Even when they're doing things that might be considered really annoying. For instance, Ginger just randomly thumped at absolutely nothing loudly enough to startle me out of a sound sleep. (Yeah, at night. I'm still recuperating from con.)

Thing is, in the dream I was having, I had just gone out to the driveway of someone's house I'd been at, and found "our car" (which was a white sedan, which neither I nor any of my immediate family has ever owned, as far as I know) had the driver's side door open. Which was a little odd, and I thought akatonbo had been out there and forgotten to close it or something, so I put the stuff I was carrying inside, and closed it. Then blinked, and opened it again. Sure enough, the lock was broken, there was no window remaining, and the stereo was gone. Apparently I was thinking logically enough in this dream to go "At least we don't keep much stuff in the car, and the lack of a stereo and a window is no big deal, but having my car door busted and having stuff stolen is not cool, and darnit - I had a Muse CD in there." So I was reaching for my cell phone holster to call 911 and get the police out there to make a report, when...

THUMP. THUMP, THUMP.

And I wake up to find that nothing more frustrating has happened than having an easily spooked bunny.

I love Ginger so much right now.

I'm way too exhausted to get all the rest of the con photos up, but editing a handful of short videos on a common theme together wasn't much work at all. Thus...

I Can Has Caramelldansen?

This being some of the members of our group, I Can Has Cosplay, and a few friends being very silly. The Clamp stuff was all backstage during the masquerade, to burn off some spastic energy... and no, there really is no explanation as to why Akihiko is wearing Subaru's hat and dancing with Nokoru's fan. (Klavier was wearing Subaru's hat earlier too, and someone asked if I was Tohma. XD)

So if, as I have been fantasizing lately, I start looking for a new job, I'm
wondering if I should be honest on the job applications. Reason for
leaving last job: I got tired of picking up the slack for lazy idiot
coworkers.

Pros: It indicates that I have a work ethic, and would prefer to work in an
environment with skilled, motivated coworkers.
Cons: Unfortunately, in my experience most of the population of the United
States would like to act like lazy idiots as long as they can possibly get
away with it, therefore it's essentially telling a future employer that I'm
not likely to stay long.

Kind of pointless anyway, since I doubt I could get a better job without
several years of college that I have yet to go through. I mean, the job
itself here is fine. I just really, really can't stand my
coworkers. Two examples:

1. One coworker gets in this morning. The other, already here, greets her
with "Good morning!" Coworker's response is to turn to me and say "Take out
your trash before you leave." When I go to look to see what she's talking
about, I find that the other coworker has left a giant pile of cardboard
where there was previously the single box that I emptied when I got
out the donuts this morning.

2. Tonight, I find a to-do list with a section of it for me, mostly
containing things I do every night, or every other night. However, one of
these items is more detailed today, and adds "Don't leave boxes in freezer".
...Time for a little story problem, just like in elementary school:

During each overnight shift, the worker gets out six packages of
donuts (or less if they have muffins and bagels too). These packages come in
larger boxes; each box contains eight packages of donuts.

The first night after Andrea returned from a week of vacation, she had to
hunt through and move four boxes that were left in the freezer, in order to
find a box that still had donuts in it. Having emptied this box, she removed
it from the freezer.

Since the packages of donuts come in boxes of eight, and Andrea removed one
box from the freezer - how many packages would Andrea have had to put out
during her single overnight shift in order to be responsible for all
the empty donut boxes that were left in the freezer?

Seriously, WTF.

At con: Walk into the room and be greeted by excited screams.
At work: Walk into the building and be greeted by silence, or maybe a sullen
nod.

At con: Strangers running up and requesting pictures, gleefully bouncing and
saying thank you afterwards, maybe asking for a screenname, generally
treating you like a celebrity.
At work: Strangers sauntering up and requesting cigarettes, grumpily
wandering off afterwards without a word, generally treating you like a peon.

At con: Surrounded by people who put in amazing effort at what they do, even
though they're not getting paid for it, to prove to the world that they can
do incredible things.
At work: Surrounded by people who put forth no effort at all to do even
basic things, even though they're getting paid for it, because they're too
lazy.

It's always the ultimate downer going back to my job after a con. It makes
it seem like the whole thing was just a crazy dream... except that this
feels more like the dream, and the con mode like the natural state.

(Which is kind of funny, because akatonbo was commenting the
other day that I act really odd at cons for someone who's the most
introverted person she's ever met the rest of the time. My theory is that my
extreme introversion for the rest of the year must be me saving up all the
very few social skills and tendancies I have and using a year's supply of
extrovertedness in the course of a weekend.)

And seriously, I wonder how long the cappucino machine had been out of
french vanilla before I got here, despite the fact we have enough to fill
the thing about three times over right down in the cabinet below. It's like
no one but me knows how to fill the freaking thing.

One work amusement, though - there was a to-do list left for second shift,
and they apparently added their own to-do list for my boss beside it:

- Check out women
- Take home one a day
- Work cooler
- Check for outdated girls
- Fart five times

Check off as you're done

Blah blah. This morning/afternoon I decided to play some FFVI for akatonbo, since the rest of our group was going crazy-fan-mode over
it at the con. I got all the way to Jidoor within a couple hours... but not
quite to the opera, because I have to go to Zozo first, and Zozo is a pain
in the butt. We'll save that for tomorrow.

Still don't hate Woolsey, by the way. Even though there is a better
translation now, it's not really so much better that I feel embarrassed
showing her the SNES version. Unlike FFIV, or the PSX version of FFV. ;)

Okay, I have about a billion pics on my camera (well, now on my HD in my "photo temp" directory awaiting resizing, not so many on my camera), not to mention some videos I have intentions for. But this batch stands alone, as it is a photoshoot of myself and akatonbo as Klavier and Ema, respectively, with mithrigil as photographer. I did say a couple weeks back that I should do this... and so I did.


( Klavier and Ema go on a date in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. )

Am back at home.

...

I seriously have no idea what I'm supposed to do, now that there's nothing going on that I have to or want to do. I mean, I've already snuggled bunnies and cats, been to the store to get ice cream (which I haven't had for a week - I was going to get some yesterday, then stuff came up and instead of getting ice cream I got to run back across the harbor, sit in front of a broken computer for an hour... and then find out that I should have just gotten my ice cream after all because Otakon changed their plans), and deleted the 1400 spam/kink meme emails I received in the week I was gone - so what's left? I can't look for the awesome pics that EBK took this weekend just yet, since it appears he hasn't started uploading them yet. (Which is fine. He looked so stressed Saturday night when I saw him, and so exhausted Sunday afternoon, I actually told him "Dude, you're awesome, but you know... it's just cosplay. Take a break for your own sanity.")

Honestly considering starting construction of next year's Otakon masq costumes, except that it hasn't been nailed down who's doing what just yet, other than that I'm making full plate again.

Possibly processing con photos/videos, but I suspect it'll be kind of depressing because it'll remind me I'm not there anymore.

Fic? Hmm. There is the monsterfic that I said I'd resume when I got back, and I do have some ideas now about where I'm going with that in the immediate future... but then I also have this other idea that popped into my head on the last leg of our trip today, thanks to a random song that akatonbo's iPod pulled up.

Also, since I don't have costumes to work obsessively on, I can get back to the crazy AMV I was obsessing over before we switched skits a couple of times.

Or watch the two box sets I bought in the dealer's room Sunday (Azumanga and Cromartie, both of which I've seen like two episodes of and loved to bits).

Edit: ...I'm wondering if someone's linked my ff.net account somewhere that I don't know about for some reason in the last few days, because when I got back, I had a ton of notifications that people were favoriting assorted fics there. And I don't recognize the usernames. Since I haven't posted anything there for months for people to see, it's like... they have to be looking way back in the archives, or else they're being pointed to them. Hmm. Does occur to me I should post a bit of the kink meme stuff there at some point, at least the two things I outed myself on already.

So that rocked, even if we didn't win anything this time. The people who did win totally deserved it, and being on the arena stage was amazing.

Also just got the call today that whatever's going on with Violet's eye is treatable very well with the eyedrops we already have, thank goodness, so when we get back, we just have to get more of the stuff.

The con is now over, and we are about to start heading back to Michigan. I sure did meet a lot of awesome people this year, both people I knew already and people I didn't, and people I'm not sure if I knew or not, heh. (Sorry, to the person who said they read me last night, I was really groggy and my contacts were bugging me and I didn't figure out if I know you. :P) I hopefully will see all of them again next year, since we have something HUGE in the works for the masq. :D Just you guys wait...

Matilda Knights went well yesterday and had pictures taken with Viktor and Flik (and Tir and a beaver XD), Klavier had many pictures taken with random frauleins and took Ema on an AWESOME DATE (I cannot wait until we can upload the pictures from that adventure, mithrigil took the most awesome pics! Also for some reason we have a picture of Klavier gettin' down with Tsuzuki), and I think we have our skit down now, including the dancing. Multiple good omens for the masquerade so far, including assorted people going "ping!" when we mentioned Takarazuka and/or TBX - including the... I think she was the assistant director? Something like that. And then, while practicing on the third floor of the BCC last night, we suddenly heard a whole bunch of bangs, and looked out the huge glass wall off to our left to see that the Orioles game had just finished, and there was a huge fireworks display going off. I videotaped a little of it. ;)

I just wish my camera's batteries hadn't died just before the first Phoenix Wright photoshoot - but we did manage to get a picture of Klavier glomping the Blue Badger. :D There is also a picture somewhere from late last night (I wish I'd gotten it on my camera, but I was a little groggy) of Klavier with his arm around both Trucy and Mr. Hat. XD

Have so far run into froborr and lakupo as well as the people I kind of needed to be seeing during the con, completely by random wandering around.

In an hour or so Sydney and Hardin will meet up with Samantha and Grissom to take some shots, and then I suppose it's into the masquerade outfits for dress rehearsal (which I guess red_mage_jerry will be recording for us on my camera since nobody's allowed to record the masq itself). Or possibly into just the wig and a bikini, because the bathing suit I brought actually is amazingly perfect for Hokuto, and we're thinking of doing a swimsuit photoshoot by the hotel pool if we have time.

But for now, Sydney's boots. I left them in the trunk. (Which still had room left over after two large suitcases and five pairs of boots. I love this car.)

Departure time was scheduled for 6 am.

...Are we actually going to make it less than two hours late this time? O_o All we have left to do, basically, is snuggle critters we don't want to leave pack up our last toiletries and take stuff down to the car. Freaky.

So uh, shutting down now. See you all when we get back, except for those we will be seeing there.

So we've got costumes/wigs/accessories all together except for the armored parts, and mostly packed. Have picked up food for the road, filled up on slightly cheaper gas on the way back from a vet visit where the vet thought that it probably was an upper respiratory infection, and we should keep giving the eyedrops. Fortunately, we have awesome rabbit-smart people only a few blocks away who are actually willing (in fact volunteered, that's how awesome they are) to come administer medicine if need be, and do what's needed if it turns out we do need different medication after the results from the test come back in a few days.

Sydney and Hardin are not remade. Right now I can't bring myself to care. If there's anything damaged, I just won't worry about it, and we'll spend the day in other costumes. I wanted to have a big VS meetup this year, but after Leah, I'm just not finding things like costumes particularly important.

Similarly, although Klavier is done and Ema is nearly done (basically just need to finish her tie, and I can hand-sew it), I'm not beating myself up over the rush job I did on bits of them. They're fine, and we'll have fun.

Nokoru and Hokuto are really pink cool. All I have left to do on either of them is make the garters for Hokuto, and I discovered today that I can sew pretty well in the car, as that's where I put the buttons and buttonholes on Ema's vest, with a rabbit carrier on my lap the whole time as well.

Fourth costumes we're bringing for the weekend are the Matilda Knights. Probably to be worn for part of Friday, since we know a couple mercs that will be in the area. ;)

So general schedule for things is: Friday, Camus and Miklotov for awhile, and Klavier and Ema for awhile. Saturday, Sydney and Hardin for awhile if they're wearable, Hokuto and Nokoru (no pics available, sorry - but I can show you the last pic I took of Leah, also featuring the Hokuto outfit with wig pre-cutting/styling - but I'm ugly, so look at the adorable bun) for the masquerade. Sunday... whatever the heck we feel like wearing, but I suspect it will be one of Friday's costumes again, because they're pretty comfy.

Another relief - the reason I didn't get to sleep this afternoon was because I had to reschedule my eye exam to make room for the vet appointment. As I suspected, my left eye was indeed seeing much worse than my right, so the doctor prodded a bit, then had me try a slightly different prescription. Holy crap, people. I finally am not squinting around constantly and wondering why my vision is so blurry, and wanting to put on my glasses. I can actually forget I'm not wearing them! ...Except that now my right eye's prescription isn't as perfect as my left eye's prescription. Still, good enough that it won't be a huge annoying pain for me to wear them instead of my glasses at the con this weekend.

And another - I ran around frantically looking for my old Tsuzuki wig for mithrigil to borrow, since I did say she could... and I couldn't find it, and was kind of freaking out again because I can't stand letting people down. I had to give up the search and go to the eye exam, and then when I got back? I could see well enough in my dim closet that I found it immediately. :D

I haven't slept in over 24 hours now, and have hardly eaten, but am finally starting to relax.

...Just remembered I've had underwear in the dryer downstairs for four hours. :P

Yes, that is my butt.

( Because math makes me feel better )

Meanwhile my contacts are just not taking to my eyes well tonight,
everything is so blurry I keep having to look in a mirror to make sure they
didn't fall out or something. I almost wish that I hadn't gotten used to
them enough that I don't feel them every time I blink now. Just because I
needed more frustration in my life.

I'm not at the computer much right now, because honestly, coming into my room and seeing only two rabbits just... yeah. Thank goodness I finished my last anon_press update for the week before the vet appointment.

Since I can't stand being in the room with the computer, I'm getting a lot of costume stuff done. Klavier's jacket is finished except for the flaps over his pockets, which I may do now, because even though I have to get up in six hours, I passed out from like 4 pm to 2 am last night. I'm not sure I can sleep yet. I mean, I haven't even been awake for twelve hours.

Was listening to the Doors on the iPod while putting the jacket together, and recalled a PW kink meme prompt that cracked me up so bad - something about seeing the characters with a darker edge, and one of the examples was something like "What if Klavier was less Simple Plan and more Jim Morrison?" ...Oh, the mental image. Also, am not sure if I should be proud or ashamed that I can hum along with the entire keyboard/guitar solo in 'Light My Fire'.

Edit: And one hour later, jacket pockets are not flapped, but Hokuto's wig is cut properly (or at least as properly as it can be cut until I see what Subaru's looks like, at which point I may touch it up a bit). Despite that the wig in its original form kind of looked awful on me, now that it's been trimmed, it looks oddly cute. In fact I'm still wearing it now. Or maybe I just think it's so much cuter now because now it looks like Hokuto.

Four and a half hours till I have to get up, I guess I should try to sleep.

Leah didn't make it. One minute she was weak and floppy but the doctor said her heartbeat was strong, and went to get some fluids and check on some medications in hopes of getting her started right away, then when the doctor left the room, she deteriorated suddenly and we called the doctor back.

I don't want to talk about it, because it's just like one of those stupid dreams that I have all the time (except that this time it's not my fault, by the time I realized there was probably something more wrong than just her being underweight, we already had the vet appointment scheduled for a few hours later) and maybe I can just wake up.

I was going to post one of these days about how I'd made a post years ago about how nice it was to pet Zipper, his head fit right in the palm of my hand, so it was this nice instinctive stroke over his head... and Leah was so tiny, petting her hind end was like that. Her back and hindquarters seemed to be a good fit for my cupped hand, she just felt right. And even if she hadn't, when you turn your computer chair around and there's a little bunny sitting there staring up at you hopefully? You have to pet her.

I really wish I'd adopted her sooner so we would have had more time together. She was the most eccentric bun I'd ever met, and amazingly beautiful.

Don't have a clue how the social factions among this household's pets are going to work without her.

Don't have an appetite for the ice cream sitting beside me either, but I'll try.

Leah's condition has worsened while I was at work - she's having trouble standing up or hopping on her own, and her head is bobbly. Though she's still seemingly interested in her surroundings (just pushed herself up off my hand to look at the keyboard, then over the end of my knees - and no dear, you are NOT jumping off my lap), her ears are still up if not in the happy V position (at least they're not laid back), and she did eat her berry treat when I put it right under her nose.

I'm so incredibly worried. I've once before taken off for a con less than 24 hours after burying a bunny, and really the only reason that was not a terrible, terrible idea was because it was where akatonbo and I met in person for the first time, and she basically took care of my pathetic nervous-wrecking self. So that con was bad enough... but even worse would be if I had to leave while Leah was in precarious condition.

Vet appointment is in two and a half hours. If she's in really bad shape, she may just come with us to Baltimore.

So basically what's wrong right now?

See the second point on this list? Imagine that going on in every area of your life. Work, home, hobbies, vacations. Except I am grateful for akatonbo cleaning up most of the bathroom and the kitchen.

And the way I dealt with it in that post is the only way I can ever deal with being pressured to do too many things than are possible without feeling like a failure: Do them all anyway and laugh in everyone's astonished faces.

So I'm not sleeping today until I've remixed the audio. First I need to call and cancel some car insurance, and possibly make a vet appointment for tomorrow or Friday, because I'm quite worried about Leah right now. And if anything happens to her? There's no way I can leave on this vacation. Unless possibly I can take her with me to take care of her myself.

Maybe I'll finish Ema at the ball game by hand, since otherwise I'd just be sitting on my butt for a couple hours not doing anything anyway.

I wish we'd said months ago we weren't going to Otakon. If we'd never tried
to go to Otakon, we wouldn't have bought the new car and been saddled with
payments for years, and I wouldn't have spent money on contacts that
irritate me and waste my time, and I could QUIT MY JOB. Or at least call in
and not care if they wrote me up and forced me into time off without pay or
fired me for missing two days of work within six months without a signed
excuse note like a freaking kindergartener.

Instead, now we have car payments and I do have to work every single day
they schedule me to make the money we need and I DON'T WANT TO GO TO OTAKON.
Because here I am, having worked my butt off in hopes of making akatonbo enjoy it this year more than she did last year, and turns
out she doesn't really want to go on the part of the trip I wanted to go on,
and I don't want to go on the part of the trip she wants to go on but I was
trying to be enthusiastic and supportive, and right now I don't care to go
on ANY of this trip, so the only part of it that either of us will enjoy is
that she'll get to see a ball game.

Funny how my fingers won't type profanity. I trained myself as a kid never
to use certain words because my parents would be furious, so even if I think
them, my mouth skips over them and doesn't say them - and having learned to
type in chatrooms, it's like my brain just outputs to my fingers instead of
my mouth with the same censorship filters engaged. (Ahaha, and I just
remembered the RPGamer boards - "Yo****aka Amano", the censored artist!)
Heh, this is probably why I just couldn't talk at all for awhile back there
- my mouth wouldn't say any of the words my brain was thinking.

I am THIS CLOSE to saying we're not going to Otakon at all, and I'm going to
stay home next week and just sleep. As it is, we're not going to have the
fan for the skit, because I don't care anymore - I quit. I'll finish mixing
the audio for the skit (tonight if the work computer handles Goldwave okay -
it's on my USB drive), I'll finish our costumes for it, I'll bring the big
feathers and stick them on the fan at the con if someone else wants to make
the body of the thing, because I spent like $15 on them and don't have any
other use for them, but I am sick and tired of driving myself to a nervous
breakdown. I'm not doing anything more for this stupid con except whatever I
feel like doing.

Which probably means Ema won't get done, but I'm sure there will be other
Emas there, probably a dozen Naruhobos, certainly at least one Apollo, and
maybe even a Daryan or a Kristoph that Klavier can have fun with. Maybe he
can fanboy Edgeworth (or a Franziska if there's one available). I would say
Klavier might not get done either, but the only things left to do on him are
one ring and sewing the parts of the jacket together, and if I don't have to
think about any other costumes except the two that are even more done than
his? That's easy.

Sydney and Hardin are not getting remade. If Otakon has a problem with the
metal on the costumes, they can freaking bite me. We might need some spray
color for Hardin's hair, but that's effortless.

It also might mean we're not going to that ball game, because I really don't
feel like wasting several hours and driving way out of our way for something
I have absolutely zero interest in when I'm going to have to be doing all
the driving after leaving really early in the morning without having enough
time to actually adjust my sleeping schedule so that I'm actually awake
during the day. And then I get to sit and be bored for a few hours... and
will that put me in a better state for driving? I don't think so.

I sort of hope some of my least favorite regulars come up tonight so when
they give me the same stupid lines, I can be blunt enough to tell them that
I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE SO LARGE YOU REQUIRE TROJAN MAGNUMS, OR
WHAT YOUR PUSSY SMELLS LIKE, AND YOU ARE NOT GETTING MY
PHONE NUMBER EVEN IF YOU LIKE MY HAIR and I'm not required by law to get
them their reeking cancer sticks if they annoy me. I almost hope we have
another robbery attempt, maybe actually armed this time, so that either I
can wind up in the hospital with an excused absence after being
shot, or possibly I would have a valid excuse to BEAT THE CRAP out of
someone to keep someone else from being shot. That would be awesome. I love
being the tiny little girl who unexpectedly kicks everyone's butt.

(Which is why I like being Hokuto despite the pink, you know. And you know
why I really kind of hate Subaru? HE'S JUST LIKE ME, he busts his butt
trying to fix everyone else's problems and make everyone else's life
wonderful and blames himself if their lives aren't wonderful despite his
efforts and never does a thing just for himself and it's STUPID. At least
I already am aware I do it, and that it's stupid.)

Honestly the only thing that's kept me on my feet the last couple weeks has
been caffeine. And that's not a good idea right now because when I'm not
sitting here typing I'm pacing around and shaking already, but I kinda have
to stay awake. Though I don't know why, there's hardly any customers and the
server is down so I can't do the paperwork, and I've already done everything
else that needed doing here.

Thus I have a Daryan icon now, because... Just look at the dude. That's what I look like pretty much every time I go outside my usual haunts online. (Except for the hair, of course.)

And darnit, I'm pretty sure SHARK WEEK is the best fan-related idea I have ever had. I am so happy other people are offering suggestions, and I hope it pans out. :D And this still makes me laugh every time I so much as think about it.

Cosplay notes: Hokuto's tie/ascot/whateverthecrapitis is now done, I've remade Klavier's pendant and one of his rings... out of craft foam and posterboard. Just needs spray paint now, which I will do in one moment. ...Yeah, the ring is made of craft foam and posterboard. At least I know this, unlike Sculpey, will take the really good metallic spray paint. And last night at work, I sewed the tassels on Nokoru's coat, so that thing is DONE. As are Ema's glasses, which I painted white and just put a clear coat on.

This means all that's left to do for our masquerade stuff is Hokuto's garters, cutting her wig, making Nokoru's shirt, the fan, and mixing the sound. Not going to be done in that order, of course.

Can't decide if I should go to bed now, and get up and do the rest of (hopefully) the sound mixing tonight before work, or do some of it now and risk having to sleep right up until the point where I have to get up for work. Again. Given how annoying it's been to basically sleep in multiple stages for a couple hours at a time for days on end, I'm leaning towards the former option even though I'm not really that tired yet.

Dear Pastor,

I'm someone you know. I've been going to the church you now pastor since before you joined us, nearly my whole life. I respect you a great deal, and your sermons and observations make me think, which I like. Your current series about what the Wesleyan denomination believes has been particularly interesting and thought-provoking, and we agree on the vast majority of points - your point about baptism last week in particular, and the belief in free will not precluding God's foreknowledge as you noted this morning, were dead on with what I think of those topics, and I'm very glad you made the point that although one needs to be a Christian in order to be a Wesleyan, one does not need to be a Wesleyan to be a Christian.

However, your sermon today also spotlighted ( why I don't think I can ever become a member of this church, though I consider it my home and my family. )

Contacts: I'm pretty sure that either my left eye's prescription is wrong, or there's just plain something funny with my left eye that keeps it from accepting the contact as well as the right eye. I wore the contacts to work again, and eight hours after putting them in, I could see as well as I've ever been able to see with them, which is not quite as good as I can see with my glasses, but nearly. However, this only applied with my right eye and when I had both eyes open. Closing my left eye, I could see approximately as well as I could see with both eyes open. Closing my right eye, it was like I wasn't wearing anything. Both lenses were at the point where they were comfortable in my eyes, no itching or burning, though I could feel them when I blink (and I'm getting used to that) or close my eyes and move them around, so it's not that my left eye was more irritated than my right eye.

In fact, since I was in a rush tonight, I decided to put the left lens in first since I have the most trouble with it, and if I got the left one in then I'd put the right one in too. And if I didn't get the left one in in time, I'd just wear my glasses. The left one went in in under a minute, which made me very happy. The right one? The one that's usually easy to put in? Took at least five. :P I finally exclaimed my annoyance with this odd turn of events to akatonbo in the next room... and then got the lens in on the next try. Complained it right into place. ;)

At any rate, when I had my eye exam for these lenses, I had a migraine. It wouldn't surprise me if my vision in one eye was off during that exam, since migraines are kind of like little mini-strokes in my case, and I frequently lose coordination on one side of my body. I'll ask about that at the followup visit.

Fanfic: ...So I can't talk about this without completely outing myself, but it's not like it was ever really hard to figure out for anyone who reads this journal, and there probably aren't many people on the friends list who would be reading random stuff on the kink meme anyway.

I wrote (or am in the process of writing) the monsterfic. Giant headcanon dump. Spawned from a prompt that basically said "I dare someone to write this!" and I went "That's exactly how I envisioned it, actually!" and wrote a four-comment short fic that I wasn't entirely sure fit the prompt. And people wanted more even if it didn't quite fit the prompt. So I figured what the heck, I'll go on with this for awhile. And posted with a subject line like "(5/???)", thinking I was being extravagant with the three question marks, and it would probably wind up being like 40 comments. It's at part 92 now, and it's still not done. Yeah, it's going to be "???". Or it would have been.

See, the... well, I guess you could say kink meme mod? Went missing for awhile, and didn't realize that the post for part 8, which the prompt and fic are on, was filling up. Part 9's post wasn't made until there were about 250 comments left to be made on part 8, and with people filling prompts and giving feedback even after part 9 was started for new requests? It didn't take long to make those last 250 comments. (Note: Not blaming the guy. RL was busy, this is just fandom. Particularly absurd and frivolous fandom, at that.)

So now here I am at "(92/???)", but I can't post anything more on it. At least not in the same place. My options at this point are:

( ...under the cut, because this is really insignificant and no one cares. )

Unexpected side effects of cosplay: I'm sure that if I still had an active museworld, Klavier and Hokuto would be the best of friends, and they would be filling the entire little wooden shack with all kinds of sparkly, glittery CRACK. How do I know this? I used to walk through the jewelry department at stores and not even notice what was there. Now not only do I notice, but I kind of want to buy. Not for me, but for them. I mean, the other day I was all "Oooh, big pink crystal heart pendant with flowers embedded in it! ...Next to huge glittery silver chain!"

The worst part is, they're both entirely underhanded. We were actually looking for sunglasses for akatonbo, but looking over the displays, I keep hearing in the back of my head, "These pink sunglasses with the little rhinestones? They're so cute! Can I try them on? ^_^" and "These dark heavy shades! They are the heart and soul of rock'n'roll distilled into chunky plastic frames, ja?" And meanwhile I'm going "no no no you already have sunglasses and you don't need sunglasses and I am not buying sunglasses for either of you because the outfit of yours that I'm wearing does not include sunglasses - Hokuto, you can wear Klavier's if it's bright out!"

But then the little voices pop up and say "Hmm, okay. He has good taste! ...Say, Klavier? What do you think about these heavy dark shades with rhinestones up the sides?" "Oh yeah - achtung, baby, that's glam! What do you say we share these, ja? One pair of sunglasses for both of us instead of two! :D" "Yeah, only one pair! ^_^"

So basically they're kind of like the shoulder angel/demon except that they both moved to the same shoulder and discovered that they got along way too well, particularly when it comes to accessorizing. But no, I did not buy the giant rhinestone-studded sunglasses.

(Note: tl;dr should be engraved on my headstone when I die. I am entirely serious about this. It's probably my legacy.)

Yesterday, akatonbo was going to review a bit of Clamp School Detectives for the purposes of getting in a Nokoru sort of frame of mind for voice recording, and was like "Since I'm doing this anyway, I'm going to show you how slashy elementary school kids can be!" and put on the two-part episode in which Suoh meets Nokoru. ...Well, yeah. But amidst the "WTF, they're too young to be that slashy", there was this little exchange.

Suoh: (paraphrased) I met this boy at school, he's really amazing but I don't think I could get along with him. :(
Suoh's mom: (very paraphrased) Oh, you should try to ask him out get along with him! You should get along with people, because he's your, er, I mean, someday you'll meet your special someone!
Me: And this is where she breaks out into 'If You Were Gay', right?
Suoh's mom: *chuckles, hits a switch or something*
Suoh: *suddenly is having to dodge knives and arrows flying from every direction*
Me: ........ Uh, I guess it's not okay.

Aaaaanyway. I am clearly in a "produce" state of mind rather than a "react" state of mind right now. Not uncommon in the weeks leading up to a con. Going nuts with the costumes (I was dreading making the frogs for Nokoru's coat, but now that they're done? I wish I had more to make, because those little Chinese button knots are so fun to make), and when I'm can't do costuming, ficcing like a madman. Which means I haven't been responding to comments and stuff. Sorry about that. I'm just in a "gogogogogetitdoneNOWdon'twastetime" kind of thing. I'll get better eventually! ...Possibly I need a meme or something to get me back to responding.

And now I go out to get akatonbo to an eye exam, pick up a foot more cord for the frogs (I have seriously put four yards of cord into this, and have one little button left to make - I hope a foot will be enough), and hopefully snag FFIV DS. I am hearing good things from my friends list. It'll be the fourth time I've gotten this game, but every time previous? Absolutely worth it. I LOVE THIS GAME.

Edit: Have FFIV DS. Was being disgustingly fannish in car and telling akatonbo that I was taking the PSP to play while I waited for her to get out of her appointment because 1-Katamari is easier to just put down after a couple minutes, upon completion of a level, 2-I might actually cry in public if they enhanced the Red Wings theme. The intro to FFIV is probably my most iconic video game memory, since it was rented shortly after the first time we rented a SNES (we couldn't afford to buy either), and had been used to Atari 2600 and NES. Already Super Mario World showed us that the SNES had more capabilities, but it wasn't until we started a new game, and the screen went black, and the ominous march began, and I went HOLY CRAP THERE IS AN ORCHESTRA IN THIS GAME that I really realized how much of an improvement the SNES was. And then, the bit with Cecil and Rosa, where Theme of Love starts playing - and we had RPGs with CHARACTERS with NAMES OMG. And then Cecil and Kain start for the gate to Castle Baron, and I realize THIS IS THE SAME MUSIC AS IN THE FIRST GAME EXCEPT ORCHESTRAL INSTEAD OF BEEPING AAAAUUUUUGHHHH.

Yeah, lots of caps lock sums up my reaction to FFIV. Even more than FFVII. ...Except the final battle, which scared the CRAP out of me, because what the heck is a Latin choir doing in a video game? o_o

Also akatonbo has contacts (will make cosplay so much easier), and Nokoru/Ema/Hokuto will have hair TOMORROW, provided that I stay up late to make sure the door is open for the UPS people. :D You all have no idea how excited I will be to be able to finally take pictures of Hokuto in all her hot pink glory. Everything's done now but adding the top bits to the gloves, making garters, and the tie/cravat/whatever (because we just can't find sparkly sheer fabric to match Sei's in the right color of pink, so I suppose we'll just use silky). And all Nokoru has left is attaching the frogs to his coat, and the shirt, which should be about two hours work tops. We even bought him some calla lilies to carry around. :D

Like five seconds to get the right lens in today. AWESOME. Never mind the bit where it took six minutes to get the left one in still. :P And no twenty minutes of initial blurriness before things stopped being disorienting, for some reason.

Occurred to me at some point, after a few hours when my eyes started getting dry and blurry, that possibly the reason my eyes were so dry is because I'm chronically dehydrated. Can't drink water, so I had some juice, despite not being thirsty. My eyes were okay for a couple more hours. :D

While akatonbo was getting ready to go to the dentist, I was waiting out in the living room with my head on a kitty pillow when she said something which I was pretty sure I hadn't heard correctly. "...You 'lathered in fish'?" Turns out she said she "gathered information", but then we went on for awhile about that being Bath and Body Works' new scent for the season. "Ocean Scales: This fresh fishy scent, touched with a salty breeze, brings to mind a seaside fish market..." No one would like it, though, we decided. Then we changed our mind - cats would love it.

Wore the contacts for eight hours, determined that the air conditioning in Meijer is NOT good for my eyes. Instant drying. Failed to get FFIV DS, because Target had sold out by 1pm, and Gamestop was having UPS issues and wasn't going to get their "morning" delivery until around 3. (Note: my computer clock right now says 3:00 PM. I was tired of running around and didn't want to be out for another hour.) Acquired Hokuto's lines (yaaaaay, so cute and spaztastic! :D) so I can start some mixing tonight, and finished one of Hokuto's boots, except I'm going to tint the bit on the heel a little darker with some watered-down fabric paint. The boot's modeled on top of my old work shoes, which are really comfortable and I didn't want to stop wearing them, but they got holes in the toes after a few years of my being on my feet for eight hours a day, and I stopped being able to wear them on rainy days or on a wet floor. Since I have to mop every night... yeah. So I'm glad they can be reborn as something else useful.

(For the record, everyone at cosplay.com seemed to think that coloring rubber soles is really hard, and you have to use a particular kind of leather dye... I said "aw, what the heck!" and went at mine with a couple layers of gesso, then a layer of standard acrylic craft paint, then a layer of mod podge. Looks great, so far passes the fingernail scratch test, not sure how well it'll hold up to actual wear on anything tougher than carpet, but nothing else that was suggested except the leather dye was said to hold up well to wear, so I figure this is good as I'm going to get.)

Also began work on the fan, acquired the tassels for Nokoru's coat and shirt (will dye them pink tonight, I suppose) and the buttons for her his trenchcoat, plus lining for Klavier's jacket. I don't know if I'll get to finish him for Otakon, but darnit - I want to have stuff ready if I have enough time.

After picking akatonbo up from the appointment and doing a bit of grocery shopping, then closing my poor dried-out eyes to let them get a little wet again in hopes of them being less sticky when I tried to take them out (this did not work :P), it took only a couple seconds to get each one out. I'm strangely proud of this. Now if I could just get to the point where putting the left one in isn't a pain in the butt...

Should sleep now. Should have slept a few hours ago, really.

...I wonder if I'm doing today's anon_press update. I'm kind of bugged by the fact that we don't seem to have an update for Sunday or Monday in part since I posted some fic on one of those days and haven't gotten the usual amount of comments on it, and I suspect it's because there was no post to tell people it was updated - or else part 8 did run out of comments, so if I have to do today's too? I'll do it, just so we're not missing three days in a row. :/ Honestly, I'm such a perfectionist that I should probably just start archiving stuff every day the way I do for my usual day, so that it'll be there if it's made clear someone forgot.

...Also just recalled I wanted to make a particular icon. (As if I didn't have enough Phoenix Wright/Apollo Justice icons by now. But I don't have a Daryan one, darnit.) Uhm... later, or something. And maybe someday I'll have time to work on the epic AMV again - I was making so much progress, then switched to full-time cosplay mode thanks to Otakon switcharoo.

Also, LOL at spam today. The fake news headline types have been oddly fixated on a single subject ("Horse crushes rider's skull in accident", "Horse wins owner $17m", and "Horse swallowed by snake"), and then I got this one whose text just made me crack up for some reason: "Bringg your wife We'll ffuck her! That's right we'll fucck your wife! :)" ...It's the smiley that really makes it. XD

3 minutes to get right lens in, 9 minutes to get left lens in. ...This is still pathetic, but at least it's not as pathetic.

One hour after getting them in, drive akatonbo to work, despite lingering blurriness. Not as bad as the first twenty minutes, granted...

Two hours after getting them in, vision is awesome! Except for the inability to adjust to dim lighting.

Three hours after getting them in, my vision is blurring in and out some. This gets progressively worse as I pattern, cut, pin, and do the preliminary sewing for Hokuto's shoes, and manage to finish the main body of the left shoe (which is not done, but looking awesome - making shoes is such a huge pain in the butt, but it's sort of interesting). But at least my eyes don't hurt, and I would have forgotten the contacts were in entirely if not for the blurriness.

Just under six hours after getting them in, I get the right lens out in ten seconds, and the left one out in about thirty seconds. The left shouldn't have taken so long, except that as I discovered when I was trying to get them in the little lens holder to disinfect them, my vision was probably blurry because my eyes were really dry, and the contacts were sort of sticking to them.

Still not convinced this is worth the hassle. Maybe if there was a reason for me to be wearing them other than "getting used to putting them in and having them in and taking them out", it would seem less pointlessly uncomfortable and time-wasting. And there will be a reason in a few weeks. Which means I have to keep doing it. :P

Just closed up the station, and... very odd. Awhile back I noticed that a
particular company kept parking their tow trucks in the corner of our lot
around midnight - now and then they'd come in before we closed up and say
hi. Sometimes it's the nice younger guy who towed the Sable back when we had
that tire blow out this last winter, who we chatted with for awhile on the
drive, and seemed kind of impressed that I worked third shift alone. I
started wondering if maybe he had decided to hang out at our lot and keep an
eye out for creeps while I closed down and stuff...

Well, today while closing up, there were two trucks from the same
company out there in the lot.

And about two minutes after I locked up, a police officer came to the
window, and all he wanted was to change a few dimes and nickels for a couple
quarters.

I don't know if it's coincidence, or if people are watching out for me. If
so, I'd be more amused than anything (I'm behind a wall of glass with a
giant deadbolt on the door right now, after all, and the window is about two
feet from the door to a room that has a phone and no exterior windows), but
it's kind of cute.

My pastor made me laugh really hard today. He was talking about baptism (which is one of the things I do agree wholeheartedly with him about - it's not all that important in itself, merely an outward expression of an inner decision, and without that decision it's essentially meaningless), and the fact that the Wesleyan denomination accepts three methods of baptism - sprinkling, pouring, and full immersion. So he was saying that Wesleyans sort of get the best of all worlds in that regard. "I can dunk you like a donut, I can sprinkle you so lightly your hair won't even get messed up, I can pour till you're drenched - I tell you, I could even grab a Super Soaker and spray you down in the name of the Father, the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Spirit." ...I can see him doing that. :D

Contacts only took ten minutes apiece to go in this morning, yay! Although I think I somehow flubbed the left eye, because it really didn't want to settle where it was supposed to, stung my lower lid every time I blinked for a good ten minutes, and was blurry for two hours afterwards. But two hours after putting the lenses in? My vision was pretty good! And I was used to it enough that I wasn't straining my eyes constantly because I wasn't seeing as well. They've been in for three hours now, and I have to take them out to sleep. ...Not looking forward to it, I suspect it may be another ordeal, since getting them in was relatively simple today. (Edit: Or not - three minutes total for both of them! A new record! YOUR CONTACT REMOVAL IS SO GREAT, IT'S LIKE SUNSHINE ON A CLOUDY DAY.)

Had a sudden epiphany earlier about Otakon, given its proximity to something else potentially interesting. If Ema and Klavier are finished? Herr Glimmerous Fop is totally going to take Fraülein Crankypants on a really awesome date. XD (Of course, then she's entitled to drag him to what she feels to be a more interesting destination next ACen...)

And finally, speaking of ACen? If I had seen this beforehand? Particularly the bit at about 2:20? I would have made this happen, you guys. Somehow. Even if I was the wimp. :D (Holy crap, Kain really CAN shake his booty, too!)

And speaking of cons and skit in general... still waiting on "my" lines for the Otakon skit. I have Monday and Tuesday nights off this week, and will be happy to spend one of those nights mixing if I can get them. ;)