So two things have occurred in the last three days:

1) My laptop ate another battery. This makes three which have died on me (one within a week of getting it), and this one is really dead. I have to shut the computer down entirely just to move it between rooms, as there's no power even for hibernate. I am so happy for Ubuntu's short boot times now.

2) The house modem has kicked the bucket. We've been having issues on and off for the past two months, but my landlord went to reset it today to try and fix the latest round of connectivity issues and now it's totally gone. ETA on a new one is three days.

The collective effect is that I want to tear my hair out even more than I did already. I won't be on AIM much, as internet at home = wireless tethering, and while I have a cushy data plan on my phone, it's not that cushy, so I'll probably be leaving it off except when I'm actively doing internet stuff.

This week is just...idk, I have to laugh because otherwise I'd scream and throw things at walls. I'm actually doing okay on sewing when I sit down and look at it objectively, but I'm so used to being really far behind at this point that my anxiety has skyrocketed anyway, which makes everything seem out of control (and then I panic, and then things actually are out of control, and just....lol my neurochemistry). The info packet from the sleep clinic actually finally showed up in the mail today though, so hooray for one bit of Important Administrative Shit getting done.

I also wrote more Ukitake!genderswap fic, because this AU is slowly consuming my brain. That, and I have a lot of time to think about things when I'm spending most of my afternoons sewing. Not sure when I will actually post more, as I just have a fragment of a scene that needs like, two scenes before it to make sense, but I'm kind of amazed that there are ideas in my brain and they actually link up properly and everything. I think Jyuushiko now beats Jorim for 'RP character with the most backstory scenes written up'. Though Tseng has a ton of headcanon that I've never bothered to write up, it just kind of shows up in random conversations with Sheska.

Part of my brain is asking 'why is that I always want to just blog lots when I have tons of shit to do?', but I know the answer is that tons of shit to do = tons of shit to blog about. I have done ridiculous amounts of handsewing over the last few days, and somewhat amazingly actually have gotten most of it done. I think there's a few little bits on the suits, and I need to do the handsewing sections on the hakama, but that is all! I also ran out of suit-thread again. I think I may have passed the 1.5 km mark on 'amount of thread used', which means I have to not sleep in 'til five tomorrow like I did today (note for my purposes 'tomorrow' = 'the time after one REM sleep cycle from now') so I can go to Fabricland.

Jon and I also played more Tales of the Abyss, and while the game's hardcore railroading is getting old, I actually finally see why people like Luke. Hooray, character development. And Jade continues to be an amazing magnificent bastard :') I have a soft spot for that character type - although only when they're good guys. In out-and-out baddies it just annoys me (see: Aizen).

Only one progress photo for today - Kyouraku's pink monstrosity, which is very big, very pink, and I hope will look less like a bath robe when it's on top of kimono and the other haori.

Read More?

I got a lot done today /o/ Instead of making lists, I will instead post photos because it's more fun that way. Under the cut - Ukitake test pics (with better bangs!), new haircut, and mostly-done Reno wig.

Read More?

Media Center: I ended up having to ditch Mythbuntu because ATI is annoyingly lazy and decided to stop updating their legacy Linux drivers (the legacy Windows drivers? Updated last month), and this graphics card was awesome in 2005. So it's WinXP pro with XMBC, which I still have to configure to use an external player because the built-in XBMC runs all the decoding off the processor, and this processor was pretty good in 2005, which means MKV files are freezing after two minutes. I did get the TV-out configured, and set up file sharing within the network, at least. I have to talk the landlord unblocking router ports if I want remote file access, but I need to make the set-up way more secure first because this isn't Linux any more and Windows Firewall is a steaming pile of shit. Unfortunately the modem for the house network is possibly in the slow process of dying - it's started randomly not letting computers connect, regardless if it's a wired or wireless connection, so...lol :< The new tower and my roommate's laptop seem to be the worst victims.

-Whenever I have internet again: patch WoW!
-Whenever I have internet again: accquire this week's Bleach filler crack
-????: Get caught up on tags :(

Cosplay:
Turks - Three suits are at over 95% done, which is to say they need undercollars, pants cuffs, belt loops, and a metric ton of ironing. Elena is lagging behind, but I'm bringing it in to work on during lecture tomorrow so it should be caught up by tomorrow night.

-Friday: Acquire cardstock for ID badges and business cards at Staples
-Friday: Dressew for extra buttons
-Friday: FINISH HANDSEWING OMG
-Saturday: Attempt to style Reno wig
-Sunday: Final fitting to make sure I didn't destroy anything
-????: Start Scarlet
-Whenever the other wigs come: Elena and Scarlet wig styling

Bleach - Haori are mostly done - still need to do the collar handsewing on the 8th division one. I did get the collars done on the white kimono, but not the black ones, and I still need to do the sleeve openings on both. I did however get my Ukitake wig cut and styled - first attempt at bangs was so-so, so I brushed them out and am letting the slightly more gravity defying ones dry right now.

-Thursday: Sew down black kimono collars. Maaaaybe haori too if I have time.
-Friday: Raid dollar store for something appropriate for hakama backboards. Also possibly rope.
-Friday: Dressew to get fabric for pink haori
-Friday: Hakama time /o/ One whole one, and then mine needs ties and finishing
-Saturday: Pink haori! Inbetween letting Reno's spikes dry, of course.
-????: Acquire tabi and hat somewhere. (Richmond?)
-????: Make waraji (I have a tutorial!)

School Stuff: Good marks on my two papers I got back, which only sort of makes up for how shit my participation marks are going to be. They did finally give me my minor, though. Other than that - school, don't talk to me about school :<

-Thursday: Study like made for midterm on Friday
-Friday: Ace midterm!
-Friday: Term topic and tentative bibilography for children's lit class (AAAAAH IDK WHAT TO DO), submit by 4pm
-Monday: Bioethics paper for Tuesday

HOLY SHIT EPIC CATACLYSMM SPOILERS ARE EPIC

Alixia wants that Gnomergan overcloak right now and once she has it she will never take it off. Yeah I know I'm like the only person that cares about gnome lore, but seriously, I have wanted this for like two years now.

Not cut so you all can lol at my lack of time management :')

-Evolutionary theory paper draft (due tomorrow, but...I have 1.2k words already?)
-Finish suits (AKA figure out a way to make the zippers magically not look like crap)
-Put together haori (Surprise! It's Bleach cosplay!)
-Acquire wig styling stuff (detangler and hair spray. idk what to do for brands, I never buy hair shit :|)
-Cut out Scarlet's dress (acquire measurements first!)
-Put together PC tower + begin epic file transfer (contingent on harddrive arriving - today or tomorrow, I hope)

Things that are not getting done for Sakuracon:
-AC!Rufus (too burnt out on suits right now)
-zanpakuto (I have supplies, but living in a rental with my landlord upstairs means every time I turn on power tools he's convinced I'm doing some DIY home renovations or something, so I have no where to work on them)
-Rufus's shotgun (see above - though it's less pieces so it miiiight get done)

Things which may or may not get done for Sakuracon:
-Rufus's shotgun (see above - though it's less pieces so it miiiight get done)
-Papa Shinra (cry, another suit, but Ced is bribing me)

Some minor linkspam to start the post off, because they are worth sharing

-Kim Jong Il macros! Which I find way funnier than I probably should. I think it's the silly fuzzy hat.
-Clarion - Braska-centric FFX gen fic. Beautiful, and absolutely heartbreaking.

The second was kind of a fortuitous find - I've been feeling like I can't really get a grasp on writing Braska lately, I think in part because of the copious amounts of Ukitake I've been writing. They're just similiar enough to start to bleed into each other, even though they've got very different outlooks sometimes. I've actually been kind of fail about RP stuff in general this month - I've got very little CR for anyone who's actually active, and it seems like too much effort to push for more, so...I don't know. I'll have to come up with something to keep from failing activity checks, sigh.

I also managed to inadvertently invert my sleep cycle over the weekend, by getting not enough sleep Thursday night, staying up way too late Friday night, and then sleeping in until 5:30 Saturday evening. At which point I went 'fuck it', went to bed for a few more hours, got up at 7:30, stayed up until 11am Sunday, went back to sleep until 1:30 this morning and have been up since. Sigh, my neurochemistry.

On the video game front: played more Tales of the Abyss. Luke continues to be annoying (although he shows signs of improvement), Jade continues to be a magnificent bastard, and I am getting really sick of the hideous load times. I have also fallen in love with the dungeon finder in WoW for level 80 heroics because it allows me to do what I enjoy doing most (instancing) without having to spam LFG every ten minutes. Plus bonus emblems and money, mmmmm. Alixia is now two-piece T9, which is happy fun times~

This fanfic-slash-backstory is turning into a crazy mash-up of Little Women, Mulan, Exalted, and Bleach. I'm not sure if this is awesome or terrifying but I am having fun writing it which I think is the important bit.

Also hnnnnngh fuck idiot douchebag rogues and tanks who think because it's a level twenty instance who has threat doesn't matter. Seriously, I am tired of having a pat come up behind me and aggro, and literally running over and standing on top of the tank who just continues spamming attacks on his one target. I may just make a macro that /shouts 'AHHHH GET IT OFF ME GET IT OFF ME' because despite all of these people having higher level mains I apparently am the only one who pays attention to threat. IT'S ON THE PARTY FRAMES NOW BLIZZARD IS MAKING IT EASY FOR YOU IDIOTS.

...Yeah I am probably too angry for MMOs (╯#ﾟ皿ﾟ)╯┴─┴

(US-Thrall, Cierran Horde-side and Jesalin Alliance-side. Plus uh all my old toons, but I think the Bronzebeard ones are the only ones that matter any more)

Two papers and a presentation done, two more papers to go. Presentation went...better than I thought it would particularly given I forgot to take out one of my notes to self on one of the slides. Afterwards there was browsing of 4chan, drinking, attempts to play Munchkin, and general geekery. Quite fun. Best two lines of the evening: "You can't learn fertility!" and "If you must sin, sin boldly."

I started playing RO mostly because Ten tempts me horribly and I needed something to fill the void in my life left by WoW. I have a mage and she is OP, I kind of love it. Although speaking of mages and WoW, apparently they're finally buffing Frost (after what, nearly a year and a half?), so once I get my new harddrive...I may be tempted to reinstall. What servers/factions are people playing nowadays?

I am making deals with myself about getting to play Robot Unicorn Attack when I get to certain word counts on this paper. CLEARLY SOMETHING IN MY BRAIN IS OFF.

This week has been kind of terrible in terms of 'lol welcome back to classes now hand in all those papers you wrote over break!' which I did not actually write over break as I was driving cross-country, but I'm at that crazed 'it is three am and I'm so sleepy I'm delirious' stage so I feel pretty good. It also helps that this current paper requirement is around five hundred words shorter than I thought it was.

Also there is like a two inch long spider chillaxin' in my bathroom. I'm not sure if I should leave him be or move him outside. I suppose I'll see if he find a corner to call home by tomorrow, because 'in front of the shower' is not an acceptable location.