes. Plus bonus emblems and money, mmmmm. Alixia is now two-piece T9, which is happy fun times~