Archives: February 2003
Friday, February 28, 2003
The digital camera arrived on wednesday, so a new toy for PreZ to play with. This now means I have to clean up the apartment as he wants to photograph everything and send pics to people ;)
Once he's done figuring how the thing works and such, I'll ask him to explain how I can transfer images and stuff from it to my computer so I can use it too. I also realised why I was never fond of digital cameras... they really make my skin look ruddy, it's horrible... granted, it's sans make-up, so with might look better. *mental note: buy green based make-up to even out tone*
I went through all my backlogged webmistress and community email for GOTH.NET on wednesday and thursday, now I need to paste all the link submissions into the respective links pages, and I can upload everything and be done with most of it. I have a load of bookmarks that I should probably also check out, I'll see what I'll do with that in the morning. The problem with doing the links is that often I end up trawling from one site to the next and the list ever increases, so I'll have to watch that I draw the line somewhere... I have enough to do without spending more hours trawling.
After that I need to tweak some stuff on Minibeasts. I still have a bunch of images to put up, which I'd completely forgotten. And also Majick sent me an email with revisions... I have no idea what they comprise of as I've not opened the attached zip, but should be interesting.
This morning I stretched, and something pulled and crunched in my neck. I get that every so often. It means my neck will be relatively immobile and sore for the next few days... bollocks. Mostly it's the bending forward/looking down thing that hurts, I can't even touch my chin to my chest right now.
Things pop when I move my head, it's odd.
@ 02:27 AM EST
Sunday, February 23, 2003
It's been a fairly quiet week. I've worked on a few submissions for GOTH.NET. A couple more to go and then Link updates.
I started reading in my PHP book yesterday, so hopefully I can tuck into that full time soon.
Watched Gone in 60 Seconds yesterday, which was fun. The Rock is on in about half an hour, so I'll probably go veg and watch that.
PreZ bought a digital camera the other day, so that should arrive over the next week or so. That will definitely make for an interesting gadget to play around with.
@ 06:27 PM EST
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
We got hit with a winter storm on Sunday night, which lasted well through Monday, and the tail end of it is still sprinkling down snow at noon on Tuesday. We have about 20 inches here or so, knee deep snow. It would have been fun had this happened over Christmas when my brothers were here.
Having kept up with most of the shovelling there should only be an inch or two to clear off the path dug to the road. The car on the otherhand, that's a whole other story. When doing the driveway the upstairs people didn't dig around our car, and the mounds of snow from the driveway are very close to the car too... so the snow ranges from knee deep to waist or higher, depending on where you are. Took a fair while to clear around the car, especially when not being able to easily deposit the snow I was getting rid of. Sore muscles in my back now from yesterday and today's shovelling. *owee*
@ 03:46 PM EST
Monday, February 17, 2003
Updated part of the Art submissions for GOTH.NET on Friday, so that was a small accomplishment. More this week.
Saturday we braved the blistering cold and headed out to Digital Murder which, while fairly quiet, was a lot of fun. It was really great seeing Cherie again, who we hadn't seen since before her trip to China over Christmas, and Katie who we haven't seen in MONTHS complete with new beau Richie who seemed like a really nice guy. Also got to talk a fair bit with Kreestof, and also Matt/Pookie from the Outings list. All in all a really good night, even though it was so beyond cold. I need to get my wardrobe more up to scratch with something that I can wear to an Industrial club though, I was feeling decidedly over-frilly being dressed more Goth than Rivet ;)
We topped the night off with breakfast at Yaffa's... they have really yummy chai there. Next time we're gonna sit in the smoking section though, as their non-smoking is near the door and you catch a huge draft sitting there.
Sunday we slept in mostly... and headed out to see The Recruit in the evening. Just as we headed out the first snow from the forecast winter storm started to swirl down from the sky. The movie was a kick-ass spy thriller, and I really enjoyed it. The car was covered in a good two inches when we came out of the theatre around midnight. We have a blizzard warning until 12.30 this afternoon, and another one for tonight, and a forecast of 20-30 inches of snow.
Next weekend Kit should be back from his month in Purgatory Virginia. Maybe some nifty weekend plans shall arise. Cherie said she had the mock-up for my jacket pretty much all done, and Kit wanted to have PreZ around for another fitting session, so we need to organise that soon.
@ 12:23 PM EST
Friday, February 14, 2003
I got to pick up my licorice from upstairs today... yummy black goodness :)
Watched Cry Baby on tv last night while PreZ was bowling (he's up to a 160 average now)... I really love that movie. I don't get why they haven't released it on DVD yet *sigh*. Johnny Depp is very cute in it.
I'll upload a bunch of GN Art updates tonight, I'm by no means finished... just battling a severe bout of lethargy at the moment. After getting groceries and battling some ants and some other random domestic stuff I feel completely blah right now.
Devon/Daffodil should be coming to stay for a couple of days in March, for Spring Break... that should be good. Hopefully the weather will be less inclement by then, this snow crap gets real old real fast. I'm pondering the option of dragging her out to Brooklyn when she's here, to accompany me to a piercer I want to get pierced by, but we'll see. PreZ would never come with me as he has a severe dislike of needles... though, he donates blood regularly, and that doesn't bug him.
@ 09:19 PM EST
Thursday, February 13, 2003
Well, I can return my copy of The Value of X for a new one, which is good... a hassle, but at least it's a problem that can be solved.
I've slowly been working my way through art submissions, that always takes so much longer than I expect it to, very annoying. I really want to get that over and done with soon.
We go clubbing this weekend... yay! Cherie has decided to cast her homework aside and go out for the first time in months... I think we're all due for some serious clubbing. I really want to go to Digital Murder, but that's going to present a problem if Audrey wants to come along too, as it's a 21+ night, and she's not yet 21. Batcave is the only alternative as it's 18+, and I don't want to go there due to glowstick and (g)raver infestation.
That is all.
@ 12:42 AM EST
Monday, February 10, 2003
So while idly flipping through my copy of Poppy Z. Brite's book The Value of X today to see if it has any interior illustrations, I notice that I'm missing text on a few of the pages. Very bizarre indeed, and very annoying. I've contacted Subterranean through their web form, and I'm now awaiting a reply from them about the situation. Bleh. It's not that I need the book ASAP, as I have a zillion other books to read, but having to send it back and stuff is just going to be a hassle. Of course nobody else on the PZB Forums or LJ Community has mentioned having these problems, so it's one of those "Just *my* luck" kind of things. *sigh*.
Meanwhile I did receive my new health insurance card in the mail this week. Apparantly they even had me in their computer system wrong... my own last name but with a V instead of a B... though the card had me with PreZ's last name on it, and that starts with neither of those two letters nor comes remotely close to my own real name. Data entry isn't *that* hard people.
Now to make an appointment with the gynocologist. Fun stuff.
@ 02:04 AM EST
Sunday, February 9, 2003
Got all the pending writings submissions done and uploaded to GOTH.NET on Friday, so I'm happy about that. Now onto the rest of the updates, which I want to have finished by the end of this week, if not sooner. I'd like the slate clean as soon as possible so I can move onto other projects... like PHP and Perl.
Last night we went and saw Shanghai Knights, which was amusing. It was slightly different than what I was expecting, but if you're in the market for some light material, this might be it. Kudos to Jackie Chan for all those action sequences, they're very clever. Also watched part of Con Air, the dvd of which PreZ played earlier that afternoon... and I followed it up with Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet... I love that movie, even though I keep hoping against all reason that it'll end differently ;)
I'm in the market for new piercings I think... I've been slowly researching good places to go in NYC and have generally been keeping an eye on the rec.arts.bodyart newsgroup, BMEzine and even trawled some of the body modification livejournal communities. The latter is slightly painful sometimes, too many people who have bad work done, don't follow instructions, don't do their research etc. RAB might be a vitriolic place to hang out, but they give good advice. Last night I even dreamt about piercings... I think I'll have to get some stuff done soon.
@ 07:52 PM EST
Friday, February 7, 2003
My cd's arrived today (Thursday), as did the coffee from New Orleans. After having run out last week we went back to Folgers one afternoon... it was bad, very bad... I so much prefer the coffee & chicory blend from the Cafe du Monde.
Also put an order in today with Subterranean Press for Poppy Z. Brite's forthcoming short story collection The Devil You Know which is supposed to go to press this or next week, and should be out shortly. I also got the Caitlín R. Kiernan chapbook Waycross that's at the printer's, and supposedly was close to selling out. Yet another book that ties into the Dancy Flammarion saga, it will be interesting to read, for sure. I got 50% off the most expensive book, so I'm happy. I'm watching Subterranean for more upcoming specials that they said they'd be running for some upcoming work by Caitlín (The Five of Cups, her unpublished first novel) and Poppy (The Feast of St. Rosalie). Trilobite: The Writing of Threshold, the book about the writing of Caitlín's novel Threshold should be out soon, I've had that one on order since last year I think. They always seem to travel in packs :)
I got most of the writings submissions done this week, and should have that part completely finished for GOTH.NET tomorrow... or, later today. I just need to check with my new-found editor and discuss a few remaining pieces that need verifying. And I'll see how many art submissions I can get done for a Friday evening deadline.
@ 01:27 AM EST
Monday, February 3, 2003
At least the upside of not being able to fall asleep is that I've gotten some work done on some GOTH.NET updates. Writings submissions aren't the fastest thing to get through though, which is unfortunate... and somewhat tedious.
Other than that we watched some Wesley Snipes movie on tv earlier tonight, The Art of War... yet another movie in which Wesley seems to get framed for things he didn't do and also double-crossed. Amusing, but I get a bit fed up with the whole helpless female sidekick thing that many movies have.
Monday (i.e. later) I'll fix a licorice craving and finalise a bulk purchase of Dutch licorice (2.2 kilos) from a US vendor... I'm glad I came across them, as they're the only people who offer Dutch licorice at a very reasonable price, outside of ordering from the mother country, which has horrible shipping costs attached. Funny how the things you miss from home are often food items.
Read a story or two in a horror anthology I'm slowly working through... one of several anthologies that I'm slowly picking my way through a story at a time. Thursday means a special sale from one of the publishers I buy several limited editions from. 50% off one forthcoming book... which is very nice when you consider that this means the $40 book I was eyeing will now be $20. More Poppy Z. Brite goodness *yay*... I have yet to touch The Value of X which arrived a week or two ago, but am really looking forward to digging into that.
Sometime this week should see the arrival of a few cd's I bought on Ebay, new music is also a good thing. Claire Voyant's latest Love is Blind, Faith and the Muse's Vera Causa and Sunday Munich's Vinculum.
I've set Friday as the date to finish a large update on GOTH.NET. I should be able to get through a large majority of Writings submissions later today, and then there is the slew of regular email and links to deal with, along with the large stack of Art submissions. I want it all finished this week. Also finish off a few more things on the Minibeasts site, which includes additional photos on the gallery mainly at this time. Possibly also the addition of some South Africa and Australia photos to my personal site.
The fertile imaginations of people never cease to amaze me. I just wish some of those imaginations didn't disturb me so much. Though I'm glad I'm not so out of touch with reality.
When does one take IRC too seriously? When one commits suicide while online with your webcam on. Apparantly a kid did this mid-January. We've been getting accident tourists on DarkerNet due to there being a reference in the chat log of the suicide, thanks to someone quitting that network with our chat applet, which advertises DarkerNet when parting. A sad thing. IRC isn't life people... it's conversation, but not life.
I'm only slightly rambly... apologies for the lack of cohesiveness betwixt some of the paragraphs.
I think I should sleep now.
@ 04:57 AM EST
Saturday, February 1, 2003
I'm so fed up with the current GOTH.NET site it's not funny. I seriously need to update a whole load of Art and Writings stuff, as the updates are so behind it's embarrassing. It's proving hard to get myself to actually do it. Mostly it's to do with the fact that I'm fed up with the site, and I want to change a lot of stuff, like the basic layout and it seriously needs to become database driven as there is too much content to maintain comfortably by hand in html.
So I want it to be in PHP, and database driven. And I don't know how to do either. Waulok has given me a kind of prep. tutorial which I need to scan through, and then I think I'll be forking over for a book. But first the updates.
Watched Chicken Run last night per PreZ's request, which was amusing as always... I have to wonder if the choice was inspired by the fact that we had KFC chicken for dinner though.
Speaking of dinner, I think it's time I went to pick some stuff up at the store, then to wake PreZ who's been asleep all day after getting to bed at 8am after a late night coding session... and I'll see if he can be enticed into going to see The Recruit, the new Al Pacino movie, which looks quite interesting.
This morning also marked an interesting one... a disgruntled ex-forum user, who was banned due to harrassment of users and board flooding, decided about a month after said banishment to sign me up for all kinds of mailing lists. What he failed to realise is that several of said mailing lists log IP addresses of the person signing on. The ISP in question has been notified and hopefully will take appropriate action.
@ 07:07 PM EST