Wow, okay, so hey guys. It's been a while, hasn't it? But since I actually just renewed my account, it was a pretty good reminder that hey, I should maybe use it.

At least part of the reason for my lapse, at least, is that I have been busy. I have three sort-of part-time jobs now, so with all three of those going on I keep pretty busy. I'm still working about 30 hours a week at Starbucks and also taking content writing packages as I can, and I am also employed giving star tours a couple of nights a week at a little B&B up south of Tucson that has a small private observatory attached. It's actually a pretty sweet deal: $25/hr for 2-3-hour tours of the night sky where all I have to do is tell the telescope where to go and it finds the object I want to show. Then all I have to do is talk about random cool astronomy things and point at things with my fancy green laser pointer and people are impressed. 8D The work isn't necessarily steady, but I did have four groups last week and two this week so it is at least not too sparse. Plus, it's something useful I can definitely put on my resume! Apparently I have gotten very good reviews, as well? (Ahaha, all this means is I've convinced people that I know what I'm talking about. I must be much better than previously thought at acting. XD)

Really, though, all of that has been keeping me pretty well occupied, especially since my hours are early in the morning at Starbucks so I have to go to bed at 8 or 9 most nights (sacrilege, I know!). They've been letting me bar more, though, which makes the time go a zillion times faster as long as we're busy, so I like that. The sensor in the Drive Thru has been broken the past two days, which means that it doesn't ding when a car pulls up and someone has to be there to watch the camera at all times, which seems to have made everyone working in that corner a little punch-drunk (and it's entertaining to watch). I am off tomorrow (yay!) and I actually have four days off next week so I am looking forward to doing random things like getting the car oil changed (okay, well, not looking forward to that but it does need to get done) and hopefully getting a trim because my hair grows fast and also possibly looking at a couple of little houses to rent up in Tucson. I've been to the U of A twice now to visit NOAO and while they can't offer me a job, they've been helpful in giving me avenues to pursue and I have been sending out some query emails. Plus, I got a good idea of where is good (and bad) to move in Tucson, so now I can really start looking for places now that I know which parts I want to try for (or avoid).

Um um um... there are a couple of other random things I've been up to but I started writing up at least one separate entry for those so in the hopes that will encourage me to POST MORE, I will leave it at that. Plus, it looks like I have five new icon slots or something crazy like that, so... I will have to get around to filling those! o/

BUT I have a star tour tonight and a bunch of other stuff to do in the meantime, so I will be going for now!

Okay, you know what? When the book I've been scouring the internets for (and found one copy for $100 that apparently sold between when I'd bookmarked it and now) suddenly turns up on Amazon used in very good condition for $14? I AM BUYING THAT SUCKER.

It's even a first edition. I AM EXCITE.

Today is a good day to die buy books. :DDDD

And yesterday was a good day to buy other stuff, I suppose - Mom and I went into Tucson because she wanted to go to a few stores, and we passed an art festival that looked interesting so we stopped. I got some really cool necklaces made out of quarters and a present for one of my friends (whom shall remain nameless here to preserve secrecy... or something XD). Then we watched The Final Countdown, which was interesting but kind of a letdown in a The Andromeda Strain-y sort of way, and a National Geographic special on The Vatican, which was quite interesting. Then on my way home... I either almost hit or just clipped a cat who ran out onto the road RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME while I was going too fast to stop or really swerve. ;; I heard some kind of noise, but when I turned around and went back to check, there was nothing... I'm really, really hoping I only clipped it, but there was nothing else I could do to check - it was pitch black and you don't just get out of your car in the middle of the night here to go hunting around in the desert. Urgh. It had been a good day until that point, at least.

In happier news, my new camera? Is pretty cool. This little guy was sitting at least 15-20 feet away from me on the other side of a window. Isn't he cute? I know the landscaping isn't done yet (ugh, they are almost done putting in all the rock... and then I hear my aunt wants different rock so now they're going to have to cart all the new stuff away and bring new new stuff -_-) but there were all these little hummingbirds coming by every day as if to say, "Where's our food?" so I put the feeder back up for now. I guess it'll come down again sometime this week but at least they had food over the weekend!

I also got the Christmas decorations out to see what there was, and now I have a Christmas tree! It was one of those pop-up ones that was already decorated, so majorly easy! And bigger than my other tree, this one's 6 feet, I think. Now let's just hope the cats don't decide to climb it... I want to put lights up outside but with all the landscaping still going on... I guess I'd better wait.

EDIT: Okay, today is really doing well for itself. I finally won an eBay auction for a silver certificate dollar bill circulated in Hawaii during WWII! For a reasonable price! I have been trying to get my hands on one for months~ 8D

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Robert Leckie. <3 Who was not only a brave Marine, but a really damn good writer.

Happy Veterans Day, guys! They lined the main thoroughfare of Green Valley with American flags today, it looks amazing.

This song is so very stuck in my head. Thanks, HGTV commercials...

You know what I love about perusing dear_mun? All the awesome usernames people come up with for their characters~ It's really awesome to see the same character but with so many cool and original usernames. Or maybe I just think so because I am especially bad at naming things...

New A/C has been installed and the ducts were cleaned out today, which sent poor Sokka hiding behind the washer and it took me a while to find him. Amazingly enough, Mushu was much less fazed by this process. However, no movement on the cabinets has been achieved, even though it was suggested (because that's all I ever think these things are, anymore - suggested) that Tom would be by yesterday to install doors. I guess that means I can at least put the dishes back until Monday, because there's no way he's coming by over the weekend.

And in the meantime, I am randomly bored. I really should use this time to get some writing done... I did a little bit today, yay? I figure if I just keep plugging away at it... something will happen. :D; I am actually reading a really good book now, though - well, okay it's not really good in terms of amazing writing, but I am entertained nonetheless and sometimes I think that's all I really need from a book. Either way, maybe I'll read some tonight, too - I meant to read one chapter last night and I ended up reading three, I think. Eheh.

I have also finally managed to fill up 195 userpic spaces. I suppose this really doesn't surprise me. I do so love icons~ And speaking of icons - totally stupid, but I was scrolling through my userpic page and these two just happen to be across from each other like so:



I don't know, I just find it amusing. XD

It is WINDY today. You know that blustery day in WInnie The Pooh? That appears to be the state of Arizona today!

It's been a BUSY couple of days. Tuesday we got the countertops in (OMG YAY) and the rest of the cabinets in; yesterday the plumber came by (two hours earlier than I was expecting >>) and hooked up the sink and the dishwasher - I have never been happier about modern conveniences in my entire life. So I have been steadily washing dishes, though I really have noplace to put them - the cabinet shelves are in, but not the drawers or doors. Soooo the kitchen still remains a bit of a work in progress, but it is so much nicer with the countertops and sink!

And on to this morning! Mom and Aunt Nancy had me list some pieces they wanted to sell on Craigslist last night, and I had a buyer come by this morning and pick them up. (In fact, Aunt Nancy was so happy to get those pieces out of here that she said I could keep the money from the sale. No complaints here!) Of course, while that was ongoing, the guys showed up with the new couch my aunt had ordered for the kitchen eat-in area, so there was quite a bit of shuffling. Then, just when I thought all was calm, the pest control guy showed up and sprayed the house (which is good, there are a lot of little bugs that seem to think this is their home). NOW I think I'm finally off the hook for the rest of the day, though Mom wants me to come over and organize some of the stuff I have in her garage and she also has the book I just ordered and hopefully a check for me from Aunt Nancy for watching the house so I can pay my health insurance this month. WHEW.

Livejournal is still being slow, but such is the way of things when they try to fix things, I've learned. Ah well. Maybe I can get some writing done today, or work some more on my resume. (Yayyyy... yeah, that would be sarcasm.) I do also want to make myself a new webpage and get myself out there, writing- and even science-wise. I don't know how long my webspace at UF is going to last, but I might as well take advantage of it while I can!

All of this, and I STILL NEED A JOB, YO.

Apparently this weekend was 0/2 - I was awoken at 8am by the telephone repair guy, who was supposed to come yesterday but didn't to fix the landline. Of course, immediately after I fell back asleep until noon, so I guess I can't say I didn't get to sleep in all weekend, though I probably should have made more effort to just stay up.

I did get a tiny bit of writing done yesterday - not much, but it's a start. I have a story that kind of sort of started out as fanfiction but never got too far, but I liked the idea and it can be very easily changed to be set in a completely different world. Plus, I have a character! THIS IS BIG NEWS, SERIOUSLY. I am terrible at coming up with characters, but this one just showed up, and I am not going to fail to take advantage of that. So I think I'm going to concentrate on that one just for now, because I do want to be working on something, no matter how slowly it goes. I would also like to start up a different kind of blog, either keeping up with the science one or trying something a little different, if only because if I want to start getting things going for a writing resume, I should do it. We'll see how that goes - in any case, I will still be here (well, you know, as much or as little as I ever am XD), so no worries there (not that any of you were worried, I'm sure).

I also have this crazy idea that maybe I could, you know, finish my epic Percy Jackson fanfiction that has been hanging for probably over a year. That might be nice to actually get done, whether anyone still cares or not. I know how it's going to end. I just need to write it down.

Okay, I had stuff to do today before tonight, and it's already four. Man. D:

Also. Totally random, but I'm not sure I like Cap's new uniform in The Avengers. What was wrong with the awesome one they designed for The First Avenger? ;; /fistshake

So! I feel somewhat more productive today than yesterday. I managed to get up slightly earlier (~12:30 as opposed to almost 3 yesterday) and I went to the grocery store, where I got to have a brief conversation about Band of Brothers and The Pacific with the cashier, who was complaining that his girlfriend didn't want to watch Saving Private Ryan. XD. I then proceeded to make it home and put all the food away without melting (either the frozen food or myself :D;) and am now ensconced at Starbucks where I used my free drink card for a delcious iced mocha and have even written a bit more for my Pacific Exchange fic~ I fear I may have gone off on a bit of a tangent to do it, but hey, there's no word limit, it just has to be over a minimum and I figure no one's going to complain about something longer rather than shorter, right?

Of course, I am clearly currently back to wasting time by updating LJ, but so it goes~

Also, apparently all the midnight showings of The Deathly Hallows Part 2 are already sold out in Gainesville, boo. So I will not be going to the midnight premiere, but I think we are still going to see it sometime opening day. This actually works out better, because Pam couldn't make it to the midnight premiere but she can make it Friday night, so I suppose it all works out in the end. I think we might even be having a marathon of the other movies before then, we'll see how that goes. That is a LOT of Harry Potter. XD Though I have to admit, I'm almost more excited for Captain America in a few weeks - I mean, superheroes and World War II, how could you possibly mash up things I love any better, right?

Okay, back to writing a bit for now, so I can keep feeling productive or whatever~ Now I just have to remember to stop in at my office on the way home so I can work on those thesis edits tomorrow... I'm hoping to turn in the final draft by the end of the week!

Edit: Wait, James Badge Dale might play a soldier in World War Z? OMG this might have to be one zombie movie I have to seeeeee~ XDb

Wow, okay, so Firefox 4 is hella faster than Firefox 3.sixsomething. I kept avoiding upgrading because I knew I'd have to spend a good half hour tweaking things to get them back the way I wanted (because when they moved the "open in new tab" and "open in new window" options around in the right-click menu, that was not okay D:). But now that I finally have... well, thus far, now that everything's tweaked the way I want, I like it!

And yes, I realize I'm probably the last person on earth to have upgraded to this, anyway. So it goes.

This past weekend was pretty good, if not busy - the rest of Thursday was spent eating Larry's Subs, playing the wonderfully entertaning Prince of Tennis dating game with Elizabeth, and dinner at Bento's with Elizabeth and Althea. Friday was Curtis's defense followed by The Swamp and Blue Highway. Saturday I did some chores during the day, and Vicki and Ata had dinner for their gradiating students (me, Soung-Chul, and Roger) which was really nice. There was even an astronomy-themed cake! Then on Sunday, Elizabeth and I finished our game (alas, we never got high enough in Oshitari's affections to get his special ending), had lunch, and picked up Althea and went to the Butterfly Exhibit at the UF Museum of Natural History, which was awesome and despite the fact that I've lived here for so long, I've never gone! I took some pictures with my phone (because I totally forgot to bring a real camera) and then we finished the day with a photography exhibit at the Harn Museum of Art and some iced coffee.

The rest of the evening was spent packing. Thus, I have begun the packing process, and can I just say that I have way too many damn books. And I want them all. I mean, I'm not getting rid of that many of them, because I am a failure. I've been restricting them (mostly) to smaller boxes, because I know they get heavy, but at some point small boxes are a little ridiculous and I really could use just one or two big boxes. But I am starting to run out of boxes I had lying around already, which means I'm going to have to go to the grocery/liquor store and beg for some and at some point I know I'm just going to have to buy a bunch. And then buy some more when those run out. But at least I have a whole month or thereabouts to get all this done, and once all the books are packed... somehow I'm hoping most everything else will go easier. Because have I mentioned I have a lot of books? The Gator Anime Club will take some of my manga and I think all of my Shonen Jumps, which is helpful, and I am definitely making some major donations to Goodwill. I'm not taking my plates, they're heavy and have gotten chipped over the years and were just from Target anyway so I can buy new ones eventually, so that's a big help too. And I wanted a new bed anyway, so the bed's not coming with me either. I'm hoping I can sell that, I should look into how to list it over the next few weeks.

First, however, Jennie and my grandmother are coming down tomorrow and will be here until Saturday; we're spending a few days in Orlando and then two days here, during which hopefully Jennie and I can get some sewing done for her. Tonight is dinner out with the office staff (because they are so nice~), and I should actually get going in a few for that, so I will leave things at that for now. But I do promise to start updating (hopefully) more regularly now, even though the next month is still in some major flux. But thankfully there are only a few small things I need to fix up in my thesis before submission, so hopefully that won't keep me too busy (because everything else related to moving and leaving certainly will!).

So that's it for now, have a good Monday, all!

Right, SO. Look, I am not dead, disappeared, or kidnapped by aliens. I have, however, been buried under a mound of work called MY THESIS for the past... I have no idea how long (when was it I last updated?). In any case, it's been a long time. BUT the end is in sight, whether I want it or not - my defense is June 16th, so that's... yeah. Not very long from now. I spent the day formatting all of my LaTeX tables (apparently UF doesn't like deluxetable, so I had to change everything over to regular tables and longtables). But I'm actually low on things that need actual writing - everything is currently in to Vicki for edits, so the plan for tomorrow is to read up on papers (because I'm supposed to know what I'm talking about) and make some pretty X-ray images for the appendix.

Other than that... uh, in the free time I do have, I've mostly been watching SG-1, Supernatural, and Game of Thrones, though I finally caught up on most of the Doctor Who episodes that I've missed thus far this season. Oh, and I did actually remember to sign up for the exhange over at the_pacific, since entries aren't due until August 12th, which gives me plenty of time. I'm excited about the prompts I got, so I'm hoping I'll be able to start them soon. I figure that after the whole thesis is turned in to my committee next Friday, I'll watch the Disney Channel Movie that's premiering that night and work on the fic prompt. And then get back to work on Saturday~ (Hey, even my advisor told me to take the night off after I turn it in, so there!)

And... yeah, you know, you'd think I had more to say, but I don't think I do. D: So I suppose I shall just end this, rather than rambling on about nonsense, right? But I just thought I'd pop in and confirm that no, I'm not dead, and that I do plan to actually use my LJ again at some point in the future. XD Hope you all are well in the meantime! <3

You know, I have to say that for all Florida is just a little bit... crappy sometimes, there are some real perks. Like the fact that I can sit ouside in the shade right now with my coffee and be perfectly comfortable. :D The Starbucks I usually frequent looked pretty full (and there was no parking) so I decided to try the one further north, as I'd never been there... and it's a pretty nice one. It's tucked back off the road just a little bit, so I can sit outside without cars going by me every five seconds. The only downside is it's a bit breezy, but it's not constant so it's not so bad.

Friday was pretty busy, with two tests to proctor, a quick meeting with Vicki, and the first Public Night we were open for in quite some time (spring tends to be cloudy in Florida). But I did get a pretty good picture of the moon through the telescope with my iPhone! And at least it's finally getting warmer at night, 50-60 or so, which is nice, though it means that the mosquitoes were out in some force. Thankfully, I don't think I got too many bites. And now Saturn is up, so I may try to grab an iPhone picture of that at some point too, in the next few weeks or so. XD Or I suppose one of these days I could go there some random night and see about getting pictures with my actual camera, and see how that goes...

And then yesterday a whole slew of us (ten!) went to Medieval Times down in Orlando, which was lots of fun. And lots of food! I swear, they give you half a chicken apiece! In any case, there were paper crowns, much food, and good times had by all. And we managed to take advantage of the buy one get one free deal, so it was only $35 per person~

Now, if I could only figure out why my X-ray fluxes are still being a bit wonky... I really think I'm almost there (hm, didn't I say that a post or two ago, too? >>) but I'm going to do some emailing this week and see about getting this stuff done. And at least I have no tests at all to print or proctor, so I finally have some time to get all this done! Though Friday I'm going to Megacon and Saturday I'll be in the Baltimore/D.C. area for Lee's wedding, so here's hoping I can get some decent amount of work done during the week!