The Edge

A little project I started for fun this past year. Here's the list of books I read during 2011. Seems like it was a good reading year, overall. I discovered some new genres I really liked ... some new authors ... some new books by favorite authors ... and even had time to reread a few old favorites. Couldn't ask for more. The list is behind the cut, for those of you who are curious about such things. ^.~

( Read more... )

So, bit of a mix-mash post today. Although, now that I am sitting here, staring at the blinking cursor, I can't think of much to say. I hate that.

Still displaced from the office, of course. That will remain status quo for the next several days -- maybe even a week. Paint started going up on the walls today. I was apprehensive about the color before it went up. You know ... that whole feeling of "I think I'm gonna love it ... but what if it looks different when it's up?" And, of course, everyone currently in my household (guests included) had to weigh in (uninvited) with an opinion as to the color. I was thinking of it as something between a robin's egg blue and a sort of Tiffany Blue, but softer in tone. After hearing everything from baby blue to sky blue to "it's exactly like what you already have in the kitchen and bedroom ... so why did you need new paint again?", I started to lose confidence in my choice. Funny how no one can destroy my confidence and self esteem quicker than my family. I think it's because they never say anything positive. It's always doubts and disagreement and "are you sure about that?" So that I end up having to defend my decisions and choices -- always. There is something emotionally and mentally exhausting about knowing those closest to you don't trust you and don't believe in you. They might say they do, but actions speak louder than words.

Anyhow, the color started going up on the walls, and I love it so far. Even with less than half the room done, I already feel better walking in there -- calmer and more at ease. Funny how a new color can make a big difference. And I feel relieved that I don't hate it. One crisis averted ... unless it dries to a shade I can't stand. But I'm telling myself so far, so good. I am kind of dreading trying to put everything back into that room, no matter how much I want my space back.

Finished a Diana Wynne Jones book last night. The Time of the Ghost. Great book. It still makes me sad to know she passed away.

Hubby decided to work from home today, so we ate breakfast out together. We tried out a new place -- a little French-style bistro that we had driven by several times. I had an omelette with tomato, avocado, and spinach. Best omelette ever. And, after, I found the most wonderful little independently-owned book store. I love Borders. I really do. But there is something extra-special about browsing in a store like this. Truly lovely experience. I bought four new books, in spite of the fact that I just spent a week packing up all the books that were on my office shelves -- and was lamenting that I had way too many. It's a sickness. What more can I say?

Currently reading (in addition to Pratchett) Tongues of Serpents. I have all the other Temeraire books, but hesitated over purchasing it after reading many less than stellar reviews. So I checked it out of the library. Maybe I will invest in it when I can find it in paperback. I just started it this morning, so we'll see how it goes.

I so want to write. So, so, so much want to. I think it's a mixture of the depression and fear holding me back. Plus it's hard to write when my mother is here. She never stops talking, although I feel guilty for writing that out loud. It's ... complicated. I guess that's the only way I can explain it. "Complicated" sums the whole relationship up nicely. Neat, with a bow on top ... even though it's painfully messy in reality. At any rate, it's hard to write with someone talking at you in the background -- and getting angry when you don't talk back. Still, maybe I will give it a try. I haven't had the urge this strongly in months. Seems a shame to waste it.

Casualties was full of patients on stretcher trolleys, and there was one standing next to the elevator. An imposing-looking nurse in voluminous SPG's was standing next to it, reading something to the patient from a polythene-wrapped book.

" 'Whoever perished, being innocent?' " she said, and he realized with dismay that it wasn't a nurse. It was Mrs. Gaddson.

" 'Or where were the righteous cut off?' " she recited.

She stopped and thumbed through the thin pages of the Bible, looking for another cheering passage, and he ducked down the side corridor and into a stairwell, eternally grateful to the NHS for issuing face masks.

" 'The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption,' " she intoned, her voice resounding through the corridor as he fled, " 'and with a fever, and with an inflammation.' "

And he shall smite thee with Mrs. Gaddson, he thought, and she shall read you Scriptures to keep your morale up.

~ Doomsday Book, Connie Willis

I sense a hodge podge of a post coming on. Wheee! (or maybe not so much ... *nervous laugh*)

Been feeling generally icky and under the weather for the past couple of days. Doesn't help that I didn't sleep well last night. The good thing is that I know this will pass in a couple more days -- like the "curse" that it is. Bleh. It makes me regret being born female. Seriously. 'Nuff said, I think. >.O

Watched too much HGTV yesterday. Learned a few things: (1)I get nothing done when I have the TV tuned to HGTV. I can't tune those shows out for nothin'. (2)Everyone who doubted me when I wanted to go blue with black highlights for my kitchen should grovel at my feet! No, really -- I have, in the five years we've been in this house, slowly been adding new touches/redos in the kitchen, many of which employ this color scheme. So, if seeing it in person wasn't proof enough that it works, the "Spice up my Kitchen" show yesterday redid a kitchen with teacup blue walls, white cabinets, and black countertops. Gorgeous! And, see? I do have taste. Well, I mean, other than in my mouth, that is. (3)I want black granite countertops in the worst way. (4)I should stop watching HGTV ... because, yeah, now I really want the new countertops. *cries*

Fae is tormenting Sister Kitty. Sister Kitty is on the top stair leading up to the third floor. She snuck out of the office while Fae was sleeping. Sadly, I got up (disturbing Fae's slumber) before Sister Kitty made it back to the safety of her kitty bed. Now, only a child gate separates them, and Fae will not let things go. I can feel Sister Kitty's hate vibez from here. Poor kitty.

New books are the LOVE!!! ♥ ♥ Got an Amazon delivery last night: Book #5 of the Dresden Files (which I can never find in the store), and two books by Abigail Thomas. I'm in bibliophile heaven!! Many thanks to steffannee, whose wonderful Amazon b-day giftie made all this happiness possible.

I'm making chicken noodle soup tonight. Provided I have all the ingredients. If I don't have all the ingredients, I'll make ... hmmm. I don't know what I'll make, but it won't be chicken noodle soup.

I decided to try and use my Dreamwidth account as a dedicated writing journal. I've tried this in the past here on LJ, but it never worked out. Hopefully the third (millionth) time is the charm. We shall see.

And, it's time for me to go pick up my daughter at school. =D

Like the title says ... a fairly random, "catch up" sort of entry today.

Cel Gallery Stuff:

My Rubberslug Gallery recently reached the 20,000 hits marker. I did an update post about it on Beta and got a lot of looky-loos, but not too many people leaving comments. That's OK, though. I'm just glad I was brave enough to post it on that forum, after all the yuck feelings I had from there not too long ago. It was a big step for me -- an "internal" step, but, yeah, big step, nonetheless.

I'm really surprised at getting to the 20K hits marker over on RS. With so many fabulous galleries over there, I guess I feel a bit puzzled over why anyone would want to visit mine. Don't get me wrong; it makes me really happy that folks visit, and I'm really happy and grateful over hitting a great hits milestone, especially since my gallery hasn't been open for that long. It's just ... surprising. I'm not sure how to explain it, really. I guess I never expect anyone to pay attention to anything I do. So, when people are curious or take a look ... well, I'm surprised. Maybe that's the best way of explaining it. I'm pretty sure, though, that the hits didn't all come from me. I usually visit my main website when I want to spend time with my pretties. That way, I don't skew the RS hit counter too much.

Anyhow, the arrival of my latest Rinkya package coincided pretty nicely with reaching 20K hits ... so I made it a sort of "celebration" update. Last night, I added in the last of the Rinkya stuff, as well as an incredible cel that showed up on my doorstep yesterday. It was a gift from a person who has become a very dear friend in this hobby, and quite unexpected. And, I really love it a lot! I still can't believe someone would do something so incredibly nice for me! *stunned & thrilled*

The New Stuff: (if you're interested)

Saiyuki Requiem Sketches
CCS Wishlist: Sakura Hugging Kero, ep. 69
Growly Shido Closeup, ep. 1
Shido in Shades Closeup, ep. 11
Shido & Yayoi in Her Car (Genga Set)
Tenshi ni Narumon: Yusuke & Sara, ep. 10
TnN: Raphael Hugging Mikael, ep. 13
Weiss Kreuz: Aya OP Cel -- GIFT! *.*

I can't remember if I posted about this in here or not, but I changed my RS layout to a Halloween theme. Which means it's black and orange for the month of October. I hate orange, too. *sigh* But, hey ... it's "festive", right? I'm already regretting that October is such a long month, as I'm not sure I'll be able to hold out with the orange color for the entire 31 days. Well, soon we'll be halfway through, thank goodness. I'll be happy to return to my normal blue colors. I made some new banners for when I switch back, too, so I hope they will look nice. I'm still tweaking them ... so we'll see.

Forum Stuff:

I had taken a break from Beta for about a month or, maybe, a month and a half. I dunno. Just ... because of some things that had happened ... some things that were said, etc ... I didn't feel comfortable posting there any more. So, I took my break, thinking I would not go back.

Now, though, I've decided to post again. It sounds and seems so stupid for me to talk about this (like I have no life, which isn't true -- *nervous laugh*), but I am a shy person (believe it or not). So, it is hard for me to put myself out there and get either no response, or get "not nice" responses. And, although it was my own fault, getting involved in that last ugliness on the forum really soured me on a lot of the members over there. Like I said -- my own fault, for even posting my opinion, in the first place. But, many of the things said in that particular thread were truly callous, ugly, ignorant, and insulting. And, they were said by people who should have known better. Anyhow ... for most people reading this post (well, if anyone reads these things, that is ...), none of this makes any sense. This is just me, rambling to myself, basically. The point is -- a lot of things made me look at Beta in a whole new way, and made me re-evaluate what I thought about many of the members of that board. And, that hurt, because I had felt so at home and comfortable posting there up until that point.

Well, after thinking about it for a while, I decided I would return ... and I would post some, too. I don't post nearly as much as I used to, so I guess I'm more of a lurker now. But, I decided that, if I ran off and hid, I was just letting the jackasses win. And, I was just letting all the negative people that seem to infest that board have the last say. Which, really, is total BS. There are enough negative things in life. Why should we have to put up with negative, petty crap in a hobby, too? So, in an effort to counteract all the negative bunk rolling around out there, I'm going to post here and there ... when I think I can contribute to the discussion in a positive way.

Same deal for my RS blog. I was going to take it offline, but decided against it. Instead, I'm going to try my hardest to post positive, kind of fun entries in there from time to time. Maybe it'll counteract a lot of the griping and complaining that seems to go on in the blogs, and, thus, infests the front page of RS with the heavy negative vibes I hate so much.

Kinda silly, I know, but ... they are decisions that made me feel good. And, that's what counts. ^.^

Some Random Blah-Blah:

Wedding Anniversary:

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. Eight years of "official" matrimony with my hubby, although we've been together for around 16 years. We were a bit slow getting to the altar, thanks to graduate school and work schedules(his and mine). But, we made it eventually. It's been a great eight years, and I could not be happier. I love the life I have with him, even though he does make me totally NUTS sometimes. I console myself by remembering that I probably drive him nuts sometimes, too. He's a good man, and a loving husband and father. Honestly, I could not ask for more, and I feel very happy that I am able to be his wife and make a life with him -- a life that now includes a beautiful, three-year-old daughter. So, I spent quite a bit of time yesterday remembering how much I have to be thankful for, which is always a wonderful and uplifting exercise.

We didn't do anything special to celebrate. Throughout the month, he has purchased quite a lot of anime for me -- new DVDs, some artwork, etc -- so I asked him to call that my anniversary present. Not a bad gift for an anime hound like me, really! He wanted a new portable DVD player. The one we have is about on its last legs. He found one he liked, and we spent most of Monday evening driving around, trying to find it at a good price. Not that we didn't know which stores had it. We did, but they were mostly sold out. Luckily, we finally found it, so he was able to get what he wanted in time for our anniversary. We stopped off at Ruby Tuesday's for a quick dinner, since we had the kiddo in tow, and that place is very kid-friendly. It was kind of funny, because he commented that it wasn't exactly what he had in mind for our anniversary dinner. But, just the same, it was nice, and a nice way to celebrate. After all, we were together, and we were spending time with our daughter. So what could be better? To me, that's about all you could ask for, celebration-wise. It's all about the people in your life, that you love, anyhow. My parents are coming for another visit in a couple of weeks, so we might go out for a nice, kid-free dinner then. But, we'll see. If not, I'm perfectly happy with the very low-key celebration.

Some Projects:

Writing:I started working on a gift fic for a friend. It's a WK-fic, of course (seems like I can't write any other kind, doesn't it? *nervous laugh*), and it's just a little friendship-type thing between Aya and Yohji. So far, I think it's going pretty well, so I'm hopeful it'll be worth reading when I'm done. I wanted to finish it yesterday, but time did not permit that.

I've been plugging away, just a little bit, on my "book". I managed to get the prologue written a week ago -- or, maybe it was two weeks ago ... I can't remember. I didn't bother posting it in here, as I think most folks that might stumble onto it aren't all that interested. But, I was happy over getting it done. Or, at least, done in rough draft form. It's a very small accomplishment, I know, but it made me feel like the story finally has an official "beginning". Although I suppose that's a bit silly.

Overall, though, writing has not been going well for me over the past month. Well, over the past couple of months, actually. My hubby has been working a lot of crazy hours, which means pretty much everything not related to his work is left up to me to do. And, that leaves pretty much no free time for writing. At the end of most days, I barely have the energy to manage a bit of surfing, chatting, or anime watching. I'm just too tired to do much else. It is really frustrating, but I keep telling myself it'll get better. At least, I hope it does. No -- I have to believe that it will. Otherwise, I'll just go crazy. Or, give up on the writing altogether ... which, for me, I think, would be a mistake. I really do love doing it, even though it's hard and, often, seems not worth the effort.

My "big" project for yesterday: I had to make some changes to a website my hubby maintains. It's for a professional organization, and he is the VP this year. One of his duties is keeping up the website, which he delegated to me. I don't mind, although it can be a pain. It is often hard to get the information I need from the people in the organization. Plus, I didn't design or build the initial website. I'm just going off of what someone else made -- so the site files are not laid out in a way that is logical at all -- at least, to my mind. I have trouble finding the pages (within the site files) that I need to work on when it's time to make changes. And, they built the site using Front Page. Everyone tells me how easy this program is to use, but I really hate it. It makes no sense to me at all, and it seems like even the simplest updates take two times longer than they should. Last night's was no exception. I had to update the new officer information, which meant typing in the bios for all of the officers and adding pictures. The pictures they sent me were not the same size, and most of them were bitmaps. So, I had to resize them all to be somewhat uniform and save them to the correct file type. Then, I ended up typing the bio information multiple times, because it wouldn't load and it wouldn't save. It was a frustrating exercise, but I finally got it to work. (At around 1 AM!) The page still looks weird, though. There was a large group photo of the previous officers at the top of the page, which I removed. Unfortunately, Front Page would not let me remove the big white space where the picture used to be, so it's on the freshly uploaded page now. I need to figure out how to get rid of it. *sigh*

Books:I started reading "The First King of Shanara", by Terry Brooks. I started it on our Texas trip, actually, so I'm about halfway through. I haven't read much of it since we got back, though. I had heard so much about his Shanara series, and this one is a prequel to the first book in that series ... so, when I found it at the airport, I picked it up and figured "why not?". So far, though, I'm not sure if I like the story. I haven't been able to get into it, and I can't really say that I'm attached to any of the characters yet -- even though I'm halfway through the book. That's a bit frustrating. But, maybe, it's because the whole Shanara series is several books long, and, thus, kind of an epic tale. In that instance, it makes sense it would unfold really slowly. The way it's going so far, though, I'm not too sure I'll finish this prequel book. Doesn't bode too well for the others in the series, sadly, and I have to admit I'm a bit disappointed.

Hmmm ... well, I guess that's about it for now. I'm sure there was something else I had on my mind, but I can't remember it now. Maybe that's a good thing. This has probably been more than enough insight into my exceedingly boring life! :P