Back to Back

There's nothing quite as fun as having to get up at 4:30am because you've managed to sleep in such a way that your back is killing you and the idea of remaining horizontal for even a moment longer is ludicrous.

So instead, I'm sitting here, only two steps away from nodding off in the chair.

It's starting to feel a little better, at least, and I popped a couple of Advil. It's just a question now of waiting for the pain to subside so I can craw back into my warm, sateen goodness.

I've hit all the sites I'm in the mood for this morning, so I think it's time to break out Civ3 for a little while. Perhaps some sound thumping of evil not-me world powers will do the trick.

Non-Functional

Methinks that next time I sign up for a math class, I won't go for the two-and-a-half hours ones. I like only having to go to class twice a week, but sitting in a stuffy room looking at functions for that length of time is murder. I figured it would be like my last math class, which only used up a fraction of the time allotted, but that's certainly not the case now, and I have my doubts that things will change the further on I go.

....you know, I had this great topic I was going to talk about in today's Blog, but I'll be damned if I can remember what it was now. Damn. It was all poignant and insightful and everything.

Bother.

Listening To:Mike play Disgaea.

Looking Forward To:Bed. All that Math wore out my poor little brain.

The Last Man

I downloaded and started to read the Vertigo series Y: The Last Man. It's pretty damned good, I'll have to add it to my pull list.

It's about Yorick, who is, as the title indicates, the last man. Something happened to cause every mammal with a Y chromosome to die in a rather violently bloody way (well in-keeping with the overlying stereotype that men themselves are violent and bloody). All except for Yorick, and his pet monkey Amperstand.

The story is itself an interesting way, but all of the social themes and imagery are particularly appealing. You have, for example, the band of women calling themselves the Amazons who have, for all intents and purposes, gone crazy and are doggedly hunting Yorick down, determined to make sure men are truly exinct. The condition of the world, politically, is fascinating. I'm not entirely sure where this is going, which is part of what makes it so complelling. That, and the fact that Vaughn is deftly avoiding saying for certain whether the absence of male life is as wonderful as women have often been heard to sigh wistfully, but he's not saying it's all bad that they're gone, either.

Yup, definitely adding this to the pull list.

Listening To:Some music in my head, I think it's from Disgaea.

Looking Forward To:Having a good day.

Rogue Returny Goodness

Took longer than I thought (I admit it, I babbled a bit), but the new weekly reviews are now up at Flatscan.

How Jet Wolf Lost Her Groove

My entire week has been so whacked. Between school and Mike's new schedule, I feel horrendously disorganized. I keep thinking today is Friday, for example instead of Saturday (it's likely the knowledge that Mike is off tomorrow, usually linked to a Friday-feeling).

I really hate this. The Virgoan in me likes a nice, neat schedule. Fingers cross for equilibrium soon.

Despite the lack of a groove, I managed to have some good productive moments in there, though. My homework is complete for all but one of my classes, and that one's not due until 5 October. I'm currently installing Visio and VB.NET Professional, lent free of charge from the college (yay! Free software!). Eight discs for VB.NET, geez. Meanwhile, I'm finishing up my Flatscan review for this past week. All done, save for the muchly anticipated X-Treme #31. They'll be all posted later today, so stop by and check them out.

I think by the time I finish all this, I'll be retreating downstairs for a while and play Disgaea or something. The weather is promising to be hot and unpleasant. Later tonight, when it's cooled off, I'll return Callisto and resume scanning in the rest of the X-Men comics I received in the latest shipment from Mum. This group returns to me the entirely of my Uncanny collection, so it's pretty exciting.

I depart now, a race to finish this review before the heat drives me out.

Listening To:My DVD-ROM spin madly.

Looking Forward To:Finishing today's tasks.

E-Mail Bomb

I just realized something terrible. My inbox is actually up to about 150. I usually just happily ignore it, but I decided to start cleaning up, and unearthed the horror.

...I think I'm going to go back to ignoring it for a little while longer...

Listening To:Nothing yet, it's too early.

Looking Forward To:X-Treme #31! Rogue and Gambit return today! w00t!!

Archival Ramblings

My quest to rebag and properly inventory all of the comics that Mum brought up here with her plods along at a decent enough pace. It's going somewhat faster now I stopped reading each one. I'm now up to #235 (First Genosha storyline, oooo) and the last one of this group is #253 (icky post-Siege Perilous stuff). Of course, in theory I have another 170 or so issues of Uncanny that I have to archive, but baby steps.

So yeah, as mentioned briefly yesterday, school began again. My Math teacher is an interesting person. She's pretty young for a teacher, I'd say a bit younger than me or my age ... Of course, thinking back on it, that's probably not too far off from how old most of my teachers have been in elementary/middle/high school, it's just that they seemed so much older back then. Perspective is everything, I suppose.

Anyway, so she's young and WAY more enthusiastic than I thought possible for a math class. She lacks the refined experience that my last Math teacher had, but I think I'll do okay here too. If nothing else, her raw enthusiasm and heart-felt desire to make sure you learn this stuff will ensure she'll force-feed it into your skull if nothing else.

And I didn't have to buy a new graphic calculator! My dinosaur from my first college days will work okay Yay! $100 saved!

My online classes also look pretty cool, though all I've done thus far is the obligatory introductory note. Now I've got a new printer ribbon, I can start getting myself organized with those things. While I was in Office Depot yesterday picking up a few supplies, I noticed a small, personal-sized white board designed like a monthly calendar. I think I may go back and pick that up. I have a lot of assignments and projects due at varying times. Writing them down and having them stare me in the face each day will do wonders for making sure they're done in time.

But until then, my goal today is to finish rebagging these comics so I can get them out of the computer room and haul my books upstairs to take their place.

Listening To:A bird sing outside.

Looking Forward To:Completing this database.

School Daze

Today was the first day of school. I celebrate by being more tired than I've been in the past two or three weeks. So very typical.

The Mutant Ability to Move REALLY Slow.

Let's see, I started working on getting Uncanny into the database about two hours ago, and .... I've only done 7 issues.

I can't help it! I have to reread them all! They're just sooo goooood!

Next up? Dark Phoenix. Oh yeah, I'll zoom through that one in no time.

Whither Time?

For all intents and purposes, this is my last day of summer vacation. I started it a month ago with so many plans. Looking back on it, I've accomplished none of them. Go me!

I feel a little bad about that, but not as bad as I could (or perhaps even should). I feel extremely well-rested, and I've enjoyed myself. I think I have a tough term ahead of me, so it's probably for the best that I enjoyed the time while I had it.

So what do I plan to do with my today? Some necessary domestic-type things, like doing the laundry and cleaning Denied's tank are certainly in my future. One thing I will not do is sit and play Disgaea all day, no matter how much it wants me to. Instead, I think I shall make a best effort to complete my comic book database and rebagging all those Uncannys.

'Tis a simple life sometimes, but those are often the best. Now I just have to hope that my tape holds out. <looks at the quarter roll left on the dispenser> Right, so let's add "go to the store for tape" on my to-do list for today.

Listening To:The fragment of some song that was on the radio repeat endlessly in my head. I neither know it nor particularly like it.

Looking Forward To:Completion.

Ye gods, what an expensive day. We started out by taking Jett to PetSmart for her regular bath and nail trim. After that, we grabbed lunch, since the house is pretty well cleaned out of food at the moment and we were getting a bit hungry. From there, we headed to TFAW, where I picked up replacement bags and boards for the X-Men comics that Mum recently brought with her (they're, oh, 15 years old or so, and really starting to show their age).

That done, we drove Kiyone to the Saturn dealer for an oil change, whereupon they told me I'd need to replace her clutch soon. And it's "cheap", at only $675! You know that's always pleasant news. Luckily we don't have to do that yet, but it's nice to know that a fee the approximate size of your monthly rent looms on the horizon. It almost feels like it'll be more worthwhile to just buy a new car, but I'm putting of any decision about that until later.

From there, we headed to the Sylvania PCC campus so I could pick up my books for the fall term (starts Monday!) Joy of joys, there went $330. What really chaps my hide about that one is the fact that, if I hadn't been so blasted lazy, I could've visited the book store earlier, figured out what I needed, and then bought them second hand from Amazon for a fraction of the price. Bleah. As it was, we didn't make it to the bookstore in enough time to buy the used copies, so I think every single book except one, I had to buy new. And that doesn't count the calculator that I'm going to have to buy, as soon as I get to class and they tell me which one I need. Curse you for being so expensive, school!

To top the day off, we made it to the store so we could have things like milk and toilet paper in the house again. Didn't spend as much there as I was afraid we would, but with everything else spent today, does it really much matter?

No, I didn't think so either.

Listening To:Jett breathing heavily. Aww, cute sleepy puppy.

Looking Forward To:Getting my comic book database completely updated.

No new reviews yet, but I invite everyone interested to go check out Flatscan, particularly the Uncanny section, since it's now got almost my entire collection. I'm still about 25 issues short, but that in no way diminishes my pride. So many memories, so many comics.

Now I just have to take on the daunting task of buying new supplies to rebag and board everything. Believe me, this 15 year old tape could do with replacing.

Listening To:She Bop - Cyndi Lauper

Looking Forward To:Doing last week's reviews. And putting on a sweatshirt, it got cold again.

It's been a while. A very busy week, full of excitement and splendor. Or, at the very least, it wasn't a week of me just sitting here staring at my monitor, so I suppose such things are relative, really. Nevertheless, I shall share, because that is the purpose of this thing, after all.

Saturday, September 06, 2003

Nothing much happened during the day, save for a last-minute frenzy of panicked cleaning. For about five minutes, anyway, then I gave up. Mum's flight was scheduled to arrive at 8pm, and we got there about 20 minutes before that. I'm not quite sure where my mind was, but I encountered something of a mystery at PDX ... I couldn't find the fourth parking level. I was looking for it specifically because that's the level with the bridge across to the terminal. I up the ramp and saw the sign for the third level. I kept driving around the circular ramp, and, despite my reasonable expectation to encounter the fourth level after the third, I was greeted by a sign for the fifth. Confused, I drove down to the next level ... and it was the third again. I was convinced that I must have landed in the Twilight Zone, but I didn't have time to dwell on it too much since we had to get to the gate.

We arrived with about 10 minutes to spare, and took up a position to wait for the passengers to get off. While waiting, Mike and I decided to make fun of all the security people we saw standing around doing nothing at all. Mike hypothesized that their different coloured gloves were really an intricate social heirarchy amoung their people. Me, I figured they were just buying whatever rubber gloves they could at bulk warehouse prices. Finally, people started pouring out of the gate. Since I need new contacts I couldn't see quite as well as I might like, but Mike spotted her quickly and tried to point her out to me by saying "She's right there, behind the guy in the shirt." Yes, most helpful.

I'm happy to report that my huge glut of comics that she brought with her arrived in perfect condition (look for a Flatscan update very soon), and the first thing we did was to hit her up for money for parking because I had forgotten to withdraw some cash. Welcome to Oregon, Mum.

We had planned to go out to dinner that night, but by the time we got the bags and were headed home, it was getting on for 9pm and no one was that hungry, so we skipped on it and just went home. Mike went inside and retrieved Jett so she could be reintroduced to Mum on neutral ground, but it wasn't really necessary because Jett recognized her instantly and had fun mauling THREE people instead of just the usual two. We stayed up a bit chatting, and then retired to bed.

Sunday, September 07, 2003

The morning opened with breakfast at the locak IHoP, where we confused our waitress and listened in on a painfully superficial conversation while trying to decided if that was a "typical" Oregon accent or not. (The final conclusion was that I have no idea what, if anything, is the "typical Oregon accent", but that it's more tone and inflection than pronounciation.) After breakfast we stopped off at Hollywood Video to rent The Chamber of Secrets and The Two Towers to watch alongside the two X-Men movies, and spent the day relaxing and watching DVDs. Mum enjoyed the Harry Potter movie, but not the X-Men ones quite as much. However she was informed that this would in no way prevent me from showing her the third when it's released. I also showed her a couple of Buffy episodes, since we started talking about the series, and she, much like I was when I first watch them, was surprised to discover that the show was much better than expected. We decided to save The Two Towers for later.

Monday, September 08, 2003

Mike returned to work, so it was just me and Mum for the day. We headed to Lloyd Center in Portland, where my true calling as "someone to hold my purse while I try on outfits" was discovered. The better part of the day was spent at the mall, and as usual, I got turned around while leaving Lloyd Center and spent an extra-happy-fun half-hour or so just finding the right direction on the Interstate to get back home again. Missed picking Mike up from work and he had to catch the bus home. Oops.

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

My birthday, and Mike had Tuesday and Wednesday off from work. My birthdays tend to depress me a bit, so I wasn't in a particularly upbeat mood for most of the day. We had originally planned to drive down to the coast and visit the aquarium, but the weather had taken a turn for the worst and that plan got washed away with the rain. (That's the second time that's happened. One day, I WILL see the bloody Oregon coast!) I wasn't in much of a mood to do anything else, so we spent the day just hanging out and enjoying each other's company. We chatted while I scanned in a bulk of my comics and ordered a pizza for lunch. We watched The Two Towers (Mum's verdict: not as good as the first one) and had a generally lazy day.

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

Birthday over, I was in a better mood and the weather had improved a bit, so we drove around to a variety of places, capping the evening off with dinner at Olive Garden where, of course, we confused our waitress.

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Mike returned to work and Mum and I headed for the zoo. It was overcast, but not too cold, and since school had started it was fairly empty -- just the way I like it. The Cascade River section was closed, so no river otters, but the sea otters made up for it. We were able to actually watch them being trained. Easily one of the most adorable things I've ever seen, is an otter being taught to fetch his toys from out in the middle of his enclosure, and to remain rock solid while they check him out. We also got a close-up look at one of their wolves, which was gorgeous, of course.

And then there was the news that caused us all to breath a sigh of relief. I hadn't mentioned this previously, but Mike applied for a permanent position up where he works. (He was previously a contractor.) It involves a bit of a pay cut, but he has the security of being permanent, plus full benefits and all that good stuff, not to mention the possibility of applying for and actually receiving a higher-paying position within the company. He had applied two weeks previous, and found out at the end of last week that he got the job. When we picked him up Thursday evening, he revealed that ALL of the contractors in his department were being let go the next day. But not him, thankfully, because he was starting his new job on Monday. As you can imagine, this would have been quite a crushing blow dealt to FunTime if he'd been laid off. So whew.

Friday, September 12, 2003

Friday was spent pretty much just hanging out with Mum again. We drove to Clackamas Town Center and several other places that we'd been meaning to hit but hadn't gotten around to yet. That night, Mike and Mum played Scrabble while I split my time between watching them (I suck at Scrabble) and watching our backlog of Futurama episodes.

Saturday, September 13, 2003

We turned Mum's last day into something of an adventure by deciding to go to the Saturday Market ... ON THE MAX. I've been here two years now, but I've never actually used the public transport system, so we gave it a whirl. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that not only was it easier and less stressful, but it was quite a bit cheaper as well when you consider gas and parking. We stopped off first at Powell's, then Pioneer Square while Mum ate a hot dog and we tried to figure out what exactly this guy was saying to the odd assortment of people scattered around him that held them so attentive. Saturday Market was fun, as usual, and the weather was quite nice. I must confess that it was immensely easier to just hop on the MAX and head home rather than spend 20 minutes or so tracking down where I'd parked the car and fight traffic out of the city. It all would've been perfect, too, if not for the fact that we forgot it was the weekend, so we ill-timed the bus that was to take us back to my apartment complex. Rather than spend half an hour waiting for it, we decided to walk home. So, of course, it was the hottest time of the day on the hottest day of that week, and a good mile walk to my place. Next time I'll learn the Park & Ride system. But still, it was a great day. We got dinner that night at The Old Spaghetti Factor and, say it with me now, confused our waitress.

That night, we all played Trivial Pursuit, which was probably way more fun than it was supposed to be. Between Mum's never-ending battle with the sports category, Mike's feeble screams of protestation that the British had an unfair advantage in this game, and my own little victory songs whenever I'd answer a question correctly, we had a blast, and eventually retired to bed with a tied game.

Mum's flight left early on Sunday. Getting up at 4am is never my strong point, but we managed it and saw her off, all the while poking her than she'll just have to move up here and have this much fun constantly.

A few parting comments:

If you haven't tried sateen sheets, you're a poor deprived individual and I pity you. Mum bought Mike and I a set while she was up here, and ... well, it's almost indescribable. Suffice it to say that I'm guessing all of the sheets in Heaven's hotel are sateen. GET SOME.

I wouldn't wait in line for them for two days or anything, but I gotta confess, those Krispy Kreme doughnuts ARE incredible. Mmmmm. Krispy Kreme.

Mike starts his new job today at noon (new hours, too). Wish him luck.

The fall term starts next Monday, on the 22nd. I've completed nothing from my summer list. I suck. I'm wondering if it's worth revising the list with this next week in mind. Probably not, but I may anyway.

I think that summer is well and truly over. Damn, it's cold today. Just when I bought a new fan, too. Typical.

And that's my past week.

...I want more Krispy Kreme.

Listening To:The wind blow outside.

Looking Forward To:Catching up on Flatscan stuff.

Sometimes spam cracks me up. I just received an e-mail from someone who assures me that one of my pages, my Behind the Lines Xena review, was just perfect for a link exchange. All I had to do was to click on the handily provided link and fill out the form. His site?

Gymnastics Resources.

Of course. It makes perfect sense.

*click!* Blacklist.
*click!* Bounce e-mail.
*click!* Process mail.

Fin.

Listening To:The "Teen Titans" theme song (in my head).

Looking Forward To:Mum arrives today! Yaaay!!

For the observant among you, notice that I have a new desktop. I'll give you a moment to coo and drool.

.......

Done? Good.

This random-period-of-time's wallpaper is courtesy of Amy, of course. Who else? Not content to let my previous wallpaper be the epitome of all that is X and Cute, Amy set about topping it. Given that she included almost all of my favourite X-Characters and created it just for me ... well, is it any question who wins? Of course not.

Now we just have to figure out what she's going to draw for my next one. <evil grin>

Listening To:Ueno Love Story - Tenchi Muyo!

Looking Forward To:Same as before. Still working ...

Geez, another hot day. Just the sort of weather where you want to be cleaning an apartment without air conditioning.

On the bright side, it's going to be cloudy and raining pretty much all of next week while Mum's here, so it'll be nice and cool. On the other hand, however, it'll be cloudy and raining all week, so that sorta blows for your summer vacation. Not to mention the fact that we were planning on driving to the coast for my birthday. I'm not sure if it'll be worth it if it's raining the whole time. I guess we'll have to play it by ear.

While tidying, I came upon my clutch of last week's issues, and remembered to my horror that I hadn't yet reviewed them. So now I get to sit in a sweltering room for the next hour or two, when all I really want to do is lie down and take a nap. Huzzah!

Listening To:The Real Thing - U2

Looking Forward To:Getting these done. I feel guilty enough.

After about 73 hours of gameplay, I have finished Knights of the Old Republic. Considering the fact that I've only had it for a couple of weeks, I think that's a record. I almost didn't finish it, though. I finally get to Malak and, wouldn't you know it, I CAN'T BEAT HIM. I was playing a scoundrel/Jedi Guardian character and totally didn't bother with a lot of offensive Force powers. Though I liked the Stasis/Force Wave line ... which, naturally, didn't work for the depowering method to beating him. Left to just my own devices, I got soundly hammered for almost an hour of attempts. But, in the end, I was able to figure out my own tricks, and beat the darned thing.

I'll play it through later on the Dark Side, which looks to be much more entertaining. But that's for later, as much of this week will be taken up with cleaning for Mum's arrival. And doing my comic reviews from last week, which I just realized I never wrote. Oops.

Oh, yes, and we finished S4 of Buffy last night. Funky last episode. All around good stuff, though. Not quite as consistantly on the edge of my seat like previous seasons, but thoroughly enjoyable. Next up: wait for season 5.

Listening To:Rock Lobster - The B-52's

Looking Forward To:Clean house.