i'll paint the stars

You know, didn't I promise to update more now that I'd defended, or something like that?

Yeah... well. XD I'm trying. So, let's see... This week has actually been rather busy. Actually, last week was also rather busy, as my sister and my grandmother came down to visit and we went to Hollywood Studios and Epcot and Islands of Adventure and bought fabric and I made Jennie Aayla's top (which will hopefully only require a little adjustment of her own). And while at JoAnn's I saw all this fabulous fabric I could use for Dany, which makes me really excited to make that costume as well, for whenever I get to wear it.

Then this past week was filled with editing my thesis to make all the margins right and Tuesday I had to do some outreach that involved Starlab presentations and putting together Galileoscopes, which I am so very good at by now. ;D I've also been doing a little more packing and just trying to get rid of stuff in general - I cleaned out my fabric and tried to get rid of anything that wasn't big enough to be useful, and I've mostly cleaned out all the costumes I don't plan to ever wear again. The current moving plan is to mail a bunch of stuff to my mom and then tow the rest of it behind my car with a U-Haul trailer, which it appears I can get for a week for about $400. This is much cheaper than moving it via pod, and also likely much cheaper than storing things here and flying back to rent a truck and drive across the country again, so I'm hopeful that it will indeed work out the way I want it to. This plan, however, results in me selling every bit of furniture I don't want, which means really everything except the coffee table, the kitchen table, maybe one of the bookshelves, and ideally my futon, though I can get rid of that if I have to as well. But it was going to be thousands of dollars to have a pod moved across the country, and I don't have thousands of dollars worth of furniture. So this seemed more economical in the end? Which I am all about, as I just received my last paycheck this past Friday and am officially unemployed, yay.

We also went to go see Transformers 3 last week, which was... interesting. I don't know that I have any strong opinions on it at all, but I have to say watching them tear up Chicago was fun. XD I'm still sad I missed the filming by a couple of days when I went home way back when or I so would've gone downtown to watch! I do have to complain that it ruined some really good fanfic ideas with more canon, but such is the way of things, I suppose.

And in the meantime, Amat has been horribly slow, which is a little strange but I think it's vacation time for most people, so I can understand that. It's probably for the better, because it means I'm getting a little bit of writing done, because I'd really like to write more. However, even though I have plenty of ideas, I'm feeling sort of lazy, which is not cool. But I figure if I just keep plugging away at things a little bit at a time, that's still better than not writing at all, right? I just need to do it and get back into the swing of things, because I definitely haven't written anything in quite some time now, and that definitely needs to be fixed!

Okay, I've probably rambled at you all enough, back to puttering away my Saturday night, yay!

I fear I may be getting sick. ;; I have been sneezy and sniffly all day. This is not cool! In fact, I would really like a hot chocolate or something, but I figure I may go haunt my usual Starbucks this evening and get something warm and yummy to drink then while I write up the variability section of my thesis. Because today has been spent making my variability program all pretty and useful and fancy, and now I'm just... redoing that twelve times for each of my clusters. Ahhh, so many clusters.

Also, for the record? UPS showed up at 8:30pm the other day. 8:30. They're only supposed to deliver from 9-7, and when I got sick of waiting for the guy I left at 7:30 to run errands and just managed to catch him leaving my building when I got home at 8:30. Geez. I really wish they'd just come before 5 and leave it at my apartment office. :x I suppose I should be grateful they even attempted to deliver my package on Tuesday, but still. It's the principle of the thing or... something. If you can't deliver it within the hours you say you will, then get another truck? IDK.

But since I did get to go out, I now own the new Mercedes Lackey book and the new Rick Riordan book, which I am hoping is more engaging (to me) than The Kane Chronicles because that one... just didn't suck me in as much. It's not like the plot is boring (yes, is, I'm still not done with it >>), but I just wasn't quite as engaged. I also still have to finish the second Artemis Fowl book (again... plot's good, but I'm not dying to read it) and I also kind of went a little crazy on Amazon and ordered Sid Phillips' book because, well. SID. :D;;

Tyler is coming to visit tomorrow! As it is also Homecoming weekend, I think I will attempt to steer clear of the University, and probably that whole side of town. I guess I can spend the rest of the day writing up stuff and finishing my costume (oh, I should work on that tonight, too). At least the pants are mostly done - just have to put on the side pockets and the zipper and close them up~ I've actually gotten pretty good at pants, I think? :D And then I have to make the belt, but that's not hard, either. Just a lot of snaps. XD

Okay, back to work now, to hopefully get this program updated for a few more clusters before I call it quits and go running and attempt not to drip too much. :x

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!

Okay, so at least I finally figured out why my program wasn't working. One, I was counting half the galaxies twice, and two, I needed to do the area of a ring, not of a circle. Ahahaha. I am dumb. :D;

Anyway, the point of this post! ( Trudy makeup test run successful! )

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;;;

--

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

Went to a rather interesting talk today on the nature and possible manifestations of dark matter, which was pretty awesome~ Cosmology is fantastic, and I think I will always love it. :D (Especially when you get to go to talks featuring WIMPs, MACHOs, and the all-new WIMPZILLAs!) I have also achieved IRAC color-color diagrams of my galaxy clusters, which made me feel rather accomplished. Alas, I have to wait 'till next week to get ACIS-Extract and its associated programs installed, but that gives me a chance to ignore X-rays for yet another few days~

This evening I set to work getting Penny ready for this weekend, which I am happy to say only took about an hour to an hour and a half total. I love easy costumes! (Granted, I had the black shirt already, and I bought the pink shirt and black shorts from Goodwill. All I had to do was make the pink shirt smaller and cannibalize two pairs of leggings into one pair of stripey ones. Dude, I measured those stripes and made them proportional! Cosplay math FTW.)



( Two more here! )

I don't think I'm going to wear anything horribly costume-y for the race, mostly because I don't have anything. (I could always run in Videl, but that's so obscure it's not worth it. XD) Maybe I'll come up with something I already have before Saturday. In the meantime, I just have to make sure I remember to bring Bolt this weekend, along with a lightsaber for Frank. And I need to tape Venture Bros!

( Woo, Star Trek uniform is mostly done! )

Also costuming-related, I Model Magic'd the triangles on Ahsoka's headtails (I should take pictures) and velcro'd up the bootcovers, and put the second coat of paint on the buckles. OMG, this costume may actually get done on time. o.o; Also, toaster and gun for Lewis' hat, GET! (Ahaha, I so had to exert massive willpower at Toys R Us because THEY HAVE SECRET SATURDAYS TOYS. Waaaaaaaaaant~ I don't care if I accidentally spoiled myself for the ending of that show, it sounds so cool and I really need to find the end of it so I can see it.

Still lots to do, but it's actually getting done! Though I think I'm going to spend the last bit of time I have before bed working on PJO stuff. Still plenty left to copy out of the notebook from Rio! I really should be working on Ben 10 stuff, but I'm holding out for an extension on that. Otherwise I'll do it this weekend. Really!

So! Now it's time for a Boston update~ Starting with my arrival on Wednesday afternoon, after a two-hour nap from 3-5am Tuesday night/Wednesday morning before driving to the Orlando airport. I really need to fly JetBlue more often - they are AWESOME. Tons of legroom (well, more than the usual, anyway XD) and FREE SNACKS and COKE ZERO and TV. Woo!

( Anyhoo, after a pretty uneventful flight, I get to Jennie's. )

This morning - er, well, afternoon, I got up around 12:30 and headed over to Harvard Square to pick up some presents and a frozen matcha from Tealuxe, yum~ Then I stopped at Star Market on the way back for some food for the rest of the week and managed to get it back here without too much trouble. Then there was dinner and more Enterprise, and a nice long phone conversation with noctaval. :D And then I actually got most of Anakin's tunic put together (I'm aiming to have all of that plus the belt done before I leave for the wedding tomorrow, we'll see if I can get up IN THE AM PLEASE, SELF.

And randomly, someone's puppy is home alone or something and it has been whining loudly since I got here. Now, I feel somewhat bad for the poor thing, but it's also really started to get on my nerves. :x Said person needs to come home and pay attention to their dog! It kept waking me up last night. Thankfully it appears to have stopped this evening. I hope it stays stopped, as it means both a happy dog and a happy Ali-chan.

Okay, off to pin the band on Anakin's tunic (maybe) and (more likely) read some more SamxBee~ XD

I was going to post this earlier, but then I called Tyler and got at least some packing done. (Until his phone died? Or something. D:)

But! ( I think the hard part is over? )

Spent pretty much all day at work today - had a 10am meeting (after staying at Nathan's until like 1:30 because not only did we watch the BEST DND MOVIES EVER, we also spontaneously watched Star Trek II) and then had to modify my poster to meet my advisor's approval for printing around 5pm. Finally left with posters in tow at 6:30ish, then I went running and showered and cleaned a bit while I talked to my mom. Then I worked on the monster up there and called Tyler and packed.

Thankfully I don't have to think too hard about what to bring. Nice clothes, check. Regular clothes, check. Pajamas, check. Bathing suit, check. The rest will get taken care of tomorrow, since I don't leave Gainesville until 4:30 or so (yay overnight flights). It turns out I'm on the same flight as Leah once I get to Miami, so at least I won't arrive alone; then we pick up Dan and Izaskun and figure out how to take a taxi to wherever it is we're staying. XD (Gee, I should write down that address... Not that I have any clue how Rio addresses work.)

My previous writing notebook seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, which is sad. I mean, I wasn't writing anything currently in it (and I am now extra-glad I copied that beginning-of-a-Ben-10-fic out of it a while back) but it has sentimental value (and a whole lot of XP planning in it XD). Hopefully it will turn up; I'm pretty sure I didn't leave it in Europe, at least. I think I would have missed it between June and now... Ah well, I have a new notebook in my bag and we'll see how long this laptop battery will last... not long enough, if I want to do some serious writing on the plane, but one can always hope there will be outlets under the seats...

Anyway. For the record, I will be out of the country from tomorrow until the 16th, so those of you who might regularly call me probably don't want to do that. XD Email and LJ should be okay; we've got wireless where we're staying and I plan to plop on the internet at night since I don't want to get mugged or something alone in Brazil. Whee. XD And let's pretend I'm totally not bringing The Lightning Thief and The Battle of the Labyrinth to read over the next week...

Okay, off to possibly sleep. I was going to write but I think I'm too tired. D:

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