Leafy Bits

Really?

So, for those not who haven’t heard yet, I found myself a job. It’s unfortunately, not in my field, but it’s something. I’m doing some css coding for a real estate website marketing place temporarily. In other words, if I find a job in my field, I only have to give them a week of warning and they’re cool, or if they think I suck, they can ask me to leave and I’ll do so gracefully. Three days though, and the work keeps coming, even got an account set up with a reseller. I guess I’m doing something right!

Hopefully though, as much as css coding is interesting and all, and I’m getting the chance to learn php here and there, I’ll be able to land a job in my field soon. But in the meantime, money is coming in and I can finally find my perfect apartment and get settled. Mel’s guestroom has exploded under my stuff since I can’t really put it anywhere. And I’d like to get my crap out of Steph’s house… although I’m sure she’s enjoying the dvds.

Surfing

When I have nothing pressing to do, I have absolutely no idea what to do with myself. I could be fixing random bits on websites, giving tamashii.org a fresh design, design an actual blog layout for the first time in years, etc.

Instead I surf. Mostly craft and cooking type blogs. One blog I found today has the most interesting recipes that I want to try out. justJENN has all sorts of dessert as well as lunch or dinner recipes that sound just delicious. There’s a banana muffin one there that I’ve gotta try.

Also, I have a need to get this for my dad. He has a small - ok very large - obsession with baseball caps, and was an avid hunter at one time. Unfortunately he hasn’t had much luck in the past couple years. It’s just random enough to get his evil smile going on and my mom will probably think it’s hilarious. My grandfather got a shirt shirt a long time ago from my aunt (who made it special for him). He still wears it. All it is, is a flannel shirt on which, are many tiny shirts. In his mind it’s the greatest thing ever.

Oh, and I’m naming the frog Chuck.

Because I think it’s amusing that I can call it Chuck the Frog. And if I think it’s amusing, my grandmother will think it’s awesome.

Kitties and litter

Maya is great, she really is… well except when she whines that I don’t feed her enough and then eats Abby and Loki’s food. She’ll be quite put out when she won’t have that luxury anymore. But the main thing that’s a pain and bothersome is litter. A requirement to keep plastic bags around to dispose of things since she does not like the flushable stuff.

This, however, looks promising. It completely eliminates the need for litter and disposal because it does it automatically. It’s essentially a kitty toilet. Since Maya enjoys partaking in drinking from our toilets, teaching her to use a regular toilet is a little difficult as I’d be worried she’d drink the toilet water after using it.

UF needs to hurry up and fax back the paperwork to NCSU. I’d like to not purchase litter and never have to forget my canvas bags at home again just to get plastic bags, but I need some income first to justify the purchase.

Of frogs and gators

Awhile back my grandmother sent me a photo of her newest addition to her household - a stuffed alligator. This alligator is ferocious and her new guard… reptile. The photo is taped onto my computer at the moment.

So, to go along with the theme, and her frequent stories of Fred and George (2 frogs that like to get into trouble with the law) I decided to make her a stuffed frog. From Hawaii - the fabric I happened to have around.

Of course he looks much better in person due to the pattern.

His story?

Fred and George were in Hawaii laying low for a bit when they met this guy. He decided their stories of Cooperstown were really interesting and decided to relocate.

Now… I need a name.

Paper crafts!

I was chatting with David the other day about papercrafts. He had made the ceiling cat, and was curious if I knew of any others. Finally remembered to look up the Howl’s Moving Castle Dan and I had made a few years ago (download, English instructions). In the search for English instructions, I ran across a few other paper crafts.

Going Merry - Ship from One Piece. I think Charamy might have a new project.

Katamari! - Well, at least the Prince. While the page is in Japanese, this one’s fairly simple.

Evil Button - Now this is just full of silly evil. Tempting though. OMG don’t press the evil button!

WoW - There’s some neat ones of wow related characters. Including a Pandaren Brewmaster!

Thwomp!

Nani Bird - These are cute! And look really easy.

Paperkraft, Papercraft World and Paper Forest are the best blogs I ran across today and have lots of other paper crafts to ensure you litter your house with bits of paper.

No more of the Florida

I’m currently sitting in the bear living room watching Maya prowl around without worry of Abby or Loki (the doggies). The drive up wasn’t too bad, had an issue with a tractor trailer blowing it’s tire out in front of me. My poor car now has a lovely dent, rubber marks, and missing paint on the front of it. Maya’s carrier has two doors on it, one on the front and one on the top. I was able to have the one on the top open for most of the drive to let her stretch up and check out the scenery. Only had a few meeuwws every hour, which is much better than the Miami>Gainesville move where she wouldn’t shut up for the first hour.

Last night was amusing with the doggies trying to figure out Maya, and Maya hissing and growling for the first time in years. Mel put her in my room behind a kid door so she could see the dogs but they couldn’t get to her. She got used to the room, stopped hiding under the bed after an hour or so taking the doggie walk as an opportunity to explore the house and get acclimated. After several quick visits to the room by me followed by me not staying to play she got brave (and lonely) enough to step outside the safety of the room and get within a foot or two of the dogs! She also braved coming down the entire flight of stairs and be far away from the sanctuary. So predictable, poor lonely Maya.

The next days/weeks will be spent trying to find work of some sort, apartments, and obtaining an apartment (probably after a job so I can actually pay for it). I finally get to decorate my own place, it’s exciting!

/hugs Charamy. I’ve moved around many many times, and it was only like #2 or #3 for you. I left 6 fabulous roommates in Syracuse, and many more in Florida (except those that move on me first! Not that anyone has ever come home from Christmas vacation telling me “Oh hay we bought a house in Texas, byes!” :3).

Oh, and my thesis is all done. I appear to have been lazy and didn’t post that. I was able to clear prior with some convincing of the graduate editorial office, and complete all my requirements a day early.

For Gals Only

Ok, this post is just for the gals.

Guys, go away.

No really.

If you’re curious ask your lady or lady friend before proceeding. They’ll probably assure you that it’s good to listen to me.

There are no boobs behind the cut, if you were wondering. Read the rest of this entry »

Habits

I’ve gotten into some terrible habits since working on my thesis. Sleeping in late, playing too many games, etc. Games were played mainly because by the time I was done trying to make sense of statistics, my brain refused to do much else than run around and kill things. Since I typically prefer waking up with the sun, rather than setting my alarm, less stress and brain over-use allows me to do that again. Waking up at 7 in the morning without an annoying beep or cellphone ring (I don’t actually have an alarm clock right now, I use my phone) is much more refreshing. I started up Final Fantasy 9 Friday night, last played as an undergrad, to get me off the computer. That worked really well, as I’m about 17 hours in.

Charamy is probably thrilled that her asking “hey wanna go see The Forbidden Kingdom” on Thursday was answered with a “hmmm… maybe, go find the times”. We went out, enjoyed a completely empty theatre for the show and got some chinese food after. It was the last day it was showing at that theatre, one of the smallest in Gainesville, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise it pretty much empty. I enjoyed it, even aside from the zomg fight scene that all the boys watched it for. Went in not knowing what the movie was actually about, just that Charamy wanted to see it. I was pleasantly surprised that it was another movie that used Journey to the West as inspiration.

One good habit that’s come around is bringing my canvas bags to the grocery store and regularly refusing plastic bags at stores like Borders and JoAnn’s. Borders actually asks if you need a bag, which is great, makes it easy since I don’t need to deal with people looking at me weird when I tell them I don’t need their plastic bag. Additionally, the baggers at Publix pack the canvas bags better than plastic ones. One bagger told me a few years back when I asked why they put 2-4 items in a bag - that while their bags are recycled, they often break if too much is placed inside. Unsure if this is something the baggers learn, or are taught, but regardless, it’s a good reason to avoid using the bags, even if they are recycled. I’d rather have 2-3 canvas bags full to the brim than 10-20 plastic bags holding the same amount of stuff.

There’s another issue I have had with disposable items, but that will be for another post in the coming week. But it’s hopefully another habit in the making. Charamy’s been getting the brunt of this discussion, which actually started waaay back as an undergrad with QQ (if she remembers). But it’s more of a not for boys post, so I’ll spare them for now - if they’ll pay attention to the warnings and take heed. :3

Of Clamp and Crossovers

After chatting with Steph a little yesterday, I decided that I could write up an entry about CLAMP’s works for when she and Mel (and others? >_>) officially become fangirls and expand their horizons. It’s probably really crappily done, but it should be good enough for a general overview.

Starting with the series that started them down the road of no return - xxxHolic. This has relatively few crossovers compared to Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa. Most are actually in the first volume. The staff Watanuki finds is from Cardcaptor Sakura, as are Sakura and Syaoran who appear at the end of the volume. Mokona is from Magic Knight Rayearth. The two males in the store are from Legal Drug. Later, Yuko makes mention in passing (unnamed) of a medium - which can be assumed to be Subaru (his character in alternate universes is in Tsubasa) from Tokyo Babylon and later X. Placing the series in the same “world” as other series (as per discussion yesterday), it’s likely in the same one as Tokyo Babylon and X, nearer in time to Tokyo Babylon than X for… reasons obvious if you read X. Of course the headsets from a later chapter are from Chobits. There are more, but those are the main ones.

Del Rey did a great job in Tsubasa documenting most all the crossovers in the back of each book. It has tons of crossovers in the form of items and characters from MKR, CCS, Clover, X, Clamp School Detectives, etc. Make sure to read those!

Read the rest of this entry »

Done. donedonedone

Well, done-ish. I successfully defended today, which means just a little more editing on my thesis and I will be officially graduating.

Since I drove all the way to Fort Lauderdale to defend, taking advantage of a meeting one of the committee members had to attend, I paid a visit to two places I’ve missed terribly. The first being Tate’s Comics, and the second Gabose. I was tempted to hit up the Thai place, but was lazy. Gabose has metal chopsticks now! That was a surprise. Unfortunately, I didn’t run into Tate when I went to Tate’s (>_>), but did run into Jo, so we chatted briefly. Might have to drop by on Saturday when I head out to David’s Bridal to finally buy that bridesmaid dress.

While I was there I picked up Cute Dolls and Cute Stuff. Finally have time to make random stuff again! (can make that kimono style bathrobe that the fabric for has been sitting at the dining room table for months… ).