turps | Reading

Yesterday my next-door neighbor stopped me before I drove off to tell me that she'd been robbed. She's had this big yellow moving truck in her backyard for ages. Yesterday, someone waited for her to leave the house and then they towed it. So that's not a spur of the moment crime, they had to drag it out of there.

Not only that, but she told me the truck was full of about $5000 worth of craft supplies. (I've been in her house, they're hoarders.) So she lost a truck that in theory could've provided income for her children (she and her husband are older and disabled), plus a lot of general stuff.

And now I'm worried about people staking out my house.

turlough posting in

mychemicalromance_daily

Even more pics from their show at Trent MF Arena in Nottingham, UK, on 19 February 2011.

Teaser:
MCR

( This way... )

Current Mood: lazy

dine

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dine

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topaz119

This not-working-from-home thing is kinda lame. I am reserving judgement until I see what kind of stock grant they’re talking about, but I’m (privately) putting them on notice because I am not sure I want to keep going into an office 5 days/week and having to sort the rest of life out on the fringes. I know that’s how most people work, but I’m not sure I want to go back to that, at least not w/o any significant financial incentive. (Or, I’m just having my regularly scheduled omg-school-started-I-hate-life freakout--it's hard to say.)
/whine

So, there’s some travel stuff coming up, maybe I can see some of you…?

Sun/Mon, Aug 20-21 – Eclipse Day – I’m taking the easy way out and just going up north a bit, around Lake Hartwell. (Fingers crossed for weather.)

Thurs-Mon, Aug 31-Sept4 – DragonCon – We’re in the same hotel as recent years and you all know how much I &heart; the bartenders at Pulse in the Marriott, so yell at me if you’re going to be around. No cosplay this year, unless I throw together some random steampunk persona.

Fri-Sun, Sept8-10 – NYC!! – I have to burn some Ritz-Carlton free nights and this is literally the only weekend between now & Nov that D’s & my schedules align. I haven’t booked flights yet, but we’ll be staying down in the Financial District (b/c, see above, re: free.) I have no idea what my dear, darling husband wants to do, but I generally have to keep him busy, so I’m thinking a walking tour on Saturday morning, ending in Brooklyn & then maybe a show on Sat night & I don’t know what on Sunday morning, but maybe the Met…?

There's possibly a little bit more to come, but I have to see how kids' schedules shake out.

....aaaaaand I'm late for Wednesday books, but that’s not much of a surprise by this point, right?

finished
Dark Days Club, Alison Goodman – So very much a Regency Buffy, which is not a bad thing, just amusing. Good world-building, both the Regency and the demon stuff—I really felt like she loved both sources and worked hard to integrate them. I’ll have to see if the library has the next one.

A Queen From The North, Erin McRae, Racheline Maltese – You all know how much I love me a modern-day, marry-the-prince romance (well, when I’m not ranting about how poorly it was executed), and this one has the added catnip of an alternate history timeline that is actually rooted in the War of Roses and all of that fallout, so when I saw/heard this on one of the romance blogs (I’m thinking it was redheadedgirl on Smart Bitches, b/c our tastes tend to align) I snagged it up and inhaled it in a day. (I ask you: what’s not to love about a marriage-of-convenience-turned-real plot? Well, again: the execution of it all.) Verdict: goooooood. And more to come. The romance itself was a little low-key, but the supporting characters were good (and wonderfully not a solid wall of white-cis-het) and while yes, most of the obstacles could have been avoided by actual communication between the principals, it felt like everybody’s reasons for avoidance were real (stupid, but real, which is so true) so that worked for me—I am looking forward to the next in the series.

Warrior’s Apprentice, Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by someone who was fine, but not worth going to find the listing as I write this – The House of Boys loooooves the Vorkosigans, and since I have worked my way through their other love (Dresden), I figured I’d go for these, too. I was entertained, though the cover image is horrible and I could have gone for someone reading this who was closer in age to the teenaged Miles. Minor quibbles, though. I need to line up the next one because #2Son is leading off our conversations as I leave the office with things like, “seriously, don’t be looking at your twitter feed at stoplights. You need to keep yourself distracted until you’re home,” which is probably not untrue. I’m really only reading to get to A Civil Campaign and the most recent novel about Cordelia, but I’ll go through the intervening steps.

now
The Darwath Trilogy, Barbara Hambly – I got sidetracked on this one b/c Dark Days was horribly overdue and then Queen came zooming in out of nowhere and totally sideswiped my attention, but I made myself pick it back up last night to keep from cycling through twitter endlessly.

next
I need to maybe grab the next Peter Grant or Vorkosigan on audio, and then go through what BabyBoy brought back from the Shared Worlds book giveaway. I’m 6 books behind on my book challenge, but part of that is because I get into series and end up reading 4 books where only 1 counts toward the specific trope or setting or whatever for the challenge.

Ciao, kids!

aethel posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Bandom (Mindless Self Indulgence)
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Lindsey Way
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: traditional (markers)
Artist on DW/LJ: N/A
Artist Website/Gallery:

ghostparachutes

Why this piece is awesome: There's a lot of delicious colorful art by ghostparachutes to love, but I picked this one because I have found so little high-quality art of Lynz. There are two pictures in the post I linked, but I especially like the portrait of Lynz playing her bass--the red bandana and matching bloody knees (and hands!), the guitar, the hair, and the dark cloudy background.

Link: lynz

pensnest

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Crossposts: http://pensnest.livejournal.com/560374.html

spasticat

Well, it looks like in September I'll be moving back home. The YouCaring and GoFundMe donations were very generous and will help with the bills this month and part of next month. But I must concede defeat and tuck my tail in and retreat to my parent's.

I'm pretty upset about this as this has been my favorite apartment of all time. I'll be going from a bedroom, living room, dining room, and kitchen in a great neighborhood to a small bedroom out in the boonies. One of my demands is that the room at home be cleared out so I can bring several bookcases in to house books, crafts, and tchotchkes. The treadmill has to go as well as various tables, plants, and cubes. So this month and next I will be working on that as well as packing up my apartment.

I'll need financial help to move back home because I need to use movers for all of my stuff. I'm hoping some relatives can help with that. Fingers crossed!

It's going to be hard on the cats as they've never lived with dogs before and my mom's cat hates other cats. But I'll be bringing their cat condo so they have a place to go to. They'll have a great view of the trees outside.

This weekend I'll be measuring the bedroom to make sure my two bookcases will fit. If possible, my desk, too. Otherwise I'll use the vintage bridge table that's already there but get rid of the cubes on top of it.

The closet is going to be a challenge as not all of my clothes will fit in it. So that will need to be cleaned and sorted and some of my clothes will have to go in the basement.

Tomorrow and Friday I have a two day freelance gig that will be a total of 8 hours of work. Then I have to correct the files for another freelance gig I took on earlier this week.

Today I applied to a bunch of jobs, some are dream jobs I hope to get interviews for. Others I think I might be over-qualified for. There's nothing in between and absolutely nothing in production design. That job is now in India and other countries and I'm quite bitter about that and have no respect for all the publishers who have outsourced talent to other countries. They should be ashamed and I hope karma kicks them in the dupa.

I'm currently reading up on Google Adwords and Analytics. Pray that I don't fall asleep! I really need to learn this stuff. And you should see the SEO book I have, it's ginormous!

To cheer myself up I've gotten back to making resin magnets. I use various decorative papers, cut out circles from them, glue them to the bottom of a bottle cap, then do two pours of resin on them, waiting until the first layer dries before applying the second. The first one is done with a bit of teeny tiny glitter on top. My current batch is on the second layer of resin and it will take a day to cure. I'll post pictures when this batch is done.

Once I'm good at doing the magnets I'm going to make a ton of them and sell them in sets on Etsy. I'll have to invest in some thick decorative papers as the circle paper cutter doesn't like origami paper's thickness. I've found the thick paper for scrap-booking works the best. Just need to wait until there's a sale at Michael's.

Crossposts: http://spasticat.livejournal.com/744707.html

dine

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turlough posting in

mychemicalromance_daily

More pics from their show at Trent MF Arena in Nottingham, UK, on 19 February 2011.

Teaser:
MCR

( This way... )

Current Mood: mellow

aethel posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Bandom (MCR)
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Frank Iero/Gerard Way
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital drawing
Artist on DW/LJ: N/A
Artist Website/Gallery: tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: It's a cute shippy comic with pining! Specifically I love how expressive vampire!Gerard's face is, plus his tiny vampire fangs. I also like how no one's arms bend correctly, but their wavy appendages just add to the energy of the piece.

Link: tumblr

turlough posting in

mychemicalromance_daily

The first pics from their show at Trent MF Arena in Nottingham, UK, on 19 February 2011.

Teaser:
MCR

( This way... )

Current Mood: relaxed

goss posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Captain America, Mad Max
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Bucky Barnes
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: Digital drawing
Artist on DW/LJ:

vidathari
Artist Website/Gallery: Tumblr Art Blog
Why this piece is awesome: This is a brilliant mash-up, perfect for the character. Instead of the mask, the Winter Soldier is muzzled like Max in Fury Road, and he has Furiosa's prosthetic in place of his high tech arm. He's got this feral look, nicely emphasized by the smear of black grease framing his eye and that snarl. He looks like he's been through hell, and he's just gonna keep on going. Great piece.
Link: The Desert Soldier

dine

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fairestcat

I'm really excited about this. I stepped outside my comfort zone and volunteered to write a monthly Column about Marvel comics over at Women Write About Comics.

My first post went up today and you can read it here.

This is my first time in a long time writing for an audience that isn't people I already know and I'm both nervous and excited about it. Mostly excited, I think. Ask me again when I have to put together my August post.

juniperphoenix posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Steven Universe
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Peridot
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: traditional drawing
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: WalkingMelonsAAA's DeviantArt gallery

Why this piece is awesome: This is a striking monochromatic portrait of early, villainous Peridot. I love the shading and the creepy hands of the Cluster in the background.

Link: Peridot

$mific: (Rodney raccoon \o/)$

mific posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Guardians of the Galaxy (focusing on Rocket)
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Rocket
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital painting
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: Emerjy on DA
Why this piece is awesome: This is a simple portrait, and I really like the energy and use of bright expressionistic colors and texture. It captures Rocket's personality very well.
Link: Rocket Raccoon

pensnest

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aethel posting in

fanart_recs

I'm reccing Bandom art this month, but my main interest is My Chemical Romance so that's mostly what I'll be reccing.

Fandom: Bandom (MCR)
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Frank Iero & Gerard Way
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: traditional (ink drawing with pencil and marker?)
Artist on DW/LJ: N/A
Artist Website/Gallery:

knameiess /

jerseymisery

Why this piece is awesome: This is a delightful short fancomic depicting a scene from a fanfic ("I Have Been All Things Unholy" by Bexless). I especially like Gerard's expression of innocent friendliness and the limited color palette. The artist has illustrated several scenes from the fic with the same simple, but energetic style. (ESPECIALLY THIS ONE, sorry I couldn't choose)

Link: anyway, uh, i brought you a mattress or on tumblr

spasticat

Well, I had/have two short freelance gigs this week which cheers me up immensely. It's not a lot of money but it's more than I currently have! That's for sure! May this trend continue and lead to a full-time gig.