Thoughts on the Journey

Today I started writing a story from a queer fest prompt because it got into my head about Charles and being bi. If you're looking for story ideas or a new place to write, go look at what's going on. They're open for new prompts until March 15th and stories aren't due until May and June. I've never written for them before but I went to look and the ideas started happening.

And another part of feeling like my creativity is active, I finally got Tiwa her icons back and she and a AU!Hogwarts' Will are in the sandboxes. I'd love some threads guys as I've missed playing these two.

Life is feeling good and a little odd. My monthly Sci-Fi Fantasy book club makes me incredibly happy even though I've yet to read the books for it. This week I did manage to buy the book but not read it. The people in the book club are creative, fascinating and remind me of being in crackchat, where the conversation bounces in strange ways. It ended up making me want to write more Charles as the book was Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, so we discussed what was going on for people in the '50s and '60s. I ended up recommending Lilek's and stayed until about 10:30, I would have stayed later but I was tired and wanted some wine. I feel like I'm slowly creating a social life for myself here.

Work ended on Friday with a major bump as the school servers went down and suddenly there was no internet. One of the best compliments I've ever gotten for the job I do is how many kids stayed after school even with no internet. One kid used his phone as a tether for others, but overall, they were happy to just be in the library.

FicFriday ended up being partially here and also on Twitter again. Being on my journal works better for me as I'm working, but not everyone has the same issues. My dreamwidth fills are here.
( Twitter writing )

Last night I had a great amount of trouble sleeping but got myself to work because I knew I would be missing tomorrow. I didn't have too much to do as around 9, the parents started the lunch set up and I pretty much tried to not fall over. At one point, my supervisor came over and told me to go home and take some food to go. It made me feel good to know that she and the school were worried enough to say, glad you're here, but you need to take care of yourself.

I did that and stopped at an urgent care clinic on the way back and had that awful experience of the nurses going, need to see you now as we can hear you breathing. It turns out I've got an upper respiratory infection that's combining badly with my asthma. At the clinic, they gave me some treatment and I have prescriptions for some drugs I haven't taken since I was I think in college. Though it was all familiar, my allergies and asthma used to be a lot worse and at one point I took a lot of meds. There's a pharmacy between the clinic and my hotel, so I stopped there and now have tea and I hope in time that I can eat some of the lovely food the parents made. Currently, I'm hungry but wary of actually eating, so tea and possibly a nap later. It never rains but it pours.

Though I did get a lot of stuff done yesterday, which is wonderful. Cable is sorted and I finally set up an email that I've been meaning to do for ages and tomorrow I move in. Also I have the weekend to get everything how I like it though I won't have internet in my place until Tuesday. That means that I'll be quiet depending on how up I feel to go out to cafes and use their internet.

I just got off the phone and finally have my wireless connection set up, which is a relief. I had to call Linksys since apparently I have to do clone thing for my Mac and had to pay them some money, but its set. Also it was that weird feeling of I've set up a lot of wifis and fixed my parents so I know a lot of the basic steps and I think the tech lady appreciated that she didn't have to explain a lot. I wouldn't have known to do that but I think my mother mentioned having to do the same when she got her new laptop as well. Honestly calling Apple probably would have been simpler as I have AppleCare but I'm not used to thinking about the fact that I have a computer company that will help. Either way, my apartment is now wifi ready again.

Oh and I found out that one of my debit cards' numbers has been stolen again. It sounds like from the fraud guy that there has been an uptick in this happening in general as thieves are stealing from merchants which is hard to protect against. Its annoying but the banks I work with have been very good at getting me reimbursed and a new card, which is good as I had a scare of thinking I'd overdrafted today.

Today I also started reading a book that so many other people on my flist will love-historical cross dressing, world exploration, botany, science, gender roles and tall ships. Its called The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe and the writing is fantastic which is a nice bonus as the history itself is fascinating. bookelfe, this is right around your sweet spot and one reason I have it is because I'm trying to read more nonfiction as inspired by you. So at the Borders' going out of business' sale I got myself a pile of interesting nonfiction, this is one of them.

Since this is all rather serious and I'm feeling a little jittery, I think I'm going to finish this post with some beautiful pictures that I've taken lately.



This was the beautiful place where the reception of my brother's wedding was held.

( Grapes and Butterflies )

I just wrote a post on my librarian blog over here on the Book Festival. It was a great learning experience and just the kind of thing I really hope to keep doing. By the end of the day, I was incredibly worn out but felt proud and good, if I can organize things like that in my career, I'll be happy.

I've finished syncing all my files to Dropbox and moved my big laptop off my desk so my new small one is now sitting on my desk. My chair is reaching the point where its just making my back hurt and I think I'm going to do some shopping possibly on Tuesday to find a new thing to hold my paperwork and a new desk chair.

I still need to reset my wireless so it works with my new computer, I've never done it before so I'm a little nervous about that. My next two weeks are going to be quite relaxing due to the mid semester break and the fourth of July, I'm hoping to get a lot of writing done. I need to start on a draft of my grant and I have many OOMs that I want to get done or started.

In simple and happy news, I love my igneuitea, its so easy. And I started The Corinthian today and promptly read about sixty pages, I'm so glad there's so much Heyer for me to read. I think I'm going to end up tossing Pen into Mixed Muses at some point as she's charming and wonderful though if I do, she can't meet my Jane Austen. I might have to write fic.

Now I'm going to do the next two rounds of the question meme.
Comment with "Come at me, bro," and:
→ I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
→ Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
→ Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

First from moofoot
( Tell me true )

And in an odd way of coming round to the beginning, questions from austen.
( Who are you )

I have a new laptop and I'm enjoying switching over from one laptop to another without being in the midst of a crisis. Its rather relaxing. My new laptop is a MacBook Pro that's silver and has a 13 inch screen and is named Lark since she's light and quick. When I bought her, I got iWork and Microsoft Office for Mac while she has iLife and the normal Mac OS already installed. So far I've downloaded AIM, Firefox, Chrome and Dropbox, which I'll be upgrading as its a better way to transfer files than my external hard drive as that can't go from PC to Mac. I also need to figure out why my wireless router and my laptop don't seem to talk to each other, its probably something simple. Once I fill out a rebate form I'll get 100 dollars to spend at the app store and I need to introduce my iPod to the laptop. What's a pain is I actually have two accounts for iTunes and will be creating an Apple account, I really hope they figure out a way to merge them at some point.

So Mac users and lovers of my flist, what are your favorite programs and add ons that I should go find?

In other news, I had a fantastic visit with my parents and they left me with lots of great bottles of wine and a bottle of gin, as it gets hotter, I'll be having some gin and tonics. I drove them to the airport this morning and I'm currently finishing up some slide shows for Manga Mania, which is coming along really well. I love having a chance to go find images of heroes to share with kids.

I recently finished rereading The Wizard of London from Mercedes Lackey and it reminded me why I enjoy her Elemental Masters' series so much. The plots tend to be vaguely related to fairy tales, on this reread I noticed that this book has some of the Snow Queen story inside it. The first book of this series that I read was Phoenix and Ashes and it kept me awake since I just was so deeply into it. The idea of being able to connect to nature and the creatures and worlds in there clicks with how I see the world. I admit that not all of these books are as good, but Lackey's world building for the Elemental Masters makes sense for me. When I'm walking and feeling really angry, one of the things I say aloud is; Fear, Fire, Wind and Water and it helps to center me. I think this is an area I need to explore more.

I've also been reading A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones and I'm enjoying it. As always its her characters that I love more than the plot and this is a rather classic quest plot though the ideas and settings are wonderful. I enjoy that I can see variations on these characters in other books and its making me want to go read more Connie Willis since time travel is a tricky thing to write.

Since I've collected some more questions, I'll soon be posting another round of the five questions meme and might go find some more. My flisters, you always ask questions that make me smile and think. Also today I plan on doing some writing as I'd love to actually post a Sameth OOM this week.

I'm safe at my brother's house and I love my family. I have an iTunes giftcard to spend and huge progress on my paper. Tonight I read to my nieces, wrote lots and felt confident, tomorrow I will finish and submit the paper, do more work on Yuletide, travel more, rest, travel more and hopefully submit Yuletide under the wire.

My flight was easy and now I'm going to sleep and then in the morning finish my paper before heading to the Hudson valley and the Shawagunks. If you don't see me online until late on the 20th, its due to no net except what I can find up in New York.

With odd access, I'll finish my Yuletide and summit when I can before going back to Lewes and finally being done. Life is chaotic and wonderful. My holiday cards are printed and ready to be sent so they'll go out next week too. If you want one and aren't sure if I have your address follow the holidays' tag.

I finally heard back from MSN and apparently the answers I gave them weren't satisfying enough for them to believe I'm me. Its clear that its an automated message since it doesn't even tell me what's wrong. So I just wrote a really long thing with more information and making it very clear that I'm not pleased with this service and will be leaving once I can.

Today has been long and most of my afternoon work was full of complications as what's needed for the tutors comes before getting things done right.

Then I had a long walk in the cold and I want a hot shower and gah, I still have a paper to finish. The paper does have an outline and its not long just long enough. In the meantime, I also have to do a chat shift later tonight, which I'm not looking forward to. Also I realized that I signed up for a meet and greet during the day on Saturday with perspective SI students, I think it will be fun but at the moment its just one more damn thing.

Happy ETA: I just looked at the paycheck I'm getting tomorrow and its lovely. All that hard work at my internship is going to be in my bank account. One weight is off my shoulders.

I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe in Ann Arbor and wishing again that Comcast would hurry itself along so that I can have internet in my apartment. I live a nice walk from downtown, about ten minutes to one part and twenty to campus but its not so much fun when I'm hauling my laptop which is decently heavy. Also I have this beautiful desk which is right by the window and my tv and all set up so I'd rather be there and stay up late threading with folks. Other than having to figure that out, I'm doing really well.

I spent last night sorting and reshelving my books and I need more bookcases which I knew pretty much as soon as my parents and I started unpacking. I think tonight I'm going to consider what goes on the walls and start bringing out some of my little pretty things and finally unpack my clothes.

Last night was really the first night I was in my new place on my own and I slept wonderfully after a take home dinner of sushi as I watched the first disc of Flight of the Conchords, tonight I'm going to cook something since one of the problems with going to cafes for net is I have to pay the price of a drink to sit down and along with lunch, my budget needs wiggling.

I'll make it work in the end, since I'm already feeling so happy and settled here and my body while complaining from suddenly doing a lot more walking, I'm not. My next major thing is to figure out good places to start connecting with people because I keep seeing fascinating people all around and just need ways to start talking. I know Orientation will be great for meeting people in SI and just around the university but that's not till the end of the month. I haven't heard from the job yet but that would be a great thing since the training for that starts on the 17th.

So any suggestions, how have any of you connected and met new people when you moved to a new city?

The realtor's office doesn't open until noon, so I'm sitting at the Red Roof checking in and I just sent out Sameth's application to Milliways before we're going to head off to breakfast.

I'm not sure how much I'll be on the next few days since while I will have my place, I won't have net though I might find some slightly illegal net or just go to various cafes depending on the amount of energy I have left.

I still can't quite believe I'm here and I think I'll be in various stages of this is really is real probably until my parents head out on Tuesday. There's something about actually being in your own place on your own that's good for remembering, oh yes, this is real and mine. I just haven't gotten to there yet, but its getting a whole lot closer.

After checking on the library computer, I went to talk to the children's librarian and will be doing storytime next Wednesday morning which makes me excited and nervous. Then I went home and my Mom and I realized, our router is four years old, buying a new one would probably just be simpler.

Before that point though, firefox kept crashing on my laptop which is now connected directly to the modem again and Mom's calling the router company to cancel the technician thing from last night since we're going to get a new router. Is there a new version of firefox that I need to download that will stop it freezing so much?

I'm just so tired of all this. We tried to just hook a printer up to my laptop to print something and even that didn't work. This will get sorted somehow, I know it, I just wish that it wasn't wearing me down so much.

At least this morning, I was able to look at some new job sites and get some progress on library things. I'm just going to hold on to that for now before Mom and I start doing lots of errands and things.

ETA: Have a new router which is shiny and nice but still not seeing the internet, part of the problem is that both router and modem seem to want to talk to my laptop but that's not quite possible at the moment.