Continuing Rotten Adventures

testing, testing

interfecta — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:07:58 GMT

I don't know how I'll be able to go back to updating regularly, or even once, but I'm curious.

How many people, exactly, are around to notice that I posted this?

Things to Do Today:

interfecta — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:36:03 GMT

[X] Forget I was going to do ADIML today
[X] Go out to Ashland to check out an estate sale
[ ] Don't get lost on the way to the estate sale
[X] Find and purchase a cool piece of furniture to refinish
[X] Purchase pattern for new sewing project
[ ] Eat lunch
[ ] Bring Ashton to my mom's house, so he can play while I go talk to the bank about banking stuff
[ ] Meet James, pick up keys to workshop [!!!!!] and supplies for stripping bad old finish off chairs
[ ] Come back home
[ ] Do laundry instead of collapsing
[ ] Meet with realtor at 5:30 (don't ask... but it's not for us)
[ ] Scavenge for dinner that may not be entirely cookout leftovers
[ ] Put Ashton to bed
[ ] Make prototypes for new product (throw pillows)
[ ] Collapse.

Just for the record:

interfecta — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:43:24 GMT

1. I am NOT dead. Promise!

2. I am getting ready to celebrate my birthday weekend, which if you live in America you will probably also be celebrating. Most Americans will have off from work for my 30th birthday, because it is simply that important. You're welcome.

3. I caved and got a Facebook account. If you know my real name, look me up.

4. I absolutely promise that I will make a real post in which I partly explain what has been going on in my life, soon. But it absolutely won't be before Tues, 5/26.

5. I am really very sorry for disappearing and I promise not to do it again (unless there is a very, very good reason).

Word lovers, unite!

interfecta — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:26:57 GMT

This is partly because I haven't done a meme in too long, partly because this is my last day of getting to waste time on the computer for a while, and partly because one of Ashton's kid shows (hooray PBS Kids!) did a similar thing.

List 10 words which you love, either to say/write or for other, nerdier reasons. (I admit I love some of these for purely etymological reasons.) Don't look at mine until you've listed yours in the comments! If you're unsure of spelling, you may want to stop by Merriam-Webster's Online; they're clever enough to suggest similarly spelled words if you spell something incorrectly.

1. corrugated
2. galoot
3. pusillanimus
4. sabotage
5. flout
6. trundling
7. demoralize
8. frump
9. ruthful*
10. skulduggery

*I know this is no longer an accepted part of the English language, but I like it anyway. In case you're not sure, it's the opposite of ruthless.

interfecta — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:10:54 GMT

I have so many things on my to-do list that my brain wants to explode. (Sinus-allergy congestion isn't helping.)

I think I'll just go outside for a few minutes and breathe deeply (hopefully without sneezing).

How are you?

interfecta — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:13:59 GMT

To be completely fair to myself and everyone else, I should probably come up with a list of birthday wishes, no matter how unlikely, so my family at least has a chance to consider them before ignoring them and getting me what they think I ought to want. Also, my aunt and uncle have said that they've gotten into giving 'experiences, not items' such as tickets to a concert, wine tasting, etc. Which is an idea I LOVE.

With that in mind -- if you could get an 'experience' for a present within the next month, what would you wish for and where would you go to get details (ex., time, cost, etc.?)

supplies which I fortunately have on hand

interfecta — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:11:42 GMT

Today seems specially calculated to enervate me.

I think I need to sit in the wet backyard with a cup of coffee and a chocolate cupcake.

In which Interfecta is confused, again

interfecta — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:58:46 GMT

Easter with my family failed to be torture. That was nice!

Family members are asking me for birthday present wishes. I have no idea what to tell them because I'm not optimistic that they'll get me anything I want.

DJ may have gotten me a job as his replacement at Regal, but we don't know who'll watch Ashton so DJ can train me, we don't know when DJ will start at Camp Baker again, and we don't know when we'll find out. I was interrogated at length about what "my plans were for my future" this weekend. I feel like my life is officially in complete limbo.

Okay.

interfecta — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:45:37 GMT

I officially don't hate the problog anymore.

Found a widget that will substitute for being smart with code for the time being, and revamped the colors. (Who do I have to thank for this? Ashton. We pulled out my seasonal pack of color chips, I showed him which colors were already there, and we messed around with combinations until we found ones that work.)

Yes, it's significantly different than it was this morning. If you're bored, that's fine. If you're curious, that's fine too. I am now officially absolved of web work for today, though, and I'm going to go fix lunch and work in the garden. Ciao.

interfecta — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:28:23 GMT

Hate the problog less now. It's still too pretty, though (and too white). I want to be able to grab my crow quill and add scritchy hand-inked vines up the sides, or something. Problem is, (a) I kind of fail at background images in CSS, and (b) if I make the background a color that is neither black nor white, the program that I build the graphics in will export it in a slightly different color profile than the one on the screen and there will be obvious non-blended edges.

Add that to the list of things to learn, I suppose.

interfecta — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:46:49 GMT

My goal for today is to be magnificent all day long. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Among other things, this involves doing something clever with my website, quickly, because last night I gave out a huge stack of business cards, which have my web address on it. Specifically, I want to embed a pretty-looking calendar into it; I haven't found any widgets that I like, so I may resort to the shockingly low-tech method of making a print version that's perfect, marching to the library and scanning the sucker in. I also need to come up with a new plan for impressing my high levels of win upon potential employers, because this one ain't workin'.

What are y'all up to today?

OUCH.

interfecta — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:32:33 GMT

Yesterday we were playing at the Pony Pasture park (river/forest trails) and Ashton found a ginormously huge rock, which he then went on a mission to throw in the river. I stepped ahead of him over a fallen branch and then remarked, "Be careful stepping over this branch, honey, you don't want to know how bad it'd hurt if you tripped and fell and hit your head on that rock." Then next thing I heard... THUD.

Ashton had a magnificent cut on his forehead, which bled so freely that his whole face was covered with blood in just a few minutes. Fortunately it was easy to find a fellow hiker with a cell phone, and I called 911. Ashton was crying so hard that the 911 dispatcher was like, "Is he breathing freely? --Oh, that's him, isn't it? OK, patient is breathing freely." Then he cried even harder when he saw the ambulance pull up. Fortunately the EMTs were two nice, friendly young people, and soon he was busy asking a million questions about the gadgets inside the ambulance and what it was like to be an EMT instead of being scared and hurt. They told us that he had no signs of a concussion, but that he needed stitches and should go straight to the hospital.

By the time we got to the hospital, Ashton was completely done being hurt and scared. He did inform me that his head "didn't feel good yet" when I asked how he was feeling, but it "didn't feel so bad" anymore either. I was able to call DJ from the hospital and he came over right away. Then came a topical anaesthetic and X-rays to make sure his skull and nose were all right (he has a terrific bruise on the bridge of his nose now). The anaesthetic apparently doesn't always work well enough to numb the area all by itself, but it did fine for Ash -- he grimaced and squirmed a bit, but said it didn't hurt.

Today he's back to his regular Ashton self; in fact, I'd better go.

PS. This is NOT a prank. Even though I told you all I was going to pull one. tata.
PPS. Apparently I spell 'anesthetic' the steampunk way. I just noticed how annoyed the spell checker was about it. Amused.

Perhaps I "need to get my priorities straight."

interfecta — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:26:40 GMT

Today I just happened to be organized enough to break up all the pieces I was currently working on into reasonable chunks and then start messing around with scheduling said chunks. Turns out that if I worked about 5 hours a night every night for the rest of the month, I would have an enormous amount of high-quality new work completed.

I'm not really sure if I find that inspiring or daunting.

Maybe I should go tell my mother about it, so she can tell me that it's poor planning and there's no way I could do all that in one month. Then I'd be motivated to prove her wrong. My parents have got to be useful for something, right?

interfecta — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:38:28 GMT

Want. Coffee.

Oh, and not to have wasted those past 75 minutes in the grocery store.

OUCH.

interfecta — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:58:21 GMT

Ashton and I were horsing around, and he decided to do this flying-leap thing into piggybacking. It knocked me to the floor, knocked the wind out of me and made my back make phenomenal popping sounds.

Of course this has to happen at a time when we have no painkillers in the house.

Look... a real journal entry!

interfecta — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:46:48 GMT

It just occurred to me that I hadn't done one in a while.

Yesterday was really nice. Like, 70* outside and Ashton didn't feel like causing trouble nice. We cleaned the house in the morning, because our friend Amy was coming over to babysit in the evening; Ash insisted on putting on Daft Punk so we could (and I quote) "jam out." Unfortunately he wanted to listen to the same track over and over, but you have to start somewhere, right?

After making the house impressively clean (I even scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom tiles with the evil stuff that makes me feel lightheaded), we grabbed some lunch and then went to the river with my mom and her enormous dog, Heidi. Heidi weighs almost as much as I do and has probably stopped growing, but she might get bigger.* The water was way too high to hop on ricks, which we couldn't do with the dog anyway, so we hiked around the trails and got Heidi good and muddy. (I'm sure my mom loved that.)

Then we went home and Ash worked on a Lego masterpiece while I tossed clothes around for a bit until I found something that yes, Ginny, you would have liked. (No Problem Child jacket, though, I didn't feel like wearing any of the colors that work with that.) Then I put my hair in a huge ridiculous pompadour, purely because I could.

DJ and I went out to see Watchmen, using his free movie credit for possibly the only time.** We enjoyed it (or I did as much as I could with a migraine). I'm confused over the apparent flap about whether the movie is misogynistic. It's immediately apparent that some of the characters are misogynistic, but I don't think it follows that a work must have the same qualities as its characters. I could go into this at length, but let me just say that I think the movie handled some issues very differently than the novel did, and this may be why I have a different take on it than many people.

This morning I'm trying to quit caffeine for a while. If anyone tells you I'm okay with that, even me, that person is LYING. At least Ash is sleeping in, so I can be precoffee for a longer amount of time without having to have a brain. Oh, wish me luck.

*She's a Bernese mountain dog. If you're not sure what they are, they were originally a cross between a Rottweiler and a St. Bernard. Yup, big dog.
** Free movies is a good perk, but he really hates it there.

I just realized...

interfecta — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:57:02 GMT

....today I'm celebrating the Irish experience by languishing in poverty and making sarcastic jokes about it.

Oh, also by making soda bread (and an enormous mess) with Ashton. It was ugly, but it tasted like heaven -- wonder why I can bake anything EXCEPT standard yeast breads?

interfecta — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:00:02 GMT

I just noticed: it's 3/12 and I'm unemployed.

This means it's time to start planning April Fool's pranks.

interfecta — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:05:12 GMT

The portfolio is looking really good. Soon(?) it'll be done and I'll post it on Picasa so you can all have a look at it.

For now, though, goodnight.

what the....?

interfecta — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:54:09 GMT

Last night, DJ went in to interview with Regal Cinemas and got hired on the spot. Not the best job in the world, but it's the cinema that gets all the premieres, so he's excited to get comps.

This means that we have gone from not making enough money to live, to making enough to pay off our debt, save and occasionally spend money on things that are fun. (I'm not guaranteeing that those things are in real priority order.)

I absolutely cannot believe it.

I attempted to write a coherent post and just wound up blathering. That's how much I can't believe it.

THANK YOU, everybody, for keeping telling me that things would turn around even when I had already given up.

PS. vakira, I'm gonna pack up my good job karma and send it to you.... as soon as I can afford stamps.

Ashton says I must go now. So I'm going. <3

Cross posted, but I don't care!

interfecta — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:33:00 GMT

That really great interview I had, for the sadly part-part-time job?

They just called and said they'd hired someone else for the evening job, but wanted to offer me the same thing full-time days!

interfecta — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:08:27 GMT

It is impossibly beautiful today.

In order to balance that out, Ashton has 'be contrary' scheduled for all day today, but that's OK, because I'd planned Wednesday to be our 'do things that are fun and educational, rather than sitting at home having organized classes' day.

So There.

interfecta — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:33:03 GMT

Home school went well, though a bit bumpy; tomorrow will be better.

I am desperately cold. End of line.

question for you....

interfecta — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:16:01 GMT

.....as c_hrista knows, a couple of weeks ago I stitched a new prototype piece -- a sleeveless sweater made out of delicious plum-colored wool. I immediately loved it too much to put it up for sale! (I rationalized this by saying that you're not supposed to sell the prototype anyway.) This means I need to make a 'product' version of the same sweater for sale.

I have another sweater I could use that's the perfect texture, but it's this abysmally boring medium brown, and 100% acrylic, so there's no hope of dyeing it. Almost all my other products are richly colored. Should I use the boring brown material, which admittedly has a great texture, as-is? Should I try to embellish it with a color that works well with the rest of my products? Or should I just save it for something else, and wait for a better material to turn up?

interfecta — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:24:03 GMT

Tomorrow we start home school with Ash. I'm actually kind of excited.

Anybody want to help me with a school project? All you need is a digital camera.