Hey-- quick update to say that I'm back.

The bad news is that my computer still isn't fixed. I picked it up from Best Buy yesterday because they said it was fine, it had been running for three days, no problem. Bull. Within two hours of hooking it back up, it's rebooting, and then not booting at all. Mike, my valiant prince, is escorting this piece of shit back to Compaq tomorrow. So phooey.

On the upside, I saw a lot of good movies that I'll review tomorrow. Mike and I spent a lot of together time snuggling and being close, and I got to see Anna (and bite her). I've also been steadily working on my Compendium, and I'm a little over halfway done. I have to finish up the correspondances section, and then it's onto the second half of the BOS. I feel connected, energized, ready for my first group full-moon ritual in April. I wish I had photoshop at my disposal-- my Spring layout will be late. Perhaps if I beg, Heather will let me borrow her computer for an hour or two. I have the images ready.

Also, I got my first tattoo!

It's a crescent moon surrounded by Mucha-type lines on my lower back. It's about 5" x 3". I re-did the design on Mike's I-Book and it was inked by an awesome artist named Chance. Pics to come.

I have a busy week ahead. I will more or less be living in the computer lab, researching and writing a 15 page paper on Shakespearean Opera, due Friday morning. Not only is my computer not booting, but as of this morning, the monitor also would not turn on. It was working yesterday, and nothing has caused it any damage since then. I think it's a conspiracy to drive me absolutely insane.

Batteries have been puchased to take a picture of my tattoo. The problem is that in order to download my pictures, I have to have the software installed somewhere. I think that's an awful lot to ask of a friend. So pictures may have to wait until my computer works. But I will hopefully have a new layout by next week, and Heather will have Photoshop7 (and possibly a buncha brushes that I saved to disc) to pick and choose among.

I saw many lovely movies over break-- Lost in Translation (the ending was lovely), Boondock Saints (I'm a sucker for vigilantes who speak Latin, sorry), Kissing Jessica Stein (which I thought was quite realistic), and Lost and Delerious (Interesting, beautifully shot love scenes. I would have liked it more if Piper Perabo didn't have the habit of shoving her lines down the audience's throat). I even caught a few episodes of Xena because I never watched when it was on. They were Livia/Eve episodes, and I was thouroughly confused. Horrid graphics aside, I really think I could get into it if I knew all the backstory. And also, I only saw old man Joxer (huh?), so I apparrently missed out on much goodness.

My Anna gave me a whole lotta ink, so when I'm done with the paper, I can hopefully get some letter writing done, as well. I bought some paper to make envelopes with that remind me of Firefly, what with the Western-crinkle paper and the magenta Chinese characters. I won't feel guilty about sending letters on boring line paper.

My Correspondances section of the Compendium will be done by the end of the week, and that's another big milestone for me. Then I have to gather and organize BOS material for the final section-- it should leave about 20 pages for additional info to be added. I'm hoping that keeping myself creatively inspired, I can resist the urge to go mad with the lack of Photoshop. The urge to make icons is itchy, much like my tattoo. It's a thirsty little bugger.

My back feels like braille, with the raised swirls and knots of the ink beneath the skin. It's hard not to touch it.

And thanks to everyone who welcomed me back-- I missed you, too!

What. The. Bloody. Hell.

So. My monitor works again. I have no idea why it didn't work this morning. And my computer is temporarily in service, as well. I seriously, seriously think that some force is consciously trying to drive me absolutely batshit insane.

It's still going back to Compaq. I think that at this point, the computer tower qualifies as a lemon and I want a new one.


I'm just so frustrated with this business. It never works when I want it to, but it works when I'm having it checked out. It's a fuckery.