firefox 3.0.1

I have 2 computers.

1 desktop at home.

1 laptop at the store (which I share with my mother, whom only play solitaire on it.)

I used Firefox for my browser, and even though I still have IE on both my comp, I rarely used it, except to check on a few things. I'm happy with Firefox, for the most part.

When Firefox released version 3, I was kinda apprehensive, especially when I heard about a few bugs. But well, I upgraded anyway, but only on my desktop at home. As for my laptop, I left it alone.

And I found some trouble, but nothing that bothers me too much. Still I did not plan to upgrade on my laptop.

And then Firefox 3.0.1 came out.

That morning I went to the store, turned on my laptop, and when the prompt to upgrade came up, without thinking I pressed install.

What an Idiot!

Only after the installation of the new version that I realized what I've done. Man, did I feel like kicking myself. But what's done is done.

Then my first irritation began.

I could not load youtube. And I did almost everything I could think of, I cleared the cache, the cookies (as per the recommendation) still nothing.

So, the next day, I tried again, and it was the same ol' thing. And this time, when I tried to get to my friend's hi5 page, I could only get the text and not the format and layout. I tried youtube on IE and it worked just fine.

Now I had to look at all the add-on I have.

I went and turned off most of them, except a few. Then restarted the firefox. and Voila! Youtube worked, hi5 worked. Now I went back and turned a few back on, except better you tube, and one another. Man, I almost create a new profile. That would've sucked big time.

I hope nothing else is going wrong.

paper marbling : homemade liquid starch 2

Finally, after several trials of trying to make sizing that's gonna work.

The first trial was completely a waste of time and material. It was much too thick, I was going too fast, too much. So, that had to be thrown out.

The second trial, I stuck to the recipe I found. 1/2 cup of corn starch and 1 cup of cold water, mixed then pour into boiling water. (of course the recipe I found it said to mix corn starch and cold water in big bowl and pour in boiling water). As it turned out, the damn thing didn't turn clear and it was way way too thick. Since I didn't know how much of boiling water I was suppose to put in.

So, I tried smaller portion of corn starch/cold water. This time it was 1/4 corn starch and 1/2 cup of cold water, into 6 cups of boiling water. It still didn't turn clear like the recipe said, but I found another one that said it might be cloudy, so I guess it's ok.

I left it to cool down, and now I found one that work!!!

So, next step, figuring out how much water and acrylic paint to mix and how much dish detergent to put in. Currently it was a good size acrylic and about 11 CC. of water and a drop of dish detergent. Seems like it was pretty good, but it spread out too much. So it'll be another few trials I guess.

Paper Marbling : homemade liquid starch first trial

I decided to make a few books, and I'd wanted to try to do paper marbling for a while now. So, it seems like a good time as any.

Well, I got the recipe, which is easier and use the easy to find things. Or, so I thought.

First acrylic paints, well, they aren't hard to get, so it's all right, I picked up a cheap set, because I still need to start slow.

Liquid starch, they said you could get it at the laundry section of any store. Well, I picked up a few and it wasn't usable. It wasn't thick enough and most of the paint just fall to the bottom. So, that's a bust. I went to the store again, hoping to get the powder kind, so I can mix it myself. No such luck.

I ended up having to make it, myself. I wasn't sure of the consistency that was needed, so I went big. like a cup of corn starch to 2 cups of water. Not good... there wasn't enough water, or rather too much starch (depends on how you look at it). So, I ended up with paste that I can't use, too thick, but they would work well for something else, so I save it for now. I might do a back of some fabric to make cover. I'll have to decide, but that's gonna have to be quick, because it'll go bad in several days.

Anyway, try again tomorrow.

another venture into the art of bookmaking... (well a part of it anyway)

Several years ago I took a papermaking class, at the time, it was a class that offered me nothing toward graduation (it was a filler for me, since all the credit I needed at that moment was only from Senior Studio). It wasn't a class I enjoy too much at the beginning, although I liked it.

Only by the end of the class that I enjoyed (not the project though) Then after that I wanted to take bookmaking, but it was full, much too quick. And I didn't feel like fighting for a spot with anyone. I did learn how to bind a book, though, and basic bookmaking.

I made a book for my last Senior Studio class, and my advisors loved it (as well as the people that showed up at the show) So I guess it's good. :)

Now, I tried my hand at another thing. Paper marbling.

Since I can't get the supplies here that are especially made for paper marbling, I had to go for homemade method stuff. And one I chose to do is with liquid starch. My first trial (which is barely an hour ago) was all right, the color wasn't as bright as I thought it was gonna be.

I used generic store brand liquid starch (which now that I can see it didn't seem to be thick enough) I might just make it from scratch.

The paint was a set of acrylic paint, which works well, but I have to play around with the consistency, although I read somewhere that oil paint will give more vivid color. Also I have to try with alum threat paper too.

I watched the vid of paper marbler, and the sizing he used was left clear once he finished with one sheet, so I don't know. Oh well, gotta try my hand in a few things I guess.

Another thing, I finally made that The Devil Wears Prada fanfic listing that I've been meaning to do for a while. The list keeps going longer and longer though. It's my favorite fandom at the moment (gotta give props to Meryl Streep.. she did really awesome Miranda, and man, I'd do her!)

Anne Hathaway is good too. :)

Now I'm gonna go watch a few Marbling demo on youtube. Maybe I'll get a better idea.

no class today!

I have no violin class today, my instructor canceled it, not that I feel all too good anyway.

Friday night I woke up (well, Saturday morning) at around 5 AM itching all over, but what I felt was stomachache first, but after that the itch set in. Man, that was a torture. I got some anti allergy from mom and took it. Then right the next morning she woke me up, and then I found that something was wrong.

Went to the doc, nothing serious, but annoying. I mean how would you like to go around all day feel like something stuck at the back of your throat you can't swallow and then when you tried you gonna upchuck all over the floor.

Yeah, so I got some medication for allergy reaction I had, which we still don't know what it was that I was allergic too. (suck, big time) Doc said I have to pay closer attention to what I was eating.

I wasn't even eating any seafood. weird.

But now I'm feeling a little tired all day because the med. Still I have to take all of them, for 7 days, and then I have another appointment.

A friend of mine decided that she's gonna clear up everything at the place she's at right now and come home.

I said it's about time.

I mean, she said she has opportunities there, which I wasn't sure about, but it's been years now and they didn't pan out, none of them.

And now it sounded like they are trying to chain her to where she was, and give her nothing at all. So, I told her, come home. Better off here even if she get small salary, because no rent to pay.

So, we'll wait and see if there's anymore obsticles.

Sometimes people thinks they are being nice by saying she would be miss and all, and she should say, oh what would we do without you and all that, but they didn't help when she has no money. So, how nice are they being?

Anyhow, I'm chatting with her everynight (well, almost everynight) I'll let her borrow money if she needs to, but she said she won't until she's really desperate.

C'est la vie.

fic rec : Truth and Measure

I've been anticipating the coming out of this fic for a while, ever since Telanu announced it a while back.

Personally I like a good size fic, I like to read stuff that has development and character driven, I mean, PWP is good too, but give me choices and I'll pic a good long one anytime.

Apparently it was more than 200,000 words. I'll put them in word and see how many there were.

I'm a little obsessed with DWP fic right now. :) (like anyone that read this wouldn't know that already)

I spent about a day reading (with some interruption in between) I finished at 4:30AM, and I started it at around 8:30AM. And man I wish there was more.

New project I assigned to myself was DWP fic-listing. It's been a long time coming. So, I'm gathering the links and the list right now. Typing a lot of them up, but I still have to go through the LJ to find more. I do remember a few that weren't post to DWP community, but instead posted on Passion and Perfection and such.

The format of it still need some work. I don't want to clutter up anything, but at the same time, if I want to put rating and summaries, and pairing, it'll be.

I guess I'll figure it out as I go along. Now I'll just get all the links and titles and authors down. Hopefully I'll get the first draft hammered out soon.

world : Miranda

I'm not surprise that Miranda was the biggest word in here, and Andrea was the second biggest. This came from 'She Likes A Prize Fight' By Telanu, my favorite Mirandy fanfic.

project : showerstall (cont.)

First two pieces of the contact paper went up without a hitch, of course that was not the case with the next piece.

It was the biggest piece in all of this. And it gave me the most trouble. It was much too big for me to manage by myself, although I did, but not without some compromise. I had to separate the piece up, cutting some parts so that I could put them up. Before that, however, they were tangled up so badly I nearly had to throw the entire piece away (and that, will definitely ruin the entire piece and force me to do the whole thing over again)

There were some parts that, I will probably have to cut off, and form it into waterdrops and stuff. After fighting with it for almost 2 hours, I got it up, and now I'm just waiting for the mist that came from the soap mix spray to evaporate, so I can see where I have to fix.

Then a couple of nights later I put up the third piece (well, I cut and put up the third piece) This one suffered from the mistake I made with the big piece, due to some misplace, the piece was higher than it should, and so I had to fix this one by extended the stem of the leaf, which is a must, or risk ruining the one thing I can't modify.

The fairy was the one thing I can not modify without ruining it, so I had to keep it in the same place, and with that I extend other parts instead. Too bad that the head was right where the handle was, kinda ruin it a little. But that's how it comes, not much I can do, most picture starts at the bottom.

But looking at it from the other angle, I'll probably work on a new one when I feel like doing it, which could be in a few months from now, so not attach with this image would be a good idea.

It's not done yet, there'll be another 1 big piece and 1 small piece to go up.

On the other note, I want sheet music from Apocalyptica (like I'm all that proficient with violin to play, really.) I'm not good enough to play something like that yet, but it's good to have goal, right?

So, on that thought, my goal for my first course of violin is playing Apocalyptica's Hope. :) I'll even buy the sheet music.

project : showerstall

A project that I've been planning for a while, and did start once, and stopped, because I didn't have the time and the image was way too complicate. So I started it over and got a new image.

So, I worked on the image and use posterazor to print the image out to side. Of course, they came out in pieces on A4. Took about 70 pieces. And I put them together with clear tape, and some glue. As for the parts that did not have anything printed on, I just leave it out, no need to waste paper more than I already did. Besides, I didn't have enough papers, which I didn't know before hand.

Needless to say, I had to hunt down the paper from all the room. Some of the paper has other things printed on one side.

I divided the pieces up, for easier handling.

Originally, I only divided to 6 pieces, and now I divided up even more, because the bigger the pieces, the harder it is to put it up.

So far I'm not done with it yet, but I've put up 4 pieces.
These are the first 2 that I put up the night before. They are also the first two pieces I cut, too...

Took me a while to straighten them out, since I didn't use the transfering tape, which I found kinda hard to do unless I have them all done and in one piece.

To put these up I just peel it all out and then sprayed a mix of water and shampoo on the back and the glass panel. It allowed me to adjust the contact paper and get the bubbles out easily.

The third piece was the worse, since I had to use transfering tape, since it has small pieces. The bad thing about this is, if I use the shampoo mix, I will have a hard time peeling the tape out.

It'll be another day or two for the color of the contact paper to clear up, it's kinda mucky now because it's not dry yet. Once it did it'll be semi transparent (don't mind the chair.)

There are more, but maybe later.

accident do happen, let me tell you

On Wednesday night something happened, due to my stupidity (at least I think that was the course of it.) I popped the E string on my violin.

Yes, I popped it.

Anyhow, I was left with a violin that had only 3 strings, and I couldn't leave it like that, no way, least something got pulled out of shape due to the uneven tension. Then I'd be left with a useless violin as well.

At least it was only 1 string, the other three still could hold it, for a while at least.

So, by morning I called up my instructor and asked what brand of string I should use, since I can order them, but a novice like me, I can't very well just go ahead and buy the string without asking first.

My instructor said Tonica is pretty good and I asked about Dominant. He said it's good too... depends on what kind of sound I like. But at the moment, I'll settled for what I can get in midrange. (he also said that I could get the cheap one to use for now, it'll cost me a few bucks. Of course they will sound terrible, I want something I can live with for now...)

So I ended up with D'Addario. They came in set of 4 (which I didn't know) And I had the guy at the store changed it for me right there... took a while because of tuning. But still the violin (which I will now call, Metis) is pretty new that it'll still adjusting anyway, so by Tuesday when my class come along, my instructor will still have to tune it for me again.

I just checked the price for Obligato, a set of violin strings cost about $78. Dominant cost about the same I think, although might be less.

Anyhow, I'm ok with what I got right now. And the new strings sounded pretty warm. I will certainly get new sets in the future, so I'm not worry about it right now. As for my old set (3 + 1 broken one) I kept in the new string package, not that I'd ever use it again (I don't think) But it might come in handy one day.

I got a music stand, too... the table top kind because I don't need another thing to clutter up my floor, 1 easle is enough. I can just fold this thing away after I finish. And rosin... this one is red, cost almost as much as the stand. :) I liked the color of it, and it came in a little wooden box.

My neck kinda hurt. I'm still trying to find comfortable position.. I'm thinking the way I had it wasn't right... so it'll be a while yet. But my bowing hand is pretty comfortable now. :) I guess I got it right. Finally.

I felt a little awkward for a while, the way I kept having to straighten my thumb out to hold the bow, which according to the book, the instructor, wasn't a way to go.

Live and learn, ha ha..

True Blood : pilot episode

The other day I found True Blood, a new Showtime show, which is still in production stage (I'm guessing) I got to see the pilot episode though, and just knew, it's gonna be one of my favorite shows!

True Blood is adaptation from Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. I've been meaning to read her book for a while now, so this would be a good time to start.

In the series, Vampire were out of the coffin, since Japanese found a way to make synthetic blood that was exactly like the real thing, enable Vampire to live off of it without ever having to feed from human. The product is called 'True Blood'.

At the base of this, it was kinda like Laurell K. Hamilton, that vamp were legal citizens, although no other creature appear yet (it's still the pilot after all) Its setting is also down south, so it'll be kinda weird to my ear to hear that much sourthern accent. But it should be fun. I loved the pilot episode already. I can't wait to see more.

The main character Sookie was a very moral cocktail waitress with a loud mouth, and often rude bestfriend that could not keep a job, a boss that's in love with her. To top that off, she was also a telepath.

Her trouble started when a newly awaken vampire 'Bill' stepped into the place where she worked.

Another 3 months before the show was on. I'm all shivering with anticipation. LOL

My friend's going to love it too! I just knew it.

Violin lesson yesterday was kinda fun. Since I have violin now my instructor is giving me a homework. I'm to work on a song 'Can Can' I'm sure everyone heard of that song. He said so that my fingers get use to changing note and string. It's still on only D and A string, but every note on it was use.

I worked on it for a while last night.

I was alos on the phone with Angie for a while the other night too. It was nice talking to her again. Nice to talk to someone that knew 'lcf' and can sympathize. I told her, we shouldn't say her name too often because it might just conjure her up.

Ha ha

And I was right about 'her' being single, otherwise she wouldn't call me. Typical.

Oh well, I went through it all before, so I'm not gonna dance to her tune.

Speaking of tune, (random? yeah) I got my digital tuner, a Sandner SMT 330. It wasn't top of the line or anything, but as far as I read all the review about using tuner, it doesn't matter much, it will still work all the same.

Not that I'm gonna tune my own violin, probably not for a while. But it'll be good to check if it's in tune or not. It's also a metronome, so that'll be what I'm gonna be using it for (because online metronome requires me to be in front of the computer). And if I wanna practice while sitting anywhere else, I won't have it.

Make sense? I think it does, at least in my head.

Maybe 'Can Can' isn't a good piece to practice. I kept playing from what I remember of the song, instead of going with the beat.

bridge is fixed

On Sunday I brought my violin (which I'm going to call it Metis from now on) to my instructor while I brought my niece to her MLM class.

Sunday was also the first day of her Ballet class as well. It was a trial class, and apparently she liked it so she's going back. Which mean that I would be staying longer on each Sunday waiting for her.

Anyhow, the bridge on my violin was not square, it was leaning toward the fingerboard. The little feet on it was actually lifted off of the surface a little. My instructor said that it was probably because the pieces of Metis is still moving and settling in. He said that it'll be another 6 months or so. It'll get better for 3 and then worse before the sound got stabilized. Then it'll get better as it's aged.

Well, I'm ordering a metronome/tuner. Because, even though I could get one of those webpage that offer metronome for free (actually they have it on their page) I still have to be on computer to use it, this way I could just sit on my bed or something. And tuner is good, too, because I wanna know if I get the sound right. I don't really trust my ear for right now.

Tomorrow is another class.

I've decided that for every class I'm gonna put 1 sticker on the cover of my violin book. So, I have 3 now on the cover. They are just the printout of Mai HiME and Mai Otome fanart (ShizNat mostly) there are some Fate/Stay Night as well. I cut them out to small pieces and then put the clear contact paper on it, in case I wanna take them out. (probably not).

Well, new instrument almost always meant new problem to solve...

I was taking out my violin (I'm gonna find a suitable name for it now) last night to practice bowing a little bit. Because I found myself unable to only stay on one string at the time. Especially the D string. And then I was putting on some rosin on the bow (because I notice that on both end of the bow aren't producing the sound that they should) And after putting on rosin, it was giving out sound.

But then, bigger problem, I noticed that the bridge wasn't square. It was leaning toward the finger board. Which mean, the sound was going to be off. And since I can't do this myself, (I don't wanna make it worse) I'm gonna wait till Sunday when I drop off my niece for her lesson to have my instructor look at it. Hopefully he can fix it and we won't need to get it to the store or anything.

Hopefully.

I want Guitar Hero III, so I got one, and apparently my Wii doesn't take the upgrade very well, so it won't play the newer game (which mean Guitar Hero III and Boom Blox) and since my Wii is a modded one, I brought it to the store and have them check it out. we even tried the games on their console, and it plays fine, so I guess it might be the version of firmware that mine has. Although mine plays the older games without any problem.

I should know what to do with it in a few days. After all, I wanna be able to play new games, too.

Man, I can't wait to play. Already got the guitar and everything.

The faceplate of the guitar is white, just plain white, so I might stick something on it. Stickers, probably. Most likely.

teaching old dog new trick... it can be done... no, really, it can!

I'm learning something new.

Yeah, hard to really considering learning anything when you're at the working age, you know, you finished with school and now working, and you spent all your day at your respective jobs and stuff. But since I work for.. well, me and my family I can take the time out during the day to do something else, as long as my schedule doesn't conflicting with my mother's. Someone's gotta mind the store.

I've always wanted to learn an instrument. Lack of chance when I was a kid, and so, now seemed like it might be a little late, but hey, who knows.

Well, I've read that Meryle Streep learned to play the Violin when she was 40, so that goes to show you that the age isn't important if you wanna learn. (ok, so she learned it to take the role of a violin teacher in a movie, but man, she could certainly demand a stand in or something) I've been telling my mother that we should get my niece to some classes, you know, piano, violin, cello, whatever, so she gets the skill to do something creative for herself when she's older. As for whether she would keep up with it when she's a teenager, well, I hope she will.

If she can't draw, then she can play something.

And so we started her on basic music course. You know, notes, tempo, a little bit of piano. Things that a 4 year old could enjoy. And since I'm the primary chauffeur, and they offer a violin, cello guitar (among other thing) I decided that I wanna take Violin class. It's only once a week, so it doesn't interfere with other things. Might be a little expensive, but hey it's no more than me getting the next toy.

Mom said if you want to, then go ahead.

So, my niece is taking the basic music course (they called it MLM, Music for Little Mozart) on Sunday (because Saturday is not set in schedule, we might need to go somewhere since the store is close) at 10 AM. And by the 15 we'll be starting her on ballet right after that too. (this one because she wanted to, I think she just likes the tutu)

As for me, Violin class on Tuesday (yeah, why not the same day? Unfortunately, someone else (older than me) already booked that time for piano lesson so, out of luck) at 1 PM.

Today is my third week, so far so good, I just got my violin too. Not the terribly expensive one, because I'm just a beginner, after all, when I'm good at it, then we'll see about a good one.

I don't think I'm gonna be shelling out for a $1,700 violin when I'm still just starting out. Now I'm looking to get a tuner/metronome. I'd need metronome for practice, but as for tuning, I think my instructor will probably gonna be tuning for me for a while. But it'll still be something I need to learn to do it for myself.

A while back I also decided that I'm gonna cut sticker for my glass shower stall. At first I wanted something from Mai HiME or Mai Otome universe (which for me, is equal to Shizuru and Natsuki) But it gets really complicated, and I could not find an image that I like enough to do something this big for. So I rethought the whole thing. I want something that I can look at and not go.. what the hell was I thinking (of course ShizNat will not get that reaction for me, it just that I don't wanna do it and found it came out horrible) So I picked something far less busy.

I found an image on Clo-cro site, and I thought, hey I could do that and not get bored with it too soon. I'm figuring how I was gonna do it, put on the clear contact first or cut first. Finally I decided that I'll cut first and that way I don't have to deal with the seams that will surely come with putting the contact paper down first.

I did separate the image along the places that weren't connected, for easier cutting. Still a few pieces were big enough that it's still hard to handle.

I got a few of them done already and found that a few pieces can be separated even more. So I did.

Should be done in a week or so.

learning to use new thing in the old program, and teaching this old dog a new trick

I've been using Photoshop for ... um... since I got my second computer. I remembered clearly that my first photoshop was a 4.0 and I got it full feature with my first scanner. (considering how expensive the program was, that was kinda extraordinary) But my first PC wasn't powerful enough for me to use, it was too slow, and I just couldn't get through the 'layer' because I simply didn't understand how it works.

Then the second pc came and so I started to use it. Once I understood 'layer' it was all a breeze for me. After I learned how to use it pretty proficiently, I took Photoshop class with Lance Hidy, because you could never know too much about something, right? I did learn a lot in that class, Lance was an illustrator, I intended to take Illustrator class too, but didn't due to other requirement that I had to get done. Kinda suck, because I really wanted to.

One thing I never get to learn or rather wanna learn was 'Pen' tool. Lance talked about it, but we didn't get to really spend time on it, and I never touched it since then. So, now I'm learning it (trying to teach myself it, rather) and I spent last night trying to do some illustration with pen tool. Hopefully, by the time I finish the image I should be comfortable with it. Again, hopefully, is the operative word here.

I've been participating in PMOG. :) Almost get to level 7 now. I should've use the mine more than I did, because it would've put me in association with Destroyer and I can get mine, now I can't because I don't have Destroyer as my association, instead I have Seer, Benefactor, Pathmaker.

Another thing that I'm learning is Violin.

Why?

I wanted to.

I like the sound of strings, cello, viola, violin. At the moment, violin seems more viable, due to the size, too. I just had my first class, we'll see how that goes on the second class next Tuesday.

New things, ha ha...

anime, new project, and new Jdrama..

Mnemosyne episode 4 with sub is out, and I'm finished loading it earlier.

I can't wait to watch it later tonight. I also got Osen several days ago, but still didn't watch it yet, maybe tonight will be a good time. Also got Hakaba Kitaro. A bunch of thing to watch tonight.

I got some transfer tapes, 8", 4", and 2" wide. Just what I need. My next project is the glass shower stall. I started it a while ago ( a long while ago) It's the scene from Mai Otome manga, where all the HiME and the Otome were face to face. Then I ran into some problem. So, I stop, now I have to start over, maybe the same image, maybe different. I'm looking though, maybe I'll find something nicer.

My friend said Shizuru and Natsuki ( yeah, she's one woman cheering team ) I said maybe.

Saber will look good on it, too, I think. Especially when the image cast shadow onto the wall behind it. Ummmmmmmmm... something to think about.

Now I'm working on the box for my friend, let's just call her Y. *snicker*

I told her I would cut sticker for all sides, which means, 6 images, probably all of them on Emma Ai (Jigoku Shoujo) Well, I've made a monster, I think. She loves the series. Seriously, there were parts that it's a little flimsy at best, but then, when you're talking about human and human emotions, some of them just don't make sense. Same thing as when you have 2 people going through the same sort of ordeal, one came through fine and the other came through with MPD. weird...

Yeah...

A lot of things to do still.

I should get back to the gym again, but still too busy to. Anyhow, I'm playing workout mode on DDR, kinda fun, if you think about it. I made a mistake of stepping on the down arrow and press A without checking, so I had to hop around to match the game (because so far, me and my uncoordinated self had been playing beginner level of the game) But it was good, I sweat so it's all that count, right. Besides, keep it up and I should be able to do it. I hope.... maybe, I wish...

I'm trying to get into making things again.

new layout, some complain about some show, rearranging the wire again

Finally, I made a new layout for the blog (obvious, isn't it?) I made a bunch of layout, they just didn't make it to the coding part of the work. So, they were never use, and right now they reside in my image folder, probably never gonna get used either.

I'm a little into Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicle these days. Which explain the layout, isn't it. Both my homepage and my blog. I like Summer Glau as Cameron (I like that name... um... and on a girl.. hot girl at that!!) And Lena Headey.... yummy.

I promised a friend that I would make her a box. So I did, with the same material I used to make the dvd boxes, plastic corrugated board (they called it future board, I have no idea why). I still have an entire big one left, so I did, and now I'm cutting images of Emma Ai from Jigoku Shoujo to go on it.

Now, the cutting is not that hard, the harder part is how am I gonna keep the thing from falling off. Since there were a bunch of little pieces that aren't connected to the large piece that will hold them in place. I almost made her nose fall off the other day. I need to get a roll of transferring tape, the masking aren't working very well, because I left it too long and the thing just kinda stickier than it should be.

I'll be picking some up later today if my mom feels all right to come in. Have to take her to a check up this Saturday, because she's due, and she needs to get herself looked at. She had insurance and she wouldn't have to pay a dime, but she doesn't wanna go, go figure.

I'll be watching new episode of Criminal Minds in a few minutes. I can't believe last week episode, there's no indication that JJ has a boyfriend, there's no evident of it, they only flirted in the episode in New Orleans and nothing else. No sign that they were having long distant relationship.

How impractical is that, when you think about it. JJ works the works that she does, the way it's presented to us, is that she's so busy, with all the cases fall on her desk before she decided which one and where the team was going. How believable is it to think that she would hop on the plane to go see this guy, how expensive is it.

Oh well, and Emily... awwwww.. poor Em. She didn't look too happy about JJ having a boyfriend.

Still it was kinda funny at the end when they were all like.. it's about time!

Let's hope they don't mention that this week episode so I can pretend it did not happen!

I spent several hours the other day underneath my desk, working on the cleaning up and retying all the wires. All the pic will get post later. (like anyone is reading this.)

Candy Boy is out. it's only 14 min long, it was cute and didn't require any higher brain function. I don't care what people say about it being weird and has no substance, it doesn't have to be the stuff of legend, I mean, hello! Strawberry Panic anyone? That show was annoying as hell, and has absolutely no value at all. Not very entertaining either, with the crying every fucking five minutes, drive me up the wall. I don't like character like that. Nagisa needs to shut the hell up and stop the water work. Shizuma also needs to get over it. The whole tragic love story thing, it was all well and good but damnit, it's fucking over done in this one. I'd rather see Shizuma with Miyuki.

I'm all about the one that's the most loyal. Miyuki's been there and there and there and still was passover for some snotnose girl who knew nothing, and did nothing but cry.

Vomit.

Ok, enough of that. I barely got through 2 episode of that.

Candy☆Boy was... well, the twin were adorable. I loved the beginning of the episode when Yukino was calling Kanade to get into the bed, Kanade dropped hair pin and climbed right back in! Now if they weren't sisters, I think there'll be more people squealing over it. But then this is anime, I've seen weirder relationship.

Angel Sanctuary anyone?

Now, for someone who reads Blackcest, this pair of twincest is down right pristine and very much PG. They are so adorable.

Another show I'm looking forward to seeing is Osen. I read the manga and I loved it, so I'm interested to see it in Live Action. Now I'm just waiting for English Sub... so far it's 3 episodes already. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some group would pick it up.

As for Last Friend, this is getting... the whole domestic violent thing. I do know the mindset of a girl like that, but then while I was watching I was like.. man, just leave!!! arggggg...

I'm off to see Criminal Minds now.

my dvd shelves last (finally)

my dvd shelves last (finally)
Originally uploaded by Xavacid

The carpenter's recently delivered 5 bookshelves to us (me, because they are really mine) They were more of cabinets than shelves, really, because I ordered them with sliding doors (want glass at first, but we got kids in the house, so... last thing I need is broken glass everywhere).

Once they came and put in the locks for me, I slowly moved all my Japanese manga that I collected out to the cabinets. (they were made to my specification, only wide enough and deep enough for me to double stack the manga, and high enough to have a little space on top of the books.) And so, I freed up space in my room.

Previously, my DVD were haphazardly stacked, since most of the space on the shelves that I have were occupied by the manga. I can arranged them now, except to put them in stacks on top of another stacks on top of another stacks.. just the thought of looking for one of the DVD that I don't watch on regular basis by removing the rest of the DVD out... Not fun, not fun at all.

So I came up with an idea, if I could find boxes that's fit DVD and deep enough for the shelves, then I can arrange it for an easy finding. So, I went to look for some.

No such luck, nothing fit my need. Nothing.

Last option, make it myself.

Well, DIY, is something I do all the time. And since I don't need them done in wood or anything, I took out my stash of white plastic corrugated board and made a prototype.

The prototype held 30 DVD at 8" wide and 5" high 17" deep.

Once that work, I went and got 6 large sheets of clear plastic corrugated board and made 9 of them, but this time at 18" deep... and so each box held 30+ DVD, 3 shelves, with 3 boxes each, I can now have 270+ DVD with east reach and easy to look through.

It's still too plain, so I satisfied my itchy fingers by making some sort of illustration on it..

Several days and seveal conversations with a friend (she's a one woman cheering team) I settled on one of my all time favorite character Jack Skellington (yay for Tim Burton). I measured, slice, printed, and measure again.

And finally I got this.

Watching : Stardust, and website that need to get done...

I picked up a copy of Stardust the other night, because I liked the movie, a lot. DeNero was awesome as cross dressing pirate. It was fun, and made me feel good. Michelle Pfeiffer was good too, it's been a while that I saw her in the movie at all.

Speaking of movie that made me feel good, I kept watching Imagine Me and You. I think Lena Headey is becoming one of my favorite now. Her role as Sarah Connor was awesome, I mean, Linda Hamilton was good in the movie, but Lena was WOW! Sizzle, and add Cameron to that equation... yup.

So, Imagine Me and You made me happy, especially when we are up to our neck in sh*t.

Oh well, we'll get through it.

I'm making a website for a friend of mine's Professor. Good thing that he wasn't in the hurry, and he knew that my father passed away, so he told me, through her, that it was ok, that I don't need to worry about it. But I'm finalizing it now, so I can start slicing and dicing.

As for the info inside, my friend should be over in a couple of days and we'll sort through it then. As long as the layout is done, we should be all right to go ahead and add text.

My brother asked for me to install game on Phobos (the laptop) I did, and so he should be coming into the store more often now, seeing how he went out and bought the controller to play it with. Hopefully, this won't add too much crap onto my machine. I guess I just have to keep checking and cleaning.

And on that note, I just did a little clean up on my uncle's pc as well. I told him to use Firefox, since it'll help with the popup and stuff. Also just updated his Spybot too. Hopefully I get some time to check his machine for more junk later.

I wanna get LG slim drive, the DVD-RW external drive, cause they have lightscribe. For some reason I really want it. I guess it's for that DVD or cd I made for keep. You know... Series I made into DVD and wanna keep and stuff. Like Poltergeist : The Legacy, when will they release that into DVD I'll never know.

A few more days and it'll be Thai's New Year and so, we'll get a little time off, I wish I could go out of town with my uncle, but it's a bust again this year. Man, I feel like being locked up, but hey, not much we can do, is there.

Trouble surfacing, bored out of my mind, wanting another toy

Well, things aren't all settled yet. So, we do have some trouble with the bank account and stuff. Man, it'll be a while yet, before my mother was clear to take care of everything (in the legal sense) *sigh*

Not much we can do about that, so it's a waiting game right now. I should really go after some people now. Really, I should.

Maybe I should stick my father after them. Ummmmmmm.. there's a thought.

I recently started watching Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and I like Lena Headey (despite the fact that I saw her before and paid absolutely no attention to her) and Summer Glau. My friend asked if I like older woman (in her case, she meant old like mom's old) I said no, I like smart, strong and capable woman, there's a difference.
Anyhow, so I finally got to see Imagine Me&You as well.

Not that I have all that high expectation of the movie, I'm not one for romantic comedy anyway. But I like this one. It's my feel good movie now, especially the fact that it has happy ending.

So often we watch movies with lesbian character and then boom at the end they never get the girl. So, this one is gold. Lena was cute. (unlike her in Sarah character, that one can kick ass and take name all the way till the cow comes home)

In the midst of all the crap that came after the funeral, this was one little refuge for me.

Back to the crappy relative, these people makes you wanna gauge your eye out with a rusty spoon. One in particular, she's my dad's cousin that he used to help her out and get her started on the current occupation that she has now. Well, ok, she loves my father, good. But she acted as if she's done everything for him. If that's true, then why wait for my mother to order to medication, instead of just go ahead and do it herself?

Because the med cost $4,000. That's why.

Well, she has the money, so why wait for us to do it, since she loves my father so much. What a hypocrite. Then she has the audacity to tell my mother that she was not family. If my mother isn't family then she's a stranger.

With all the talks, you'd think she paid for everything when it's not true, we paid for everything, hospital bills, funeral and other miscellaneous stuff.

Narrow minded, petty, hypocritical, and to top that off, she's also very much self-center and self absorb.

So, after this, we're not going to ever contact her ever again.

I guess one good thing out of this, is that we know who we can count on and who we can trust.

Funny, people has opinion of how to treat him, when the doctor said that there's nothing they can do for him, other than treating him according to symptoms. But of course, we should do more, keep him with us longer. Why? So he could suffer more? And the medication, they said you should try, he worked so hard all his life, this is nothing.

Yeah, right.

The med did nothing, it didn't help, we knew this, the doc knew this. Even he, himself knew this. We tried anyway, because my mother didn't want them to all bitching behind her back about how we didn't do all we could for him.

Bullshit.

I don't see anyone coming up with the money for anything.

I should calm down now, because it's over and done with.

But I am not the one to forget easily. Doesn't matter what happen from now on, I'll always remember what they did.

Because I'm a bitch like that.