Hey guys.

So, uh. For some reason the cross-poster between DW and LJ is broken. Possibly something to do with LJ's recent...issues.

But anyways - if you're wondering why I'm not around, it's largely because I'm too lazy to post to the two sites separately, so all my posts will be DW only (same user name - renshai.dreamwidth.org) until such time as the crossposter works again.

(And if anyone wants/needs a DW invite code, I've got, like 10 of the things, so just let me know.)

Twelve year old, guys. What the hell.

Please tell me I was never that passive-aggressive and psychotic when I was twelve.

Hey guys, so apparently there's some kind of security attack via bad flash going on at LJ right now - Dreamwidth is not affected, but my LJ mirror did get hit last entry.

You can read about it here, but long story short, if you read my last entry (about the books) on LJ, while logged in to LJ, or if you read anyone else's LJ while logged in, go to the Edit Journal page, and check your recent entries for suspicious-looking flash code that you didn't put there, and check and make sure your icon and security preferences for recent posts are what they should be.

First thunder storm of the year! <3

Can't see much from down here in the basement, but man can I ever hear it rolling through. :D

Ladies and gentlebeings! I have managed to snag myself a Dreamwidth account via the OpenID random drawing!

*does a dance*

So I'm over there under renshai, just like I am over here. I'm just, like, tickled pink, because I was all concerned that by the end of the month my preferred username would be taken, and I'd have to accustom myself to a completely different internet identity.

For the moment, all content (except for maybe avs and picture posts - those will just be linked to the Dreamwidth blog) will be mirrored between this journal and dreamwidth. Unless I forget, in which case it won't.

If you've somehow not managed to hear about DreamWidth, you should check it out - it's looking to be a people-friendly, open-source LJ alternative. And if you login through OpenID, and then confirm your email address, you'll go into a random draw for a Beta account. : D



Now if only I could find an LJ client for mac that will let me post to IJ, LJ, and DW at the same time. And some way to coordinate friendslists across services.

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I've made it through a week of camp without killing either of my instructors or any of my classmates. I think I deserve a round of applause or something.

It was touch and go today, though. Apparently they all went out and got absolutely schnockered last night, and as such showed up to camp this morning ridiculously hungover, irritable, and prone to DRAMA. My gods, it was like trying to work with a pack of thirteen-year-old girls. I've never before received quite so many pitying (and commiserating!) looks from passersby.

You know, there are occasions I really, really miss having other girls in my class. I obviously should have gone out for my machinist's ticket - they've got, like, 5 or 6 girl in their class this semester.

This weekend is for finishing the &%^%^&&* calculator program, starting the essay on building municipal GISs for Doc, and fixing my apartment so that it no longer looks like it was invaded by a small, malicious band of space monkeys.

Also, make chili with my giant bag of on-sale mushrooms, and mail off my acceptance letter so as to avoid being unemployed this summer.

And maybe make an icon post. I've got, like, a folder-full that I've made in the last couple months.

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I've been watching Jonathan Creek (verdict: surprisingly good!) and The Mighty Boosh (verdict: Noel Fielding's hair frightens me on a deep and indefinable level, and yet I keep watching).

I tried to watch Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. But it missed the "so intentionally bad it's hilarious" mark for me, and landed squarely in "so intentionally bad it's physically painful, I obviously need to be drinking to watch this", so I stopped.

I watched the Doctor Who Easter and Christmas Specials (no, I haven't watched Turn Left or the Stolen Earth yet. I'm a bad, bad Who-fan) on Wednesday, in celebration of not having Pathfinders. My crush on David Tennant continues unabated - at some point I will post episode reactions for them, but that point will come after several hours of sleep and a check through for spelling errors, since keyboard smashing tends to affect my grammar.

And now, to bed. Because riding herd on a batch of semi-inebriated almost-surveyors is actually incredibly tiring. The buggers.

*frolics through the raindrops* *wearing steel-toe boots*

I love rain. And I love surveying outside. And I love my stompy, muddy boots. I am bursting with good feelings towards the universe today.

Even if I hate the teachers running this camp with a fiery passion. And even if the wind was bitterly cold, forcing me to pull on a pair of pants instead of splashing about and getting my short-clad legs all muddy.

That is all subordinate to the fact that I spent my day either out in the rain with my guys, or playing solitaire in the lab. : D

I imagine tomorrow I will be back to hating camp, hating my teachers, hating the lab, and hating the weather (we've got freezing rain forecast for tomorrow). But today I am a happy panda, and honestly, I'll take what I can get.

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Yesterday I discovered that there is a delicious, delicious ice cream place within walking distance of my place. And thus my loss of the freezer-that-kept-ice-cream-solid is not such a big deal, as a 15 minute walk will reward me with a multitude of flavors and cone choices.

I discovered this because, like any good surveyors, we stopped in the middle of our survey for ice cream cones, purchased while one of our crew members picked up the fire hydrant outside on GPS. (Today we got Starbucks in honour of a job well done, because honestly if we don't reward ourselves, no one will.)

I also discovered that I apparently have a heretofore unknown fear of heights. We decided to walk between our two endpoints along the railroad tracks, since it was easier than forging our way cross-country and shorter than following the roads. But to do so, we had to cross the rail bridge. Which is open trestles. I'm not sure it was so much a fear of heights as a fear of my lack of balance foot falling between the trestles and getting trapped, and a) having to get the boys to pull me out or b) a train coming, but it took me considerably longer to cross the bridge than it should have, and I didn't enjoy it much. Apparently my fear of humiliation is equal to or greater than my fear of messy death.

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My apartment appears to have been hit by either a tornado or someone searching for the evidence I have regarding their participation in last week's murder/drug operation/political scandal.

The only pieces of furniture I have left are the kitchen table (which my parents are thinking about "gifting" to my landlords, to save them the trouble of moving it home), the drafting table, and a bookshelf made out of milkcrates wired together. I am sleeping on a giant air mattress, which is doing an admirable job of retaining its air while simultaneously being one of the least comfortable surfaces I've ever slept on - I'm not sure if it's because of its relative hardness/softness, or if I'm sleeping stiffly for fear of rolling too close to the edge and falling the four feet to the ground. I only have three glasses and two plates left. And they're all dirty. Which I suppose means I should be doing dishes right now.

Man, I go away for a weekend and the internet explodes. Amazon Rank.

Unrelated: anyone happen to have a Dreamwidth invite code hanging about? *makes grabby hands*

Packing up the apartment continues apace. My bed is gone, my desk and futon are gone. Tomorrow I need to get the rest of the clothes that are going back bagged up, get the stuff from the office boxed up, and the dishes packed. And break down the bookshelves.

Unfortunately, either I am way more allergic to cologne and/or cigarette smoke than I used to be, or I'm managed to catch some kind of horrible super-bug. I have a headache to the point where my eyeballs and eardrums hurt, and I'm achy and lethargic - if this goes away in the next couple of days, I guess I'll know it's allergies and that I can't visit my grandparents anymore (grandpa has started smoking again...)

Time for sleep. Let's see how much air the air mattress loses over night...

You know, I really enjoy getting my hair cut. Especially here, because the nice gal at Ultracuts doesn't look at me like I'm crazy when I say "buzz the sides and the back, leave it a bit longer and fauxhawky on top", and then she does exactly what I asked.

I tend to have that problem when I go somewhere "professional". Actually, I don't think I've ever gotten a haircut I was completely satisfied with in Calgary - only here, at Ultracuts, and in BC at the place under the SUB. Seriously, I don't care if I look like a boy, or if you think my short hair is *gasp* dykey (given that my regular attire is baggy cargo shorts and a t-shirt, I'm not sure where anyone gets the idea that I'll go out of my way to avoid looking boyish) or whatever - I like it short because it's comfortable, and because I don't have to do any more than run my fingers through it for it to look presentable. It dries in less than five hours (a serious concern with how thick my hair is), and I don't leave blonde lint kittens the size of chihuahuas in the corners of the bathroom.

If it weren't for the fact that wearing a hardhat with a buzzcut makes my head itch, I'd just buzz it short twice a month and have done with it. Although then I would miss out on the fun of dyeing it ridiculous colours and scandalizing the girl guide parents with my rebellious ways.

Which I did this weekend. It was good fun. I manned the bake sale table, and spent my time making faces at my fellow leaders across the aisle. I am thoroughly amused at exactly who is scandalized by my hair and who isn't, though - my fellow leaders think it's awesome, the kids think it's awesome, the Trefoil Guild (ladies who've been involved in girl guides longer than I've been alive - and in some cases, longer than my mother's been alive) think it's awesome. It's just the the parents who are scandalized, and mostly the parents who aren't a) teachers or b) public health nurses.

Of course, I had to wear my leader shirt, because otherwise people mistake me for one of my pathfinders. Ah, the curse of being short and kind of baby-faced.

But the best part of Guide bake sales is not the flaunting of societal norms. No, it is the end of the bake sale, when all the parents have rushed their children home to avoid having to help break down and clean up. And left all the unsold baked goods behind.

: D

I got 10 cupcakes, a bag of cotton candy, and a dozen sugar cookies for about two bucks. Which is all the change I had on me.

It was only through a heroic act of willpower that I kept from eating cupcakes for breakfast. And lunch. Actually, that's a lie, for lunch I had a cupcake, a handful of soda crackers, and some cheese. And now I'm feeling kind of guilty, because I meant to go to the gym after the Math exam this morning, and didn't bother.

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My kitchen creativity is getting a workout as the year winds to a close and I try to use up everything in my cupboard. At some point here my mother will get a phone call going "Mom, I have a tin of ham and, some tomato soup, and a banana left, what should I make for supper?" and she will tell me what to do and supper will turn out to be incredible.

I'm not doing so bad for myself, though. I think after five years I'm finally getting the hang of this whole cooking thing - tonight I made rigatoni with meat sauce (a container of pre-packaged pasta sauce, a can of mushrooms, .5 lb of ground beef, and a can of tomato soup). Last week I made the most excellent thing I've ever made, and was so proud that I took pictures - Lamb Meatballs in Mango Curry Sauce (with real mango pieces!) and rice. And then for dessert I had fried mango slices on vanilla ice cream. A++, would make again.

Someday, I'll be capable of actually following a recipe, instead of my usual "I have this and this and this, let's just throw them in a frying pan" strategy.

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I'm watching my way through the Kingdom Hearts 2 cutscenes (I'm checking file integrity prior to iPod conversion). I love this game. Although every time I watch, Axel's puppy-face tugs at my heartstrings, as does poor Roxas. And I have the urge to punch DiZ, which I'm still horribly disappointed you don't get to do in-game.

There may be some icons made before I delete the .avis - these are actually remarkably good quality. I was originally intending to rip the cutscenes myself, but since there's no cutscene viewer for the game, that's going to take a long, long time. Especially since I want to finish ripping the Jak and Daxter cutscenes first.

Maybe I'll get some of it done this summer - it's really weird, half of me is hoping the company really works my ass off and has me out in the field all year, because I am a fan of both having and spending money. That half is dreading the clause in my offer letter that says "once you've completed the project you are assigned, don't come back in until we call you". The other half is sort of wistfully thinking of all the stuff it could accomplish this year if it wasn't working.

Anyways. To bed. I have a GPS Final tomorrow, and I need to be up in time to take a last look at my notes. Wish me luck!

I'm watching Most Dangerous Animals on National Geo.

Dear Australia,

I really enjoyed my last visit to your country. And someday I'll make my way back there. But if I ever express a desire to live there, someone needs to smack me.

Seriously. You even have deadly ants. You have 50 types of venomous snakes. Canada has.....um.....well, we've got two or three different species of Rattler, I guess.

That's not even talking about your various deadly spiders, or the fact that even your herbivores are dangerous.

Next time I visit you, I think I'll wear my steel-toe boots at all times.

Sincerely,

Ren



Also, the Fossa is an extremely funny looking animal. It looks like a cross between a cougar and an otter. I mean, they're adorable, but really funny looking.

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Oh man, last night I was talking to my parents over iChat, and the dogs were up on the couch with them. Hilarity on the highest level - apparently Max recognizes my voice. I was talking to him, and he did the head tilt (most adorable thing ever) and then he apparently determined that I was trapped in the speakers, or possibly in the screen (we haven't decided whether he can actually tell that it's me on the screen, or whether he can see the screen at all, actually).

He went nuts, and tried to rescue me from the computer. Comedy /gold/, guys. I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

In other news, I really miss my doggies. And I really want one of my own. But I can't get a dog in good conscience unless I know I have the time to spend on it. Not to mention a pet-friendly place to live. And live in one place for more than 8 months at a time. There was a humane society booth at the mall this morning, and it damn near broke my heart. Oh well. Another month, and then I'll at least be back to being 'based' in Calgary, whatever that turns out to mean.

Between then and now, I have a Girl Guide Tea & Bazaar (tomorrow), four finals (Math on Monday), Easter (to include visits to both sets of grandparents and moving all extraneous things out of my apartment), and coordinating the trip back to Calgary, since for once Break is out at the same time as me.

And I need to wash dishes, because I have run out.

Wish me luck.

If archaeology was actually as action packed as Bonekickers, Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, and Relic Hunter would have you believe, I would have considered a Master's of Archaeology way more seriously than I did.

Or at least spent more time on the gun range in high school.

In other news, I continue to wince at the handling of archaeological artifacts with bare hands. And in one instance, smoking around said artifacts. Augh. Auuuuuugh.

And now, to bed. T-minus 32 hours til my first final. And the due date for the four assignments that are only half done at this point - they need a Windows PC to complete, and the school closed an hour ago. Someday I will learn not to leave things til the last minute, but at this point I think it might be on my death bed.