Good:

- Louise Black on the new season of Project Runway I know, a lot of you are going "huh?" Well, she's one of those people on etsy that pops up a lot of you're looking up steampunk or victoriana, as I tend to. I'm just geeked to see one of my favorite subcultures on the show, in some form. XD Kind of like how Stella was fun for her leatha rocker chick awesomeness. Anyway, here's her etsy. I'm just waiting for a cosplayer to show up on a season now. THAT would be fun.

- Season 3 of Mad Men! SOON.

- Warehouse 13 is on Hulu, so I managed to watch the couple eps out. Cute! I think it's a keeper.

- I have new shoes! These lovely old man meets hot chick oxfords and some pink Chucks. Yeah, pink. They had purple ones with a little rainbow on them, like the gayest most FANTASTIC shoes ever, but they didn't come in my size. While I'm tiny everywhere else, my feet are a standard size 8. XD I've never had pink shoes, I figured they'd be fun.

- I finally finished Tender Is The Night. Oh F. Scott Fitzgerald, how do you twist my heart so? It was good. Jazz Age writers really speak to me.

- I get grant money for my next semester of school! Yay Independent status! This is what happens when you take forever to get through school!

- I am Kain. The badass vampire, not the angstmuffin dragoon.

Bad:

- Have about 600 words of my FFEX story written, which is 400 less than the minimum. Considering that I originally planned to do three connected minimum 1000 word vignettes, I may just scale back to two (or...one). Character POV I've never written before, and since it's not for my own entertainment, I'm paying more attention to canon details. I've got a couple days yet. Tomorrow night I'm setting aside time to just sit and punch it out. Actually working at work means I haven't had much time for that. XD

- Mathematical research. Oh my god, no wonder the cirriculum hasn't changed much.

- Kings has ended. :< That show would have been great over a couple seasons. Jerky NBC jerks.

- Ha ha, oh god summer's almost over.

Whatever:

- I seriously need to get some stuff out of my wardrobe. I'm fixing up my problem of not wearing certian things with my level up in sewing, but those take time, and some things can't be made awesome. I'm taking stuff from this personal style series thingie into consideration as I narrow down my clothes horse-ness, and maybe limiting my color scheme a tad.

- Playing with ideas of things to make for etsy. XD Could be tragic.

Since I am a bad student and while Composites is cool, the professor is a little old and in order to stay awake in his class, which is at the end of the day and already at a disadvantage with my attention span, I read during parts of that class. In intervals, so I don't miss everything. This may seem counterproductive, but this isn't a formula-writing, theory laden class. And most of the Structures department is filled with (wellmeaning, at least) old fossils. I like conversational professors, but sometimes what they are saying is just really really boring. Flipside: Prof Dragster never bores me and he goes off on tangents a lot.

( which leads me to where I am in Shards of Honor, there are spoilers here )

I have a lot to do in the next couple of days, because of Ohayocon and needing to turn in everything early because I am trying to be a good student, not a negligent one. This means I'm kind of hyper-scheduled, but I am sort of a creature of momentum and as long as I keep moving I'll be fine. Like right now I'm actually eating dinner, because as much as I love food and having nice relaxing meal times, I have no time to waste (ha ha, guess who was doing homework at lunch and at breakfast in class? that'd be me). Especially considering I sort of goofed off this weekend. The flipside to being a creature of momentum is that when I am at rest, it's hard to get me moving again (PHYSICS LESSON).

I managed to get the graded problems for thermo done already (they grade only the "special problems", i.e., the ones without solutions because they are bastards, and the other problems are just a completion bonus, I know it's dumb). I am now going to work on my Composites homework (it's just a short paper on a certain process, he even said, "use google" so he's a slightly hip old fossil) at least after I finish eating/corresponding/computering.

The only thing that's stressing me out for this week about getting shit done early is Aerodynamics. Because he assigns stuff every day, I basically have to get that assignment done the day that it's assigned. I hope it's one of his computer homeworks. I really hope. Or else I may languish around in the lab Wednesday night looking for someone to help out. At least I'm getting better at figuring out what the hell he's actually asking, but he's still pretty damn vague. Let's not be pessimistic.

Hokay, tomorrow I'll make a packing list and make sure I'm bringing stuff for other people and myself. Gah, so WIRED. Maybe the Starbucks was a bad idea this morning (but geez if that London Fog wasn't a really tasty drink... I like those tea and foam monstrosities very much).

~Cendri

P.S. WHY DO I FIND THIS PARTICULAR COMIC SO DAMN HILARIOUS?

YOU'RE ENDING IT THERE, ROBIN MCKINLEY? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!

Other than that, well done! Details to follow since Sev bought me this book under the expressed desire to hear me ramble about it or at least fangirl! SPOILERS PAST THE CUT AND IF YOU HAVEN'T READ SUNSHINE, SERIOUSLY DO NOT READ FURTHER!

This is like a list rant, so fair warning to those that won't be spoiled too! XD

( alright, so here goes )

tl;dr: there wasn't magic beer, but there were some fucking tasty sounding desserts. I'm really hungry now.

~Cendri

I actually wanted to read this book like, back in Freshman year of college because it had a bright green cover. No, really, that's why. Marketing people, I am your demographic. Hi!

So I finished the audiobook of The Perks of Being a Wallflower because YA novels are quick like that. I've been reading a lot of, well, older books lately and it's nice to have something in my ears between classes.

However, my reaction? What the fuck.

( to elaborate, with spoilers )

I'm so disappointed. I think tomorrow I'm going to keep reading Sunshine which is being really awesome.

~Cendri

P.S. This is also really awesome.

Oy... fuck math class. I'm so utterly frustrated with that BS. Someday, tests won't mean what they do and we'll find a way to honestly track understanding--because I'm not dumb, it wasn't like I didn't put the work in, I'm just really bad at tests. Thermo was around the average. Aerodynamics was just below the average. I'm alright in those classes, then. Just need to keep it up.

Haven't gotten my Dynamics test back yet, not sure if I want to. XD No, I'll find out eventually. I know the average was crappy, so chances are I'm alright.

It just pisses me off some days how much of my skills are judged by arbitrary numbers based on tests of skill that actually have nothing to do with the profession at all.

So how about some good things, to balance this out, because hell if I'm going to let this gnaw at me:

- I got behind on my Gunnerkrigg Court, due to school and just flipping very quickly through my RSS feeds, but I caught up today. GAMMA AND ZIMMY ARE BACK. They're some of my favorite minor characters from that comic, so. Also, Kat. Kat is fab. I actually can't think of anyone I don't like in that comic and the plot's continuing to be twisty without being frustratingly so. I needed that today.

- Old Man's War killed off my favorite, but I knew he was going, because of probility. Still, ;_;. I hope you get to see your constellations. I should know better than to read in the dining hall, I have a tendency of yelling at stories while I'm reading them. Way to go Scalzi, for avoiding most of what was starting to frustrate me about science fiction. Also, it's nice to mostly have characters that are mentally over sixty; the hangups of people my age and younger in narrative wear on me a little. I am not youth obsessed. I'll take an Auschenbach (sp?) over a Luke Skywalker any day.

- Got an email this morning, appears that Caricature is going in indianconundrum (well, it's getting handed to an editor at least, I think this means I'm in). And I get an illustrator (well, they all do, but my inability to draw ALWAYS makes me excited, since how I write is much like plotting out movie scenes). I've got four chapters, and judging by the release times, it'll be a while before they need any from me, so I have plenty of time to work out the issues with my Paladin chapter, etc. Considering that this was my first serious attempt at an original universe of any sort, I'm a little excited. XD I'm also freaking nervous, as generally two people read my own stuff, so.

- I need to make more time in the day so I can read more. Almost done with Mrs. Dalloway and 3/4 through Old Man's War actually finished that one, and have "Wine in the Wilderness" (that's not even a book, it's a PLAY) to finish. Plus the last half of The Time Traveler's Wife. Can't I just suspend everything so I can fucking read for a while? Honestly. Or can I just skip the next ten years and get to the good part? *sigh*

I need some more sunlight. Going outside. I'll be less bummed then.

I'd like to rewrite the statement: "those who can't do, teach" to "those who can't do, criticize". Because that strikes me as closer to the truth.

Also, reading Mrs. Dalloway and The Time Traveler's Wife as well as the play "Wine in the Wilderness" makes my heart happy. I feel way more empathy for Clarissa Dalloway than I expected I would. Also, it reminds me of what a good adaptation of themes The Hours was.

Man, I should get back to working on Liquid, as it's sort of a love letter to the crazyheads of the world who can still see beauty.

Seriously, it's almost SCARY how much Viriginia Woolf seems to know my thoughts, considering her writing. Ha, I probably should see a shrink again.

~Cendri

P.S. Hey disillusioned twenty-something friends of mine! Maybe this'll make you feel better.

Finished reading my last of the required three books for the herding cats reading challenge Recced by Melissa.

( tale as old as time... alright I won't sing )

Main reasons you should read this:

- If you like prickly female leads

- If you like good family dynamics (this is something I look for, I won't lie)

- If you like fleshed out fairytales

So I was at work for an hour before I decided to come home and work. Because I'm not playing the schedule game and because I'm still hacking up a lung. But thankfully this staying out of a cold office and sitting at a desk that has two monitors did help me feel better and get stuff done. Wahoo.

I have an excuse to make my Terra costume more detailed (and get a green wig, ha) since darcenciel wants to be Shadow and start up an FFVI group. I'm down with that. I may even get a prop sword out of the deal!

And awesomeness! They went with one of my themes suggested for fst! I suggested mentor characters, cause, yeah. This is me we're talking about. I have far too many mentor characters I adore, I may need some help picking when that comes around. XD This is basically silly, but at least that comm is picking up a little again and is full of less fail. I can't help it, I like music, and I like mixtapes. So.

I finished Beauty today as well, mainly because it's due back at the library soon, so I spend a little longer doing lunch break. It reminded me why my favorite moral was always "appearances can be deceiving" because yeah. If there was ever a childhood moral I clung to, it was that one. I guess that's why I'm so utterly and completely turned off when people redeem prettyboy villains--it just doesn't jive with that principle. And I'm nothing if not stubbornly principled. I guess this carries on with my trend of liking facially-scarred regretful types (and I mean UGLY scars) as they exist in a grey area between. It's food for thought at least. Not that heroes can't be pretty, I mean, I like Cecil (he's my favorite because he's flawed probably more than anyone would like to admit). But I have to wonder if less villains would get redeemed if less of them were pretty.

Maybe it's indicative of my own journey of principles. I'm all about balance now. I guess that means for me acknowledging that certain things exist side by side or something existential like that.

Book review to follow.

~Cendri

Finished reading my second of three books (and possibly more, but I only have to read three) for the herding cats reading challenge this weekend, mostly because I had no electricity to distract me. A thoroughly steampunk alternate history novel, which basically links several of my great loves in one tight package. Recced by wallwalker.

( Behold the Difference Engine which Lord Babbage hath wrought )

~Cendri

I now have:

+ Over the Rhine's "Ohio" two disc awesome album (you do not understand, I've never heard a band so achingly Midwestern before, they feel like the good parts of home to me)

+ Feathers! For costume!

+ A nifty biography on Alan Turing because I cannot turn down $5 books at the bookstore with the cats roaming about and being cute (omg, I missed you!)

+ A monopoly victory

+ ELECTRICITY

~Cendri

Summer was always Book Time for me, and since I finally have a summer I am not working for the Air Force, getting divorced, or working two horrific jobs during, I am getting back into the habit of reading. And since I was getting old books homes, I keep running across Old Books, and realized just how much I'd lost myself for a time, and that I might be getting that back. INTROSPECTION THROUGH BOOKS = WIN.

( this'll get rambly at times, so if you just hit the links, I'll understand )

Finished Little Brother, because Doctorow's style is wonderfully easy to follow. I've pretty much read everything he's done except his short stories, so I've become pretty comfortable with his style of writing and some of his common devices, a couple he'd gotten over thankfully (no more Et Tu Brute? betrayals, yay). I liked the book, even if there's a nagging sense of deja vu for a lot of it, then again, I was super into cyberpunk for a while, which is what this novel pretty much is to a T. Despite being set in a VERY close future, it retains a lot of that sensibility; the politics may have changed, but it's still the same game of fighting The System. While a lot of people are quick to point out Mary Sue in stories, I tend to be quicker to notice her cousin Gary--mainly because the genres I've liked best have traditionally been rather male-dominated. And the kid in this book requires a little suspension of disbelief on occasion (computers have been a major part of my household since I was three, and I've got my fair share of hackers that I know personally, and at times the kid's a little too good) but that's why it's fiction. It does its job in an efficient and engaging way, so the verdict is it's a good book. Not perfect, and maybe almost too upfront in places, but then you need that once in a while, especially when your focus has been narrowed for a while. And I love Ange and feel dirty because she's like seventeen. I am such a boy sometimes. XD

It was kind of funny seeing some of my dad's lectures about encryption and surveillance in a novel, though. I'm glad to see that my natural data paranoia and refusal to do the "anonymous usage statistics" bullcrap that comes with certain software and systems isn't wholly unfounded. Sure, I run Windows right now, but that's mostly for school, I'm going completely open source the instant I graduate and I can finally quit having to go in an tweak Windows to stop handing out my info--SERIOUSLY MICROSOFT I DO NOT LIKE YOU THINKING YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT MISS HEP (my laptop) THAN I DO AND CHANGING SHIT WITH "SECURITY UPDATES". Rat bastards.

There are a lot of projects planned for after graduation that I can't wait to get to. Omg. Can I has graduation please. First being an actual vacation where I can sit and read books and play games and not feel responsible for anything except eating and sleeping.

Oh, and Little Brother is free for electronic download. Even on your calculator. I don't suggest the PDF version, it's crazy with two columns. I had to finish the last chapter with that, because my Palm ran out of batteries (whoops, forgot to charge it). If you have any sort of handheld device, I'm sure you could read it easier off of one of those. Free books are basically awesome.

~Cendri

P.S. This lady is my new hero.

Read my first of three (and possibly more, but I only have to read three) for the herding cats reading challenge this weekend, mainly because it was a nice quick read and nonfiction. I love nonfiction. Particularly history/science/sociology. This falls into the last category, so be aware. No nice science rants here. XD But I really liked the book and it made me think! Recced by Callista.

( as someone that enjoy dressing up oddly, this was just a lateral move in subject matter )

So today I decided to run errands. Which was strangely fun. Mailed off the first batch of books I promised to people, still have one more package to send to someone (as something I wanted to send I can't locate) and possibly a couple more. Because media mail is awesome, I managed to send the first batch pretty cheap. Have two rather large boxes to send to a charity for homeless kids (Project Night Night... I seriously love that group) but I need to clean up the books first. Get rid of dust, stickies, all that. That'll prolly be what I'll do after work during the week unless I get super productive tomorrow.

Have a library card now, so I won't be tempted to buy too many new books (and that way I can get my Herding Cats Book Challenge ones read). Ran into the mom of a old friend, she was always nice so it was a pleasant run-in. Got two books, since library books have a time limit attached and I don't know when I'll have time to read. I should have the nonfiction one read sooner, as I tend to get through nonfiction faster (no idea why). I also have a Borders gift card... well, I suppose some new bookage will be in order. ^^ I only feel bad because my "to read" list is getting huge. XD

Also found David Bowie's 'Heroes' album at the local record store. Which has oddly been hard to find. 1/3 of the "Berlin Trilogy" is mine! It's really good, then again, I love Brian Eno and he collabed on it. <3 Between that and finding Aladdin Sane about a month ago, my fangirlism is appeased.

Overall, it was a good time for scavenging. And since I have a good tote bag now, I didn't have to have anything put into plastic bags! Carrying your own shopping bag is awesome and helps keep the world from being taken over by plastic bags. For realz.

~Cendri

P.S. BSG THIS WEEK WAS INTENSE OMG.

Ah, the synergy, it is intense. Minions are cool, we've taken over the game room for our plottings and awesome. Soon we will have real desks, and in a few months when we've purchased the room across the hall and the programmers have been shuffled over there (they likes their quiet, precious) we will get the awesome large desks again. I'm also getting a new minion on Monday, and a couple of high school kids are going to be sub-minions for us all. New minion is an instructional designer type, we'll see how that goes. Hopefully it'll turn out synergistically like with the current minions (I am the bridge between all modes, it's an awesome position to be in). Am a little hung up on writing teacher guides (why is it harder to write for teachers than for students?) but overall it's been a good day. Already have new problem ideas just from whiteboarding, may be doing some scribbling on my own. Tomorrow is the staff meeting so hopefully I'll be able to learn the names of the people I don't recognize around here (mostly programming minions, from what I see).

When the parents are back in town I intend on taking pictures of our game room takeover. And my crazy book stacking that will likely freak my parents out. Mwhahahaha. They should know better than to leave me alone, I get the urge to declutter. I also owe Sev some fashionista pics.

Speaking of declutter, I finally got the majority of my library on LibraryThing (as I use GoodReads for books I am currently reading/want to read/review). Most of it is derived from this ancient excel file of ancient that I started back in junior high to keep my sister from stealing my books and not giving them back (because I'd cataloged them). I'm doing some serious soul-searching and deciding which ones I really want to keep and if some are just kept because some relative got it for me and I barely skimmed it. Some books are also packed away (I have a couple of shelves in my basement room, atm, but they don't fit all my books) and a whole stack hasn't even been entered (mainly gorgeous illustrated fairytales and folklore... yes I totally have more) and a few that I've taken to work (MY GOD MY SPACE BOOKS ARE AWESOME).

Um, yeah I've collected a few books over the years. Prolly got about 50+ that haven't been looked through yet. My sister's got about the same, though with a less nonfiction and folklore and sciencey bent and more towards Literature with a capital L (she has given me permission to borrow some as long as I put them back in their alphabetically labeled box... for serious). Our parents used books as a means to bribe us a lot, and there are some fabulous little indie bookstores around. XD

I'm thinking in particular I may lose some of my pocket-sized books and see if I can find similar ebooks for those subjects instead. It'll still fit in my pocket, as I have a Palm Pilot. XD I have a real thing for anthologies, and I'm definitely keeping those. Who knows. Crazy crazy upheaval time.

~Cendri

Exciting brainstorming with the minions. Catching them up with what's been going on and some really nice and better ideas in regards to how we're going to handle the UI and all that has proved awesome. A lot of the direction I've been needing in regards to stuff has come out of this and we might even be programming some of the stuff ourselves--as our partner company has been dragging its heels and being weird with budgets. I mean, this is all speculation, of course. I'm excited to possibly see a few of my scenarios be fleshed out more; under current constraints I had to pare down some of my designs. But there is supercool happening. I can't wait to see what comes of it. Tomorrow will tell.

I'm basically unpacked at home, going to start going through books really hardkore. Not just my books, but several of the ones we have stacked up around here. May end up taking some to work (as we like books at work) and some I may end up giving away. I'll let ya'll know (especially some of the kids books).

I have a feeling this summer is going to go by wicked fast.

~Cendri

Hardest part of the paper is done, very nearly. Will likely be pestering a certain literary personage as to whether or not it makes sense.

May not be failing pilot lecture after all, got an A on the weather exam. Kickass.

The list is getting less daunting. Maybe.

Not so worried about the lab practical, except getting up. May need someone to call me to make sure I'm up. Paranoia.

Going to go have a FABULOUS dinner and write some more of that damn paper and hopefully get to the sources part. Yes, I always write what I want first and then insert the evidence. I'm backwards like that. IMed one of my bosses to send me some problem-based learning articles, as my research has all the metaphysics covered, but not so much the "hey educators do this" stuff. May have to source some of the papers my bosses have published. Hey, they've got doctorates for a reason. Will be pillaging the bibliography of our grants. XD

Kind of want to sleep, but I've got to keep this up until Thursday, at least. I can get more sleep then. This afternoon was productive, took a break. Back to work.

~Cendri

P.S. Finally went down the giant herding cats book thingy masterlist and picked out some books that look interesting, and put the list up on a goodreads shelf because I'm a network whore. Actually, I like services like that so I don't have to put much stuff on lists, it automates things and timestamps them, which is good. I have to read at least three of those books, so we'll see how this summer goes.

For this challenge which is about books and not herding cats really.

Books that are near and dear to my heart, for various reasons, so I decided to recc them for this crazy book challenge. Because while I may work with educational video games, I still believe in reading and good authors. This was a little hard to compile because, well, I read a lot more nonfiction than fiction. And short story collections (which are brilliant!) and folklore and poetry. And as much as I love sci-fi, I am also aware of its limitations and wanted to try to cross-genre a bit. So here it is.

( they say you can tell a lot about a person looking at their bookshelf )

Oy, I knew I should have done more than go out and, well, buy things this weekend, but hey. I think I needed a little break, get out of the dorms and off campus. Busses are wonderful.

Watchmen kept me up far too late last night. Because it is full of wonderful and I wanted to get to Rorschach's chapter. Because he so crazy. I was too tired to get to the second Nite Owl's story, which made me sad, because I kind of like him. He's got a nerdiness that the others don't seem to have.

My desktop Inbox is kind of full right now. I went on a crazy fanart spree. I should probably transfer that to my backup/picasa when I have time. Silly, I know, but I don't like to keep more than I need on my actual harddrive. That's what I have web and backup for. Makes the computer run better, with less junk on it.

My to do list has gotten bigger. On the writing front I've two claims, a fanwork-a-thon story that I need to wrap up (I know where I want it to go, sitting down and making it go has been a challenge. But when I had time, instead of any of that, I got re-inspired to do an original piece that I'm sure only I care about. I'm going to fail school. XD At least my WIP list has thinned a bit.

I'm debating which of my original projects to pull characters from for imaginarybeasts this month. Genderswap is always a great theme. I'm half tempted to write about that paladin character I've wanted to insert into Archetypicality (basically a bunch of stories where I play with reincarnation, archetypes, and fucked up destiny + physics). Because girl paladins are awesome. Especially ones that own a comic book store (I blame you, Alan Moore). Or I could write an Imperaxyl piece. XD Gah, brain won't focus.

I'd kindly like to ask for a time-space warp that will give me an extra month, plz. XD

And I've not even gotten into the school assignments I have. Way to go, lighter load that still manages to make everything happen at once. At least Jersey Highwind is back in class. Having it taught by the TA on Friday was suck. And having no class on Wednesday.

Onward!

~Cendri

P.S. Fables Volume 3 got! Read through most of it already, because yeah. Was just the right price for the gift card I had. Dear Snow White and Bigby Wolf--can you two get any more awesome?

Finally got some new running shoes. The ones I had the sole was coming off the right one, which was probably bad for my joints. So yay no more injury! I can get back to my workout schedule.

( Scariest Shoppers Evar, exceedingly frilly, and whacked out psychological theories )