beboots | Entries tagged with devil machine

You know way back in the day, when medicine was still a pseudo-science and people mostly guessed and hit and missed at cures? Back then, when it was fashionable for women to be sick (I'd have been so cool back then), and everything from the common cough to pneumonia to tuberculosis was labelled under the umbrella of "the consumption"? Yeah, I have The Consumption. I want to take to my bed for two years and have people pay courtesy calls to entertain me.

Also, I want to wear a Victorian dress. It would be awesome.

In other news... I survived the week from Hell (being the week where I had two papers and a midterm worth 40% of my Art History mark, all three written while sick). I was pretty incoherent on Tuesday (right when I had the presentation for my Tudor Regime class!), but I think I made it clear to my professor and my audience that I was presenting with a two degree fever, and my voice certainly sounded rough and sick enough, so perhaps he'll go easy on me....?

I've gotten a bit better now (I can breathe through my nose, how exciting!), but my cough has gotten really bad. Hence, The Consumption. D: I swear I'm going to start coughing up blood soon, which shall not be cool or result in me suddenly becoming popular, as it would in Victorian England... D:

The Bellerose con yesterday was quite fun. It was good to see everyone again. I shall soon upload pictures on facebook. :3 Highlights are: Nana being cute with her new jawline! Toilet-paper lolita dresses! Me as Fujiwara no Sai being menaced by Joel in a Ghostbusters outfit!

I think that laughing so hard at the 404s only made my cough worse, though. D:

Also, the keyboard of my new laptop is every so slightly curved, and there's an extra key between my fingers and the "enter" key, resulting in many instances in which I get \\ instead of a new paragraph. I shall learn, and/or grow a longer right pinky finger. But my new laptop is still pretty... Yes, I have run back into the arms of Acer, although I was mightily encouraged to have an affair with a Mac. But faced with familial dissaproval, and upon the advice of the ever-helpful Dough, the friendly neighbourhood one-armed computer repairman, I got an Acer again. And it is good.

I certainly hope it'll last me through Nanowrimo, without the keyboard catching on fire.

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: St. Albert
Current Music: WALL-E OST

or exercyse any Wytchecrafte Enchauntement Charme or Sorcerie, wherby any pon shall happen to bee wasted consumed or lamed in his or her Bodye or Member...
Yep, I'm reading from "An Act agaynst Conjuracions Inchantementes and Witchecraftes". Oh, Tudor England, how awesome can you get?

...At least the paper I'm writing for that class is currently much more interesting than Cardinal Wolsey. I actually don't mind doing the readings for this one. It helps that they're shorter...

So I was having a bit of a bad week. My computer is well and truly deceased, and I ordered a new laptop, but it won't come in in time to be any good for typing up the two papers due this week, so I'm using the family PC. It's working out fine, I suppose, though I miss my lovely laptop keyboard. ;_; But apparently my new laptop shall look the same as my old one, but $150 cheaper, with more memory and more advanced overall. So... things shall look up.

I only have to get through until this Thursday. On that day, I'll have handed in my Hist 332 paper (Tudor Regime) and done the presentation on Tuesday, handed in the Hist 260 paper (Pre-confederation Canadian History) on the Wednesday, and will have completed my Art History midterm (my only evaluation besides the final, worth 40% of my mark) that morning. I can't wait for Thursday afternoon...

I mean, I was having a stressful week, but it's now no longer as oppresively bad. I mean, I was worried that with my two seven hour shifts at Superstore this weekend, I wouldn't get anything done. In fact, I really shouldn't be typing this, I should be working on my assignments in the word documents two windows over... BUT a few good things have since happened to me:

1) I've gotten stuff written down for my witchcraft assignment. And a plan for my essay. Isn't that nice? :) It's an improvement on what I had (not) done as of three days ago.

2) I was seriously considering quitting my job because I felt under-appreciated, harranged and harassed. Then, today at work, I was working side by side with my boss, Teri, and David, a worker more junior than I. Teri had to leave for an hour to go to an appointment of some sort, and David and I were left in charge of sorting out this disaster zone of an aisle. I also went for lunchbreak during that time. David and I focussed, and we got the aisle cleaned up. We were just finishing up when Teri returned - and she told us she was stunned at how well we had done, that it looked really nice and neat. She actually was under the impression that I'd skipped by lunchbreak to work hardcore at this aisle. I felt much better. :)

3) The next paycheque is all of my back-pay, as per the new union agreement! :D It shall be like the lottery, only I'm sure to win - I just don't know how much I'll get. It shall be a surprise. I just know that I get 60 cents for every hour that I've worked since August 2006. And I've worked at least 2000 hours since then.

4) I got an e-mail saying I've been accepted for the Louise McKinney scolarship - which means that they throw $2500 at me for being in the top 2% of my faculty. I feel better for having worked myself nearly to death last year. The GPA for my first year will keep me afloat for the rest of my University carreer, I do believe.

... and now BACK TO OUTER SPACE! D:<

... I mean, homework. Yes.

Also, I have learned the manliest name ever, topping even the phallic symbolism in the word "Shakespeare": Manwood. I kid you not, this is an actual last name. Doesn't Early Modern England rock? :D

Current Location: Not on my laptop
Current Music: WALL-E Soundtrack

What are you talking about, Hikaru? Women have always played go, even during the Heian era.
~Fujiwara no Sai, volume two of the French version.

All right! So it's been two days since the final day of Animethon (haha, I just wrote "animethong" by accident... ;) ), and I'm still pumped about it. I mean, much of the organizing was of questionable quality (and sense), but the people who were attended more than made up for that. :3 I kept running into people I knew, and awesome cosplayers that I didn't know before but now know, and it generally an awesomely fun time was had by all.

Also, I managed to avoid my stalker from the Bellerose con, although I did spot her at a distance several times. Scary stuff.

I wore my Fujiwara no Sai outfit (as seen here: http://beboots.deviantart.com/art/Crooked-hat-91400338 ), although I lost my hair ribbon at the dance Saturday evening, so I was without it all Sunday. Oh, well, I could have lost my hat! There was also another Fujiwara no Sai (I was no longer unique. ;_; ). Her hat was much taller than mine, and she did her belt area much more nicely than me... but I liked my sleeves more. :3 Also, she's an awesome person, really nice.

I found that I didn't get as many photograph requests, proportionately, here in Canada as I did at the Japan Expo in Paris. I think that it's because the Hikaru no Go manga is really difficult to find, here, and that the anime actually isn't liscenced, so only the true fan knows of the series. You know I'm cool.

I also didn't find much Hikago merchandise; I did buy two soundtrack CDs, and a really adorable plus Sai doll, but not much else. I actually didn't spend much money - other than that stuff, I bought one Hikago DVD for 24$, several brand new single Inuyasha DVDs for $4 (yes, $4 - awesome deal!), and Sting, Frodo's sword, for $40. It comes with a sheath, and is very badass. :3

Remind me, guys, to choose a costume that doesn't involve five or six layers (plus felt hat) for the cons next summer... Although I actually have my heart set on doing a Sesshoumaru costume (from Inuyasha). I mean, I already know how to do the traditional Japanese clothing from my experience sewing my Sai costume, so the real challenge would be the armour and other assessories (like that fluff). I've been asking cosplayers at the Animethon for tips on how to make the armour, and I got some good suggestions, but if anybody else has any thoughts, please share them! I could use all the help I can possibly yet...

The weapons check people were apparently much more strict this year. My brother, Ian, (who went as Link, from Legend of Zelda) was told to glue his sword (which was delibrately made of soft wood, and very blunted) into his sheathe if he was to come with it next year! Ironically, he's a blackbelt in Karate, and is taking Kobudo, and so he really doesn't need a blunted decorative sword to kill people... I told my brother that he should really just get a weapon's check sticker for himself; his whole body is a weapon. ;)

I was hanging out with my friend Ashley all weekend (despite the fact that we grated on each other's nerves after a while), and she was dressed in an awesome Seras Victoria (from Hellsing) outfit. She made it by hand, people! She's so much more hardcore than me, who uses a machine... Although, my outfit was mostly huge swathes of hemming, so it would have taken me forever had I not used my awesome 60s sewing machine...

Highlights of the cosplayers include: Seras Victoria, of course, baby Tuxedo Mask, two epic Dragonball Z characters (Goku and Vegeta, I believe), Master Chief, complete with full suit of Halo armour and glowing gun, Vash the Stampede (he even wore a tie around his head at the dance, as in the scenes were the character is drunk in canon!), the Predator (from Alien versus Predator), complete with fully functioning mouth (very creepy), the Joker's "Why so serious?" speech at the cosplay contest, and Yvonne as Hello Kitty. Yvonne actually had to leave early on Sunday because she was continually harassed by glomping fans.

Here be a video for everyone, with Seras Victoria showing off the accomodations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOCgQ5LqwfQ I filmed it! :D

...Aaaand I suppose I should go and clean my room for a bit... or answer some of my facebook replies on my photos. To view the photographs, go here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=144162&l=89f7b&id=839240415
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=144588&l=f7916&id=839240415

Current Mood: content
Current Location: St.Albert
Current Music: Hikago OST

As stated in my previous entry today (found here: http://beboots.livejournal.com/13877.html?view=70965#t70965 ), I've rewritten some fo the ideas that I had typed up before my C drive was deleted. Here is the recontructed version of my Naruto X Harry Potter crossover idea. Remember, it's rough and chaotic and needs a lot of work. It also goes back and forth between point form style, narrative and dialogue. This is mostly for backup purposes.

( Read more... )

Current Music: "Beautiful" - Elvis Costello

As some of you now know, my laptop got a virus. ;_; Essentially, I had to revert my computer to its factory settings (I was directed to do this by the helpful Acer tech support guy - thank you, man!). That means that everything on my C drive is now gone - My Pictures, My Documents, my favourites, anything else I had laying about... everything. I made a backup in January (for some reason, I thought I did one in March, but I think that I was deluding myself because I can't find it anywhere), so I have some CDs, and a few bits and bobs... and strangely enough, last week, on a whim, I put all of my photographs onto the D drive of my laptop (I think my reasoning was that it was taking up too much room on the C drive - ironic, now!), so happily enough I still have all of my photos. :) Also, Rise of the Jinchuuriki is okay! I sent it to myself through e-mail on Tuesday, so I only lost two day's worth of writing (perhaps a paragraph or two, and some editing), nothing I can't live without. I think I would have cried if that fic was deleted.
Unfortunately, I did lose several other fics, all in-progress: the layout for Rise of the Jinchuuriki (only a page or two long, but I'll have to reconstruct it and that will take several hours), an unnamed series of Hikaru no Go drabbles, the plan for a crossover between Harry Potter and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, a page of witty dialogue for a Death Note fic, and six pages of a crossover I've dubbed "Sasori at Hogwarts", among a few others that I can't remember.
I read over them many times as I worked on them, so I actually rewrote some of them, to the best that I can remember... which isn't good. They were like the epitome of wit the first time around! ;_;
Anyway, the point of this post (aside from wallowing in self pity) is twofold:
ONE: as a warning to all of you readers out there! If there's anything that you would cry if you lost saved onto your computer, back it up. NOW. I love you guys, and I don't want you to go through the same thing as me.
Two: I shall now follow my own advice and post the fic ideas that I've rewritten. They're fragmentary, un-beta'ed, kind of crappy, and subject to change. But they're my own form of backup. I'll never lose them completely again! Here they are, in all of their glory....

(Remember, these are VERY fragmentary, and aren't to be taken as any indication of my writing ability, or lack thereof. D: )

Random dialogue for an unnamed Death Note fic, a meeting between Yagami Raito and a grown up Kagami Taro (that kid from the pilot chapter, available in volume 13 of the manga - it's awesome, read it!)

( Read more... )

This was supposed to be a series of drabbles involving a hospitalized Sai (one who has come back to life after being a ghost, but being interned in the psych ward), and, later on, Shindou Hikaru, who is also hospitalized (but due to a car accident or something).

( Read more... )
I swore to myself that I'd entice more people to read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell with this fic. Again, it's only in it's point-form idea style, but... I"m proud of it.
(Why isn't the LJ cut working...?! D: I shall edit later! Give me a moment!)

Here's the remnants of the apple of my eye, my idea for a Naruto X Harry Potter crossover. I think it kind of explains itself... it's very chaotic, though, kind of beginning as a summary of events I want to include, but seguing into actual dialogue and narrative later on, then switching back to planning style... yeah, it's messed up, but there you are...
(Gah! Why isn't this one working either?! D: Okay, fine, I'll post them down there....)

If anybody has any comments/ideas/suggestions for these fics, please include them! :DD
(On a more bizzare note, I've never yet had the opportunity to use my "I'm having a bad day" avatar yet. Is it sad that I'm kind of happy to finally have the opportunity to use it? So there's that, at least.)

Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: "Dogs and Angels" - Wolf's Rain OST