Carried Away By A Moonlight Shadow

I feel off the map for a little while. My bad. And just now I almost got 100% distracted from this again because of the seductive wiles of the internet. FML.

I have taken up a new writing exercise in which I pick a time, any time I choose and never the same time two days running, and do whatever I have to do in order to be writing at that time for the next fifteen minutes, minimum. Doesn't matter if I have to blow people off or what - I'm there, writing, for fifteen minutes. Not staring at the screen or pretending to work but actually writing something. It's been working wonderfully, and now that I'm getting back into the habit of writing coherently every day it's starting to not be so much damned work.

Speaking of work I have come into possession of a kettlebell, which is apparently what the Russians use to abuse themselves into shape. It is also working quite well in a way that has both my hamstrings and obliques begging for mercy, which makes me happy. I also think it is rather cute, for which Katie has decreed I am eff'd in the head for thinking an 18-pound cannonball with a handle can be cute. Hi pot, how's the weather over there (ilu, Kate)?

Also my Zune is back (oh god rapture), and by my Zune I mean they sent me a new one, and so life is much, much more bearable, especially at work.

...if anything else exciting has happened while I have been AWOL I have already forgotten about it, which should come as no surprise.

Oh wait. I now have three gigs of DJ Mystik. My high school self has expired of joy.

We May Be Some Kind Of Crazy

I have to say, getting a tattoo wasn't really what I expected - though I'm not sure what exactly I did expect. I got raised eyebrows from both artists I talked to at the shop when I told them I wanted to get my feet tattooed (and have since gotten varying degrees of incredulity from nearly everyone I've told since), but they basically said 'well, that's going to hurt' and left it at that. And it did hurt, I suppose - more like stung. I spent the majority of the time chatting with Teri, who was doing the inking, and drinking grape Crush except for when she got out towards my big toe, at which point I put the bottle down and opened my mouth to say 'that hurts the worst of everything you've done' and then she moved to my arch and that was...breathtaking. I did manage to hold completely still for the whole thing except for involuntary twitches of my calf when she hit particularly sensitive spots. I'm still sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop, though, since the tattoos never bled and have yet to scab over, itch, or peel (though I did hit my right foot against the bedpost on Saturday and I think I literally made the D: face because it felt like sandpaper on a sunburn). My only real complaint is that this has made my favorite sitting position (legs tucked under) completely impossible for the time being.

In other news, Jeb graced us with her presence on Saturday and Sunday, during which time she and Ben did their level best to make me spontaneously combust, thus ending my torment and hopefully taking both of them out in the process. We took her to Flying Saucer, which she enjoyed up until she ate so much she KO'd herself, and made her watch Zombieland once D&D was over. She and Ben also spent a fair amount of time laughing at how excruciatingly painful I find listening to one of my professors lecture is - I had to sit through two lectures this weekend because I had an assignment due and some of the information could only be found in the goddamn lectures. I really just want this woman to learn the meaning of brevity, because you seriously do not need ten or fifteen minutes to explain a concept that could be covered in three concise sentences.

I have been playing FFXIII so much that I haven't even really thought much about writing, which has actually been a nice break since I am seldom not thinking about writing in some way. Once I got into the swing of the battle system I found that I actually really like it, even though it's very different from the norm and takes a bit of getting used to. Lightning is amazingly socially maladjusted - so far the only main character she hasn't punched is Hope, but that's because he's like twelve and broken and I'm waiting for that shoe to drop too. There's a lot of kinda shady stuff going on that has me waiting for everything to go straight to hell in the blink of an eye, and the characters are all different enough that you spend quite a while watching them interact and slowly realize that they can, in fact, work together and function as a group, which seems kind of novel. Normally if main characters don't get along they're still willing to stay in your party, but these guys tend to just walk the fuck away, leaving you with two mini-parties as everybody gets over themselves. The leveling system is also very interesting and I must admit I rather like it - kind of the bastard child of the class system from Tactics and a much-improved sphere grid from FFX.

And speaking of brevity, I believe it's time I shut up and went to lunch.

Cleanliness Is Godliness

So Ben's parents are coming over at some point this weekend to drop off an armoire, and I have thus spent an inordinate amount of time cleaning the past few days - up to and including getting on hands and knees to scrub shit. I've also spent some time working on schoolwork, but that's neither here nor there, really.

Earlier this week I made beef stock with a bunch of bones we got from the DeKalb Farmer's Market (which was awesome, because the guy literally grabbed some cow femurs and took a bandsaw to them for me). After it cooks a few days you strain it into bowls and refrigerate it so that the fat all comes to the top and solidifies, and then you skim it off and do whatever you want with the stock. I was reminded forcibly of Fight Club as I did this yesterday - something about rendering fat, skimming it off the top, and glycerin (didn't help that the stock, when cold, has the consistency of jello). Regardless, I now have a lot of really good stock and a lot of free space in the fridge thanks to the cleaning required to fit two huge bowls in it, so I feel it was worth the grossness of dealing with the stuff.

In less gross news, writing night last night was actually very productive. Michelle and I managed to sit down and hash out a rough, working timeline for the entirety of my story, which is a feat I had until then despaired of accomplishing. Looks like the whole arc of the main plot will encompass about eight years, which is about what I expected (although Michelle kept saying 'everything happens so much faster than I thought').

Also, considering tattoos and where to put them. SRS BSNS.

I Want Your Love And I Want Your Revenge

Time to try this in a different format. I think I have too many bad associations with LJ (not to mention its interface is obnoxious) to really use mine well, so I'm going to make an attempt over here. My day-to-day activities are not incredibly epic as a rule, so expect a lot of discussion about grad school (and why this semester is obnoxious), video games, music, and writing, which eats up the bulk of my brainpower.

Ben has been in some kind of fanboy fugue state for the past few days thanks to FFXIII, which is ridiculously pretty and fun and full of really dysfunctional and increasingly traumatized (poor Hope) characters. I haven't played it much because I keep finding things I need to do (like be a housewife, apparently, and write) instead of playing it, but one day soon here I'm going to haul on that bitch. The battle system is quite engaging and the character development is FFX-inspired but a bit more well put together from the brief time I've spent with it.

My job at the med library is actually not at the med library - I'm working for a small special collection of disability-related resources within it. Family members and professionals from around the country can go through our catalog online, then email or call us and we will send them any books they request as well as articles or general information. Family members get free postage, professionals pay return. So work for me is talking to patrons, taking requests, checking in any books that have been sent back, packing up books to mail them, managing patrons in our catalog software, and keeping the library blog updated. At some point I'll also be updating the HTML in the webpages, but until then I usually finish these tasks within two hours and hang out (and occasionally do schoolwork).

In other news, my Zune died an early death while Ben and I were in Georgia this weekend, well within warranty. So Microsoft magicked me up a shipping label and I sent it back to its God for repair work on its doomed, clicking hard drive. Hopefully they won't try to tell me I abused it; it spent its lifespan in a pretty heavy duty case and was definitely rather sheltered. Also hopefully they will fix it, since they no longer make Zunes with hard drives that large.

Currently reading Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, which is quite excellent if you're into political intrigue-based fantasy centered on a kind of personal vendetta as opposed to EPIC WAR TO SAVE THE WORLD ZOMFG. Music lately has been all over the map: currently listening to Hans Zimmer soundtracks, but there's been a lot of Lady GaGa and 90's alt rock lately as well.

Over and out, for now. Jeb sent me a writing meme I might do for epic TL;DR.