Archives: April 2003
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
I'd hoped that the RAM would be the only thing that had caused my computer to kick the bucket, but of course that couldn't just be the only thing.
The RAM arrived earlier than expected, last Monday or Tuesday rather than Wednesday. In my excited state I'd called PreZ at work to tell me how to insert the RAM into my machine as I was really looking forward to getting it up and running again without having to wait until he got back. New RAM inserted, still no life. When he got home PreZ swapped out my CPU with one of his to see if that was the problem, computer still didn't work. So it was determined that it was the motherboard that had died also.
So Wednesday PreZ arranged for the motherboard to be RMA'd too and Thursday we headed off to North Carolina for the weekend. Sunday we came home to a flashing answering machine message which we played back on Monday morning when we were lucid and awake... the manufacturer needed more info before they could send it to us. So rather than come home to a part waiting for us, it only just got sent out this Monday, with an ETA of May 5. And this is being sent UPS Ground, so no chance of it arriving an earlier *sigh*.
So for now I'm still mostly computerless, a real pain in the ass.
@ 12:34 PM EST
So Thursday we headed off down to North Carolina for PreZ's cousin Stephanie's wedding. We had a long drive ahead of us, Mapquest had estimated that it would take about 11 hours. We made it in about 9 though, so that was definitely a bonus.
@ 12:24 PM EST
Saturday, April 19, 2003
Due to Cherie having the workload from hell in the final weeks before graduation, we ended up cancelling the third in our corsetmaking series. Apparantly Cherie had some stuff to do in the shop earlier in the evening, and again around midnight, which would have left a few hours inbetween. But considering none of that was fixed in stone we just decided to postpone. There was a possibility of doing it on Saturday instead, Cherie's schedule allowing, but as I didn't hear anything, I'll assume that didn't happen.
Next weekend also no corsetmaking, as this Thursday we're off to North Carolina for a wedding of one of PreZ's relatives. A weekend surrounded by people I don't know. Fun. We still have no idea what to get as a gift either... not knowing the people whose wedding we are attending obviously doesn't help much in this instance either.
I'm thinking of going and getting a set of new lobe holes pierced this week. I had initially wanted to do that at the same time as the industrial, but due to nervousness I blanked on it when I was actually at the shop. Later I was happy I hadn't done it, as the industrial was more than enough in the way of new holes to take care of, especially when I came down later with a fairly severe cold.
@ 07:57 PM EST
Friday, April 18, 2003
Yesterday my computer decided to shuffle off its mortal coil.
After shutting it down so PreZ could install the UPS's that arrived yesterday it decided it didn't want to come back up anymore. I'd get up to the windows start-up screen where you have the progress bar at the bottom, it would get to the end of the bar, and then the quick flash of a blue warning screen, and then a reboot. The only word I've managed to make out on the blue warning screen is 'memory'.
At some point after PreZ was trying to fix it it stopped wanting to boot entirely and just beeps. The manufacturer sites for the motherboard/cpu/etc. didn't explain what the actual problem was, only that it was something to do with the memory. We'd already gotten that far.
So, we went to CompUSA to try and get the memory checked, to be certain that that was the problem. CompUSA doesn't have the equipment (yet) to check this type of RAM. They recommended going to another store. We did, and were quoted $84 + tax just to check the RAM. They called it 'diagnostic testing'. Considering that for the $84 plus tax it would almost more be worth just buying new RAM and testing it that way instead.
Meanwhile, PreZ just tested the RAM in his computer, and it doesn't work there either. So now it goes back to the manufacturer. Lifetime warranty, luckily. I'll be computerless until Wednesday *sniff*.
Due to this I should be able to catch up on a lot of reading, as my access is limited to PreZ's laptop, which isn't my favourite method of being on the computer/being online. Ah well.
@ 05:21 PM EST
So last friday was the second corsetmaking installment. Plans to be down there earlier than with lesson #1 went awry, due to horrific traffic on the NJ Turnpike, where I breezed along at a nifty 20 mph for most of the way. Not fun.
After picking up Cherie and getting food out of the way, it was 9pm or so again before we got started.
I'd brought along pictures of other corsets that did more what we were looking for, seams that curve in into a V shape, rather than the fairly straight seams that we'd ended up with with mock-up #1. Kit also had a pattern that did that too, 5 pieces rather than the 6 we had, but Cherie and Kit managed to use it to manipulate the pattern pieces we had into ones that looked more like that pattern, and did what we wanted.
Enter mock-up #2. New pattern pieces, more drawing, cutting and sewing, and then fitting. And lo and behold it was pretty much a perfect fit. Pretty surprising considering there were large pattern changes, and some of the pieces from last week also needed to be taken in fairly substantially.
Week 3, i.e. today, we start on the real fabric *jitter*
@ 02:22 PM EST
Friday, April 11, 2003
NyQuil and other sleep aids/stuff with sleep aids in them give me weird dreams. Mostly they're not nice weird dreams. At least now the cold has subsided that I think I might sleep tonight without needing cough medication.
Last night was one of the only good dreams I've ever had, I think. It had Vin Diesel in it. Very strange.
Must get stuff together and trek down to New Brunswick for Corsetmaking #2 this evening. Yay!
@ 03:04 PM EST
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Oh yes, I almost forgot.
Princeton pics
Hawthorne pics
Corsetmaking pics
@ 06:29 PM EST
I always underestimate how long it takes for colds to go away. Now, more than a week on I'm still battling the damned thing. At least last night I managed to get several consecutive hours of sleep in, unlike the night before where I was awake all night trying to cough up my inner organs to wear. Ugh.
The piercing settled down nicely after some extra TLC for a few days. Happy Happy Joy Joy! I'm very thankful for that. Today my package from Tribalectic arrived with the bottles of Satin, anti-microbial cleanser for piercings. One for me, one for Cherie. Great timing, as I can take her bottle to her tomorrow.
A new project is in the cards too. PreZ bought a new domain to house Magick and Mantra, and other programming projects. The dot.tm registrars, after being offline for ages are back with a vengeance... and wanted an insane amount of money to re-register the magick.tm domain and wouldn't accept anything under 10 years either. So he registered Neuromancy.net and is calling his programming group the Neuromancy society. And now I get to come up with a new site for that. Should be interesting. Currently just trying to figure out what look I want to go for. I'm already kind of settled on a colour scheme... ah well, time will tell, as always.
Just going through some comic goodness at the moment. My Slave Labor order came in the other day, with the missing Gloomcookie issues and a bunch of other goodness. I read through all the Gloomcookies last night. Currently reading the Nightmares and Fairytales issues. After that, back to cleaning up around here.
@ 06:12 PM EST
Saturday, April 5, 2003
So Friday was the first day of the corsetmaking. Due to crap traffic on the NJ Turnpike I didn't arrive there until around 6, and after hanging around for a while, then having dinner and such, we didn't actually get to the costume shop until around 9.
But, in the 3 hours we worked in the shop we got a lot done. Traced all the pattern pieces onto paper, cut them out, drew them on mock-up fabric, cut those out, sewed them together and tried it on. Then the arduous task of fitting, and tweaking the pattern... seeing where bits need to be taken in and let out and changed.
After some small changes and a second fitting Kit and Cherie got to discussing the pattern changes, due to the fact that we want two fabrics in the corset, one for the front panel and contrasting side panels... and they decided that this would needs some pattern changes to get the seams and pieces to run differently. But we left that 'til next week though as it was already close to midnight. Much as I'd have liked to stick around and have tea and stuff, I headed on home as it was past midnight and it's like an hour and a half drive almost. It sucks that we don't live closer to each other.
We took some pictures of the corset making stuff, so I'll see if I can get those up soon. I also need to resize some pictures taken when they were here, and also from when we went to Princeton a few weeks ago. I've been slack and I keep forgetting.
My ear has been ouchy since yesterday (Thursday). I made the very stupid mistake of moving the piercing dry, with crustie and it hurt (duh). It's been complaining ever since. Today it was the other hole that has been complaining though. An hour ago I gave it a 6 or so minute blisteringly hot sea salt bath in order to appease it. It was fine in the soak, but still throbbing afterwards. 2 ibuprofen seem to have settled it down now, here's hoping the anti-inflamatory nature of ibuprofen does some good overnight. If it's still really sore tomorrow I'm going to pick up some bactine or if I can find it provon or satin to clean it with... just to add an extra kick in the care regime along with the sea salt soaks.
@ 03:17 AM EST
Wednesday, April 2, 2003
Of course Monday I had to go and get sick. All I need with a new piercing. A sore throat, that I've managed to contain from blowing out into a throat infection as I get every few years... now it's settled into a chest cold.
The piercing is doing fine, I had worried about it getting sore because I'm not feeling so well... piercings are notorious for being barometers of health that way. Still sea salt soaking my way to healing.
The corset pattern arrived on Monday too, so that all can get started this Friday. This should be interesting. Let's hope I don't screw it up, even with expert supervision... I want this thing to look good.
Tuesday night PreZ came down with something too, so Wednesday we were sick together. Such fun. I made lemon soufflé pudding tonight, because the weather has gotten really cold again (sleet and snow on Sunday and Tuesday), and because it's one of my favourite desserts :) And we could both use the cheerer-upper.
Other than that, no real news... I need to resize a bunch of pictures from here and Princeton and put them up... I want to make a kind of photoarchive section on my site, so probably a new layout. It would help if the scanner worked, otherwise I'll just have to work around that.
@ 11:43 PM EST