Saturday, February 16, 2013

Happy 0-th Birthday, Vita!




Well,  ain't that a shock.   I definitely didn't expect it, but  today, at  13.40. PM, I received  happy news that my  cousin had  birthed a  healthy baby  girl.    I wish both  the kiddo and the newly-minted mommy all the best, especially when Vita decided  to  come  very,  early in the morning -  5.00. AM -  methinks we have a future hellion on our hands, despite the fact Vita looks  as innocent as any newborn baby.  

Still can't imagine  that the same cuz I ran around with and do any kinds of   artsy projects has now her very own  lil' baby to take care of -  those days  seem to  be so far and yet as if they  happened yesterday.   /Scratches head/. Methinks I am feelin' a mite bit old  right now, but meh.   Growing old, is mandatory.  Growing  up is not, so... /evil grin/.    That still doesn't mean I will toddle around in  baby clothes,   even if it's Halloween or something  similar.  /Amused snort/.
 
Well,  it isn't particularly  traditional,  but  there are some blessings for  the  new  member of out family.   It's Wiccan in origin, but   I liked it /sniffles haughtily/, so there!

“Blessed be your breath.
May your breathing be deep and relaxed.
May you breathe in power with every breath you take.
Blessed Be each breath you take.
Blessed be the fire inside you.

May your will be unbroken.
And may it be as strong as fire, and as supple.
May your will be as strong as water, and as supple.
May your passions burn truly and free.
Blessed be your fire, may it burn strong.

Blessed be the waters of your life.
May your blood be strong.
May the flow from your loin be joyful and fertile.
Blessed be all your life-waters.


Blessed be the earth of your body.
May your muscles be strong and fearless.
May your heart beat with love, soul, vigor and courage.
Blessed be your body which is the body of a God.



Blessed be your spirit.
May you always have health in spirit.
May you be whole.
Blessed be your spirit.

May you always have community.

May you be prosperous in all ways.

May you love and be loved.



May your voice –
both your complaints and your special offerings to the world –
be truly heard.



May you always be surrounded by the warmth of family & community.
May you know the innate goodness of your being.

Blessed Be.”


Welcome to our hearth and hearts,  Vita.  May you have  happy life,  full of love and laughter, may your steps safely   lead you to  your heart's desire and may the tears of pain or fear you  will experience in this life give you strength and  wisdom and help you see  the world in all of it's splendor and majesty.

Signing off,

Eirenei




Wednesday, February 6, 2013

New Story Out, Or Hell Madness

I am an avid reader of Bleach manga series, and  lately, one plotdragon had hatched when I was  watching the  Hell verse movie.

it was cute and  annoying enough   that I just had to write it out, and  AnHellica's   superb picture didn't help my procrastinating when it came to writing of that particular story.  Beyond the gates of Hell  is the one  picture I  squirreled away   the moment I saw it because... well, what can i say, I am sucker for  good scenes with  interesting characters, and this one was undoubtedly  the one  i just had to snap up for my inspiration and viewing pleasure.

Also,   I noticed that there was a lack of good  Kokuto/Ichigo  fics. What the hell? The pictures are all over the net, but nobody has time or the balls to  write a story about them?  All is  see is Ichigo paired with  Byakuya, Grimmjow, hell even Ulquiorra -  Aizen too,  but  no Kokuto?  What the heck?

The story itself was tragic, like Muramasa's or so called  Zanpakuto Arc, and really,  Kokuto  only needed some lovin'.  And I just plain didn't like  Ichigo playing some mightier-than-thou judge in the original version.  Yes, it was cool, yes, the  Kokuto  berk deserved it, but no, it still  wasn't fair.  How it is that  Byakuya gets the second chance,  but   Kokuto doesn't?  Byakuya would have left Rukia to die at the Soukyoku Hill, while Kokuto just plain hammered his sister's murderer to death.   Harsh, but    that's a life we are speaking about.

And Kokuto's turnaround of his character was also shifty -  c'mon, the guys  sacrifices himself for the  Ichi-berry's  sister, and then  when is resurrected, goes to piss off the only one  who could  get him out of Hell?   C'mon, snapping much? /stares at the original version then shakes head/. 

No  good reason. Ichigo had practically guaranteed the guy to get him out of the chains, and   Kokuto  then does  the stupid thing.    Just what was in that  magma spring to get him head  so very wrongly screwed on his neck?   I really wanna know.

Okay,   I did it.   Helped with the dose of  Hell Madness and   Within Temptation's  Hand of Sorrow, I    wrote out   new fic and really /sweatdrops/. I really wanna know  just what did I eat to write it out.  'Cos there were  no burgers in here.

And I swear, I wasn't on T-400  when I was  typing away, either!


.... Now I have to  be abstinent from  green tea.

Darn. I just can't win.  /pouts/

It was all  doughnut's fault. 

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Puffed Up Fur And Thesis Run

Urgh.

Today I got a scare in  the shape of missing thesis. Oh. Mah. Gawd.    Two, almost three years of  hard work  nearly binned to gods know where, because  it was a damned bad  idea to  switch the  drives without  properly remembering just where did I stash the little  berks -   that is,  thesis, and the  questionnaire results.    I swear, I got three new  gray hairs just because of this little mishap.

What lead to it was my request to one of my colleagues to check over it  to  tell me if  there are any missing points and such -  through the years of writing I  learned the  true value of a good beta and  to have someone who knows about the stuff going through my  work it's even better.  Well, and I decided to send it today, but then  I was stopped  in a screeching halt, because  my laptop couldn't find the  thing, no matter what I typed into the browser.   I also checked  my old drive, but  it seems that my dumb-ass of an older brother   wiped it out clean -  stuuupid sibling, I know,   especially because I  especially said  I  don't want to  have anything   wiped out until I  get my  thesis over and done with,  so that now I have a backlog of work because  some files apparently weren't transferred to their new location.   Gah, this sucks.  Majorly, but the  luck in   otherwise glum situation is,  that  it's relatively small mishap.

I thank all the  lucky stars and  deities  for the existence of  Sent folders in email accounts and the backup data on my  other driver, because  otherwise I would have been in a really, really  deep shit.   So, the moral of this little  story, guys and gals...  sometimes the Sent folder can really save your butt, especially when it concerns  big projects, and  if you  don't, it still pays up to  make a backup copy  of  really important stuff on  your  laptop.  Even if it's only on  an  USB key,  but   the  important fact is that it exists somewhere you have an access to in the case  if you  lose your primary log means.

On the note of   preparing to  National Exams...  it  goes really slowly.  Meaning, I am  procrastinating a bit, because I have to recover from the shock I got this morning, and  I still have  some new plotdragons to nurse.  Oh, and listening  to Book Of My Life  by Sting.  Ironic  one, but  well,  love it all the same.

About the  updating  my stories...  well,  my beta  says it will be a couple of weeks still  until she will be really available,   and   sadly, the same goes for me,  if I   want to  successfully do the National Exams.   However, I will still write,  as it  stands, I really gotta finish   some chapters.

Signing off,

Eirenei

PS:  Will have to teach mom  how do  do with Word. /deflating,  low puppy ears/. Even the writer's sanctioned program won't be safe  from her  curious paws anymore... Yeah, I am balking,   but  it isn't   the professional who is  dangerous, but the amateur, because  they can  fuck up the  simplest thing in a jiffy.  Let's just  cross the fingers and hope for the best.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Did an Exam, Go Me! Plus Batshit Insane Ideas

Whoo,   boy.


Well, this   weekend was  memorable -  I finally  had the exam for the masseuse course and did it -  now  I  gotta  study for the National  Job Qualifications, or NJQ, as this  practical exam was a required precursor   before we  could even attempt to do NJQ... and   I  have to  sniffle  around Anatomy ... again. /lowered puppy ears/.  Sometimes I think I  am a little bit masochistic in that regard -  first Math in my  studies, and then Anatomy  in masseuse course.   Yes, I am whining.   But I think  in each thing can be found something that can be hard to do,   just the  levels of  the  difficulties are different.

/Twitch, twitch./ Right now, got a crazy idea.   A Sekirei/Claymore crossover /shivers/ -   Sometimes, I am really  afraid of my mind, because... well. /Defeated shrug/.  It's a dangerous thing, what with all those  prompts, ideas and whatnot.

I've  read  manga Sekirei some  three or four years back, and  it's still not finished.   It's good if you like  harems,  one helpless guy with  adoring  masses of big-breasted  female aliens and  all around love-love  thing... and some other surprises.    Anyone interested, can  look it up on Mangahere or Mangafox  and  decide for yourself.

Lately, I riffled  throught the  Sekirei fandom, and  even if some stories are good, along with a couple or so  crossovers,  I still think Minato -  the protagonist guy -  could be  a little bit more and not  only helpless little Ashikabi he is  portrayed as such. Of course, there are stories were  Minato is a notable exception but still....

And then, Claymore.  This is presented  both as a manga or anime -   if your want manga, go  to Mangahere or Mangafox, and for the  anime,   browse on Youtube  to find your poison.   Although I  have to  caution -  the scenes can be pretty brutal  as far as violence and gore goes, so it's not really advisable for the little  munchkins.

Anyway, back to the  idea.   While I was  watching  Minato,  it occured to me  he could be practically  a  double of the  Isley of  the North; and with Isley being  as bad-ass as he  is,  it's really, really tempting  idea  to  merge the two 'verses, at least partially,  and making  Minato a littpe bit more badass in process.

So, the plot is following.  Through the childhood, Minato has dreams  about that Isley guy,  or  even better,  Isley  somehow mentoring him. However, Isley's time is  limited, so  the  two of them merge and thus causing  Minato to hit ... and miss his first  University entrance exams -  the entire thing  was  of course, painful.  Can you say ouch? 

Minato  has to get used to his newfound  powers and whatnot; also,  his  Awakened form  is  relatively slow in coming, because it  demands  concentration and energy.   Also, Minato is the dominant  persona in this relationship -  Isley  is  him before reincarnation, however something went wrong somehow, and  while most of  his memories was wiped out in the process of transition,   a small core part of  Isley  retained the memories,   personality and   most importantly,  powers.   However, through the time,  even this small part of  Isley  has to  reintegrate to the  bigger mass that is now Minato and thus  changing some of   Minato's  thoughts, reactions,  and overall,   making him less wimpy and  inclined to bend to Yukari and  his mother's  wishes.   Also... /devilish grin/ Can you say, hello, trouble with technology?  Isley  was strong, and  Minato  isn't  exactly  gentle with  phones and the likes if he isn't very, very careful.    He can   feel the Sekirei, because their powers are similar to youki, and that  simultaneously baffles and irritates him -   they are dangerous, but  they don't show inclination to  go on mass-murdering sprees in the least.  Well, except Karasuba, but  No.4 is  as always, exception for  herself.  /Sweatdrops/

 So you see, the newest Ashikabi  (ironically of the North, too, as  Isley also held the title  'Isley of the North,') would be  the force to be reckoned with, and  I am wondering just how would Miya deal with someone  who is   utterly  indifferent to her  Hannya mask.  /Evil  smirk/.

As for his Sekirei,   I don't really know -  they  can be   the same as in canon, or some new ones -   for example,  Akitsu, Karasuba or even Miya  herself.   Also,  Minato  can  only partially transform  himself at the beginning,   and his  Awakened form is  at most  three meters tall and not ten -  as Minato is a  reincarnation,  there was a decrease in the original  power, but he  still can kick  butt,  however the drawback is, the form is hard to  hold up as it  demands  massive amounts  of energy, so the partial transformation is more  viable, and  Minato's  speed and  strength are nothing to sneeze at either.

Hmm... Well, if I am, here, let's  find out  just how would that  kind of... something go.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Aim To Misbehave - Wahoo, an update!

Well, shit.

Instead of   readying for my  course exam like crazy, I once again poked at my keyboard in an attempt to get another story out.

Maybe you do,  but perhaps you don't know,   that me updating  became  somewhat of a rarity  these times, and  I have two  good reasons.  First one is,  I have the exam and *derp* sessions.  Whodda thunk that being a masseuse can be so very exhausting? Not me, that's for certain.    Second one, and more important, is that MHB had to say to her router goodbye,  courtesy of her  parents' carelessness... I know that the older generation isn't particularly tech savvy, but to  damage a router.../stares/.  Well, suffice to say, it ain't pretty, no matter from what angle you are looking  at the deed. Myself,  I more or less destroyed  one too, but that was courtesy of unprotected wires on the  router than anything else, and my  carelessness with moving the  laptop.   I didn't have my own laptop then, and   I had been working on some  ancient  lappy that still demanded  router and  all that, so the  disaster was more or less unenviable.  Still. Ouch, ouch and ouch.

Back to the story, this time it's   another of the  Scrapbook Jewels, this time  it's Aim To Misbehave,
the courtesy of  my nagging beta  whining  for her Christmas present and my brain-fart, courtesy of  Mal's legendary phrase and his floral bonnet /snickers/.   Anyway, did the thing -  found  it  by chance on my driver and got around to editing it -  and I am seriously thinking  about   getting an editor for this kind of shit, because   I still  get some  mistakes sometimes in stories, just because I am not  attentive enough  on the wording and the likes.

Still got a reality check in the  shape of my mom that wanted to know how  goes the writing of my thesis.  /Whistles innocently/. What  thesis?   But  still, I  am on an unofficial schedule to get the darned thing done   with the deadline of  of the end of  February, and hopefully with   a colleague to check over the   little monster and me  doing the practical work,  I will manage  to do it  quite thoroughly /slumped shoulders/.   Although I got to admit I  don't know where's the head and where's the tail of the  entire damned thing,  because it's so humongous.  Seems I will have some work to do   to shape it into mean and lean piece of  thesis that would  steamroll the  professors' opinions and questions into dust. /Sigh/.


On the laptop side,  I finally got the  outer shell for my drive -  in my last post I wrote about me  swapping the drive -  the old one went out for SSD,  however I still need  the former, because having additional place for  saving  data and songs  is never bad idea... if you have appropriate  outer shell  for it, of course.  I briefly entertained the thought of  outfitting my previous  1 TB disk with an outer shell, but  discarded the idea  because the  outer shell for  2,5 disk is  cheaper than 3,5 and besides,  I still have enough place for  anything and everything my crazy  mind  needs to save on  the  laptop drive,   outer  drive,  USB key or CD-R -  and I am thankful I have enough  of the media to actually  save the  data on.  Now if  I could get the  attic straightened up /mumbles/... There is where the majority of  my paper-backed data is and I really gotta  get it in order,  because it's a nuisance that is cluttering the otherwise innocent place. So, one of my projects for  summer is to  clean up the  place and  get some money out of it. And space, don't  forget the space /maniac grin/.

Right-oh.  And I have another maniac plotdragon on my proverbial tail....   courtesy of the  Eiffel 65 song,  Another Race/Twitches/.  As if I don't have enough of''em.  This time, it's  FFVII  fandom, and   really,  this is getting ridiculous.   I already have a small mountain  of 'em to burn through... and at this rate I really have to find some  notebook to  keep the track of  all the ideas I have. 

Now, where to find something with more than  200  blank A4 pages...? /ruffles through the assorted notebooks/


Wish me  luck for the exam and see you (hopefully!) soon,

Eirenei

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Green Eyes And Further Drive Stuff

I am jealous.

No, really. Today, I found out that  my cousin  will defend her thesis tomorrow, and  while I have my  thesis in works -  I am almost at the end,  I just lack the  presentation of the  questionnaire's results -  she already  defended Sociology, and tomorrow, she will defend Geography -  yes, she  chose  two courses to do, and what's more, she's  expecting a kid  at the  beginning of February. A little girl, I am told, and  there's a  big chance she would be  Aries by horoscope /snickers/...  then poor her.  I am Aries too, and  I am incredibly  stubborn and driven  -  whatever  it takes.   I am still  on my thesis,  and really,  it scares me a little, because it's... so... big.  I'm not kidding, because it already has   some 64 pages, and   I suspect it will,  when finished,  be over 100 -  which is already a prerequisite for a magisterial degree.   I really pity the  beta who will have to get through all the stuff, because even if it isn't  most boring reading in the world, it's certainly  a little difficult - I went  through  many of the fields -  Medicine,  Logistics,  Physics.../sweatdrops/.  However, it's also true it took me  three years to write it up to the  shape it is today -    I began in my second last year of school, continued  another year, because of questionnaire style, and the third year was just because  I fucked up and lost  almost half of the already written material via  faulty disk, and had to begin anew.  Gee, ain't I lucky? /sarcastic/.  Let's  cross the finger the  thing will be done and over with properly, as I am aiming  for the highest scores possible, both for the  thesis and the  defense of thesis. 

Anyway, I wish  my cousin good luck with the defense.   I will root for you.... just a little .

Now, continuing on the SSD drive. In the last post, I mentioned  I  switched my ordinary drive with  a SSD  one,  got a whole host of programs  working and  was happy  with the speed.  However,  it baffled me that in the evenings,  the  drive was as lazy as ever, and   I set on finding on what was wrong.   The chewing out of the disk  courtesy of  Zone Alarm Antivirus  did nothing, but then I remembered  I had to  upload a whole heck of a updates  for Windows 7 -  I think it was  something of a 127 -  and I set on  kicking the updating program in the  question in order.  I  deleted the appropriate files, bit the uploading  program for a time, and then  uploaded  both Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro and  Tune Up Utilities 2013.  For those  not familiar with the two programs, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro is a  program that chomps on  any malware or bad code that dares to  enter your computer or laptop and  crunches 'em in smithereens.   I had Spybot Search&Destroy before,  and while it does it's job (and it's free), Malwarebytes does the same job, without  snatching too much of a memory resources, and  it discovers  some of the more  clever bits that Spybot S&D may have overlooked.  I used  Malwarebytes when I had the  trouble with the  SweetIM,  and it  had done it's part brilliantly.  So it's a good thing to have it  uploaded on  laptop or computer and occasionally check the disk for anything that made hiccups in otherwise smooth working of programs.   As for Tune Up Utilities 2013, the name  tells all -  it's a  number of tools or utilities that  help you tune up  your lil' beastie -  for example, clean up registry,  straighten up -  metaphorically speaking-  your disk,  and so on.  And it  also has automatic maintenance of the  overall program, so  you don't need to be obsessive about checking everything  every Saturday or something similar.    The end result?  My  program stopped being so darned stubborn and performed as it should -  fast, silent and without any hiccups  it may have had before.  Yay.

On the 'mom' front, it  pisses and confuses the pants off of me how she can't  use the Firefox browser,  or better,  she  doesn't have a clue how to navigate the  sites.  /Sweatdrops/.  Really. What  has she done at that computer/laptop  course, then?   or maybe I am just too   used to the workings of the   computers and laptops and  thus  a mite bit worse teacher that I would have liked to be  to her.  Well, we'll see how it goes.

Also,  continuing  with writing fanfiction.   Checked some of my older works,  now  doing Fire And Ice next chapter, as  Among The Hawks And  Doves  plotdragons  suddenly screeched to a stop - have   more than a half of the chapter  written out there, and  also began  the next chapter of  Crimson Sagittarius.   And just for the kicks of it,  I am munching on  FFVII may-be-may-not-be chapter, just because I was on a  reading binge in that particular fandom. Still waiting on MHB to get the  router repaired so that I can post the next part of Scrapbook Jewels out.  Hint. it's the bitchy one. I moaned and groaned about it  some  posts back there.


Well,  Anatomy  went as well as  expected, still no  results.    We all were a mite bit traumatised by that particular exam, but hopefully, I did fine.


Signing off,

Eirenei


Thursday, January 3, 2013

Learn To Fly... Or Saddling Over to SSD

Run and tell all of the angels, this could take all night
Think I need a devil to help me get things right
Hook me up a new revolution ‘cause this one is a lie
We sat around laughin’ and watched the last one die


("Learn To Fly", by Foo Fighters)

Woo.  Yesterday and today was a heck of a  learning to fly... metaphorically speaking of course.
 I am  no computer whiz -  far from it, as  I am still  having glaring matches with the Excel program, and  Excel winning (for now, I'll just get it  yet),  and I admit,  it was a  steep  learning curve, what from the good ole' days of Windows 95 -  yes, I did use'em and saw all the pretty  cloudies,  then  the time zipped by in a sign of Windows  98 and  marginally XP version,   and then, there came Windows 7 I  fell absolutely in love with.

If I love anything better than  Windows 7, it would be  a good old  disc with space and speed to match.  So  over the years, I saddled  from  small  ones  -  750 GB to monsters of likes   of 1 TB and  learned to use USB keys, until I tentatively put my paws on drives that could be  taken along to wherever  you go -  well, not under the water,  but you get what I am talking about.

I knew about the existence of  SSD (Solid State Drive)  almost a year before I saw one in  real life,  but even then  I was a mite bit skeptic because  I doubted  they really delivered the speed they promised. Yes, my brother swore by them upside and down, but as we  both  work  in different fields,  we are not  very buddy-buddy -  if anything, the only contact  pertaining computers and now laptops is,  when  the programs needs to be installed anew or something is really royally fucked up (memory flashback when  he somehow managed it to gut itself despite of him being a computer whiz) -  Ahem.

However, yesterday,  I got  a chance to  see the SSD  in action and I  have to admit,  the  thing is beastly  fast -  I am used to my  laptop working fast, or at least faster than public computers (that's a given,) but SSD just flat out  steamrolled my old disc when the speed was concerned.  Of course,  it is  four times smaller, so I will have to be careful what I am uploading here, but the little hellion otherwise did the work  that usually   got my old drive wheezing for air in a snap.

Because I am on my  laptop  almost every day  without fail,  I can  torture the drive hard, and it was a given I would  need the replacement before long.  And  even if I was skeptic about  'adopting' a  SSD, primarily because I just don't like  the  hassle it comes with uploading the  entire  hoist of programs  I use on again,  the SSD  and Windows 7  did the  work, which would usually last  at least five to six hours (in the old times),  in  snappy hour and a half -  there's not included my muddling around for Microsoft Word  2010 program  -  the little berk is  notoriously hard to  get  down and done with, but somehow,  and with the help of Office Toolkit, I  managed to get him to behave nicely.   Seriously,  Microsoft and his  activation licenses can suck like hell.  Case in point, activation of Windows 7 -  because I somehow lost the  activation code, I was pressed to  try  the others high and low, without success.  Windows Loader saved me from  having a temper tantrum, and  I send love to  the program's creators.   You guys rock!

So.  The verdict?  The thing  deliver the promise of a speed,  although  I will have to see just how long it will work - brother says it has the life of a 2 million hours,  so it should hold  out  quite nicely, but with me  intending to abuse it quite thoroughly.... well, we'll see.

 On the subject of stories,    all of 'em are on a temporary hiatus, until I get the Anatomy done... Erk. We  have an exam  tomorrow, and I am still loitering here! /pales with fear/.

Wish me luck guys!

Eirenei