azurite: (fiction - have written)
So rather than wail about all the Post-Its I have lying around with things to do, my near-empty Listography book, and the things I wish were working out, instead, a list of things I've accomplished today, big and small:

* Read a lot of emails and deleted the ones I don't need (have several thousand to go, but boo hoo)

* Heard back from both Adobe and JourneyEd regarding CS5: I have to spend $449 if I want it, because I don't qualify for the post-announce free upgrade, and there's no discount for an "upgrade" version of Design Premium from CS4 to CS5. So that, plus a camera are now on my Wish List.

* Got approved for the "In Plain Sight" - Mary x Marshall fanlisting - now I just need a name for it! YAY!?

* May be on the waiting list for a focus group and put my name out there for another one; they pay well and don't take long, so why not?

* Put the dishes away

* Registered for the NSCS Region 5 Summit in Seattle, WA on July 6th and 7th. It's my last conference as an NLC member (well, a "retiring" NLC member)!

* Am researching travel options for getting up to Seattle, esp. so soon after cousin Erin's wedding in Los Angeles on the 4th. Virgin America and Southwest are looking the cheapest, since the Amtrak Coast Starlight just doesn't mesh with my needed arrival and departure times. (Also: Anime Expo from July 1-4! So 1-3 = Anime Expo, 4 = Wedding + Fireworks, 5 = ? 6-7 = Seattle! Talk about a packed schedule for one week!)

* Also researching potential post-graduation travel options. Should I go down to San Diego after my orthodontist's appointment, and then head back up with Aunt Joyce in time for the bridal shower, or hang out in North Hills with cousin Jill and fam for a few days and meet up with Joyce on the day of the shower? Train ticket to S.D. would cost me $30-32, but it's more like "What the heck would I do down there?" and "Would I be intruding?" I suppose I should ask at least, so I have the option open, right?

* Got a huge scene done in the revision of Only 16, Chapter 2: A Look Back, which starts the flashbacks that reveal more about Serenity and Endymion's past. I'm contemplating deleting those from Endymion's point of view altogether, since Only 16 really is Serena's story, and even if Darien DOES remember his past completely and is just hiding it from Serena, why give him THAT much screen time? Isn't it more suspenseful having you wonder how things are really going from his end? I've only gone into his POV a few times in the revision so far, and never very deeply. But re-reading Lilac Summers' "First Truths" has made it a lot easier to 'ship them again (*shock!*).

* Updated WikiFic to 1.15.3, and added the much-debated lyrics of "Ahead of the Game." Mass consensus agrees that the garbled lyrics in the second verse are "My liquidity, giant balance sheet. All my secrets, Hey! I'll even cheat." Though how "I'll even cheat" makes sense when Kaiba (whose image song this is) is bragging about how much smarter, more creative, etc. he is than his opponent, isn't cheating making him look worse, not better? I personally think he should have said "I won't even cheat," as if he's restraining himself from cheating just to get a horrible duel over with. What do you think?

* Got started on my graduation announcements--the paper ones. A few family members left to get addresses for and send out, and then...have to figure out the rest. *bats eyelashes* Can YOU come?

MOAR LEFT:
* Dabble in revisions and/or additions to the following fics: Aftermath of Angels (FF8 x YGO), You and Me (body-swap YGO Azureship fic; thanks a lot for reminding me, [livejournal.com profile] mischiefmagnet!)
* Story-So-Far comparison of the book Paprika to the movie
* Revisions to previous chapters of WDKY + uploading to all the usual suspect sites -- someone on AnimeXX.de asked me if they could do a German translation of the fic! I can't read German to save my life, so should I say yes and just pray they do a decent job, or say no because I'd never be able to understand it?
azurite: (textually active)
Books )

Buying... or rather, selling )

Boxes. Inboxes, that is. )

Mer is a scatterbrain:
I was supposed to go to a meeting with my English advisor today. I got out of my biology class ridiculously early and called Mom, grabbed some El Pollo Loco, and then went to the MIC to find out about the NSLS's advisor and DVD. I ate my lunch after the brief meeting and got some things together, sent a few emails, but I completely forgot about the meeting. I had it in my head to go to HR to find out why I haven't received my paycheck yet, but then I glanced at the clock and I only had 20 minutes to get to class! It wasn't until I was putting my things down in class that I realized I'd completely forgotten the meeting! ARRRRRGH! I'm trying to get my graduation evaluation (grad check) completed (it has to be signed by my advisors) so I can find out WHEN I'm supposed to graduate, but so many things keep getting in the way! Plus, time seems to be against me and speeding by awfully fast.

But, I'm still thinking positive and trying not to get stressed just yet. Yoga is doing wonders for me, even if it's only once a week (and I missed last week thanks to Zyrtec) and this week I was kind of a klutz when we tried to get our legs up on this "bar." Ahh... never mind that. X_X

&THEfinals;

May. 9th, 2008 02:07 pm
azurite: (deadlines whoosh)
Today was the last day of regular class before finals. Next week, I have three days when I'm supposed to show up to a "class." I don't say, "I have three finals," because only one of them is really a final-- the other two are relatively easy (I would hope). The "real" final is the one for my ENGL 313 (Pop Culture) class, and my ENGL 355 (Writing About Literature) is a reflective final, where I mostly write short paragraphs about the class and service learning experience. Then it turns out I really do have to show up to the final hours on Wednesday, for my ENGL 408 "final," which is actually a presentation of our radical revision to our workshop story... which I haven't even started on, yet.

Procrastination has been a big deal with me this semester, but somehow I've managed to pull through on almost everything. I've done exceedingly (maybe even surprisingly?) well in my Pop Culture class, though the final does worry me. I'm glad I've been working with the same girls all semester: we worked together on our video analysis project and again for our "chix flix" blog, and we're helping each other prep for the final by splitting up the reading and terminology definitions. The essays in our textbook, the "Audience Studies Reader" are not light reading, so I'm glad we're working together.

I turned in my fandom essay on Yu-Gi-Oh! today, and it was put together with the help of a number of members of [livejournal.com profile] playthedamncard. In truth, I knew I wanted to do Yu-Gi-Oh! as my fandom of study since the start of the semester when he announced the fandom essay, but again, I procrastinated... I don't much like the essay I turned in, and would like to re-do it for my own picky self, before I post it online anywhere.

I still have two (one super-late) essays due for my Writing About Literature course, which I MUST MUST MUST get in by next Thursday, so I need to work on them this weekend along with studying for the big, "real" final on Monday (ENGL 313).

I tried to file my Grad Check today (because everyone always asks when I'm going to graduate) and they wouldn't accept it, because I altered the date to Fall 2009. Assuming all the classes I need are offered when I need them, I should be graduating after that semester. Originally, I was shooting for Spring 2009, but that won't happen with me in the Disney College Program. I thought, maybe Summer 2009, but the classes I'm required to take in my senior/final semester won't be offered in the summer, or if they are (like in the case of the journalism tutorial JOUR 498), there isn't much of a selection. I'd rather "go out with a bang," as it were, and take classes I really love and enjoy than attempt to cram a full semester into summer just to graduate when it's blazing hot and sunny. Besides, it's not as if I won't be graduating with more than 120 units anyway-- I don't mind delaying my graduation necessarily, because I've always taken classes or done things with my time that I enjoyed. I like staying involved.

I am still worried about getting credit for the Disney College Program, though, because I've basically been getting the run-around from all the departments on campus. The Career Center doesn't give credit, but they were the ones that had the presentation and said that previous CSUN students had done the program and gotten credit. The Journalism department can't give internship credit for internships that are not strictly Journalism-related, and the other courses, while recommended by the American Council on Education, are not specific to Journalism enough to qualify for Independent Study. The one course that DOES seem to have a specific department --Organizational Leadership, which is recommended for credit in the Business Administration/Management area... well, I went to the College of Business and Economics, and they told me that because I'm not a Business major or minor, they can't give me internship credit either. I left my phone number and a note about the situation for the Associate Dean of the department, but she hasn't gotten back to me yet-- and it's been three days. -_-

This weekend I'm going to San Diego for Mother's Day with Baba, Grandpa, and my cousin Erin. I already sent my mom something, but she's supposed to get it this afternoon, because actual Mother's Day delivery wasn't possible, and Saturday delivery was too expensive. Of course, it's not like I'm really going for any "fun," either: not only do I have to study (and I mean it!), but I'm broke (like, really, really broke) and can't go shopping. Actually, that's a story in and of itself, about how two banks managed to screw me over at once. Supposedly they're fixing it, but it's already been six days at this point since I knew this was first happening, and nothing's changed. It really bites.

On top of all that, I still have to pack for moving to Anaheim (Erin's volunteered to drive me at an ungodly hour of the morning). I finished faxing in my paperwork just a few hours ago, but I have yet to receive a bunch of other documentation. Am I the only one that thinks fax machines ought to die!? I mean, why do we still fax?

Anyway... I've still got a lot to do:
* Presentation for RTM 330OL/Women & Leisure class One down... a shitload more to go.
* WebCT discussion on what makes for sophisticated, multi-ethnic, contemporary literature worth including in a college course
* Those essays I mentioned before
* That radical revision I mentioned above
* The study guide for my ENGL 313 final I'm doing with the other girls
* The take-home portion of the ENGL 313 final, which Prof. Hatfield posted on our class blog

Brain asplodey.
azurite: (ygo - kaiba smirk)
A little over an hour (and a half?) ago, my uncle Neal, Baba, Grandpa and I got back from UCLA, where we attended my cousin Erin's double-graduation. Double because she got two bachelors degrees: one in design, and another in anthropology, with a minor in urban planning. The first one was big and huge, but we cut out as soon as Erin got her name called-- the second dragged on despite it being "smaller" --they started late, and the speakers all just kept GOING AND GOING. Erin even had time to pass back a note to her mom (my aunt Joyce) that said "I thought I graduated already, so why am I getting lectured!?" when the dean just kept going and going and going...

And I still like all the excitement of graduation, even if the prospect of paying off student loans, finding a "real" job and moving out on my own (really, for the first time) is a bit daunting. I wonder if keeping my Japanese minor just to put that off for a bit longer is a good idea... I'm still undecided on whether I want to keep it as a minor.

Before the graduation, we went to my grandparents' cousin's 90th and 94th (!!) birthday celebration at this fancy restaurant in Westwood called Lawry's. It was very dark and wooden, though I think some rather rich kids (perhaps Beverly Hills ilk?) were having a party in one half of the restaurant, while various branches of the Sweet/Goldberg families filled up several tables in the other room.

Baba had chicken, Grandpa had fish, and I had this massive steak the size of my head that was so overdone (I asked for well-done, not BURNT TO A CRISP) that it was dry, and I ended up eating more creamed corn and mashed potatoes than I did steak. There was also a ton of fat on the steak, which... well, looks like white jelly, and is not appetizing to eat. So I tried to cut some of it off. I gave some steak to both Baba and Grandpa (because they asked), but even then, I got so filled up off everything else-- salad, a bread roll, and what little steak I could eat. Then I had to try and eat some dessert, but by then, we were running late to meet Erin for her graduation, which began at 4pm.

All in all, it was a very filled day-- fun, but filled. Toward the end, I was so cold and hungry, it made me irritable and a bit more complaining than I usually am (or would like to be). What's frustrating is how UCLA, quite unlike CSUN, is very wide and spread out, and not the least bit flat. It's all over hills, with major thoroughfares passing through it. They have traffic lights WITHIN the campus! CSUN just has a million stop signs. So it took a while for Neal to get the car after the second graduation (because Erin had to show him how to get to where he'd parked), and then he drove RIGHT BY US when he finally DID come and find the place. >_< We had to call to get him to turn back around and find us.

When we got home, I made myself a yummy nectarine-and-raisin bowl of Cream of Wheat and watched "Legally Blonde" with my aunt Joyce and my uncles Neal, Fred, and Dan. It was kind of fun, though IMDB.com says that the sequel wasn't all that great. ;_; Too bad.

Other cool stuff:
* Working on customizing more skins for Epiphany (which I *MUST* get up by the end of the summer) and Dragonfayth, including all new ones, like WritingPlus3, a new version of Safari, and maybe more!

* Fixed Epiphany's "elegance" skin using the oh-I-can't-believe-I-forgot-that CSS Box Model. Okay, so it still needs a bit of work. Can anyone on a PC with IE6 (*not 7* as I can test for that on my end) test for me? Let me know if you can check for me, please... :)

* Managed to convert (using CrossFont, a shareware program for Windows) HUNDREDS of Windows-only fonts into Mac-readable ones, which I immediately imported using the super-nifty FontExplorerX, which even detected duplicate fonts for me! Because I managed to actually USE said fonts and delete the duplicates, I saved some disk space.

* Talked to Scott (aka [livejournal.com profile] fountain_the) today-- it was nice hearing from him again! Plus he sent (in an email) photos of his tiny (looks like a loft) apartment. Cooking is apparently impossible there... which I can't blame him for thinking. It took me a while to get used to the tiny fridge, itty-bitty cabinet space, and minuscule cooking area myself. I told Fred that Scott missed his old job with SDMM, and Fred smiled (in that Fred way...) and said he would tell the gang at SDMM that Scott said hi, and YES, they did get his postcard, which everyone read. :)

Not-so-cool stuff:
* I've been trying to install more games on my Windows side, since I upgraded to Parallels 3. I managed to get the Doom Collector's Edition working well (in fact, I spent most of Friday at work blasting Imps and Demons), but when it came to one of my favorite simulator games, "Pharaoh" with the Cleopatra expansion, I couldn't do it. The first attempt stalled at 37%, the second at 80%. I read a tech support tip on the Sierra forums that said to try copying the CD contents to the HD and installing from there, but it tripped up on the LAST, most important file, data2.cab. :( I guess I could try finding the game again (my CD is somewhat scratched up), but I'm hoping there's another way to get this ONE stupid file. No one on this FL happens to have that game, do they?

* Room is a horrid mess. Haven't had the motivation to clean it, assemble my bookcase, put my clothes away... it's funny, because I have motivation for coding, but little else. And I *NEED* to have that motivation, because there's a lot to be done (Semester at Sea app, preparing for Philly, among other things).

* I tried selling my Hot Gimmick set on eBay and there were a bunch of problems-- I thought it was because of seller fees owed to eBay, an old B&N order where PayPal saw the authorization as still pending... but in the end, I think it was because eBay saved my old Yahoo! address under the listing. After finally figuring this out, I notified the seller with step-by-step instructions on how to pay to my PROPER PayPal address, but she said it still didn't work and she wasn't interested in buying them anymore. :( I hate to think if she'll negatively feedback me, but I can understand her frustration. The problem is, I relisted the item for Second Chance, and I had no opportunity to indicate my proper email. If the runner-up wants it, they might have the same problem unless I can notify them where to send the payment! Stupid eBay... they should change email addresses EVEN ON ACTIVE OR CLOSED LISTINGS the minute a user changes it in their profile. Or I could blame PayPal, for not catching the payment even though the Yahoo! address is listed as an alternate email on my account now. Of course, the user didn't say she GOT the same error, and she wouldn't say what she did get... methinks she was just so frustrated, she didn't bother with it. Shame.

Silver lining:

* Got Dad a killer trio of Father's Day/birthday presents. Can't wait to call him tomorrow and hear his reaction. I just hope he doesn't bring up some of the drama that's plagued us earlier this week... which I suppose I'll get into in another entry, when I figure out just what to DO about it. Have to talk to Joyce.

January 2016

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