Eclectic Thoughts

2009: The Writing, The House, and The Monies

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:44:20 GMT

Posting this a little early this year. I joined the Absolute Write web forum, and they do a monthly "Blog Chain", where everyone who participates posts about a particular subject or theme, in order, and includes links to the others. Please take a moment to read at least the person who came before me and the one who will come after me, as noted below. Of course, you're welcome to read all...might find some new interesting blogs to read, especially if you are into writing. :-) So the theme for the December chain was "Wrap up List for 2009. How was your year in terms of writing/reading/personal goals, or for anything else you may want to talk about." This one isn't the same as my usual overall review, which does the good/bad/in-between, but just a general look at my writing, house renovations, and finances over the year. :) I'm skipping the reading part of the theme because, well, I read like crazy! While I lost the "Books in a Year" list, I'd estimate I've read at least as many as last year (which was 497), having reread many of my manga series as well as new ones, several novels of course (some rereads), and working through some non-fiction books on Japan.

Writing

I would have to say that 2009 has been an overall awesome year for me writing wise. My poor manga/anime review blog, Animania was neglected for most of the year, with only six reviews posted. Really need to refind my mojo there. I have several reviews planned, I just keep not getting around to writing them. Probably doesn't help that I realize it has few, if any, readers, which makes it a bit depressing. I've debating moving it to LJ, but I really don't want to pay for a second account and I refuse to have ads all over it. Hopefully, the planned renovation of my personal site will help.

I made a lot of progress with my novel writing. I finished the first round of editing of Broken Wing, and began putting them into the computer while doing the second round. I even posted a bit for critique at Absolute Write, though I only got one response. For this year's NaNo, not only did I finish writing the first draft of my second complete novel, Aisuru, To Love, but I also won my very first NaNo!!! It felt so awesome! I have that one printed up and sitting away for editing next year. I'm looking into being our region's ML, since we've gone without for the last two years. I also joined Absolute Write, in hopes that being more involved in a writing community might help encourage me in my writing. Also thinking about joining the Brazos Writers group, which does monthly meetings and various events. At the least, I plan to attend one of their meetings (which are open to visitors) to see how I like it.

For my Wikipedia writing, I created 22 articles this year. Mosts were just list splits from main articles or other lists, but three were brand new articles that I carefully worked on in my sandbox before launching so that they launched as nearly completed articles: Wolf: A Journey Home, Lad, A Dog (the novel), and Lad, A Dog (the film adaptation). All three earned Did You Know credits along with ten other articles I worked on, and the first and last are now Good Articles. I also took six additional articles to Good Article status, including U-Drop Inn, Hershey Creamery Company, our own Post Oak Mall, and the The Fox and the Hound (novel) (despite the Disney Vandal's efforts). Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins and Shojo Beat became my third and forth featured articles, respectively. Probably my biggest achievements, though, revolve around Tokyo Mew Mew. It's main article became my second featured article in October. Its chapter list had hit featured list status in December 2008, while a year of crazy work came to fruition on the character list when it became featured in May, and then the episode list in September. With that final featured list, Tokyo Mew Mew became my second ever featured topic in October. :-)

The House

I've now spent over a year in my new house, and I'm finally getting settled in. The kitchen renovation is still very much "in progress", but its usable. The bottom base cabinets are painted inside and out. After initially stripping, painting, and rehanging the old doors, I of course discovered that the old doors + the new hinges worked on non-closing doors. Considering the low quality of the old doors, I decided that the best option is to just wait for now until I can pull together the $400 it would cost to get all new shaker-style cabinet doors with matching drawer fronts from a local company in Brenham. This would include having all the upper cabinet doors as ones with glass fronts (though it doesn't include the glass itself). Sometime before that, I'll need to remove the upper cabinet doors and get those painted inside and out.. I'm really hoping that by the end of 2010, not only will I have done this, but also gotten the tile on the floor and the backsplash repaired and tiled. With Ab's help, I might also get the lighting in (or if my brothers actually come for Christmas next year ;-) ).

I also met at least one other house goal, chain sawing down those damned bushes beside my porch. Of course, the stubs are still there and need removing, but it still is better than it was. Also got the security system installed, which added to my sense of security. Despite taking far longer than it should, I have finally recleared out most of the front gardens, though I will need to get pots, salvage my dusty millers, and pretty much destroy the front left garden to kill that damn mint. Of course, there was way too much I just couldn't get done. The drainage issues on both sides of the house are still there. The garage door opener is still the same pain in the ass one that drives me crazy, as I couldn't replace it and the door yet. The driveway is still cracked and in need of replacement. Despite my repairing it once already, the toilet is again requiring you to manually push down the floating thing for it to refill. New toilet is also on my 2010 list. With the incident with my grass getting out of control, the front walk way is in even worse shape, and of course I still haven't put in a second walkway from it to the driveway. The other big bushes are still there on the side of the house, and I haven't gotten the new trees I want in the front and back yards, and the one I did get in, my bird of paradise, died. :-(

Financials

Financially, I managed to pay off all my debt except the Lowe's account, student loans, and mortgage. Closed several accounts even. But by the end of the year, I'd built up more debt, including some new accounts. I now have about $13k in credit debt, plus the mortgage and student loans. While my savings over the year sucked, I did manage to get my Roth IRA started and some funding done before I decided it was time to focus first on the debts. Some of it was medical and car expenses, some vet expenses, a few gifts, and of course some was splurging first on my new Wii and then on the seemingly infamous $1200 Canon T1i dSLR (which for some reason, some people blame AB on though it was fully my choice and idea to do...all I did was ask him if it was a good deal). On the whole, though, its not as bad as it probably sounds. I'm already well on track to get things back on track in 2010 thanks to some changes I made at the end of the year, like getting a much cheaper parking space, dropping the gym membership, etc. Despite the federal tax increase that hits my paycheck in January (up some $50-60 bucks), my take home is up and I'll be paying off two of my credit debts in January, and a third in February. I also intend to be much more aggressive in paying down the rest over the coming year, loosely following the Dave Ramsey plan, even if it means not getting the house work noted above done. Depending on my income tax refund, I'm hopeful that I will be able to get at least two more paid off in the next year, and still be able to do some house work. Another plus is I got some new accounts this year, one with no balance, one with a very small one (one of the ones that will be paid off by February). Once the others are paid off, my credit score will soar because my debt to available credit ratio will go down. :-D

The Chain:

Lost Wanderer - http://www.lostwanderer5.blogspot.com
Claire Crossdale - http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/
coryleslie - http://corrinejackson.wordpress.com/
bsolah - http://benjaminsolah.com/blog
DavidZahir - http://zahirblue.blogspot.com/
RavenCorinnCarluk - http://ravencorinncarluk.blogspot.com
Ralph Pines - http://ralfast.wordpress.com/
shethinkstoomuch - http://shethinkstoomuch.wordpress.com
Lady Cat - http://www.randomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.com
truelyana - http://expressiveworld.com
misaditas - http://misaditas-novels.blogspot.com/ (PREVIOUS)
laharrison - http://lesleyharrison.wordpress.com/ (NEXT)
beawhiz - http://beawrites.wordpress.com
razibahmed - http://www.blogging37.com
FreshHell - http://freshhell.wordpress.com
AlissaC - http://alissacarleton.blogspot.com
Aimee - http://writing.aimeelaine.com
Forbidden Snowflake - http://www.alleslinks.com

Writer's Block: Voulez-vous parler ...

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:25:48 GMT

What’s the first thing you do when you log into your computer everyday?

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View 639 Answers

English and a smattering of Spanish and Japanese. I would really like to learn Japanese. When I FINALLY get my desktop back online, or buy myself a personal laptop for home, I will finally install my Rosetta Stone software and get to it. As for why? Because I watch so much anime, I'd love to not have to rely completely on subtitles to know what they are saying. :-)

A Different Kind of Dear Diary

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:09:09 GMT

Dear LJ,

I have not abandoned you, I swear! I'm still recovering from NaNo and have just had a hard time sitting and typing for more than a few moments, plus all the time I've spent away from the comp lately enjoying Ab's delightful company. Going to try to get a good long update posted soon, but until then, just know I still love thee! :-)

~ Your erstwhile author

First Win!

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:13:00 GMT

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WON MY FIRST NANO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still not quite done with the last bit, but at 50,061, I win!! :-D ~dancing like a fool~ I'll post the last bit in awhile. After I enjoy the cheesecake being delivered to me shortly :-D

50222 / 50000 words. 100% done!

Writer's Block: First Things First

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:20:15 GMT

What’s the first thing you do when you log into your computer everyday?

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View 639 Answers

I have a batch file I run that starts my email program (or programs on the work comp), IM program(s), IE, FireFox, and at work WinAmp. I then go through my emails, and in FireFox I open Wikipedia and go through my watchlist since the last time I checked it (which I keep recorded), doing any reverts/corrections needed and replying to any discussions of interest. In another tab, I check my Facebook. If I have any Google Mail, I'll check that in a third tab, and in a forth I'll check my Google Reader to see what interesting bits there are on the 10-15 RSS feeds I'm subscribed too. At work, I'll open two more tabs with our project management software (Teamworks) and our internal Wiki. Once I'm done with emails and Wikipedia, I can start my day. :-)

On another topic, for the Black Friday deal, I'm thinking I'm going to get one of the Tom Toms. I tried all three at BestBuy tonight before my NaNo write in. The Tom Toms had nicer screens and I like their maps a little better for my way of dealing with directions. The 540S is nice because it has a 5" screen and it was much brighter than the 730. It also got good reviews online. The 730 is more expensive, but smaller, the screen was dimmer (sales guy couldn't explain why). The main thing the higher price gets is the Bluetooth capability and voice commanded address book (but no other commands). While the Bluetooth would be nice for hands free cell phone use, I think I'd rather save the $30 and get the bigger, brighter screen.

My First Black Friday?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:28:59 GMT

Woops! Since I accidentally posted this (was a private entry note to myself), guess I'll go ahead and fill this entry out a bit more. :-) I have never, ever done the whole Black Friday shopping thing. Just seemed crazy to me. However, this year, I am planning to hit BestBuy to get a few goodies. Hopefully it won't be too insane. Pretty much definite buys:

Either the Garmin Nuvi 255WT GPS Navigation System for $129.99. Tom Tom 540S Portable GPS Navigation System for $149.99 or Tom Tom GO 730 Portable GPS Navigation System - $174.99 - I'm still trying to decide which I like more and may go by there this weekend to try them all out before then
The Linksys Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router w/4-Port Switch (Model # WRT160N) for $59.99 - my old one just is NOT cutting it anymore
Gran Turino on DVD for $6.99 and maybe some Wii games if any good ones are in the sale section

I'm also debating trying to grab the Toshiba 16" Laptop w/Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 3GB DDR3 Memory, 250GB Hard Drive that they are selling for only $399.99. I've read online that the stores will only have 4, or I'd get my mom one too cause that is just a kick ass price. Of course, I'd horrify most folks by probably reformatting the hard drive and installing Windows XP instead of the Windows 7 it comes with. Main reason for this is the whole Sophos thing and getting a new work laptop that will replace my work desktop and laptop. If I had my own laptop at home, I wouldn't even have to deal with taking this one home, nor have to worry about my employers possibly spying on any personal activities conducted while at home since it is still state equipment. Of course, that Mac for $999 was also tempting, but trying to at least be practical. So if I get all four, I'm going to throwing out a couple hundred dollars the day after Thanksgiving...wee!

For you Black Friday experienced folks - just how early do you really have to get there to get these deals?

My First Wii Playing

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:46:29 GMT

Tonight, I finally got to play my Wii! First, I managed to get it online to do its updates (yay). Then, after getting ready for tonight's NaNo write in, I had an hour to kill, so I popped in the Wii Sports game and gave the Bowling game a try. That was so fun! My first game, I did okay, but by the second I'd gotten the hang of it and managed to make six strikes!

Too cool! The second game I did a 172. Very fun, though I felt kinda stupid cheering for myself in the house when I got a strike or spare (and Yuki just kept staring at me like I was nuts). I've added quite a few games to my wish list, but for now, I think I can have a lot of fun with just Sports and Mario Kart. Now I just need to figure out how to get online to play with folks (anyone else with a Wii that they have online access with?) I browsed the Shop channel and saw lots of goodies I want to get, once I can get the retro controllers and some Wii points. It was a good purchase. The three games of bowling felt like doing the real thing, without the heavy ball. By the third game, I was breathing hard and my back was hurting. I also went to the Fitness thing to do my Wii Fit age - 64...very sad...I is so out of shape. Hopefully will improve once I have cleared up the rest of this chest congestion and my back isn't hurting as much :-P

My dad got his juicer today and called to say thank you :-) Glad I switched to that, since he needed it. I was surprised when I told him about my accident, cause I figured he'd find someway to blame me, but all he said was to stalk the Petco lot for three hours on Sunday to see if she comes back, and to always get the license plate number first thing if you're in an accident cause people often drive off if they can. Now I just need to get this photo book done for his Christmas present. I just wish the Blurb software would let you change the size of the book after the fact, cause I'd like to do a smaller landscape one than the one I chose, but I don't want to start all over again either :-P

Wii wii wii

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:43:37 GMT

I felt like crap at work today. My back is still hurting from the accident, and I think I caught a cold from a coworker. My throat is scratchy and I feel blech. During the work day, the BestBuy service guy called me to give me a return number for my television. Also got a call from Dish Network. Last night, I had to call them late to report continued problems with my satellite dish (just a sucky week for me all around). They are coming tomorrow afternoon to realign my dish. The service folks gave me a "window" of 12-5, but the actual service guy later called to let me know that he probably wouldn't be there until close to five so I wouldn't have to take half a day off work. Thought that was nice of him. After work, though I didn't feel any better, I headed to BestBuy to deal with the TV. The first service person I talked to started all the paper work. Stand and watch, occasionally answer questions. Eventually, when he's done getting numbers out of the system then typing them back in, and printing copies of my original receipt and some other papers, he calls over someone from the television section to let me go pick out my new television. I can get the current "comparable" model, meaning the same size and make television with the same or slightly better features, for my warranty. I can also upgrade to a new television if I pay the difference between that model's cost and the one I want.

Well, the comp was, of course, the newer version of my original model, which now sells for only $750 instead of the $1200 I originally paid (before all the other stuff was added in with the original purchase). I could switch brands for another $10-50, but after talking with the sales girl, I decided to give Samsung another try and went with the comp. Back to the front we go to finish up the paperwork. I deal with person 3 until the salesgirl gets back from checking to make sure that one was in stock, then stand and wait for her to do more paperwork. Stand...stand...watch her walk back and forth...stand...enjoy the great smelling mobile sales guy who walked by...stand...stand...think the guy who just came in to exchange Up was cute....stand...answer a question...stand...and finally she was done with all the data stuff in three different systems and we get down to setting the installation appointment. So they are coming in tomorrow afternoon to do the work, removing the old television then installing the new and getting it reconnected again. I did, however, have to buy a new service plan if I wanted it on the new television. Since the first one had cost me $160, and ended up saving me about $1000 on the cost of a new television, I decided it had earned its worth and bought the new one (now only $140 due to the new set's lower purchase price).

While she's finishing up, I mention that I currently have three components installed on the television, and ask if I bought a Wii today, would they also install it for free with the rest. She confirmed they would. So once all the signing was done and I had my paperwork, I headed to electronics and called mom to get her advice. Another 15 minutes or so later, I left with a new Nintendo Wii and Mario Kart. :-D I have already started adding new Wii games to my Amazon wish list, and I'm looking forwarding to playing it tomorrow evening. I'm also looking forward to playing my mom remotely, after she's feeling a little better and taron316 can go by and help her get it set up on the Internet. Since I know several of y'all have Wii's, any recommendations on good games? I'm especially curious about what its like playing RPG and action/adventure type games on it, versus sports (since I've played the latter some). I also plan to pick up the sports pack come payday, just didn't want to put anything else on credit tonight.

Meanwhile, I'm going to go take some cold medicine and hope I feel better in the morning, else I'm working from home all day instead of just half a day.

Two Pictures

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:04:34 GMT

Two images to share...the first, a bit of funniness with Word's spell checker and my NaNo novel:

The second, is not so funny...definitely my worst week on Weight Watchers EVER. My confession:

Loving My Own Face

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:33:10 GMT

To combat my adult on-set, oily skin+stress-triggered acne, I picked up two facial cleaners. I used the first, Biore's Warming Anti-Blackhead Cleaning Cream when I got back from the store. It felt so good! While you are applying it, it becomes warm, even hot in your hands. The heat felt great and had a nice relaxing effect. It also left my skin feeling soft and smooth for hours and it smelt great too. The second I picked up was Clean and Clear Continuous Control Acne Cleaner, which was one of the only ones I could find at Wal-mart that had Benzoyl Peroxide, since the Oxy pads and other stuff I used, which all used Salicylic Acid as the active ingredient, hadn't worked. The Benzoyl is more drying on the skin, but with my oily face that may be a good thing. It didn't have as nice a smell, or feel quite as good going on, but once it was rinsed off, my skin felt even softer! I wish I had someone to rub my face against...oh, look, Fusion just jumped on the sofa! ~emergency kitty cuddles~

*ahem* Fortunately, she's used my oddness and just gave me a lick or two in return :-) Seriously, though, I keep touching my face cause it usually doesn't feel so nice! Anyway, while I out, I also picked up some antifreeze for the car, as its light has been coming on the last few mornings. I got the premixed stuff GM recommends, and a funnel. Both are sitting on the trunk so I'll remember to fill the car before I go to work in the morning, since you have to do it while the car is cold. I probably looked rather odd checking out with the combo of items there, plus one can of light chicken soup (only 2 points!) for dinner. Hoping the antifreeze was just low from the car's age, and not a leak...really do not need anything else to be broken. From there, I went first to CVS then to Walgreens to get a 14 day pack of generic Prilosec OTC. I've had bad acid reflux the last two days, which has made me burp like crazy and probably drive a few folks nuts. I've taken probably 20 Rolaids + 1 Pepcid AC in the last 24 hours, to no avail. Hopefully this will work. My mom said it was the best non-prescription stuff available. Per the instructions, I'll take my first dose in the morning. Cross those fingers.

Week is half over and the stress is just as high as usual, specially as I'm in a waiting mode on almost all of my projects, which has me getting antsy and too bored (leading to me over eating). Also learned that the best practices for Mach-II had apparently changed, but the documentation hadn't been updated yet, so basically the apps we've started and my 60% done SRAC v2, have been done "wrong" in that our listeners should be split into the listener and the new service layer. Decided I'm just going to leave it as and continue the way the docs had. It works for me, and I really don't want to rebuild. Hard enough learning both Mach-II and jQuery all at once. Maybe later, after we've added in ColdSpring and maybe Transfer.

On the hopefully good side, the BestBuy service tech is due to come by tomorrow afternoon to finally fix my TV! He called this morning to confirm an appointment, but no one had ever called me to set it so I was already heading out to work at the time. I've also set my appointment with my dentist for Friday afternoon to get my permanent crown put in. Those of you have them, did it hurt when they did the switch? I'm not going to be sedated this time, just getting the gas and presumably numbing of the gums. Anyway, off to sleeps for me...night night

NaNo Update

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:20:48 GMT

Tonight's session was not very productive, unfortunately, due to calls from CJ and my own lack of focus and proper preparation. I got about 600 words done, but as it leaves of sort of mid-scene, I'll wait to post it to the NaNo filter after tomorrow's session.

4269 / 50000 words. 9% done!

Extremely Random Poll

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:10:44 GMT

Inspired by a Pillsbury commercial

View Poll: #1479160

Me...I love the middle! Soft and perfect...especially when the pan is still just a little warm :-D

Cable Internet Speed Tests...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:54:06 GMT

And for this I'm paying $60 a damn month? Grrr.... If all I'm getting is this, I want a lower price, especially when it is blatantly obvious they are blocking my upload speed. I'm supposed to be getting 8 MB download speeds...not by a long shot there.

Bugging Suddenlink now via their online chat...Suddenlink is very stupid. To set up your account, they give you all of four security question options...

What is the name of your childhood friend?
What is the name of your favorite grade school teacher?
What is the first name of your first kiss?
What was your favorite place to visit as a child?

Because, you know, everyone remembers such details about their childhood when they are past their 30s. Shit, I barely remember my teens anymore! Argh...but if you don't pick one of those, they won't set up your PIN to get online account access. Get a clue Suddenlink...there is a reason most places also have questions about people's adult lives....

Anyway, so now they are like, "well you've been paying it for a year." And we can do some tests and stuff because on our end we claim you get 8 MB download speeds...right....that's a max of just under 3 megs there. And yep, my upload is capped at 563 (what kinda weirdo number is that). I could downgrade to their 1 MB download/263 upload package, for only $32.95, which would save me about $20 a month. I suspect, though, considering the crappy speeds I'm getting NOW, that at 1 MB, I'd be at no better than dialup. *sigh* If you have a choice, don't choose Suddenlink....wish we had more!

NaNo 09 and Christmas

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:53:28 GMT

Its almost here...NaNoWriMo starts in just over five days. Wee!!!! Getting excited. Don't forget, if you want on the NaNoWriMo filter, let me know. :-) Let's see...I posted a few times last week, so not sure I have any other work updates to do. I started the admin side of the new version of SRAC, learning how to do plug ins in Mach-II, as well as learning how to use subroutines to simplify templating. I finished writing the last of the ColdFusion 8 Advanced training sessions I need to do, which I'll teach Thursday. I hate that it had so many delays, but I think on the whole its been a good thing. After the last one is done, I'll clean them all up and republish them in a single doc for even easier referencing.

I was really happy to see that Scarecrow and Mrs King will be coming to DVD in 2010! Been a long long wait...now just wish someone would release Lassie. :-P The new inspired me to do some clean up on its Wikipedia article. Also, after three weeks of working, I launched another from scratch article (getting those writing juices going). The article is one of my favorite novels, Albert Payson Terhune's Lad: A Dog (because of technical issues, though, it is called Lad, a Dog in the article name). It is already up for DYK, and I've nominated it for good article. Eventually will go for FA after I get some more content - I have two books on Terhune to go through on hold at Evans to pick up. I have opened my own Gmail account...more sheeping :-P For now, just using it for Craigslist stuff and mailing lists. Not sure it has much other purpose really, but its there.

My baby, Yuki, is sick. Her skin is looking horrible, and I found one patch near her neck where she was even bleeding. It looks like the same skin problem she had as a puppy. She is also looking horribly skinny and underweight. I had some of the medicine from when she was sick last year left over, so I used it on her. It made her puke all of her dinner up last night and this morning though :-( So now not letting her eat until tomorrow to let her stomach settle. I also wiped her skin with the iodine stuff I had left over since it was still good. I'll take her to the vet after payday or if I get this bike sold. Had one lady offer $125...ridiculously under bid, but oh well. Its cash.

Still working on my dad's birthday book. For Christmas, I'm either getting him a new juicer or a new microwave, if he doesn't get it for himself first. Taron already knows what he's getting LOL. I have an idea of what I want to give my mom, especially if she can't make it here for Christmas this year...but not telling ;-) Pretty much everyone else (yeah, all of three people) will get gift cards and probably my usual gift bags with a few gourmet chocolates and other yummies. Since it is almost November, I've also been preparing my Christmas list on Amazon. It has just under 30 items...but let's highlight some random goodies because...well, I can and I'm bored :-P

Calphalon 8" Square Baking Pan - $12.99 Realized this week...I don't have one! doh	Panasonic 1250 Watt, 1.6 Cubic Foot Sensor Cook Microwave - $140 At about 10 years old, my old 850 watt is just barely hanging on
G.I. Joe Complete Series Set - $149.99 Okay, no "useful" value, but still a fun thing :-)	3-Light Galileo Island Fixture - $150 I want this in my dining room to replace the ugly chandelier
Soda Sku Mid-Calf Boots - $27.00 Too cute! Though I need to check the measurements for size to see if I need a 9 or higher	Decent Quality Coffee Maker - $20-50 Alas, my current one just will not lose the nasty taste left from my neglecting to empty it for too long boo; wanting basically a digital timer, easy use, and 2-5 cup capacity for doing my morning cup of coffee

Of course, best present would be my mom back in Texas for good, but don't think that will happen this year :-(

Random Gas Bills

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:57:48 GMT

Just got my monthly gas bill:

Current Charges: $20.88
Total Amount Due: $2.95

Huh? So go look online...last month my bill was $17.93, which I paid. On this month's bill it says: Cancel Bill (-) -17.93 ?? Not that I mind, but nothing on the bill explains why it was suddenly canceled...tempted to just pay the $21 just to be safe...

Backish

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:22:09 GMT

I'm back online, mostly. Still groggy and slow moving. Love IV sedation, don't remember much of the visit at all except sitting in the waiting room some, the nurse with the pretty shirt saying "bite down" and "open wide" before and after (respectively), and only vague memories of the trip home. So far, no pain, but have prescription pain killer and antibiotics for later. Apparently, though, I do have my mom's tiny veins cause the dentist had trouble finding it. When he did, said "its a itty bitty thing" :-P Last thing I remember of the procedure other than the "open wide" as the nurse was disconnecting me and prepping me to go, being in the wheel chair, and Mary Ann helping me out of her SUV and to the door. Once she left, I let Hershey out of her kennel and then I was gone. I think I ate some applesauce too. Woke up around 1 cause she brought me back my meds from the pharmacy, again around 3 to use the bathroom, then slept more, woke up around 5:45, let my poor babies outside then fed them dinner.

Texted some folks to let them know I was okay, texted Mary Ann to let her know I was awake, and texted CJ to see if he could bring food. Mary Ann was going to bring me something on her way from work, but I slept through her call and didn't want to make her come back out. CJ was out of town, but gave me his card number so I could order in. Ordered some potato skins, cheesecake, and a root beer from FatBurger (bad and I don't care :P) Now just propped up on the sofa with the laptop. My mouth is still really dry and the temporary crown will take a little getting used to (it doesn't hurt, but it doesn't feel like my other teeth either). No pain so far, and hopefully will stay away until I can get some food in me and take my first antibiotics and stuff.

Wee.....

Almost time and Week in Review

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:58:49 GMT

Just under 10 hours before I head off to the dentist's office for my first root canal and crown. I'm almost looking forward to it purely because the IV Sedation will mean that for at least a few hours this week, I will be completely, and totally, relaxed, and afterward, I should pretty much sleep the whole day. To ensure there is no zaniness from the loopy me, I'll be hiding my laptop in the morning so that, hopefully, I'll have to have regained my senses before I can find it and get back on it :-P Three weeks from then, or so, I'll go back for the permanent crown. I'm not sure if my crown will be silver, gold, or porcelain. Since its a front tooth and considering the cost, I seriously hope its the latter as it will look like the real tooth.

This week, as a whole, was another long and stressful one. Really feeling overloaded at work. While its in some good ways, even good stress is too much when its too much. Monday I did my very first "patch roll out", having moved the Bookstore to using our version control the week before. So now, any fixes, changes, etc are done only on a weekly basis unless its a critical bug fix. Monday's patch had a lot of stuff in it, and then I had to do a few quick on the fly fixes of my patch (still getting the hang of it). Also had some fixes to do to EVR based on a meeting we had last week, which I was able to mostly get through very quickly once I was able to focus on it. And, of course, writing on this week's training, which I did pretty much every night this week. It was the longest training module I've done yet, spanning 41 pages, 29 examples, and taking me some 15-20 hours, at least, to write as I heavily supplemented Adobe's spartan coverage of several tags added in ColdFusion 8. I had to go really fast to cover it all in the 3 hour span I had, and my poor throat was so tired (as was the rest of me). I came home and collapsed on the sofa for a nap.

This week I also had the fun of dealing with trying to figure out how to help a guy get his order in Juneau, Alaska. This, however, was not a normal order, but a huge one, weighing over 140 lbs and costing over $2000 (and he was considering buying even more!). Normally, Alaska (along with Hawaii and Puerto Rico) are places we only ship USPS to, but with that much weight, the shipping calculator couldn't figure out the shipping. So after lots of phone calls and checking, found the Post Office only allows up to 70 lbs there, and that was doing Parcel Post. Obviously we aren't shipping that much merchandise an uninsured, slow-boat-to-China method. So more calls, more checking, and eventually got the go ahead to add in Alaska as a place we ship Ground to, as we had Ground rates for them (roughly 3 times our normal ground, but still). So did that. Now, because the UPS' API sucks wad, we can't use it for our UPS shipping calculator because it can't feed out our negotiated rates. So all UPS calculation is done on our end, using a trio of tables that contain the UPS zones, the UPS rates per pound for up to 30 lbs for those zones (so 31 entries per zone), and a huge table mapping every zip code in a zone to that zone. So I did that for Alaska, adding 57 zip codes for the state by hand. But, when I went to test, it still couldn't calculate shipping for his order. So more checking...and Juneau is not a place UPS does ground too because of its location! *head smack* More calls back and forth, more discussion, and the clients decide that for those specific areas of Alaska (which UPS calls "Intra-Alaska"), we will ship UPS Second-Day Air. So another zone added, another set of 31 prices, and then 267 more zip codes. With that, we were able to get his shipping calculated and his order on its way at last! And, after all that, he ended up reducing how many items he ordered, so the order was just under $1000, but as he is with a University up there, hopefully we'll get more business from him now that its an easy process again. :-)

Beyond that, it has been cold and rainy in Texas this week...it is SEPTEMBER, not January. Blech. It was actually 57 last night and I turned on my gas heater for awhile to remove the chill from the air. Of course, with the rain, my two big idiot dogs keep sitting in the mud to wait for me to let them back in, instead of the big 10x10 square of clean wood, or the cement path that runs beside it. *doh* Of course, that means that when they come in, they are quickly popped in their kennels until they dry, so I get sad looks. Hershey is easier, being so tiny and less inclined to foolishly stand or sit around in wet dirt. She just needs a quick drying. I'm not really looking forward to seeing what this rain does to my grass, which I had cut the sprinklers off too. At least pouring that weed killer concentrate on some of that weird stuff did actually kill it (just need to go pull it up), so hoping that I'll have a little extra money on payday to at least get some weed killer, though I'm really hoping to get some grass/weed killer so I can basically massacre my entire front lawn.

Oh, and BestBuy came out and looked at my TV. Amused that the service guy's name was John. Anyway, he ordered a new circuit board for the TV, as well as a new panel that has the buttons for controlling the channels and volume (which I didn't even know it had because it blends in so well!). He also showed me that I can actually lift up my TV about 25-30 degrees to unplug it from the wall and access the cable connectors, which would be really cool...cause that means I can get a Wii without paying BestBuy $100 to put it in! And it just went down in price! But first, gotta get other stuff out of the way...maybe for my birthday I'll be able to get it. Anyway, he'll be coming back October 6th to install the new parts, so I just have to endure my TV's randomly going spastic until then.

What if I Won?

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:03:21 GMT

Since most of my posts of late have been rather down, thought I'd do one that was a little more whimsical. :-) So HGTV is running the Great Fall Fix-up Sweepstakes with a prize of $75,000 to use for renovations (you can enter every day) Now, they don't actually restrict you to using that money for renovations, and while the likelihood of my winning is like .0000000001%, I though ti might be to fun to contemplate, what would I do with that money if I did win. First, of course, take out 35% for taxes (presume the worse), which brings it down to $48,750. Where does the rest go?

$10,000 to credit debt - clearing basically everything but my mortgage and my student loan
$20,000 to savings to bulk up that currently non-existent emergency fund
$2500 - get those drainage issues fixed at last
$1500 - new garage door and opener!
$3000 - finish my kitchen, paying someone else to repair my back splash's drywall, tile the floor and backsplash, fix those drawers/doors, put in my mixer lift, and get my door pulls :)
$500 - new toilet and vanity in the bathroom
$300 - get my lawn mowed, front garden cleared, and out damn bushes while in pretty trees
$500 - garage tiles installed
$3000 - upgrade fuse box and get some house rewriting to go with
$5000 - get the two doors removed from addition and the windows in the library; if have enough, also get the sliding glass door added on the back wall
$2450 - new driveway and maybe walkways if it can stretch that far

So there...I spent just under $50k, with only $20k actually being used for renovations, taking care of pretty much every project on my "5 year list", except the central AC and finishing the home office work I'd be starting. Of course, just dreaming, but if such a dream came true...I might just fall in love with my house again :-P What about you? If you won, would you spend it all on renovations, spend it on anything but or balance it out?

Strange Hole in My Yard

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:55:47 GMT

While cleaning a few weeds from my hideous yard (which now contains some strange, very tough type of grass), I found a hole in my yard, big enough to almost put my head in. Not sure if it was made by animal or if the ground collapsed. Took pictures though...

Patrick Swayze Died Today at 57

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:40:13 GMT

He finally succumbed to the pancreatic cancer

Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into viewers’ hearts with “Dirty Dancing” and then broke them with “Ghost,” died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given. >> full story

2 Hours from Mid-Week

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:26:32 GMT

Man, I spammed my Facebook wall today :P Seems like when I'm not playing games, I'm using it primarily as a Twitter-like thing and making random posts about things. Today, I posted quite a bit about web dev stuff, while I explored some ERD tools for database design. Work lately is certainly interesting and exciting, but also exhausting. I did my first bit helping with the existing AgriLife People/PerDir that I mentioned before and that Karsten and I redesigned the database of on Friday. OMG that application sucks! We started working this week on redoing the application as well, with the plan being to do it in Mach-II. I made more progress with SRAC v2 in Mach-II, getting their simple, "Google-like" search up and running. All that is left to finish the user side is the survey. For its administration side, I started doing some feeling around and it looks like I'll be exploring plug-ins next.

My TV has been turning itself off randomly some nights for months, which I may have noted before. Today, it randomly turned itself on some 6-7 times while I was attempting to nap. *argh* Their stupid half-English typing online tech support was useless and told me to send in a service request, but of course the warranty expired last month. I need to check and see if I got the extended warranty with BestBuy (I would certainly think I would have for such an expensive purchase) to see if maybe they can figure out what's going. I thought it was the remote, but it did it even when I took the batteries out. While I was writing this, it started again, changing channels then turning itself off and on. *sigh* Doing some Googling, this is apparently a fairly common problem with these types of TVs (across all brands). My article on the novel White Dog is now a good article at Wikipedia. Yay! So far, the List of Tokyo Mew Mew episodes looks to be on track for becoming a featured list as well, which will then let me get the whole set of Tokyo Mew Mew articles on their way to being a featured topic. More yay!

Lets see, in other news, still working on the bathroom. I managed to get the crack above the window sanded down (where the lazy asses threw a bunch of dry wall patches side by side instead of just putting in a new piece). I also somehow managed to finish taping the bathroom, though my mom probably would have freaked if she'd seen me. To get that corner I posted earlier, I stood on the toilet, and used the paint roller handle to push the tape into place. I the rest of the window to the tub, then to do around the tub and its ceiling, I had to perch on the edges of the tub while again using the roller. Fortunately, I managed not to fall and hurt myself. :-P Now I just need some plaster so I can clean up that sanded bit, then I can paint the rest of the bathroom. Good thing I take cool showers right now, or the steam would pull down my tape in the morning. Pictures when I'm done. For now, seeing what has been painted in the day is great. The bathroom is already much brighter!

I also tried to work on my yard some on Sunday. The front yard is just embarrassing. My trimmer couldn't do anything at all, so I went out with gloves and went along my sidewalk to rip out the grass growing over it by hand. I got a quote from a Craiglist poster for mowing the whole yard for $35, and another $20 to clean out my front garden's completely. *sigh* Just can't afford it until my reimbursement comes in. Guess it will be pretty much my only option unless CJ suddenly remembers he was supposed to mow my grass (not that it would fix the garden). I also need to mail back the pillows I got from Fingerhut - they sucked! They collapsed to nearly 1-sided as soon as my head hit them. Blech.

Kitchen Progress Pictures

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:22:35 GMT

First, a picture for my mom showing the canvas bag I got from Half Price that I use for grocery shopping and all my other shopping - see, its a really good size and very durable! If you think it would work for you, I'll send you a couple :-)

Now, pictures of the work I've been doing on the L cabinet!

This is an empty space beside my dishwasher - pretty much useless since there is no door to it

It was a little dirty from rubble from the counter removal last year - had to clean that out before painting the inside the same white I used in the other cabinets

Finally repainted the L part of my cabinets after sanding it - two coats later, I think its pretty

and here is it on the kitchen side - you can also see the painted inside. I think I'm going to leave the shelves out so that I can put taller stuff, like my bread maker and kitchen aid mixer in there.

Decided to also try the Butterscotch cream on the door and trim as well - now have a trio of colors...but which to choose???? I just can't decide

And Hershey cuteness!

The Garage Door - How I Hate It

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:42:10 GMT

So once again the garage door is acting up. For the last 4 days or so, anytime I've left the house, I had to open the garage, pull the car out, push the button, watch it refuse to close, argue with it for awhile, then finally get out of the car, go into the garage, close it manually from the wall switch, then walk through the house and out the front door (pausing to lock the door) and across the lawn back to the car. Yeah...I is not happy. So today I decided to price out the cost of not only a new garage door opener, but also a new garage door since its cheap, old, and ugly and I wanted to replace it one day anyway and might as well do both at once, right? Obviously, I'm too small to install a new garage door myself, and I don't feel like I could do a door opener either due to both height and lack of arm strength. So I looked at the Home Depot website, where they have a nice builder to customize your garage door for style, material, color, opener, and window type.

Going through that, I picked the Clopay Classic Line Premium Polyurethane 8'x7' door, which is a steel door with 1-3/8" polyurethane insulation (12.9 R-Value) in the middle. I picked a long panel design (basically two panels per row) and went with a gray color. They also had hunter green, but I thought that might be too much green for the house. I considered white as well, but not sure I want all white. For the windows, I went with their Prairie 610 design, with double-pane insulated glass. Of course, with the issues with the crappy garage door, I picked the top of the line opener, the Elite Series 3850 with a 12V Belt Drive motor (no more stupid chains!), a battery back up (no power, can still get my car in/out), a "smart" control panel, two remotes, and a keyless entry pad. From its catalog description: "Ultra-quiet...fast...powerful...designed to exceed expectations The 3585 features our fastest, most powerful motor and quietest drive system. The 3⁄4 HP motor provides strong lifting power while its revolutionary belt drive system provides ultra-quiet operation." Its having a LIFETIME warranty on the belt and motor also does not hurt. :-) I also went with a keyed lock for the door. Here is a picture of the finished door, in a model house (with a two car garage, but it was the model closest in style to mine)

Total installed cost would be just under $1400 (presumably plus tax) and according to their site would take about 2-3 hours for them to do. Not that "bad" a price, but oh I have so much other stuff I need to take care of. *sigh* Added to the long long list anyway. Depending on the income tax refund, maybe I can take care of it in February...though that is a long, long time of having to endure my crappy garage door misbehaving. Wish I had an actually handy male in my life who could maybe fix it enough to last until it could be replaced. :( Meanwhile, did discover that Sears "Blue Service Crew" will apparently repair garage door openers, for a starting price of $65. Cheaper, at least...but wonder if it has to be a Sears bought one, or if they will repair any one.

Kitchen Updates

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:52:29 GMT

Made more progress in my kitchen! Yay! I modified my earlier plans slightly and decided I might as well get the sink cabinet done while I'm working. So I cleaned out both cabinets to remove dust and debris from the tile removal, then lightly sanded the bottom of the sink cabinet. Wiped both clean and pulled out my white satin paint. I intended to do all the brush work, then go back with the roller to finish up. In the sink cabinet, though, I ended up painting the entire thing with a brush because of all the going around wires and pipes and stuff. Since it is just a sink cabinet, I'm not going to do a second coat. I just need to wait for it to dry, do a quick touch up on the sides where I rushed the yellow, then put everything back in and put the doors back on and done. I still haven't decided what to do with the little but above it where people usually have fake glued on door fronts. I'd like to put in one of those tip out trays, but not sure I'd have the room and I still need new fake fronts first.

For the L cabinet, I stuck to the original plan and used the brush only to paint the corners and edges and stuff. I'll go back and do the roller stuff later as an hour of brush painting left my arms hurting. :-P When that's done, I'll just need to paint the outside to get its doors back on, then paint the drawer and get it back in. I also need to pain the shelves if I decide to put them back in. I've been considering getting a mixer lift kit instead and putting it in that cabinet, since its already fairly useless for storage. If I do that, though, I'd have to get rid of the drawer as well. It would free up a nice bit of counter space that's occupied by my kitchen aid, though, and I think add value to my kitchen. Losing one drawer wouldn't be a huge loss since I had one I wasn't using as it is. Need to decide before I go through the effort of restoring the shelves...*think think think*

Meanwhile, time for dinner, some FB games, and hopefully start writing on my training for the week...and being very mildly annoyed at a certain someone who patched the servers and said to let him know if there were problems, then got annoyed when I did so because the Bookstore was gone. *sigh* Oh, forgot to mention, I also got three more boxes unpacked while putting stuff away in the cabinets I have already finished. :-D

My First Framework "App"

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:46:59 GMT

I got MachII working on the laptop and successfully did the "Hello MachII" first application! Okay, it isn't an app, but it made me happy :-) (I have the Mach II debugging turned on in the screenie). Too cool...now to see if I can do something "real"

Update 8:22 pm: I've now done more real stuff as I work through the documentation stuff, and successfully added some listeners and did a little log in screen!