Vicky

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:57:04 GMT

Lol.

I totally almost cut my finger off this morning. Good thing I have good reflexes, because a split second delay would have sent me for stitches!

So after I finished screaming and bleeding, I lol'd a lot.

WHO THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA FOR ME TO CUT APPLES WITH A SHARP KNIFE?!?! You'd think I'd know better by now. :D

Writer's Block: On the (Job) Hunt

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:59:34 GMT

What's the hardest part about looking for a new job?

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Trying not to take the rejections personally. Especially after 6 months of rejectoins.

Nerd post!

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:31:09 GMT

We got Muramasa in the mail today! Woohoo!

And we're only about 10 minutes into the game and I've determined I'm doing Momohime's costume sometime next year. If not Momohime, definitely one of the characters. I'm totally geeked out on this game already.

September 1

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:00:44 GMT

Tomorrow pre-registration for ACEN opens up. Additionally, they are opening up the Hyatt hotel room black. This year, the hotel is $165/night for two to four people. $155/night for one person. Factor in that Chicago just raised its sales tax to 10%. I don't know if Rosemont is included in the tax hike, but room tax is always pretty high. Which once tax and parking factored in, that's around $150 a person for the weekend, assuming you have 4 people. Just for the hotel room, not including food or the cost of a badge. I paid less than that for Otakon this year, and Otakon's rooms are in downtown Baltimore. Wow.

Considering the way I've gotten screwed over with the ACEN hotel rooms in the past - people not paying me enough or not paying me at all, among other things - I am very torn about this. I have 2 other cons in May of next year, so I'm going to be spending a ton of money as it is. With the hotel rates rising, and the fact that I'm still jobless and will be lucky if I can work for minimum wage, I just can't afford to get screwed as I have in the past. So, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Perhaps I will still go, but if I do, and I end up taking care of the room, I think I'm going to ask people to pay me before-hand. I will see. I still have some time to think about it. It also depends on what crowd I end up going with this year. I know that the extra cost could also affect Dawn's ability to come.

In other news, still no job. And it's cold out. And the fluxuating weather is making my knee ache like mad.

Dog sitting!

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:43:18 GMT

Whee~! I busted my butt earlier this week (mostly Thursday) to clean the place up a bit. Who would have ever thought I'd become this anal, anti-pile, wannabe organized, clean freak? My last place always seemed to be trashed, so perhaps it is my lack of wanting to live that way that is turning me into a psycho. Lol.

My parents went on vacation, and I volunteered to watch Heidi. She's pretty confused about why she's here with just me in a new place, but that's to be expected. She sat at the window whining for a bit after everyone left this morning, but mostly she's just been laying around. It's a pretty rainy and gloomy day, so that probably is not helping her energy. Then again, ever since her allergies got really bad, she's been pretty lazy.

With her and all my birds, it's quite the zoo in here. Just need a few cats and rabbits, and I could charge admission! :D

Hmm. I am in the mood to do something really fun since it is Friday. My only idea is shopping or working on my costumes. But I can do that any day! Suggestions?

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:33:04 GMT

Stupid tooth. Can someone (maybe you, once-aspiring dentist), please explain to me why it is that I had a cavity filled well over 3 months ago...and yet the spot is still sensitive? I'm very annoyed at the idea that I might have to go back to the dentist. Grr.

I am so lazy. I could be sewing or ordering more fabric (which I actually need to do), but instead I'm sitting here watching the Simpsons, and complaining on the Internets.

This is going to be a busy week. I have cleaning to do, a couple of meetings, a potential get-together, and I need to drive down and get the rest of the birds from my parents. They were watching them for me through the whole move. Two of my finches died - probably from age, I really don't know how old they were - but apparently there are two new babies. So the circle of life occurred in my birdcages, I suppose.

More rambling...

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:32:43 GMT

Hooray! My fabric for my hakama came today, and I ran to Hancock Fabrics to get some nice liner for it. I guess I forgot how thin bottomweight cotton fabrics are. Eeek! I also started testing out how to do a French seam. It looks so cool! I hope I can make it work with lined costumes. I am used to just sewing lining onto pieces of fabric and then putting together the outfit, but apparently there is a way to do it that results in hiding unfinished seams. I will have to look into that, but I don't know if I can pull it off for this costume.

Since I am losing hope in finding a teaching job, I will be getting a "normal" resume together soon. Well, updating the old one, really.

Anyway! I am going up to Waupaca for the weekend to spend some time with Ann, Steph, and Rachel. Whee~! I shall be eaten alive by mosquitoes, but perhaps I can go tubing again! ~~And not be sore the next day!~~ Yay for a chance to use the GPS!

Look at me, I'm posting again!

Gaming post

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:46:14 GMT

Bandai, I beg you, please don't let the .hack//LINK game be anything like the manga....would you really be so cruel and end such an epic series with this abomination? And for the PSP no less. .hack is an epic series! Do it justice, and put it out on a console like the PS3! How can you tie up all the loose ends in a PSP game, really?

(*cough* not that PSP games are bad... Valkyrie Profile was good on the PSP and DS...)

Come on! You spent all this time in GU developing characters and relationships, and you're going to make a character that grew so much take a billion steps backwards just for a story? Ugh. I won't be pre-ordering this game. I'll wait to see if its really the crap it sounds like its going to be.

I really hope this is all some sick joke, and this crap that is coming out is not canon, and not the end of the series.

/End gaming rant.

So how is life with all of you?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:32:26 GMT

FYI-

Don't print your pictures at Wal-Mart. They will treat you like an internet criminal and refuse to give you your pictures if they "look professional." You'll need a signature from your photographer, even if that photographer was your friend in college who enjoyed taking pictures for fun and was in no way a professional.

I don't bitch to customer service people often, but I am furious that I was refused a copy of an uncopyrighted image that I had the rights to print and was taken many years ago.

Sad because I actually shopped at Wal-Mart. Won't be going there again anytime soon.

Obligatory 6 month post

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:14:04 GMT

Heh. I never update here. Sorry.

So, after a 3 year run in Milwaukee, I am moving! And not a moment too soon. My neighbor (whom I have dubbed guitar hero) is an obnoxious teenager who doesn't understand that you can't have band practice at 3 am on a Thursday morning. "What? You can hear through the walls? What? My guitar wakes you up and you don't like it?" No. I don't like it. Nor do I like your teenage ass coming home at 4 am drunk as hell and louder than a train. So Saturday, I'm done! Out of here! I'll be staying with the Stephs for a week to finish out the school year, and then I'm moving on.

So...what that means is I have no idea how long I'll have internet and how long it will take me to get internet service in my new place. Not that it really matters to my LJ friends since I never update...but yea!

My apartment is a flood of boxes, and I pretty much have no food. I've also thrown away about half a ton of garbage. But I'm excited to get out of here.

Yay!

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:42:49 GMT

Wow! I haven't posted in a long time.

Things are still chaotic in my world. They will be for a while, I think. Ugh.

Job update: I'm now back to being a K5 aide- the job I was supposed to have at the beginning of the year. I'm happy, but I still feel like the life is being sucked out of me. I'm exhausted, and I need a break.

Grad school is somewhat winding down. I applied for my teaching license and am now waiting to hear back from DPI. I'm working on the master's part, but I basically just have my thesis left.

I took on two nightmares of costumes this year and I feel like I'm not getting a thing done on either of them. It's very frustrating. I work for a minimum of 2 hours a night, but I'm progressing at the rate of a turtle. I am so nervous about things being perfect, not getting done, etc. Valkyrie Profile costumes are so intricate and complicated!!

Blah!

Upheaval

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:51:16 GMT

Well... it seems as if the light at the end of the tunnel is not ready to appear just yet.

Why is it that every 3 or 4 years, I go through a crisis of what I want to do with my life? Sigh. It would just be nice to not have my life in a seemingly constant state of upheaval. But I guess it is time to just resign myself to that fact.

Bleh.

In other news, I'm totally looking forward to ACEN and have been on a costume kick lately. Yay!

Cold

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:34:18 GMT

At about 3:15 today, the president of my school called off classes for the next two days. It is just that cold.

Good excuse to spend a day working on my costumes! Mwahahahahaha!

P.S.: I hate fabric dye.

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:11:24 GMT

Seriously. God is up there laughing so freaking hard, and I don't find it funny at all. I'm tired of being unhappy.

Great...

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:19:31 GMT

So I finally made it to the doctor for my coughing/sinus crap. Turns out I have a sinus infection with a bronchial spasm.

Since I've had bronchitis twice previously, I now have to be concerned about asthma. Great, I needed yet another health problem to watch out for.

Can I get a break please?

I never really post....

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:31:15 GMT

I guess it's cuz not much is changing, and the things that are changing lately are just things to complain about... and I don't really feel like complaining here.

What's new and positive?

Well, I am getting some friends for my diamond doves and starting to work on getting my parrotlet. Um, I'm working on setting up my own webpage which will be mostly cosplay related.

The fall semester of grad school has started and I'll be a licensed teacher in January. I'm assisting in first grade this year, too.

Um, yea that's about it!

So tired...

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:07:37 GMT

I haven't posted in too long, sorry.

I got back from Otakon last night. The weekend was freakin awesome. I met so many cool people, got an autograph from one of my favorite voice actors, cosplayed, bought fun stuff, and geeked it up. Oh man am I an ubergeek, but it was so fun!

My flight almost got cancelled last night though, because flights to the north were getting cancelled and delayed, which in turn caused mine to delay. When the aircraft finally arrived, the gate clerk was like, "okay guys we need to get on really fast because if the plane is not airborne by 7:08, it will be cancelled." Oh snap. But things ended up going off without a hitch.

The one complaint I have is about people. This poor gate attendant was doing the job of like 4 different people because they were short staffed. A flight to Boston got cancelled and people were pissed. Yes, it's frustrating when your flight gets cancelled. But I don't understand why people get so angry at the airline. They cancelled the flight because of weather! Do you really want to get on a plane and crash because you have to fly through a thunderstorm? Airlines don't find it fun to cancel flights, but they have to put passenger safety as the number one priority. The guy was super nice about everything and he did his best, but people were still all angry and upset with him. Instead of giving yourself a stress headache over things that can't be controlled, be thankful that you'll live to see that later flight you have to take. Your work can live without you for a day.

Another couple got mad at the guy because their flight had been delayed and they decided to saunter around the airport...for hours. Dude, seriously, common sense. If your flight is delayed, never go far for long! Sometimes planes are able to get out sooner than they expect. I'm not saying sit around for hours, but don't go dawdling around the airport for hours at a time without checking back every 15-20 minutes.

Blah.

So anyway, I had also been feeling kind of bad about my birds lately. I have a lot of them, but they are small and I'm able to take care of them all. People kind of made me feel like I have too many. But I have supportive people who love me who encourage my hobbies, no matter how many live animals I have nor how much I sew.

...or how nerdy I get.

<3

Amagad!

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:52:47 GMT

I just booked my flight and preregistered...

I'm going to Otakon!

Now comes the freakout about costumes & being on an airplane! GAH!

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:08:23 GMT

Argh!

I am so tired of being broke! I should be making a hell of a lot more money than I am. I should be able to afford to Otakon with no problem. I should be able to go to the NYBS! GRRR!!!

/endminirant

Nostaliga...

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:54:15 GMT

Perhaps it is the exhaustion from the lack of sleep due to a domestic disturbance outside my apartment last night... or perhaps it is the onset of returning depression (in summer of all times... odd...), but I am experiencing a very odd phenomenon.

I am "homesick" for my life in Japan.

Yes, nearly 3 years after my return, I'm experiencing true longing and not just culture shock. I miss the traveling I got to do. I miss the money I was making there. I miss not having a car yet being able to get around easily. I miss the kids, my coworkers, my friends....and damn do I miss the food. Let's face it, Japanese food in America sucks unless you are willing to pay a small fortune for an authentic restaurant. Even the "Japanese food" that they do have over here is so limited. You're basically talking sushi or "hibachi" - which by the way, is not Japanese. What about Japanese-style crepes? What about that rice/egg dish that I had at the Kyoto ryokan? I miss lying on a futon, crazy and energetic television, being able to communicate in a language other than English, and general cultural things. I have lost so much of what little language skills I acquired over there, and I have no time to take a class over here.

And sadly, there is really little hope of me ever returning for a significant amount of time. *sigh*

How the hell do I get over this one?

Facepalm

Sun, 25 May 2008 17:48:05 GMT

Can someone please tell me when exactly it became a crime for teachers to have personal lives and hobbies outside of educational matters?

There is a huge debate on one of the sites I frequent about how you shouldn't do so much cosplay when you are a teacher and you definitely shouldn't ever let students or parents know that you make costumes. Oh and on Halloween make sure you only wear store-bought costumes, not ones you might have made yourself no matter how "mainstream" that costume might be.

OH THE HORROR! I CAN SEW!

Good Lord. Is it really so hard for people to understand that one can balance a personal and professional life? I don't sit there and go "amagad kids last weekend I went to an anime convention and it was so fun and I cosplayed lol!!!!!!1111one" It's not like it comes up in lunchtime discussions with other teachers. The teachers who do know about my geekdom are fine with it. Hell, my friends as me to hem pants for them because they know I can sew. I'm not going around advertising it, but I'm not hiding anything either. I'm not ashamed of the fact that I am a nerd.

What are these people doing to do when their former students or even parents of students see them at a bar one day? Are they going to leave because they are a teacher and "shouldn't be there"? Or are they going to learn that being a teacher during the day doesn't define who they are after work is over?

I'm all for being professional. But there is a time and a place for it and a time and a place for having fun.

/end rant

Cosplay

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:48:23 GMT

So apparently I am getting my interest in sewing and costuming back. I might start commissioning for friends. Woot woot, ACEN-inspired-rejuvenation.

Thu, 01 May 2008 01:27:23 GMT

₪ Tell you why I friended you.
₪ Associate you with something - fandom, song, color, photo, word etc.
₪ Tell you something I like about you.
₪ Tell you a memory I have of you.
₪ Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
₪ Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
₪ In return you must post this in your journal.

More Geek crap

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:52:09 GMT

So I think I have decided to forgo No Brand Con in lieu of one of the conventions in Minneapolis. Greyhound wants upwards of $80 to go from Milwaukee to Eau Claire whereas on MegaBus it is $8 one way to Minneapolis. Yea, a huge difference and much more realistic for me to afford.

In other news, I am sick of everything, ready to quit my teaching license program, and just in a generally pissy mood. I guess I am finally tired of feeling like a failure. Why the hell am I a teacher when I could have been a meteorologist or an astronomer.. or something else that makes more money. Mom always wanted me to be a linguist... maybe I should have listened to her.

/end pityparty

Geekdom

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:42:39 GMT

Okay, I'm cutting for those of you who are not geeks like me. :)

For certain, I'll be attending Anime Central. I have gone and figured out what other conventions are likely possibilities for me to attend.

POTENTIALS:
No Brand Con, Eau Claire,WI April 18-20
Wizard World Chicago, Chicago, June 26-29
Anime Expo, Los Angeles, July 3-6
Otakon, Baltimore, Aug 8-10 (trainable)
Anime Iowa, Coralville, IA, Aug 15-17
Geek.Kon, Madison, WI, Sept 27-28
Youmacon, Dearborn, MI, Oct 30-Nov 2 (trainable)
also Anime Reactor... whenever that is.
Trainable means that the Amtrak station is within walking distance of the convention center.

So... I don't want to go to any of these alone. Does anyone want to go with me? Every year I say I will go to more than Anime Central, and every year, I don't.