Cranky. Old. Man?

Talked again with this floor's gamer girl, found out she's also a 4-H kid. Which is comforting to me, actually. Reminds me of some of the weirdos I hung out with in high school. Have offered her use of my Halloween Costume Bins for her costuming needs. May have actually gotten talked into DDR club on the basis it's really "rhythm and music games club" and the likelihood that the ones that annoyed me back in freshman year have probably graduated. I just know better than to discuss certain things with fanboys now. XD

It's always the fanboys I seem to get into arguments with. I wonder why that is. It's like my anime test ("Do you like Evagenlion?" if you answer 'no' we're very likely to be anime compatible. Sometimes this is wrong, but it is a good filter for me. XD). It just puzzles me, because on average I get along with more boys than girls; unless they're fans.

Good news! I FOUND MY STEAMPUNK!AURON COAT.

I dodged into the local used clothing/skater/hippie store and it was just hanging there, telling me to buy it. Was $10, long, but not TOO long (I want to be able to show off my boots a little and really, most old military coats are mid-calf), bright red, and the sleeves are not full length (FOR THE BELTED GLOVES. IT'LL BE PERFECT). I will need to use a little grey dye to give it a less SHINY RED look and more of a slightly dirty look, and I really need to clean the incense smell out of it, but that's just a couple cosmetics. The biggest thing will be moving the buttons so it'll have a sort of side opening--which I can totally do. Going to use the old buttonholes to help attach it on the inside. I had just intended on dodging in real quick, too. I'll also have to extend the collar, but I'm thinking that'll be a separate piece, so. It's a little thin for a winter coat, so hopefully I won't die. XD

I clearly have mad skills with recovering stuff.

~Cendri

P.S. darcenciel, I totally found pictures of my old Cid Highwind Cosplay. I know, it's ghetto. I was totally wearing my chem goggles.

Well, I feel much better than yesterday, which was primarily spent in the throes of being ridiculously pissed off, but as it tends when I have a bad day, my mom told me to do some Wii Boxing, and promptly mixed me a drink. She's so Catholic sometimes. Eventually I will get over my confidence issues (my response is usually to fold up for like, a half hour, and then do it better. Sin of pride? Prolly.) I also own the special DVD version of The King and I because my aunt finally sent my birthday package and she's basically awesome (and has my Amazon wishlist link, ha).

But some interesting things:

+ Writing meme-thing. This may or may not keel me.

+ I have sewed the feather trim onto my costume. I also have cut the lace for my nifty lace necklace/collar thing to go with it. Will be visiting the craft store to get the stuff for first_seventhe's hairsticks and other last minute bits. There's one popped seam on the sleeve left (I hadn't sewed it as well as I could) and I've got the cincher pretty much done. At least done enough for Otakon.

+ I still need to locate Sagemaster Tellah stuff.

+ I cleaned my room! OMG.

It's surprising how quickly my days are going lately, what with all these crazy deadlines, gah. I look forward to my vacation coming up, and the weekend, and basically having a chance to breathe again.

On all fronts, minus the fact I woke up at 10 am. It's very nice to be able to come in to work when I want to, but that means I have to STAY later, or do some work on Saturday. Since I'm meeting the girls in the office at 5:30 for the company's first evar Ladies Night (we didn't have enough women working before to warrant it, but we've got enough now!). Oh well, I could use some not clocked-in time to look up some stuff for Minion J's newest design stuff. Small company, so I really tend to work overtime I just, ah, don't clock it. I'll get the overtime back when I get on salary. I mean, I don't have kids or anything like a lot of the others.

So what I've managed to get done:

+ Finished the major work on my cincher! View 1 and View 2. There's a little finishing left to do, but all the major sewing machine work is done enough. The stitching for the bias tape isn't perfect, but it's decent. I'm still a rookie. XD (also, note that I finally tweaked that old crappy camera to take better pictures. The yellow tint to the walls is because those walls really are yellow)

+ Have a decent outline for my article thing and the beginning of it done.

+ Finally managed to get the mess that had become my computer's inbox back in order. This may not sound like much, but it is.

+ Started on katmillia's necklace. My mom just bought some resin, I was thinking of trying my hand at making some resin charm-thing for it. If I can find my one box of bits (I have a tendency of saving the strangest things, but in an organized fashion, and it's surprising how useful they turn up later) then I'll have a better idea of what it'll look like. Or I'll just play around, as usual. XD

+ The Wii has gotten my mom less dependent on television (even if it's ON A TV, it's not A TV). Considering that she's OBSESSED with weather reports (she is), the WiiWeather Channel that connects through our wireless network impressed her. And she's apparently been practicing boxing so she can beat me at it. And the Nintendo Channel has got her wanting Lego Indiana Jones pretty bad. It's got me wanting a DS, though. Dammit, I need to graduate college stop tempting me, Nintendo!

+ I finally saw the premier of Project Runway Season 5! Not only did they bring back my favorite as a judge, they also brought back my favorite challenge. And Tim Gunn used his "I wish I could choke you" voice. I LOVE THIS SEASON ALREADY.

+ I'm glad I revived my last.fm account. I forgot that you can listen to music you don't own on there. XD Though, it's reminding me how much I want to collect all of mind.in.a.box's albums. Techno-noir storytelling in the lyrics with awesome futurepop? Hell yes, please.

+ It's Friday! And this weekend will be the time of GETTING THINGS DONE.

+ DR. HORRIBLE AT MIDNIGHT. LAST ACT. I AM PRACTICALLY VIBRATING.... I need an icon. Fixed. I'm odd in that I didn't really get into Buffy (but I loved Firefly, which I saw the movie first... backwards, I know) but I still kind of love Whedon a little. Though, I have a bad feeling, because love = death in the Jossverse. Trufact.

~Cendri

So I decided since I stayed extra late yesterday (on accident, how I do this, it's hard to say) I was going to really enjoy my lunch hour. So I went to the cafe of awesome and had the eggless Caesar salad with capers (I LOVE CAPERS) and wrote in my journal and read more of Dubliners. There was another man there sitting alone, writing in his journal, so I said 'hi' and then after the meal told him I had a nice meal with him. He grinned.

The big news is I FOUND A HAT FOR MY EDEA COSTUME. It's a 1940's wide-brimmed hat, and it's awesome. It came with a HAT PIN. I love the antique place around here. I also got some awesome old keys from online, because irish_ais needs a kickass accessory to go with her costume. If anyone else in our group wants something, just let me know. XD

And I promise, pictures of the hat later. But tonight I brave the sewing machine and try working on that waist cincher thing. It's all pinned up and ready to go. I will master my fears.

I had other things to say earlier, but I forgot abou them. Ha. JUST SO MUCH TO DO TODAY.

EDIT OMG: I CAN SEW!!!!

~Cendri

OMGOMGOMG BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!!!

Suffice to say, I LOVED that episode. What a way to end the half season. What a way to pull EVERYTHING I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO SEE WITH CHARACTERS EVAR in the span of two episodes. My only complaint is HAVING TO FRAKKING WAIT UNTIL POSSIBLY MARCH for the next half! UGH!

In other news, my sewing machine works. In fact, my grandpa got it all fixed up before giving it to us. Also, it's SO PRETTY. And old! But a workable old! I have to admit, I'm a little in love with it. If I were to imagine myself sewing, it would be with this machine. And yes I took pictures.

Also, sorry to confuse some of you yesterday! It was just BLITEOTW day, google it if you didn't get that. And sorry on Twitter, I just figured it would go more with the theme if I stopped blogging and made "phone posts". XD It was just something to entertain me yesterday, as yesterday was kind of slow.

Overall, now is exciting times! Having Project Runway on while I read up on the manual for this machine and practice with scraps is like, perfect.

~Cendri

Much as I love work, I am anxious to get home and work on my costume. XD During the school year I really missed being able to fiddle with things, and now that I'm working and all that, I have more and yet less time. And look I have feather trim! I am going to work on a waist cincher, made from the bodice piece of this hideous shirt I got from a friend of my sister's. The pinstripe part is pretty damn cool, so I'll see how it looks and what more I have to trim off (I already detached the boob sag portion).

And I'm sure it'll show up on ff_press, but phoenixmonthly is open for submissions/questions/whatever (we have a majority on that, right guys?). We're sort of playing this by ear, so if you want to submit something, please read the rules and not be a jerk. ^^ I also spent some time making the userinfo pretteh, so go look at that. XD

Not much else today, it's kind of been a dull day. Tedious grant and standards stuff. Going to hopefully get to do the fun parts of this Augmented Reality thing tomorrow.

For some reason I really want to make icons. Maybe if it's slow tomorrow. I try to use my time at home for noncomputer pursuits. XD

~Cendri

All the driving seems to have made me unable to sleep at night and really wiped out. So I played hookey to reset myself. Means I slept nearly all day and got some sewing done, (WHICH IS SUPER EXCITING). I should take pictures, I am so proud of getting a lot of work done on the Main Problem, which was the tear in the bodice. Not finished, but more than started. Once I have that sewed up it's just looking for little places to mend, and starting to attach the feathers (sorceress needs feathers, or else I'm just walking around in a Victorian mourning dress XD).

And my WIP list has changed up a bit.

~Cendri

Today is much better; the crazy organizational things I'm doing to calm myself are working. I can reach a Zen-like state of contentment while tagging music--it's true. Considering how my music library looked only a month ago and what it looks like now, I am pretty impressed by the progress. Combined with switching to foobar2000 which I don't know, lets me actually access my directories without much of an issue and doesn't expect me to use it to organize stuff, it's pretty easy, too.

I find myself mending things more, now that I'm less scared of making things looks silly while sewing. Granted, I've still yet to learn to use a machine, but since I'm mostly a repair/adapt/fix/remix type crafty person, I haven't sat and gone "darn, I wish I had a sewing machine". I still should learn. Boss #1 offered to let me use hers, which is apparently sitting idle in her house now that she has kids. Might take her up on that offer once school is done. Need to steal some jean fabric from something that doesn't fit to patch a pair of jeans that I liked but somehow I managed to wear the knee out of them. While that look can be chic, I am not into it that much. So a patch it needs.

Speaking of work, I might actually get to see some of the kids we're using for next phase! They're doing stuff with them mid-May, and since school ends the first week... it means awesome and win for me.

Gotta get through more domestic things, which is half for my sanity and half because I'm having personage over this weekend and while my room isn't MESSY the dirty dishes are starting to smell a little. Which is ew.

( also, a strange dream I had )

~Cendri