Borrrreed.

You scored as Winter. You are WINTER. You're more introspective, thinking deeply, feeling deeply. You love nothing better than to enjoy one on one time with those who are important to you. You are cautious, and sometimes second guess yourself. Dreams, though you have them, are a luxury, because life is not a plaything. Winter 90% Fall 80% Summer 70% Spring 45% What Season Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

and when I'm bored, I snaffle quizes. I got this one from the Onna... ^^
Interestingly, I got the same result she did..

Other'n that, not a hell of a lot going on.
The muttering and swearing about the idiots at the evaluation place is still going on, intermittantly - we /really/ couldn't afford their bullshit - and the job-hunt is still on. (He's getting /interviews/ - why the hell won't they /hire/ him? ... )
Actually, there's a part of me that's very glad some of them haven't hired him - most of the places that have expressed an interest have been hour+ drives... Meep! How do I know? I've been driving him out.
Why? Two reasons. The first - I like knowing the territory, since there's a fair chance if he winds up working there, we'll wind up moving nearby.
The second - he, like me, wears glasses to correct his vision. Unlike me (Who's chicken) he also wears contacts. With contacts, he can drive. If something happens and I have to drive him to work.. I prefer to have driven the route at /least/ once.
Yeh, I like to be prepared.....

Still not a hell of a lot going on. I really need to get out more...

Hmmmmm...

If I decided to rebuild the Hidden Alcove page - PW protected, of course - to put up some of my more risque artwork and/or fiction .. who'd be interested in being able to access it?

Outside my near-circle of people I often collaborate with, of course, access would be granted only by reference - I'm paranoid as hell. Maybe you'd noticed? ^.~

I ask this because I just discovered that Andi knows how to /do/ that sort of thing, and I'm batting the idea around, trying to see if it's worth actually implimenting...

Oofle.

*snagged and netted from a variety of places..* Take my Quiz! and then Check out the Scoreboard!

*grins* No, I will not make fun of you if you don't get 'em all right. ^^


Anyway. Been pretty quiet this week - very boring. Part of me is very glad of that - I'm not into excitement..
Not that I'm not busy. I have all kinds of things gamboling through my head, sorting themselves out, and I am sorting out - or attempting to sort out - a colour-scheme ... it's coming up nicely. ^^

Might even have more commissions - I've been dangling temptation under the noses of some of my fellow gamers, and I am hoping for a bite. (I'll take the complements, and gladly, of course - that's half the point anyway..) Takes time. I have patience. ^^

Oh. Saved up ranting nigh - you might like to dodge. *gets out the soap box*
... GAH! *beats idiots over the head with a decomposing salmon* Just because you asshats can't figure out the difference between an evaluation and a translation does not mean that you can /offer/ said translation and expect us not to pitch a flaming /fit/ about it. Particularly not when it is obvious that you have no idea what you are talking about.
What am I ranting about? About - a month ago, give or take, Andi sorted out and translated about fifty pages worth of German curriculum, project outlines and suchlike and sent a copy of the results and about two hundred bucks to an origanization that claimed to be able to evaluate it and tell him what kind of an education he has in American terms.
A week later, they get back to him and tell him that he's got the equivalent of - I think - a high school diploma and some extra work. No degree. Not even a bloody Associate.
Now - that's basically what he's got in /German/ terms. We knew that. HOWEVER - after a look through all the stuff he sent them, everyone who's looked has had the same general reaction. WTF?! Where do they get off claiming no degree? This shit is worth at the /least/ a Bachelor... (Even me, who's not got a clue..)
Andi was infuriated, /I/ was pissed - everyone he's shown it to so far has agreed - this is bullshit. So he gets on their case.
Now, a week or so later, they are /still/ adamant that it is not equivalent to even an Associate, and we're giving /very/ serious consideration to siccing a lawyer on them. Either, to get our money back, or get a serious evaluation of his skills.

ECE, I believe these guys are called. I do /not/ recommend wasting money on them. Find someone else, if you need your school creds evaluated ...
*kicks soapbox back under bed*

Okay. I feel better now. ^^

Grrrrao!

There's an update in the Gallery - a new pic and a couple of the backlog tucked in.

The new pic is Damarys d'Lyrandar, in colour. I was playing with markers again.. this time though, I think it came out well.. ^^
I am finding I rather like the markers - the colour comes up crisper than the pencils. The problem is that it doesn't /blend/ as neatly.. *sigh*
Ah well. Such is life..

Why am I going into detail? Why is this not detailed in the Vortex?
Simple. LiveJournal is down for the nonce and I'm waiting patiently for them to finish up tying things back together.

*whacks mailer many times with a rotten trout*

*many bad words*
Gah.

Why is it that when I attempt to rearrange all my email accounts, I inevitably /lose/ something?

For the record. My CWnet email addy is Defunct. Mails sent to that account won't be recieved by me. I've /fixed/ the reply-to that thinks it's supposed to be set to that account.

Almost everything else works.
I /hate/ software! >.<

*fished out of Lutra's Pond*

Possessing a rare combination of wisdom and humility, while serenely dominating your environment you selflessly use your powers to care for others.


Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.


.... Galadriel?! *thunk*

Rrrrgh.

Due to my mainboard going on the fritz - well, it wasn't /bad/, but I was having issues - and Merroune's board (and a few other things ...) going TU as well - Andi traipsed out to the 'local' comp-supply shop to do them out of new hardware.

Merroune's hardware booted up fine. (And Banshee promptly lost her net card... still not behaving, even with Merroune's old card in it...) The new board for my system, however... DoA.
So Back He Goes - with the new board. He comes back with a different board and in it goes (issues with the damn stand-offs and not being keen on boards crowded with bells and whistles aside, that part went pretty smoothly..). The hardware having been plugged together, I back off to let him get the software installed. I have no patience for this part, and so muchly prefer it if someone ELSE gets to do the frustrating bits.

It's running. I'm being forced to reload a good bit of my software, thanks to a rearrangment of the drives, but at least I got the important shit backed up. (That would be my whole graphics folder, my fic-folder, and my modest (*snerk*) media library.) I have finally made use of the DVD writer. o.O
I think I like - I got ALL of that on ONE disc.
I'm mildly shocked, I think.
That's a fair amount of data - especially my graphics folder. (Anyone who's seen the Gallery in the Lair shouldn't be terribly surprised by that..)

.. I'm still re-loading stuff, though. Might as well update Corel, I guess..
*grump*

Waiiii!

Got through The Interview intact.
This despite a slightly late start, nearly being late (we got into the building on the stroke of ten... meep) and me being afraid I was going to keel over in the street.
However, we got in alright, were called up and ushered down a hall (hadn't got my wind back, so spent most of the interview coughing to clear my throat.. I'm sure /that/ made a wonderful impression on the man..) and sworn in and stuff.
I was expecting to be at it for hours. He didn't keep us more than half an hour, if that. I had a bad moment when he clipped the corner off the work-permit (I couldn't see what he was writing, of course, so I couldn't tell why..) when my heart sort of fell through my gut and into my boots. I /do/ hope that didn't show - if Andi was nervy, I sure as hell couldn't tell and I'm hoping that was true for the guy across the desk, as well.

Anyway, it went off, he's now a legal permanent resident (for two years. Because of the method we used, they have to limit it to prove the marriage is genuine. *grump*) so we'll have to file AGAIN in october of next year, with whatever joint crap we can assemble. I was rather amused - he listed joint accounts, titles, loans and /children/ - as if me carrying a baby would make a bloody difference to whether we stayed together or not! And of course, the thought that popped into my head when he said that was, "I am /not/ having a child just to assure you asshats that this partnership is real!" I bit my tongue on it then, although I shared the thought - not nearly so effectively - with Andi later on..

We hit the Social Security office after that, where Andi got to lecture the officer on their procedures and what they can and can't do - he was sort of offended that he knows more about that then this guy did - and then headed home. Well, we got lunch first, and did a couple of odd errands on the way home, but that was basically it.

I then collapsed with a book and took a long break. ^^
I can finish a normally sized paperback that I've never laid eyes on before in one day. I can usually do most hardbacks in one day too - for example, I tore through The Order of the Phoenix in one day.

Alright - food calls. Lunch was a long way away, and between my head and my gut, I think I'd better go eat something. o.O

And in the New Year I Resolve to ...

In the year 2005 I resolve to: Figuring out why I really need 7 e-mail addresses. Get your resolution here

... Actually, I don't /have/ seven email addies. *pauses* I have ... five. Hm.
Well, I don't /need/ five email addies, but I /use/ about three of them, so... ^.~

I have 'spam filter', 'normal use', 'fall back', MSN (solely to get the MSN IM toy..) and 'Family' - which is actually never used. Hm. ^.~
And of course, four IM toys (with Trillian so I don't actually have to have four IM access dingus' loaded on the machine..), two of which actually see use, one that hasn't worked for a while, and one I got just to have it. Heh.

Anyway - I actually resolved last year not to /make/ any more New Year's Resolutions, and so far, I'm keeping to it nicely. ^^

Anyway. Finally remembered to change my email 'Quote for the Year' - need to collect a few more - anyone have any favorites they wanna share? ^^

Happy New Year!

Told you I'd get an update in.

Actually, it's not much more than rearranging the Chamber of Magic a little bit and clarifying one of the links ....
*sigh* Myrrzaa is going to have to retire pretty soon - which means I need to find either a replacement, or just rearrange that whole section. I did it with the gallery - those of you who've been poking over the Lair since it's first conception would know that my Gallery used to have a griffon over-looking it...
*sigh*
I s'pose I /could/ draw them myself - I was kind of fond of the idea of show-casing other artist's talents with my adopted 'guardians', though... Ah well. I'll think of something.

In the meantime - Happy New Year, all!
May it be far better than the last.


.. it sure can't get much worse. >.<