i'll paint the stars

Aaaaaand back! Actually, we got home about 3 hours ago, I've just been unpacking and trying to catch up on some stuff. I think it might be bedtime now. =_=

PICTURES AND STUFF SOON!

Y HELLO THAR LJ. Long time no post~ But I figure it’s a shiny new semester today, maybe I should try to update or something, right? :D;

Firstly: WHY IS THIS TRUE? D:

Secondly: I HAVE A TA POSITION! Meaning: I will get paid in the spring. I THINK. YAY. It looks like if I TA in the fall, then the money I was going to get paid via Vicki’s grant can get paid to me in the spring? That better be how it works, because not getting paid = freaking out and I don’t like freaking out every time I spend $5 or $10 here and there. I realize this is kind of rubbing it in the face of you guys that don’t have jobs, I’m sorry. ;; I’m just relieved. It looks like I’m jointly in charge of running Public Night and printing exams, the latter of which is new to me but hopefully not hard and the former of which is fun but alas, I have to give up my Friday nights to do it. But hey, I can do that for half a year or a year if it means I get paid.

Anyway, today I am re-learning how to make fancy PDF plots with colored and user-specified points with IDL. Tomorrow is re-doing the variability plots that I apparently lost in the Great Trip Hard Drive Failure of 2010.

Good thing: they finally fixed my A/C! It’s been leaking into my closet all summer, but they re-piped it and it shouldn’t leak again. Bad thing: the water stain my bathroom ceiling has developed seems to be growing mold. This is not cool. I’ve already told them once, but more mold has appeared since then. I have bleached the hell out of it, but it keeps reappearing. Mushrooms on my bathroom ceiling are not okay, yo. Complaining again tomorrow is a go!

OKAY. Now for some backdated updates!

About... three weeks ago (sob, I totally meant to update a long time ago) Diana and I went to AFO - during which we sat around and watched almost all of The Pacific. XD We watched 1-8 in one go Friday night, and then she came up on Sunday and we finished it out. Mmm, Pacific. Next up is either Band of Brothers or Generation Kill, the latter of which I have never seen but would like to. This will, of course, all have to happen after Dragon*con, when my life will resume being my life, because this week and next it’s going to be insane. I’m finishing up Hit Girl for Jennie tonight after I run to JoAnn’s, and then I have about a week and a half to make girl!Doctor Horrible and Supergirl. Sookie Stackhouse is definitely a go. I also have to get the alignment on my car checked, because when I went to Jiffy Lube... oh, two weeks ago now, they rotated my tires and messed up my alignment. And I haven’t had time to go back and yell at them, but I AM GOING TO this week. I SWEAR. It might already be too late to get them to fix it for free, but it does need to get fixed before I drive six hours to Atlanta.

ALSO, there was Celebration V. Which was lots of fun, especially since we managed to catch the Main Event (well, in the spillover room for the spillover room, BUT STILL. We watched it live on TV? XD), which was Jon Stewart interviewing George Lucas, which was fabulous. There was also a Hoth Ice Bar, which looked nifty but we did not go in (we wanted real food). We had great fun watching the droid racing, and also wandering and looking at allllll the awesome stuff one could buy. I ended up getting a Han Solo shirt, which also says Celebration V on the back so yay for souvenirs! Alas, I only took a few pictures (and they're kind of big because I just used my phone) but what I do have is ( behind the cut! )

Aaaaand... that is it for now. I think. Back to finishing my lunch and trying to catch up on at least a few tags before I have to get back to work, since I want to leave early tonight and get some errands done. Mushu needs more kitten food!

So~ Heroes tonight was rather entertaning, but I think that may be because our conversation during said show quickly degenerated into, well, what Peter and Sylar were going to do trapped in a world with no other people. Because come onnnn, they were bound to get bored eventually! XD (Seriously, I only maybe started it. Maybe I didn't even start it. But then Nathan picked it up and ran with it, and we all know where that leads. |D In general, "nowhere good" is the correct answer to that.)

Man. As soon as I can screencap that episode. ::dies::

Also, Jessica Alba was on Jay Leno afterwards. We think she may have been wearing a mylar blanket. D: Seriously, did someone try to make her look ugly? Her hair was cute, though!

Tiff will be in town this weekend, yay! That may mean no shuttle launch (ugh, it is at like 4:30 am D:) but we're definitely doing the Renn Faire~ Though that may possibly push DnD back a bit, but that's okay. Next weekend is PJO OMG, and the weekend after that looks like when I'm dragging the G'ville contingent to it. >D

Anyway~ Got started on my Trudy cosplay by purchasing a flightsuit ($27, not bad!) and hunting down some necklace options on the internets, yay! I love easy costumes, and I love Trudy. :D Can't go wrong! I really need to see if they make toys of those helicopters, because I'd totally love to carry one around. XD Scott also mentioned doing Heroes for Megacon, and I could make Claire by then, I think? It's just three quarters of a cheerleading outfit, and I already have the wig. And then I may still do Ranka, too - eesh, I should look into a hotel room! Miss violet_lane, we should talk~

ALSO is it totally dorky that I keep hoping AJ Buckley will pop up at one of these cons? XD I mean, I know he does cons, or at least he has in the past... :D;;;

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EDIT: Heyyyyy~ I COULD GO TO THIS. With the sole purpose of stalking Ratchet's PB. Because that would be, you know. AWESOME. |D

Okay, so! The long-awaited (well, maybe) Dragon*Con report, complete with pictures! Oh man, this is going to take me quite a while to write. Guess I'd better get started.

( Dragon*Con 2009: Captains, costumes, and orange body paint. )

Anyway; I had an absolutely fantastic time at the con and I am so very sad it is over. But I have to admit, there is also something to be said for having nothing to do in the evenings. I mean, I can do stuff that's not D*C-related. Like write. Or watch Enterprise. Or make costumes at a leisurely pace. Wow. Imagine that!

Apparently, I am leaving the country in four days. I am so not prepared for this. XD

Okay, well, I kind of am. But there's still a lot to do. I'm waiting on my advisor to tell me if my poster is okay to print, and I don't really have a whole lot of work that needs to get done in the meantime (i.e., work with a major deadline) so I'm just trying to do what I can and finish preparing for my trip. And then I'm going to be working on costumes FOR THE REST OF FOREVER OMG. I've realized I have approximately two weeks (at best) at home before Dragon*Con, in which I need to finish Ahsoka and ejfuafiufhaiurwejdeOMG. I can do this, but it'll take some doing~ A lot of her stuff is done, but a lot isn't. Thankfully Jennie says I can use her sewing machine in Boston, so that helps alleviate a bit of stress. Plans are to finish Ahsoka while at home, and to put the Star Trek uniform, Anakin, and Obi-Wan together in Boston (along with possibly Ahsoka's bootcovers). Gwen is done for reals (pictures eventually) and Lewis is coming along and needs to be mostly bought anyway, so I'm going to be doing some internet surfing while in Brazil. I plan to stop in at Center Stage this week anyway to check on the Ahsoka makeup, so hopefully I can pick up some glasses and a safari hat for Lewis while I'm at it. Valerie's Franny is coming along amazingly, for the record~

So, this weekend! AFO was... well, we didn't really go to AFO. XD Friday afternoon I drove down to Carmax in Orlando and sold my Camry (yay!); then Diana picked me up and we got dinner and talked and watched some Venture Bros (finished season 2). Then around maybe 12 or 1 we got ready for bed, but we made the mistake of turning on the TV because AFO always shows anime and we wanted to see what was on. It turned out to be episode 2 or 3 of Macross Frontier, which Katie loves and wants us to watch but we'd never gotten around to it. We weren't incredibly impressed at first, but then suddenly it was 6am and episode 14 was over and we were falling asleep sitting up but OMG it was so good! So. XD We will be finishing that, eventually. (And there will be Ranka cosplay. Because she is SO CUTE and I want her backpack OMG. XD)

For the record: best moment ever was when we were watching Macross Frontier, and Ranka does something and Diana goes, "Woo, go her! She's such a Rachel! And Sheryl is such an Annabeth." Ahahaha. I have taught her well~ XDD

Then, since we didn't go to bed until almost sunrise, we didn't get up until 4-5 and so we got dressed and got lunch/dinner/etc.; then we came back and watched all of Children of Earth in one go (why yes, that was some rather amazing television o.o) and then it was bedtime again. XD Then Sunday we got up at 10 to check out at 11, went to McDonald's for lunch, and ended up sitting there talking until almost 5:30 when it was time to leave for the concert. ::dies:: XD Which was, of course, amazing~ I still think Demi Lovato is probably the most talented singer Disney has right now, and she put on an awesome show and she was so absolutely sincere and modest and awesome~ David Archuleta is almost better live than on his albums, but I think that's because I liked the rock feel of the music as played by a live band as opposed to the more synthesized pop sound on the album? Anyway, he's pretty amazing as well, and I think Jordan Pruitt went before either of them and even though we didn't know who she was or anything by her, she too has a very amazing voice. So all in all, like I said, it was a very amazing concert~

And so now here I am, sitting at work and if Vicki doesn't get back to me I may head out early so I can get all the errands I need to run done. I have to, in no particular order:

- Deposit bank draft from car sale
- Call credit card company about using my card in Brazil
- Go to JoAnn's, the grocery store (I have no food, not even for four days), Michael's, and Center Stage
- Mail off Bumblebee to Blanche because I didn't have time on Friday

AND FINALLY LAST BUT NOT LEAST: HAPPY BIRTHDAY cecilegrey! :D May you receive many Dracos on your birthday. ;D

Oh, oh! And I keep forgetting, but thank you so much for the letter, februaryfour. That stationary was SO CUTE! <3

Okay, so I am back! :D Well, I've been back since Sunday night, but busy hanging out with Jen (:D) so I haven't really had much time to myself yet. XD I'm not caught up on LJ or RP at all, but I'll try to do that tonight. Yesterday after I dropped Jen off at the airport I rushed back home and mailed off her phone (I made it into the post office just before it closed at 7) and then started some laundry and had some dinner before putting most of the stuff I'd brought with from IL away and setting up my coffee table. :D It'll be a bit weird not having that floor space in front of my couch anymore, but I can always move it easily if someone wants to sit there. Heroes is over for the season, anyway, so no more tons of people sprawling on my floor for a while. XD

Then Elizabeth called and ahaha, I hadn't checked my email but people were going to see Wolverine, so I hopped in the car and went to do that. It was actually pretty good; they didn't screw over canon too badly in any way that really bothered me, and the story was good as well! (Maybe more on it later, but that's all I have brainpower to say for now. XD) Then this morning I reserved a Disney hotel (but no tea, it's totally booked up this weekend like I thought it might be; ah well, we can do Downtown Disney instead) and I picked up my contacts at the UPS depot before heading in to work (it's break week so I could park on campus!).

( A bit of Anime Boston-related cosplay babble here. )

AND I have The Last Olympian (I totally bought it yesterday at the Borders in the airport XD) but if I get to actually crack the thing open before I get back from Boston/Europe/etc., I'd be a bit surprised. D: But that's okay. The longer I put it off, the longer the series lasts! Right? :D;

Anyway, road trip pictures, etc. later (or you can just read Jen's account, it'll probably be way more interesting than mine!) and I'm going to try to get something useful that's work-related done today. Maybe. (At least I've got plenty done already, even if it's not work-related? I think astronomy might just not actually happen again until June.)

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EDIT: Also, while I was picking up my package, the guy at UPS had the radio on and the announcer was like, "Hey, Star Trek opens this week! 10% of fans who are going to see it are going to dress up in costume! Watch out for Vulcans, everyone!" I was kind of amused. XDD Though I admit I'm totally wearing a Trek shirt. tomorrow. ;D

Whew! So Megacon was lots of fun, and pretty chill.

( Mini Con Report below! )

I got home around 9-ish last night, so not too late, except my neighbors were being unGodly loud. I managed to watch the extra ep of Invisible Man they put on the DVDs (which was LOLtastic) with the volume turned way up while I ate dinner and then I decided I was tired and I wanted to go to bed. I retreated into my bedroom (where I could still hear the music, mind), and lo, when I worked up the nerve to call them and ask them to turn it down, there was no answer. >> (I bet he couldn't even hear his phone over the noise.) I considered calling the police to tell them to shut up, but it was a Saturday night and it sounded like they were having a party or something. I figured I would try to sleep for a bit and apparently I was tired enough that I fell asleep even with the music that loud, though I kept waking up (especially when there was this racket like they were... dragging something heavy across their kitchen floor? WTF?).

Finally around 4 I think they stopped and I fell asleep for good, though there was this thunderstorm in the morning (I don't know when XD) that woke me up again but then I just went back to sleep and I swear I tried to get up a couple of times but I kept falling asleep until maybe around 12:30. Then I managed to get up and I CLEANED (because I hadn't in about two weeks, eheh~), so now my apartment is vacuumed and (mostly) dusted and it is nice. :D Then I ate lunch and watched Dadnapped, which was cute and totally different than I'd envisioned, and... obviously I must have puttered around a bit and here I am. XD

Oh! But I kind of have a dilemma, so I figured I would put forth the question to my flist. The next con I'm going to is FX Show in April, and I am currently torn between two costume options. So! I'm actually going to use my paid member privileges and have a poll! (Fancy~)

Option 1: Ben 10 (the 10 year-old version, I don't think I look boy-like enough to pull off 15 year-old Ben though I still want his jacket XD)

Option 2: Dru Saturday

[Poll #1357965]


EDIT: Also, I realize that absolutely no one on my flist watches either of these shows. So you can just vote for whoever you think looks cooler, or whoever looks like they might suit me better? If you feel like it, of course. :D;

I don't want to work today, and it's only Tuesday. ;_; I'm really tired, though - I couldn't fall asleep last night for some reason, so I laid in bed until at least 4am wishing that I was asleep. :x

Been working on Bad Girl; the sleeves are attached, which is a major accomplishment since it somehow took me more tries than it should have. XD Tonight is the ruffles on the collar and maybe the lacing up the back. Then I need to re-cut out a few pieces for the skirt (ahaha, the problem with striped fabric is that if you want the stripes to all be vertical, you can't cut out a circle skirt in one piece. I know this now. XD) and figure out how to make it stand out like hers does. I'm thinking either interfacing, boning, or a petticoat, the latter of which would be easiest but the least accurate since she doesn't wear one. Jennie, any preferences? I think I mentioned this to you before, and you were okay with a petticoat? You might be able to pick one up at Goodwill or something down by you if that's the case, but I could also look for one or just make it. Otherwise I'll experiment with other ways to make her skirt defy gravity. XD;

I think for Megacon, I'm going to make Gwen (Cooper) and possibly Padme... I really, really want to be Ahsoka but I'm still stumped on how to make her headtails. I'm thinking some kind of lightweight base, then fabric covered with liquid latex? I've never worked with liquid latex before, I don't know if it'll do what I'm envisioning anyway. I've been poking around a couple Star Wars costuming sites for ideas, but I haven't looked really seriously. Maybe I should start. XD; FX Show is really late this year, maybe I could get her done for that.

I feel horrible that there aren't any anime costumes I'm dying to make. D: Maybe Anya? Or older!Setsuna? I'm not into any series too hardcore at the moment, fail~

Also, I have started thinking in Mando. Just phrases here or there, but I'm so doing it. This can't be a good sign. XD

Okay. I suppose I should get back to work now. Time to read some papers on how to analyze Spitzer data! Please don't be hard to do. D:

And I know it's totally late, but while I'm at it here are a couple of AFO pictures, featuring our double C.C. (or C^4, if you like XD) photoshoot!

( Pizza and green hair ahoy! )